In My Life, plus Wait and their incredible recording process advancements revealed here and now.

October 18th, 1965 signified their fourth recording session for their “Rubber Soul” album.  This session was just over three hours long, which was quite short for Beatles’ sessions these days, but quite a lot got accomplished in this short amount of time.  They entered EMI Studio Two at 2:30 pm to add vocal overdubs and tambourine to George’s “If I Needed Someone” which they began recording two days earlier, passed as complete in about an hour.  They then started rehearsing their recent composition “In My Life” to get the arrangement perfected before the tapes starting rolling.

Three takes occurred of the rhythm track, which comprised John on electric rhythm guitar, George playing the lead guitar riffs throughout the song, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums playing an interesting syncopated rhythm.  The first two takes weren’t quite right, one of which was a breakdown.  The third take, however, was the keeper over which the overdubs followed.

John’s lead vocals no doubt being the first performed, which entailed some skill on his part in order to match his ending vocal line “I love you more” with the previously recorded rhythm track.  Then John double-tracked his vocals followed by background vocal overdubbing from Paul and George.  Ringo also overdubbed a tambourine during the bridge, which he laid down on a separate track of the four-track tape.  At 5:45 pm, the session ended for the day.

Only one thing was needed to complete the song.  George Martin relates:  “There was a gap in the song, and I said, ‘We need a solo here.’”  John Lennon suggested for George Martin to supply one himself.  “In ‘In My Life’ there’s an Elizabethan piano solo,” John stated in a 1970 interview.  “We’d do things like that.  We’d say, ‘Play it like Bach,’ or, ‘Could you put twelve bars in there?’”  With that vague instruction, George Martin was left to come up with something on another day.

“There’s a bit where John couldn’t decide what to do in the middle,” George Martin remembers.  Although he relates how he recorded the resulting solo for this section “while they were having their tea-break,” this was actually done four days later on October 22nd, 1965.  The Beatles were due to arrive at EMI Studio Two on that day to work on “Nowhere Man” at 2:30 pm, but George Martin secured the studio earlier in the day, from 10:30 to 11:30 am, to superimpose a solo of some sort.

“I wrote something like a Bach inversion, and played it, then recorded it,” George Martin explains.  But he first had to decide what instrument to use.  According to what he on the tape box for that day, he first tried it on a Hammond organ.  Feeling that wasn’t the right sound, he tried his solo on a piano.

In a 1990 BBC radio program entitled “Sounds Of The Sixties,” George Martin gives some interesting details about the solo in this song:  “It was quite common practice for us to do a track and leave a hole in the middle for the solo.  Sometimes George would pick up his guitar and fool around and do a solo, and we would often try to get other sounds.  On ‘In My Life’ we left the hole as usual…While they were away, I thought it would be rather nice to have a harpsichord-like solo…I did it with what I call a ‘wound up’ piano, which was at double-speed – partly because you get a harpsichord sound by shortening the attack of everything, but also because I couldn’t play it at real speed anyway.  So I played it on piano at exactly half normal speed, and down an octave.  When you bring the tape back to normal speed again, it sounds pretty brilliant.  It’s a means of tricking everybody into thinking you can do something really well.”

With Mr. Martin satisfied himself, the only thing left was for The Beatles to approve.  “I played it back to them when they returned, and they said, ‘That’s great!’ So, we left it like that.”

The mono mix of “In My Life” was made on October 25th, 1965 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Ken Scott.  The first stereo mix trailed the following day, October 26th, 1965, in the control room of the same studio with Martin, Smith and 2nd engineer Ron Pender at the controls.

This stereo mix places the entire rhythm track and the separate tambourine overdub track on the left channel.  The right channel contains all of the vocal overdubs (with slight reverb) as well as George Martin’s piano solo.  A small bleed over of the rhythm track leaked through on the right channel due to it being played in the studio for The Beatles to sing along with and unfortunately picked up by their microphones.  When the vocals stop toward the end of the song, the engineers faded down the right channel, so the bleed over disappears during the final seconds of the song.

As it turns out, George Martin played his piano solo on the same track as the tambourine overdub.  While they were creating this first stereo mix, they needed to pan that track from the left channel, where the tambourine is normally heard, to the right channel where they wanted the piano solo.  After the solo, they needed to quickly pan that track back to the left channel immediately because the tambourine comes in on the very next beat.  They didn’t pan it quick enough, so the first beat of the tambourine is heard in the right channel before they had a chance to get it back to the left channel.

In 1986, George Martin returned to the master tapes to create a second stereo mix of the song for the 1987 released “Rubber Soul” album on compact disc.  This mix differs from the first stereo mix in a few ways.  First of all, the vocals have a fair percentage more reverb than before and are panned slightly more to the left, giving it a slightly centered effect.  This time around, they panned the piano solo very quickly back to the left channel, so the tambourine comes in on the downbeat of the correct measure.  Also, the drums are slightly quieter during the verses in this new stereo mix.

There are also a couple of small but noticeable differences in the 1986 stereo mix concerning John’s vocal track.  The first is the absence of John’s intake of breath just before he starts singing at the beginning of the song, which is present in the 1965 stereo mix.  Second, George Martin decided to leave the vocal track up on the right channel at the end of the song instead of fading it out as he had done in the original stereo mix.  These are very minor anomalies but are worthy of mention.

Song Structure And Style.

To define what structure “In My Life” falls into is a complex task and varies from one source to another.  Lennon referring to the second and fourth sections of the song as a “middle-eight” may give us a hint, so, therefore, for the sake of writing, we’ll call these sections ‘bridges’ instead of refrains.  Therefore, the structure would consist of ‘verse/ bridge/ verse/ bridge/ verse (solo)/ bridge’ (or ababab).  A fitting introduction, an interjected half-introduction after the first bridge, and a climactic conclusion help shape together this amazing tune.

A four-measure introduction is heard first which is actually a two-measure guitar riff (written by McCartney and played by Harrison) repeated twice with Lennon’s rhythm guitar in the background.  Paul’s bass is also present with some interesting ascending runs to complement the arrangement.  With a slight intake of breath from John (in the 1965 mixes), the syncopated drums and three-part harmony vocals kick in for the eight-measure first verse that follows.  The background vocalists harmonize the lyrics with John’s double-tracked vocals on every other line starting with “There are places I remember,” while they “oooh” during the conclusion of each thought, as when John finishes the line “all my life, though some have changed.”

The first eight-measure bridge repeats the harmony pattern although they drop the “oooh”s to allow John to finish the thought by himself.  Gentle four-in-the-bar cymbal taps replace the syncopated drums, and tambourine shakes for measures one, two, five and six, each set ending with a simple fill.  The remaining measures of the bridge introduce a traditional rock beat riding the bell of the ride cymbal.  John’s rhythm guitar strums are elongated to add fluency to the track.

After the bridge, Ringo immediately jumps back into the syncopated drum pattern as a two-measure reprise of the introduction, heard as a spacer before the second verse enters.  Otherwise, the same ingredients as heard in the intro are repeated but only with one phrase instead of two this time around.

A second eight-measure verse then follows that sounds identical in structure and arrangement as the first verse but with different lyrics.  A second bridge then follows which is also structurally identical but with new lyrics.  One noticeable difference is the filling out of the syllables in the harmonized vocal lines.  In the first bridge, most words take up two syllables each, such as on “dead and some are,” while the second bridge usually fills out each syllable, such as with “I know I’ll often stop and think about them.”

A new eight-measure verse follows right after this bridge, which this time is taken up by George Martin’s incredible baroque keyboard solo.  The final note of his double-timed downward run hits on the same beat that John begins singing “Though I know I’ll never lose affection,” thereby introducing a repeat of the second bridge, which is essentially the same structurally and instrumentally.

