Revolver Deep Dive Part 12: I Want To Tell You

Side Two, Track Five

“I Want to Tell You” said George…and Anthony!

by Jude Southerland Kessler and Anthony Robustelli

 

This month, the Fest for Beatles Fans Blog takes an in-depth look at Revolver’s “I Want to Tell You.”  Jude Southerland Kessler, our Fest Blogger and author of The John Lennon Series works hand-in-hand with Anthony Robustelli, author of (wait for it…) I Want to Tell You, The Definitive Guide to the Music of The Beatles, Vol. 1, 1962-1963. Who better to give us a “Fresh, New Perspective” on George’s third song on this pivotal LP than Anthony? He wrote the book!

 

Anthony holds a degree in music from NYU, and since 1996, he has run his own successful recording studio, Shady Bear Productions. Also, as a sought-after stage musician, Anthony has performed with Gloria Gaynor, Bo Diddley, Michael Franti & Spearhead, and many more. In 2022, he opened for Sir Paul McCartney at the Glastonbury Festival. Wow! We are very honored to have Anthony – a frequent Guest Author at the Fest for Beatles Fans – take time out from his crazy-busy schedule to share with us!

 

And… we can’t wait to see each and every one of you at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare for the Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans, August 9-11! The lineup is too good to miss! Get your tickets and get ready for the time of your life!

 

What’s Standard:

 

Date Recorded: 2 June 1966

Place Recorded: Studio Two

Time Recorded: Early in the session, which ran from 7.00 p.m. to 3.30 a.m.

 

Technical Team:

Producer: George Martin

Sound Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Second Engineer: Phil McDonald (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 74)

 

On this day: The Beatles did five takes to capture the backing track. Take 3 was selected as “best.” The track featured George Harrison (the composer and lead singer) on one of three guitars that he had in studio: either his 1961 Fender Stratocaster, his 1964 Gibson SG Standard, or his 1965 Epiphone ES-230-TD, Casino. Paul McCartney played the studio’s Steinway “Music Room” Model “B” Grand Piano, and Ringo Starr was on his 1964 Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl “Super Classic” drum set. John Lennon sang backing vocals with Paul McCartney; these were added in superimposition, as was a piano part by McCartney. One of The Beatles (some sources designate John; others say Ringo) added a superimposed maracas part. After a tape reduction remix, dubbed Take 4 (regardless of the fact that a Take 4 already existed), handclaps were added onto the new Take 4.*

 

Second Date Recorded: 3 June 1966

Place Recorded: Studio Two

Time Recorded: Early in the session which ran from 7.00 p.m. to 2.00 a.m.

 

Technical Team:

Producer: George Martin

Sound Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Second Engineer: Phil McDonald (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 82)

 

On this day: Paul McCartney’s bass line (played on his Rickenbacker 4001S) was superimposed onto the new Take 4. This completed The Beatles’ work on the song.*

 

*From Hammack’s The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 144-146.

 

Sources:

Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 81-82, Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, 224, The Beatles, The Beatles Anthology, 209, Rodriguez, Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, 66 and 68, Womack, The Beatles Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, Womack, Long and Winding Roads, 145,  Harry, The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia, 334, Winn, That Magic Feeling, 23, Gould, Can’t Buy Me Love, 362-363, Spizer, The Beatles for Sale on Parlophone Records, 215-216, Turner, Beatles ’66, 157-159, Turner, A Hard Day’s Write, 115, Turner, Beatles ’66, 260 and 261, Margotin and Guesdon, All the Songs, 346-347, Riley, Tell Me Why, 196-197, MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, 166, O’Toole, Songs We Were Singing, 111-112, 231, Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 144-146, Spizer, The Beatles From Rubber Soul to Revolver, 221, Miles, The Beatles Diary, Vol. 1, 232 and 239,  Everett, The Beatles as Musicians, Revolver Through Anthology, 57-58, Davies, The Beatles Lyrics, 174-175, Hertsgaard, A Day In the Life: The Music and Artistry of The Beatles, 187-188, and Mellers, Twilight of the Gods, 79-80.

 

 

What’s Changed:

 

  1. Separate Bass Overdub – On 3 June, 1966, Paul’s bass overdub on the Rickenbaker 4001S was done separately from the other instruments. Paul had overdubbed his bass previously. For example, on 10 November 1965 he added the bass as a superimposition for “The Word,” but the bass was not added individually. In The Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn states, “It was, for the first time on a Beatles recording, a bass guitar superimposition only.” (p. 82) Lewisohn points out that this “afford[ed] it a vacant track on the four-track tape, [which] allowed a greater dexterity with the sound in the re-mix.” In The Beatles From Rubber Soul to Revolver, Spizer goes on to say that this practice also “enabled [Paul] to come up with [a] more melodic bass line…” (p. 203) Lewisohn notes that this technique is something “that would become more commonplace during and after 1967.” (Beatles Recording Sessions, p. 82)

 

  1. Time Constraints –  The 2 June recording of the rhythm track for “I Want to Tell You” was completed efficiently. In fact, Lewisohn  refers to it as: “A quick recording.” (The Beatles Recording Sessions, 81)

 

Then, Lewisohn quotes Geoff Emerick as saying: “One really got the impression that George was being given a certain amount of time to do his tracks whereas the others  could spend as long as they wanted. One felt under more pressure when doing one of George’s songs.” Although Geroge was given three songs on Revolver rather than his customary one (or two, at best), the amount of time allotted for recording and re-recording was not as lavishly spent on Harrison’s number as it was on Lennon and McCartney’s. George was, as Emerick himself observes, expected to “Turn to!” (Meaning, get to work.) Perhaps (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) that is one motivation behind the 129 times that George recorded and re-recorded “Not Guilty” for the Esher Demos.

 

Although George was not always treated equitably, Robert Rodriguez in Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, points out that, “Though it would be a long time before his senior Beatle partners would come to regard [George] as anything approaching an equal, proximity to the two masters accelerated the learning curve.” (p. 66) As proof of that extraordinary growth, Rodriguez points to the “thematic complexity” of “I Want to Tell You” (which we will discuss below) and says it is “found nowhere else on the album. It marked George’s ascent to a world-class songwriter.” (p. 66)

 

  1. Three Prelim Titles – By now, everyone realized that George Harrison struggled with song titles. In The Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn shares this fun bit of verbiage in Studio Two from 2 June, 1966:

 

Martin: What are you going to call it, George?

Harrison: [who doesn’t know] I don’t know!

John: Granny Smith Part Friggin’ Two! (To George) You never had a title for any of your songs!

To which, Geoff Emerick suggests another British apple, “Laxton’s Superb.” (p. 81)

 

By 3 June, Harrison’s song title had morphed from “Laxton’s Superb” to “I Don’t Know.” Then, at the end of the evening, it became “I Want to Tell You.” Three titles for a Harrison number. A new record had been set!

 

More on the apple-themed titles from Anthony Robustelli in the “Fresh, New Look” segment.

 

  1. Much-Debated Lyrics – When asked about the message of this song, George said, “‘I Want to Tell You’ is about the avalanche of thoughts that are so hard to write down or transmit.” And Beatles experts echo the composer’s intent, but add that other topics are in play as well. For example, Riley in Tell Me Why says, “This song shuns the modern anxieties with time and seeks exchange and the enlightened possibilities that lie outside fixed Western boundaries.” (p. 196) Womack in The Beatles Encyclopedia, Vol. 1 adds, “Clearly written with Eastern notions of karma in mind, ‘I Want to Tell You’ addresses the individual as the result of a set of totalizing, lived experiences.” (p. 434) And although Mellers repeats that Harrison’s theme is “the difficulty of communication,” he asserts that “I Want to Tell You” has “no Eastern connections.” (Twilight of the Gods, p. 79) Finally, Miles tells us that the song is about George’s “determinedly realistic view of relationships, in which failed communication was the order of the day.” (The Beatles Diary, Vol. 1, 239) Miles goes on to say that “all of [George’s] portrayals of love were surrounded in misunderstanding and the dreadful prospect of boredom, and this was no exception.” (The Beatles Diary, Vol. 1, 239)

 

Early Beatles songs from 1963 and 1964 focused on touching but simpler themes such as “I love you,” “She loves you,” “You love me,” and (in the case of “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl”) “You don’t love her enough.” Now, however, both fans and critics find themselves examining songs with complicated meanings and myriad interpretations. The exciting tracks on Revolver – and this Harrison composition in particular – offer layers of complex messages that would be debated for the next 60 years…thus far.

