Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Although it bears the usual Lennon/McCartney credit, the song Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band could have been credited to McCartney-Evans-Aspinall, as the two faithful assistants to the Beatles had more to do with its creation than Lennon did.  Paul even promised some royalty payments to Mal Evans, but he knew that he could not tinker with the official songwriting partnership without consequences on a number of levels such as music publishing rights, not to mention public perception.

Recording commenced on February 1st, 1967, at Abbey Road Studios.  Paul knew exactly what he wanted the rhythm guitar part to sound like, so John picked up a bass guitar, and the group laid down nine attempts at a backing track.  Take nine served as the master, onto which Paul overdubbed a new bass part, wiping out John's bass line.  On February 2nd, Paul added his lead vocal, then he joined John and George to record the harmonized group vocals.  Ringo, Mal and Neil may have sung along, as well.  If so, their voices are well down in the mix.  The 50th anniversary edition of the album contains the song as it stood at this time, including the extra measures after the point where it would eventually segue into the next number.

A full month later, on March 3rd, four French horn players reported to the studio for another overdub session.  There was no pre-arranged score for them, so it proved to be a labor-intensive evening as Paul hummed what he wanted them to play and one of the players wrote it out.  Once their part was recorded, George made multiple attempts at a lead guitar part.  According to engineer Geoff Emerick in his book Here, There and Everywhere, Paul eventually played the lead part himself.  If this is correct, then Paul played rhythm, lead and bass guitar on the finished track, though George did provide a second rhythm part on the master.

The final touches were applied to the track on March 6th when numerous sound effects were pulled from the EMI archives.  These included the sounds of an audience quietly talking before a show, another audience laughing (this from a Beyond the Fringe live performance), and an orchestra warming up.  They did not have to dig deep to find the latter - it was recorded only weeks earlier at the session for the huge crescendos heard on A Day in the Life.  Yet another effect would be added a month later to help cover the segue into Ringo's song, which had not even been written yet.

The major conceit of the album is that Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is an alter ego of the Beatles.  The cover appears to be a funeral for their old Fab Four image, with wax figures of their former selves actually in attendance.  They all embraced this new image so much that they donned their psychedelic silk band uniforms one more time at the end of 1967 for one of the promotional films for the single Hello Goodbye.

Sgt. Pepper's band is depicted as part of the citizenry of Pepperland in the animated film Yellow Submarine.  When the Beatles arrive to save the day, they are amazed at their resemblance to the band and adopt their uniforms to fight the Blue Meanies.  Or course, the song plays during this sequence and even continues straight into With a Little Help from My Friends.  Both songs appear on the 1999 album Yellow Submarine Songtrack.

John Lennon lashed out against the image in the song How Do You Sleep, an attack on McCartney from the 1971 album Imagine.  George Harrison joined in with a stinging lead guitar as John sang, "So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise..."  By 1973, however, he had mellowed, and he composed the song I'm the Greatest for Ringo's self-titled album.  As Ringo sings "Yes, my name is Billy Shears," the sound of a cheering crowd mimics that on the original Sgt. Pepper track.  John plays rhythm guitar and sings harmony for much of the song.  George plays lead guitar and keyboardist Billy Preston also plays on the track.  Sadly, John had not yet fully reconciled with Paul, so old Hamburg friend Klaus Voorman plays bass in his stead.  Still, this Pepper tribute is the closest thing we would get to a Beatles reunion on record at the time.   

Next up - the reprise.

Sexy Sadie

Sexy Sadie is yet another instance of Lennon lashing out at someone that he perceived as a failed father figure - in this case, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  The time spent in Rishikesh, India, in early 1968 studying Transcendental Meditation under the guidance of the Maharishi had been beneficial for the most part, but when a rumor reached John's ears that the guru had made unwanted advances to actress Mia Farrow, he was outraged and left the compound disillusioned and bitter.  He began writing the song as he and George were en route to the airport.  George claimed that it was he who convinced John not to use the name Maharishi but rather to change it to Sexy Sadie.