After this is complete, the conclusion of the song begins, which starts out with a further half-reprise of the introduction as heard in-between the first bridge and second verse.  After this, the song hangs in the air as Lennon jumps into falsetto for the first time in the song, repeating the final line of the last verse, namely “In my life…”  After we lose the tempo of the song momentarily (not unlike what he does three years later in “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”), John finishes the line “I love you more” in his normal voice but with a stagnant beat to create an emotional impact on the listener.  This is traced by a final repeat of the introductory line and then one last concluding phrase as a bow to satisfyingly end the song.

With such an intimate song as “In My Life,” one would expect Lennon to don his Gibson acoustic guitar as he had done on many “Rubber Soul” tracks.  Surprisingly, yet appropriately, John picks up an electric guitar, probably his 1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster, to play his flowing, yet subtle, rhythm guitar part.  John’s most noteworthy contribution to the song, however, was his double-tracked lead vocals which convincingly deliver the nostalgic lyrics and touch a nerve with the listener in the process.

Paul may take a backseat in the proceedings, but everyone definitely feels his presence.  His bass work adds nuances throughout the song that work with the arrangement while not becoming too busy.  His other contributions are his superbly performed harmonies and, one can assume from recent examples such as “Ticket To Ride,” probably tags his suggestions to Ringo concerning the syncopated drum beat he plays.

Speaking of which, Ringo is always keen to play appropriately to any occasion, this time with a delicate smoothness on drums and tambourine that doesn’t detract from John’s vocal delivery.  George once again plays a minor role here, one of background vocalist and lead guitarist, although his playing is only heard briefly four times in the song.  They are, however, perfectly delivered, until a stray note appearing after the final note of the song buzzes.  The note does fit and was included, no doubt, to help contribute to the intimate feel of the song.

Lennon’s powerful delivery works so well in this song because of the immensely nostalgic contents of the lyrics.  At some point in everyone’s life, we all wish to revisit the old town or neighborhood to see how things presently look.  We inevitably find that “some have changed” and “not for better,” some buildings and homes being torn down or remodeled beyond recognition.  But we’re always happy to find that “some remain” exactly how we remember them, which may then bring a tear to our eye.  After all, “all these places had their moments with lovers and friends,” and those ‘good old days’ come rushing back to us.  Then our focus turns to the people as we begin to wonder whatever happened to them.  “Some are dead, and some are living,” but we wouldn’t trade those memories for anything.  We “loved them all.”

The nostalgic trip of the song then switches gears to the present time, which shows that we don’t just live in the past but appreciate where life leads up to this point in life.  As may be our experience, John addresses his current partner, saying that none of “these friends and lovers” of the past “compares with you.”  Although he will always cherish his formative years and all of these experiences, “these memories lose their meaning” in comparison with the happiness of the present day.  Like us, he will “often stop and think about them” from time to time but, as John relates in falsetto as a climax to the song, “In my life, I love you more.”

It is no wonder that Lennon viewed this song as his “first real, major piece of work.”

Next Song – Wait:

The very last day of recording for the British “Help!” album occurred on June 17th, 1965.  The Beatles entered EMI Studio Two at 2 pm for the first session of the day that ran until 5:30 pm.  This earlier session resulted in completing Paul’s beautiful song “Yesterday” by adding a brief vocal overdub as well as the stunning string quartet.  They also recorded, in its entirety, “Act Naturally” before this session was complete.

After an hour-and-a-half break, the group re-entered the studio at 7 pm for a scheduled three-hour session to record the final song needed for the album, namely “Wait.”  After some rehearsal, they performed four takes of the rhythm track, “take four” being deemed best.  The rhythm track consisted of John on electric rhythm guitar, George on lead guitar played through his volume pedal (as also used on “I Need You” and “Yes It Is,” both recorded on February 17th of that year), Ringo on drums and Paul on bass.  Paul’s bass guitar was recorded on a separate track so that it could be panned separately during the mixing stage if so desired.

After this was complete, John and Paul overdubbed their vocals, although these were left single-tracked at this time.  They then ended the session a half-hour early at 9:30 since they figured the album was then complete.  The mono mix of “Yesterday” appears to have been made after The Beatles had left for the night.

The remaining mixes for the “Help!” album were made the following day on June 18th, 1965 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by producer George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Phil McDonald.  All of the mono mixes took priority first and, since “Wait” was considered part of the album, it too received its first mono mix on this day.  However, when the stereo mixes of all these songs were done afterward, “Wait” was not one of them.  George Martin likely didn’t feel the song was good enough to include on the album in this state, hence there was no need to create a stereo mix at this time.  And since The Beatles were leaving immediately for a short European Tour, there was no time to bring them back into the recording studio for more work on the song.  With a need for a fourteenth song for the album, they needed to think of another solution.

An easy solution was found by including the May 10th recorded Larry Williams rocker “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” instead of “Wait.”  Both “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” and “Bad Boy” were recorded solely for the US market but, since there were no immediate plans to release them in Britain, they undoubtedly figured they’d release the better of the two songs to finish off the latest album.  Problem solved.

Nearly five months later, on November 11th, the group found themselves in the same predicament.  The very last possible day for recording their next album “Rubber Soul” was upon them, and they needed one more song to fill the fourteen-track quota.  They entered EMI Studio Two on this day at 6 pm for what became a marathon thirteen-hour recording session to complete the album.  After fully recording two new songs, namely “You Won’t See Me” and “Girl,” they had the original master tape of “Wait” spooled up in order to add overdubs and finally complete the song.  This took approximately an hour to do, from 4 to 5 am on what was now November 12th, 1965.

The overdubs performed during this hour included Paul double-tracking his vocals during the bridges and adding a third harmony during the final two verses.  George Harrison added additional tone pedal guitar work as well as rhythm guitar during both bridges.  Ringo was quite busy, adding both tambourine and maracas which made the song quite percussion-heavy.  John opted not to double-track his vocals on this song.

The final mixing session for the “Rubber Soul” album was on November 15th, 1965 in the control room of EMI Studio One as performed by George Martin, Norman Smith, and 2nd engineer Richard Lush.  The mono mix of “Wait” made on this day was named “remix 2” because of the early mono mix of the incomplete song made on June 18th, has never seen the light of day in any form.

The stereo mix made on this day puts the guitars and drums of the original rhythm track entirely on the left channel while the bass guitar pans to the center of the mix.  All vocals, original and new, are heard entirely on the right channel as are all of the overdubs performed on November 12th.  Very little if any reverb appears in either the mono or stereo mixes made in 1965.

George Martin made a second stereo mix in 1986 for use on the compact disc release of “Rubber Soul” in 1987.  The only noticeable difference is that the vocals are panned a little more to the center of the mix.  Once again, the absence of reverb is noteworthy since it was customary to put in at least a little to add some depth.  This may be evidence that the song stood apart as “filler” consideration material for the album, even at this late date.

Song Structure and Style

Once again utilizing a full-fledged “chorus,” something which was becoming a little more common for them by mid 1965, “Wait” falls into a lengthy ‘verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ bridge/ verse/ chorus/ bridge/ verse/ chorus/ verse’ pattern (or ababcabcaba).  No introduction or solo feature appeared required, but a drawn-out conclusion assembled around a repeat of the first verse.  What is unusual here is the allotted measures that both the verse and chorus contain.

The first verse, which is an unusual six measures long, begins out of thin air with John singing the pick-up line “It’s been a…” a cappella before the downbeat of the first measure actually starts.  When the downbeat hits, Paul immediately joins in on a higher harmony and bass guitar along with George’s tone-pedal guitar chords and Ringo’s beat on his bass drum and bell of his ride cymbal.  Interestingly, all of the elements just mentioned are heard primarily on a strict syncopated beat in conjunction with the words “long time, now I’m.”  Even though the last of the third phrase adds three more syllables (“coming back home”), all of these elements continue to play the syncopated rhythm.  The only ingredient that doesn’t follow this pattern is the overdubbed tambourine which fills the gaps with two accent beats per phrase.

The second half of the first verse is a melodic repeat of the first half but with a couple of differences in the arrangement.  Ringo starts playing a regular 4/4 rock beat on the drums with the hi-hat while his overdubbed maracas come in and play a steady 4/4 beat as well.  These differences not only infuse the arrangement away from monotony but also add a degree of anticipation for a climax which is due to appear in the upcoming chorus.  The verse ends with Ringo crashing his open hi-hats followed by a tom roll to herald in this climax.