 

A Fresh, New Look:

 

We welcome our friend Anthony Robustelli to the Fest Blog for July! Besides being a frequent presenter at the Fest for Beatles Fans, I’ve also shared happy times with Anthony at Beatles at the Ridge and the GRAMMY Museum of Mississippi “Beatles Symposium.” With Anthony’s vast knowledge of music and recording techniques, I’m looking forward to his “Fresh, New Look” at George Harrison’s “I Want to Tell You.”

 

Jude Southerland Kessler: Anthony, thanks so much for taking time out from your studio, your own music, and your research for what I HOPE will soon be the new volume of your amazing book on ALL Beatles songs (both originals and covers), I Want to Tell You. Your work is so thorough that I know your answers here will give us all some new insights into this familiar 1966 song. So, with that in mind… George Harrison’s “I Want to Tell You” does not, at first glance, seem to exhibit as profound an Indian influence as does say “Love You To” or Sgt. Pepper’s “Within You, Without You.” But there are subtle touches both musically and lyrically that incorporate George Harrison’s passion/beliefs. Tell us about those, please.

 

Robustelli: While “I Want to Tell You,” doesn’t necessarily use Indian instruments, it conveys an Eastern feeling that is apparent in “Love You To” and later, on a grander scale, “Within You Without You.” Harrison’s vocal performance is full of bends reminiscent of the dilruba, a bowed Indian instrument later heard on “Within You, Without You.” He also makes good use of an odd number of measures (eleven to be precise) for the verse which keeps the listener off balance. Many believe that there’s a bar of 2/4 snuck in there at bar four, but Harrison just changes chords in the middle of the bar while “just confusing things.” Interestingly, McCartney also adds some of these elements to the song, as he did with his blistering Indian influenced guitar solo on “Taxman.” The piano phrase in bars six through nine highlight the flattened ninth of the E chord – quite a jarring development – and the melismas he sings on the outro are Eastern flavored. Even the fade out has a drone-like quality with McCartney’s bubbling bass that pedals underneath Harrison’s striking guitar riff.

 

Kessler: It’s interesting that in a song about how difficult it is to express one’s feelings, George looked back at the lyrics years later and said that he got the words wrong and would change them if he could. What did he want to change and why?

 

Robustelli: With his newfound interest in Eastern religion Harrison found himself at odds with the Western philosophy that often put financial success above spirituality. He was still having problems expressing himself with his lyrics, and the inability to communicate is the main focus of the song. He even had trouble naming his songs with “Love You To” having a working title of “Granny Smith,” named by engineer Geoff Emerick after his favorite apple. When it came time to record “I Want To Tell You” Harrison once again had no title, so Emerick decided to name it “Laxton’s Superb,” another type of apple. Harrison later stated that his new Eastern beliefs should have led him to change the lyrics to the first bridge in order to explain that rather than listen to a mind “that hops about telling us to do this or that – what we need to do is lose the mind.” When he toured Japan in 1991, he took his own advice and changed the line to “It isn’t me, it’s just my mind.” Even with the original lyric, Harrison was beginning to find his footing as a lyricist by using themes that were universal.

 

Kessler: Ted Nugent’s 1979 remake of “I Want to Tell You” is praised by Margotin and Guesdon in All the Songs as “a superb remake which tends to show that with more arrangements and more work what George’s song could have been.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?

 

Robustelli: Well, I’ve never been a fan of Ted Nugent, nor of his music, and I don’t think his cover added anything to the original. I don’t particularly like the lead guitar riffs or the fact that he adds a bar of 2/4 before the original dissonant piano phrase that begins on the E chord. While the original piano part is unexpected and swings in an inimitable way, in Nugent’s version this section is plodding and choppy. When we arrive at the middle section more horrors are in store as Nugent decides to only play a B minor chord, whereas Harrison’s original incorporates not only the B minor chord but a B diminished and a B7. These changes give the song its unstable nature and lead the ear to unexpected places, something Nugent’s version does not do. Follow this with a pedestrian guitar solo, and there really isn’t much to say of this tame, and lame, cover version of a fantastic Harrison song.

 

Kessler: Many music critics have said that this song was addressed to Pattie Boyd, but Riley quotes David Laing as noting that the song was meant, possibly, as a message between the artist and the audience. What say you?

 

Robustelli: While it could be looked at as a simple statement about his trouble expressing himself to his wife Pattie Boyd when they first met during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night two years earlier, it probably had a broader meaning. As you mentioned earlier, George stated in his 1980 book I Me Mine that “‘I Want To Tell You” is about the avalanche of thoughts that are so hard to write down or say or transmit.” But his original lyrics seem to stem from the more typical trope of being unable to express feelings to a love interest. The original lyrics, “Maybe love will be the one thing to get me by,” were replaced with “I don’t mind, I could wait forever, I’ve got time” and “If you should see me and need my love to pass the time” was changed to “So I could speak my mind and tell you maybe you’d understand.” The new lyrics are more sophisticated and lend an ambiguous air to a song that is musically dissonant and unsettled.

 

For more information on Anthony Robustelli’s work, HEAD HERE

 

Follow Anthony on Social Media:

Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Twitter

Share

Revolver Deep Dive Part 4: Love You To

Side One, Track Four

“Love You To:” Now For Something Completely Different

 

by Jude Southerland Kessler and Susan Shumsky

 

Through 2023, the Fest for Beatles Fans blog has been moving track-by-track through The Beatles’ incredible 1966 LP, Revolver. This month, author Susan Shumsky, D.D., who has 20 books in print in English, 39 foreign editions, and 49 book awards, and has recently released The Inner Light: How India Influenced The Beatles, will provide our “Fresh New Look” at this pivotal George Harrison song.

 

Shumsky studied and lived in the ashrams of The Beatles’ mentor Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for two decades, spending six of those years on his personal staff. A spiritual teacher and producer of holistic conferences at sea, spiritual retreats, and tours to sacred destinations, she has done over 700 speaking engagements and 1300 media appearances, including Cosmopolitan magazine, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Fox News TV, and William Shatner’s “Weird or What?” In addition, she has appeared in several films, including the Beatles documentaries “The Beatles and India” and “Here There and Everywhere.” Susan has been an essential part of our Fest Family for years, speaking at both the New Jersey and Chicago Fests.

 

For our June study, Susan joins Fest blogger Jude Southerland Kessler, author of the five-volume John Lennon Series – and the new audiobook of She Loves You (Vol. 3 in the series) – for this in-depth look at “Love You To.”

 

What’s Standard:

 

Date Recorded: 11 April 1966

Time Recorded: 2:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 72)

Studio: EMI Studios, Studio 3

Tech Team

Producer: George Martin

Balance Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Second Engineer: Phil McDonald

 

In That Magic Feeling, John C. Winn tells us that on 11 April 1966, this was recorded:

A1 – George recorded the basic rhythm track by singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar (identified by Margotin and Guesdon as his Gibson JE-160). Paul provided backing vocals on the last word of each verse.

A2 – Paul played fuzz bass, using a volume pedal to “swell the notes.”

A3 – Then, the sitar, tambura, and tabla are overdubbed. Anil Bhagwat plays the tabla.

A4 – A second sitar and fuzz guitar are overdubbed. (Some sources state George played this fuzz guitar. Jerry Hammack in The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2 states that George used either the “1961 Fender Stratocaster with a synchronized tremolo, [the] 1964 Gibson SG Standard with Gibson Maestro Vibrola vibrato, [or the] 1965 Epiphone ES-230TD.” (p. 114) Other sources have indicated that John Lennon might have played the fuzz guitar here.)

 

Furthermore, Winn tells us that on this same day, “a 34-second edit piece was taped for the song’s intro, consisting of…sitar. At the end of the day, a rough mono mix of take 6 was made for George to take home.” (p. 9)

 

Date Recorded: 13 April 1966

Time Recorded: 2:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Studio: EMI Studios, Studio 3

Tech Team

Producer: George Martin

Balance Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Second Engineer: Richard Lush (In his Beatles Recording Sessions, Lewisohn notes, “Eighteen-year-old Richard Lush, another Abbey Road apprentice with a promising future, made his recording session debut as Beatles tape operator on this day.” p. 73)

 

On the 13th, take 6 was reduced to take 7 as A1 and A2 were combined. Then, A3 and A4 were combined. (Winn, That Magic Feeling, 9)

 

Paul then added a new tape on which he sang high harmony on the lines, “They’ll fill you in with all their sins you’ll see.” (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 73).  However, both Lewisohn and Rodriguez tell us that Paul’s high harmony part eventually “fell by the wayside.” (Rodriguez, Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, 114)

 

Also, on the 13th, Ringo played the tambourine.

 

Date Recorded: 25 April

John C. Winn informs us that the 34-second intro piece was added to “Love You To” on this day.

