Lady Madonna

If you watched the recent One World: Together at Home broadcast, you saw Paul McCartney dedicate this number to all of the nurses currently working on the front lines worldwide after mentioning that his mother had been a nurse.  He then sat at a piano and played a somewhat abbreviated new arrangement of Lady Madonna as pictures of healthcare workers appeared on the split screen beside him, making this 52-year-old song as relevant as ever.

McCartney had seen a photograph of a Polynesian woman breastfeeding one child with other children gathered around her in a 1965 issue of National Geographic magazine.  The caption beside the photo was "Mountain Madonna."  With this inspiration, he set about writing a song in celebration of working mothers.  And, though there is no explicit reference to support this, the lyrics would seem to be specifically about single mothers.  To realize that this sentiment is coming from a young male rock star who had lived a hedonistic lifestyle on tour for several years is quite remarkable.

The Beatles met at EMI Studios on February 3rd, 1968 to record a single which would be released while they were away in India studying Transcendental Meditation.  McCartney's composition was the strongest contender and the first to receive the group's attention.  The backing track had no live vocal, just Paul on piano and Ringo lightly playing the drums with brushes.  The deluxe 50th-anniversary edition of the "White Album" contains some bonus tracks from these early '68 sessions.  One of them is take two of this backing track, a fine take featuring a few little piano flourishes not present in the master, which just happened to be the very next take.

Overdubs of Paul on bass, John and George playing the same line on electric guitars, and Ringo using regular drumsticks on his kit were added to take three.  Then, as Paul sang his lead vocal, John sang a few sporadic vocal counterpoints trying to sound like a tuba.  Paul, John and George next gathered around a microphone while munching Marmite crisps and, cupping their hands over their mouths, imitated a brass section.  A tiny snippet of them goofing around as they worked on this overdub is also included on the deluxe "White Album" package.

They returned to the track on February 6th and made a second attempt at their brass impersonation.  At this point, Paul suddenly decided they needed the real thing, resulting in a flurry of frantic phone calls around London looking for four saxophone players who could drop everything and report to the studio.  Once they arrived, Paul began calling out a series of chords to the seasoned professionals, causing them to look at each other and ask, "Okay, who plays what?"  Lacking an arrangement from producer George Martin, the session took much longer than it should have.  Fortunately, the result was worth the effort, though jazz club owner Ronnie Scott's sax solo wound up being buried in the mix under the Beatles' own mock brass section.

Once Lady Madonna beat out Lennon's Across the Universe for the A-side of the single, the group knew that a promotional film was needed since none of them would be around to talk to the press on the release date.  As an Apple Films crew shot them in the studio on February 11th, they chose to use the time productively and actually record Lennon's latest composition Hey Bulldog.  This explains why John is shown sitting at the piano instead of Paul (except at the very end after the song concludes), and why none of the singing or playing matches up with Lady Madonna in the film.

With its boogie woogie piano and relatively stripped-down production, the song signaled that the Beatles were returning to good old-fashioned rock and roll.  Had Across the Universe been released instead, the impression would have been that they were staying in the psychedelic lane that they had dominated throughout 1967.

While the single went to number one in the UK, it only managed to peak at number four in the US.  American fans did get a second chance to purchase the song on the 1970 compilation album Hey Jude.  After the group's career, it appeared on the Blue Album in 1973 and on the UK version of the album 20 Greatest Hits.  When the band's catalog was first released in the CD format, it sat alongside many other singles on Past Masters, Volume Two.  And, of course, it naturally is included on the album 1.

Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey

The ticket pictured above is from a concert that was not supposed to happen.  Kansas City was not on the itinerary of the 1964 North American tour, but Charles O. Finley, owner of the Kansas City Athletics baseball team, was determined to bring The Beatles to his stadium.  September 17th was scheduled as a rare day off for the group so they could remain in New Orleans and explore that city.  Knowing this, Finley went in person to see the band's manager Brian Epstein at the start of the tour in San Francisco and offered $50,000 for a performance on the 17th.  When refused, he upped the offer to $100,000.  Days later, in Los Angeles, they agreed upon $150,000 - a record at the time.