The chorus, which reaches the highest vocal pitch of the entire song (the harmony vocals, that is), is a very unusual five measures long.  The overdubbed maracas may disappear, but the tambourine takes its place by playing a steady 4/4 rhythm while Ringo’s drums on the rhythm track move the rock beat from the hi-hat to the ride cymbal.  There are actually two George’s playing tone-pedal guitar in different patterns during the verse, one from the original rhythm track on the left channel (performed on June 17th) and another on the right channel (performed on November 12th).  John is first heard on guitar during this verse as well, but only in the left channel as performed on the original rhythm track.

On the fifth and final measure of the chorus, which brings the song back to its original key of F# minor, most of the instruments come to a crashing halt (just after the word “cried”).  One instrument that keeps playing, as if he didn’t realize everyone else stopped, is the overdubbed tambourine.  Ringo continues with four more beats to fill the gap of silence before the next verse begins.  Obviously this wasn’t a mistake since this pattern is repeated later in the song.

A second verse and chorus then repeats the same instrumentation and arrangement, except this time, all the instruments continue to play during the final measure of the second chorus.  After George ends the second chorus with three taps on his tone pedal switch, the first eight-measure bridge enters.  Ringo continues the rock beat he had been playing during the chorus while Paul sings double-tracked by himself.  Both the left and right channel contain rhythm guitar ‘chunks’ played by John (left channel) and George (overdubbed right channel).  The original rhythm track contains some awkward tone pedal work from George that comes in a little late in the third and fourth measures.  Also, the overdubbed tambourine continues with the same ferocity as heard in the previous chorus.  In the eighth measure, however, we see the group put in another ‘break’ on the beat “will wait for me” with the only instrument still heard being George’s tone-pedal guitar.  Actually, two of George, one on each channel playing on the same beats.

A repeat of the first verse is then heard with the exact instrumentation as heard before.  The chorus is then repeated with the same ending as heard the second time around.  A repeat of the bridge follows this, but the instrumentation is made different because of how Ringo played the drums on the rhythm track.  He concentrates solely on the snare drum by playing eighth notes varying in volume and intensity throughout the first seven measures.  He then stops suddenly in the eighth measure to mimic the arrangement of the first bridge.  One wonders whether he inadvertently missed his cue the first time the bridge was played and then remembered the arrangement the second time around.  He may have been just learning this arrangement and, as evidenced in early takes of “No Reply” for instance (as heard on “Anthology 1”), he may not have had it down quite right yet, and they let it go.  Or maybe, it was intentional to add some variance.  Just a thought.

After this, the second verse is repeated with the same instrumentation, although George’s tone-pedal chord that was to begin the fifth measure comes in noticeably early, actually within the last moments of the fourth measure.  An interesting added element here is in the last four measures where Paul overdubs an additional harmony starting on the words “heart’s strong…”  The fourth and final chorus is then heard which ends exactly as the first one did with a ‘break’ and the tambourine trailing off in the final measure.

To conclude the song, the first verse repeats for the third time with the first three measures sounding identical in arrangement as heard throughout the song.  However, the final three measures are different in many ways.  First of all, the fourth and fifth measures show George’s guitar drops out entirely while Paul once again overdubs an additional harmony, this time on the words “…way now, oh how.”  The final measure is then slowed down to a snail’s pace to emphasize three-part harmony on the words “I’ve been alone.”  The only instruments heard at this point are Ringo’s cymbal tap and one bass note from Paul.  The final chord of F# minor plucks as a rumble on bass guitar along with a subtle drum roll from Ringo and George double-tracking a descending tone-pedal riff from both channels of the stereo mix.  Add to this the violent shaking of the tambourine and maracas, and you have the mournful conclusion to an otherwise optimistic song.

Paul ends up being the primary performer on “Wait” as he provides the stunning bass work and becoming the biggest vocal contributor, being the natural that he is at picking out and executing harmonies.  John does his part at singing lead vocals during the verses as well as providing electric rhythm guitar parts on the rhythm track.  George shows that he’s getting more of a knack at working with his tone pedal, although this is the last Beatles track he apparently used the item.

For those who hadn’t noticed, Ringo shines quite well on “Wait.”  His intricate changes in pattern, along with his tumbling drum fills that usher in the choruses, reveal his obvious enthusiasm during the original recording session.  His overdubbed tambourine and maracas, mixed quite high for the release, makes his contribution to the song very noteworthy.

It’s probably the simplistic and innocent message of the lyrics that influence many about it being “out of place” on the “Rubber Soul” album.  Once fans learn that this song was actually a reject from the “Help!” album that was resurrected only to fill the final track on the new album, the lyrics can then easily point to as evidence of being in the older writing style of Lennon and McCartney.  While this is obviously the case, this song sounding similar in content to “It Won’t Be Long” for example, it must be remembered that “Wait” was written in the same year that all of “Rubber Soul” was.  In fact, “Norwegian Wood,” with its very mature theme, began to be written approximately one month before “Wait” was.  Either way, the evidence shows the ‘leaps and bounds’ that their writership was taking them.

The lyrics tell a simple story of how the singer has “been away” from his girl for “a long time,” but now he’s “coming back home.”  Though she has wept during his absence, all she needs to do is “wait” until his return, for then they’ll both “forget the tears we cried.”  Being faithful is an issue, but the singer comforts her by saying, “you ought to know that I’ve been good, as good as I can be.”  He then says that he expects the same from her, saying, “I’ll trust in you and know that you will wait for me.”  A curious inclusion in the lyrics come in the line, “but if your heart breaks, don’t wait, turn me away.”  This sounds like the singer is saying that he’ll accept the loss if she decides to find someone new because of being away too long.  He follows this by being hopeful that her “heart’s strong” enough to “hold on” until he gets there.

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Girl, plus I’m Looking Through You and their incredible recording process advancements revealed here and now.

After one full month of recording since October 12th, 1965, which included fourteen days of sessions at EMI Studios, their sixth British album sounded nearly complete.  Within this time, they had also recorded their next single “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper,” so they had accomplished quite a lot.  But not quite enough.  They still needed three more songs to fill out the fourteen slots on the album.

Determined, they arrived at EMI Studio Two on November 11th, 1965 at 6 pm for a marathon recording session to complete the album, no matter how long it would take.  They came armed on this day with two new songs to be recorded in their entirety, namely “You Won’t See Me,” which they tackled first, and “Girl.”  Knowing this would be the last possible session to complete the album, they decided to resurrect “Wait,” which was a nearly complete song they had recorded for the previous album but had left unissued.

The first of two takes of the rhythm track for “Girl” started at approximately 11 pm.  It appears that only three Beatles played on the rhythm track:  John on acoustic guitar played with a capo high up on the neck, Paul on bass guitar on his own designated track, and Ringo on drums played with brushes.  No vocals were performed during the rhythm track as these were all overdubbed later.  The second take of the rhythm track was found to be best, and extensive overdubs then followed.

John’s lead vocals were overdubbed first and featured an interesting element not heard before on a Beatles recording.  As Ringo affectionately says:  “’ Girl’ was great – weird breathy sound on it.,”   Paul explains, “My main memory is that John wanted to hear the breathing, wanted it to be very intimate, so George Martin put a special compressor on the voice, then John dubbed it.”  On another occasion, Paul remembered the occasion this way:  “I remember John saying to the engineer (Norman Smith) when we did ‘Girl,’ that when he draws his breath in, he wants to hear it.  The engineer then went off and figured out how to do it.  We really felt like young professionals.”

Several more overdubs were then added, including three separate guitar parts by George Harrison.  One of them, described by Mark Lewisohn in his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” as a “fuzz guitar part,” was omitted from the mix entirely.  This part no doubt was performed using the same Fuzztone box Paul played his bass guitar through three days earlier on the song “Think For Yourself.”  The other two guitar parts played by George Harrison were on an acoustic 12-string as heard in the third and fourth verses of the song.

