Not a Second Time by The Beatles on AllMusic

"Not a Second Time" is one of the Beatles' more underrated early songs, appearing as part of their second album, With the Beatles (and on its American counterpart, Meet the Beatles). John Lennon, who was the primary composer of this song though it's credited to Lennon and Paul McCartney, tended to write the group's more aggressively pained numbers, and "Not a Second Time"'s an early example. Here he laments being duped by a girl and resolving, through his hurt, not to be fooled again. By early Beatles standards, its melody is downbeat, revolving around pounding two-chord sequences of syncopated piano chords (by producer George Martin) that often resolve on a decidedly minor tone. The paradox of the song -- one found in other of the Beatles' more serious and troubled songs too -- is that although the sentiments of the song might be anguished, it's delivered with such uplifting momentum (and melodic catchiness) that it's energizing, not depressing. The unusual chord changes are almost jazz in their nature (though the rhythm and backing are pure rock), and Lennon's vocal almost howling in its searing mixture of self-pity and determination not be taken advantage of once more. Unusually for a Beatles songs, there's no clear bridge involved in the song, just long winding verses, but it's broken up nicely by an instrumental break -- introduced and climaxed by a doom-laden Ringo Starr drum pattern -- in which Martin's piano exudes lonely despair. Lennon varies the melody a little when he urgently sings the title over and over on the fadeout, which becomes almost middle eastern in its winding melisma at the very end (you can also hear a similar phrase when he elongates the word "you" at the end of a line in the final verse). Though it was probably the last thing on his or the Beatles' minds when they recorded it, this throwaway ending generated some of the first serious appreciative musical criticism of the group in the mainstream press, when William Mann of The Times in London referred to the "Aeolian cadence" at the end of the track.