Misery

This Lennon/McCartney composition looms large in the history of that songwriting partnership, as I recently learned from Dave Rybaczewski's excellent in depth look at the song, yet I am sure that this title is so obscure as to be completely unfamiliar to many casual Beatles fans.

Though the budding songwriters bragged of having penned over a hundred songs before they even became famous, most of those tunes never saw the light of day afterwards, most likely due to a lack of quality.  However, manager Brian Epstein felt early on that there was as much potential revenue in song publishing as there was in the band's recordings, so he encouraged the boys to try to write new songs - not just for the Beatles, but for other artists, as well.

In January of 1963, the group was scheduled to begin a winter tour at the bottom of a bill headlined by British teenage pop sensation Helen Shapiro.  Encouraged by their manager, Lennon and McCartney boldly decided to craft a song to present to the young star, even though the Beatles only had two singles to their name at the time.  They started writing Misery on January 26th while backstage at one of the endless gigs Epstein had now lined up for them.  On February 2nd, the tour began.  The boys quickly befriended Helen Shapiro and Paul soon took the opportunity to offer the song to her, but her manager, Norrie Paramour, rejected it.

Mere days later, during a break in the tour, the Beatles reported to EMI Studios in London to spend the entire day of February 11th recording their first album.  They figured that if a current star was not going to be allowed to record their latest composition, then they would record it themselves.  Most of the songs they did on this day were cover versions from their stage act, which they knew well and which were quickly dispatched.  This being a new song, however, it took 11 takes for them to work out the arrangement and arrive at a satisfactory performance singing and playing live in the studio.  George Harrison in particular had a difficult time playing a descending figure on guitar, prompting producer George Martin to alter the tape speed for the last few takes to facilitate an easy fix.

The Beatles were not present on February 20th when Martin overdubbed the descending notes on piano - one of the only overdubs on the entire album.  Engineer Geoff Emerick was on hand on this day, marveling at Martin's trick of recording the piano at a different speed, something he would repeat numerous times in the coming years.

As it turned out, another artist on the Helen Shapiro tour was interested in Misery.  Kenny Lynch (note him on the poster pictured above) thus became the first act besides the Beatles to record a composition by McCartney-Lennon, as their names were listed at that time.  Ten years later, Lynch would appear on the cover photo of the album Band on the Run, standing right behind Paul.  A film of that photo shoot shows Kenny and Paul sharing a moment to sing the intro of Misery.

Despite its title, the song is sung almost as a lark by John and Paul, especially during the fadeout when they get downright goofy.  It sits in the second slot on the album Please Please Me, as well as on the EP The Beatles (No.1).  It is one of just a few songs that Capitol Records did not release during the group's career in the US.  American fans could only find it on the various permutations of the Vee-Jay album Introducing...the Beatles and on the Vee-Jay EP Souvenir of Their Visit to America.  Capitol finally released it on the compilation album Rarities in 1980.

On Air - Live at the BBC, Vol. 2 features a performance of the number before a studio audience on BBC radio's Here We Go, recorded on March 6th.  The youngsters in the crowd were unfamiliar with the song on that date because the album had not yet been released.  Given the time to properly learn his part, George Harrison had by now mastered the descending figure on guitar.  Misery was featured in the band's repertoire for the first half of 1963, and they would play it six more times on various BBC programs before retiring the number.           

Michelle

Before even starting the sessions for Rubber Soul in late 1965, the Beatles realized that they were short of material for a full album.  Still, they knew that they no longer wanted to record cover versions of other people's songs, if possible, so any idea leading to a new composition was welcome.  It was around this time that Lennon reminded McCartney of an old piece that he used to do at parties to attract girls - a lovely melody which Paul would play off in a corner while singing mock French lyrics.  Inspired by this memory, McCartney went off and wrote some real verses for the tune, adding some authentic French lines with the assistance Jan Vaughan, the wife of old Liverpool friend Ivan Vaughan.  This being a period of true collaboration for the songwriting team, Lennon then helped with the middle eight.