Ringo played another interesting overdub for the song.  This consisted of him hitting a cymbal and then grabbing the cymbal shortly afterward to stop the ringing.  This was done sixteen times in the fourth verse while both of George’s acoustic guitar overdubs came aboard.

John also double-tracked his lead vocals as an overdub, but only during the choruses and the bridge.  He also took the time to double-track his breathing in the choruses to make sure they were pronounced enough on the final product.

Paul and George also overdubbed background vocals during the choruses and bridge, which added another unique element to the song.  “It was always amusing to see if we could get a naughty word on the record,” Paul remembers, mentioning “Fish and finger pie” from “Penny Lane” and “prick teaser” from “Day Tripper.”

Paul continues, “The Beach Boys had a song out where they’d done ‘la la la la’ and we loved the innocence of that and wanted to copy it, but not use the same phrase.  So we were looking around for another phrase, so it was ‘dit dit dit dit,’ which we decided to change in our waggishness to ‘tit tit tit tit,’ which is virtually indistinguishable from ‘dit dit dit dit.’  And it gave us a laugh.  It was to get some light relief in the middle of this real big career that we were forging.  If we could put in something that was a little bit subversive, then we would.  George Martin might say, ‘Was that “dit dit” or “tit tit” you were saying?’  ‘Oh, “dit dit,” George, but it does sound a bit like that, doesn’t it?’  Then we’d get in the car and break down laughing.”

By approximately 4 am the next morning, the song was finally complete.  They still stayed in the studio another three hours to complete “Wait” and put the finishing touches on “I’m Looking Through You” before going home with the knowledge that the album proved finally finished as far as they were concerned.

On November 15th, 1965, George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Richard Lush entered the control room of EMI Studio Two to create the remaining mixes for the resulting “Rubber Soul” album.  Both the mono and stereo mixes of “Girl” occurred on this day.  The stereo mix basically has the instrumental rhythm track on the left channel except for the bass which laid centered in the mix; this made possible recording the bass on its own track during the recording of the rhythm track.  All vocals are panned exclusively to the right channel as is George’s first guitar overdub.  In order to provide a wider audio landscape, George’s second guitar overdub, as heard in the final instrumental verse, is panned exclusively to the left channel as is Ringo’s cymbal overdub.

George Martin returned to the master tape in 1986 to prepare a new stereo mix for the premiere of the “Rubber Soul” album on compact disc.  The most noticeable difference here, other than the bass guitar being exclusively panned to the left channel this time around, is that the lead vocals do have some bleed-through onto the left channel as well although they are not centered as expected.

Song Structure and Style

The Beatles were becoming more and more comfortable including a chorus in their compositions by 1965, “Girl” being another prime example.  The structure consists of ‘verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ bridge/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ verse (instrumental)/ chorus’ (or ababcbabab).

Primarily considered as a Lennon song, he adds a further international touch to the album by incorporating a somewhat German-sounding feel to compliment the French equivalent in Paul’s “Michelle.”  His highly-capoed acoustic guitar gives the feel of a mandolin which, according to Ian MacDonald’s book “Revolution In The Head,” “the group must have heard on the radio during their Hamburg seasons of 1960-2.”

They decide that an official introduction to the song was not necessary, John beginning his vocals a cappella before the downbeat of the first measure (“Is there…”) of the first eight-measure verse.  This trick has become a habit of theirs, as evidenced as early as “It Won’t Be Long” and “All My Loving” among others.  However, when the downbeat arrives, John’s single-tracked vocals are joined by the rhythm track which consists of John’s acoustic guitar, Paul’s bass and Ringo’s brushed snare drum.  John’s vocals are deliberately labored and stray dramatically from the beat for added effect.

As the first verse ends, John’s vocals become double-tracked on the word “aah…” and remain that way for the entire four-measure chorus.  With Paul and George chiming in on harmonies, the lyrics of the chorus consists only of a three-time repeated lyric “girl,” interjected with a double-tracked inward breath from John in the second measure.

After another musically identical repeat of a verse and chorus, a unique eight-measure bridge appears which combines the swing rhythm heard so far with a contrasting hammered eighth-note beat sung by the background vocalists with the naughty lyrics “tit tit tit.”  John continues to sing double-tracked in the bridge while maintaining the swing rhythm vocally, suggesting that the background vocals with added afterward (otherwise it would have been very confusing for John to sing).  However, they may very well have planned to add this eighth-note element from the beginning since John’s acoustic guitar strums in this section are only heard on the quarter notes.

Ringo strays away from the snare drum with his right hand in this section by riding on a cymbal, although this mistakenly doesn’t come in until the second beat of the first measure.  Another interesting feature here is John’s single note melody line, a distinguishing Lennon trademark heard throughout The Beatles cannon, such as on the verses of “Help!” from earlier that year.

After a third repeat of the chorus, a third verse appears which has the added element of this first appearance of George Harrison musically in the song.  A simple quarter-note counter-melody line, played by George, as an overdub on a 12-string acoustic guitar.  Afterward, the chorus is heard for the fourth time before an instrumental verse begins.  This verse not only repeats George’s counter-melody line but adds a harmony to it played in eighth notes, also played by George as an overdub on a 12-string acoustic guitar.  We also hear Ringo crashing a cymbal and then stopping it from ringing in the second and fourth beat of each measure.

Since there wasn’t a proper resolve written for the song, the chorus is repeated identically for the fifth time while the song quickly fades away before the fourth measure ends, no doubt because that’s exactly where the performance ended.

John’s capoed acoustic guitar playing and emotive vocal work make him the star of the show, once again playing the role of singer/songwriter to a tee.  With his sultry delivery and lusty breathing, his vocals on “Girl” display his most revealing performance to date.

Paul’s oom-pah bass work adds to the ethnic feel of the song while his and George’s bending backing vocals bring a classy sway to each chorus.  George’s lack of presence musically is redeemed by his overdubbed counter-melody lines, which he performed flawlessly.  Ringo’s job may have been simple, but credit must avail for his appropriate delivery and patience during a five-and-a-half-hour recording session on this track with not much for him to do.

While John fondly remembers this song as being about his ‘dream girl,’ this memory must only acclaim reference to the first verse which tells his “story all about the girl who came to stay.”  He is so enamored with her that he doesn’t “regret a single day” spent with her.  The second verse, however, relates how he’s grown so dependent on her that he can’t leave her even though he feels he should.  “All the times” he attempts to leave, she “starts to cry,” showing remorse for treating him badly.  Arguably the most telling line of the song tells of John’s gullibly believing her when she “promises the earth” to him in repentance, even though she’s done this repeatedly.

We then see that his girl humiliates him in public, making him “feel the fool.”  She’s also conceited, accepting the compliment of her “looking good” by acting “as if it’s understood.”  Then the final verse changes gears completely by introducing the supposed Catholic concept of ‘pain leading to pleasure.’  All in all, I sure hope that Yoko, who John said turned out to be his ‘dream girl’ in the end, didn’t treat him as badly as depicted in this song.  I’m sure she didn’t.

Next Song – I’m Looking Through You:

Right around the halfway mark of recording their latest album, the band scored seven songs tagged as all or nearly completed, and devoted October 24th, 1965 for recording Paul’s latest composition “I’m Looking Through You.”  They entered EMI Studio Two at 2:30 pm for two back-to-back sessions that amounted to nine hours.  The first four-and-a-half hours were spent creating the rhythm track, which obviously included much rehearsal since only one complete take proved accomplished during this period.  The instrumentation of the rhythm track included Paul on bass and vocals, John on acoustic guitar, George on electric guitar and Ringo on drums.

At 7 pm they began the overdubs, which included maracas, bongos, Hammond organ, double-tracked lead vocals from Paul, harmony vocals from John and handclaps.  The handclaps were done in quick-paced eighth notes in the introduction, half notes during most of each verse, and quarter notes during the last four measures of each verse as well as during the instrumental sections of the song.  By 11:30 pm, the song appeared to be complete.

