October 18th, 1964 proved to be a marathon recording session for The Beatles, since it was quite apparent that they needed to complete a good number of songs to fill a new album and single before the end of the year. Therefore, they met in EMI Studio Two from 2:30 to 11:30 pm on this day, the result being the completion of eight songs, five of which were quickly-recorded cover versions.
After putting the finishing touches on "Eight Days A Week" and fully recording "Kansas City / Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" and "Mr. Moonlight," they started preparing for the next song, the newly written original composition "I Feel Fine." Geoff Emerick, the 2nd engineer at this session, relates what happened next: "As the band began rehearsing their next song in the studio with George Martin, I used the opportunity to sit in the control room and relax for a few minutes. I was making small talk with Norman (Smith, 1st engineer at this session) about something or other when all of a sudden I heard this loud, buzzing sound issue forth from the speakers."
"'What the bloody hell was that?' I asked him, alarmed," Emerick continued. "My first thought was that a cable had gone bad, or that a piece of equipment had failed. Norman chuckled. 'Have a look,' he said to me. I pressed my nose up against the control room glass and was astonished to see John Lennon kneeling before his amplifier, guitar in hand. We knew that if you brought a guitar too close to an amplifier, it would squeal, but John was using it in a controlled way for the first time."
The squeal mentioned above is, of course, the sound heard at the beginning of "I Feel Fine," the explanation of which has become legendary and has been related from many sources in many ways. Early quotes from The Beatles made most think that this was a pure accident that happened during the recording of the song and was kept on the record. While this makes for an interesting story, it simply was not the case.
In his book "Here, There And Everywhere," Geoff Emerick gives us an interesting detail that clarifies the origin of the introductory sound on the record. "Norman (Smith) later explained to me that they had discovered that sound purely by accident at a previous session, the night they recorded 'Eight Days A Week.' It was just serendipity: during a break, John had leaned his guitar against his amp, but had neglected to turn down the volume of the pickup. Just at that moment, for no particular reason, Paul had plucked a low 'A' on his bass and, from across the room, the sound waves set John's guitar feeding back. They loved the resultant howling, so much so that Lennon had apparently been fooling around with the effect ever since. And with his new song, entitled 'I Feel Fine,' he was determined to immortalize the sound on record...years before Jimi Hendrix ever started doing it."
Paul's eye-witness account sheds a little more light on this subject. "John had a semi-acoustic Gibson guitar. It had a pick-up on it so it could be amplified...We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp. I can still see him doing it. He really should have turned the electric off. It was only on a tiny bit, and John just leaned it against the amp when it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!' And we went, 'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' 'Wow, it's a great sound!' George Martin was there so we said, 'Can we have that on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit in on the front.' It was a found object, an accident caused by leaning the guitar against the amp."
What Paul failed to mention was that this accident occurred during the recording of "Eight Days A Week" and not "I Feel Fine." And it wasn't until twelve days later that The Beatles got their way in including this on a Beatles recording, but it wasn't edited in at all. All of the recorded takes of "I Feel Fine" on October 18th started with the well-rehearsed feedback which ushered in John's introductory guitar riff.
John was very proud of this accomplishment. "The record had the first feedback anywhere," Lennon claimed in 1980. "I defy anybody to find a record - unless it's some old blues record in 1922 - that used feedback in that way. I mean, everybody played feedback on stage, and the Jimi Hendrix stuff was going on long before (him). In fact, the punk stuff now is only what people were doing in the clubs. So I claim for The Beatles - before Hendrix, before The Who, before anybody - the first feedback on any record."
Interestingly, when Paul, George and Ringo are seen on the Anthology film discussing the feedback at the beginning of "I Feel Fine," Harrison jokingly claims that "we invented Jimi Hendrix."
The Beatles weren't so enthusiastic to explain the real origins of this effect in early interviews because of EMI's strict policies against feedback on released recordings. "It was all a mistake," John explained at the time. "I was standing between Paul's amplifier and mine, and that was the result. But when we heard it, we liked it, so we left it in. Sounds a bit like an electric razor, doesn't it?"
At approximately 4:30 pm at the October 18th recording session, The Beatles recorded their first take of the song. After the feedback was recorded, John was seen having a little trouble singing the song for more than one reason. First of all, it was in a key that was too high for him to comfortably sing and, second of all, he found it difficult to sing and play that distinctive riff at the same time. The song broke down after about a minute, resulting in The Beatles remedying at least one of the problems by the time take two was attempted.
