I’M SO TIRED AND ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

John recorded a demo version of "I'm So Tired" at George Harrison's 'Kinfauns' home in Surrey on May 28th, 1968 on an Ampex 4-track machine.  The Beatles met on this day as well as the following day to record demos of the songs they'd recently written in preparation for them officially recording the songs in EMI Studios, these sessions beginning on May 30th.

John plays acoustic guitar and double-tracks his vocals on this demo, Paul also being heard adding some “woooo”s here and there as well as someone adding some strategic tambourine hits in the latter half of the song. This demo recording is substantially longer than the finished version, John repeating the first verse after the third verse is sung as well as adding yet another additional verse followed by a third chorus.

This final verse, undoubtedly intended to be used for a solo of some kind, included the following ad-libbed vocal recitation from John for the time being: “When I hold you in your arms, when you show me each one of your charms, I wonder should I get up and go to the funny farm.” The first phrase of this recitation ended up becoming a striking feature of another of John's “White Album” songs, namely “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.” This demo of “I'm So Tired” ends with five repeats of the phrase “I'd give you everything I've got for a little piece of mind” instead of three on the finished recording, this followed by John stating “I'll give you all I've got, Derek!” possibly addressed to press officer Derek Taylor who may have been present at 'Kinfauns' on this day.

After well over four months of recording the “White Album,” with less than a week to go before the deadline for the finished album arrived, The Beatles finally got around to officially recording John's “I'm So Tired” for the album. In a marathon recording session on October 8th, 1968, the group entered EMI Studio Two at around 4 pm with the intention of fully recording two John Lennon compositions, “I'm So Tired” and “The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill.” First on the agenda, though, was adding some overdubs to George's song “Long Long Long” which had begun the previous day. With this complete, John was caught on tape exerting his authority and whipping the boys up for recording his two new songs. “Quick, quick, the red light's on, let's go, let's make a record!” he can be heard demanding on the session tapes for this day.

The group decided to tackle “I'm So Tired” first, beginning roughly at around 6 pm. The basic rhythm track filled the first four tracks of the eight-track tape, Paul's bass on track one, Ringo's drums on track two, John and George's electric guitars on track three, and John's lead vocal on track four. It took 14 takes for them to get a usable rhythm track, the compilation album “Anthology 3” containing a composite of takes 3, 6 and 9 to give us an idea of how the song had evolved in the studio until the perfected “take 14” came around.

With four more tracks to fill on the tape, overdubs commenced. Track five contained backing vocals from John and Paul, track six contained a drum overdub from Ringo for the choruses, lead guitar fills from George in the vocal gaps and electric piano from Paul, track seven contained yet more drums from Ringo during the choruses, and track eight contained John on organ and George on distant guitar.

Interestingly, at the end of the song, John spoke closely into the microphone during the backing vocal overdub on track five, requesting another go at recording that overdub. His almost indecipherable request was “Monsieur, monsieur, monsieur, how about another one......?” Humorously, in late 1969, many who were hungry for clues to Paul's supposed death insisted that, when played backwards, John was saying “Paul is dead, miss him, miss him, miss him.” This made for a spooky but mistaken story and, in effect, ruined a lot of record player needles in the process.

By around 4 am the following morning, “I'm So Tired” made headway to completion upon the stubborn nic-pic satisfaction of John. “One of my favorite tracks,” he stated when interviewed, adding “I just like the sound of it, and I sing it well.” They then began and finished “The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill” before the session was over at 8 am.

Both the stereo and mono mixes of “I'm So Tired” were created a week later, October 15th, 1968, by the engineering team of George Martin, Ken Scott and John Smith in the control room of EMI Studio Two. A decision surfaced to take out a good portion of John's organ, and most of George's lead guitar fills in both mixes, feeling that it muddied up the arrangement a little too much. It took five tries to perfect the stereo mix and three tries to get a usable mono mix. The mono mix emphasizes Paul's backing vocals in the choruses much more prominently than the stereo mix.