On the night of the concert, the Beatles pulled out the old chestnut Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey from their pre-fame repertoire and used it to open the show.  Had they not done so, it's very likely that they might not have thought of the song and decided to record it a month later for their fourth album Beatles for Sale.

George Harrison said that the song was originally added to their set list in Hamburg to help fill the long, grueling hours they were required to play.  The Star Club tapes from December 1962 contain a rousing, fast-paced version of the number, though the vocals do not match the intensity of the driving arrangement.

Though the performance was never aired, Granada Television taped the Beatles playing the number in the Cavern Club in Liverpool in August of 1962, only days after Ringo joined the group.  The boys later revived the song for their BBC radio program Pop Go the Beatles in July of 1963, as can be heard on The Beatles Live at the BBC.  They also played it twice on their other BBC radio show From Us to You in May and July of '64.

Following the North American tour, the boys played the song live in the studio (not mimed, as was often the case) for the US TV show Shindig.  This fine performance was taped in London at the Granville Studio in early October, 1964 before an invited house of screaming fan club members.

The recording session for the album Beatles for Sale took place on October 18th.  Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey was one of eight numbers completed on this productive day.  They only attempted two takes, and take one proved to be the keeper.  In his book Here, There and Everywhere, engineer Geoff Emerick reports that even Ringo joined in with John and George on the spirited backing vocals during the Hey Hey Hey Hey call-and-response section of the song.  By the way, take two, which is available on Anthology 1, is almost as good, except for George's guitar solo.

The boys did mime to the song for the TV program Ready, Steady, Go! in late November.  And they visited the number one last time on the BBC radio show Saturday Club only a few days later to promote the new album.  This performance appears on On Air - Live at the BBC, volume 2.

The American equivalent of Beatles for Sale was the album Beatles '65, but the song did not appear there.  Capitol Records chose to hold on to the song for six months before using it to open the compilation album Beatles VI, released in June of 1965.  The song was simply listed as Kansas City on the jacket and label, and credited to Jerry Stoller and Mike Lieber.  But the arrangement used by the Beatles was created by Little Richard Penniman (his verses bear little resemblance to the original lyrics), who had turned the song into a medley with his own Hey Hey Hey Hey.  His publishing company took legal action against Capitol, much to the amusement of Lieber and Stoller, who had never done the same to Little Richard for tampering with their composition.  

Julia

John Lennon's beautiful, heartfelt song about his mother significantly proved to be the only time he ever made a solo recording and attributed it to the Beatles.  Julia also serves as a sort of bookend for John's work on the "White Album" - it was one of the first compositions he wrote for the album, yet it wound up being the last one recorded.

The Beatles' retreat in Rishikesh, India in the spring of 1968 was a prolific time for John, Paul and George, with each of them inspired to write numerous compositions.  John numbered his handwritten lyric sheets from this time, and Julia was given the number one, perhaps indicating that it was the first song he wrote while there.  The three Beatles also spent a good deal of time with their acoustic guitars learning a fingerpicking style taught to them by singer-songwriter Donovan and his friend Gypsy Dave.  In addition, Donovan claims that John asked him for a bit of help with the lyrics for this song.

And, of course, John eventually revealed that his mother is not the only woman referenced in the song.  He had begun receiving mail from Yoko while he was in India, with cryptic messages such as "I am a cloud."  This gave him some of his imagery, along with her very name, which roughly translates as "ocean child."

Julia was among the demos recorded at George Harrison's house in May before work on the album began.  John's demo for this song is remarkably like the finished product, with two acoustic guitars and overlapping lead vocals.  The only major difference is Paul attempting some high harmonies in the background.

The recording session for this number took place on October 13th of 1968.  Though John performed the song as a solo, Paul was present in the booth along with producer George Martin.  A great discovery was made a few years ago when the 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" was in the works.  Some rehearsals were preserved at the end of the master tape before it was rewound for the first official take.  We therefore get to hear John try the song while strumming his guitar, saying it is easier to sing it that way.  He then reverts to the fingerpicking style for one final runthrough.