All four verses and both bridges were written when the Beatles gathered at George's house to record demos in late May.  John's double-tracked vocals do not match up much of the time as he seems to be learning how to find the proper way to breathe and sing the song, but the framework is all there on the demo.  And the tempo is close to that on the master recording we know from the "White Album."

The group first began work on the track on July 19th, 1968, playing it at a noticeably slower tempo.  The 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" contains take eleven, while Anthology 3 features take six.  There is little to differentiate these lethargic takes.  The instrumentation has John on acoustic and George on electric guitars, Ringo on drums and Paul playing keyboards.  They recorded twenty-one takes before calling it a night.

With the same instrumental lineup, they recorded twenty-three more takes on July 24th.  By the end of this session, John admitted that it just wasn't coming out the way he had hoped, and they set the song aside for a few weeks.  When they returned to the track on August 13th (starting at take 100 for some reason, though less than half that many had been recorded so far), they played it at the tempo John had used for the demo months earlier.  He now played electric guitar, Ringo remained on drums, Paul played a piano with heavy reverb applied, and George merely hit a tambourine.  Take 107 proved to be the keeper, so John overdubbed his lead vocal onto that and the song was once again left for another day.

All final overdubs were added on August 21st, including bass and organ from Paul, a lead guitar part by George, and the "wah wah wah wah" backing vocals sung by John, Paul and George.  At this point, the long fadeout contained an instrumental version of the bridge in addition to a few verses, but this bridge was eventually edited out.

The song sits in the middle of side three on the "White Album."  I must admit that it has never been one of my favorites, even before I learned the unpleasant story of its origin.  Among those who differ with me are two members of the Beatles.  Ringo mentions the character Sexy Sadie in his song Devil Woman from his great self-titled 1973 album.  And George also mentions Sexy Sadie in his 1974 song Simply Shady from the album Dark Horse.  

Savoy Truffle

By 1968, George Harrison and Eric Clapton were forging what would become a lifelong friendship.  George actually brought Eric in to a Beatles session in September of that year to play lead guitar on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.  He even felt confident enough in this friendship that he knew he could get away with writing a song playfully poking fun at one of his friend's biggest woes - Clapton's notorious sweet tooth.

Savoy Truffle is one of the selections listed on the box of Good News chocolates that Clapton loved so much.  For the lyrics, Harrison only had to invent a few imaginary confections to add to those he used from the actual box pictured above.  While warning a friend that he might have to have his teeth pulled out is an odd idea for a song, the resulting track is a delight.  In fact, it is one of the best rockers that Harrison ever wrote as a member of the Beatles.  

According to official documentation, only one take was required at Trident Studios on October 3rd, 1968, to achieve the basic track, with George on guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums.  (Sadly, Lennon did not contribute to the recording at any point.)  They must have rehearsed extensively beforehand, as their performances, especially that of Ringo, are impressive.  Still working at Trident, they returned to the track on October 5th to overdub another guitar part, as well as George's lead vocal and Paul's harmony vocals.

George Martin was back from an extended holiday to produce these Trident sessions.  There were a number of tracks recorded during his absence which now demanded his attention, so he handed off the task of writing an arrangement for Savoy Truffle to the person who had served as producer over the past several weeks, young Chris Thomas.  Thomas has admitted that he found it to be a bit of a chore, but he succeeded in coming up with a fantastic score for two baritone and four tenor saxophones.  

The saxes were overdubbed onto the track at Abbey Road Studios on October 11th.  Though Martin was producing the session, Harrison took charge, apologizing to the players for adding so much distortion to their sound before playing it back for them to hear.  One final session for the song took place on October 14th, with Chris Thomas playing organ and electric piano parts, and George adding a sizzling lead guitar solo that interplays brilliantly with the horn section.

Unfortunately, the song is practically buried on the middle of side four of the "White Album," making it an obscure track to most casual fans of the Beatles.  It has never appeared on any compilations, though I have always felt that it deserved to be on the 1976 collection Rock and Roll Music.        

Run for Your Life

If you listen to the album Rubber Soul, the final song on both the British and American versions is Run for Your Life.  It's a catchy uptempo tune with a country and western flavor to it, and it probably brings the album to a satisfying conclusion for most fans.  If you really listen to the lyrics, however, you will realize that it is the most disturbing song in the entire Beatles catalog.  This is not simply a song of jealousy like You Can't Do That - it is much darker.

Lennon copied the opening line from a song that Elvis had sung called Baby, Let's Play House.  "I'd rather see you dead, little girl/Than to be with another man" mirrored the violent and misogynistic attitudes that John had often manifested as a young man.  Using that opening line as a starting point, Lennon created an alarming portrait of a jealous individual who demands fidelity from his girlfriend.  Or else...  What makes this even more upsetting is that Lennon was beginning to grow and change in late 1965, as evidenced by mature and introspective songs such as Girl, In My Life and Nowhere Man.  Why he felt the need to write this particular song around the same time is a mystery.  In later years, he did make some disparaging comments about the song, although he always did so without actually addressing its implications.

It was the first song to be recorded for Rubber Soul, at a session on October 12th, 1965.  The basic track features John on acoustic guitar, George on electric guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo at his drum kit.  Only the fifth take made it all the way through to the end, and it became the master.  George then overdubbed a few more guitar parts, including the sliding part which gives the track its country feel, as well as the part with the recurring riff and the solo for the instrumental break.  Ringo added maracas and tambourine, John recorded his lead vocal, double-tracking it during each chorus, and Paul and George sang backing vocals, also double-tracked.

As stated above, Run for Your Life sits at the end of both versions of Rubber Soul.  You cannot find it anywhere else.  It has wisely never been included on any compilations.

Roll Over Beethoven

In my recent post Rock and Roll Music, I stated that the Beatles covered nine of Chuck Berry's songs on various BBC Radio programs.  What I did not mention was that all but one of them were sung by John Lennon.  The sole exception was Roll Over Beethoven.  And yet, when the Quarrymen added the song to their repertoire in 1957, it was John who stepped up to the microphone to handle the lead vocal.  It was not until 1961 that George Harrison took over that duty.  It was a natural fit for George, spotlighting not only his talent as the group's third singer, but his growing proficiency as a lead guitarist.

Like most of the other cover songs that the band had been performing over the years, it was put aside in early 1963, when their setlist became extremely short as manager Brian Epstein kept them jumping from stage to television to radio and back again at an astonishing pace.  These cover versions began to reemerge once they landed their own BBC Radio series Pop Go the Beatles, and they used the show to highlight both obscure oldies and early classics by those who had influenced them and their sound. 

As they began a series of sessions for their second album With the Beatles, they first concentrated on several of these cover versions.  On July 30th, 1963, George got his chance to record this classic for posterity.  Though the group was very familiar with the song, it still required five takes before all were satisfied on this date.  All four Beatles then added handclaps as George double-tracked his lead vocal, and he made two attempts at overdubbing his guitar solo.  Finally, an edit piece added a final guitar chord to the track.

The song opens side two of With the Beatles.  In the US, Capitol Records chose to keep it off of the album Meet the Beatles! along with most of the other cover songs from the British album.  But Capitol of Canada released it as the A-side of a single in December of 1963.  As Beatlemania rapidly took hold in America, copies of the Canadian single were imported and it actually reached number sixty-three on the Billboard chart.  

Fearing it had made a mistake, the US label wanted to rush release it as a follow-up single to I Want to Hold Your Hand, but producer George Martin persuaded Capitol to hold off due to the imminent release of Can't Buy Me Love.  Demand for the song must have been strong because, in the press release for Can't Buy Me Love, Capitol promised American fans that Roll Over Beethoven would appear on the band's next album.  Not only did it appear on The Beatles' Second Album, released on April 10th, 1964, but its title is boldly printed on the front cover (along with She Loves You), and it leads off side one.  I only recently learned much of this information from Dave Rybaczewski's excellent in depth look at the song's release history.  

