[61] Lost Lennon Tapes, Jan. 7, 1991.
[62] Smith, Off the Record (1988), 261.
[63] Davies, The Beatles , 371.
[64] Davies, “All Paul.” In the 1971 letter, Lennon remembered two finishing sessions, one at Paul’s house, one at the studio.
[65] Interview in Smith, Off the Record , 201.
[66] Miles, Many Years from Now , 281-84.
[67] Gambaccini, Paul McCartney In His Own Words , 19. In Lost Lennon Tapes, Jan. 7, 1991, Paul seems to claim the song as entirely his own, then firmly remembered collaboration.
[68] Miles, Many Years from Now , 285.
[69] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What”; Lost Lennon Tapes, July 18, 1988, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 208.
[70] Miles, Many Years from Now , 285, 284.
[71] Uncut interview, in Sawyer, Read the Beatles , 246. The “backwards” guitar was George Harrison’s idea. Lewisohn, Beatles Recording Sessions , 78.
[72] I Me Mine , 102.
[73] Alterman, “The Beatles: Four Smiling, Tired Guys.”
[74] Miles, Many Years from Now , 285-86.
[75] Baird, John Lennon, My Brother , 38. Paul said it was written “in the tradition of old melodic standards.” Coleman, Yesterday . . . and Today , 38-39.
[76] Gambaccini, “The Rolling Stone Interview,” also Gambaccini, Paul McCartney In His Own Words , 66.
[77] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[78] Lost Lennon Tapes, Sept. 23, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 189.
[79] Goodman, “Paul and Linda McCartney Interview,” Playboy , 107.
[80] Coleman, Yesterday . . . and Today , 38-39.
[81] Lost Lennon Tapes, Jan. 21, 1991; Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 223.
[82] Donovan 1985-89, in Somach et al., Ticket to Ride , 156. See also Turner, A Hard Day’s Write , 108-9; Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: an Oral History , 208; Leitch, The Autobiography of Donovan , 153. Miles, Many Years from Now , 287.
[83] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 189-90.
[84] Aspinall, “Neil’s Column,” The Beatles Monthly Book no. 38 (Sept. 1966), 25.
[85] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 189-90. See also George Harrison in White, “Billboard Interview” (1999).
[86] White, “Billboard Interview” (1999).
[87] Hieronimus, Interview with George Martin, 1995.
[88] Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 207.
[89] Matthew, “Interview with Paul McCartney & John Lennon,” March 20, 1967. In the same interview, Paul said, “I suppose I thought of the idea and then John and I wrote it . . . We just sort of thought, we have to have a song. That it was. Sort of bit of fantasy in it, you know. And the only way to do that would be to have it so kids could understand it, and anyone could take it on any level. Multi-level song.”
[90] Miles, Many Years from Now , 286-87.
[91] Beatles, “Press Conference in New York City (August 22, 1966).”
[92] Alterman, “The Beatles: Four Smiling, Tired Guys.”
[93] Miles, Many Years from Now , 286-87.
[94] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 189-90.
[95] Miles, Many Years from Now , 286-87, quoted above.
[96] Goodman, “Paul and Linda McCartney Interview,” 107.
[97] The Paul McCartney World Tour , 55. See also an undated interview with Paul in Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 228. “Just before I went to sleep I had this idea about a yellow submarine. It just came into my mind, so, the next day I started writing it, and finished it up.”
[98] Read, “McCartney on McCartney,” episode 2.
[99] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[100] Anthology , 208.
[101] Harrison in White, “Billboard Interview.” Hieronimus, Interview with George Martin, 1995. Aspinall, “Neil’s Column,” The Beatles Monthly Book no. 38 (Sept. 1966), 25. Guests in the studio, people like Brian Jones, Marianne Faithfull and Pattie Harrison, also contributed special effects, Winn, That Magic Feeling , 22.
[102] See on “Love You To,” above. George, in Anthology , 190. Miles, Many Years from Now , 288. Peter Fonda and Roger McGuinn also tell the story, Turner, A Hard Day’s Write , 111. For the date, Everett II, 62.
[103] Lost Lennon Tapes, Dec. 5, 1988, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 190.
