Toppermost of the Poppermost - UK Number Ones : part 2 - The 1960s

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The Story So Far : The Beatles Sixth Album

Two years after the start of Beatlemania, the band were open to exploring new themes in their music through a combination of their tiring of playing to audiences full of screaming fans, their commercial power, a shared curiosity gained through literature and experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs, and their interest in the potential of the recording studio.

The band were forced to work to a tight deadline to ensure the album was completed in time for a pre-Christmas release. They were nevertheless in the unfamiliar position of being able to dedicate themselves solely to a recording project, without the interruption of any touring, filming or radio engagements. From 4 November, by which point only around half the required number of songs were near completion, the Beatles' sessions were routinely booked to finish at 3 am each day.

Most of the songs on the album were composed soon after the Beatles' return to London following their August 1965 North American tour which allowed the band to meet with Bob Dylan in New York and their longtime hero Elvis Presley in Los Angeles.

Before the recording sessions, McCartney was given a new bass guitar, a solid-body Rickenbacker 4001, which produced a fuller sound than his hollow-body Hofner. The Rickenbacker's design allowed for greater melodic precision, a characteristic that led McCartney to contribute more intricate bass lines. George Harrison used a Fender Stratocaster for the first time during the sessions. Other ear-catching sounds on the album would come from the Indian sitar, a fuzz bass, and a speeded up piano made to sound like a baroque harpsichord.

This was the final Beatle album that recording engineer Norman Smith worked on before he was promoted by EMI to record producer. The sessions were held over thirteen days and totalled 113 hours, with a further seventeen hours, spread over six days, allowed for mixing.

The album was one of the first projects that George Martin undertook after leaving EMI's staff and co-founding Associated Independent Recording (AIR Studios).

George Martin : "Rubber Soul was the first album to present a new, growing Beatles to the world. For the first time we began to think of albums as art on their own, as complete entities."



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On Tuesday 12 October 1965, "Run For Your Life" written by John Lennon was the first song to be recorded for the new album. It was based around a line from a 1955 Elvis Presley song, "Baby, Let's Play House", written the previous year by Arthur Gunter, which in turn was loosely based upon "I Want To Play House With You", a 1951 country and western hit for Eddy Arnold, written by Cy Coben.

'Baby, Let's Play House' contained the lines :
Now listen to me baby / Try to understand
I'd rather see you dead, little girl / Than to be with another man
   
John : "I never liked Run For Your Life, because it was a song I just knocked off. It was inspired from – this is a very vague connection – from Baby Let's Play House. There was a line on it – I used to like specific lines from songs – 'I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man' – so I wrote it around that but I didn't think it was that important."

Lennon later expressed his dislike of the song, saying he "always hated" Run For Your Life. In 1973 he described it as his "least favourite Beatles song", although he did claim that it was one of George Harrison's favourites.

Paul : "John was always on the run, running for his life. He was married; whereas none of my songs would have 'catch you with another man'. It was never a concern of mine, at all, because I had a girlfriend and I would go with other girls; it was a perfectly open relationship so I wasn't as worried about that as John was. A bit of a macho song."

'Run For Your Life' was recorded on 12 October 1965. After four incomplete attempts they recorded the backing track on the fifth take. Onto this they overdubbed tambourine, acoustic guitar, electric guitars and backing vocals. The session took four and a half hours from start to finish.

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"Norwegian Wood" was first recorded on 12 October 1965 - during the 7:00 - 11:30pm evening session.

John Lennon had the idea for the song while on a skiing holiday with his wife Cynthia, in St Moritz in the Swiss Alps. They were joined by George Martin, who injured himself early on in the holiday, and his future wife Judy Lockhart-Smith.

George Martin : "It was during this time that John was writing songs for Rubber Soul, and one of the songs he composed in the hotel bedroom, while we were all gathered around, nursing my broken foot, was a little ditty he would play to me on his acoustic guitar. The song was Norwegian Wood."

The song demonstrated the continuing influence of Bob Dylan upon The Beatles' music. Dylan himself responded with '4th Time Around' on 1966's Blonde On Blonde album, which shares a similar melody and lyrical theme. Norwegian Wood was about an extra-marital relationship Lennon was having at the time. His friend Pete Shotton later suggested that the woman in question was a journalist – possibly Maureen Cleave, a close friend to Lennon.

John : "Norwegian Wood is my song completely. It was about an affair I was having. I was very careful and paranoid because I didn't want my wife, Cyn, to know that there really was something going on outside of the household. I'd always had some kind of affairs going, so I was trying to be sophisticated in writing about an affair, but in such a smoke-screen way that you couldn't tell. But I can't remember any specific woman it had to do with."

Although begun in Switzerland, 'Norwegian Wood' was completed as a collaboration between Lennon and Paul McCartney. Talking to Rolling Stone in 1970, Lennon attributed the middle section to McCartney, although in a 1980 interview with Playboy he called it "my song completely".

Paul : "I came in and he had this first stanza, which was brilliant: 'I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.' That was all he had, no title, no nothing. I said, 'Oh yes, well, ha, we're there.' And it wrote itself. Once you've got the great idea, they do tend to write themselves, providing you know how to write songs. So I picked it up at the second verse, it's a story. It's him trying to pull a bird, it was about an affair. John told Playboy that he hadn't the faintest idea where the title came from but I do. Peter Asher had his room done out in wood, a lot of people were decorating their places in wood. Norwegian wood. It was pine really, cheap pine. But it's not as good a title, Cheap Pine, baby..."

"So she makes him sleep in the bath and then finally in the last verse I had this idea to set the Norwegian wood on fire as revenge, so we did it very tongue in cheek. She led him on, then said, 'You'd better sleep in the bath'. In our world the guy had to have some sort of revenge. It could have meant I lit a fire to keep myself warm, and wasn't the decor of her house wonderful? But it didn't, it meant I burned the fucking place down as an act of revenge, and then we left it there and went into the instrumental."

"Norwegian Wood" was a landmark recording for The Beatles - being one of the first Western pop songs to feature the sitar, an Indian instrument. A sitar was featured on the The Yardbirds "Heart Full Of Soul" recorded in February 1965, and in April The Kinks recorded "See My Friends", which featured a pseudo-Indian drone and an approximation of a sitar played by Dave Davies on a guitar. George Harrison had begun listening to Indian music after encountering a sitar during the filming of Help!, in a restaurant scene filmed at Twickenham Studios on 5 and 6 April 1965.

George : "I went and bought a sitar from a little shop at the top of Oxford Street called Indiacraft – it stocked little carvings, and incense. It was a real crummy-quality one, actually, but I bought it and mucked about with it a bit. Anyway, we were at the point where we'd recorded the Norwegian Wood backing track and it needed something. We would usually start looking through the cupboard to see if we could come up with something, a new sound, and I picked the sitar up – it was just lying around; I hadn't really figured out what to do with it. It was quite spontaneous: I found the notes that played the lick. It fitted and it worked."



Interestingly, 'Norwegian Wood' wasn't the first Beatles recording to feature a sitar. The North American version of the Help! album, issued in August 1965, featured an instrumental, called "Another Hard Day's Night" -  a medley of 'A Hard Day's Night', 'Can't Buy Me Love' and 'I Should Have Known Better' performed on a sitar, tablas, flute and finger cymbals.

The Beatles began recording 'Norwegian Wood' under the working title This Bird Has Flown, spending considerable time rehearsing and arranging the song before the tapes began rolling. The backing track contained Lennon's Gibson Jumbo acoustic guitar, Harrison's sitar, McCartney's bass, and Starr tapping sticks on the rim of a snare drum and his fingers on a crash cymbal. Two vocal overdubs were then added by Lennon, as was another by McCartney, a second sitar part by Harrison, plus maracas and tambourine.

John : "George had just got the sitar and I said, 'Could you play this piece?' We went through many different sort of versions of the song, it was never right and I was getting very angry about it, it wasn't coming out like I said. They said, 'Just do it how you want to do it,' and I said, 'I just want to do it like this.' They let me go and I did the guitar very loudly into the mike and sang it at the same time, and then George had the sitar and I asked him could he play the piece that I'd written, dee diddley dee diddley dee, that bit – and he was not sure whether he could play it yet because he hadn't done much on the sitar but he was willing to have a go, as is his wont, and he learnt the bit and dubbed it on after. I think we did it in sections."

The Beatles remade the song in three takes on 21 October. The first of these – numbered take two – featured a heavy sitar introduction and no bass. Take three was mainly acoustic with no sitar, and take four was the final version, which featured the sitar part overdubbed once the rhythm track was complete.

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"Drive My Car" was recorded on 13 October 1965. The session began at 7pm and ended at 12.15am – The Beatles' first to end after midnight. The first draft of the song by Paul McCartney featured a chorus based around the line, "You can buy me golden rings".

Paul : "The lyrics were disastrous and I knew it... This is one of the songs where John and I came nearest to having a dry session. The lyrics I brought in were something to do with golden rings, which is always fatal. 'Rings' is fatal anyway, 'rings' always rhymes with 'things' and I knew it was a bad idea. I came in and I said, 'These aren't good lyrics but it's a good tune.' The tune was nice, the tune was there, I'd done the melody. Well, we tried, and John couldn't think of anything, and we tried and eventually it was, 'Oh let's leave it, let's get off this one.' 'No, no. We can do it, we can do it.' So we had a break, maybe had a cigarette or a cup of tea, then we came back to it, and somehow it became 'drive my car' instead of 'gold-en rings', and then it was wonderful because this nice tongue-in-cheek idea came and suddenly there was a girl there, the heroine of the story, and the story developed and had a little sting in the tail like Norwegian Wood had, which was 'I actually haven't got a car, but when I get one you'll be a terrific chauffeur.'"

The song's arrangement was suggested by George Harrison, who had been listening to Otis Redding's 'Respect', then a minor hit. Harrison suggested that Drive My Car's bass and guitar parts should play similar lines in an approximation of Redding's bass-heavy sound, resulting in one of The Beatles' most effective performances of 1965.

George : "I helped out such a lot in all the arrangements. There were a lot of tracks though where I played bass. Paul played lead guitar on Taxman, and he played guitar – a good part – on Drive My Car. We laid the track because what Paul would do, if he's written a song, he'd learn all the parts for Paul and then come in the studio and say, 'Do this.' He'd never give you the opportunity to come out with something. But on Drive My Car I just played the line, which is really like a lick off Respect, you know, the Otis Redding version – and I played that line on guitar and Paul laid that with me on bass. We laid the track down like that. We played the lead part later on top of it."

Recorded in four attempts, the last of which was the only complete take. The rhythm track featured John Lennon on tambourine, Paul McCartney on bass guitar, George Harrison on Fender Stratocaster, and Ringo Starr on drums. A number of overdubs were subsequently added. The first was of lead vocals by Lennon and McCartney and backing vocals by Harrison. The third track contained Lennon's double tracked vocals for the "And maybe I'll love you" and "beep beep, beep beep, yeah" lines. Track four contained the finishing touches: McCartney's lead guitar during the intro, solo and coda, cowbell by Starr, and Lennon's piano part during the choruses.

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On Saturday 16 October 1965, The Beatles worked on two songs. The first, "Day Tripper", was written to order when Lennon and McCartney realised they needed a new single at the tail end of 1965.

John : "Day Tripper was written under complete pressure, based on an old folk song I wrote about a month previous. It was very hard going, that, and it sounds it. It wasn't a serious message song. It was a drug song. In a way, it was a day tripper – I just liked the word."

Two separate sessions were booked at Studio Two. The first took place from 2.30-7pm, and resulted in the recording of three takes of 'Day Tripper'. Only the last of these was a complete version. The performance was recorded onto two tracks of the four-track tape. The first had bass guitar and drums, and the second contained John Lennon and George Harrison's electric guitars. Although these parts were recorded onto two separate tracks, they were performed simultaneously in the studio.

The second session began at 7pm and concluded at midnight. John Lennon and Paul McCartney overdubbed vocals onto 'Day Tripper', with Harrison joining them during the verses. The final track of the tape was filled with tambourine by Ringo Starr, and more guitar parts by Lennon and Harrison.

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With 'Day Tripper' complete, The Beatles began work on Harrison's "If I Needed Someone". The first of two compositions by George Harrison for the new album, it was inspired by Roger McGuinn's guitar work for The Byrds.

