With a Little Help from My Friends

Before the recent release of Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary, we really had very little firsthand insight into how the Beatles went about songwriting, relying instead on the somewhat faulty memories of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison in interviews conducted over the years.  Probably the one and only accurate account of a Lennon/McCartney writing session came from the group's official biography, which details what occurred when author Hunter Davies was allowed to watch the duo working on this composition on March 29th, 1967.

As described in his 1968 book The Beatles, Davies witnessed pretty much the same things that we did watching the new documentary - the endless pounding away of Paul on piano and John on acoustic guitar, the occasional germ of a line for the lyrics, the multiple suggestions until just the right combination of words is found, the sudden sidetracks to off-topic subjects or playing of favorite oldies, and the equally abrupt return to the task at hand.  After several hours of this, they called Ringo to inform him that his song was ready to record that evening, even though only the refrain and one verse (the second) was actually written at the time. 

The group did meet soon thereafter at Abbey Road Studios, where they must have really gotten down to business, finishing up the writing of the other verse and the bridge, and working out the arrangement.  By the time they were ready to record, it had been determined that With a Little Help from My Friends would immediately follow the album's title song and that Ringo would be the singer referred to in that earlier song as Billy Shears.  Thus, this recording began with the section linking the two songs.

With Ringo on drums, George on electric guitar, Paul on piano and John at the ready with a cowbell, they recorded ten takes of the basic track.  Producer George Martin joined them on Hammond organ, but only for the brief linking section.  Take one, which quickly breaks down, and take two can be heard on the 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  A good deal of rehearsal must have preceded the rolling of the tape, because the band's arrangement is completely set, even with no vocal to guide them.

With take ten chosen as the master, Ringo tried to slip away, but Paul and the others called him back to record his lead vocal part.  Though it took him several attempts to hit and hold the final high note, he delivered one of his best vocals, despite (or perhaps because of) his exhaustion.

Much of the next day, March 30th, was devoted to shooting the elaborate cover for the album.  The recording session thus began at a very late hour, but the boys were energized from the excitement of the day's shoot.  Paul and John (and possibly George) added and overdubbed the backing vocals, George played a few electric guitar flourishes and Ringo added tambourine.  It was only after everything else had been recorded that Paul sat down to add his bass part, which pretty much serves as the lead instrument for most of the song.

A brilliant final touch was added on April 6th.  The tapes of the 1964 and 1965 Hollywood Bowl shows were retrieved from the archives and a snippet of screaming fans was added to aid the transition from the Sgt. Pepper theme to the introduction of Billy Shears.

In the group's post-career compilations, With a Little Help from My Friends is always linked to the title song, as on the Blue Album from 1973 and the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack.  Actually, only a few opening lines of Ringo's song are heard in the animated film, and, curiously, everyone points to the character of John as Billy Shears is introduced.

The tune naturally became Ringo's signature song, even eclipsing Yellow Submarine.  He has included With a Little Help from My Friends many times over the years in his performances with the various line-ups of his All-Starr Band - groups that have been built based on the premise of the song.  Lennon helped cement the status of the song as Ringo's defining number by writing I'm the Greatest for the 1973 album Ringo.  Sadly, Paul was not asked to participate in the recording, but John, George, and Billy Preston, with old Hamburg friend Klaus Voorman on bass, back Mr. Starkey as he sings, "Yes, my name is Billy Shears/You know it has been for so many years..."  They even remembered to add some screaming fans to the track at this point.

Despite the fact that With a Little Help from My Friends is forever tied to Ringo, I feel compelled to mention Joe Cocker's searing vocal performance on his stunning version of the song from 1968.  When this was used as the theme song to the TV show The Wonder Years in the 1990's, there were many who had no idea that it was originally a tune from the Beatles.  