Take two appears on Anthology 3.  John sings only the first line or so of the song, then concentrates on his fingerpicking.  He only gets about halfway through the number before it breaks down.  What follows is, for me, the most fascinating and revealing exchange in the entire Anthology series as Paul pipes in with some encouragement from the booth.  John sounds almost embarrassed - he clearly stills values his partner's input at this point in their relationship despite the strains that were beginning to rise to the surface during these five-month-long sessions.

The next take, take three, proved to be the master.  John then double-tracked his acoustic guitar part as well as his lead vocal to recreate the overlapping voices he had used so effectively years earlier for the song Any Time at All.

Julia is placed at the end of side two on the double album The Beatles.  It immediately follows Paul's equally-beautiful ballad I Will, but it stands in stark contrast to that slickly-produced number.  John's song is raw and personal, his pitch faltering at times.  It sets the stage for an outpouring of first-person pieces by him in the years to come, peaking with the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

I've Got a Feeling

Linking a series of songs together for the medley on side two of Abbey Road was the final true Lennon and McCartney collaboration.  Combining two of their songs as one happened for the last time earlier in 1969 during the Get Back sessions.  In truth, McCartney's song could be considered complete without Lennon's contribution, but Lennon's "everybody had a..." section fits because it works well using the same arrangement by the band.  This is delightfully demonstrated when Paul repeats his first verse and John repeats his entire section simultaneously at the end of the number.

Though the song was no doubt rehearsed in early January at Twickenham Film Studios, all of the "official" recordings of it are from Apple Studios at 3 Savile Row later in that month.  Billy Preston had joined the proceedings by this time and, though he does not have a solo on this number, his electric piano helps to flesh out the overall sound, and he adds a few nice little touches here and there.

Glyn Johns used a runthrough of the song from January 24th for both of his attempts at compiling a Get Back LP.  If either of those had ever become the officially-released version, we never would have heard the complete number, as it breaks down just before the final simultaneous verse.  John confesses, "I cocked it up trying to get loud...not bad, though."  Year later, Anthology 3 gave us this same recording.

The version of I've Got a Feeling on the Let It Be LP is from the famous rooftop concert on January 30th.  The group played the song twice during this event, and producer Phil Spector chose the first attempt for his album.  All vocals are centered in the mix until the final simultaneous verse, at which point Paul's voice comes out of one speaker and John's the other - a touch that stereo junkies surely appreciated when the album was finally released in May of 1970.

In 2003, the album Let It Be...Naked arrived.  A triumvirate of producers - Paul Hicks, Guy Massey and Allan Rouse - created a composite take of the two rooftop performances, jumping back and forth seamlessly a few times, so that some of it sounds familiar to longtime fans and some of it is brand new.  

I've Just Seen a Face

My previous post described how Lennon's song It's Only Love had a working title of That's a Nice Hat (Cap), which is how it appeared on the George Martin album pictured there.  You might also notice that there is a song listed on that album cover known as Auntie Gin's Theme.  For years, that was how McCartney referred to an instrumental piece he would play on piano to the delight of his aunt.  When he finally put some words to it and made it a tour-de-force for acoustic guitar, it became I've Just Seen a Face.

The basic track was recorded in six takes on June 14th, 1965.  Both John and Paul play acoustic guitars while George uses a 12-string acoustic guitar to provide the lower end usually associated with an electric bass.  George also plays the solo in the instrumental break and the closing phrase of the song on this guitar.  Meanwhile, Ringo uses brushes on his snare drum to keep the snappy beat.  Paul sets the tempo at such a fast pace that he occasionally has to catch a quick breath in the middle of some of the long, run-on lines.  Onto take six, Paul double-tracked his impressive opening flourish on acoustic guitar, and also double-tracked his vocal in places, as Ringo added maracas to the mix.

I've Just Seen a Face appeared on the non-soundtrack side of the Help! LP in the UK.  Like It's Only Love, Capitol held on to this track for a few months and put it on the US version of Rubber Soul.  In fact, Capitol held this breathless song in such high regard that it was used to open that album.  And yet, this wonderful number, with its catchy "falling, yes, I am falling" chorus has never been chosen for any of the group's post-career compilations.

By the way, Paul actually mentions his Auntie Gin (pictured dancing with him above) in the list of names in the 1976 hit song Let 'Em In from the album Wings at the Speed of Sound.