Capitol then fell victim to overkill by releasing the two Canadian singles Roll Over Beethoven b/w Please Mister Postman and All My Loving b/w This Boy as an EP on May 11th.  The format was no longer popular in America, and all four songs were available on albums, so the EP Four by the Beatles only reached number ninety-two on the Billboard chart.  

The song now remained in the band's setlist throughout 1964, serving as George's vocal spotlight until it was replaced by Everybody's Trying to be My Baby.  They did play the song one last time on their return to Hamburg in 1966, as it had always been a favorite of the Kaiserkeller's bouncer Horst Fascher, though he was not in attendance at the concert.

In 1975, it was included in the collection Rock and Roll Music, with George Martin even taking advantage on this occasion to make a new and improved stereo mix of the song.  It next appeared on the Star Club tapes, recorded in December of 1962.  This is a fast-paced performance featuring a few variations such as all but the bass dropping out during the lines of the final verse, and Paul and John joining in vocally for the last refrain.  These variations are repeated on The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, recorded in August of 1964.  This is the fastest and most ferocious version of the song available, which is remarkable considering that the group could not hear a thing above the screams of the audience.

Want more?  Live at the BBC presents a performance from the radio program From Us to You broadcast in March of '64, while On Air - Live at the BBC has one from Pop Go the Beatles recorded in July of '63, only two days after the master recording for the album With the Beatles.  Lacking an audience, the tempo for these two performances is a bit slow.  Such is not the case for a broadcast for Swedish radio performed in front of a live audience in October of 1963.  Other than their pre-fame stints in Hamburg, this was the group's first official trip outside the UK, and the boys were clearly energized by the event.  You can hear it for yourself on Anthology 1.  

Roll Over Beethoven has the distinction of having one of the longest runs in the repertoire of the Beatles.  It was important enough to George that he included it in his brief tour of Japan in 1991, as can be heard on the album Live in Japan.  And he closed his show at the Royal Albert Hall in 1992 with this number, making it officially the last song that he ever played in concert.

Rocky Raccoon

Rocky Raccoon was conceived during some of the many hours of leisure in Rishikesh, India, in early 1968 while Paul, John and Donovan sat around with their acoustic guitars as pictured above.  Paul began playing the chord sequence and the three of them started making up some lyrics, though the title character was then named Rocky Sassoon. 

By the time that the Beatles gathered at George's house to record demos in May, Paul had most of the body of the song sketched out, including his scat melody for the instrumental break.  On this demo, George plays some nice, twangy guitar phrases that unfortunately did not make it onto the official recording.

August 15th was the one and only date necessary to capture this relatively simple song.  George did not even play an instrument on the backing track, sitting up in the control room instead, as producer George Martin sat at a piano in the studio.  The rest of the backing consisted of Paul on acoustic guitar, John on bass and Ringo on drums.  While most of the song was set, the spoken intro and the verse about the doctor were improvised with every take.

After take five, it was decided that Martin would overdub the piano later, and he moved to the control room.  Take eight is available on Anthology 3, allowing us to hear that John was now switching back and forth between his harmonica and the bass, and Paul was still experimenting with the introduction and the extra verse.  The deluxe 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" presents the same take and then keeps going as Paul continues improvising a spoken coda in the form of the intro.

The very next take, take nine, was the master, with Paul finally finding just the right words for the intro and the doctor's verse.  Martin then overdubbed the honky-tonk piano, using his old trick of recording it at half speed, then inserting his contribution at the correct tempo.  In addition to playing the harmonica for the final time as a member of the Beatles, John added a bit of accordion.  And George came down from the control room to join the proceedings for the brief backing vocals with John and Paul.

The song sits in the middle of side two on the double album, immediately following Blackbird and Piggies, the other two tracks with animals in their titles.  It is an enjoyable, but lightweight few minutes.  Its loose nature has probably kept it from appearing on any compilations other than as an outtake on the collections mentioned above.