 

Editing was done on 20 June and 21 June. During this time frame, George Harrison decided on the title of “Love You To,” supplanting its working title (supplied by Geoff Emerick) of “Granny Smith” – Emerick’s favorite apple. (Winn, 9 and Emerick, 123)

 

 

Instrumentation and Musicians:

George Harrison, the composer, sings lead vocals and plays an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, and possibly, the sitar. (Some music critics question the latter. In Revolution in the Head, for example, Ian MacDonald states that a “sitarist [is]now thought to have played most of what was attributed to Harrison.” p. 155).***

Paul McCartney plays bass on his 1964 Rickenbacker 4001S bass in the early stages of the song and possibly provides backing vocals.

Ringo Starr plays tambourine.

Anil Bhagwat plays tabla.

***Note from Susan Shumsky: Anil Bhagwat swears that George played the sitar throughout.

Ayana Deva Anagadi on sitar. (Womack, Long and Winding Roads, 139)

Several other accomplished musicians from the North London Asian Music Circle play tambura.

 

Sources: The Beatles, The Anthology, 209, Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, 217, Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 72-73, Shumsky, The Inner Light: How India Influenced The Beatles, 69-77, Spizer, The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver, 216, Rodriguez, Revolver, How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, 66-67 and 114-115, Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 113-114, Everett, The Beatles as Musicians, 40-42, Margotin and Guesdon, All the Songs, 330-331, Winn, That Magic Feeling, 9-10, Emerick, Here, There, and Everywhere, 123-124, Turner, A Hard Day’s Write, 106, Turner, Beatles ’66, 147-149, Riley, Tell Me Why, 186, MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, 155, Womack, Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles, 139-140, and Hunter Davies, The Beatles Lyrics, 156-157.

 

What’s Changed:

 

The better topic to address might be “What Hasn’t Changed?” In this fourth track on Revolver, nothing is familiar!!! No guitars, no drums, no standard four-chord rock progression. Everything we thought we knew about The Beatles has altered. Let’s take a look:

 

  1. A Second Harrison Track on Side One – Gone are the days of the obligatory “one-track-per-album” Harrison allotment. On Revolver, not only does George perform three songs, but he also scores the opening track! And here, George comes back strong with a second original offering for Side One, even though Lennon and McCartney have, thus far, performed only one song each.

 

In his book Here, There, and Everywhere, EMI Engineer Geoff Emerick observed, “I noticed a definite maturing of George Harrison during the course of the Revolver sessions. Up until that point, he had played a largely subordinate role in the band…But he ended up recording three original songs on this album.” (p. 125)

 

  1. The “Integration of Foreign Musical Cultures” –  Tim Riley uses these words to quantify the unique sound of Harrison’s second track on Revolver. Riley goes on to say, “It’s a bold move from [George], trading in the religion of Chuck Berry’s guitar for Ravi Shankar’s meditative sitar.” (Tell Me Why, 186)

 

Bold move, indeed! For most fans, the melody of “Love You To” was utterly alien. As Hunter Davies aptly observes in The Beatles Lyrics, “The shock of the music – to our naïve, primitive, virgin 1966 ears, accustomed to guitar-based rock’n’roll – rather overshadowed the words. And it still does.” (p. 156)

 

“Love You To” was replete with instruments that Beatles fans had never heard. Yes, there had been a bit of sitar in “Norwegian Wood,” but a glimpse only. Now, Harrison was introducing the tabla and tambura. On a grander scale, even the tone, meter, and musical progression of “Love You To” sounds unusual to untrained Western ears. Harrison truly was stepping out – introducing not just a new song but a revolutionary new genre and a new way of thinking!

 

  1. Emerick’s Revolutionary Close-Miking of the Tabla – In Emerick’s own words, “I had never miked Indian instruments before, but I was especially impressed with the huge sound coming from the tabla (percussion instruments similar to bongos). I decided to close-mic them, placing a sensitive ribbon-mic just a few inches away, and then I heavily compressed the signal. No one had ever recorded a tabla like that – they’d always been miked from a distance. My idea resulted in a fabulous sound, right in your face….” (Here, There, and Everywhere, p. 125)

 

The employment of the ribbon-mic, Jerry Hammack explains, was radical in and of itself. He says, “As another departure from Norman Smith’s recording techniques, ribbon microphones wouldn’t normally be used in close proximity as they were sensitive to rapid changes in air pressure such as those created by a drum (the tabla being a pair of hand drums)….” (The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 113) Even the recording techniques of “Love You To” issued in a new era at EMI.

 

  1. A Dramatic Change of Meter – As “Love You To” nears its close, the meter decidedly changes pace, a sound that Walter Everett tells us “was a normal event for Indian listeners.” But for Western ears, this accelerated whirlwind of sound was “something entirely different.” (The Beatles as Musicians, 40) This change of pace would begin to influence John’s songs within just a few weeks, Everett states. After being largely ignored for a few years, George Harrison was now emerging as a trendsetter.

 

  1. A Change of Attitude – Music experts point out that many of Harrison’s early songs express a mistrustful, “leave-me-alone” attitude. As Robert Rodriguez observes in Revolver, How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, “Thematically, George’s material [before Revolver] tended toward conveying disapproval (“Don’t Bother Me,” “You Like Me Too Much,” “Think For Yourself”) – not usually the stuff of which pop hits were made.” (p. 66)

 

Yet, here in “Love You To,” Harrison’s newfound interest in Indian music and religion seems to have altered his course. As a lifelong pragmatist, George is still fully aware that “each day just goes so fast/You turn around it’s past.” But Harrison’s reaction to the fleeting nature of existence is no longer depression or resentment. Instead, George wants to celebrate each day with song and love-making: “Make love all day long! Make love singing songs!”

 

Furthermore, although George is still conscious of the fact that:

 

“There’s people standing round

Who’ll screw you in the ground,

They’ll fill you in with all their sins, you’ll see…”

 

George opts to ignore those individuals…to take the high road and live a life full of passion and celebratory music. He isn’t oblivious to reality; he has learned to cope with life’s downside in a new and positive way.

 

 

A Fresh, New Look:

 

Jude Southerland Kessler: Susan, for years, Beatles music experts have told us about unique elements in this song that made it very special. But most people – unfamiliar with the terms these experts used – still didn’t understand exactly what was happening in the song musically. So, if you don’t mind, please walk us through what these terms mean and how they relate to “Love You To.”

 

Susan Shumsky:

 

Sitar – Indian musical instruments were played on the soundtrack of The Beatles movie Help!, a parody about ancient Indian highway robbers and murderers called “thuggees.” The first time George Harrison encountered the sitar was in Twickenham Studios while filming Help! in February 1965. He described, “We were waiting to shoot the scene in the restaurant when the guy gets thrown in the soup, and there were a few Indian musicians playing in the background. I remember picking up the sitar and trying to hold it and thinking, ‘This is a funny sound.’” (Havers, “The Making of George Harrison’s ‘Within You Without You,’” Udiscovermusic.) Later that year, Jim McGuinn and David Crosby of The Byrds introduced George to the music of Indian sitar virtuoso Pandit Ravi Shankar. Soon afterward, George visited Indiacraft, a shop in London on Oxford Street, where he purchased a second-rate sitar, which he plucked on the song “Norwegian Wood.”

 

George said, “When I first heard Indian music, I just couldn’t really believe that it was so, so great. And the more I heard of it, the more I liked it. And it just got bigger and bigger, like a snowball.” (D’Silva, The Beatles and India, directed by Ajoy Bose and Peter Compton, Renoir Pictures). “You can get so much more out of it if you are prepared really to concentrate and listen. I hope more people will try to dig it.” (Beatles and Roylance, The Beatles Anthology, 209)

 

“Love You To” was the first song George wrote for Indian musical instruments. He said, “The sitar sounded so nice and my interest was getting deeper all the time. I wanted to write a tune that was specifically for the sitar.” (Beatles and Roylance, The Beatles Anthology, 209)

 

Sitar is a stringed Indian instrument of the lute family. About four feet long, it has a deep pear-shaped gourd body; a long, wide, hollow wooden neck; metal strings, and both front and side tuning pegs. There are usually five melody strings, one or two drone strings that accentuate the rhythm, and up to 13 sympathetic strings beneath the frets that are not played by the performer but resonate in sympathy with the playing strings, creating a polyphonic timber. Twenty arched movable convex metal frets are tied along the neck. Musicians pluck the strings with a wire plectrum on the right forefinger while the left hand presses or pulls the strings with subtle pressure on or between the frets.