This second take brought the song down to a lower key which helped John somewhat, but it was still awkward to play and sing simultaneously. They did get through the solo section, but the guitar solo wasn't worked out yet so George just played the riff along with John during this section. Unfortunately, this take also broke down shortly thereafter.
Take Five appears to be the first complete version of the song, although it still wasn't satisfactory for overdubs. Before Take Six begins, we can hear George Harrison rehearsing the guitar solo he will perform as an overdub a little later. This take shows The Beatles resolving the second issue regarding John's performance, the solution being them just recording a rhythm track without John's vocals, which would then be recorded afterward as an overdub. This take is also complete, but not satisfactory.
Three attempts later, on Take Nine, they performed their best rhythm track, feedback and all. Over this, John recorded his vocals and then double-tracked them as well. Other overdubs include Paul and George doing harmony vocals as well as George's guitar solo.
Geoff Emerick's eye-witness account of the recording of the song also includes this detail: "Lennon was also more prone to breaking strings than Harrison - he attacked his guitar harder, with less finesse - and I remember that happening several times during the recording of 'I Feel Fine,' which was quite an aggressive, up-tempo song. When that would happen, he would call out, 'Mal! Mal!' Mal (Evans) was usually the one who would change the guitar sings, although on this day he wasn't there, so the task fell to Neil (Aspinal) instead. Neil was physically a lot smaller than his fellow roadie, so everyone had a good laugh when he walked over to take care of the problem and Lennon slowly looked him up and down, finally exclaiming with perfect comic timing, 'Cor, you've shrunk in the wash, Mal!'"
Three days later, on October 21st, 1964, George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Ron Pender entered Room 65 at EMI to create four mono mixes of "I Feel Fine." The first two were left unreleased, while the third was prepared for the British single and the fourth was intended for America. The British mix had just a touch of reverb while a little more reverb was added for the American mix, as that was what Capitol Records apparently wanted. This didn't appear to be enough, since it is reported that Capitol added even more.
The same EMI staff entered the control room of EMI Studio One the next day, October 22nd, to create a fifth mono mix, although this was never used.
Even though a stereo mix of the song wasn't required at this time, since it was only slated to be issued as a mono single, a stereo mix was nonetheless made on November 4th, 1964 by George Martin, Norman Smith and 2nd engineer Mike Stone in the control room of EMI Studio Two. This quickly-done mix included a second or two of whispers and quiet noises just before the song begins. While most releases edit this out, the whispers were retained on the British version of the compilation album "The Beatles/1962-1966" (aka "The Red Album").
"I Feel Fine" was put to tape on two other occasions in 1965 during the live recordings made at their Hollywood Bowl concerts on August 29th and August 30th. Plans were being discussed to release a live album at this time, although it didn't materialize. Seven of the songs recorded on their August 30th show were eventually included on the 1977 "The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl" album, but "I Feel Fine" was not one of them.
One last recording session on January 5th, 1966 was scheduled concerning "I Feel Fine," but not at EMI. With a degree of secrecy, The Beatles met that day at CTS Studios in London to fully re-record the song to be dubbed onto the live footage of their Shea Stadium concert on August 15th, 1965. George Martin specifically requested a new full recording of the song because of the bad sound quality of the actual performance. The group had to carefully match their playing and singing with the filmed footage. From watching the film today, the job was done quite convincingly. The results were premiered on American television on January 10th, 1967 as "The Beatles At Shea Stadium."
Sometime in 2015, Giles Martin (son of George Martin) and Sam Okell revisited the original master tape of "I Feel Fine" in Abbey Road Studios to create a new stereo mix of the song, the result appearing on a re-release of the compilation album "Beatles 1" that year.
It appears that John Lennon took part in a revival of "I Feel Fine" in the recording studio sometime in August or September of 1980 during the sessions for his classic album "Double Fantasy." Guitarist Earl Slick remembers: "Every once in a while, me and Hughie (McCracken) would start playing a Beatles lick and he would chime in and sometimes he wouldn't. I remember we played some of 'I Feel Fine' and a number of other Beatles songs where he'd forgotten the chords or forgot the words."