Wild Honey Pie

For me, this is the most disposable track on any release by the Beatles.  Fifty-three seconds we could easily live without.  The definition of a throwaway.  But, when it came time to work out the sequence of songs on the "White Album," Paul somehow convinced John and producer George Martin to stick it in between Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill in the middle of side one.

McCartney traces the origin of this simple little ditty to Rishikesh, India, where he says he played it for everyone as a singalong.  He recalls that Pattie Harrison was fond of it.

It somehow came to mind on August 20th, 1968, when Paul was working in Studio Two after putting the finishing touches on Mother Nature's Son.  He first recorded a solo piece on acoustic guitar called Etcetera which has never surfaced to this day.  He then decided that he wanted to make a multitrack recording of Wild Honey Pie.  This was done either inside or just outside of the control room.

He initially sang it while playing acoustic guitar, really bending and pulling on the strings.  For the first overdub, he utilized Ringo's drum kit which had been set up in the hallway earlier in the evening to create a natural echo effect for Mother Nature's Son.  He pounded on the bass drum while singing a harmony and playing another note-bending guitar part.  The next overdub featured another vocal harmony as he beat on the tom tom drum.  One more vocal harmony part completed the track.

The best assessment of it is from a reviewer who wrote, "No other Beatles were harmed in the making of this song."

Why Don't We Do It in the Road

John Lennon was once quoted as saying that this song by McCartney was "one of his best."  Was he kidding?  Or did he actually hold this simple 12-bar blues ditty, which is little more than a throwaway, in such high regard?  The truth is that John was definitely hurt by the fact that Paul did not ask him to play on the recording, choosing instead to slip off to an unoccupied studio while John and George were busy finishing up a few other "White Album" numbers.  And there is no question that this raw, raucous material would certainly appeal to John.

McCartney has stated that he wrote the tune in Rishikesh, India, after witnessing two monkeys in the jungle quickly monkeying around, then going on about their business as if nothing had happened.  Yet he did not play it when the group convened at George's house in late May of 1968 to create demos of songs to be considered for their upcoming album.  It was not until the final week of sessions for the album that he decided to knock it off on October 9th, asking engineer Ken Townsend to join him in the cavernous Studio One at EMI's Abbey Road Studios.

Townsend recalls that the studio was set up for an orchestra to record on the following day, so he set Paul up in a corner with his acoustic guitar.  Paul ran through five takes of the song, alternating between singing the verses quietly, then loudly, as you can hear on take four on Anthology 3.  The 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" presents take five, which was sung in much the same manner, even though it served as the master.  The echo of the vast Studio One is evident on both of these released takes.  Paul then slipped over to a piano, moving the one microphone with him, to perform an overdub onto take five.

On the following evening, October 10th, work continued on tracks by John and George, so Paul and Ken Townsend once again slipped away, this time to Studio Three and with Ringo in tow.  Paul overdubbed handclaps and his bass guitar part while Ringo added drums to the track.  Paul also rerecorded his lead vocal (although a few bits of the original vocal surface on the finished product), this time singing in a strident voice throughout.  The final overdub was electric guitar, which almost completely drowns out the acoustic guitar on the master.

The track sits near the end of side two on the double album The Beatles, just before McCartney's lovely ballad I Will.  I have always taken this to be a deliberate joke in the sequencing of the album.  What has disturbed me about this song from the very first time that I ever heard it way back in late '68 is that Paul is obviously imitating an old black blues singer, yet he somehow manages to get away with it...even now.   

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

FM rock radio really did not come into full flower until the early 70's, which unfortunately was after the Beatles had disbanded.  Songs by the Fab Four thus were not featured as much as those of more contemporary acts - they already fell into the category which would come to be known as classic rock.  Only a few recordings of the Beatles achieved prominence during this time, and one of them was not even by the prolific songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney, but rather by their junior partner George Harrison.  With its heavy sound, deep lyrics and wailing lead guitar, While My Guitar Gently Weeps became a staple on rock radio stations all across the USA for many years.

