Song. All you need is love by The Beatles

UBI II. POZO ALCÓN

STUDENT: Cándida Quiñónes Perea

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES

1. Getting to know about the song facts. Read the text and try to understand it on the whole. Underlying the words you don´t understand.

            “All You Need Is Love” was written by John Lennon especially for “Our World” project (the first worldwide TV special).The Beatles performed their song for the first time to close the broadcast.

·         The concept of the song was born out of a request to bring a song that was going to be understood by people of all nations. The writing began in late May of 1967, with John and Paul working on separate songs. It was decided that John's "All You Need Is Love" was the better choice because of its easy to understand message of love and peace. The song was easy to play, the words easy to remember and it encompassed the feeling of the world's youth during that period.

·         John Lennon wrote this as a continuation of the idea he was trying to express in his 1965 song "The Word." John was fascinated by how slogans affect the masses and was trying to capture the same essence as songs like "We Shall Overcome." He once stated, "I like slogans. I like advertising. I love the telly." In a 1971 interview about his song "Power To The People," he was asked if that song was propaganda. He said, "Sure. So was 'All You Need Is Love.' I'm a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to change."

·         “All you need is Love” was a popular saying in the '60s anti-war movement.

            Our World was the first live, international, satellite television production, which was broadcast on 25 June 1967. The satellite link-up was devised by the BBC, which took the idea to the European Broadcasting Union in 1966. The project editor was BBC executive Aubrey Singer.

Personalities and creative artists (including The Beatles, the opera singer Maria Callas, and the painter Pablo Picasso),  from 19 nations performed or appeared in separate segments featuring their respective countries. The event, which lasted two-and-a-half hours, had the largest television audience ever up to that date, an estimated 400 million people around the globe watched the broadcast.

            On 18 May The Beatles signed a contract to represent the BBC, and Britain, on Our World. The BBC had suggested the idea of using new satellite relays to connect the national television networks of countries across the world, to make a live link-up on a scale previously unknown. The Beatles were the natural choice to represent Britain, and they decided to compose a new song especially for the broadcast.

            The Beatles' appearance was announced four days later, on 22 May. John Lennon wrote the song especially for the occasion, to the brief given by the BBC: it had to be simple so that viewers around the world would understand it. Our World took place on 25 June 1967.

            Around 10,000 technicians, producers and translators helped make the event happen; each country had its own announcers, with translators narrating where necessary. No politicians or heads of state were allowed to take part in the broadcast, and no pre-recorded videotape or film was allowed. The Beatles were supposedly recording this live during the show, but they used a pre-recorded rhythm track and some basic vocals.

            The Beatles' day began at 2pm with a camera rehearsal in EMI's Studio One. An outside broadcast van was situated in the studio car park, which relayed the signal around the world via the Intelsat I (Early Bird), Intelsat II (Lana Bird) and ATS-1 satellites.

For the live performance, which took place at 9.36pm GMT, The Beatles played along to their pre-recorded backing track. The vocals, bass guitar, guitar solo, drums and 13-piece orchestra were live. To reduce the chances of on-air errors, the event was carefully arranged, although care was taken to make it seems spontaneous.

            The live sequence began with reporter Steve Race introducing the group as the backing track played. The director Derek Burrell-Davis then cut to the studio control room, from where George Martin announced that the orchestra should be brought in.

The Beatles then performed All You Need Is Love, seated - apart from Ringo Starr on high stools, and surrounded by various friends including Mick Jagger, Keith Richard, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Jane Asher, Graham Nash and Hunter Davies. All were dressed in colourful clothes, and were surrounded by flowers, balloons and placards.

            National broadcasting companies from 14 countries provided material for the 125-minute programme, which was shown in black-and-white. The organizations involved were: Australia (ABC), Austria (ORF), Canada (CBC), Denmark (DZR), France (ORTF), Italy (RAI), Japan (NHK), Mexico (TS Mexicana), Spain (TVE), Sweden (SRT), Tunisia (RTT), United Kingdom (BBC), USA (NET) and West Germany (ARD), and the programme was also shown - without contributing their own content - in Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland.

In the week before broadcast, some Eastern bloc countries -the Soviet Union,  Czechoslovakia,  Poland,  East Germany,  Soviet Union and  Hungary - pulled out, apparently in protest to the Western nations' response to the Six Day War. 

In the end 14 countries participated in the production that was transmitted to 31 countries with an estimated audience of between 400 and 700 million people.

2. Match each word wit its opposite:

Live                                                                 Everything

Segment                                                           Lose

Youth                                                              Pre-recorded

Overcome                                                        Adulthood/maturity

3. Classify these words in their grammar category.

Performe / Broadcast / Request / Choice / Encompass / Telly / Saying / Devise /  Rela / Track / Vocals / Rehearsal / Cut / Stool / Placard / Pull out / Link-up / Brief / Executive

Nouns:

Verbs:

Adjectives:

WHILE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES

4. Complete the gaps and sing the song just for fun.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE by The Beatles

Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)

There's _________ you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can ______ that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn ______ to play the game
It's _____

There's nothing you can ______ that can't be made
No one you can ______ that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn to be you ___ ______
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

There's nothing you can _______ that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't _______
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're ______ to be
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

All you need is love, ____ _____________ ___
All you need is love, ______________
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

Love is all you need
Love is all you need
Love is all you need
...

POST-LISTENING ACTIVITIES

5. Look for the passive voive tenses in the songfacts text and underline them.

Then, do the same in the song. How many have you found? _____