George : "If I Needed Someone is like a million other songs written around a D chord. If you move your finger about you get various little melodies. That guitar line, or variations on it, is found in many a song, and it amazes me that people still find new permutations of the same notes."



In 1965 The Beatles' publicist Derek Taylor started his own public relations company, moving to America and representing, among others, The Byrds. George Harrison asked Taylor to pass a message on to McGuinn to acknowledge the debt If I Needed Someone owed to The Byrds' 'She Don't Care About Time' and 'The Bells Of Rhymney'.

The Beatles recorded 'If I Needed Someone' over two sessions. In the first of these, on 16 October 1965, they recorded just the basic rhythm track, nailing it in a single take. Two days later they completed the song with a number of overdubs. These included Harrison's lead vocals, harmonies from Lennon and McCartney, and tambourine by Starr.

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The next song to be recorded, "In My Life", was written mostly by John Lennon, and started out as a nostalgic set of memories of Liverpool.

John : "There was a period when I thought I didn't write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock 'n' roll. But of course, when I think of some of my own songs – In My Life, or some of the early stuff, This Boy – I was writing melody with the best of them."

Lennon regarded 'In My Life' particularly highly, citing it – along with 'Strawberry Fields Forever', 'I Am The Walrus' and 'Help!' – as among his best.

John : "For In My Life, I had a complete set of lyrics after struggling with a journalistic vision of a trip from home to downtown on a bus naming every sight. It became In My Life, which is a remembrance of friends and lovers of the past. Paul helped with the middle eight musically. But all lyrics written, signed, sealed, and delivered. And it was, I think, my first real major piece of work. Up till then it had all been sort of glib and throwaway. And that was the first time I consciously put my literary part of myself into the lyric. Inspired by Kenneth Alsopf [sic], the British journalist, and Bob Dylan."

He first had the idea for the song in 1964, when journalist Kenneth Allsop asked Lennon why his songs were less revealing and challenging than his books. Musing on this, Lennon decided to take a nostalgic look at specific places and memories from his Liverpool past.

John : "I think In My Life was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life, and it was sparked by a remark a journalist and writer in England made after In His Own Write came out. I think In My Life was after In His Own Write... But he said to me, 'Why don't you put some of the way you write in the book, as it were, in the songs? Or why don't you put something about your childhood into the songs?' Which came out later as Penny Lane from Paul – although it was actually me who lived in Penny Lane – and Strawberry Fields."

Lennon described how the song's early draft was significantly different from the final version.

John : "In My Life started out as a bus journey from my house on 250 [sic] Menlove Avenue to town, mentioning every place I could remember. And it was ridiculous. This is before even Penny Lane was written and I had Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, Tram Sheds – Tram Sheds are the depot just outside of Penny Lane – and it was the most boring sort of 'What I Did On My Holidays Bus Trip' song and it wasn't working at all. I cannot do this! I cannot do this!  But then I laid back and these lyrics started coming to me about the places I remember. Now Paul helped write the middle-eight melody. The whole lyrics were already written before Paul had even heard it. In In My Life, his contribution melodically was the harmony and the middle eight itself."

The original draft mentioned a list of Liverpool landmarks, including Penny Lane, the Abbey pub in Childwall, the Old Dutch café, and the Dockers' Umbrella – the colloquial name for the Liverpool Overhead Railway, now demolished.

 

John : "I used to write upstairs where I had about ten Brunell tape recorders all linked up, I still have them. I'd mastered them over the period of a year or two – I could never make a rock 'n' roll record but I could make some far out stuff on it. I wrote it upstairs, that was one where I wrote the lyrics first and then sang it. That was usually the case with things like In My Life and [Across The] Universe and some of the ones that stand out a bit . . . I think on Norwegian Wood and In My Life Paul helped with the middle eight, to give credit where it's due."

McCartney's recollection of the song is somewhat different. Although he and Lennon said much over the years about the backgrounds to their songs, only when discussing 'In My Life' and 'Eleanor Rigby' did their memories substantially differ.

Paul : "I arrived at John's house for a writing session and he had the very nice opening stanzas of the song. As many of our songs were, it was the first pangs of nostalgia for Liverpool . . . As I recall, he didn't have a tune to it, and my recollection, I think, is at variance with John's. I said, 'Well, you haven't got a tune, let me just go and work on it.' And I went down to the half-landing, where John had a Mellotron, and I sat there and put together a tune based in my mind on Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

"I recall writing the whole melody. And it actually does sound very like me, if you analyse it. I was obviously working to lyrics. The melody's structure is very me. So my recollection is saying to John, 'Just go and have a cup of tea or something. Let me be with this for ten minutes on my own and I'll do it' . . . I tried to keep it melodic but a bit bluesy, with the minors and little harmonies, and then my recollection is going back up into the room and saying, 'Got it, great! Good tune, I think. What d'you think?' John said, 'Nice,' and we continued working with it from then, using that melody and filling out the rest of the verses.

"So it was John's original inspiration, I think my melody, I think my guitar riff. I don't want to be categorical about this, but that's my recollection... I find it very gratifying that out of everything we wrote, we only appear to disagree over two songs."

The Beatles recorded the rhythm track of 'In My Life' on 18 October 1965. This they did in three takes, after a period of rehearsal. The instrumental break was left without a solo, as the group was undecided as to how it should sound. This dilemma was solved on 22 October by George Martin . . .

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"We Can Work It Out" was recorded over two days in sessions amounting to 11 hours, it was The Beatles' longest time spent completing a song to date.

The basic track was laid down on 20 October 1965, while the group were recording Rubber Soul. In a four-hour session The Beatles rehearsed and then recorded just two takes of the rhythm track. They then spent nearly five further hours overdubbing instruments, including Lennon's distinctive harmonium in the verses. The vocals took up much of the evening session, and were completed during a two-hour session on 29 October.

Paul : "The other thing that arrived on the session was we found an old harmonium hidden away in the studio, and said, 'Oh, this'd be a nice colour on it.' We put the chords on with the harmonium as a wash, just a basic held chord, what you would call a pad these days."

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The Beatles had attempted to record "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" on 12 October 1965, but were dissatisfied with the results. On Thursday 21 October they completed the song.

The rhythm parts were recorded onto two tracks of the four-track tape: Lennon's Gibson Jumbo acoustic guitar and Ringo Starr's bass drum was on the first, while Paul McCartney's bass and George Harrison's 12-string acoustic were on the second. The sitar melody, played by Harrison, was recorded onto track three. The song was completed with the addition of Lennon's lead vocals, McCartney's harmonies, and Starr's tambourine part. The Beatles continued recording in the day's second session, without breaking for an evening meal.

"Nowhere Man" was born of John Lennon's feelings of isolation in his Weybridge home, where he spent hours in solitary contemplation away from the mayhem of Beatlemania.

John : "I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good and I finally gave up and lay down. Then Nowhere Man came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down."

In March 1966, the Evening Standard newspaper published an article by journalist Maureen Cleave about John Lennon's home life. While the piece became notorious for Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" statement, it revealed much more about the off-duty life of the Lennons.



Maureen Cleave : He can sleep almost indefinitely, is probably the laziest person in England. 'Physically lazy,' he said. 'I don't mind writing or reading or watching or speaking, but sex is the only physical thing I can be bothered with any more.'

John : "I can get up and start doing nothing straight away. I just sit on the step and look into space and think until it's time to go to bed . . . If I am on my own for three days, doing nothing, I almost leave myself completely. I'm just not here. Cyn doesn't realise it. I'm up there watching myself, or I'm at the back of my head. I can see my hands and realise they're moving, but it's a robot who's doing it."

Nowhere Man was written by Lennon during the late stages of Rubber Soul, when he and McCartney were struggling to come up with enough songs for the album.

John : "I was just sitting, trying to think of a song, and I thought of myself sitting there, doing nothing and going nowhere. Once I'd thought of that, it was easy. It all came out. No, I remember now, I'd actually stopped trying to think of something. Nothing would come. I was cheesed off and went for a lie down, having given up. Then I thought of myself as Nowhere Man – sitting in his nowhere land."

When McCartney arrived the next day to begin a songwriting session, he found Lennon asleep in his conservatory.

Paul : "When I came out to write with him the next day, he was kipping on the couch, very bleary-eyed. It was really an anti-John song. He told me later, he didn't tell me then, he said he'd written it about himself, feeling like he wasn't going anywhere. I think it was actually about the state of his marriage. It was in a period where he was a bit dissatisfied with what was going on; however, it led to a very good song. He treated it as a third-person song, but he was clever enough to say, 'Isn't he a bit like you and me?' – 'Me' being the final word."

The Beatles recorded 'Nowhere Man' over two days. The first of these was 21 October 1965, when they taped two takes of the song after a period of rehearsal. The first of these takes was a false start; the second was a rhythm track played on just electric guitars, with a three-part vocal harmony introduction. The next day the group began a remake, completing the rhythm track in three attempts. They then overdubbed vocals onto the second of these, including John Lennon's double tracked lead vocals.

Paul : "We were always forcing [the Abbey Road staff] into things they didn't want to do. Nowhere Man was one. I remember we wanted very treble-y guitars, which they are, they're among the most treble-y guitars I've ever heard on record. The engineer said, 'All right, I'll put full treble on it,' and we said, 'That's not enough', and he said, 'But that's all I've got, I've only got one pot and that's it!' And we replied, 'Well, put that through another lot of faders and put full treble up on that. And if that's not enough we'll go through another lot of faders' . . . Anyway you'd then find, 'Oh, it worked!' And they were secretly glad because they had been the engineer who'd put three times the allowed value of treble on a song. I think they were quietly proud of all those things."

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On Friday 22 October, George Martin recorded the baroque-style piano overdub onto In My Life.



George Martin : "In My Life is one of my favourite songs because it is so much John. A super track and such a simple song. There's a bit where John couldn't decide what to do in the middle and, while they were having their tea break, I put down a baroque piano solo which John didn't hear until he came back. What I wanted was too intricate for me to do live, so I did it with a half-speed piano, then sped it up, and he liked it."

Martin initially tried a Hammond organ solo, but was unhappy with the results. He then attempted to play a part on a piano, but had difficulty playing the complex solo in time. Eventually he instructed engineer Stuart Eltham to slow down the tape to half speed, and played the solo an octave lower, so upon playback it gave the desired effect.

George Martin : "I did it with what I call a 'wound up' piano, which was at double speed – partly because you get a harpsichord sound by shortening the attack of everything, but also because I couldn't play it at real speed anyway. So I played it on piano at exactly half normal speed, and down an octave. When you bring the tape back to normal speed again, it sounds pretty brilliant. It's a means of tricking everybody into thinking you can do something really well."

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"I'm Looking Through You" was inspired by a disagreement between Paul McCartney and the lovely Jane Asher, and was written at her family home in Wimpole Street, London, where McCartney had his own room in which to compose and sleep.

Paul : "I wrote quite a lot of stuff up in that room actually. I'm Looking Through You I seem to remember after an argument with Jane. There were a few of those moments."

A number of McCartney's songs of this time, including We Can Work It Out and You Won't See Me, were based upon his relationship with Asher.

Paul : "As is one's wont in relationships, you will from time to time argue or not see eye to eye on things, and a couple of the songs around this period were that kind of thing. This one I remember particularly as me being disillusioned over her commitment. She went down to the Bristol Old Vic quite a lot around this time. Suffice to say that this one was probably related to that romantic episode and I was seeing through her façade. And realising that it wasn't quite all that it seemed. I would write it out in a song and then I've got rid of the emotion. I don't hold grudges so that gets rid of that little bit of emotional baggage. I remember specifically this one being about that, getting rid of some emotional baggage. 'I'm looking through you, and you're not there!'"

In his 1968 authorised biography of The Beatles, Hunter Davies recorded McCartney's thoughts while he and Asher were still together. McCartney alluded to the fact that he found it hard to commit to one person, though acknowledged that his harsh words in song were inspired by hurt.

Paul : "My whole existence for so long centred around a bachelor life. I didn't treat women as most people do. I've always had a lot around, even when I've had a steady girl. My life generally has always been very lax, and not normal. I knew it was selfish. It caused a few rows. Jane left me once and went off to Bristol to act. I said OK then, leave, I'll find someone else. It was shattering to be without her."

