“Tell Me What You See” – Episode 99 with Caro Kelley

On this episode of our Beatles podcast, musician, singer, songwriter and obsessive album listener Caro Kelley joins us for Tell Me What You See. Caro has spent a lot of time not just listening to music, but rating and ranking it and she brings that perspective to a song that Paul McCartney himself dismissed as not particularly memorable. Would you call this a filler track?

For our storytime, we have a remarkable firsthand account of the Beatles actually working out the song in the studio with George Martin. Melody Maker journalist Ray Coleman was there as they rehearsed, argued over what was wrong, experimented with percussion, added the electric piano and tried to find a sound they admitted they couldn’t yet define.

Tell Me What You See opens up bigger questions about singing, intimacy, imagination and why a song can become more interesting the closer you get to it.

What we cover:
- Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s conflicting memories of who wrote “Tell Me What You See”
- John and Paul’s unusually loose rhythmic phrasing
- Ringo Starr’s drum break
- Paul McCartney’s Hohner Pianet C
- A British post-war religious motto
- A possible connection to Elvis Presley’s “Trying to Get to You”
- Ray Coleman’s February 1965 Melody Maker article
- George Martin’s orchestral version of “Tell Me What You See”

Follow Caro Kelley:
https://www.instagram.com/caro_kelley

Listen to full episode :