On January 3rd, 1969, The Beatles ran through an interesting version of the song at Twickenham Film Studios in London during rehearsals for what became the “Let It Be” movie. Committed to tape on this day was a full version of “I'm So Tired” with Paul on vocals, him humorously imitating John's singing. After the line “get myself a drink, no, no, no,” Paul adds “lay off the booze, boy!” Paul even tries to imitate John's indecipherable muttering at the end of the song: “emesegeh, megasegeh, emeh, emehsegeh, emeh....”

Sometime early in 1996, George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick returned to the master tapes of October 8th, 1968 to combine the best parts of takes 3, 6 and 9 of the rhythm track The Beatles recorded for “I'm So Tired” to include in the compilation album “Anthology 3.”

Unlike the previous two "White Album" tracks, "I'm So Tired" has a very standard format, 'verse/ verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus' (or aabab).  John chose to omit a couple of verses and a chorus from the demo he recorded back in May of 1968, his succinct message not needing to be repeated or drawn out any further.

The first verse, like all three verses, plays seven measures long, all of which are in a plodding 4/4-time signature except for measure six which is in 2/4. The first measure delivers an ascending three-note guitar figure from John's guitar which then continues through the verse playing a sleepy chord pattern along with George's guitar. John sings lead single-tracked throughout while Paul and Ringo hold down the rhythm end of the song, all performing at a convincingly insomniatic pace suitable to the lyrics. The first verse only includes elements from the original rhythm track, so therefore what we hear is actually performed live in the studio with no overdubs.

The second verse begins immediately afterward which mirrors the first throughout with a couple of exceptions in measures five through seven. John's vocals rise out of his lethargic state into one of irritation on the line “I wonder should I call you, but I know what you would do.” Also during these measures, we hear John's overdubbed organ kick in, which has been treated with the manual “wobble” effect of ADT (Artificial Double Tracking) as done on Eric Clapton's guitar work on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Next comes the first chorus which is six measures long, all of which are in 4/4 time. On top of the original rhythm track is John's organ holding out single chords, John and Paul's backing vocals (Paul performing a higher harmony), and Ringo's overdubbed drum work, most notable because of the snare accents. The intensity of the chorus builds as it progresses until it climaxes in the fifth measure with the line “I'd give you everything I've got for a little piece of mind.” As this last word sounds, the sixth measure begins with all instrumentation dropping off entirely. The second half of the last measure brings in the subtle guitar introduction heard at the beginning of the song as a segue into the third verse that follows.

This third verse is very similar to the second verse in that it consists of the original rhythm track recording with John's organ overdub being faded in again in the fifth through seventh measures. One additional element here is a small trace of George's lead guitar overdub which is heard in the seventh measure after the highly emphasized word “get.”

This small trace goes directly into the second and final chorus which, this time, is ten measures long given that measures five and six are repeated two more times for emphasis before the song comes to a startling finish. All elements of the previous chorus are heard here as well with the addition of yet another drum overdub from Ringo, him accenting the snare drum with sixteenth notes. Therefore, there are actually three Ringo’s playing during this chorus, his performance during the rhythm track, an identical drum pattern overdub, and then the above-mentioned snare drum overdub. Also, discernible here is Paul's electric piano which can be subtly heard as a backdrop throughout.

The last climax phrase repeats three times, the first two times followed by a 'Beatles break' with minimal else going on. During the first break, all that appears is a simple drum fill from Ringo. During the second break, Ringo plays a more elaborate drum fill along with three guitar chops and a thumb-roll from Paul on the electric piano. Then after the third vocal phrase sounds, everything drops off completely, the only thing left to hear being John's mumbled request for another take of the background vocal track, which apparently didn't happen since this request was captured on the "take" they kept.

The performance from all four Beatles stands very compelling, depicting an angry insomniac rage at the point of desperation. It was accurately portrayed, undoubtedly, because of the actual lateness of the hour when the song laid its recorded piece, finishing about 4 am in the morning (with four more hours to go, mind you, since they immediately continued on with “The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill”). Lennon hit the nail on the head vocally and instrumentally, while both Paul and Ringo contributed stellar performances. A lot of what George inputted disappeared, however, but his heavy chording during the choruses did help create the thick feel that John wanted for the song.

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