 

Today, sitar is the dominant instrument in Hindustani music; it is played as a solo instrument and in ensembles with tambura (drone lute) and tabla (drums). George Harrison popularized the sitar in the West because he studied with Ravi Shankar.

 

Sitar is played on the following Beatles records: “Norwegian Wood,” “Love You To,” and “Within You Without You.” In George’s solo career, sitar appeared on many of his albums, usually played by Ravi Shankar.

 

After George gave up recording songs with sitar, he began imitating sitar sounds by playing glissando riffs on a slide guitar. A few samples include “My Sweet Lord,” “Wah Wah,” “I Dig Love,” “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth),” “Someplace Else,” “Free as a Bird,” “Marwa Blues,” Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep,” Badfinger’s “Day After Day,” and Ringo’s “Back Off Boogaloo.”

 

Tabla – The tabla is two drums (bass and snare) played by one performer. Both drums have compound skins onto which a black paste of flour, water, and iron filings, called siyahi, is added to alter the resonance frequency. The smaller, higher-pitched drum is the dayan, usually made of heavy lathe-turned rosewood. The larger drum, called bayan, is made of metal or pottery. An off-center siyahi on the bayan allows the performer to vary the pressure, changing the pitch with the palm while striking with the fingertips.

 

The first time that tabla appeared on a Beatles song was “Love You To.” It is also played on “Within You Without You.” Tabla tarang (an ensemble of 10 to 16 dayan drums—each tuned to a different note) is heard on “The Inner Light.” Tabla was played widely in George Harrison’s post-Beatles projects and was also used by other solo Beatles.

 

Tambura – The tanpura or tambura is a long, four-stringed fretless lute made of light hollow wood, with either a wood or gourd resonator. Tambura typically plays the background rather than the melody. It accompanies, supports, and blends with the tones sung or played on the lead instruments and/or vocals by providing a continuous harmonic drone. The tambura player plucks the strings in a continuous loop rather than in rhythm with the piece. This repeated cycle is the sonic canvas on which the melody is painted.

 

Tambura is played on the following Beatles records: “Love You To,” “Within You Without You,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “Getting Better,” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” George sometimes used a harmonium or organ as a drone instrument to mimic the tambura, most notably on “Blue Jay Way.”

 

Swarmandal –  Although some noted sources have stated that Swarmandal (a plucked box zither) was used in “Love You To,” it was not played on this song. It is played on the following Beatles records: “Within You Without You” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

 

Sitarist Ted Morano (see below re. his bio) told me: “The only error that I found in your book The Inner Light is the mention of swarmandal being used on the track ‘Love You To’ (the glissando that opens the track). That is not a swarmandal, it is the taraf (sympathetic) strings on the sitar. The taraf strings are 11-13 strings that run under the frets, and are tuned to the raga being performed. It is common for a sitarist to strum the taraf strings at the beginning of a performance.

 

“Here are examples from Ravi Shankar recordings:

 

Khyal – Although some sources state that “Love You To” was George’s first khyal, this style is not really relevant to the song “Love You To.” In khyal, the vocalist and instrument, such as sarangi (Indian violin) or harmonium, play the same melody in heterophony. George tried to copy the khyal style on the echoing parts of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (starting with “cellophane flowers,” etc.). George said, “For ‘Lucy’ I thought of trying that idea [of melody played in unison with voice], but because I’m not a sarangi player, I played it on guitar along with John’s voice. I was trying to copy Indian classical music.” (Beatles and Roylance, The Beatles Anthology: www.beatlesebooks.com/lucy-in-the-sky.) George was also inspired by Khyal in “Within You and Without You,” where dilruba (an Indian cello similar to sarangi) mirrored the same melody as George’s vocal, note for note.

 

 

Kessler: Susan, we know that George Harrison requested that the North London Asian Music Circle accompany him in performing the melody of “Love You To.” Tell us more about them, please.

 

Shumsky: In 1946, Indian writer and activist Ayana Angadi and his British wife Patricia Fell-Clark founded the Asian Music Circle (AMC), at their home in Fitzalan Road, Finchley, North London. The organization promoted Asian arts and culture. Inspired by meeting Ravi Shankar in India, American violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin became president of AMC in 1953. By inviting B. K. S. Iyengar (founder of Iyengar Yoga) to teach at AMC, Menuhin introduced yoga to Britain.

 

In 1955, AMC hosted the first classical Indian music concerts in the West at the “Living Arts of India Festival” in New York, which introduced Ali Akbar Khan (on sarod), Ravi Shankar (Khan’s brother-in-law, on sitar), and Vilayat Khan (on sitar). This led to the first Indian music album in the West: Music of India: Morning and Evening Ragas (Angel 1955), and to Ravi Shankar’s popularity in the jazz community.

 

George Martin, staff producer at EMI’s Parlophone Records, had previously gotten referrals from AMC’s Ayana Angadi to hire local Indian musicians for film and recording work. In 1962, Martin began working with The Beatles when they signed with Parlophone. Under Martin’s influence, their film Help! featured an Indian-themed script and musicians.

 

As George Harrison was playing sitar on “Norwegian Wood” in the recording studio on October 21, 1965, a string broke. Martin suggested contacting Ayana Angadi for a replacement. Ringo made the phone call and Angadi’s daughter asked loudly, “Ringo who?” Angadi rushed to the phone, and then brought the string, along with his wife and four children, to EMI’s Abbey Road Studios, to watch The Beatles record. (Newman, Abracadabra! The Complete Story of the Beatles’ Revolver, 23.)

 

For the next six months, George and Pattie spent every weekend at the Angadi home, immersed in Indian music. They attended recitals at AMC and watched Ravi Shankar perform at the Royal Festival Hall. (Turner, Steve. Beatles ‘66: The Revolutionary Year) With enthusiasm to master sitar, George began studying with an AMC sitar player. (Rodriguez, Robert. Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock ’n’ Roll, 114)

 

Kessler: Robert Rodriguez, in Revolver: How The Beatles Re-imagined Rock’n’Roll, tells us, “Some believe that the apparent complexity heard on ‘Love You To’ was beyond [George’s] capabilities, at least in spring 1966. But others point to his single-minded diligence in mastering the instrument [the sitar], as well as his study through private lessons, proximity to accomplished musicians, and close listening to pertinent records.” Where do you stand in this discussion? Do you think George ceded most of the responsibility to the North London Asian Music Circle, or could he function as lead performer?

 

Shumsky: Ted Morano earned an MFA Degree in North Indian Classical Music, Sitar performance, from the California Institute of the Arts. He is a master at sitar, surbahar, tabla, dilruba, pakhawaj, and tambura, a dhrupad vocalist, and a highly respected Indian music teacher. He performed “Within You, Without You” and “The Inner Light” many times with the Beatles Magical Orchestra and other groups (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTG7M6sEZfQ). He also recorded the dilruba tracks for “Within You, Without You” for Geoff Emerick as part of his “The Sessions” show.

 

After the remix of Revolver was released, Ted concluded that George was definitely the sole sitarist on “Love You To.” He said, “The 2022 remixed edition of Revolver has excellent sound quality, and this clarity makes it easier to hear the different layers in the song. Now it is easy to hear that George double-tracked sitar on the main riff, to give it a bigger sound. The way George strums the sitar strings at the start of his brief alap, and also plays harmonics, is not characteristic of how a trained Indian sitarist would play. The structure of his solo later in the song is also not how a trained Indian sitarist would play. Most revealing was hearing the mono mix of the song, which is several seconds longer than the stereo version, and George can be heard in the fade-out playing several figures which, while very musical and creative, are not something that a trained Indian sitarist would play.

 

Morano goes on to say: “More important info came to light regarding the sitar that George used on the recording. It is not the same sitar that is used on ‘Norwegian Wood.’ George obtained a better sounding and playing instrument after the recording of Rubber Soul. According to Pattie, he spent most of their honeymoon obsessively practicing sitar. Although this was before he began learning from Ravi Shankar, he did receive some basic instruction in London that enabled him to make significant progress on his own. This can clearly be heard on ‘Love You To.’”

 

Kessler: Similarly, Harrison selected a distinguished percussionist, Anil Bhagwat, to perform with him on the track. Give us some background info about this notable musician, if you don’t mind.

 

Shumsky: “Love You To” was the first pop song to present Indian music in an authentic classical Hindustani structure and arrangement, which earned George the title “The Mystic Beatle.” George’s hypnotic, drone-like vocals augmented the Indian effect. For the recording session on April 11, 1966, George hired unidentified musicians referred by the Asian Music Circle to play the Indian music track. Instruments on the track included sitar, tabla, and tambura.

