HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN AND ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

On May 28th, 1968, just two days before the group planned to lay down tracks for the "White Album," the Beatles met at George's "Kinfauns" home in Esher, Surrey to record demos of recently written songs.  Among the first songs recorded on this day was a piece of John's that could easily have been titled "I Need A Fix," this eventually marked the middle section of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun."

Only John appears on this demo, which was recorded on an Ampex 4-track machine, him singing and playing acoustic guitar simultaneously. Not too much of the song formulated at this point, John struggling with the chord changes at times (even exclaiming “Oh sh*t, wrong chord” at one point). A small segment even mentions Yoko Ono by name, as mentioned above. In any event, he appeared far from ready to bring this composition into the recording studio, this not happening until nearly four months later.

Sometime after this, John recorded a home demo of himself playing guitar in the finger-picking style he learned in India, this bit eventually surfaced as the introduction to what became the finished recording of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.” The only vocalization heard by John in this home demo is the recognizable “doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo” as eventually repeated in the finished song, as well as him saying to Yoko, “Mama, you're so beautiful this morning, I'd like to grab your weave!”

With only about three weeks left until the completion of the “White Album” was due, John had now finalized his composition “Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand,” as it was titled at first, and brought it into the studio for The Beatles to begin working out the arrangement and then record it. September 23rd, 1968, was the first day they attempted the song, they all arrived at EMI Studio Two sometime after the usual 7 pm to learn the song and then hash out the arrangement.

After they worked out some ideas, 45 takes of the song took place. Chris Thomas, who was acting as producer in the absence of the vacationing George Martin, remembers: “'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' went to a great many takes. We used to make jokes out of it. 'Take 83!'” These takes consisted of John on electric rhythm guitar with guide vocal, George on fuzzed lead guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums. The tape captures much discussion between the group about how to tackle the complicated time signature changes as well as comparing the difficulty of certain sections of the song with others. By 3 am the following morning, however, they all left for the day without anything usable committed to tape.

Later that evening, September 24th, 1968, the group reconvened at EMI Studio Two at around 7 pm for another go at the song. With the same instrumentation as the previous day, the group tried 25 more takes of the rhythm track. This time they nailed down what they felt could be used as the rhythm track for the finished song, this being 'take 53.' However, they decided that the final section of the song, the “happiness is a warm gun...” chorus section was performed better on 'take 65.' So, a decision was made to slice these two takes together to create the perfect rhythm track for adding overdubs. Being that it was now, 2 am the following morning; everyone decided that the editing of these two takes, as well as the overdubs, would finalize at the next session. Therefore, everyone went home...or at least somewhere else.

The next session was later that day, September 25th, 1968, again at EMI Studio Two, this time beginning at 7:30 pm. First on the agenda was an edit of the first two sections of the song from 'take 53' and the third section from 'take 65' (the result of which they still called 'take 65'), created by producer Chris Thomas and engineers Ken Scott and Mike Sheady. Onto this newly created rhythm track, The Beatles overdubbed the remaining elements featured on the released version of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.”

These overdubs consisted of John's remarkable lead vocal, John, Paul and George's extensive backing vocals, Ringo on tambourine as well as added snare drum beats, Paul adding an additional bass guitar as well as a piano, John on organ and, very surprisingly, Paul playing a tuba that happened to be in the studio that day. The enjoyable time they had performing these overdubs, understandably, were what caused John, George, and Paul to all claim that this song was their favorite on the “White Album.” By 5 am, the group left for the morning satisfied that yet another track for the album was 'in the can.'

The lights in EMI Studios weren't exactly turned off quite yet though. Between 5 and 6:15 am, the same engineering team of Thomas, Scott, and Sheady worked at creating a usable mono mix of the song, two attempts failed during these early morning hours and deemed unusable. However, acetates were created of one of these mixes for The Beatles to hear, the acetate discs still labeled as the songs' title, “Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand.”

Paul was eager to play the acetate of this exciting new song to his recently acquired new girlfriend Linda Eastman (soon to be his Mrs.) who had just moved in with him at that time. However, all decided that some of the overdubs needed tweaking which facilitated new mono mixes created. The same engineering team of Thomas, Scott, and Sheady got to work on this later that same day in the control room of EMI Studio Two starting at about 7 pm on September 26th, 1968. A decision was now made to shorten the title of the song to "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" since the documentation on this day reflects this change.  The tuba was placed lower in the mix this time around, as was the organ overdub. Also, John had originally sung his “I need a fix...” verse twice, the first being heard simultaneously with George's lead guitar solo. On this new mix, they faded out John's vocals the first time around to accentuate George's lead guitar. It took the engineering team ten tries to master the mono mix, the results being what appears on the finished mono album.

