Dear Prudence was written in Rishikesh in dropped D (DADGBE) but the Esher demo is pitched almost a full tone down from that (CGCFAD). Lennon is having fun dragging out the 's' in "Dear Prudenssssssss..." every chance he gets. On this unplugged version you can clearly hear Lennon continue the drone bass note under the menacing out of key chords at the end of the bridge. A nasty discordant effect thankfully disguised by the bass on the studio version.
At 4:13 Lennon launches into a semi-audible exposition
Prudence was struck by an illness in the middle of her meditation course in Rishikesh, India. No one was to know that [laughs] sooner or later, she was to go completely berserk under the care of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. All the people around were very worried about the girl, because she was going insane.So we sang to her. Thank you.
The Giles Martin mix is gloriously clear but misses the first few notes (which now reside on the end of USSR). Given that he fixed so many of the previous mix's faults it's a shame that this edition creates a new one. But at least we've lost that crappy jet sound. Swings and roundabouts...
Johnny Lennon is singing bass BVs (again!) along with Mal Evans, Jackie Lomax and John McCartney (cousin) mucking in on BVs and handclaps. Paul is on drums – the outtake ('Vocal, Guitar and Drum') helps to show how average the drum performance is. Not only is Paul clearly NOT Ringo, Paul isn't even the best drummer in the er... Paul... The finished version of Prudence is glorious, but the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts – especially the two drum tracks combined on the final verse.
Wikipedia: “although some commentators list this sound [in the bridge] as a flugelhorn, it is in fact Harrison's lead guitar, played on his Gibson Les Paul”.
Wikipedia are talking out of their flugelhorn. You can hear it clearly on the 'almost' isolated track here (along with the drum solo).
Join the mailing list to get the free, exclusive, Beatles Songwriting Academy podcast! At 4:13 Lennon launches into a semi-audible exposition
Prudence was struck by an illness in the middle of her meditation course in Rishikesh, India. No one was to know that [laughs] sooner or later, she was to go completely berserk under the care of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. All the people around were very worried about the girl, because she was going insane.So we sang to her. Thank you.
The Giles Martin mix is gloriously clear but misses the first few notes (which now reside on the end of USSR). Given that he fixed so many of the previous mix's faults it's a shame that this edition creates a new one. But at least we've lost that crappy jet sound. Swings and roundabouts...
Johnny Lennon is singing bass BVs (again!) along with Mal Evans, Jackie Lomax and John McCartney (cousin) mucking in on BVs and handclaps. Paul is on drums – the outtake ('Vocal, Guitar and Drum') helps to show how average the drum performance is. Not only is Paul clearly NOT Ringo, Paul isn't even the best drummer in the er... Paul... The finished version of Prudence is glorious, but the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts – especially the two drum tracks combined on the final verse.
Wikipedia: “although some commentators list this sound [in the bridge] as a flugelhorn, it is in fact Harrison's lead guitar, played on his Gibson Les Paul”.
Wikipedia are talking out of their flugelhorn. You can hear it clearly on the 'almost' isolated track here (along with the drum solo).
No comments:
Post a Comment