Song Structure and Style
The song's structure contains heavy amounts of components due to the brevity of each section. Each of the five verses is only ten measures long, while both bridges are eight measures long. A fourteen-measure instrumental section is also featured, as well as an eight-measure introduction and a ten measure conclusion. Not including the feedback experiment of undefined length preceding the introduction, what results is an "intro/ verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ instrumental/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ outro" structure, which becomes aabacaba minus the intro and outro.
After the feedback experiment, the length of which was determined by whenever Lennon decided to start playing (the various takes of the song show somewhat different lengths), John introduces the song's guitar riff, which is its most distinctive feature. He starts it off in D, falls down to C, and then hits the home key of G, which signals the band to come in for the last two measures of this eight-measure introduction.
John begins the first ten-measure verse with a fast-paced vocal melody line which stays in the home key of G for the first four measures, rising to D on the words "she said so." The verse rounds off with Paul and George harmonizing with John on the key phrase of the song "I'm in love with her and I feel fine," which follows the tried and true formula of ending the verse with the title of the song (see "Love Me Do," "From Me To You" and "And I Love Her" among many others).
The second verse comes next, which is a virtual repeat of the preceding verse except for the lyrics of the first four measures. Afterwards, the three-part harmony remains intact to usher in the eight-measure bridge, which emphasizes the labored half-note melody lines on the words "I'm so glad" and "she's so glad," deviating from the fast-moving melody lines heard in the verses. John completes each of the above statements by himself, accentuated by Paul and George's harmonized "ooh" in the background. Ringo also makes the bridge unique by utilizing his trademark sizzling hi hat, which is only heard during the bridges of the song.
The bridge takes us comfortably into the third verse to complete the compositional length of the song. This time the ending phrase is altered to "she's in love with me and I feel fine." John then utters a muffled but transitional moan to introduce the instrumental section of the song.
This fourteen-measure instrumental section is actually a composite of two parts, the first being a guitar solo by George Harrison in the framework of a verse. After six measures of this, the band drops out, leaving John to repeat the introduction of the song with his descending guitar riff from D to C and then G. When John lands on the first G chord, Ringo signals the band to join in with a full measure syncopated Latin-sounding drum fill. They join in for the final two measures of this instrumental section, which naturally transitions back into a repeat of the second verse.
We complete the original framework of the song with an identical repeat of the bridge and third verse. This final verse is extended by a ten-measure conclusion which also is divided into two parts. The first part is a repeat of the final four measures of the verse, re-emphasizing the title of the song in order to drive home this catch phrase as a summary of its message. On the downbeat of the third measure, the band once again disappears to leave John's trademark guitar riff fading off into the sunset. The only other elements of the remaining measures of the song are John's moans (as heard just before the guitar solo), and Paul barking like a dog for some strange reason.
As for musicianship, Lennon is in top form. Fronting the band with his rambling, excellently played guitar riff, he also sings lead with a commanding and convincing tone, comfortable in the song's chosen key. George puts in a pleasing performance as well, mimicking John's acoustic guitar riff on electric guitar to add a richness that makes it distinct from most other Beatles songs to date. Actually, no rhythm instrument is heard at all in the verses of this song, both guitars playing the guitar riff to allow for airiness in the arrangement. The guitar solo is overdubbed on top of both John and George's guitar riff, which touches on the same notes during the fifth and sixth measures to create a surreal effect. Oh yeah, George's harmonies are good too!
Paul's usual knack for harmonizing is also evident on this song, as is his excellent bass work which does well to round out the aforementioned airiness in the verses. As for Ringo's drumming, Paul explains: "The drumming is basically what we used to think of as 'What'd I Say' drumming. There was a style of drumming on 'Whad'd I Say' which is sort of Latin R&B that Ray Charles's drummer Milt Turner played on the original record and we used to love it. One of the big clinching factors about Ringo as the drummer in the band was that he could really play that so well."
Lyrically, the song was written with no pretenses, no misgivings and no doubts about the relationship in question. The moral of the story is simple; "she's in love with me and I feel fine," that is to say, 'my baby loves me and everything is right in the world.' This simple message may have been a throwback to the innocence of earlier Beatle visions like "All I've Got To Do" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand," but in the midst of more recent Lennon-dominated compositions like "I'm A Loser" and "If I Fell," the simple positive message contained in "I Feel Fine" comes across not only convincing, but as a breath of fresh air.
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