The Beatles first attempted to record "I'm Looking Through You" on Sunday 24 October 1965. They spent nine hours perfecting the song; onto the rhythm track, recorded in a single take, they overdubbed lead and backing vocals, handclaps, maracas, organ and electric guitar. Aside from different instrumentation, it lacked the 'Why, tell me why' section, was slower than the final version, and contained two bluesy instrumental passages.

The group remade the song on 6 November, recording a faster version in two takes. However, it wasn't until 10 November that they hit upon the final arrangement used on Rubber Soul. The Beatles recorded the rhythm track in one take, and later overdubbed vocals and an organ, the latter played by Ringo Starr. Ringo also created a percussive sound by tapping a box of matches with his fingers. The song was completed the following day with vocals and handclaps.

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"Michelle", one of Rubber Soul's most memorable songs, was one of McCartney's oldest, having been started in around 1959. He composed the tune on his first ever guitar, a Zenith, which he still owns.



Paul : "It was OK as a first guitar. Being left handed, I would play it upside down. Everyone else had right-handed guitars, but I learnt some chords my way up: A, D and E – which was all you needed in those days. I started writing songs, because now I could play and sing at the same time. All my first songs were written on the Zenith; songs like Michelle and I Saw Her Standing There. It was on this guitar that I learnt Twenty Flight Rock, the song that later got me into the group The Quarrymen."

'Michelle' was one of McCartney's first attempts to play with a fingerpicked guitar style, signalling a desire to experiment beyond the boundaries of rock 'n' roll.

Paul : "Michelle was a tune that I'd written in Chet Atkins' finger-pickin' style. There is a song he did called Trambone with a repetitive top line, and he played a bass line whilst playing a melody. This was an innovation for us; even though classical guitarists had played it, no rock 'n' roll guitarists had... Based on Atkins' Trambone, I wanted to write something with a melody and a bass line on it, so I did. I just had it as an instrumental in C."

The French element, meanwhile, was inspired by parties held by Austin Mitchell – one of John Lennon's tutors at the Liverpool College of Art, and potentially the inspiration behind the song's title.

Paul : "He used to throw some pretty good all-night parties. You could maybe pull girls there, which was the main aim of every second; you could get drinks, which was another aim; and you could generally put yourself about a bit. I remember sitting around there, and my recollection is of a black turtleneck sweater and sitting very enigmatically in the corner, playing this rather French tune. I used to pretend I could speak French, because everyone wanted to be like Sacha Distel.

"Years later, John said, 'D'you remember that French thing you used to do at Mitchell's parties?' I said yes. He said, 'Well, that's a good tune. You should do something with that.' We were always looking for tunes, because we were making lots of albums by then and every album you did needed fourteen songs, and then there were singles in between, so you needed a lot of material."

Ivan Vaughan, who introduced Lennon to McCartney in 1957, was still a friend to the group. Vaughan's wife Jan taught French, and when the pair visited McCartney at Jane Asher's family home in 1965, he asked for some help with the lyrics.

Paul : "I said, 'I like the name Michelle. Can you think of anything that rhymes with Michelle, in French?' And she said, 'Ma belle.' I said, 'What's that mean?' 'My beauty.' I said, 'That's good, a love song, great.' We just started talking, and I said, 'Well, those words go together well, what's French for that? Go together well.' 'Sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble.' I said, 'All right, that would fit.' And she told me a bit how to pronounce it, so that was it. I got that off Jan, and years later I sent her a cheque around. I thought I better had because she's virtually a co-writer on that. From there I just pieced together the verses."

Jan Vaughan wasn't the only contributor, though. John Lennon wrote the middle section, inspired by a 1965 Nina Simone hit.

John : "He and I were staying somewhere and he walked in and hummed the first few bars. with the words, and he says, 'Where do I go from here?' I had been listening to Nina Simone – I think it was I Put A Spell On You. There was a line in it that went: 'I love you, I love you.' That's what made me think of the middle eight for Michelle: 'I love you, I love you, I l-o-ove you.' So my contribution to Paul's songs was always to add a little bluesy edge to them. Otherwise, y'know, Michelle is a straight ballad, right? He provided a lightness, and optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes."



On Wednesday, 3 November 1965, The Beatles recorded the rhythm track for 'Michelle' in a single take, using all four available tracks on the Abbey Road tape machines. It has been suggested that McCartney may have performed most of the instruments alone thereafter.

Paul : "Because it was only on four little tracks, it was very easy to mix. There were no decisions to make, we'd made them all in the writing and in the recording. We would mix them, and it would take half an hour, maybe. Then it would go up on a shelf, in a quarter-inch tape box. And that was it. That was the only thing we ever did to Michelle."

The backing track contained McCartney's Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar, George Harrison playing John Lennon's Framus 12-string acoustic guitar, and Ringo Starr's drumming. Each of the guitars on the rhythm track was capoed at the fifth fret. The recording was then given a reduction mix to free up extra tracks for overdubs.

In the evening Lennon filled track two with his Ramírez acoustic guitar, on which he played the descending notes in the song's introduction and transitions, plus a bass guitar part by McCartney, and an electric guitar solo played by Harrison.

The Beatles were under pressure to complete the Rubber Soul album in time for the Christmas market. This necessitated two notable tactics: late-night recording sessions and the revival of old compositions. The group had recorded 'Michelle', one of Paul McCartney's early songs, and the following day one of John Lennon's oldies was revived . . .

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"What Goes On" was one of John Lennon's early songs, written before the group had a recording contract and never performed live.

John : "That was an early Lennon written before The Beatles when we were The Quarrymen, or something like that. And resurrected with a middle eight thrown in, probably with Paul's help, to give Ringo a song and also to use the bits, because I never like to waste anything."

Ringo : "I used to wish that I could write songs like the others – and I've tried, but I just can't. I can get the words all right, but whenever I think of a tune and sing it to the others they always say, 'Yeah, it sounds like such-a-thing,' and when they point it out I see what they mean. But I did get a part credit as a composer on one – it was called What Goes On."

The Beatles played the song to George Martin on 5 March 1963, although it remained unrecorded at that time. Two years later it was resurrected as Starr's vocal spot on the group's sixth album. A demo was reportedly recorded by McCartney.

Neil Aspinall : "When Paul wanted to show Ringo how What Goes On sounded he made up a multi-track tape. Onto this went Paul singing, Paul playing lead guitar, Paul playing bass and Paul playing drums. Then Ringo listened to the finished tape and added his own ideas before the recording session."

The Beatles eventually recorded 'What Goes On' in a single take on 4 November 1965. The session began at 11pm: it was an unusually late start for the group, and necessitated by the looming deadline for the album. The song, released as by 'Lennon-McCartney-Starkey', marked the first occurrence of a writing credit for the group's drummer. When asked about his contribution during a 1966 press conference, Starr joked that he had written "About five words, and I haven't done a thing since!"

The session didn't end there, however. The Beatles decided to record "12-Bar Original", an instrumental blues tune, seemingly inspired by Booker T and the MGs' Green Onions.

Take one broke down, but take two was complete and lasted 6'42". George Martin joined the group on harmonium, and the song was recorded without overdubs. McCartney played bass, Starr was on drums, Harrison played a Fender Stratocaster with a tone pedal, and Lennon played an Epiphone Casino. However, the group seemed unable to instill much panache in the recording.

Despite the trouble they had completing the album, The Beatles wisely chose not to include the instrumental in the final running order.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Think For Yourself", was the second George Harrison song recorded for the album.

George : "Think For Yourself must be written about somebody from the sound of it – but all this time later I don't quite recall who inspired that tune. Probably the government."

The song, under the working title "Won't Be There With You", was recorded in a single session on 8 November 1965. The Beatles recorded the basic track – rhythm guitars, bass and drums – in a single take. They then overdubbed lead guitar, more bass (this time fed through a fuzz box), tambourine, maracas and organ, along with two three-part vocal tracks.

George : "Paul used a fuzz box on the bass on Think For Yourself. When Phil Spector was making Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, the engineer who's set up the track overloaded the microphone on the guitar player and it became very distorted. Phil Spector said, 'Leave it like that, it's great'. Some years later everyone started to try to copy that sound and so they invented the fuzz box. We had one and tried the bass through it and it sounded really good."



Prior to the recording, George Martin taped the group rehearsing the song. The Beatles were aware of this, deliberately playing up to the microphones. The recording went mostly unused, although a six-second segment of the group practising their harmonies found its way into the Yellow Submarine film, when The Beatles were called upon to revive the mayor of Pepperland.

Late into the night, once work on the song had concluded, The Beatles recorded The Beatles' Third Christmas Record. Three takes, all largely ad-libbed, were recorded, and edited for release by George Martin the following day.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"The Word" found The Beatles singing for the first time about love as a notional concept. It was a turning point in their writing, marking a transition into the psychedelic "Flower Power" Hippie era.

John : "It sort of dawned on me that love was the answer, when I was younger, on the Rubber Soul album. My first expression of it was a song called The Word. The word is 'love', in the good and the bad books that I have read, whatever, wherever, the word is 'love'. It seems like the underlying theme to the universe."

The lyrics displayed an almost religious fervour, with Lennon and McCartney acting as evangelists for their new revelation about love, and demonstrated their increasing awareness of their power as spokesmen and figureheads. The song was a collaboration between Lennon and McCartney, and began as an attempt to write a song based around a single note.

Paul : "We smoked a bit of pot, then we wrote out a multicoloured lyric sheet, the first time we'd ever done that. We normally didn't smoke when we were working. It got in the way of songwriting because it would just cloud your mind up – 'Oh, shit, what are we doing?' It's better to be straight. But we did this multicoloured thing."

John : "The Word was written together, but it's mainly mine. You read the words, it's all about – gettin' smart. It's the marijuana period. It's love, it's the love-and-peace thing. The word is 'love', right?"

'The Word' was recorded in a session beginning at 9pm on 10 November 1965, finishing at 4am the following morning. It took just three takes to perfect the rhythm track. Onto this were overdubbed harmony vocals, piano by McCartney, a harmonium part performed by George Martin, and maracas played by Starr. The song was completed with the addition of a bass guitar part and falsetto vocals, both by McCartney, Harrison's lead guitar, and more maracas.

The remake of McCartney's "I'm Looking Through You" was also recorded during this session, which concluded at 4am. The song had been attempted during sessions on 24 October and 6 November, but neither had yielded satisfactory versions. This final remake was laid down in a single attempt, numbered take four. The rhythm track contained bass guitar, drums, Lennon's Gibson Jumbo acoustic guitar, and Harrison on tambourine. Starr then added some Hammond organ, and Harrison performed a distorted Epiphone Casino guitar part.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On Thursday 11 November 1965, The Beatles took part in a 13-hour session to finish Rubber Soul, beginning at 6pm and ending at 7am the following morning. Two songs were recorded during the wee small hours . . .

The first, "You Won't See Me", was written by Paul McCartney about his then-faltering relationship with the lovely Jane Asher, at her parents' house in London's Wimpole Street, while Asher had temporarily moved away from McCartney to perform in an adaptation of Great Expectations at the Old Vic theatre in Bristol. The song recounts McCartney's frustration and vulnerability at being unable to contact her. At an astonishing bum-numbing 3 minutes 23 seconds, the song was The Beatles' longest released recording to date.

Paul : "This was written around two little notes, a very slim phrase, a two-note progression that I had very high on the first two strings of the guitar: the E and the B strings. I had it high up on the high E position, and I just let the note on the B string descend a semitone at a time, and kept the top note the same, and against that I was playing a descending chromatic scale. Then I wrote the tune for You Won't See Me against it.

"To me it was very Motown-flavoured. It's got a James Jamerson feel. He was the Motown bass player, he was fabulous, the guy who did all those great melodic bass lines. It was him, me and Brian Wilson who were doing melodic bass lines at that time, all from completely different angles, LA, Detroit and London, all picking up on what each other did."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Girl", the second song recorded during the overnight 11-12 November session, was mostly written by John Lennon.

John : "This was about a dream girl. When Paul and I wrote lyrics in the old days we used to laugh about it like the Tin Pan Alley people would. And it was only later on that we tried to match the lyrics to the tune. I like this one. It was one of my best."