On November 3rd, 1965, the entire day was devoted to work on Michelle, beginning with a good deal of rehearsal.  This really paid off when the boys needed only one take to record the basic track with  three acoustic guitars and drums.  When attention turned to the vocals, Paul sang his lead vocal first, then he was joined by John and George to record the backing vocals.  Under producer George Martin's supervision, they double-tracked their parts, thus creating the full, rich sound of six voices.

Only after the vocals were complete did Paul sit down and add his bass line to the recording.  In the photo above, a capo is visible, something very unusual to see on the neck of a bass guitar, but Paul used it to help him more easily match the key of the song as it had been established by the acoustic guitars earlier in the session.

All that was left was for a guitar solo to be overdubbed.  Many have speculated over the years that Paul also played this himself.  But George Martin insists that it was he who actually wrote the melody for the solo, and that he sat at a keyboard, playing it note for note along with George Harrison on guitar.  No keyboard is heard on the recording, but the guitar solo is beautifully performed, regardless of who played it.

There was talk of Michelle being released as a single, but even Capitol Records in the US resisted the temptation to do so, though the American label did add stickers promoting the song on the plastic wrap of the album Rubber Soul.  Radio stations did give it a good deal of airplay, something rather rare for an album track in the mid-60's.

In the UK, the song also appeared on the EP Nowhere Man, as well as on the 1966 album A Collection of Beatles' Oldies, one of the few non-singles on that collection.

After the group's career, it surfaced on the Red Album in 1973 and on Love Songs in 1977.   

Mean Mr. Mustard

Here is yet another song that was written during the fertile creative period in Rishikesh, India, in the spring of 1968.  Lennon felt confident enough about it to include it in the batch of demos recorded at George Harrison's house at the end of May before work began on the sprawling double album The Beatles, yet it never again materialized throughout the five month long sessions for that project.  

Like so many other songs, however, it did surface at the Get Back sessions in January of '69.  The band rehearsed it on four different days, but once again, it was not a strong contender for the project at hand.  Lennon even ad libbed a third verse on one of these days, but it had nothing to do with the portrait of Mr. Mustard he had developed in the rest of the song and was subsequently dropped.  

The number finally found a home when McCartney and producer George Martin came up with the idea of a long medley of unfinished songs for the album Abbey Road.  Lennon linked the song with another of his compositions known at the time as Here Comes the Sun-King, and these were played straight through as one continuous piece.  On July 24th, the group recorded the basic track with everyone playing their usual instruments.  During take 7, they launched into several Gene Vincent numbers.  Anthology 3 gives us Ain't She Sweet, Vincent's mellow version of this old standard being quite different from the march-like recording made by the Beatles in Hamburg in 1961.

Returning to the task at hand, it took until take 35 before they hit upon the best performance.  Part of the reason for this may have been due to the fact that Paul had to switch on his fuzz box for his bass and Ringo had to quickly change drumsticks between the Sun King and Mr. Mustard sections of the arrangement.  Nevertheless, this lengthy session was reportedly very relaxed in contrast to some of the other sessions around this time.

On the following day, John and Paul recorded the lead and harmony vocals.  It was around this time that the name of Mr. Mustard's sister changed to Pam - she had always been Shirley - to give the story a loose connection to that of the song Polythene Pam, which they began recording later on this date.  John also overdubbed a bit of piano onto the track.  The song was completed four days later, on July 29th, with John and Paul double-tracking their vocals, and Ringo adding tambourine.

A rough mix of the entire medley was prepared the next night.  At this time, the song Her Majesty came immediately after Mean Mr. Mustard in the running order, but upon hearing it, Paul realized that his little ditty to the Queen interrupted the flow, so he ordered that it be cut out.  Engineer John Kurlander made a slight error, accidentally cutting out the final crashing chord of Mean Mr. Mustard, though this actually made the new transition into Polythene Pam smoother than it would have been.  Of course, that crashing chord can still be heard at the end of the album, still tacked on to the beginning of Her Majesty.

