Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

"Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" is a Beatles song from side one of The "White Album". It is a Paul McCartney composition (although credited Lennon-McCartney, as all his songs with The Beatles were).

Musical composition

The song was a conscious homage to the emerging reggae movement, possibly related to the growing Jamaican population in Britain, although it is heavily blended with Honky tonk. Aside from the syncopated beat, the song also employed meter schemes and devices not used in their previous works, and demonstrated the group's highly experimental nature at the time of its recording.

Lyrics

The light-hearted lyrics tells and retells the story of a couple named Desmond and Molly; the simple, up-beat lyrics are often punctuated by laughter, shouts, and sounds that accompany the lyrics in the background. The second time that the story is retold, the names are switched around in certain places, which many see as a casual challenge to traditional household gender roles, and possibility a reference to transvestitism, a theme also seen in McCartney's later hit "Get Back".

Controversy

• Nigerian conga singer Jimmy Scott, who played conga drums on the track later claimed that the phrase "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" was originally his, and sued McCartney for compensation for using the song in the lyrics and as the title of the song. The case was settled out of court.

Trivia

• A cover of the song was featured as the theme song to the tv series Life Goes On, whose name ostensibly comes from a line in the song.
• Surprisingly, in 2004, an online BBC "Mars survey" of 1,000 people chose "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as the "worst song of all time". Most readers dismissed the poll for its small sample size.
• Stewart Copeland once remarked on this song, "...that's one of the first examples of white reggae."

External links

• Song Lyrics
• All Music Review
• Beatles classic voted worst song from The BBC (November 10, 2004)