I want to dedicate this blog post to one of my all time favourite songs of one of my all times favourite bands: Paperback Writer by the Beatles.

The Beatles hold a special place in my heart for multiple reasons. Not only are they a British musical icon from a few decades ago. Some of the first music I used to hear on cassette tape when I was very young was sitting in the front seat listening to them with my father driving. Their music is reminiscent of a simpler time and of growing up and being looked after well.

Paperback Writer is one of the Beatle’s well known tracks whereby the band sing about a struggling young male writer trying to land a job. The lyrics are sort of tongue in cheek and slightly unserious. 

I actually wasn’t particularly fond of this song (more than say Strawberry Fields) until I stumbled upon the cover by Freedom Fry whereby the song is slowed down and sung a bit more seriously and sadly. This cover is fantastic and really makes the song about the struggling jobseeker a bit more real and emotional. You pity him all the more.

Even just the title words I love. The Beatles could have used the common word ‘book’ instead of the uncommon ‘paperback.’ Of course as a book lover and avid reader myself I was always going to be on board with this song.

‘Its a thousand pages give or take a few, I’ll be writing more in a week or two, could make it longer if you like the style, I could change it round and I wanna be a paperback writer, paperback writer.’

In the Freedom Fry version the singer really puts forward the vulnerability of the jobseeker in their singing. The jobseekers offers to change the book just for the person/company he is speaking to. He also promises to deliver more almost pathetically. As a young 32 year old who has pathetically put himself forward for many many jobs over the years I can really identify with the singer. Of course in the original Beatles version the tempo is a bit faster and the singer’s tone is less serious and less vulnerable.

In conclusion both the Beatles and Freedom Fry versions are a song about a struggling writer who is trying to gain employment. I actually probably prefer the Freedom Fry version but of course the Beatles version is memorable of my childhood. And who doesn’t love a song about books??