[104] Peter Fonda, before 1982 (in Cott and Doudna, The Ballad of John and Yoko , 217-18).
[105] Cott, “The Rolling Stone Interview” (1968).
[106] Anthology , 97.
[107] Cott, “The Rolling Stone Interview” (1968). See also Lennon in 1970 (Anthology 190); Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror ; Lennon before 1972 (Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 210); Lennon before 1979 (Cowan, Behind the Beatles Songs , 42); Wenner, Lennon Remembers , 55; Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 190. Composing tapes, Lost Lennon Tapes, June 25,1990.
[108] Miles, Many Years from Now , 288.
[109] Goodman, “Paul and Linda McCartney Interview,” 107 (1984). Similar: Read, “McCartney on McCartney,” episode 3.
[110] Du Noyer, Conversations , 55; Miles, Many Years from Now , 288.
[111] Ibid.
[112] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Nine years later, his memories of collaboration are even more vague: “‘Good Day Sunshine’ is Paul’s. Maybe I threw a line in or something. I don’t know.” Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 190.
[113] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[114] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 190.
[115] Miles, Many Years from Now , 288.
[116] Flanagan, “Boy, You’re Gonna Carry That Weight,” 44 (1990).
[117] Goodman, “Paul and Linda McCartney Interview,” 107 (1984).
[118] Elson, McCartney — Songwriter , 163.
[119] Read, “McCartney on McCartney,” episode 3.
[120] Miles, Many Years from Now , 288-89. Similar: Anthology , 207; Snow, “Paul McCartney”: “I was going out with Jane Asher at the time, and I was . . . commenting on the relationship, perhaps.”
[121] Garbarini and Baird, “Has Success Spoiled Paul McCartney?” 62.
[122] As quoted in Everett II, 54.
[123] Anthology , 207.
[124] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[125] Lost Lennon Tapes, Sept. 23, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 190.
[126] Lost Lennon Tapes, Sept. 23, 1991, cf. Sheff, Playboy Interviews ., 190-91.
[127] Shotton and Schaffner, The Beatles, Lennon and Me, 213-14.
[128] Miles, Many Years from Now , 289; Turner, A Hard Day’s Write , 114.
[129] Miles, Many Years from Now , 290.
[130] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[131] Miles, Many Years from Now , 289-90. See also Aldridge, “Beatles Not All That Turned On,” 139-40.
[132] Harrison, I Me Mine , 96.
[133] Miles, Many Years from Now , 190.
[134] Goodman, “Paul and Linda McCartney Interview,” 107.
[135] Lost Lennon Tapes, Sept. 23, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 191.
[136] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[137] John in Anthology , 209.
[138] Miles, Many Years from Now , 229-30.
[139] George Harrison, in Anthology , 210. Pollack, “Notes on … Series.”
[140] Miles, Many Years from Now , 290-91. Also, Anthology , 210.
[141] Anthology , 210. Also, Read, “McCartney on McCartney,” (1989), episode 3.
[142] Lost Lennon Tapes, July 18, 1988, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 191. Read, “McCartney on McCartney,” episode 3. Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions , 70, cites Neil Aspinall on the title “The Void,” but evidently thinks Aspinall was wrong.
[143] Beatles Interview, February 22, 1964; also in Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 88.
[144] Paul is probably talking about the two sections of the song; the fi
rst part seems to have three verses, the second part four verses.
[145] In Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: an Oral History , 209.
[146] Paul and tape loops: McCartney in Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: an Oral History , 209. Miles, Many Years from Now , 291. Beatle interview, with Ken Douglas, August 12, 1966, as summarized in Winn, That Magic Feeling , 43. Beatles interview, August 11-29, 1964 (both Paul and John), as cited in Winn, That Magic Feeling , 63. Williams, “Produced by George Martin.” George Martin before 1995, in With a Little Help , 79-80. See also Martin quoted in Turner, A Hard Day’s Write , 116.
[147] George Martin before 1995, in With a Little Help , 79-80. See also Martin quoted in Turner, A Hard Day’s Write , 116.
[148] McCartney in Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: an Oral History , 209.