 

Anil Bhagwat was hired to play tabla—the first time that tabla ever appeared on a Beatles song. Bhagwat recalled, “Angadi called and asked if I was free that evening to work with George. He didn’t say it was Harrison. It was only when a Rolls Royce picked me up that I realized I’d be playing on a Beatles session.

 

“When I arrived at Abbey Road, there were girls everywhere with Thermos flasks, cakes, sandwiches, waiting for The Beatles to come out.” “George told me what he wanted and I tuned the tabla with him. He suggested I play something in the Ravi Shankar style, sixteen-beats, though he agreed that I should improvise. Indian music is all improvisation. It was one of the most exciting times of my life.” (Womack, The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four, 310)

 

Other than Anil Bhagwat, AMC musicians that performed on “Love You To” have never been identified. However, Bhagwat claimed, “I can tell you here and now—100 percent it was George on sitar throughout.”

 

In my book The Inner Light: How India Influenced The Beatles, I quoted sitarist Ted Morano as saying that to strengthen what George played, another sitarist probably overdubbed the main melody and also played the fadeout at the end. However, on November 25, 2022, Morano changed his mind: “It is a fortuitous coincidence that the new Revolver editions also came out this week. There is a lot of Beatle frenzy right now. In fact, after listening to the clearer mix, and the out-take of George rehearsing ‘Love You To,’ I am convinced that it is only George playing sitar. There were no overdubs by another sitarist.”

 

Kessler: In The Beatles Lyrics, Hunter Davies observes, “The shock of the music – to our naïve, primitive, virgin 1966 ears, accustomed to guitar-based rock’n’roll – rather overshadowed the words.” Agree or disagree? And is this true today, do you think?

 

Shumsky: I agree that the intensity of the double-tracked Indian music and the relentless beat of the tabla were probably quite a shock to Western ears, and it overshadowed the song’s lyrical message. In fact, double-tracking Indian music had never previously existed in India, so it would have even been a shock to Indian ears. I feel that few people listening to this song paid attention to the lyrics, as they were trying to accustom to what they probably perceived as deafening, strange sounds of cacophonous instruments.

 

Kessler: Finally, what is the message of this song? To me, it’s equivalent to Robert Herrick’s 1648 poem, “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time,” with a shot of inspiration from John Lennon’s line in “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”: “Love me ’fore I grow too old!” Or, as Ken Womack suggests, it’s about “the fleeting nature of existence.” (Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles, 139) Yet, Tim Riley asserts the lyrics are about “the Eastern philosophy of time as a dimension to be passed through.” (Tell Me Why, 186) What’s going on in this song? Is it about all of one of these things, some, or none? Do tell.

 

Yes, I feel that “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” conveys a similar message as “Love you To.” This idea of the ephemeral nature of our physical world, along with the urgency to make the most of every moment, parallels both Herrick’s poem and George’s lyrics. He often sang about the fleeting duality of the material world and its contrast with the eternal oneness of the spiritual world. On the physical plane, “all things must pass.”

 

Also, in the context of 1966, during which this song was composed, The Beatles were influenced by the psychedelic Flower Power philosophy of “Make Love, Not War,” espoused by San Francisco hippies at the time. This slogan became the cornerstone of hippie philosophy. The message of “Love You To” swings from free love and the embracing of spiritual awakening to cynicism and the rejection of materialistic society.

 

Indian philosophy tells us that material life is not permanent and therefore not real. This corporeal body we temporarily inhabit is not our true eternal nature. Attachments to the physical plane bind us to chains of ignorance. Only one thing is eternal. It is not the material world. It is the unmanifest consciousness, beyond space, time, and causation.

 

We believe ourselves to be our physical body, thoughts, feelings, intellect, ego, or experiences. But that is not who we really are. We are the unbounded, undifferentiated radiance of Brahman—pure consciousness. Divine love, free from ego attachment, is key to letting go of material bonds. By embracing the simplicity of pure love, we realize our true divine nature—absolute bliss consciousness (satchitananda), beyond the physical. It is never born and never dies.

 

For more information on Susan Shumsky or her new book, The Inner Light: How India Influenced The Beatles, HEAD HERE and HERE

 

Follow Susan on Facebook HERE and on Twitter HERE

 

Come meet Susan in person at The Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans, Hyatt Regency O’Hare, August 11-13, 2023!

Share

Rubber Soul Deep Dive Part 13: If I Needed Someone

Side Two, Track Six

“If I Needed Someone”

 

Through 2021 and 2022, the Fest for Beatles Fans blog has explored The Beatles’ remarkable 1965 LP, Rubber Soul. This month, Lanea Stagg, author of The Recipe Records Series including the original Recipe Records, Recipe Records: Sixties Edition, Recipe Records: A
Culinary Tribute to The Beatles, and The Rolling Scones: Let’s Spend the Bite Together joins Jude Southerland Kessler, author of The John Lennon Series, for a fresh, new look at the exciting next-to-last track on this unique, creative LP.

 

What’s Standard:

 

Date Recorded: 16 October (superimpositions added 18 October)

 

Time Recorded: Late in the evening of 16 October, probably around 11.30 p.m. Most of the session (from 2:30 p.m.-midnight) had been spent on “Day Tripper.” In Way Beyond Compare, John C. Winn says, “Before going home for the night, The Beatles also started work on a George Harrison composition, “If I Needed Someone.” (P. 364) And Mark Lewisohn in The Complete Beatles Chronicle gives us a time stamp by saying that the boys turned to George’s creation “with the clock ticking towards midnight…” .

Studio: EMI Studios, Studio 2

 

Tech Team

Producer: George Martin

Engineer: Norman Smith

Second Engineer: Ken Scott

Stats: Backing track (of bass, drums, rhythm guitar, and twelve-string electric guitar) recorded in one take on 16 October 1965. (p. 364)

 

Then, on 18 October, George double-tracked the lead vocal, accompanied by John and Paul’s harmonies to create the famous Beatles 3-part harmony. Then, Ringo on tambourine and George were on lead guitar recorded together on another track.

 

Instrumentation and Musicians:

 

George Harrison, the composer, sings lead vocal, plays on his 1965 Rickenbacker 360/12 (12-string electric guitar).

John Lennon sings harmony vocals and plays rhythm on his 1961 Fender Stratocaster with synchronized tremolo.

Paul McCartney sings harmony vocals and plays bass on his 1964 Rickenbacker 4001S bass.

Ringo Starr plays one of his Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl Super Classic drum sets and plays tambourine in superimposition.[i]

 

Sources: Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, 202, Lewisohn, The Recording Sessions, 64, Gunderson, Some Fun Tonight! The Backstage Story of How The Beatles Rocked America: The Historic Tours of 1964-1966, 90-91, Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul, 318-319,  Margotin and Guesdon, All the Songs, 306-307, Winn, Way Beyond Compare, 364, Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 71-72, Miles, The Beatles Diary, Vol. 1, 218, Turner, A Hard Day’s Write, 98, Spizer, The Beatles for Sale on Parlophone Records, 203, Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 167-168, Womack, Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles, 125,  and Mellers, Twilight of the Gods: The Music of The Beatles, 61.

 

What’s Changed:

 

  1. Influence of the Byrds and the Folk Rock Sound – During the 1965 North American Tour, when Capitol’s Alan Livingston threw a party for The Beatles and invited stars such as Edward G. Robinson, Groucho Marx, Eddie Fisher, Jack Benny, and Rock Hudson, George opted to “go his own way” for a meeting with the chart-topping folk-rock group, the Byrds. The California group’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” (written by Bob Dylan) had hit Number 1 on 26 June 1965, and the Byrds had said in several interviews that they liked The Beatles’ music, were inspired by them, and in fact, played the exact same instruments that The Beatles played.

 

Indeed, Harrison’s 12-string Rickenbacker lead became an important part of the Byrds’ signature sound. Honored by this homage, George wanted to get to know the group and made the effort to visit them. As a result of this meeting, plus a second visit to the Byrds in studio (on 27 August, this time accompanied by Paul), George began to compose a new song in West Coast folk-rock genre. In fact, Harrison specifically stated that the guitar riff of the Byrds’ “The Bells of Rhymney” and the melody of their song “She Don’t Care About Time” inspired “If I Needed Someone.” (Turner, 98) More about this coming up in Lanea Stagg’s “Fresh, New Look.”

 

However,  “If I Needed Someone” isn’t at all derivative of these two Byrds compositions. Instead, George’s second original song on the Rubber Soul LP is actually a study written around the D chord. George marveled that “a million other songs” had also been written around the D chord. He said, “If you move your fingers about, you get various other melodies…it amazes me that people still find new permutations of the same notes.” (Margotin and Guesdon, 306 and Turner, 98) And yet, the influence of the Byrds’ jingle-jangle sound – enhanced by Ringo’s work on tambourine – gives “If I Needed Someone” a unique timbre.

