10:51 Sexy Sadie - Background Checks

The in depth analysis I do for BSA often throws up interesting results. I've never had particularly strong feelings about Sexy Sadie or Hey Jude, but, having studied them, Jude is a far better song than I'd given it credit for (especially lyrically) while Sadie has plummeted in my estimation. As with so many bad Beatles songs (and yes there are such things) the elements that drag it down are the same ones that make other songs great. So over the next few posts we'll perform an autopsy on the the composition and recording.

But let's start with some background and note a few positives.

Background

The Beatles arrived in Rishikesh with sky-high expectations, toying with the idea of quitting the music business to pursue enlightenment full-time. To suddenly leave a month after accusing the Maharishi of sexual misconduct was a psychologically devastating turnaround for Lennon. The last song he wrote before he left India was an expletive ridden rant , full of betrayal ... called 'Maharishi'. It sounds like a song written by an angry disillusioned rockstar, hungry and sweating in an Indian departure lounge – and that's exactly what it was.

Back in England George Harrison, less ready to throw the guru out with the bathwater, persuaded Lennon not to name and shame and offered the replacement title 'Sexy Sadie'. Harrison's role in smoothing Lennon's rough edges is ironic, as the song itself comes across almost like a parody of Harrison at his worst – bitter, discordant and unresolved.

So before a note was recorded the song was already causing conflict in the band with John possibly chaffing at being censored. Once they got into the studio they flogged the song to death (just like Paul had done with Maxwell).

21 takes on the 19th July.
3 days later 23 more takes.
Then 8 more takes a month later.
Adding up to 3 distinct versions and 52 attempts in all.

The frustration of the officially released third attempt shows when you contrast it with the early take on Anthology 3. The lead guitar has a hint of Curtis Mayfield, the vocal delivery is smoother and the whole thing is lighter without the piano, though ultimately the slower tempo makes the song drag.

Good Girl

Is Sadie just a catalogue of things that don't work? No. The lyric structure is original. Late-Beatles Lennon was always trying to write mantra-like minimalist lyrics* (with mixed results**) but Sadie's ABBA structure is fresh and effective.

A Sexy Sadie what have you done?
B You made a fool of everyone
B You made a fool of everyone
A Sexy Sadie, oh, what have you done?

Lennon turns up the contrast between the verse and the bridge (Ticket 5) .The bridge chords try to escape the constant downward spiral of the verse by ascending diatonically (Ticket 69) but if the sludgy chromatic gravity of the song is too hard to resist.

Get It Off Your Chest

Songwriting can be therapy. When you get your heart broke (by a girl or a guru) pouring out your heart in song is a great move. But just because a song means a lot to you doesn't necessarily mean it will resonate with others. Try it out on your inner circle. Chances are if your band has doubts it's one for the archives.

Next time we'll see how John's relationship with the Maharishi is reflected in the estrangement between chords and melody.


*Sadie uses only 62 words (see Ticket 23).

**I Want You (She's So Heavy), You Know My Name (Look Up The Number), Don't Let Me Down are other examples.

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10:45 Mother Nature's Son (pt.1) - Overview And Lyrics

Unusually Lennon & McCartney want to credit each other with Mother Nature's Son. John says Paul wrote it on his own in India. Paul says he wrote it in Liverpool with help from John*.

Apart from 2 trumpets and 2 trombones it's a solo McCartney track. Contrary to various reports there is no Timpani (it's a second bass drum recorded in a stairwell) but there is the sound of Paul tapping on a hardback copy of The Song Of Hiawatha**. And personally I'm convinced I hear a single hit on a snare drum at 2:15.

The 'book drumming' is a nice example of McCartney 'at play' and blends beautifully with Martin's cerebral brass arrangement.

Paul cut the guitar and vocals live, take 24 being the keeper (take 2 appears on Anthology 3). The reverb fades in noticeably after a few seconds on the stereo version (which I find charming) and Paul's Martin D28 suffers from terrible fret buzz (which I find excruciating and inexplicable). Seriously, could the world's most famous band not find anyone to set up their guitars properly?

Listen. Do You Smell Something?