Of the 'Rubber Soul' songs, musically it is most closely related to McCartney's 'Michelle', with its acoustic instrumentation, minor chord changes and skillful vocal harmonies. Part of the music was actually written by McCartney while on a Greek holiday in September 1963.

Paul : "In the song Girl that John wrote, there's a Zorba-like thing at the end that I wrote which came from that holiday. I was very impressed with another culture's approach because it was slightly different from what we did. We just did it on acoustic guitars instead of bouzoukis."

Lyrically, meanwhile, it presented a femme fatale figure, whom the song's protagonist finds himself helplessly drawn towards.

John : "Girl is real. There is no such thing as the girl; she was a dream, but the words are all right. It wasn't just a song, and it was about that girl – that turned out to be Yoko, in the end – the one that a lot of us were looking for."

The sharp intake of breath during the chorus was either an approximation of lascivious heavy breathing, or a none-too-subtle reference to marijuana smoking. Much of Rubber Soul was recorded during The Beatles' heaviest pot-smoking phase, and by late 1965 they had become adept at inserting drug references into their songs.

Paul : "My main memory is that John wanted to hear the breathing, wanted it to be very intimate, so George Martin put a special compressor on the voice, then John dubbed it."

The group's fondness for innuendo extended to the middle section's backing vocals, in which Lennon and McCartney repeatedly sang the word 'tit'.

Paul : "It was always amusing to see if we could get a naughty word on the record: 'fish and finger pie', 'prick teaser', 'tit tit tit tit'. The Beach Boys had a song out where they'd done 'la la la la' and we loved the innocence of that and wanted to copy it, but not use the same phrase. So we were looking around for another phrase, so it was 'dit dit dit dit', which we decided to change in our waggishness to 'tit tit tit tit', which is virtually indistinguishable from 'dit dit dit dit'. And it gave us a laugh.

"It was to get some light relief in the middle of this real big career that we were forging. If we could put in something that was a little bit subversive then we would. George Martin might say, 'Was that "dit dit" or "tit tit" you were singing?' 'Oh, "dit dit", George, but it does sound a bit like that, doesn't it?' Then we'd get in the car and break down laughing."

After The Beatles split up Lennon claimed that 'Girl' was inspired in part by his feelings towards Christianity.

John : "I was just talking about Christianity in that – a thing like you have to be tortured to attain heaven. I'm only saying that I was talking about 'pain will lead to pleasure' in Girl and that was sort of the Catholic Christian concept – be tortured and then it'll be all right, which seems to be a bit true but not in their concept of it. But I didn't believe in that, that you have to be tortured to attain anything, it just so happens that you were."

The Beatles needed just one more song to complete their standard 14 track album, so a discarded song recorded for Help! was revived with some additional instruments and vocals . . .

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Wait" had been started on 17 June 1965 but was deemed surplus to requirements. That was fortuitous, given the trouble Lennon and McCartney had in composing enough songs for Rubber Soul.

George Harrison added two guitar parts, both of which featured volume pedal work. Two more vocal overdubs were also recorded for the chorus and bridge, along with a third vocal part by McCartney for the song's end. Wait was completed with tambourine and maracas, played by Lennon and Starr respectively.

"I'm Looking Through You" was the last song of the night to receive treatment from The Beatles. The backing track and instrumental overdubs had been recorded on 10 November, and the song was completed with the addition lead vocals by McCartney, and a second track was added featuring Lennon and McCartney on vocals and handclaps.

The session finished at 7am on the morning of 12 November 1965. This 13-hour recording session was The Beatles' longest to date. Rubber Soul was completed with a final mixing session on Monday 15 November 1965. The session began at 2.30pm and finished three hours later. The following day George Martin decided Rubber Soul's running order and the manufacturing process began.

 

[daf]

She's a Prick Teaser, it's . . .

207.  The Beatles - Day Tripper



From : 12 December 1965 – 15 January 1966
Weeks : 5
Double A-side : The Beatles - We Can Work It Out
Bonus 1 : Day Tripper promo film
Bonus 2 : Day Tripper Live in San Francisco

The Story So Far :

On Tuesday 26 October Stereo mixes for five Rubber Soul songs were created by George Martin, as well as one of Day Tripper for The Beatles' forthcoming single. The Beatles were not present as they were receiving their MBEs from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

John : "Although we didn't believe in the Royal Family, you can't help being impressed when you're in the palace, when you know you're standing in front of the Queen. It was like in a dream. It was beautiful. People were playing music, I was looking at the ceiling – not bad the ceiling. It was historical. It was like being in a museum."

They arrived at the palace in John Lennon's Rolls-Royce, watched by a crowd of 4,000 fans who were held back by police. Some fans climbed gates and lamp posts to get a better view.

Paul : "Some equerry to the Queen, a Guards officer, took us to one side and showed us what we had to do: 'Approach Her Majesty like this and never turn your back on her, and don't talk to her unless she talks to you.' All of those things. For four Liverpool lads it was, 'Wow, hey man!' It was quite funny. But she was sweet. I think she seemed a bit mumsy to us because we were young boys and she was a bit older."

The Beatles were taken to the Great Throne Room in time for the 11am ceremony. The Lord Chamberlain, Lord Cobbold, read out The Beatles' names individually, at which they stepped forward and bowed. The Queen then shook their hands, spoke to them, and pinned the medals to their jacket lapels. They then stepped back into line and bowed again.

Ringo : "The Queen was great. Obviously I'm a big Queen fan now. It was obvious she was doing her best to make everyone feel relaxed and not nervous. When she gave me my medal, she said, 'It's a pleasure to present you with this,' and I said, 'Thank you.'"

John Lennon later claimed that the group had smoked marijuana in the palace toilets before the investiture.

John : "To start with, we wanted to laugh. But when it happens to you, when you are being decorated, you don't laugh any more. We, however, were giggling like crazy because we had just smoked a joint in the loos of Buckingham Palace; we were so nervous. We had nothing to say. The Queen was planted on a big thing. She said something like 'ooh, ah, blah, blah' we didn't quite understand. She's much nicer than she is in the photos."

Although the tale was widely believed for many years, it was later debunked by George Harrison.

George : "We never smoked marijuana at the investiture. What happened was we were waiting to go through, standing in an enormous line with hundreds of people, and we were so nervous that we went to the toilet. And in there we smoked a cigarette – we were all smokers in those days. Years later, I'm sure John was thinking back and remembering, 'Oh yes, we went in the toilet and smoked,' and it turned into a reefer. Because what could be the worst thing you could do before you meet the Queen? Smoke a reefer! But we never did."

   

The event naturally received much attention from the media, with extensive newsreel, television and radio coverage. To help satisfy demand, after leaving the palace The Beatles held a press conference in the downstairs bar of the Savile Theatre.

John : "She was just like a mum to us. She was so warm and sweet. She really put us at ease. We were briefed beforehand by some big guardsman fellow, and every time he was reading out our names and he got to Ringo Starr, he kept cracking up."

Ringo : "He was a nice man."

John : "She said to me, 'Have you been working hard recently?' And I couldn't think what we've been doing, so I said, 'No, we've been having a holiday,' when actually we've been recording."

Paul : "Then she said to me, 'Have you been together long?' and I said, 'Yes, many years,' and Ringo said, 'Forty years,' and she laughed."

George : "She said, 'It's a pleasure giving it to you,' but that's what she said to everybody, and she put John's on first."

John: "I must have looked shattered."

Ringo : "She said, 'Did you start it all?' and I said, 'No, they did,' pointing to the other guys. 'I joined last. I'm the little fellow.'"

Day Tripper :

John Lennon had the initial idea for "Day Tripper", and collaborated with McCartney to complete the song at Kenwood, Lennon's house in Weybridge, Surrey in October 1965.

Paul : "That was a co-written effort; we were both there making it all up but I would give John the main credit. Probably the idea came from John because he sang the lead, but it was a close thing. We both put a lot of work in on it."

The song was a knowing reference to the burgeoning drugs-based counterculture of the mid-1960s. 'Day tripper' was a slang term for someone who failed to fully embrace the hippy lifestyle.

John : "That's mine. Including the lick, the guitar break and the whole bit. It's just a rock 'n' roll song. Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But it was kind of – you know, you're just a weekend hippie. Get it?"

Lennon and Harrison had both been introduced to LSD by 1965, although their use wouldn't peak until 1967. McCartney later admitted the song was about drugs, though The Beatles' clean-cut image at the time meant that the references were well hidden to all but those in the know.

Paul : "Day Tripper was to do with tripping. Acid was coming in on the scene, and often we'd do these songs about 'the girl who thought she was it'... But this was just a tongue-in-cheek song about someone who was a day tripper, a Sunday painter, Sunday driver, somebody who was committed only in part to the idea. Whereas we saw ourselves as full-time trippers, fully committed drivers, she was just a day tripper."

The lyrics employed other double meanings. "She's a big teaser" was originally "She's a prick teaser", though they never seriously considered recording it like that.

Paul : "I remember with the prick teasers we thought, That'd be fun to put in. That was one of the great things about collaborating, you could nudge-nudge, wink-wink a bit, whereas if you're sitting on your own, you might not put it in."

The Beatles originally intended for 'Day Tripper' to be the A-side of their final single of 1965. However, after the group recorded "We Can Work It Out" four days later, on 20 October, it was considered the more commercial song. Lennon's protestations resulted in the single being marketed as the world's first Double A-side. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that We Can Work It Out was requested by a greater proportion of record buyers, and was likewise favoured by radio stations.



"Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out" was released in the UK on 3 December 1965 – the same day as the Rubber Soul album, on which it did not feature. Five days later the single entered the chart at number one, where it remained for five weeks, selling over a million copies. It fared less well in the US, where it was released on 6 December. 'We Can Work It Out' was the more successful of the two titles; 'Day Tripper' peaked at number five in the Billboard Hot 100.

Day Tripper was a part of The Beatles' live repertoire from 1965 until they gave up touring. It was the fourth song performed at their final concert at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on 29 August 1966.

In 1966, the original stereo mix of "Day Tripper" was included on the US album Yesterday and Today, and in November of that year the song was remixed, for the stereo version of the British A Collection of Beatles Oldies compilation. Both stereo mixes contain some noticeable engineering errors, including a "bad punch-in edit", at the 1:50 mark, on the track containing the vocals. For a second or so just after the solo, the track containing guitar and tambourine drops out – a result of the parts being momentarily erased by mistake.

Other Versions include :  Nancy Sinatra (1966)  /  Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 (1966)  /  Otis Redding (1966)  /  Mae West (1966)  /  The Hollyridge Strings (1966)  /  Ramsey Lewis (1966)  /  Herbie Mann & Tamiko Jones (1967)  /  Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band (1967)  /  Lulu (1967)  /  The Baroque Brass (1968)  /  José Feliciano (1969)  /  Randy California (1972)  /  Billy Preston (1974)  /  Anne Murray (1974)  /  Electric Light Orchestra (1974)  /  The Steve Gibbons Band (1977)  /  Café Crème (1977)  /  Whitesnake (1978)  /  James Taylor (1979)  /  Yellow Magic Orchestra (1979)  /  Cheap Trick (1980)  /  The Swingle Singers (1995)  /  Ocean Colour Scene (1996)  /  The Punkles (2003)  /  Bombskare (2010)  /  Danny McEvoy + Take 103 (2010)  /  Marty Gold (2012)  /  8Bitles (2012)  /  Amy Slattery (2014)  /   Toast Garden (2017)  /  a robot (2017)  /  Larkin Poe (2018)

The flip-side of this double A-sided post continues below . . . .

[daf]

So I will flip you once again, it's . . .

207.  The Beatles - We Can Work It Out



From : 12 December 1965 – 15 January 1966
Weeks : 5
Double A-side :  The Beatles - Day Tripper
Bonus 1 : We Can Work It Out Demo
Bonus 2 : We Can Work It Out Take 1
Bonus 3 : We Can Work It Out Promo Film

The Story So Far :

The Beatles' only UK tour of 1965 was also their final one as a group. It began on Friday 3 December with two shows at the Odeon Cinema in Glasgow. Due to bad weather Brian Epstein decided that The Beatles should stay in a hotel in the city centre, rather than the smaller one further out they had been booked to stay in. The was some concern that the location of the new hotel could have proved a security risk, but the group came to no harm.