A unique feature on this recording is the back-and-forth interplay between an acoustic and electric arrangement.  The song starts out with a mellow acoustic feel only to surprise you in the final four measures by jumping into a raucous harder sound.  This is repeated throughout the song with the solo sections pre-dating The Monkees stabbing organ sounds and ‘swinging’ electric guitar solos.

An excellent mono mix of the song was made shortly afterward, presumably on October 25th, 1965 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Ken Scott.  Although documentation does not verify this mix took place on this day, it seems likely since the other six completed songs received their official mono mixes on this day.

However, someone (probably its composer) was not happy with how the recording came out.  Therefore, on November 6th, 1965, a decision surfaced to devote the day to record a remake of the song.  They entered EMI Studio Two at 7 pm for a six-hour recording session that resulted in a more acoustic rendition of “I’m Looking Through You.”  To round out the composition, Paul wrote a bridge and included it in the arrangement.  Mark Lewisohn, in his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” describes this version as “perhaps a little too fast and frenetic” which may have been the reason why neither of those two takes recorded has ever seen the light of day anywhere, even on bootlegs.

Not wanting to waste a good song, and because the deadline for the album was fast approaching and they needed all the material they could find, they took another stab at the song on November 10th of that year.  They entered EMI Studio Two at 9 pm on that day for what turned out to be a late-night session that lasted seven hours.  The first thing on the agenda was to fully record the new Lennon/McCartney composition, “The Word.”  After approximately five hours being used to complete this song, they worked from 2 till 4 am on perfecting the rhythm track for their third version of “I’m Looking Through You.”

Since they were definitely familiar with the song by now, only one take (take 4) was needed to nail down the rhythm track.  The instrumentation appears to be John on acoustic guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums.  Upon close examination of the first stereo mix of the song, which contains the rhythm track entirely on the left channel, we hear a tambourine being played simultaneously by someone.  This wasn’t overdubbed later since a tambourine flub occurs during the third verse, which had no option for removal since it was on the same track as other rhythm instruments.  It couldn’t be Ringo since he was playing drums, nor could it be Paul since he was playing bass.  Since the acoustic guitar introduction includes two false starts, we can deduce that this is probably John since he did the same thing on the master tape of his acoustic introduction to “Norwegian Wood.”  Therefore, the tambourine appears to have been played by George Harrison.

The next day, November 11th, 1965, was the deadline day to complete the album.  Therefore, they entered EMI Studio Two at 6 pm for an unprecedented thirteen-hour recording session to complete the “Rubber Soul” album, which took them to 7 am the following morning.  After spending the first ten hours recording two new compositions, namely “You Won’t See Me” and “Girl,” they resurrected “Wait,” which was a leftover track from the “Help!” sessions, to add overdubs for about an hour.

Following this, from approximately 5 to 7 am on the morning of November 12th, 1965, they added the final overdubs to “I’m Looking Through You.”  These consisted of Paul’s lead vocals, John’s harmony vocals, George on lead guitar, Paul playing a lead guitar riff at the end of each verse, Ringo stabbing a chord on a Hammond organ in the final measures of each verse, and Paul double-tracking his lead vocals.

Ringo performed one other mysterious overdub during these early morning hours.  Barry Tashian, lead guitarist and vocalist of the group The Remains, who was one of the opening acts of The Beatles’ 1966 tour, recalls a conversation he had with Ringo on their tour plane.  “We usually talked more about music and records (than instruments).  But I did ask Ringo about ‘I’m Looking Through You’ and that tapping percussion sound on it.  He told me that I was privy to a great secret, that he just tapped on a pack of matches with his finger.”

Both the mono and original stereo mix of the song was made on November 15th, 1965 in the control room of EMI Studio One by George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Richard Lush.  The stereo mix, which fades out slightly earlier than the mono mix, developed by placing the rhythm track entirely on the left channel and all of the overdubs, vocals included, entirely on the right channel.  The two false starts of the acoustic guitar remained on the stereo mix when it was sent out to different countries, figuring they would know to edit it off when preparing their masters for release.

George Martin returned to the master tapes in 1986 to create new stereo mixes for the entire “Rubber Soul” album.  These new mixes appear on the 1987 compact disc release of “Rubber Soul.”  The only noticeable difference from the original stereo mix of “I’m Looking Through You” is that both the left and right channels are panned slightly to the center, allowing the vocals to come through slightly on the left channel.

Also, for some strange reason, one of Ringo’s organ stabs at the end of the third verse is centered in this new mix.  It sounds as though he missed one of the chords when the original overdub was performed and added it onto a different track later.  On the original stereo mix, they had that track panned all the way to the right, so the repair work snuck by unnoticed, but when George Martin created this new stereo mix, that track was apparently in the center of the mix when that portion of the song came up.  That’s the only thing I can think of.

Song Structure and Style.

The standard use of verses and bridges are returned to once again, culminating in a ‘verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ bridge/ verse’ format (or aababa).  A simple introduction sets the pace while an extended final verse acts as a fitting conclusion.  No required solo section for this track gained usage.

One matter that is tricky, however, is determining where the downbeat of each verse lands.  The casual listener may not concern himself with this detail, but deeper thinkers and musicians may wonder.  While the downbeat could either be just before the lyrics start or mid-sentence (“I’m looking / through you”), for argument's sake, we’ll assume that Paul wanted it to be the first option.

Therefore, the acoustic guitar introduction would be five measures long ending just before the vocals begin.  If you listen closely enough during this introduction, you can hear Paul practice his vocals in the right channel repeating “where did you go?” on the vinyl record, although the CD mix wiped this away.

The eighteen-measure first verse then commences with the bass, drums, and matches-tapping coming in on the second measure to accompany the acoustic guitar and Paul’s double-tracked lead vocals.  Measures nine through twelve show John joining Paul with lower harmony vocals, no doubt pre-arranged by George Martin during their first recording attempt of the song on October 24th.  Measure fifteen has Paul climaxing the verse at a high register on the words “you’re not the same” which trigger a jump from a folk-rock arrangement to a high energy feel with Paul’s winding guitar lead accented by Ringo’s organ stabs and George’s tambourine for the final three measures.

The last organ stab marks the first measure of the second verse by Ringo as the downbeat, which is followed immediately by the lyrics of the second verse, namely “your lips are moving.”  This verse actually becomes nineteen measures long because of one extra measure of high energy vamping at the end.  Otherwise, the framework of the verse is identical to the first except for the appearance of George on electric guitar for the first time in the twelfth and thirteenth measures.

Also noteworthy in this verse is Ringo missing the snare at the end of the eighteenth measure.  In fact, throughout the song, Ringo is attempting to hit the snare drum and snare rim in the same stroke as witnessed in the film footage of “You’re Going To Lose That Girl” in the movie “Help!”  The recording of “I’m Looking Through You” shows that he hasn’t quite mastered this trick yet.  The sound of the snare drum in this song changes from beat to beat quite a lot as well as occasionally hitting only the rim as we hear in the second verse.

An eight-measure bridge enters next, which maintains the double-tracked lead vocals as well as the tambourine as heard in the final measures of the previous verse.  The lap-slapping is still heard but in a rather haphazard manner that is quite out of beat at times, such as in the fourth measure.  A noticeable edit occurred in the fifth measure during the lyric, “love has a nasty habit.”  George’s lead guitar ramblings also appear in the bridge on the fourth, seventh, and eighth measures.

Following this is another nineteen-measure verse that is essentially identical to the second verse except for a new set of lyrics.  George also adds a couple of interjectory fills in measures four and eight this time around.  This appears to be a problematic verse in a few ways, the first example being feedback from the acoustic guitar microphone in the sixth measure in-between the lyrics “you were above me (squeak) but not today.”  This is followed in the eighth measure by what sounds like George dropping his tambourine while waiting to come in on the sixteenth measure.  The eighteenth measure is where Ringo apparently forgot to hit his organ stab twice, resulting in a slightly offbeat overdub on another track to fix the problem.  And Ringo also misses the snare drum again in the fourteenth measure after the words “you’re down there.”