The stereo mix held off until October 15th, 1968, created by the returning George Martin along with engineers Ken Scott and John Smith in the control room of EMI Studio Two between 6 and 8 pm. Four attempts made way at this stereo mix, but they finally nailed it sufficiently for the released album. George Martin inadvertently faded up John's omitted “I need a fix...” vocal line a little early on this stereo mix, the listener being able to hear the last word “down” on top of George's last lead guitar solo note. The organ notes in the first section of the song are much quieter in the stereo mix and are faded out a little earlier, while the bass guitar in the “I need a fix...” section of the stereo mix is also lower in volume. The slight laughter that is heard just before the final drumbeat of the song in the mono mix is removed in the stereo mix, thanks to the perfectionist George Martin.

"Happiness Is A Warm Gun" is structurally a very unique song for The Beatles in that, with the exception of their sound collage "Revolution 9," it is one of only two Beatles songs that misses a definable structure without any repeated elements at all.  It is similar only to the first recorded installment of the "Abbey Road" medley, "You Never Give Me Your Money," which is also a succession of different songs strung together.  "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" simply meanders from one song idea to the next and from one time signature to the next, adding beats-per-measure whenever it suited John's fancy.  Lennon's description of the song as depicting the "history of rock 'n' roll" may be an overstatement but, upon inspection, it actually comes pretty close.  No wonder it took the group 70 takes in two days to just get a usable rhythm track!

The first section is in a standard 4/4 time signature and easily divides into two smaller sections, the first comprising the first four measures of the song. These measures contain mostly elements from John, these being rhythm guitar (utilizing his newly acquired finger-picking style), lead vocals and subdued organ notes. Paul and Ringo appear in the fourth measure playing sixteenth notes on the bass and snare drum respectively.

The rest of this section comprises eight measures which are mostly also in 4/4 time, the only exceptions are the first measure which is in 6/4 time and the seventh measure which is in 5/4 time. These different time signatures are deemed necessary due to the extended syllables in the lyrics at those parts of the song. John continues his rhythm guitar and organ as well as lead vocal. Ringo plays a standard drum beat throughout, providing simple drum fills in measures two, six and eight. Paul plays a simple bass pattern throughout while he and George add harmonies to John's vocals in measures five through eight. George adds distorted guitar chops on most of the even-numbered beats of each measure, strategic places receiving held out guitar chords instead of just staccato chops. George compensates for the extra beat in the seventh measure in 5/4 time, since the even numbered beat then becomes an odd numbered beat.  Follow me?

Then comes section two. This also gets divided into two smaller sections, the first being completely in 3/4 time and lasting a total of 21 measures. The drumbeat is simplified for Ringo in these 21 measures, he only needing to accent the downbeat of each measure by alternatively crashing a cymbal with the kick drum and then a snare beat with the kick drum. John abandons the fingerpicking guitar work for a simple chording pattern and sings a low lead vocal in measures twelve through twenty-one. George puts in a menacing lead guitar part in measures one through eleven which mimics John's vocal melody line as will appear afterward. Paul mostly plays an “oom-pah” style bass pattern like a tuba throughout these measures, as an overdub. Paul also sings along with John in the second half of this part, him singing the same notes only a full octave higher. This part ends suddenly at the 21st measure as all instruments ring out during the final words “going down.”

The second smaller part of section two is 18 measures in length and is mostly in 3/4 time.  The difference here is that every sixth measure is in 4/4 time for some reason (or how John heard it in his head).  You'll notice that on every even numbered time the lyric "jumped the gun" occurs, the word "gun" is spread out into four syllables.  The third and fourth syllable of the word "gun" appears in the measure that is in 4/4 time, this happening three times in this section of the song.  Clear as mud?

The elements contained in this section of the song consist of John on lead vocal and rhythm guitar, Paul on bass on harmony vocal sung an octave higher than John (with the exception of the first "Mother superior jumped the gun" which is sung by John alone), George playing a lead guitar part, and Ringo playing a complicated drum pattern to compensate for the time signature changes as well as an overdubbed tambourine.

This segues nicely into the third and final section of the song, which also takes some complicated turns. The first four measures are in 4/4 time, measures five through ten being in 6/8 time, measures eleven through fourteen also being in 4/4 time, followed by a dramatic fifteenth measure of no set time frame, and finally, the song ending with a return to 4/4 time for measures sixteen through twenty.

This final section, referred to by many as the chorus, is the 50's pastiche part of the song where the title of the composition repeats. The elements consisted of John on exuberant lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Paul on bass and overdubbed 50's style piano and Ringo on drums. Extensive background harmony vocal overdubs abound here from John, Paul, and George, Paul even adding in some low "doo-wop" style moaning in between vocal phrases.

The interplay between John's lead vocal lines “when I hold you in my arms...” and the harmony hi-jinks of “ooooh, oh yeah” work to great effect in the 6/8 measures of this section. And because of the mathematical symmetry between the 4/4 and 6/8 measures, Ringo doesn't even let up on playing a simple 4/4 drum pattern throughout, with the exception on the fifteenth measure where all instrumentation stops to allow John to deliver his striking vocal climax to the song. The final comedic word is actually in the last two measures of the song with the background vocalists chiming out “is a warm gun, yeaaaaah” into the track's complete ending with faint chuckling (mono version) and Ringo's final drum flam to end the song as well as side one of the album.

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