On Thusday, 2 December, the day before, The Beatles and their equipment were driven to Berwick-upon-Tweed on England's border with Scotland. As they travelled up the M1 motorway, a passing lorry signalled to The Beatles' chauffeur Alf Bicknell to pull over.

Alf Bicknell : "I went back to this great big articulated vehicle and the driver said to me, 'I think you've dropped a banjo back down the road.' I couldn't believe it. So I went back to my car and Neil [Aspinall] and I just stood there looking, we both couldn't believe it. We just stood there, staring at the back of my car, noticing that the straps were broken. There were two guitars there, but now there was only one. I remember thinking, 'I can get a lift home,' I thought that was it. I said to Neil, 'You'd better tell them.' He said, 'No, you tell 'em.' So I went round to the car and said, 'I think we've lost a guitar.' In the darkness, a voice comes out, 'Well if you can find it, you'll get a bonus.' This was John. I was always frightened of John more than anyone else, so I said to him, 'Well, what's the bonus then?' He replied, 'You can have your job back!'

"So anyway, we got back in the car and we got to the end of this 12-mile stretch of motorway to turn round to come back. We are coming back on the other side in the fast lane, and I'm going along as slow as I can, and if anyone came, I had to move over to let them pass, and then go back out into the fast lane. But I couldn't see a thing, nothing. It was raining and it was dark. I told them, 'I want to go home now.' We got right to the other end where we started from and we started to come back, but there was nothing. The roads were clear as anything. Then, we started finding little bits of wood, and then a guitar string. We ended up with a little piece of the guitar each. Anyway, there was no more said about it, and I was quite pleased. But I was very sorry it happened, believe me."

The guitar was a Gretsch Country Gentleman belonging to George Harrison, who later recalled the incident in a slightly different way.

George : "Fourteen of our guitars were strapped to the roof of our Austin Princess and the only one lost was my Gretsch. It fell onto the road and into the path of the oncoming traffic. About thirteen lorries went over it before our chauffeur could get near it. Then, one of the lorries stopped and the driver came up with the dangling remains of it and said, 'Oi, is this banjo anything to do with you?' Some people would say I shouldn't worry because I could buy as many replacement guitars as I wanted, but you know how it is, I kind of got attached to it."

The tour lasted 10 days, and saw The Beatles perform in nine venues across eight cities. Throughout they played a set comprising 11 songs : I Feel Fine  /  She's A Woman  /   If I Needed Someone  /  Act Naturally  /  Nowhere Man  /  Baby's In Black  /  Help!  /  We Can Work It Out  /  Yesterday  /  Day Tripper  /  and I'm Down. Paul McCartney also performed Yesterday solo on an electric organ.

On Saturday 11 December, The Beatles' final two London concerts took place before hugely enthusiastic audiences.

George : "This is one of the most incredible shows we've done. Not just because of the audience, but because they're Londoners. This is the funny thing. It's always been the other way round – fantastic in the North but just that little bit cool in London. It's incredible. It seems like the Beatlemania thing is happening all over again."

On Sunday 12 December, The Beatles' final UK tour ended with two concerts at the Capitol Cinema in Cardiff, Wales. The support acts were, in order of appearance, The Paramounts, Beryl Marsden with Steve Aldo, The Moody Blues, The Koobas and The Marionettes, and the compere was Jerry Stevens.

 

2,500 fans saw each concert, which lasted around 30 minutes. Between their two sets The Beatles ate sausages and mashed potato in their dressing room backstage, and watched a Western on television. During the second show a male fan appeared on stage and attempted to grab Paul McCartney and George Harrison. He was quickly bundled away by security staff and thrown out of the venue. After the concert the group piled into their black limousine to drive back to London to attend a Christmas party at the Scotch Of St James nightclub.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On Monday 13 December 1965, Paul McCartney had his first experience with the drug LSD.

The other Beatles had all taken acid by this time, but McCartney had always declined. John Lennon and George Harrison had had their drinks spiked during the infamous Dental Experience in the spring of 1965. Their second trip, during which they were joined by Ringo Starr, took place at a party in Los Angeles on 24 August that year.

When McCartney did use LSD for the first time, it was not in the company of his bandmates, but with Tara Browne, a young socialite whose death in December 1966 inspired the opening lines of A Day In The Life. Browne, the heir to a £1 million Guinness fortune, lived on Eaton Row, a secluded mews in London's Belgravia district, with his wife Noreen (known as Nicky).

After finishing their final UK tour with a performance in Cardiff on 12 December 1965 they were driven to London, where they celebrated the end of the tour at the Scotch of St James nightclub. The following night, 13 December, Lennon and McCartney returned once more to the club, where they met The Who's John Entwistle and the Pretty Things' former drummer Viv Prince.

Nicky Browne was also at the Scotch, and she invited them all back to Eaton Row. Lennon declined and returned to his home in Weybridge, but McCartney and Prince accepted the offer, as did several girls, and a dancer, Patrick Kerr, from the television show Ready Steady Go!

At the Eaton Row house, Tara Browne suggested they all take LSD. McCartney and Prince were unsure, having never before tried the drug.

Paul : "I was more ready for the drink or a little bit of pot or something. I'd not wanted to do it, I'd held off like a lot of people were trying to, but there was massive peer pressure. And within a band, it's more than peer pressure, it's fear pressure. It becomes trebled, more than just your mates, it's, 'Hey, man, this whole band's had acid, why are you holding out? What's the reason, what is it about you?' So I knew I would have to out of peer pressure alone. And that night I thought, well, this is as good a time as any, so I said, 'Go on then, fine.' So we all did it."

Nicky Browne served the guests tea, also offering them sugar lumps impregnated with liquid LSD. Unlike the "Dental Experience", however, nobody had their drinks spiked, and each person stayed in the house through the night.

Paul : "It was such a mind-expanding thing. I saw paisley shapes and weird things, and for a guy who wasn't that keen on getting that weird, there was a disturbing element to it. I remember looking at my shirtsleeves and seeing they were dirty and not being too pleased with that, whereas normally you wouldn't even notice. But you noticed and you heard. Everything was supersensitive.

"We sat around all evening. Viv Prince was great fun. Someone said, 'Do you want a drink?' And everyone would say, 'No thanks, don't need drink, this is plenty.' If anything, we might smoke a joint. But Viv demolished the drinks tray: 'Oh yeah, a drink!' Cockney drummer with the Pretty Things. 'Orrright, yeah! Nah, does anyone want a drink? I fink I'll 'ave one of them.' And he had the whisky and he had everything. He was having a trip but his was somehow a more wired version than anyone else's. In the morning we ended up sending him out for ciggies.

"Then one of the serious secretaries from our office rang about an engagement I had; she had traced me to here. 'Um, can't talk now. Important business' or something. I just got out of it. 'But you're supposed to be at the office.' 'No. I've got 'flu.' Anything I could think. I got out of that one because there was no way I could go to the office after that."

McCartney took LSD several more times, although he never embraced it with the fervour of Lennon and Harrison.

Paul : "I had it on a few occasions after that and I always found it amazing. Sometimes it was a very very deeply emotional experience, making you want to cry, sometimes seeing God or sensing all the majesty and emotional depth of everything. And sometimes you were just plain knackered, because it would be like sitting up all night in a train station, and by the morning you've grown very stiff and it's not a party any more. It's like the end of an all-nighter but you haven't danced. You just sat. So your bum might be sore, just from sitting. I was often quite wiped out by it all but I always thought, Well, you know, everybody's doing it.

"The thing I didn't like about acid was it lasted too long. It always wore me out. But they were great people to be around, a wacky crowd. My main problem was just the stamina you had to have. I never attempted to work on acid, I couldn't. What's the point of trying, love?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On Thursday 16 December 1965, Granada Television screened 'The Music Of Lennon & McCartney'.

The 50-minute show been conceived by Granada producer Johnnie Hamp, who had championed the Beatles on Granada Television in 1962, a year before the band achieved national fame. Hamp intended the 1965 special to be a tribute to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership.

The format was a variety special. Paul McCartney later said that the show "wasn't really our thing", and that he and John Lennon only agreed to participate out of loyalty towards Hamp. While the band committed to the Granada project, they turned down an invitation to perform at the Royal Variety Show and refused to reprise the Beatles Christmas Shows they had held over the 1963 and 1964 holiday seasons.

Filming took place at Granada's studios in Manchester on 1–2 November 1965. The Beatles interrupted the recording sessions for their album Rubber Soul, which they were under pressure to complete for a pre-Christmas release, in order to appear on the programme. The set design featured scaffolding around the walls, and steps and ladders. The harmonium played by Lennon during "We Can Work It Out" was the same instrument seen in Granada's popular soap opera Coronation Street. The Pamela Devis Dancers provided the choreography for some of the musical segments.

   

The show opened with an orchestral version of 'I Feel Fine', performed by the George Martin Orchestra. Peter and Gordon sang 'A World Without Love', Lulu performed 'I Saw Him Standing There', and there was an instrumental version of 'A Hard Day's Night' by jazz organist Alan Haven and drummer Tony Crombie.

Dick Rivers sang 'Things We Did Today' in French, the George Martin Orchestra performed 'Ringo's Theme' from the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack, and and Paul McCartney introduced American composer Henry Mancini, who performed 'If I Fell'.

Esther Phillips had flown in from American especially to perform 'And I Love Him'. Six members of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra appeared as Fritz Spiegl's Barock And Roll Ensemble to perform 'She Loves You' in the style of Mozart, before Peter Sellers performing a much-celebrated Shakespearean version of 'A Hard Day's Night'.

Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas performed 'Bad To Me' and 'Do You Want To Know A Secret', Cilla Black sang 'It's For You', and Spanish dance star Antonio Vargas performed 'She Loves You'.

The Beatles themselves performed 'Day Tripper' and 'We Can Work It Out'. Paul McCartney also sang the first verse of 'Yesterday', before the song was completed by Marianne Faithfull.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On Sunday 26 December 1965, in what would become one of the key 'clues' in the 'Paul is dead' myth, Paul McCartney suffered a moped accident while visiting his family in Liverpool. McCartney fell from his moped and chipped a front tooth, cutting his lip and was left with a scar.

Also on the night time ride was Tara Browne, McCartney's friend. Browne was the Guinness heir whose death later inspired John Lennon to write the opening lines of 'A Day In The Life'.

Paul : "I had an accident when I came off a moped in Wirral, near Liverpool. I had a very good friend who lived in London called Tara Browne, a Guinness heir – a nice Irish guy, very sensitive bloke. I'd see him from time to time, and enjoyed being around him. He came up to visit me in Liverpool once when I was there seeing my dad and brother. I had a couple of mopeds on hire, so we hit upon the bright idea of going to my cousin Bett's house."

"We were riding along on the mopeds. I was showing Tara the scenery. He was behind me, and it was an incredible full moon; it really was huge. I said something about the moon and he said 'yeah', and I suddenly had a freeze-frame image of myself at that angle to the ground when it's too late to pull back up again: I was still looking at the moon and then I looked at the ground, and it seemed to take a few minutes to think, 'Ah, too bad – I'm going to smack that pavement with my face!' Bang!

"There I was, chipped tooth and all. it came through my lip and split it. But I got up and we went along to my cousin's house. When I said, 'Don't worry, Bett, but I've had a bit of an accident,' she thought I was joking. She creased up laughing at first, but then she went 'Holy...!' I'd really given my face a good old smack; it looked like I'd been in the ring with Tyson for a few rounds. So she rang a friend of hers who was a doctor.

"He came round on the spot, took a needle out and, after great difficulty threading it, put it in the first half of the wound. He was shaking a bit, but got it all the way through, and then he said, 'Oh, the thread's just come out – I'll have to do it again!' No anaesthetic. I was standing there while he rethreaded it and pulled it through again.

   

Paul : "In fact that was why I started to grow a moustache. It was pretty embarrassing, because around that time you knew your pictures would get winged off to teeny-boppery magazines like 16, and it was pretty difficult to have a new picture taken with a big fat lip. So I started to grow a moustache – a sort of Sancho Panza – mainly to cover where my lip had been sewn.

"It caught on with the guys in the group: if one of us did something like growing his hair long and we liked the idea, we'd all tend to do it. And then it became seen as a kind of revolutionary idea, that young men of our age definitely ought to grow a moustache! And it all fell in with the Sgt Pepper thing, because he had a droopy moustache."

