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.