For those who want to hear the demo of the song from May of 1968, it is available on both Anthology 3 and the 50th anniversary deluxe editions of Abbey Road.  It contains some delightful gibberish from John in places, as well as a bridge that did not make it into the finished version almost a year and a half later.           

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

The most divisive song in the entire Beatles catalog has to be Maxwell's Silver Hammer, not just among the group's fans, but even among the members of the group itself.  As early as 1965, Bob Dylan accused the Beatles of writing what he called granny music, referring specifically to Michelle and Yesterday, both McCartney compositions.  By 1969, John was using the same terminology to describe this song, and complaining about how much time was taken up working on the track.  George and Ringo made similar statements concerning the number of sessions spent specifically on this song.  The biggest argument, however, was over the fact that Paul wanted Maxwell's Silver Hammer to be the group's next single, while the other three were steadfastly against it.

The lyrics of the first verse appear in the notebook of songs that Paul had with him in Rishikesh, India, in the spring of 1968, yet the song was never considered for inclusion on the "White Album" recorded later that same year.  It first surfaced at Twickenham Film Studios in January of 1969 at the Get Back sessions.  The band ran through the song many times over four separate days (including after George quit on the 10th), but did not revive it when the sessions resumed at the Apple Studios in Savile Row a few weeks later.  Paul actually had the group's assistant Mal Evans bring an anvil to Twickenham and learn to hit it on cue, as can be seen in the film Let it Be.

The next time the group attempted the song was on July 9th during the sessions for the album Abbey Road, and Paul's timing could not have been much worse.  This was the day that John and Yoko first attended these sessions after their automobile accident in Scotland, and a bed was moved into the studio to accommodate the still-ailing Yoko.  John stayed by Yoko's side and declined to participate as Paul on piano, George on bass and Ringo on his drum kit ran through sixteen takes of the basic track.  Anthology 3 allows us to hear take 5 from this day's work, with George's tuba-like bass part already in place.  I do not own the 50th anniversary deluxe version of Abbey Road, but it reportedly contains take 12, which is preceded by some instructions from Paul to both Ringo and George on how to play their parts more to his liking.

Paul and George then switched over to electric guitars and overdubbed simultaneous country-flavored lines an octave apart onto take 21 (there were somehow no takes 6 through 10).  The Threetles continued adding overdubs on the following day, July 10th, with John and Yoko still merely observing.  An anvil was once again located and brought to the studio, though reports differ as to whether Mal Evans or Ringo played it on this occasion.  Paul added some piano arpeggios, more vocals, and he and George provided some backing vocals.

An uncomfortable incident then occurred as Paul, George and Ringo gathered around a microphone to record the phrase "silver hammer man" for the end of the song.  In his book Here, There and Everywhere, engineer Geoff Emerick relates that Paul walked over to John and invited him to join them.  John simply replied, "No, I don't think so," ending any chance of his participation in the recording.

At the end of this day's session, the song was considered complete and thirteen stereo mixes were made.  Yet, on the very next day, July 11th, Paul double-tracked his vocal in places and added acoustic guitar before moving on to work on other songs.  

The recording may then have been deemed complete once again, until George Harrison moved his Moog synthesizer into Room 43 of Abbey Road Studios.  After seeing and hearing the Moog used on Lennon's number Because, Paul could not resist finding a way to add it to Maxwell's Silver Hammer.  On August 6th, he added multiple overdubs, not by the conventional method of the synthesizer's keyboard, but rather by playing the very tricky ribbon with his finger.  According to young tape operator Alan Parsons (later to front his own band the Alan Parsons Project), Paul quickly mastered the technique necessary to find the right notes.

More remixes were then required, numbered 14 through 26.  Yet more remixes were done on both August 12th and 14th, bringing the total to 37.  And on August 25th, Paul finally decided to edit out the introduction of the song (this intro is heard on takes 5 and 12).  Perhaps when John , George and Ringo thought back on the endless work on this song, they may have been recalling the many remixing sessions, as well as the numerous rehearsals at Twickenham back in January, more than just the few days of actual recording that took place.  At any rate, this gleeful tale of a twisted killer always left a bad taste in their mouths.