[149] George Martin before 1995, in With a Little Help , 79-80. See also Martin quoted in Turner, A Hard Day’s Write , 116.
[150] Martin, With a Little Help , 79-80.
[151] Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 12.
[152] Ibid.
[153] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What.” See also McCabe and Schonfeld, “John & Yoko. ” Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 191.
[154] June 1966 interview, in Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 207.
[155] James, “Beatles Talk,” Jan. 1967.
[156] Smith, “My Broken Tooth.”
[157] Aspinall, “Neil’s Column,” The Beatles Monthly Book no. 38 (Sept. 1966), 25.
[158] For example, in a Rolling Stone readers poll in 2002, Revolver is 1 (Sgt. Pepper is 3, the White Album is 5, and Abbey Road is 6). Tim Riley, an important Beatles critic, agrees. Tell Me Why , 181, 203.
10
“We were often answering each other’s songs” —
SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
I n this period, John and Paul wrote “answering songs,” as Paul’s “Penny Lane” responded to John’s “Strawberry Fields Forever.” This paradoxically shows both their growing independence as writers and their mutual influence. Paul contributed the structural idea and title songs for both Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour; he also was the “lead” writer on many of the songs for these albums. So he was a dominant force behind Sgt. Pepper , often regarded as the finest album in the popular music canon, and a central “countercultural” work of art (though the album was much more than a simple psychedelic document, as it included such typical McCartney and Lennon themes as loneliness and loss, and love sometimes bridging human divides). John later perceived himself “lying fallow” as a songwriter during this period, [1] though this concept is belied by such Lennon-dominated masterpieces as “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “A Day in the Life,” “I Am the Walrus,” and “All You Need is Love.” The transcendent climax of Pepper , “A Day in the Life,” was a Lennon-McCartney collaboration in which John wrote the main song, and Paul contributed the “middle song.” Both contributed to the experimental, orchestral “freakout” sections of the song. The two songwriters usually had clear possession of the songs in this period, but their opposite number often added significantly to them, as was the case in “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” (mainly by John) or “With a Little Help for My Friends” and “She’s Leaving Home” (mainly by Paul). A surprising contributor to the lyrics of “Sgt. Pepper” and possibly “Fixing a Hole” is the Beatles’ assistant, Mal Evans — another example of the familiar pattern of songwriting help by whoever is hanging around — but such contributions, as always, were limited to words, filling in small gaps in the lyrics.
The Family Way soundtrack album, January 6, 1967
The original idea for The Family Way was for Paul to work with John on the project, as an interview with John in 1966 shows: “I know we got music to write, soon as we get back. And Paul’s just signed us up to write the music for a film.” [2] However, Paul ended up doing the soundtrack alone. John was reportedly offended that Paul had written the music without him, but Paul said that he thought both he and John were doing many separate things at the time, such as John’s books, and his acting in Lester’s How I Won the War . [3]
Paul worked with George Martin on arranging the music. He said, in an undated interview:
I just made up the themes. I just wrote the tunes and said, ‘Here’s how it goes, George,’ and then explained to him how I wanted it orchestrated because I can’t write music to this day. . . . I wasn’t trying to write hits. I was just trying to write something that would suit the film, which was actually harder to do than something commercial. [4]
This album is based on only two melodies, the main theme (cut one), and “Love in the Open Air” (cut seven). There were thirteen cuts in all, and only twenty-two minutes of music in the soundtrack! However, the two tunes are first-rate.
