Today's obsession: "I'll Follow The Sun".

Now to look at one of the lesser-recognized gems in what is inarguably the most canonized catalog in pop.

"I'll Follow The Sun". Written by Paul McCartney at seventeen, one of his earliest completed tunes, a featherweight little imminent doom break-up song, it's one of those stealth timebombs of pop, a song I've heard more times than I can count but never really took the time to consider... Until it struck me just so, at just the right moment, and I suddenly pulled it out of the context of an album and put it on repeat.

And don't get me wrong, I know the song by heart. Every note. But one of the (innumerable) incredible things about the Beatles catalogue is how many times you can listen to it and still find new and jaw-dropping things years on. This tune, a fairly sad little ditty, suddenly hits me out of the blue, and I wonder why I never numbered it amongst my favorites until today. It blends the time-shift premonition lyrical tack that Paul returned to in "Things We Said Today" with the pervasive melancholy tone he'd develop more fully in "Yesterday" and perfected with "For No One", has the inimitable arcing McCartney melody approach, and does all this in under two minutes.

Further dissection: A melody that almost repeats for the first two lines (the first line tails down, the second up), breaks into a little yearning bridge-chorus thing, then cycles back to repeat the lyric of the first line with the tune of the second. Words that manage that genius instant of being just imprecise enough to be universal, weaving images of the end of a relationship and all the sadness and possibility that moment holds. There's a barely-even-there electric guitar solo (all of six notes), then back to the bridge, then the closing line and it all ends with a little strum and fades to silence; making way for whatever R&B cover or instant Lennon/McCartney classic is coming up next. Blink and you miss it.

But once you stop and notice, inside that 1:51 you get a beautiful wistful/hopeful/sad tune with a perfectly suited arrangement. A lovely little acoustic bed, Ringo playing his knees for percussion, and maybe the best vocals the fabs ever laid down. The singing is so tight and close you don't even notice John doubling Paul on the first two lines of each verse, but when he drops out for the third it's an immediate impact, the remaining voice accentuating the lyric, Paul pushing on alone to face whatever happens next. Then onto the bridge, harmonies worthy of anything the brothers Wilson ever laid down, perfect and yearning and pure. And then it repeats, and then it's gone. One minute and fifty-one seconds. Boom. Moment of silence. Cue "Mr. Moonlight", up next...

No wait, I think I'll go back and play that last one again. Just for the hell of it. I can afford another two minutes to sit and listen and wonder.