McCartney's chipped tooth and scar can be seen in the promotional videos for Paperback Writer and Rain, which were filmed in London in May 1966.

Brian Epstein : "Last mid-December, Paul injured his lip and chipped his tooth in the moped accident. He honestly thought no one would notice the chip, for it is so small. I told him three times he should do something about it. It is in a place where there are no nerve ends, so there is no pain. Paul assured me that he would have the tooth capped, but – unfortunately – he has not done so. Could he be afraid of the dentist? It is my opinion that he will just let it be."

Rubber Soul :

Rubber Soul was released on 3 December 1965 in the United Kingdom, on EMI's Parlophone label - on the same day as the non-album double A-side single "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out".

The cover photo of the Beatles was taken by photographer Robert Freeman in the garden at Lennon's house. The idea for the "stretched" effect of the image came about by accident when Freeman was projecting the photo onto an LP-size piece of cardboard for the Beatles' benefit, and the board fell slightly backwards, elongating the projected image. McCartney recalled the band's reaction: "That's it, Rubber So-o-oul, hey hey! Can you do it like that?"



John : "Rubber Soul was a matter of having all experienced the recording studio, having grown musically as well, but [getting] the knowledge of the place, of the studio. We were more precise about making the album, that's all, and we took over the cover and everything."

The album title was intended as a pun combining the falseness intrinsic to pop music and rubber-soled shoes. McCartney recalled that he conceived the title after overhearing an American musician describing Mick Jagger's singing style as "plastic soul".

The distinctive lettering was created by illustrator Charles Front : "If you tap into a rubber tree then you get a sort of globule, so I started thinking of creating a shape that represented that, starting narrow and filling out."

 

Paul : "People have always wanted us to stay the same, but we can't stay in a rut. No one else expects to hit a peak at 23 and never develop, so why should we? Rubber Soul for me is the beginning of my adult life."

On the national chart compiled by Melody Maker, Rubber Soul entered at number 1 and held the position for thirteen weeks; it remained in the top ten until mid July 1966.

In keeping with the company's policy for the Beatles' albums in the United States, Capitol Records altered the content of Rubber Soul for its release there. They removed four songs from the running order – "Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "What Goes On" and "If I Needed Someone" – all of which were instead issued on the Beatles' next North American album, Yesterday and Today, in June 1966.

These were replaced with "I've Just Seen a Face" and "It's Only Love", which had been cut from the US soundtrack version of Help! - giving the 12 track album a slightly more acoustic 'folky' flavour.

The stereo mixes used by Capitol contained two false starts at the beginning of "I'm Looking Through You", while "The Word" also differed from the UK version due to the double-tracking of Lennon's lead vocal, the addition of an extra falsetto harmony, and the panning treatment given to one of the percussion parts. As well as the track listing, the cover was altered, giving the photo and the lettering an overall brownish tint.

 

In the United States, Rubber Soul topped the Billboard Top LPs chart on 8 January 1966, having sold 1.2 million copies there within nine days of release. The album was number 1 for six weeks in total; it remained in the top twenty until the start of July, before leaving the chart in mid December.

   

Despite only being on sale for a month, in the UK, Rubber Soul was the third highest-selling album of 1965, behind The Sound of Music and Beatles for Sale, and was also the third highest-selling album of 1966.

Critical response to Rubber Soul was highly favourable. Allen Evans of the NME wrote that the band were "still finding different ways to make us enjoy listening to them" and described the LP as "a fine piece of recording artistry and adventure in group sound".



Melody Maker found the Beatles' new sound "a little subdued" and said that tracks such as "You Won't See Me" and "Nowhere Man" "almost get monotonous – an un-Beatle-like feature if ever there was one".

The writers of Record Mirror's initial review found the album lacking some of the variety of the group's previous releases but also said: "one marvels and wonders at the constant stream of melodic ingenuity stemming from the boys, both as performers and composers. Keeping up their pace of creativeness is quite fantastic."

But, clearly someone had pissed on Richard Green's cornflakes that morning, as he proceeded to give the classic platter a tremendous slagging :
"You Wont See Me", Think For Yourself", "The Word", "What Goes On" and If I Needed Someone" are in my opinion dull and ordinary. There is none of The Beatles excitement and compulsiveness about them."

But it's not all stinkers for crazy Richard : After grudgingly comparing "Nowhere Man" favourably with Herman's Hermits' new single (!), he proclaims the best track on the album to be . . . "Run For Your Life" (!!!)

 

The 1965 Christmas Record :

The Beatles had recorded messages for their fan club in 1963 and 1964, and this year was no different. Unusually, however, it took them two attempts to complete the 1965 recording, the first of which was made on 19 October 1965.

The recording took place at Marquee Studio in London. Situated at 10 Richmond Mews, the studio was affiliated to the Marquee Club; the building had originally been a warehouse, but was eventually converted to apartments.

The Beatles' press officer Tony Barrow led the recording, as he had done in previous years. The group worked from his script, though with various ad-libbed exchanges thrown in. Towards the end of the session they gathered around a piano to sing various improvised lines.

The session was not a success, with The Beatles evidently struggling to find humour in Barrow's script. Furthermore, George Harrison was not present, so the other Beatles attempted to impersonate him while reciting his lines. John Lennon was openly disdainful of the prepared material, but none of the group was able, despite Paul McCartney's best efforts, to come together and produce anything suitably amusing. Ringo Starr was largely silent, aside from the closing singalong.

At least 26 minutes of material was recorded, although none was judged suitable for release. However, Barrow gave part of the transcript to The Beatles Book Monthly, which reproduced it in their December 1965 issue. He also included a short section of the recording in Sound Of The Stars, a promotional flexi-disc for Disc And Music Echo he produced in spring 1966.

 

Late night on 8 November 1965, following the recording of  'Think For Yourself', The Beatles' Third Christmas Record was recorded. As with the first two fan club exclusive discs, Tony Barrow wrote a script for the wobbly seasonal platter - and the Beatles recorded three takes, largely improvising and mucking about.

It was issued on 17 December 1965, as a 1 sided 7-inch 33⅓ RPM Lyntone flexi-disc, with a running time of just over six minutes. Several off-key, a cappella versions of "Yesterday" are dispersed throughout the record, alongside Lennon's "Happy Christmas to Ya List'nas", "Auld Lang Syne" (which briefly morphs into an impression of Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction"), a one-and-a-half-line version of the Four Tops' "It's the Same Old Song" (which they quickly stop before they violate the copyright), and an original poem titled "Christmas Comes But Once a Year".



Members of the Beatles' US fan-club did not receive this Christmas flexi-disc in 1965. Rather, they received a black and white postcard, with a photo of the Fab Four and the message "Season's Greetings – Paul, Ringo, George, John." The Beatle Bulletin, the publication of the US fan-club, explained in its April 1966 edition that the tape arrived too late to prepare the record in time for Christmas.

We Can Work It Out :

"We Can Work It Out" was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It was first issued as a double A-side single along with "Day Tripper" in December 1965. The release marked the first time in Britain that both tracks on an artist's single were promoted as joint A-sides. The single was number 1 in Britain in . . . blah, blah, blah, we've done all that!!



"We Can Work It Out" was a comparatively rare example of a Lennon–McCartney collaboration from this period in the Beatles' career - Paul McCartney wrote the upbeat verses and chorus, while John Lennon had the idea for the pessimistic "Life is very short" counterpoint. As with several of his songs over 1965–66, McCartney drew inspiration for "We Can Work It Out" from his relationship with the lovely actress Jane Asher.

Paul : "The lyrics might have been personal. It is often a good way to talk to someone or to work your own thoughts out. It saves you going to a psychiatrist, you allow yourself to say what you might not say in person."

With its intimations of mortality, Lennon's contribution to the twelve-bar bridge contrasts typically with what Lennon saw as McCartney's cajoling optimism.

John : "In We Can Work It Out, Paul did the first half, I did the middle eight. But you've got Paul writing, 'We can work it out, we can work it out' – real optimistic, y'know, and me impatient: 'Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.'"

McCartney's contribution was written at Rembrandt, the house in Heswall, Cheshire he had bought for his father in July 1964. In the dining room of the large mock-Tudor house was a piano, which McCartney often used to work out new songs on. However, We Can Work It Out was written on an acoustic guitar in one of the bedrooms.

Paul : "I had the idea, the title, had a couple of verses and the basic idea for it, then I took it to John to finish it off and we wrote the middle together. Which is nice: 'Life is very short. There's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.' Then it was George Harrison's idea to put the middle into waltz time, like a German waltz. That came on the session, it was one of the cases of the arrangement being done on the session."

The Beatles recorded "We Can Work It Out" at EMI Studios (later Abbey Road Studios) in London on 20 October 1965, during the sessions for their Rubber Soul album. Along with Lennon's "Day Tripper", the song was earmarked for the non-album single that would accompany the release of the new LP. The band taped a satisfactory basic track in just two takes. With nearly eleven hours dedicated to the song, however, it was by far their longest expenditure of studio time up to that point. A vocal overdubbing session took place on 29 October.

For the first time for one of their singles, the Beatles filmed promotional clips for "We Can Work It Out" and "Day Tripper". Subsequently, known as the "Intertel Promos", these clips were intended as a way to save the band having to appear in person on popular British television shows such as Ready Steady Go! and Top of the Pops.

Filming took place at Twickenham Film Studios in south-west London on 23 November 1965, with Joe McGrath as director. The Beatles made a total of ten black-and-white promos that day, filming clips for the new songs as well as for their previous hit singles "I Feel Fine", "Ticket to Ride" and "Help!". Three of the films were mimed performances of "We Can Work It Out", in all of which Lennon was seated at a harmonium.



The most frequently broadcast of the three was a straightforward performance piece with the group wearing black suits. Another clip shows the group wearing the stage suits from their Shea Stadium performance on 15 August. The third clip opens with a still photograph of Lennon with a sunflower in front of his eye.

In a discussion about which of the two songs should be the A-side of the new single, Lennon had argued for "Day Tripper", differing with the majority view that "We Can Work It Out" was a more commercial song.

On 15 November, EMI announced that the A-side would be "We Can Work It Out", only for Lennon to publicly contradict this two days later. As a result, the single was marketed as the first-ever "double A-side". Lennon's championing of "Day Tripper", for which he was the principal writer, was based on his belief that the Beatles' rock sound should be favoured over the softer style of "We Can Work It Out". Airplay and point-of-sale requests soon proved "We Can Work It Out" to be the more popular of the two sides.

The single was released on EMI's Parlophone label in Britain on 3 December 1965, the same day as Rubber Soul, and entered the Record Retailer Chart on 15 December, at number 2, before holding the top position for five consecutive weeks. The single also failed to top the national chart published by Melody Maker in its first week – marking the first occasion since December 1963 that a new Beatles single had not immediately entered at number 1.

     

Although the single was an immediate number 1 on the NME's chart, the Daily Mirror and Daily Express newspapers both published articles highlighting the apparent decline. The record was the Beatles' tenth consecutive chart-topping single in the UK, and the band's fastest-selling single there since "Can't Buy Me Love", their previous McCartney-led A-side.

In the United States, the single was issued by Capitol Records on 6 December.  Due to the US charts being based both on record sales and radio play, "We Can Work It Out" spent three non-consecutive weeks at number 1, while "Day Tripper" peaked at number 5. It was their sixth consecutive number 1 single on the American charts, and the single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, for sales of 1 million or over, on 6 January 1966.