 

  1. George’s New Guitar – On the 1965 North American Tour, at the end of the Minneapolis press conference, a special presentation took place. The co-owners of a local music store named B-Sharp gifted George with a Rickenbacker Fireglo (red sunburst) 360/12 (12-string electric guitar). Both Andy Babiuk in Beatles Gear (pp. 168-169) and Chuck Gunderson in Some Fun Tonight! The Backstage Story of How The Beatles Rocked America: The Historic North American Tours, 1964-1966 (p. 91) give us the backstory for this presentation. They say that when Liverpool’s Remo Four had visited the shop some weeks before The Beatles landed in Minneapolis, the group spotted the instrument and commented, “George [Harrison] would love this!” Right then and there, owners Randy Resnick and Ron Butwin decided to give the Rickenbacker to George when The Beatles arrived in Minneapolis on 21 August. George was thrilled! And as a result, both Butwin and Resnick were given VIP seats in the Twins dugout for the concert in Metropolitan Stadium. It is this new guitar that George uses on “If I Needed Someone.”

 

  1. Toughness in Romantic Relationships – As we’ve discussed previously, all of the songs about women on Rubber Soul are 180-out from the early Beatles’ head-over-heels attitudes in “She Loves You,” “From Me to You, “Ask Me Why,” “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” On Rubber Soul, love has become complicated. “Drive My Car” featured a hard-charging female determined to get to the top and only interested in a man who can “drive her car.” “Girl” shone a light on a callous woman who “put you down when friends are there/you feel a fool.” The girlfriend in “You Won’t See Me” doesn’t “treat me right,” and even the enchanting “Michelle” doesn’t realize that her suitor exists! In “If I Needed Someone,” however, the problem isn’t rejection of the male. It’s his (rather reluctant) rejection of her with the wistful caveat that “Had come some other day/Then it might not have been like this/But you see now I’m too much in love.” Rubber Soul’s relationships are clearly not simple or sweetly romantic. As Wilfred Mellers points out, “In all these songs, there’s a toughness, beneath lyricism or comedy that is not evident in other songs.” (p. 61)

 

A Fresh New Look

 

Note from Jude Kessler: It has been my distinct pleasure to work hand-in-hand with author Lanea Stagg almost daily for the last ten years. Together we produce the monthly podcast “She Said She Said” on Apple Podcasts, Podbean, and Spotify. In our five years with that show, we’ve been blessed to interview Julia Baird, May Pang, Ken Mansfield, Roag Best, Helen Andersen, Chas Newby, Leslie Cavendish, and so many others in The Beatles family as well as a host of Beatles experts and authors. From 2012-2019, Lanea and I co-chaired the Authors and Artists Symposium for Walnut Ridge, Arkansas’s “Beatles at the Ridge.” And in 2016, we worked together to chair the GRAMMY Museum of Mississippi’s Beatles Symposium. Lanea is not only the author of the Recipe Records Series, but is also the author of two successful children’s books, Little Dog in the Sun and Little Dog About Town. She has been a Guest Speaker at the Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans, Abbey Road on the River, and the Monmouth University White Album Conference. Her articles have appeared on the All Music website and in 2021, she worked with Angie and Ruth McCartney to feature her recipes @GourmetNFTOfficial. I was so thrilled to be able to sit down and chat with Lanea about George Harrison’s second song on Rubber Soul.

 

Jude Southerland Kessler: In the “What’s New” segment of this blog, we discussed the strong influence of the Byrds on this George Harrison number. What elements of the “jingle-jangle folk rock” movement has Harrison employed in “If I Needed Someone”?

 

Lanea Stagg: It is a very curious musical event when one band gives another “the nod” by borrowing another band’s riff, or other sound.  When we hear that curiosity today, we don’t really think of this as “a nod,” but more as stealing!

 

George’s song, “If I Needed Someone,” actually contained “the nod” to California band the Byrds, who were comprised of Roger McGuinn (known as “Jim” at that time), David Crosby, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, and Chris Hillman.  But…the Byrds (as Jude noted in the “What’s New” segment) had created their sound based upon influence from The Beatles’ music, specifically from the film A Hard Day’s Night. McGuinn was very taken with the sound of Harrison’s 12-string Rickenbacker, so he acquired one as well. Chris Hillman stated in 2008 for Central Coast Magazine, “McGuinn saw George playing a Rickenbacker 12-string in A Hard Day’s Night. McGuinn had been playing a Gibson acoustic 12-string when he saw Harrison,” and the rest became history.

 

When George met up with the Byrds in California, they discussed their sounds. The Byrds had released “The Bells of Rhymney” in June 1965,  and George was very fond of the jangly 12-string Rickenbacker riff. George incorporated the riff as “a nod” back to the band.

 

I recommend listening to “The Bells of Rhymney,” and it won’t take long to recognize the riff. The song is a very old story, and quite sad, about a coal mining disaster in Wales. Harrison loved the sound McGuinn used with the Rickenbacker, and he “borrowed” the riff for “If I Needed Someone.”

 

In a 2004 interview for Christian Music Today, Roger McGuinn said, “George Harrison wrote that song [“If I Needed Someone”] after hearing the Byrds’ recording of ‘Bells of Rhymney.’ He gave a copy of his new recording to Derek Taylor, The Beatles’ former press officer, who flew to Los Angeles and brought it to my house. He said George wanted me to know that he had written the song based on the rising and falling notes of my electric Rickenbacker 12-string guitar introduction. It was a great honor to have in some small way influenced our heroes, The Beatles.”

 

Curiously, “If I Needed Someone” was not on the U.S. release of Rubber Soul. It wasn’t released in the U.S. until June of 1966 when it appeared on the LP Yesterday and Today. So, it was a BIG DEAL for George to send a copy of his recording to Roger McGuinn!

 

So, here we have George writing a song where he was inspired by the Byrds, and in “turn, turn, turn,” the Byrds were first inspired by The Beatles.

 

Kessler: Lanea, many music experts have tagged “If I Needed Someone” as the precursor to “Within You Without You” and “Love You To.” Some have even noted that it might have served as a springboard for John Lennon’s “Tomorrow Never Knows.” What musical connections do you see between this 1965 composition and George’s later Indian-inspired melodies?

 

Stagg: Musicology is not for the faint of heart! With so many elements to digest in a song – especially a Beatles’ piece – the casual ear might miss a tasty morsel.

 

I find this to be the case in George’s “If I Needed Someone.” First, we hear the satiny smooth jingle-jangle of the Ric as well as a steady bass, which is greeted with George’s declaration: “If I needed someone to love/You’re the one that I’d be thinking of.” The frosting on this delicacy is the harmony by John and Paul as well as Ringo’s tambourine. That all happens in 20 seconds!

 

What develops further in this song is quite full. As mentioned earlier in the “What’s Changed” segment, the song is built around the D chord. This produces a rather dronish sound…which conjures up the possibility of adding a sitar (which George was learning to play). However, here he chose not to.

 

Musician/songwriter Rande Kessler stated that George “was enjoying a playfulness around only a few chords, climbing and descending a small scale to produce a lilting, droning, chanting effect. It is almost a repetitive “humming” sound that is sung along with his Ric 12-string, more or less emulating a sitar. The melody doesn’t stray far from the original chord, and the bridge simply floats a variation that brings the melody back to the beginning. To me, ‘Within You Without You’ essentially takes that same lilting chord-orbit that George started with and uses the sitar to play along with the chanting melody…as an evolution from “If I Needed Someone” and its sitar-sounding capoed Ric 12-string.”

 

In Hunter Davies’s The Beatles Lyrics, George states: “[Rubber Soul] is my favorite. We certainly knew we were making a good album. We were suddenly hearing sounds that we weren’t able to hear before, everything was blossoming at the same time, including us, because we were still growing.”

 

Kessler: Many music experts have referred to this song as “a tribute to Pattie Boyd” (who became Pattie Harrison in January 1966). And yet, George’s response to the flirtatious “other” in this song is rather coy and complicated. I see a bit of a parallel between “if I Needed Someone” and another 1965 hit written by The Lovin’ Spoonful entitled “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?”. Do you? And do you think that this song serves as a tribute to Pattie Boyd?

 

Stagg: Many sources state this song is a tribute to Pattie Boyd. However, if I were Pattie Boyd, I would hope not! George Harrison is clearly leaving the door open for one, or perhaps more, potential love interests…in case things do not work out with Pattie.