Its earliest incarnations, however, were anything but heavy.  George first committed the song to tape when the group gathered at his house in late May of 1968 to record demos of the many songs to be considered for their next album.  As can be heard on the 50th anniversary editions of the "White Album," the tempo is somewhat faster than the final version we all know.  And, while most of the lyrics are in place, some are not yet set, and there is an additional verse.  Like most of the demos from this day, the vocal and acoustic guitar parts are double-tracked. 

It was almost a full two months before George returned to the song - his first for what was becoming a sprawling double album - on July 25th.  Only Paul joined him in the studio as he taped another gentle acoustic version with some more variations to the lyrics and the extra verse.  The tempo is closer to the full band version, and Paul plays a simple organ part during the latter third of the song.  When this take was released on Anthology 3 in 1995, many hailed it as the best they had ever heard.  What we did not know at that time, was that the tape kept rolling and a second take was attempted.  Though not as good as take one, this was finally made available on the 50th anniversary deluxe edition a few years ago.

In his book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn reports that all four Beatles were actually present on this date, and that they did rehearse the song.  They did not return to the song for a few weeks, however, not until August 16th, to be exact.  They recorded fourteen takes with a lineup of George on guitar, Paul on bass, John on organ and Ringo on drums.  George seemed pleased as the session progressed, and the final take was marked as the best, but he knew that the recording was not yet complete.

Again, a few weeks passed.  In the interim, John, Paul and George had discovered the joys of eight-track recording at Trident Studios.  They now learned that Abbey Road had such equipment, but it was undergoing testing and not yet installed.  Without permission, they insisted that one of the new machines be brought into Studio Two for their immediate use on September 3rd.  George had the best take of While My Guitar Gently Weeps transferred from four-track to eight-track tape, then overdubbed his double-tracked lead vocals, plus an intricate backwards guitar part, in much the same way as he had done for Lennon's song I'm Only Sleeping in 1966.  He was hoping that this would give him the desired effect of a weeping guitar.

Two days later, on September 5th, the overdubs continued, but George finally decided that the track simply wasn't to his liking, so they began a remake starting at take seventeen.  A fresh lineup had George on acoustic guitar, Ringo on drums, Paul within reach of both a piano and an organ, and John on electric guitar.  John stood down, however, when guest Eric Clapton appeared in the studio.  George had asked his good friend to attend the session, partly to get the guitar sound that he wanted and partly to get the other Beatles to give more attention to his song, something he felt had not been happening.  It worked like a charm.

Sources over the years have often claimed that Clapton added his guitar part as an overdub on September 6th, but he is clearly evident on the September 5th tape, when George pushed everyone to record takes seventeen through forty-four.  Such a high number proved to be unnecessary, as take twenty-five became the master.  The 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" allows us to hear take twenty-seven, leaving no doubt that it is Eric, not John, playing variations on some of the same lead guitar phrases from the master.

What did occur on September 6th was the taping of several other overdubs onto take twenty-five.  These include tambourine from Ringo, more organ from George and a bit more guitar played by Paul.  The big surprise is that it is most likely John, not Paul, adding the very heavy bass line on this day.

For most fans, While My Guitar Gently Weeps quickly became the standout of the four Harrisongs on the double album The Beatles when it was released in November of 1968.  When the first post-career compilations of the group arrived in 1973, the song appeared on the Blue Album.  By this time, George had already played it live along with Eric and Ringo at the famous Concert for Bangladesh.  He also featured it on his tours of North America in 1974 and Japan in 1991.

Two outstanding performances of the song occurred after his death, one being at the Concert for George featuring Eric, Paul and Ringo in 2003.  But, for my money, and with all due respect for Eric Clapton's guitar work on every other version, the best guitar solo on the song was that played by Prince at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2004.  This jaw-dropping performance is all the more impressive if, as the Purple One claimed, he wasn't really very familiar with the beloved Beatles' track until just a few days before!