“The Family Way,” main theme — (McCartney)
(recorded in November and December 1966)
Paul has always loved brass band music, very typical of northern England, as his father had played trumpet and his grandfather had played in bands. He thought this kind of music wouldn’t fit with the Beatles, but it would fit with The Family Way , set in northern England. “For the film I got something together that was sort of ‘brassy band,’ to echo the Northernness of the story, and I had a great time,” he said. [5]
“Love in the Open Air” — (McCartney)
(recorded in November and December 1966)
Paul had written the main theme for the movie, but George Martin realized they needed a theme for the love story in the movie, “something wistful.” He told Paul, then waited, but no love theme was forthcoming. Finally, as he tells the story, he had to come to Paul’s house “and literally stand there until he’d composed something. John was visiting and advised a bit, but Paul created the tune and played it to me on guitar.” Martin wrote it down, then arranged it for woodwinds and strings. “It is a fragile, yet compelling, melody,” he said. “We called it Love in the Open Air. It’s quite haunting.” [6]
Paul tells the story a bit differently. He agreed that George requested the theme, and quickly. “I said, ‘I’ll tell you what, George, come on over and see me (he lived about half an hour away) and I’ll try to knock up something by the time you get there.’” Paul had the tune by the time George walked in the door. [7]
I tend to think that Paul would more easily come up with a tune this sophisticated without someone standing over him, so I lean toward the latter story. Whichever is correct, the finished tune was a solid success, and went on to win the Ivor Novello award.
“Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane” single, February 17, 1967 (double A-side)
This, one of the great singles in the history of popular music, marked an advance even from Revolver .
Strawberry Fields Forever — (Lennon-McCartney)
(lead vocals: John) (recorded on November 24, 28-29, December 8-9, 15, 21-22, 1966)
As a boy, John lived next door to Strawberry Fields, a Salvation Army orphanage, on Beaconsfield Road in Woolton, Liverpool. He and his aunt would attend fêtes there, which John always looked forward to. Much later, nudged by a journalist to write more about his life in his songs, [8] he began to think of places in his childhood, such as Strawberry Fields. “We were trying to write about Liverpool, and I just listed all the nice-sounding names, just arbitrarily. . . . But Strawberry Fields — I mean, I have visions of Strawberry Fields. . . . Because Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go.” [9] So a song devoted entirely to the place resulted.
John began writing the song in September and October 1966, when he was acting in Dick Lester’s How I Won The War in Almeria, Spain. [10] In 1967, he stated, “it was written in this big Spanish house, part of it, and then finished on the beach.” [11] John’s roommate, actor Michael Crawford, was the first to hear the song (according to Crawford). [12] John referred to “Strawberry Fields” as “psychoanalysis set to music really.” [13]
He did not write the first verse first. He wrote the second verse and chorus in Spain, and added the third verse when he returned to London in November. George Martin remembered John playing the new song for him, “sitting on a stool in front of me strumming an acoustic guitar.” [14] By the time the Beatles began recording the song, on November 24, the first verse was present. [15]
Paul helped finish the song. John said, in 1967, “But we don’t often write entirely on our own — I mean I did bits for ‘Penny Lane’ and Paul wrote some of ‘Strawberry Fields.’” [16] Paul played the intro on a Mellotron, in flute music, and played Mellotron in strings in the early part of the song; the intro was Paul’s melody from John’s harmony, an example of musical collaboration. George Martin called it a “simple but inspired piece of composition.” [17]
In a stark contrast to early Beatles practice, this song took some four weeks to record. It was done first in bare style; then John had George Martin help with a “heavier” orchestrated version. When John asked Martin to combine the two versions, with the first version morphing into the second, the producer and engineer Geoff Emerick were able to link the two versions together only with great difficulty. [18]
“Strawberry Fields” is definitely a John composition, and John claimed it in many interviews. In 1968, he discussed what he meant when he wrote it. [19] And in 1970, he said, “The only true songs I ever wrote were like ‘Help’ and ‘Strawberry Fields.’” [20] Paul also referred to “Strawberry Fields” as a John song. In 2004, he affirmed, “For those early years, the competition was great . . . If he wrote ‘Strawberry Fields,’ it was like he’d upped the ante, so I had to come up with something as good as ‘Penny Lane.’” [21]
Despite these statements, in other places, both John and Paul stated that Paul made a contribution to the song, if a limited one. [22] In 1973, Paul said, “We’d kind of write 80% together and the other 20% for me were things like ‘Yesterday’ and for John things like ‘Strawberry Fields’ that he’d write mainly on his own.” [23] While Paul definitely refers to “Strawberry Fields” as John’s individual song here, he does temper that with “mainly.” As late as 2007, Paul mentioned that he and John were starting to write separately, in songs like “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields,” but “We’d get together and polish them.” [24]
Who Wrote the Beatle Songs Page 19