 

George does proclaim, “I’m too much in love,” and therefore, announces to the ladies that his heart has been stolen away by the gorgeous Miss Boyd. Remember, George was only 22-years-old when he penned “If I Needed Someone.” He had been swarmed by women for years, and I’m sure had played a lot of games. Perhaps he was unsure if Pattie would continue to be in love with him, especially knowing the challenges attached to being a “Beatle wife.” He had seen how difficult that was for John. So, perhaps George is keeping one foot in the door…just in case!

 

“If I Needed Someone” is the beginning of George’s effort to pen meaningful lyrics. The song was released on the UK Rubber Soul LP almost one year after the release of The Beatles’ album Beatles for Sale, where George gave a cover performance of Carl Perkins’s “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby.” We envision George singing, “Everybody’s trying to be my baby,” over and over…and perhaps he really was experiencing the deluge of women trying to be his baby! Was that part of the inspiration for his 1965 lyrics: “Carve your number on my wall…”? Could George have written a follow-up to his experiences during that year where there was ALWAYS someone trying to be his baby?  George was enveloped in Beatlemania and the avalanche of women trying to get to him.

 

While Lennon and McCartney were able to create intricate lyrics as easily as taking a breath, George had to work harder at it. His early songs were rather unpolished and at times, even bland. On Rubber Soul, he penned lyrics for not only “If I Needed Someone,” but also “Think for Yourself.” “Think for Yourself” is a rather somber statement to fans as opposed to the syrupy songs they were used to from Lennon/McCartney. The tune is peppy, but the lyrics, not so much.

 

The boys were faced with many choices, and it feels as if George is choosing to “make up his mind” to pick up on Pattie and leave the other birds behind.

 

Kessler: Lanea, “If I Needed Someone” is ranked #54 in Spignesi and Lewis’s 100 Best Beatles Songs – a rather impressive rating! The song is so appealing that it has been covered by the Kingsmen, Cryin’ Shames, Hugh Mackels, Michael Hedges…and the Hollies. However, George Harrison despised the Hollies’ version of his song. He said, “I think it’s rubbish the way they’ve done it. They’ve spoilt it.” (Womack, Long and Winding Roads, The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles, 125) What do you hear in the Hollies’ version of “If I Needed Someone” that supports or refutes George’s appraisal?

Stagg:  I concur with George Harrison. Hearing the version released by the Hollies is a let-down, and if I were George, absolutely would not consider it a compliment!

 

While the Hollies perform the song in their unique and typical sound, they come off sounding tinny, and George’s beautiful riff was now played on what sounded like a plastic guitar! The Beatles’ brilliant performance of harmonies on George’s song really cannot be matched or recreated. The Hollies lack the crisp, clean, and more pure harmonies that The Beatles flawlessly added to George’s song. I think George was right, and I would send the Hollies back to the “Bus Stop!”

 

Head here more information on Lanea Stagg and her Recipe Records Series and children’s books

To hear our “She Said She Said” podcast, head here

Follow Lanea on Facebook here and on Instagram @LaneaStagg

[i] Instrumentation information from Jerry Hammack’s The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 71.

Share

Remembering the Concert for Bangladesh

FEST FOUNDER MARK LAPIDOS’ THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS CONCERT AND THE ALBUM, WHICH WAS RELEASED 48 YEARS AGO TODAY

 

July 31, 1971, I cut my West Coast vacation short by one day, to take the Redeye back to NYC to attend the Concert For Bangla Desh on August 1, 1971 at Madison Square Garden. I went to the afternoon performance. The excitement of seeing a Beatle (2 actually) on a U.S. stage for the first time since their breakup was mindboggling! And it all happened because George’s friend Ravi Shankar asked for some help. George said yes, called a few friends and created the blue print for all benefit superstar concerts that followed. To this day, it is the greatest concert I ever attended! Walking out into the teaming rain, which nobody seemed to be a bit bothered by it, after we just witnessed, I announced that this will win the Grammy for Album of the Year! It was supposed to be released almost immediately to raise more money for the cause, but Capitol and Columbia records to over 4 months to come to an agreement (to use Bob Dylan’s performance on the record). That delay caused it to not be eligible for that year (as it turned out , that was a good thing because it would not have beaten out Carole King’s Tapestry album. But my prediction came true as it did win Album of The Year in 1972.

 

But I wanted to talk about its December 20, 1971 release. I was working at Sam Goody Record Store in Paramus, NJ. A dear friend and log time FEST contributor, Al Sussman, also worked there (that is where we met). I was the Record Manager at that time and I ordered 600 copies. The buyer was surprised. He called me to explain that it would be a very expensive album, with a list price of $12.95 he thought fans may not spend that kind of money. The store price was set at $12.79 as there was very little profit for any stores as it was for charity. I told him I was certain it would sell like crazy. We got word that the truck should be arriving at 3:00PM. The lines were almost out the door in this huge store. The only time I ever went to the loading dock in my years there was that day. I had Al waiting for me at the back door service entrance where we had the line begin. I watched the truck door open and there was the entire pallet in front of my eyes. Uncontrollably and unplanned ,I leaned in and gave the pallet of Albums a big hug!! I was opening the boxes as it went down the hallway to the store so Al could begin to hand them out immediately. That moment was so electric. To see the excitement of fans so eager to purchase this amazing three records of absolute history. Between 3:00PM and 10:00PM, we sold an astounding 252 Copies. We had to reorder more copies within 2-3 days. The rest is history. It did go to #1 and stands at the top of the mountain of the world of great charity album since.  Thank you, George.

 

On a side note, I had been  playing Here Comes The Sun on guitar for 22 months and could not get it right. Then I saw George (with Pete Ham) perform it live  and saw they used a capo on the 7th fret to get that sound! I went home and must have played it half the night.What a difference. To this day, at the end of each FEST, after all the packing is finished on Sunday night, and the sound of Beatles music can still can be heard with Festers playing in the lobbies and other places around the hotel, I come over, strap on a guitar with the capo in 7th position, of course, and I close the event playing Here Comes The Sun with a family of Beatles people joining in with many guitars, lot of singers harmonizing, that unique hand clapping George created during the middle eight, and into that uplifting finish. For me it is always a highlight of the weekend.

Share

It’s Not Always Going to Be This Grey

Paul Simon depicted this season best: “…and the sky is a hazy shade of winter…”

 

Yes, even in generally sunny and mild Louisiana, this afternoon, it was a crushing 22 degrees. Almost as soon as the sky brightened, it fell back into darkness. These are short and bitter days: full-on winter.

 

Yet, in the midst of this unbearable cold, I read in my gardener’s journal that I should be out planting. I’m late putting in kale. My pansies are long overdue. And, if I want daffodils, jonquils, or tulips for spring, they must go into the frozen ground this week. I need to dig out my gloves and spade, bundle up, and get to work. But in the freezing darkness, I must admit, I have little motivation.

 

Then, I think of George Harrison. I think of George in those dim and sunless days after The White Album, when (for the most part) his genius was ignored and his contributions to The Beatles, largely overlooked. It was “the winter of [his] discontent,” but in those seemingly barren days, instead of despairing, George began planting.

 

When John and Paul shrugged him off and pushed their own projects forward, it would have been easy for George to doubt himself. It would have been reasonable for George to buy into the attitude that he was “second best.” (Or third best, as it were.) Instead, continuing to believe in himself and in his ability to be fruitful, George used that fallow time to begin writing “My Sweet Lord,” “Isn’t It a Pity?” and “What is Life.” Fully confident that “it’s not always going to be this grey,” George began quietly preparing for a bright harvest that would shock those who had swept him aside.

 

He began penning, editing, and improving the songs that would – almost two years later – grace his double GRAMMY-nominated (for “Best Album of the Year” and “Best Single of the Year”) album. He began creating All Things Must Pass. In a very dark time, George quietly tilled the fertile soil of his imagination, carefully planting seeds that would flourish into that triple-album bearing the greatest creative work of his career.

 

In a wry twist of fate, had The Beatles embraced George’s plethora of compositions during 1968 and 1969, the accomplished Harrison would not have compiled the elegant and varied catalog that fills All Things Must Pass. As music critic Ritchie Unterberger adeptly observed, the album was filled with “[George Harrison’s] backlog of unused compositions from the late Beatles era.” Indeed, the “shadowy winter” that engulfed George’s last two years as a Beatle was necessary; it furnished a quiet time for him to create a genius solo album.

 

And so, like George, I resolve to plant. I resolve to make the most of an uncomfortable, bleak, and lonely season. Instead of letting darkness defeat me, I resolve to use it as an instrument to come back stronger, more vibrant – full of fragrant blooms.