A repeat of the eight-measure bridge comes next which pretty much comes off without much of a problem.  Ringo opts not to play his lap this time around while George keeps his guitar ramblings to a minimum.  A repeat of the first verse then occurs which extends the measure count indefinitely as a fade-out conclusion to the song.  Ringo continues to miss-hit his snare many times, which is especially noticeable in the eighth measure.  George is heard doodling around a little on guitar in the third and fourth measure, but he appears to be out of ad-lib ideas and just sits out the rest of the song after that, except for his tambourine playing in the fade-out of course.  During the twelve measures of high-energy vamping in the conclusion, Paul plays up his vocal high jinks with single-tracked ad-libs like “yeah, a-baby, you’ve changed” and “a-you changed, you changed…” as he fades off into the sunset.

This essentially points toward a ‘Paul song’ however you slice it, McCartney takes center stage with his double-tracked lead vocals, and vibrant guitar leads in the final measures of each verse.  His bass work is also engaging, his downward run that accompanies his upward rise in vocals (such as when “I’m looking through you” or “I thought I knew you” is heard) being especially notable.  John does well in playing the folk-guitarist role with touches of well-performed vocal harmonies in each mid-verse.  Ringo’s simplified drums in the rhythm track are no more than a simple hi-hat/snare beat without any fills or cymbal crashes.  However, they kept him quite busy with organ stabs and lap drums as overdubs, which show him as a real trooper.

George is the most low-keyed Beatle in the song, shaking a tambourine at times and doodling around on electric guitar whenever the mood struck him.  Some commentators suggest he’s not on the track at all, but his usual penchant for filling in the gaps between vocal lines with guitar fills shows he definitely had a hand in the recording of this song.

Paul’s lyrics, while depicting his disillusionment about the absence of his current girlfriend, are written more artistically than autobiographically revealing.  He can see “through” her being away, Jane saying that she wants to pursue her acting career while he pouts convinced, she just wants to be away from him.   As if he’s speaking literally, he adds “where did you go” as if she was literally transparent.  Although she physically doesn’t “look different,” he emphatically screams, “you’re not the same!”  Even her “soothing” voice on the phone doesn’t dispel what he suspects is true, saying her “words aren’t clear.”   After all, he’s “leaned the game.”

The third verse also contains some curious lines about her formally being “above” him “but not today.”  In Paul’s mind, she is now “down there,” which probably depicts how he used so think so highly of her but now she’s seen as someone as shallow as most of the women Paul encounters.

Only the bridge, written as an afterthought, tells the story without the veil of poetic license.  “Why do you not treat me right?” he clearly asks.  The next line reveals his suspicions about the future of his relationship, namely “love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight.”  Some writers view this line as a threat that Paul will move on if things don’t change, but the saddened melody line and chord changes seem to depict his vulnerability rather than any jab of vengeance.

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Michelle, plus What Goes On and their incredible recording process advancements revealed here and now:

With just about half of the “Rubber Soul” album complete, The Beatles convened in EMI Studio Two on November 3rd, 1965, for a nine-hour recording session to fully record the recently completed composition “Michelle.”  Two sessions held priority, the first comprising four-and-a-half hours (from 2:30 to 7:00 pm) with a second session of the same length occurring immediately afterward (from 7:00 pm to 11:30 pm).

“Michelle” was the only song on the entire album that needed more than the four tracks on the recording console.  The first session was utilized to fill the first four tracks, track one containing the rhythm track consisting of drums and acoustic guitars.  Since this rhythm track only needed one take, a good amount of rehearsal was no doubt performed first in order to get the arrangement down perfectly.

From listening to Paul’s previously recorded demo of the song on acoustic guitar, we can easily assume that Paul played one of the acoustic guitars himself on this rhythm track since the ascending and descending jazz chords in the fourth measure of the verses were already perfected by him previously.  According to Andy Babiuk's book "Beatles Gear," "Photographs taken while they worked on 'Michelle' show capos on McCartney's Epiphone Texan, on Harrison's J-160E, and on Lennon's Spanish classical guitar," this hand-made Spanish guitar being purchased by John from its maker in Madrid, Spain on July 2nd, 1965, while The Beatles were on tour.  The capos they used on their acoustic guitars as mentioned in the above quote were needed to lift the key of the song, a device they rarely used before but now used on many "Rubber Soul" tracks.  Ringo, surprisingly, went back to using his 1964 Ludwig drum kit (his third Ludwig set) instead of his newer 1965 kit he had used during the “Rubber Soul” sessions so far.  He never went back to his 1965 set during his time with The Beatles but kept it nonetheless for safekeeping.  (Since three acoustic guitars and drums were recorded live for this rhythm track, Ian MacDonald’s suggestion that Paul performed the entire song with overdubs, as indicated in his book “Revolution In The Head,” is found to be inaccurate.)

Many have noticed that the tempo of the rhythm track slows down at the end, which is usually believed to be accidental.  “It slows down on the last part,” McCartney corrects, “only because we thought it sounded better that way.”  George Martin concurs, “Paul asked for the music to be slowed on the last part of ‘Michelle’ to add more emphasis to it.  I think it achieves the desired effect.”

The remaining three tracks of the four-track tape easily filled up with overdubs before the first recording session termed completed.  Track two contained Paul’s lead vocal, track three contained one set of three-part harmonies from John, Paul, and George (as arranged by George Martin), and track four contained the same harmony vocals double-tracked to give a richer and fuller sound.  Therefore, seven voices sing on the finished song.  With all four tracks filled, a tape copy was made that combined both harmony vocal tracks (tracks three and four) onto track three.  This left track four open for more overdubs in the second session of the day.

Jerry Boys, occasional tape operator on Beatles sessions, happened to come into the control room during Paul’s lead vocal performance.  “I stood there quite spellbound,” Jerry remembers.  "It sounded lovely.  George (Martin) asked me what I thought of The Beatles singing a song with French lyrics, and I got the impression that with me being a young chap he was sounding me out, perhaps because they weren’t too sure themselves.  I said it sounded very pleasant, which it certainly did!"

It was undoubtedly at this point, just as the afternoon session ended and the evening session began, that food was brought in for the group by their roadie Mal Evans.  Photographic evidence shows mashed potatoes and peas lingered on their plates, as well as other food.  Ringo even had a chance to participate in a card game with Mal and road manager Neil Aspinal on the studio floor, evidenced by photos taken from up in the control room.

Usually the case, arrangements to Beatles songs, as well as additions to the actual songwriting, occurred during the recording sessions.  This was the case during the evening session on this day; first off concerning Paul’s overdubbed bass part.  “The bass line for this was thought up on the spot,” Paul remembers.  “I would never have played ‘Michelle’ on bass until I had to record the bass line.  Bass wasn’t an instrument you sat around and sung to.  I remember that opening six-note phrase against the descending chords in ‘Michelle’ was like a great moment in my life.  I think I had enough musical experience after years of playing, so it was just in me.  I realized I could do that.  It’s quite a well-known trick.  I’m sure jazz players have done that.”

When being interviewed by Mark Lewisohn in 1987 for his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” Paul elaborates about this bass part a little further:  “I’ll never forget putting the bass line in ‘Michelle’ because it was a kind of Bizet thing.  It really turned the song around.  You could do that with bass; it was very exciting."  Photos during these sessions, possibly rehearsing "Michelle," show Paul playing his Rickenbacker bass with a capo, something quite unusual for a bass guitar.  "I'd try anything once," Paul explains with a laugh, "So...I'll try a capo...I would just mess around with any experimental effect.”

