Chains was also one of the ten songs recorded on that historic day of February 11th, 1963, the day chosen to produce the first Beatles album, “Please Please Me.” The third of three sessions that day (the evening session), held between 7:30 and 10:45 p.m. at EMI Studio Two. Of the six songs hurriedly recorded during this evening session, “Chains” was the fourth.
Just over three hours were required to finish the album, being that The Beatles had to immediately go back on the road the next day to continue their first national tour with Helen Shapiro. Between approximately 9:00 and 9:30 pm, four takes of the song were performed, although the first deemed as best. This again was a fully live recording with no overdubs or edits. The faded ending to the song occurred on February 25th during the remix stage.
Both the stereo and mono mix of the song, as well as their entire first album, was created by George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and A.B. Lincoln on February 25th, 1963 in the control room of EMI Studio One.
Song Structure and Style
When The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records on January 1st, 1962, George Harrison was practically threatening to take over the role of lead singer of the group, being that he sang lead on a good number of the songs recorded that day. But for their first actual album, George was relegated to two lead vocal performances, the first being “Chains.” The pattern then continued throughout The Beatles career, allowing either one or two Harrison lead vocal per LP disc (maybe three if he was lucky, as with “Revolver”).
“Chains” follows in the 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse' style (or aaba) which does not have a repeatable chorus. As with the original version of this song, The Beatles opted not to include a solo of any kind, which, after the last verse, allows for an immediate repeating of the bridge and final verse.
The most distinguishable ingredient in the four-bar musical introduction to the song is the short, but vibrant, harmonica riff played by Lennon. This riff is abruptly, and awkwardly, cut short only for John to chime in on harmony background vocals, because the song was recorded live without any overdubs. If time wasn’t of the essence, a decision might have been made to overdub the harmonica introduction later in order to create a more natural transition, as was done on later recordings (such as “From Me To You” and “Thank You Girl”). But this was not to be, as the song was considered complete after today’s performance.
The first verse then commences, which contain the first example of actual three-part harmony found on any Beatles record. This effect was to become a hallmark of The Beatles sound through the years whenever they chose to use it, such as in “This Boy,” “Yes It Is” and “Because.” In this case, George sings lead, which is prominent in volume, while John sings a lower harmony to Paul’s higher harmony. The results show very well rehearsed, as not much time beforehand could have been used to perfect it. After two verses, the bridge is sung solo by George, which when repeated later in the song, has a different set of lyrics.
During the third verse, Lennon’s rhythm guitar breaks up somewhat, which may be a hint to the mystery voice that enters just as the second bridge starts. A voice, faintly heard, seems to say “Is that enough?” or “Is that the rhythm?” This could be from John himself or from the control room, but either way, it is loud enough to appear on both the mono and stereo versions of the song.
Since the original Cookies version of the song appeared in November of 1962, the song had only recently joined The Beatles repertoire. This would account for the tight harmonies, spirited drum fills, and excellent musicianship heard on this recording, proved very fresh in their minds.
As for the lyrics, “Chains” sings about that unfortunate circumstance of being in a committed relationship which is restricting you from ‘running around,’ which is what the singer seems tempted to do. Even though the person the song addresses is “fine” and their “lips are sweet,” the “chains” of the current relationship keep the singer monogamous, although he (or she) wishes otherwise.
Next Cover Song
Of all the tunes recorded for the Beatles first LP, Boys earned the only one recorded in one take. Since the original record was released on November 7th, 1960, The Beatles took to it quickly thereafter and had been performing it regularly ever since, being a showcase for Pete Best’s vocals and then for Ringo when he replaced him in the band. They obviously knew the song like the back of their hand, as McCartney has quoted that the song was a “fan favorite” in their early live performances. So, at approximately 8:45 p.m., the recording of one take was all they needed. This was a complete performance with no overdubs or edits. The added fadeout ending arose to both the mono and stereo mixes on February 25th, 1963, in the control room of EMI Studio One by George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and A.B. Lincoln.
"Boys" was also recorded at their performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, on August 23, 1964. The producers on this session were Capitol's vice president Voyle Gilmore and George Martin with Hugh Davies engineering. This recording ended up on the 1977 release "The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl."
Song Structure and Style
The song “Boys” is structurally unique to this album in two ways. First, it is the only song on the album written in the “12-bar blues” style, meaning that each section of the song (except the small introduction) consists of twelve bars. Also, each section of the song has the same chord pattern, which is E7 (4 bars), A7 (2 bars), back to E7 (2 bars), then B7 (1 bar), A7 (1 bar), E7 (1 bar) and finally B7 (1 bar) which is used as a transition to begin the sequence again for the next section of the song. This total of 12 bars makes up the standard “12 bar blues” pattern used by many of the recording artists that The Beatles admired, such as Chuck Berry (“Too Much Monkey Business,” “Johnny B. Goode”) and Gene Vincent (“Be-Bop-A-Lula”).
The second unique facet of this song on the album is the occurrence of an actual chorus. This song was written in the 'verse/ verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus' style (or aabab). After the first chorus, George Harrison performs a guitar solo which replaces the sax solo on the original recording. This is the second of four guitar solos on the album.
After a rousing 4 bar introduction, Ringo starts the first verse, as all the verses are, singing practically acapella to only four bass notes, one per bar. Paul, George, and John then begin the background harmony phrases “bop-shoo-op” which consistently occur during each verse of the song. As the second verse continues in the same structural pattern, we begin to hear McCartney’s excited whoops and hollers which continue to escalate in frequency as well as intensity throughout the rest of the song.
The chorus then occurs which finally introduces to the listeners the title of the song (actually drilling it into our heads, and repeats 11 times per chorus). McCartney’s incredible musicianship is then brought to the fore as he displays a careful staccato in his intricate bass line WHILE singing (with George and John) the background vocal phrase “Yeah, Yeah, Boys” which is out-of-sync with his quarter note bass playing. Couple this with Ringo’s exuberant vocal work (simple though it may be) which outshines the original in excitement, and you have a thrilling climax to the verse/verse/chorus pattern that is only outshined by it’s repeated refrain and the song’s fade out.
After Ringo’s encouraging exclamation “All Right George,” as he was prone to do (as in “Honey Don’t), we are treated to Harrison’s simple but effective guitar solo, not overdubbed as most future recordings were, but all in one performance with the band. It’s quite apparent that the group was very much enjoying the performance as if there was an audience present as there usually was when they performed the song. Judging by McCartney’s screams, he seems to have been enjoying it a little too much. But, on the whole, they all must have known that they were nailing the song on the first try, which they indeed did.
Ringo’s drum work is also of note, displaying for the second time on the album, the band’s trademark “beat” style that they had perfected throughout the past few years. Although his squeaky drum pedal is apparent throughout the song, the energetic performance with striking drum fills shows that he clearly had the song down pat.
It may seem odd to many that The Beatles would even perform a song that contained lyrics which lauded the joys of “boys.” As they had a penchant for learning girl group songs, most of these lyrics can be comfortably converted and sung by either sex. This song, though, was not the case, as Ringo exclaims at the end of each chorus that boys are a “bundle of joy.” We, of course, are looking on many decades later living in drastically different times. Apparently back in the early sixties, hardly anyone noticed — not even The Beatles. McCartney has been quoted more recently as saying that they “never even listened” to the lyrics and that it was just an example of the “innocence” of those times. They just enjoyed playing the song.
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Another plagiarised article from Dave Rybaczewski's web page.
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