Once again my childhood impressions intrude on this track. Thinking Rocky Racoon was about a real animal is one thing. 10 year old me thought this song was about … Hitler as a young man. I have no idea why. Glad I never told anyone.

In typical Beatles fashion the lyrics are simultaneously brilliant and poor. If songwriters are like stonemasons all three writers (especially McCartney) are excellent in finding the perfect stone to lay on top of another, but their finished buildings often doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.

Here McCartney's descriptions are redundant; music is “pretty”, the field is a “field of grass” and we listen to the “sound of music” (what's the alternative - the "smell of music"?). The one original image is just odd. Hey look! A flying stream!

But all that is irrelevant. Though the lyrics aren't original they are wonderfully evocative. Using a mere 50 words McCartney puts us right into the scene. The lyrical simplicity and the supporting melody and arrangement work perfectly with the subject matter. And though he isn't saying anything deep the way his places individual words displays genius.

Thematically 'music' is central – the “pretty sound of music”, “a lazy song”, “singing songs for everyone” - the boy, the stream and the daisies are all singing.

Technically the lyric is tied together with … alliteration. The 'F' in

Find me in my field

and alliteration and assonance of the 'S' sound

Sitting Singing SongS

Swaying daiSieS Sing a lazy Song beneath the Sun

Sit beSide a mountain Stream, See her waterS riSe
LiSten to the pretty Sound of muSic aS She flieS

SSSSSSublime.

Next time we'll look at the chords. But for now go and look at some of your lyrics. Do they sing?


*Beatles Songwriting & Recording Database
**Recording The Beatles



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The Beatles In Rishikesh

I'm working up a new set of posts on Mother Nature's Son. Meanwhile here's some cool, and rare home movie footage from the place where that and many other White Album songs were written; Rishikesh, India.

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10:42 Rocky Raccoon

Though not a kid's song, McCartney's child-friendly story (Ticket 64) captivated me as a kid listening to my sister's C120 cassette and I've never outgrown it. He was writing about “some bloke in a raccoon hat, like Davy Crockett”* but to 10 year old me it was a real gun-toting Racoon.

Writing And Recording

Rocky Sassoon was 'jammed' into life by Paul on a Rishikesh roof (with John Lennon and Donovan throwing in ideas) and recorded in a single session. Somewhere on the way to Abbey Road Rocky changed his name (thankfully!).

The White Album version is built on take 9 featuring McCartney (vocals and acoustic guitar), Starr (drums) and Lennon or possibly Harrison (bass). But Anthology has the unadorned take 8 and reveals the Beatles 'at play' in the most healthy way.

Though he later dismissed Rocky and his own part in it**, Lennon seems into it on take 8; maybe it was the Lennon-approved repetition, working quickly enough not to get bored or just being in a good mood that day.

It's amazing how much the two takes differ. There's a straighter strumming pattern, Lennon keeps switching between bass and harmonica, and the lyrics are all over the map (literally – Rocky is from Minnesota, not Dakota) revealing the semi-improvised nature of the song

Rocky Raccoon, he was a fool unto himself and he would not swallow his foolish pride

Earlier takes*** include

Roll up his sleeves on the sideboard/ roll over, Rock/ it's just a scratch/ I'll be OK when I get home and most memorably Move over doc, let's have none of your c**k

Once they nailed take 9 they added BVs, harmonica and harmonium**** (Lennon) and more drums and bass (Ringo and Paul). George Martin's patent sped-up Honky Tonk piano is a great touch, lending a bar room vibe which, like the snare drum 'gunshot' at 1:47-49, is an example of Madrigalism (Ticket 49).

Why Does It Work?

For me Rocky Raccoon is a great little song that shouldn't work. Five verses and two instrumental verses, all based on the same musical material, should be teeth-grindingly monotonous … but it's not (at least for me!). Verse 1 is a 'jazz-style intro verse' (Ticket 53). Opening bleakly on an A melody note (sung 22 times!) over an Am chord it sounds almost like an operatic recitative. In Paul's mind it's “talking-blues”. *****

A big part of the song's staying power the strength of the chord progression.

