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.