After the bass part was overdubbed, another acoustic rhythm guitar was overdubbed as well as the acoustic lead guitar heard during the song's solo and conclusion.  "The guitar solo in 'Michelle' is my composition, actually," George Martin stated in 1993.  "I wrote down the notes and said, 'I'll play this; George, you can do these notes with me on guitar.  We'll play in unison.'"  Since no keyboards appear on the recording, the unison piano work of George Martin most likely played off microphone.  These overdubs transferred onto track four of the new tape which then concluded the recording of the song at 11:30 pm.

The first mono and stereo mix of “Michelle” were performed on November 9th, 1965 in Room 65 of EMI Studios by George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Jerry Boys.  The drums were mixed slightly louder on the mono mix as was a slightly longer fade at the end.  The stereo mix had Paul's lead vocals panned exclusively to the right channel.  Both of these mixes made it onto the US versions of the "Rubber Soul" album.

Paul apparently was present for these mixes as he remembers them well:  “I remember ‘Michelle’ particularly.  Because it was only on four little tracks, it was very easy to mix.  There were no decisions to make; we’d made them all in the writing and in the recording.  We would mix them, and it would take half an hour, maybe.  Then it would go up on a shelf, in a quarter-inch tape box.  And that was it.  That was the only thing we ever did to ‘Michelle.’  We never remixed it for dance; we never did a funky mix.  That was the end of it, and it’s still around, and it’s still a popular song, still clocking up numbers on the little tachometer or whatever it is they’ve got:  four million broadcast performances.  From that one little thing.  Minimum effort, minimum expense, minimum everything.  It’s lovely, absolutely the best way to do it.”

On November 15th, 1965, during further mixing work for the “Rubber Soul” album, George Martin and Norman Smith, with 2nd engineer Richard Lush, created one more mono mix of “Michelle” which ended up on the British mono version of "Rubber Soul."  This mix took place in the control room of EMI Studio One.

A further stereo mix was also made in 1986 by George Martin for the first appearance of “Rubber Soul” on compact disc.  This mix, which centered Paul's lead vocals, was also utilized when the CD was re-mastered and re-released on September 9th, 2009.

A further recording of the song was done sometime between March 22nd and June 15th of 1993 during Paul McCartney’s “New World Tour.”  This version of “Michelle” was included on his live album “Paul Is Live.”  It was also recorded during a live performance in Mexico City, the results appearing on the international release “Back In The World” (which did not get released in the US).

Song Structure and Style

While “Michelle” has an irresistibly effective melody and chord structure, when analyzed, we may be surprised to find some offbeat idiosyncrasies.  While containing the standard fare of verses, bridges, and solos, the number of measures in each element is quite unique within The Beatles catalog up to this point.  Nonetheless, the song comprises the following format:  ‘verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ bridge/ verse (solo)/ bridge/ verse’ (or aabababa).  Other familiar features are an introduction and conclusion with a fade-out.

It’s interesting to note, first off, that the song is in the key of F, which is also quite unusual for the group.  McCartney is the only Beatle to work with this key, as he had done a few months earlier on his first ground-breaking ballad of the year, namely “Yesterday,” as well as 1963’s “Hold Me Tight.”  His other crooner from that year, their cover of “Till There Was You,” even shares the same “ham-fisted” jazz chord described above.  One usual thing, though, is Paul’s wavering from major to minor, the verses displaying F major as the home key while the bridges sweep around F minor.  But, since we know that the origin of the song consisted of the verse only, we can easily identify the song as being in F major.

The proceedings begin with a four-measure introduction which premier a fragrant descending acoustic guitar riff spiced with an overdubbed Bizet-like bass line.  As we are soon to see, this introduction is actually the last four measures of the bridge, not to mention that it will also reappear as the final word in the conclusion.

Immediately afterward, the first six-measure verse begins with the simple rim-shot drum beat and vocals appearing precisely on the downbeat.  Another element that emerges simultaneously is the six-voice “oooh” harmonies that add a dreamy backdrop throughout the song.  This verse is then repeated identically lyrically and all, the only difference is that measures three through five in the first verse give the lyrical phrase in English (“These are words that go together well”) while the second verse repeat it in French (“Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble”).  The only other difference is Paul’s reiterating “my Michelle” in the first verse and him repeating “tres bien ensemble” in the second verse.

The first bridge then occurs, which is uncharacteristically ten measures long.  This is where the song shifts to a minor key, which convincingly depicts the singer’s frustration at not being able to express his love accurately.  The first two measures, which contain Lennon’s anguished “I love you, I love you, I love you” lyrics, are sung by Paul without the distraction of background vocals.  This effective vocal element reaches the highest register of the song and stands out as an emotional highlight, followed by the return of background harmonies and the touching lyrical impact of Paul’s line “that’s all I want to say.”

The bridge concludes with a repeat of the introductory passage but with a mostly single-note melody line on the lyrics, “I will say the only words I know that you’ll understand.”  Most likely, we see in this melody line the hand of Lennon, since he habitually kept melody lines to one note, such as in both “Help!” and “Girl” which were both written in the same year.

Next, we see a carbon-copy repeat of the second verse, followed by a second bridge.  While most Beatles bridges are lyrically the same (witness “You Won’t See Me” and “Ticket To Ride” as recent examples), Paul continues the narrative in “Michelle” right through the bridges by changing the lyrics to “I need to, I need to, I need to…etc.”  This rather new pattern is beginning to see consistency as of 1965, such as in “Norwegian Wood” and “The Word,” both of which differ the lyrics in successive bridges.

We then move into the solo section of the song, which Harrison performed on top of the verse chord pattern.  Paul first adds a nice touch by emphatically emphasizing the simple phrase he longs for Michelle to hear, namely “I love you.”  While this stretches through the first three measures, the background harmonies continue to ring out behind the beautiful acoustic guitar solo.

This is then followed by the final bridge, which also has a different set of lyrics.  “I want you; I want you; I want you” is painfully exclaimed this time around with the desire for her to “understand.”  We then repeat the second verse a third time, ending with Paul enunciating every consonant of the word “ensemble.”

An emotive conclusion then appears which repeats the opening guitar passage for the last time, the difference here points that the single-note melody line sung by Paul is replaced with one that portrays an exhaustive resolve that he’ll just have to keep trying to “say the only words” he knows to get through to her.  This final melodic stroke becomes the spine-tingling climax of the song.  After the background harmonies return for the last time on the words “my Michelle,” the song then fades into the distance by repeating the solo section in a slightly slower tempo for emphasis.  Breathtaking.

Paul is obviously the major player here, playing bass guitar, performing at least two acoustic guitar parts, as well as lead and harmony vocals.  His original Chet Atkins-like guitar parts are somewhat de-emphasized by the other elements in the arrangement, although his classy ascending and descending jazz chords in the first verse and conclusion are well heard and impressive.  His bass work suitably stays simple throughout the verses while the walking bass lines of the bridges move the song along nicely.  And, Paul knows how to create a vocal image that makes us feel like we’re witnessing this frustrated appeal with a French girl, doing it pitch-perfect as usual.

George also follows suit with a nice initial acoustic guitar track and performs a satisfying well-rehearsed guitar solo three times in the song.  John’s acoustic guitar work is hardly discernible on the finished song, his true involvement spurs as harmony vocalist, which is also done superbly with George and Paul following the expert precision of George Martin’s arrangement.  While it is true that Ringo doesn’t shine on this track, he once again can be counted on to do exactly what needs to be done to make a well-written song a success.

Combined with a masterly written melody line, the simple lyrics come across with the sentiment of Shakespeare.  The quaint lyrics simply tell of an English-speaking man who desperately wants to tell a beautiful (“ma belle” translates as “my beautiful”) French-speaking woman that he loves her.  He may not have developed the story any further than this, but there was no need.  As the song concludes, the listener is left wondering whether he ever did “find a way” to get the message through.

Not to burst any bubbles, but there is one thing that suggests Paul should have put a little more work into the lyrics.  After all, we’re to believe that the only French words he knows translate “these are words that go together well”?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think any woman could be wooed by that sentence, even if you’re Paul McCartney.  Hadn’t he ever heard of the word “amour”?