Other Versions include :   "Tout peut s'arranger" by Richard Anthony (1966)  /  Les Blue Notes (1966)  /  "Hemos de salvar" by Los Sprinters (1966)  /  "Nelle mani tue" by Mike Liddell & Gli Atomi (1966)  /  Maxine Brown (1966)  /  Petula Clark (1966)  /  The Hollyridge Strings  (1966)  /  Deep Purple (1968)  /  Dionne Warwick (1969)  /  Stevie Wonder (1970)  /  Tom Jones (1970)  /  Johnny Mathis (1971)  /  Barbara Dickson (1974)  /  Humble Pie (1975)  /  Killer Watts (1975)  /  Sam & Dave (1977)  /  Melanie (1978)  /  Chaka Khan (1981)  /  Rick Wakeman (1997)  /  Steel Pulse (2001)  /  Judy Collins (2007)  /  Chris de Burgh (2008)  /  Shonky Dance Remix (2010)  /  8BitRenditions (2010)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  Kelly Valleau (2011)  /  Coldplay (2012)  /  Marcela Mangabeira (2012)  /  Amy Slattery (2015)  /  Blac Rabbit (2018)  /  a robot (2017)  /  Gavin Libotte (2019)

On This Day  :

12 December : The Beatles' last concert in Great Britain at Capitol Theatre in Cardiff, Wales
14 December : "La Grusse Valise" opens at 54th St Theater NYC
15 December : D Heneker & J Taylor's musical "Charlie Girl" premieres in London
15 December : Gemini 6 launched; makes 1st rendezvous in space (with Gemini 7)
16 December : Somerset Maugham, English author, dies at 91
16 December : Pioneer 6 launched into solar orbit
18 December : "La Grusse Valise" closes after 7 performances
22 December : Great Britain sets national maximum road speed at 70 miles per hour
22 December : Richard Dimbleby, broadcaster, dies at 52
25 December : US President Lyndon B. Johnson orders a halt to bombing operations in North Vietnam, hoping to spur peace talks
26 December : "Funny Girl" based on the life of Fanny Brice, with Barbra Streisand closes on Broadway
29 December : "Thunderball", 4th James Bond film starring Sean Connery premieres in Tokyo
3 January : The first Acid Test is conducted at the Fillmore, San Jose.
12 January : "Batman", starring Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, debuts in the US on ABC
14 January : Dave Bowie from the Dave Bowie Band (feat. Dave Bowie) releases his 1st, and best, single "Can't Help Thinking About Me"

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

                     

[Chriddof]

That "BEATLES WITH BEARDS" thing is hilarious. I like how the artist completely failed to predict what they actually looked like a year or two later.

[Satchmo Distel]

Another transitional #1 for them, this time a bridge to 'Revolver.' The single it replaced at the top in the US was 'The Sound of Silence'.

Jan 5: Overdubs done to Shea Stadium concert

Jan 8: Last ever episode of 'Shindig'.

[purlieu]

'Day Tripper' is nice, definitely reminds me of Revolver more than Rubber Soul. 'We Can Work it Out' is one of my favourite Beatles singles. Lovely little song.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Yeah, it's faultless. Great melody, thoughtful lyrics, sterling arrangement. The Beatles are growing up in front of our very eyes and ears, lads.

Day Tripper is a fun song, the riff is ridiculously catchy and I love, love, love Ringo's pneumatic drum fills, but it does feel a wee bit like Beatles by numbers at this stage. That's probably unfair, but it's their fault for encouraging us to hold them to a particularly high standard.

It does, however, pretty much invent The Monkees, for which all good people of sound mind should be grateful.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Ringo: "Obviously I'm a big Queen fan now."

Hopefully he's talking about the popular rock group.

"When she gave me my medal, she said, 'It's a pleasure to present you with this,' and I said, 'Thank you.'"

Great story, Ringo.

[kalowski]

Christ, daf, what a collection of amazing posts.

Quick thoughts:

I've always assumed Norwegian Wood was a pun on "No way John would" (have an affair).

Love Day Tripper. Before I bought a guitar tuner I used to use the first note to tune my guitar. Love the little drop out on the third verse.

The released master contains one of the most noticeable mistakes of any Beatles song, a "drop-out" at 1:50 in which the lead guitar and tambourine momentarily disappear

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

FABS FACT: Charles Front, the artist responsible for the distinctive Rubber Soul font, is the father of Rebecca Front.

#FrontFont

Christ, daf, what a collection of amazing posts.

Absolutely, daf has created a monumental piece of work here.

Quick thoughts:

I've always assumed Norwegian Wood was a pun on "No way John would" (have an affair).

Blimey! That does sound like an example of the sort of obscure wordplay John was fond of.

[The Culture Bunker]

Well, both sides have been covered by soul legends, but I reckon Stevie W has the honours in terms of giving the song a deeper meaning (ie civil rights), while I suspect Otis didn't give much thought to the druggy subtext of 'Day Tripper'.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Well, both sides have been covered by soul legends, but I reckon Stevie W has the honours in terms of giving the song a deeper meaning (ie civil rights), while I suspect Otis didn't give much thought to the druggy subtext of 'Day Tripper'.

Stevie's version of WCWIO is incredible, it's utterly joyous. And yeah, a completely different song when placed in a civil rights context.

Otis' version of DT is ace, especially when performed live, but I don't think he paid attention to the lyrics at all, let alone the subtext. He improvises around the bits he could remember, it's just an excuse for an amped-up funky Stax groove with Otis as exhorting bandleader. His version of Satisfaction is the same.

That's not a criticism, there are few things in life more uplifting than Otis Redding testifying with Booker T & The MG's in tow.

[The Culture Bunker]

Stevie's version of WCWIO is incredible, it's utterly joyous. And yeah, a completely different song when placed in a civil rights context.

Otis' version of DT is ace, especially when performed live, but I don't think he paid attention to the lyrics at all, let alone the subtext. He improvises around the bits he could remember, it's just an excuse for an amped-up funky Stax groove with Otis as exhorting bandleader. His version of Satisfaction is the same.

That's not a criticism, there are few things in life more uplifting than Otis Redding testifying with Booker T & The MG's in tow.

Oh yeah, I agree, I wasn't being down on Otis running through 'Day Tripper' with Booker and the lads. The live version I have seems to go 100mph (I pity Duck Dunn's poor fingertips) and is bloody amazing. Like you say, he takes the catchy central riff and just does his own thing with it - I imagine both the Beatles and Stones buzzed their tits off hearing those versions.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Absolutely! I seem to recall Keith Richards saying that he just couldn't believe it when he heard Otis' version of Satisfaction, as that's how he'd always imagined it in his head - as a gutsy Stax number.

Sorry, I hope I didn't appear to be implying that you were denigrating Otis' version of DT. I know you weren't!

[kalowski]

Well, both sides have been covered by soul legends, but I reckon Stevie W has the honours in terms of giving the song a deeper meaning (ie civil rights), while I suspect Otis didn't give much thought to the druggy subtext of 'Day Tripper'.

I have a storming version of DT by J J Barnes.

[daf]

Christ, daf, what a collection of amazing posts.

Absolutely, daf has created a monumental piece of work here.

Thanks playmates - that one almost finished me off!
- - - - - - -

I love the old biddies on the Rubber Soul production line :



Though I'm not sure what's going on in the next pic :



Is she going to listen to every record before giving it the A-OK?!

[grassbath]

The break in Day Tripper with the key change, the rising tides of harmonies and the squalling lead guitar, which breaks at its peak and drops back to the riff, is one of the greatest bits in the whole Beatles discography.

They're just pure fucking swinging here, arent they? Effortless cool. It's all in the details - the seductive tambourine, Ringo's perfect rolls before each riff, the laconic, tossed-off delivery of 'but I found out.' Rivals the 'badness' of the Stones and more.

[Norton Canes]

Never.

[machotrouts]

I think I'm done listening to Beatles songs now. Never going to listen to a Beatles song again. Life is very short and there's no time

[daf]

We want Muff Woody, Muff Woody the band, it's . . .

208.  The Spencer Davis Group - Keep On Running



From : 16 – 22 January 1966
Weeks : 1
Flip side : High Time Baby
Bonus 1 : Live TV Performance
Bonus 2 : Live TV Performance (France)
Bonus 3 : Beat Club (Germany)

The Story So Far : 

Spencer Davis Group was born Spencer David Nelson Davies on 17 July 1939 in Swansea, South Wales.



Influenced by his Uncle Herman's mandolin playing, Spencer began learning to play harmonica and accordion at the age of six. He then attended Dynevor School, where he passed seven GCE O-level examinations. He moved to London when he was sixteen, and began working in the civil service as a clerical officer at the Post Office Savings Bank in Hammersmith, and for HM Customs and Excise. However, he went back to his old school to study for A-levels in languages, becoming Head Boy in 1959. (Keen-og!!)

In 1960, he moved to Birmingham, to read German at the University of Birmingham. In music circles, Davis was later known as "Professor".

By the time he was sixteen, Davis was hooked on the guitar and the American rhythm and blues music making its way across the Atlantic. With few opportunities to hear R&B in south Wales, Davis sought out any performance that came to town. When he heard a Dixieland band perform a skiffle version of the R&B song "John Henry", Davis formed a band called The Saints, with Bill Perks, who later changed his name to Bill Wyman.

When Davis moved to Birmingham, as a student he often performed on stage after his teaching work day was finished. While in Birmingham, he dated Christine Perfect, who later married Fleetwood Mac's John McVie. They busked and played in folk clubs with the Ian Campbell Trio. With Perfect on piano and Davis on 12 string guitar, they performed Canadian folk songs, such as "Spring Hill", and also interpreted W. C. Handy and Lead Belly songs.

In 1963, Davis went to a Birmingham pub, the Golden Eagle, to see the Muff Woody Jazz Band, a traditional jazz band featuring Muff and Steve Winwood . . .

Stevie Winwood was born Stephen Lawrence Winwood on 12 May 1948 in Handsworth, Birmingham. His father, Lawrence, a foundryman by trade, was a semi-professional musician, playing mainly the saxophone and clarinet.



The young Winwood became interested in swing and Dixieland jazz as a boy, began playing piano when aged four, and also soon started playing drums and guitar. He first performed with his father and his elder brother, Muff, in The Ron Atkinson Band at the age of eight. Muff later recalled that when Steve began playing regularly with his father and brother in licensed pubs and clubs, the piano had to be turned with its back to the audience to try and hide him, because he was so obviously underage.

Winwood was a choirboy at St John's Church of England, Perry Barr. While he was still young the family moved from Handsworth to the semi-rural suburb of Great Barr at the northern edge of Birmingham city.

While still a pupil at Great Barr School, Winwood was a part of the Birmingham rhythm and blues scene, playing the Hammond C-3 organ and guitar, backing blues singers such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley on their United Kingdom tours, the custom at that time being for US singers to travel solo and be backed by pick-up bands.

"Muff" Winwood, the older brother of Steve Winwood, was born Mervyn Winwood on 15 June 1943



He attended Cranbourne Road Primary School and the new Great Barr School, and was a choir boy at St John's Church in the Perry Barr neighborhood of Birmingham. Winwood first became interested in the guitar, then the bass. He was nicknamed "Muff" after the popular 1950's children's TV character Muffin the Mule.

Steve, only fifteen at the time, was already gaining notice for his musical abilities. Muff, five years older than his brother, was an accomplished jazz musician. Spencer Davis persuaded them to join him as the Rhythm and Blues Quartet. Davis performed on guitar, vocals and harmonica, Steve Winwood on guitar, organ and vocals, Muff Winwood on bass, and Pete York on drums.



Playing mainly R&B covers, the band performed first at the Golden Eagle, but within a year they had landed a regular gig at The Marquee. In 1964 they signed their first recording contract after Chris Blackwell of Island Records saw them at an appearance in a local club; Blackwell also became their producer. Island was at that time a small label, so Blackwell got them on UK Fontana for distribution.

Muff Winwood came up with the band's name : "Spencer was the only one who enjoyed doing interviews, so I pointed out that if we called it The Spencer Davis Group, the rest of us could stay in bed and let him do them."

 

Their first single, "Dimples" (b/w "Sittin' And Thinkin'") was released in May 1964, this was followed by "I Can't Stand It" (b/w "Midnight Train") - which was their first chart entry, reaching #47 in November 1964.



In February 1965, they released the concept single "Every Little Bit Hurts" (b/w "It Hurts Me So") which climbed to #41 in March, with "Strong Love" (b/w "This Hammer") bagging the "lucky" #44 chart position in June 1965.

 

In August they released the You Put The Hurt On Me 4-track EP, featuring :  "She Put The Hurt On Me"  /  "I'm Getting Better"  /   "I'll Drown In My Tears"  /  and "Goodbye Stevie"

 

Their next single, "Keep on Running" shot to the top of the chart in January 1966.