Am7      Am7
D7sus4  D7
G7         G7
C           C/B

In this simple 8 bar pattern we have a wealth of interesting things.

• The D7 is an OOKC (Out Of Key Chord – Ticket 28)
• We never get a IV chord (F) – one of the three most common chords (Ticket 7)
• Within the chords we have a 'voice' descending chromatically from the b7th to the 5th - g - f# - f - e (Ticket 31).

g  (in Am7 and D7sus4)
f# (in D7)
f natural (in G7)
e  (in C major)

• The basic progression itself is a 'circle of fourths' (Ticket 43) – A to D to G to C. The vi – ii – V – I is a very strong movement towards 'home', but the progression never rest. After one bar on the tonic (I), C major we immediately descend via the C/B to the vi (Am) and start all over again. This avoidance of the root chord (Ticket 6) gives tremendous forward momentum (you can hear McCartney doing the same thing in The Long And Winding Road).

A single chord pattern song is rare for the Beatles but such a multifaceted progression really keeps things interesting. There are other points too

Other Things

Though we have a fairly repetitive melody over changing chords (Ticket 48) it doesn't grate because the melody, like the chords, stays unresolved by avoiding the root (Ticket 50). The melody is mainly pentatonic (C D E G A) with the odd Eb bluesifying the melody (Ticket 22), especially on “broken his dreams” and in the hooky piano/scat singing instrumental (Ticket 3).

Well-drawn characters (Ticket 70), and some 'bookending': melodically, lyrically and dynamically, between verse 2 (checked into his room) and verse 5 (fell back in his room) really tie things together and avoid the song becoming a never-ending shaggy-dog story.

Yes! Apparently Rocket Racoon was based on the Beatles song! More background here

Footnotes

*Many Years From Now (p. 423)
**Paul [wrote it]. Couldn't you guess? Would I go to all that trouble about Gideon's Bible and all that stuff? John Lennon: All We Are Saying
***Abandoned lyrics are from The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions
**** The 'harmonium' (from 2:22) sounds much more like an accordion to me. You can hear Abbey Road's Mannborg Harmonium here
***** Beatles Interviews

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10:36 Dear Prudence (pt.1) Ringoing Going Gone

Prudence Farrow with Ringo Starr in Rishikesh. Oh the irony.

Dear Prudence is a fantastic, deceptively simple, song and was one of Lennon's favourites. Perhaps more closely identified with Rishikesh than any other track, it was inspired by Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, going a little nuts while studying meditation with the Beatles in India. The legend has Lennon singing it outside her door, but Prudence denies hearing the song till she was 'Back In The US(SA)'.

Using the same Donovan/Gypsy Davy finger picking pattern that appears on Julia, Blackbird and Happiness Is A Warm Gun, it's another example of using a technical exercise to write a song (Ticket 59). Other 1968-approved songwriting ideas are the R b7 6 b6 line (Ticket 68) that appeared in While My Guitar (this time in the major form - D, D/C, D/B, D/Bb) and some Lady Madonna style boogie-woogie piano (Ticket 25) making a cameo appearance at 3:31.

Less praiseworthy is the way Lennon (ahem) 'paraphrases' the first line of Raining in My Heart "The sun is out; the sky is blue", changing 'out' to 'up'.

Back in the UK, the band headed for Trident Studios, possibly to take full advantage of the 8 track recorder, laying down tracks that are as inspired as they are scrappy, perfectly capturing the vibe of the song. Ringo however was not there. Having quit the band during the previous session (Back In The USSR) and gone AWOL, Paul stepped up (or rather sat down) in his place.

One of the amazing thing about the Beatles is how world-class songwriters like Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were also prepared to be sidemen on 'the other guy's' songs. And what a sideman Paul McCartney was! – backing vocal, drums, super loud bass, piano, tambourine, cowbell, handclaps and a flügelhorn (audible only to the pure of heart).

I Can't Believe It's Not Ringo™

Let's talk about that drumming. The same kind of 'lead drumming' last heard on A Day In The Life, Paul's performance is so good that many people swear it MUST be Ringo. Conspiracy theorists point to how un-McCartney-like it is compared to his solo era skin-bashing. But let me make this clear. It doesn't matter how much of an expert you think you are. Ringo was in a different country. With his family. Writing Octopus's Garden. And Prudence was completed before his return. Besides, a listen to the semi-isolated track reveals a few flubs amongst the flams. And the fact that the fills are overdubbed onto a basic beat makes McCartney sound slightly better than he really is.

Unusual Prudence

The song is a bit of an oddball for a number of reasons. This is the only example of dropped D tuning I can find in all the Beatles catalogue. It has a fade in/fade out bookended chord progression (Ticket 4) something which only shows up in Eight Days A Week. We have the aforementioned lead drumming and rogue blue notes (in the boogie-woogie piano part) like the cellos in Yesterday and Piggies. And the droning double-D strings in the guitar perhaps reflect the Indian genesis more subtly than Tomorrow Never Knows.

Perhaps most importantly from a songwriting point of view, repeated chord sequences are very un-Beatles-like, though standard procedure today (Demons and Radioactive by Imagine Dragons for examples consist of a single four chord sequence all the way through).

Next time. Stuff about chords, small melodies and which scale we're using.

10:22 Happiness Is A Warm Gun (pt.1)

The Genesis and Structure of Lennon's Precursor to the Abbey Road Medley

This is probably John Lennon's most complex Beatles song, rivalled only by A Day In The Life and Strawberry Fields Forever, which are both complex for very different reasons.

Genesis

The original demo (recorded at George Harrison's house) has five sections one of which doesn't appear on the finished version. The White Album has four sections, two of which don't appear on the demo.

White Album                 Anthology 3 (Esher Demo)

She's Not A Girl             -
I Need A Fix                  I Need A Fix
-                                   Mother Superior
-                                   Yoko Ono Oh No
-                                   I Need A Fix
Mother Superior             Mother Superior
Happiness Is A...            -

The three distinct sections that make up the demo are all different songs that were pieced together (ticket 55). Though the weakest section was dropped (Yoko Ono, Oh No), two more sections were added between demo and studio sessions and were presumably written specifically for inclusion in this song. So there are four sections, but they're constructed from three separate 'parts'. With me so far?

In working this way Lennon was prefiguring the Abbey Road medley in his own miniature way, for, though he contributed fragments to 'The Long One', the latter was McCartney and Martin's baby and Lennon had little enthusiasm for it.

The song was fully formed by the time Lennon turned up at Abbey Road on Sep 23, 1968, which means the edits and revisions were mostly John's handiwork rather than a group effort (see below). But what the band undoubtedly contributed was nailing him down to specific time signatures and numbers of bars. Listen to the demo (above) to hear how (ahem) 'fluid' Lennon's timing is. Elastic doesn't begin to cover it. There are so many odd bars it's hard to know where beats have been removed (ticket 37) or added (ticket 52).

Though “95 takes” is often bandied about it actually took a mere 70 (!) to lay down the backing track (an edit of takes 53 and 65, probably spliced at 1:34). The remaining takes were spent overdubbing backing vocals, organ, piano, snare drum, tambourine, extra bass, barely audible tuba (!) and rerecording the lead vocals (you can hear a spill from a guide vocal at 2:21).

At the start of recording the title was Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand. It's unlikely that was the demo's title as that section hadn't been written yet!

Structure

Let's look at the song section by section.

Section 1: “She's not a girl who misses much”

John trims the fat (ticket 2) by having the intro consist of a single syllable “she's...”

What follows is the finger picking pattern John learned from Donovan in Rishikesh and used on Julia and Dear Prudence. Paul used it in a more primitive fashion on Blackbird. The guitar sounds heavy, almost slowed down in a similar way to the Rain backing track. The 2 chord pattern appears initially in the key of Em then switches to Am. The riff is in 4/4 albeit with a varying numbers of bars, and a single 2/4 bar appears during the words "donated to the...”

Lyrically this is, by far, longest section, there are no repeats and nothing in the 'first person'.

