Slow Down

With filming of A Hard Day's Night complete, the Beatles actually took a month-long vacation in May of 1964.  When they returned to work, the first order of business was to record enough tracks to fill out the non-soundtrack side of the upcoming album.  Yet, two of the tracks recorded on June 1st, their first day back in the studio, did not make it onto that album.  Instead, these were added to the previously recorded tracks Long Tall Sally and I Call Your Name for an EP.  One featured Ringo singing the Carl Perkins number Matchbox.  The other was an obscure song written and released in 1958 by the American rock and roller Larry Williams.

While Williams' popularity had been brief and he was already forgotten by most Americans, John Lennon was a big fan.  The Beatles added several numbers by Williams into their stage act, with John always taking the lead vocal.  Slow Down was certainly played before fans in clubs in both Hamburg and Liverpool.  Once the group started achieving fame, the song was dropped as the act got whittled down.  Like many of their old favorites, however, it was revived by the band for an appearance on BBC Radio.  Slow Down only made the cut for one episode of Pop Go the Beatles, recorded on July 16th, 1963 and broadcast on August 20th.  This can be heard on the collection Live at the BBC, giving us a good idea of how the group probably performed the number on stage except that, on this occasion, John forgets the third verse and merely repeats the first verse in its place.

Why they returned to this song almost a year later at an official recording session is anyone's guess.  Unlike some of the other oldies that they had preserved for posterity in a single take, this one took a few more attempts.  In fact, they began with three takes of just the backing track before hitting one that was good enough.  It was only at this point that George overdubbed his lead guitar part onto take three.  John finally added his raucous lead vocal, then double-tracked it, though there were quite a few differences in the lyrics and the timing of various phrases.  All of this took approximately half an hour.

On June 4th, as the Beatles began their first world tour, producer George Martin overdubbed a piano part onto the track, thereby adding an element the group never had when playing the song live.  It was then mixed for mono and quickly released on the EP Long Tall Sally in the UK on June 19th.  The stereo mix wasn't even made until a few days later on June 22nd.

In the US, Capitol Records first released the song on the album Something New on July 20th.  Then, although the American market was already flooded with singles featuring songs from the soundtrack of A Hard Day's Night, Slow Down was released as the B-side to Matchbox on August 24th.  Matchbox still managed to peak at number 17 on the Billboard chart, and Slow Down hit a respectable number 25.

Post career releases of Slow Down include the compilation album Rock and Roll Music in 1976, the UK version of Rarities in 1979, and Past Masters, Volume One in 1988.

She's Leaving Home

On more than one occasion, John Lennon took inspiration for a song from an item that he had seen in the newspaper or on television.  In 1967, Paul McCartney was similarly inspired by this news story of a teenager who had run away from home and was the subject of a search.  While he had to fill in many of the missing details in the lyrics of his composition, it turns out that his imagination was not too far from the truth.  The book A Hard Day's Write by Steve Turner covers the numerous coincidences between the actual story and the song in great depth, if you care to seek it out, not the least of which is the fact that the young lady in question had actually met the Beatles during a taping of Ready Steady Go a few years earlier.

The composition became a true collaboration when Lennon suggested adding the voices of the parents in the refrains.  Most of their lines were things that he claimed his Aunt Mimi used to say to him.  With the song written, and knowing that the usual instrumentation by the Beatles would not be right for it, Paul asked producer George Martin to write a score for the piece.  But Martin had other commitments and could not do it as quickly as Paul wanted, so he went to the fellow who had arranged Marianne Faithful's version of Yesterday - Mike Leander.

After meeting with Paul to get acquainted with the song, Leander went off on his own to work out an arrangement, without Paul looking over his shoulder.  What he came up with is an accompaniment that is a perfect complement to the original composition.  Whether consciously or not, Paul had written the tune in an old-fashioned English modal scale.  Leander's arrangement for an octet plus double bass and harp heightens the melodramatic qualities of both the melody and the story.  By setting a contemporary generation gap issue in such a musical style, Paul makes it fit in nicely in the throwback world of Sgt. Pepper's Band.

Though Martin was hurt that Paul had not waited for him to come up with his own arrangement, he swallowed his pride and sat at the podium to conduct the gathered musicians at the recording session on March 17th, 1967.  Six takes of the piece were taped, with take one being selected for the master.  The 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band include this take in the same way that the Anthology series allowed us to hear Eleanor Rigby - without vocals.  It is gorgeous to hear, with an added bonus being a measure that was edited out at the end of each refrain featuring a moaning cello playing a descending four-note phrase.  

Three days later, on the 20th, Paul and John recorded their vocals.  Paul's verses remained single-tracked, but his lines in the refrains and all of John's vocals were double-tracked.  And, with that, the track was complete.  The mono mix was made on that date, with the backing slightly sped up, making the vocals sound higher in pitch.  When the stereo mix was made a month later, this was not repeated, so most of us only know the track at a slower speed.  A decision was also made at the mixing stage to add an echo effect to the opening harp passage.  

The harp, by the way, was played by Sheila Bromberg, the first female musician hired to work on a track by the Beatles.

She's Leaving Home sits in the next to last position on side one of the Sgt. Pepper album, though an earlier running order actually had the song closing out that side of the record.  The song unexpectedly surfaced again in 1977 on the compilation album Love Songs - a curious choice, in my opinion. 

She's a Woman

Though not part of its official soundtrack, which film starring the Beatles features this song?  The answer's at the end of this entry.

Early on October 8th, 1964, Paul McCartney got the inspiration to begin writing a song called She's a Woman.  Before the day was over, the recording was complete.  Nothing demonstrates how remarkably efficient the Beatles already were at this stage of their career better than that.  

The session was scheduled for 2:30 that afternoon, and Paul showed up with the first verse and possibly a bit more.  He and John quickly finished the composition and work began on the basic track.  With only Ringo on drums, Paul on bass and John on guitar, they ran through seven takes of the tune, Paul also singing with every take.  John never had a completely clean take performing those jabs on his guitar on the upbeat, but take six proved to be the best.  Take seven, by the way, turned into an extended jam after the body of the song, going on for six minutes.

The overdubs applied to take six included John double-tracking his guitar jabs during the introduction, Paul double-tracking his vocals during the bridges, and adding a piano starting with the second verse.  Ringo also added a shaker called a chocalho, which is clearly heard in the final mix.  The guitar solo was finally added and double-tracked.  Some claim that Paul played this, as well, but it sounds to me like George using his new Gretsch Tennessean model due to the distinctive twang.

The song was mixed for both mono and stereo, which would indicate that it was intended for the album Beatles for Sale in the UK, but it wound up serving as the B-side of the single I Feel Fine.  In the US, Capitol Records also released it on the album Beatles '65.  Producer George Martin had added some reverb to the mix he sent to the American label, attempting to control the amount of tinkering that had been going on throughout 1964, but Capitol's Dave Dexter, Jr. added even more reverb, much to Martin's astonishment when he heard it.

The week before the single was released, the Beatles lip-synced to the song for the television programs Top of the Pops and Lucky Stars Special.  The first BBC Radio recording was for the show Top Gear, as can be heard on the 1994 compilation Live at the BBC.  This spirited performance has George playing the piano line from the recording on guitar in addition to his solo, a practice which he would continue in the group's stage act.

Of course, the song became a staple of that act.  They played it during the three-week run of Another Beatles Christmas Show in London from December 24th, 1964 - January 16th, 1965.  For their 1965 European, North American and British tours, it served as the second number in the act.

In a bootleg of the June 1965 Paris performance, Paul sings "my love don't buy me presents" instead of "give me presents," and he uncharacteristically mixes lines from different verses.  The 1977 album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl includes a rousing performance from August of 1965.  The song even carried over into the 1966 international and North American tours, remaining in the second slot.  In a performance in Japan from that year heard on Anthology 2, it follows a lackluster Rock and Roll Music.  Paul, ever the showman, picks up the slack with She's a Woman. 

In addition to those releases mentioned above, the song appears on Past Masters, Volume One, on the UK version of Rarities, and on a bonus EP issued as part of the Beatles' EP Collection (this special release features Paul's count-in of take six).              

And the answer to the trivia question at the top of this post is...Help!  As the boys play The Night Before on Salisbury Plain, actress Eleanor Bron's character Ahme uses a tape recorder playing She's a Woman to mislead the evil Clang into believing that his explosives are planted directly beneath the band.  Hilarity ensues. 

She Said She Said

There are very few tracks in the entire Beatles' catalog on which Paul McCartney does not appear.  I was surprised a few years ago to learn that this is one of them.  Stories for the actual reason behind this are vague, but it comes down to the fact that there was an argument about something and Paul walked out of the session before recording actually began.  John, George and Ringo carried on and laid down a blistering track in his absence.

The incident which inspired the composition is pretty well known.  In the middle of their North American tour in August of 1965, the Beatles took some time off at a house in Benedict Canyon off Mulholland Drive in L.A.  While John was tripping on acid, guest Peter Fonda told him about a near-death experience that he had had as a child.  Though John was irritated by this encounter, he used Fonda's phrase "I know what it's like to be dead" to begin writing She Said She Said.  The song remained unfinished, however, even when the group was scrambling for new material later in the year for the album Rubber Soul.

It was not until they were in need of one more song for the album Revolver that Lennon offered it up for a last-minute recording on June 21st, 1966.  And it was during the rehearsals on this date that Paul excused himself from the proceedings, leaving George to pick up a bass guitar.  The basic track thus consisted of George on bass, John on electric guitar and Ringo on drums.  The extensive rehearsal time paid off, as it only required three takes before they achieved the master of the tricky arrangement.

John overdubbed his lead vocal, then he and George added the harmony and backing vocals, including those that overlap during the fadeout of the song.  John also added a Hammond organ to the track, but the main focus was the additional layers of guitar work played by George.  What is perhaps most impressive is that Ringo apparently did not need to overdub any more drums onto his incredible performance - one of the best of his career. 

The song closes out side one on both the UK and US versions of the album Revolver, released in August of 1966.  It stands out more on the US version, as it is the first of only two Lennon compositions on the entire album, both of them side closers.  His other three contributions had already appeared in the US on the Capitol compilation "Yesterday"...and Today.

Sadly, this unsettling meditation on death, birth and an idyllic childhood with its changing time signatures, wailing guitars and crashing cymbals has never appeared on any post-career collections of the Beatles.