 

I wish you a time for planting, too. I wish you a New Year full of quiet moments in which to plan and grow. May every season of 2018 be used to good purpose…even the most frozen moments that seem to have no potential. George found them a blessing. May we as well.

 

Listen to George’s title track, “All Things Must Pass” here…


1. Shakespeare, William, from Richard III

2. From “All Things Must Pass” by George Harrison on the All Things Must Pass LP, 1970.

3. Richie Unterberger, Review: All Things Must Pass LP, AllMusic.com, https://www.allmusic.com/album/all-things-must-pass-mw0000194979


Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series: www.johnlennonseries.com

 

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations — @910PubRel on Twitter and 910 Public Relations on Facebook.

Share

Love You To…????

This phrase I understand: “Love you, too!” (Meaning: “Love you, also.”)

 

And yes, I grasp the vaguer meaning of this phrase: “Love you two.” (As in: “I love John first, but I love you two”).

 

But now, consider the curious phrase: “Love you to…” — It’s a quandary! It’s an unfinished preposition waiting for a following noun. (As in: “Love you to death!” or “Love you to pieces!” or “Love you to the end of time!”)

 

Or… it could be an unfinished infinitive waiting for a following verb. (As in: “Love you to love me.” Or “Love you to listen.” Or “Love you to comprehend what I’m saying”).

 

But as George Harrison’s title stands – without any other nouns, verbs, or explanations to complete it – the phrase is incomplete, unclear, and ambiguous. And really, that is where George Harrison was when he penned this 1966 song. Recently returned from a trip to India where he had begun sitar studies under Ravi Shankar and the study of the Hindu religion, George was an excited newbie. He was completely enthusiastic, but green – an amazed young man muddling through the murky waters of a complex, new faith and an equally complex mode of musical expression. George was a bit overcome.

 

Recently married to Pattie Boyd, George wanted to make this song a love ballad for his wife. He really did! But the tenets of his new faith kept pulling at him, sternly reminding him that:

 

A lifetime is so short,
A new one can’t be bought…

The brevity of existence kept bothering George, niggling at him – and those beliefs transformed his love song into a serious warning refrain: a song about living not only for today, but also living a life worthy of the hereafter.

 

George tried to shrug off his feelings of impending doom: of death at his back, of time running out, of life slipping away, but in “Love You To,” he failed to escape that weighty influence. Even when employing his famous, droll Harrison humor to minimize the song’s grim overtones, the boy’s wit was still dark:

 

Love me while you can,
Before I’m a dead old man!

 
he said. Despite his best efforts, George’s love song kept slipping into a sermon. No matter what George tried to say (or sing), his bride’s ballad kept circling back around to one all-important message: Life is short; time is limited; live prudently! Or in George’s adaptation:

 

Each day just goes so fast
I turn around, it’s past…

 
It was a bit depressing. As the song neared its close, George struggled to find something to smile about, to celebrate.

 

Well, a bit before The Beatles’ time – when the poets of the Middle Ages felt death pressing down upon them, they decided that the wisest thing to do was to carpe diem…to “seize the moment!” They decided to make hay while the sun shines! To quote Medieval poet Robert Herrick’s words, “Gather ye rosebuds while you may!”

 

And in 1966, George reached the same conclusion. He decided the very same thing. At the end of his song, he advised Pattie (and all of us) to go for the gusto! To grab happiness while you can! To smile while you still have teeth!

 

Make love all day long!
Make love singing songs!

 

he advised us. It was the only viable solution to mortality that George could offer.

 

By The Summer of Love (1967) when George released “Within You, Without You” as the opener for Side 2 of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, both his faith and his acumen on the sitar had reached a higher plane. By then, he was able to speak with more depth and wisdom. But here on Revolver, George is clearly grappling with a vast belief system and an intricate musical genre, so he falls back on immediate gratification as a ready, easy solution.

 

Or maybe…maybe George’s answer was, in fact, the very best solution anyone could offer.

 

In 1967, John Lennon would so famously tell the world that, “Love is all you need.” And here, George is voicing the exact same sentiment. In light of death, aging, and fleeting existence, the youngest Beatle turns to Pattie and to us, advising everyone to cling tightly to love. Sage advice, I think. Perhaps our kid wasn’t such a newbie after all.

 


Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series: www.johnlennonseries.com

 

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations — @910PubRel on Twitter and 910 Public Relations on Facebook.

Share

Here Comes The Sun

Today in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C. and even Louisiana, COLD has gripped the nation. The sky is “a hazy shade of winter” (with nods to Simona and Garfunkel). We are locked in The Grey Zone…those interminably dark days just before Spring.
 
And for some people, it’s pretty darn depressing.
 
The Beatles reminded us that when things look and feel the worst (when politicians battle instead of perform, when ISIS rages, when religion becomes a reason for persecution once again), there is still hope. They reminded us that even then, there is hope ahead:
 
“Little darling, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter,
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here!
 
Here comes the sun; here comes the sun,
And I say, “It’s all right!”
 
Sure, we know the words. We all know the lyrics, but applying them to life is another story.
 
Last week, I visited New Orleans for Mardi Gras – something we Louisiana girls do as a natural part of our heritage. But this time, instead of doing the “same ole, same ole” thing, I sought out new sights, new inspirations to dispel winter’s gloom. And I found the towering, breathtakingly lovely Church of the Immaculate Conception on Baronne Street, close to the French Quarter. After walking miles and miles, I finally located it, opened the immense, wooden door, and stepped quietly inside. This is what I saw.
 

 
Outside it was freezing: windy and raw. But inside, I discovered a haven of loveliness. For many minutes, I sat in silence and looked all around, taking beauty in. I sat alone and listened. I noticed.
 
To my left was a window shaded sheltered in an alcove, set apart. I looked at it for a long time.
 

 
Then my eyes wandered to a second window farther down the wall, burning with light.
 

 
What a lesson was there! The windows were identical: constructed of the same stained glass and oak, designed by the same brilliant artist, created in the very same year. The single difference in these two works of art was that one shone in the sun and the other one sat in darkness.
 
That afternoon, I began to think of the window to my own soul…and how dark I’ve been lately as I’ve cared for my aging father, traveling miles upon weary miles each week, to be with him. I thought of how sorry I’ve felt for myself as I’ve had to sacrifice my writing and progress on The John Lennon Series to do the very uncreative but necessary tasks that care-giving demands. I thought of how gloomy I’ve become as my life has taken an unexpected change.
 
Over the past year, without realizing it, I’ve become that isolated window drenched in shadow. Darkened.
 
But here’s the thing…unless you’re an inert window – placed forever in an alcove – admitting the sun is a choice. Paul McCartney knew that when he wrote another set of Beatles’ lyrics:
 
“Tomorrow may rain, so I’ll follow the sun.”
 
A lovely bit of poetry? Yes. But it’s more than that. In that closing words of that song, Paul was making a decision; he was consciously choosing to follow the sun. And whether we sing about it or not, we are also called to decide. Each day, we’re given the option to turn our faces to joy, hope, and happiness….or to turn away.
 
I don’t want to be an unlit window. I don’t want to chill others with my “hazy shade of winter.” I want to shine again. And Shine On. Do you?
 
Here comes the sun. It’s all right!
 
***Speaking of sun, Lanea Stagg’s e-book, Little Dog in the Sun is #1 on Amazon e-books today. Lanea has been part of the Fest family for several years, and her book is all about choosing to live in the sun…and to live life in joy after the death of a loved one. It’s a gorgeous children’s book that really represents what the Fest is all about. HEAD HERE to purchase a copy of Lanea’s book.
 
Jude Southerland Kessler
http://www.johnlennonseries.com

Share

We Remember George

November 29th – On this day in 2001, George Harrison passed. 12 years of reflecting on his singular legacy he left on this planet doesn’t make it much easier. Yes we do have his incredible music to put a smile on our faces, to make us think about the world, and how we fit into it, to improve the human condition, to improve ourselves, and to enjoy life more! That, in itself, is an enormous achievement. On that note, we make our yearly plea to those of you who still smoke cigarettes. Smoking leads to lung cancer and this is what took George from us. He didn’t know it in the 50s when he became a teenager. But now everybody know that cigarettes kill people – 1,200 every day, just in U.S.. That is more than 430,000 people every year. And it doesn’t just affect the smokers, but thousands die every year from second hand smoke. So for those of you who still smoke, we urge you, on this day we remember George, to finally give them up and mean it this year. You and your family and friends who love you will be thankful. Now let’s all go listen to George’s music today.

Peace and love.

Share