This section also features the work of one of the Beatles many uncredited co-writers (more on this here). Apple's publicist Derek Taylor* brainstormed lyrics on this section with Lennon and contributing the “lizard on a window pane” and “velvet hand” lines from personal recollections. Despite the bizarre stream of consciousness lyrics almost everything mentioned in this song has it 's basis in real life, or news reports. Donating what you've eaten “to the National Trust,” for example, is a euphemism for taking a dump outside.

Section 2: “I need a fix...”

Here we switch to 3/4 time and become modal. The centre is still A but the chord sequence (A7 - C - Am) veers between major and minor. The lyrics consist of two first person lines (one repeated). Lennon later (unconvincingly) denied “I need a fix cause I'm going down” referred to drugs.

Section 3: “Mother Superior jumped the gun...”

Here the chords (implied by the riffing) are Am C Am G. The time signature is either a 9/4 bar followed by a 10/4 bar (a clear Lennon extension – ticket 52) or a sequence of 6/8, 3/4 and 3/4 followed by 6/8, 3/4 and 4/4. Lyrically we have one line sung six times with melodic variations.

Section 4: “Happiness is a warm gun”


The chords switch from Am to the relative major key – C major. The progression is a stock doo wop pattern C, Am, F, G with an Fm (the m4 - ticket 8) preceding the false ending (ticket 47). The song boasts a second false ending as the track fades back in for a final drum hit.

Lennon took the title from a gun magazine, The American Rifleman, which he saw in Abbey Road studios.

Next time we'll get some tips for how to combine your random song fragments into a complete song, then take a closer look at all the rhythmic weirdness going on it this song, before concluding with what (if anything) ties together such a patchwork quilt of a song.

*Uncredited, he may have been, but he did get a namecheck in John's Give Peace A Chance

Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna

10:2 Julia (pt.1) Introduction

Julia is another high watermark in John Lennon's songwriting with the Beatles. It is a masterclass in matching the mood of the music with the lyrical message and terrific example of how to write compelling, beguiling song even though you're breaking all the rules.

John wears a coat in India, Donovan hogs the guitar, Mike Love prepares to explore the Amazon

Written in Rishikesh, India it was recorded 3 days before the final mixing sessions of White Album. An entirely solo Lennon performance (with McCartney coaching him from the control room) it took a mere 3 takes to get the basic track down.

John used the same fingerpicking pattern throughout that he employed on Dear Prudence and the intro of Happiness Is A Warm Gun and which Paul used for Blackbird (though Paul's version is more of a sloppy half-strum). Both Beatles had recently learned this pattern in India from Donovan and/or Gypsy Dave. It's impressive to note that even at this late stage of their career they were still learning and incorporating new concepts into their compositions.

Donovan gives John a guitar lesson?

The track is ethereal and weirdly catatonic. The opening monotonal melody, the never changing picking pattern and the oddly stretched-out first syllable in the title all contribute. But beginning and ending each verse with the word Julia, starting on high A and finishing by descending to the lower D, always falling and appearing at the top again, always overlapping with itself like endless ocean waves is a crucial component in establishing the hypnotic, dreamlike mood.

The lyrics also play their part, effectively conveying the unreachableness of would-be mistress Yoko (John was with his wife in India) and his deceased mother Julia.

'Julia' is calling, but never touches him, her smile is as intangible as the wind (though 'windy smile' also conjures up a baby that needs burping!). She is 'sleeping sand' and a 'silent cloud', her smile and her eyes are calling him rather than any particular spoken message. She is always distant - most of the song is sung about her, rather than sung 'to' her. In contrast the singer can't stop 'speaking his mind', 'singing a song of love' even if 'half of what he says is meaningless'.

There is much more to this song than can be packed into a single post but here's some of the key points I'll be hitting in future posts. Get listening to Julia and see if you can spot where I'm heading.

• Consistency of lyrical imagery
• Out of key chords and their relationship to the melody
• Creative ways to compensate for lack of rhymes
• Using jazz song structures in folk/pop music
• A favourite Beatles chord progression (borrowed from Eleanor Rigby?)

10:1 The Beatles (aka The White Album) Introduction

Personally Speaking

It's hard for me to be objective about The White Album (I know it's called 'The Beatles' but that's just going to get too confusing). It is forever linked in my memory with the C120 cassette my older sister had recorded it on and lent me. The fact it was on a C120 marked it out as A VERY SPECIAL ALBUM. I am sure that my love of out of key chord progressions is directly linked to repeated listens as a 10 year old. The chromatically rising 5th in Glass Onion, the descending I to VII in Sexy Sadie, the major to minor and back again movement in Piggies are hardwired into my brain and are as much a part of my musical DNA as they are for the men who wrote the songs. In contrast to Let It Be (a few good songs and a few funny bits) and Abbey Road (never heard the album till I started Beatles Songwriting Academy) I feel like this album is part of me.

That Difficult Ninth Album

When looking at the context it's crucial to understand that this is the follow up to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Since that watershed the band had produced several hit singles, an EP soundtrack to a critically panned TV special, contributed a few filler tracks to a film soundtrack (released after TWA) and a whole library full of unreleased atonal jams. But this was the Beatles finally back in album mode. The 'blank' cover was a very conscious reaction to the Pepper cover. Which means that, whatever it's shortcomings as an album, The White Album is possibly the greatest follow up to a world changing album of all time.

Context

It's well documented that this is the album where the Beatles started to break up but it's good to appreciate the level of fragmentation and loss that they were operating at.

This was, of course, the first album since the death of Brian Epstein. Prior to recording the White Album the band (especially Lennon and Harrison) had seriously entertained the possibility of quitting the music business to become full time disciples of the Maharishi. When that dream died the band started a major corporation instead and also opened (then closed) the Apple Boutique.

Lennon had a mental breakdown (proclaiming himself Jesus Christ at a business meeting), started a relationship with Yoko Ono, got divorced and Yoko suffered a miscarriage before they were both arrested on drugs charges. Feeling marginalised and unloved Ringo quit the band in the middle of recording (on the day Cynthia Lennon sued for divorce) returning two weeks later. Paul split up with Jane Asher after 5 years together. Long time engineer Geoff Emerick walked out due to the acrimonious working atmosphere and George Martin took a month long holiday in the middle of proceedings, leaving inexperienced producer Chris Thomas in charge. Even when George was around the increased workload of making a double album forced the band to work on several tracks at the same time and Martin's failure to be omnipresent further reduced his active involvement on the album.

Growth

Arguably The Beatles pushed more convincingly into different genres than any time before or since. They take a good stab at musique concrete, blues, folk and 1920's jazz while, at the same time recording a track (I Will) that could have seamlessly replaced And I Love Her on the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack.

Rishikesh

Whatever the effects of ashram living on the Beatles spirituality, mental health, long term relationships or digestion, spending a month in India writing songs was undoubtedly the secret ingredient in making The White Album such a triumph. It was the most preparation the Beatles ever gave an album. They even managed some preproduction, demoing 26 tunes.

Is It Really A Solo Album?

It's a common misconception that on The White Album the Beatles recorded separately, but with common purpose (rather like that rash of Kiss albums in the late 70's) – everyone working in their own corner of Abbey Road Studios. The facts don't bear this out.

The band recorded 19 Rishikesh songs*. All bar Wild Honey Pie were later demoed at George's house. Which means that the whole band had multiple opportunities to listen, critique and select most of the album tracks. 15 of the finished tracks feature the whole band including (surprisingly) Piggies, Rocky Raccoon and Honey Pie. In fact there are only 6 truly solo tracks and (surprisingly) I Will is not one of them. Of those 6 solo tracks, only two were written back in the UK.

In Conclusion

Yes, it's sprawling. Yes, it features Ringo's second best composition, and the presence of Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da and Revolution 9 show that songwriting quality control was starting to become lax, but for the songwriter there are a million great lessons ahead.

Let me introduce you to Julia.

*The songs they dropped were Harrison's Circle, Sour Milk Sea and Not Guilty and Lennon's What's The New Mary Jane, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam and Child Of Nature (which later became Jealous Guy). And sadly, none of the guys wanted to touch McCartney's Junk.