The Single :

"Keep On Running" was written and originally recorded by Jamaican singer-songwriter Jackie Edwards, who as well as having a successful singing career, worked in the UK for Island Records as a songwriter. The song was recorded by Edwards for his 1965 album Come on Home, and he recorded it again in the mid-1970s for his album Do You Believe in Love.

The song was most successfully recorded by the Spencer Davis Group and released as a single in November 1965 on Fontana Records, backed with "High Time Baby".



At the time, Chris Blackwell, who produced the recording, was trying to get his Island label established in the UK and was managing the Spencer Davis Group. He was lent funding from Scala Brown Associates for the single by offering a sizable share of his label as security; the success of the single meant that he was quickly able to repay the loan.

   

It was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart in January 1966. In the United States it reached number 76.



Other Versions include :   The Outsiders (1966)  /  Long John Baldry (1966)  /  "L'abito non fa il beatnik" by Evy (1966)  /  "Chi può dirmi" by I ragazzi del sole (1966)  /  "Vieni fuori" by I Pooh (1966)  /  "Corre, corre" by Alex y Los Findes (1966)  /  Tom Jones (1967)  /  Chapter Five (1967)  /  The Mirettes (1968)  /  The Misunderstood (1968)  /  John Alford (1996)  /  The Trojans (1997)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  / Babe Magnet Band (2014)  /   Colin Tribe (2018)  /  Yola (2019)

On This Day  :

17 January : Shabba Ranks, dancehall musician, born Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon in St. Ann, Jamaica
18 January : About 8,000 U.S. soldiers land in South Vietnam; U.S. troops now total 190,000.
19 January : Indira Gandhi is elected 4th Prime Minister of India
19 January : Stefan Edberg, tennis player, born Stefan Bengt Edberg in Västervik, Sweden

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

             

[purlieu]

Stevie Winwood had a good voice, didn't he? Good song this.

[Jollity]

When I first heard this song, I don't think I pictured it being done by a group of white British people. He does have an impressive voice.

[daf]

I love the fact he sang with The Ron Atkinson Band!

"Big Ron" was working at Aston Villa at the time (1956-59), so this was probably a bit of extra business he dabbled in between saturdays to keep him in pie money.

[The Culture Bunker]

Yeah, I love this song, probably more down to the band's arrangement and performance than the actual songwriting - the bassline is brilliant. It was one of those songs I remember growing up, but never seem to hear anymore.

Two things I can add, based on the sleevenotes from my "Eight Gigs a Week" compilation:

- Steve Winwood plays a "Big Muff" effects pedal. Someone brought it back from America as a jokey present for his brother.
- The guy you hear whooping faintly in the background at points is a young Jimmy Cliff.

Poor Spencer Davis is one of those examples of having the band named after him (apparently because he liked doing interviews and the others didn't), but not being the talent - see also J. Geils.

[grassbath]

Great tune. I saw Winwood supporting Steely Dan earlier this year - he's still got the pipes.

[The Culture Bunker]

Mind you, bit lucky young Steve was a good looking lad, as the rest of them weren't exactly going to pull in the teenybopper market. Yer man Muff has a jawline Jimmy Hill would say "fucking hell" at. And in the pic above of them peering above the fence, Pete York appears to be missing his teeth - which, given he's from the Boro, isn't out of the question.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Yeah, I love this song, probably more down to the band's arrangement and performance than the actual songwriting - the bassline is brilliant.

Absolutely. It's a decent enough song elevated by a great band performance. And it really is insane that a white teenager from Birmingham was able to sing like that. He doesn't sound forced or ersatz either, he just somehow had the natural ability to sing like an African-American R&B artist. Steve Marriott had the same extraordinary gift.

The guy you hear whooping faintly in the background at points is a young Jimmy Cliff.

I did not know that! Makes sense, though, what with the Chris Blackwell connection and all.

[daf]

Bonus Spencer Davis Extra!  :

 

[Satchmo Distel]

"I thought he was coloured" (Winwood on Len Barry)

Still an ancient time in racial thinking, despite the genuine love of the music. Winwood thinks he's being progressive in praising a white singer for sounding 'coloured'. OTOH he was insightful about Barry copying Motown given that Holland-Dozier-Holland sued his writers and got a 15% share of the royalties.

[daf]

Absolutely Useless, it's . . .

209.  The Overlanders - Michelle



From : 23 January – 12 February 1966
Weeks : 3
Flip side : Cradle Of Love
Bonus : Beat Club

The Overlanders :

The Overlanders were a British music group active during the 1960s. Originally playing folk songs, the band found success hard to come by during the beat era, and so converted to a more mainstream sound.



The original trio were :
Laurie Mason – piano, percussion, vocals
Peter Bartholomew – guitar, vocals
Paul Arnold – lead guitar, vocals

Paul Arnold : "Having discussed dozens of names without agreement it was our manager Harry Hammond of NME photography fame who came up with the name. He was a fan of an Australian TV show at the time called Whiplash (I think) anyway there was always a stagecoach trundling across the outback called the Overland Stage Coach. He came up with the name The Overlanders. Always moving on/travelling, a folksy/ country type name. There you have it, that's how the name came about."

This line-up was augmented in concert by:
David Walsh – drums
Terry Widlake – bass



Their first single, "Summer Skies And Golden Sands" (b/w "Call Of The Wild"), was released in july 1963. It was a flop.

Paul Arnold : "We made our first single late in 1962 produced by Mike Collier and Al Saxon. Typically early sixties pop it was shelved when the producer phoned to say that a new group called The Beatles had released their first single called Love Me Do and in his opinion would change the face of pop music. How right he was. We decided we would have to go down another avenue. I had written a number of folksy/country type songs and since we all enjoyed the music of Bob Dylan and Peter Paul And Mary, that was the avenue we decided to go down."

Their second single, "Movin'" (b/w "Rainbow"), released in October 1963, was a flop.

Their third single, "Yesterday's Gone" (b/w "Gone The Rainbow"), released in March 1964, was a flop.

Their fourth single, "Don't It Make You Feel Good" (b/w "Sing A Song Of Sadness"), released in August 1964, was a flop.

Their fifth single, "If I Gave You" (b/w "I Wonder Why"), released in October 1964, was a flop.



Their sixth single, "The Leaves Are Falling" (b/w "Delia Gone"), released in November 1964, was a flop.

Their seventh single, "Along Came Jones" (b/w "Walking The Soles Off My Shoes"), released in March 1965, was a flop.

Their eighth single, "Freight Train" (b/w "Take The Bucket To The Well"), released in June 1965, was a flop.

Their ninth single, "Room Enough For You And Me" (b/w "January"), released in October 1965, was a flop.

Their tenth single, "Michelle", released in December 1965 was FINALLY a hit - all the hard work had finally paid off at last with a number 1. Well played lads - got there in the end!

 


Making the most of their brief time in the spotlight, they swiftly cobbled together their first album, "Michelle" - which mainly consisted of the various A and B-sides from their previous flop singles.

 


But with their eleventh single, "My Life" (b/w "Girl From Indiana") released in March 1966, they were back to the flops. Their twelfth and final single, "Go Where You Wanna Go" (b/w "Don't Let It Happen Again"), was released in August 1966.

Paul Arnold : "One of my favourite Overlander songs was the B side of our last single Go Where You Wanna Go, Don't Let It Happen Again was a Laurie Mason composition. In my opinion it should have been the A side."

In 1967, Paul Arnold left the group to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Ian Griffiths on vocals and guitar, but the Overlanders' fate was sealed with the advent of the Summer of Love. The record company didn't help matters any when, in mid-1967, they had the group record an LP jointly with their Pye Records stablemates The Settlers, in which they returned to their roots, doing versions of "Pick a Baile of Cotton," "Goodnight Irene" and other folk songs.

By October of 1967, the band had split. Widlake, with fellow late-era Overlanders' member Vic Lythgoe, cut a pair of singles for Deram Records as part of the Cuppa T including the charming "Miss Pinkerton".

 

Meanwhile, Paul Arnold released a couple of singles, but his solo career never took off, and he later formed a reconstituted folk group, the New Overlanders, who found a performing niche in '70s folk audiences.

Paul Arnold : "After I left, musician singers came and went and the Overlanders disbanded in 1967. I made a couple of singles for Pye and reformed the group as The New Overlanders, there`s originality. We finally folded in 1972 and I formed a duo with my then wife. I left the business in 1981 and got a proper job."

It's a shit business!

The Single :

"Michelle" was written by Paul McCartney, with the middle eight co-written with John Lennon, and originally recorded by popular beat group, The Beatles.

A cover version by The Overlanders, shortly after it's release on the Beatles Rubber Soul album, became a number 1 for three weeks in early 1966.



The words and style of "Michelle" have their origins in the popularity of Parisian Left Bank culture during McCartney's Liverpool days : "it was at the time of people like Juliette Greco, the French bohemian thing." McCartney had gone to a party of art students where a student with a goatee and a striped T-shirt was singing a French song. He soon wrote a farcical imitation to entertain his friends that involved French-sounding groaning instead of real words. The song remained a party piece until 1965, when John Lennon suggested he rework it into a proper song for inclusion on their sixth album, Rubber Soul.

(Jazz critic and broadcaster) Steve Race : "When I heard 'Michelle' I couldn't believe my ears. The second chord is an A-chord, while the note in the melody above is A-flat. This is an unforgivable clash, something no one brought up knowing older music could ever have done. It is entirely unique, a stroke of genius ... I suppose it was sheer musical ignorance that allowed John and Paul to do it, but it took incredible daring."

The song was released by The Beatles as a single in some European countries and in New Zealand, and on an EP in France, in early 1966. It was a number 1 hit in Belgium, France, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

As well as The Overlanders, David and Jonathan had produced a version of "Michelle" - which was produced by George Martin. Despite losing out in the UK chart battle, David & Jonathan's honour was satisfied when it got to number 1 in Canada.

 

Paul Arnold : "Michelle was our tenth single getting to No 1 Jan 1966. I don't really give a monkeys what people think of it, its history, Getting to No 1 was my Mount Everest and I climbed it alongside some great people."

 

Other Versions include :   Bobby Goldsboro (1966)  /  The Four Tops (1966)  /  Sarah Vaughan (1966)  /  Johnny Mathis (1966)  /  The Hollyridge Strings (1966)  /  David McCallum (1966)  /  King Curtis (1966)  /  Chet Atkins (1966)  /  Count Basie (1966)  /  Boots Randolph (1966)  /  Santo & Johnny (1966)  /  Willie Bobo (1966)  /  Kivikasvot (1966)  /  Les Atomes (1966)  /  Dominique (1966)  /  Danielle Denin (1966)  /  Bob Smart (1966)  /  Johnny Reimar (1966)  /  Don Miko (1966)  /  Luis Aguilé (1966)  /  Los Cinco Latinos (1966)  / Diana Ross and The Supremes (1966)  /  Jack Jones (1967)  /  Cathy Berberian (1966)  /  The Free Design (1967)  /  Ed Ames (1967)  /  Wayne Newton (1967)  /  Stan Kenton (1967)  /  Ace Cannon (1967)  /  The Sandpipers (1967)  /  Booker T. & The M.G.'s (1969)  /  Matt Monro (1971)  /  The Anita Kerr Singers (1973)  /  Perry Como (1977)  /  The King's Singers (1986)  /  Harold Faltermeyer (1987)  /  Acker Bilk (1987)  /  The Paragons (1998)  /  The Punkles (2002)  /  Ralph McTell (2005)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  Marty Gold (2011)  /  Iggy Pop (2012)  /  Dave Monk (2015)  /  Max the Wax Snyder (2015)  /  Tatyana Ryzhkova (2016)  /  Stella Jang (2016)  /  Jazz Trio (2016)  /  Ari Sorpresa 8-bit (2016)  /  a robot (2017)  /  Sina & Celi (2018)  /  REO Brothers (2019)

On This Day  :

24 January : 117 passengers are killed after an Air India Boeing-707 plane crashes into Mont Blanc, France
29 January : "Sweet Charity" opens at Palace Theater NYC
3 February : 1st operational weather satellite, ESSA-1 launched
3 February : The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
4 February : Disney's 'Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree' animated featurette released as support to the live-action feature The Ugly Dachshund
6 February : Rick Astley, singer, born Richard Paul Astley in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire
9 February : UK Government announces construction of a nuclear reactor on the North coast of Scotland

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :