Think for Yourself

George Harrison had a lot of catching up to do.  As the work of the Beatles rapidly progressed in the latter half of 1965, he was still a budding songwriter.  He had only begun writing his own material full-time earlier that year for the Help! LP.  Now, Lennon and McCartney, working sometimes together and sometimes separately, were coming up with a batch of stunning new compositions for the group's end of the year album and single.  Harrison would be hard-pressed to match the quality of the world's hottest songwriters if his songs were to sit comfortably alongside their output on the album.

Harrison came up with a winner at one of the early sessions for the project in mid-October - a tune based on the ringing guitar sound of the Byrds called If I Needed Someone.  Then, on November 8th, he brought in a more complex number initially known as Won't Be There with You.  The problem was that he was usually not allotted much time for the recording of his songs by John and Paul, or producer George Martin, and this one proved to be particularly tricky for the group to learn.  Ironically, Lennon, who often wrote songs with unusual chord changes and shifting time signatures, had the most difficulty getting it right.

After a good deal of rehearsal, it was decided that only George on guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums would be required to play on the backing track, and they nailed it in one take.  John did join in with George and Paul when it came time to record the vocals, though he still had a bit of trouble finding the right notes.  They then double-tracked their vocals, Ringo added tambourine and maracas, John played a Hammond organ part, and Paul overdubbed the track's most distinctive feature - a second bass line using a fuzz box.  By the end of the session, the track, now known as Think for Yourself, was complete.

The song does, indeed, sit quite comfortably in the middle of side one on both the British and American versions of the album Rubber Soul.  Although it is unclear who George may be singing to in the lyrics, he succeeds in reviving the prickly persona he established in his first solo composition Don't Bother Me, as well as establishing the preachy tone he would return to a number of times in future outings.  The song is by no means unpleasant, however, thanks in large part to its catchy refrain.  

Think for Yourself popped up only once more in the group's catalog - on the 1999 release Yellow Submarine Songtrack.  In the animated film, Old Fred asks the Beatles for a snippet of song to bring the Lord Mayor of Pepperland back to life, and we then hear just the voices of George and Paul singing the phrase "and you've got time to rectify" a few times over.  This little bit came from the two Beatles rehearsing their harmonies at the original session on November 8th, 1965, as producer George Martin kept the tape rolling in case something worthy of inclusion on the annual Christmas flexi disc for their fan club occurred.  Somehow, that tape was given to the producers of the Yellow Submarine project.  As a result, we were ultimately treated to a remixed version of the song in 1999.

Things We Said Today

When the filming of A Hard Day's Night was complete, the weary Beatles took a well-deserved holiday in May of 1964.  Paul and Ringo took off for the Virgin Islands together with their respective girlfriends Jane and Maureen.  Yet, even while relaxing on a yacht, the return to work was looming in Paul's mind.  He knew that the group would have to quickly record some more songs for the non-soundtrack side of their next album before setting off on their first world tour in June.  With little time to himself, he only managed to come up with one new composition, but it was a quality piece of work.  Over the course of his relationship with Jane Asher, McCartney was inspired to write more than a few songs based on his feelings for her, but perhaps none was as tender as Things We Said Today, which projected them as a couple in the future looking back nostalgically at themselves in the present. 

Once the Beatles reconvened on June 1st, Lennon dominated the proceedings, with four compositions ready for the group to record.  When McCartney finally got his chance on June 2nd, he efficiently led the band through a mere three takes before arriving at the best basic track.  He then double-tracked his lead vocal, harmonizing with himself in places.  Ringo also added a tambourine and John played a piano during the bridges, though the piano part was somewhat buried, especially in the final mono mix of the song.

In addition to its place on the non-soundtrack side of the album, Things We Said Today was also chosen to be the B-side of the single A Hard Day's Night.  However, Capitol Records in the US was more interested in promoting the film, so the American label used the soundtrack song I Should Have Known Better as the B-side instead.  Thus, American fans could only find Things We Said Today on the Capitol album Something New.  In the UK, the song later became available on the EP Extracts from the Album A Hard Day's Night.

The Beatles promoted both sides of the single in the UK, featuring the songs on television programs Top of the Pops, Lucky Stars and Blackpool Night Out.  They also played it on BBC Radio on the program Top Gear and on an edition of their series of specials From Us to You.  The former recording can be heard on the 1994 collection Live at the BBC.

They then felt strongly enough about Things We Said Today to add it to their stage act for their American and British tours of 1964.  The performance from August 23rd can be heard on the 1977 album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.  Note that George joins in vocally at the points where Paul harmonized with himself on the original record.  Also, the shifts into and out of the energized bridges are much more pronounced and dramatic when played live.

Even more so than on the pop ballad And I Love Her from the same time period, Things We Said Today revealed a somber and mature side of McCartney's songwriting that would blossom in the next few years, providing a nice balance to the sunny, upbeat fare for which he was usually better known.

There's a Place

Pictured here is a shot of the group at an appearance to promote their first album Please Please Me.  (I love the early lettering on Ringo's drum kit, especially the corny antennae on the letter B.)  While much of that album fulfilled producer George Martin's concept of a recreation of the band's stage act recorded live in the studio, a few of the songs on it were brand new originals, unknown to their fans at the time.  And, on the day set aside to record pretty much all of that album, February 11th, 1963, they began not with one of the many cover songs from their setlist, but with the new composition There's a Place.

It required ten takes to arrive at the master, mostly because George had trouble getting the timing of his guitar riff just right.  The band then moved on to work on a few other tracks before returning to There's a Place late in the afternoon.  It had been decided that John would play the same riff on harmonica at three points in the arrangement.  Thus, while George's guitar part is still audible, John's harmonica is much more prominent in the final mix of the song.  The last of three overdubs proved to be the keeper, and the song was complete. 

Lennon and McCartney's initial enthusiasm for the composition seems to have tempered, and the song wound up in the next to last position on the album.  In the US, Vee Jay Records placed the song in the exact same position on the album Introducing...the Beatles.  However, when Beatlemania broke in America, There's a Place was chosen for release on a single on Tollie Records, as the B-side to Twist and Shout, and it actually made the Billboard chart, peaking at number seventy-four.  The song's only other appearance was on the British EP Twist and Shout.  It was not released by Capitol Records during the group's career, not even on the album The Early Beatles.  It finally surfaced on the US version of the album Rarities in 1980.

The band reportedly added the song to their stage act, but the only known performances of it were for BBC Radio, all three of them recorded in the space of a month in the summer of 1963.  The first and third of these were for editions of Pop Go the Beatles, while the second was for the program Easy Beat.  The third and final performance can be heard on the collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  John does not play harmonica, so we actually get to hear George playing the song's riff in the clear.  The band's singing and playing is sharp and tight; overall, it is one of the finest recordings they made for the BBC.  And it is probably the last time they ever performed the song.

Much has been made of the fact that Lennon was writing about retreating into his mind this early on, even before Brian Wilson wrote about retreating into his room.  It is actually not very far removed from the love songs that Lennon and McCartney were beginning to craft with astonishing ease at the time, but it certainly contains the seeds of things to come in only a few short years.