Next Song – What Goes On:

“I was always saying to The Beatles, ‘I want another hit, come on, give me another hit.’”  This comment from George Martin was particularly valid in the early months of 1963 when a follow-up to their first British chart-topper “Please Please Me” was needed.  Therefore, on March 5th, 1963, at around 2:30 in the afternoon, the group assembled for a session in EMI Studio Two to show him what they had.

George Martin remembers, “I would meet them in the studio to hear a new number.  I would perch myself on a high stool and John, and Paul would stand around me with their acoustic guitars and play and sing it – usually without Ringo or George unless George joined in the harmony.  Then I would make suggestions to improve it, and we’d try it again.  That’s what is known in the business as a ‘head arrangement.’”

On this occasion, The Beatles premiered four songs to George Martin for consideration for their next single, two newly written compositions and two written many years before.  The two first chosen by Martin were the recently written numbers, “From Me To You” and “Thank You Girl,” the former becoming their next British #1 single and the latter becoming its b-side.  With a little studio time left, one of the older written songs began life in the studio called “One After 909,” although they never finished nor released it at the time.  The other older written song that they didn’t have time for that day was the early incarnation of “What Goes On,” a full John Lennon composition.  At this point, this song was the least suitable for recording and apparently didn’t get past the George Martin “high stool” test.

With just over half of the “Rubber Soul” album completed by November 4th, 1965, and with a December 3rd release date fast approaching, the group prepared “What Goes On?” to finally be suitable for recording and release.  With a new set of verses written by Paul and Ringo in tow, they entered EMI Studio Two on this day at 11 pm for a late-night session to get more needed work done for the album.

Much preparatory work was first needed, so with all the arrangement bugs worked out, they recorded only one take of the rhythm track which was deemed good enough.  The instrumentation consisted of John on electric rhythm guitar, George on lead guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums as well as a guide vocal off microphone to guide the song along.  Also noticeable on the rhythm track is off-the-cuff remarks and voices from the other group members, such as John yelling out “I already TOLD you why” after Ringo sings “tell me why” at the end of the second verse (most likely a reference to their 1964 composition “Tell Me Why.”

With this rhythm track complete, overdubs commenced.  First was Ringo’s lead vocals which remained single-tracked (his fiasco double-tracking “Matchbox” in June of 1964 showed him not too capable with this procedure) and John and Paul’s harmonized background vocals.  A small lead guitar flourish at the songs’ conclusion was the only instrumental overdub necessary for the song.  By approximately 2 am the next morning, “What Goes On?” was complete, leaving the remaining hour-and-a-half hours of the session for attempting the recording of an ad-libbed instrumental tentatively titled “12-Bar Original” which was eventually discarded as a bad idea and never saw the light of day (until “Anthology 2,” that is).

Both the mono and stereo mixes of “What Goes On?” were created on November 9th, 1965 in Room 65 of EMI Studios by George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Jerry Boys.  Interestingly, the overdubbed lead guitar flourish, which presumably ended up on a separate track, was inadvertently left out of the mono mix.  They remembered to turn up this track during the stereo mix which also gives more clarity to Ringo humming/singing the chorus during the guitar solo and his off-mic twice repeated “in your mind” at the end of the song.  The stereo mix features most of the rhythm track and Ringo’s lead vocals primarily on the left channel with George’s lead guitar and the overdubbed harmony vocals primarily on the right channel.

In 1986, George Martin created a new stereo mix of the song in preparation for the “Rubber Soul” album appearing on compact disc for the first time.  Although somewhat clearer, the mix is essentially the same as the 1965 stereo mix except that both Ringo’s vocals and the background vocals are slightly panned a little bit more to the center.

On July 16th, 2006, Ringo and his “All-Starr Band” had a live rendition of the song recorded in Uncasville, CT, for inclusion on his live album “Ringo Starr And His All Starr Band Live 2006.”  Also, in 2008, a recording was made of the song during Ringo’s live set at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, California, the result appearing on the album “Live At The Greek Theatre 2008.”

Song Structure and Style:

The Beatles seemed to go to great lengths to infuse some creativity into the structure and arrangement for this song which, to a lot of ears, appears to be a let-down in comparison to the sparkling and innovative songwriting that surrounds it on the album.  I heartily implore you to take a closer look at the results to show that this is, in fact, a well-written song with many elements of impressive performance.  I’m not trying to give anyone the ‘hard sell,’ but I don’t think that it should be considered a “bad song,” per se, as may be the general opinion.  The unfortunate thing here is that surrounded by the contents of either its’ British or American album that contains it; it sits among the framework of brilliance.  American Beatle fans of the ’60s had a hard transition to the British track listing of the compact disc when, where they expected the beautiful “It’s Only Love,” they got what they considered a ‘clunky’ album-filler sung by Ringo.

Although the structure of the song was no doubt in place back in the late ’50s, we see here another case of a humble chorus used as the primary feature, something that was less than usual in their catalog up to this point.  The format of the song is ‘chorus/ verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus (solo)/ verse/ chorus’ (or abababa).  Three separate verses with their own lyrics show that a lot of work weighed into the writing of the song in getting it to this finished state, Ringo’s “five words” intermingled somewhere within.

A brief four-measure introduction started by three leading notes from George before the downbeat, establishes the key of E major and begins what has developed into a true country-and-western flavored piece.  Being what Ringo has claimed at the time as being his favorite genre of music, the group was undoubtedly bowing to his favor, possibly purposely altering the previously-written composition to his style.  In fact, the habit up to this point had been to cater to a “hillbilly” sound for most of his vocal contributions, which were a Buck Owens cover and two Carl Perkins “rockabilly” classics.  (The unreleased “If You’ve Got Trouble” wouldn’t have fit into this mold, not to mention it’s “throwaway” appeal.)

The one-beat of the introduction introduces the full band arrangement as we’ll hear unaltered throughout the song, consisting of John on electric rhythm guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums.  George plays an interesting introductory guitar phrase not unlike what we’ll hear almost non-stop throughout the remainder of the two minutes and forty-four seconds.

Just before the first twenty-measure verse begins, we hear the three-part harmony of Ringo, John, and Paul come in with the title of the song, which continues in this fashion for the entire verse.  In actuality, John and Paul apparently miss the first word, just singing “goes on” the first time around.  Just after the first phrase ends with the words “in your heart,” we hear an unidentified voice from the rhythm track give a quick “yelp” of some sort, the first of many in the duration of the song.

The first verse, like the other three, is fourteen measures long.  It features Ringo stepping into the spotlight to tell us his story while John and Paul sing background “ooh”s, not unlike they used in the recently recorded “Michelle.”  The melody line hits quite wordy in comparison to the simple phrases contained in the chorus, which sets off a nice contrast.  The verse actually appears to have been cut short in structure after the phrase “tell me why,” a sixteen-measure format seems to be more expected.  However, extending it, another two measures would be even more awkward, so it's best as it is.

An identical repeat of the chorus comes next with Ringo hitting his snare unusually hard for the first beat.  John and Paul once again come in late with the background harmonies, singing only “goes on.”  During the breathing space of the last two measures of this chorus, we hear some more unidentified mumbling from the rhythm track.

The second verse then appears which follows the same pattern as the first, the most noteworthy feature being what seems to be the voice of John from the rhythm track saying “tell me why?” just after Ringo sings “a girl like you to lie.”  And then afterwards, Lennon’s’ infamous exclamation “I already TOLD you why!”

What appears to be another repeat of the chorus comes next, although they cleverly just sing the first phrase in three-part harmony and, after a “wooh” from Paul, they continue the structure of the chorus with George vamping an ad-lib solo rather high in the mix for the remainder of the measures.  The only problem here is that the listener probably doesn’t understand the structure of this solo section and it becomes somewhat disorienting, not deciphering the chord changes from the chorus and wondering when it’s going to conclude.  Also disorienting is the solo itself which meanders through some phrasings as heard elsewhere in the song, leaving the listener feeling that he’s not sure what he’s doing.  Ringo is also heard, presumably in the rhythm track, humming/singing along to the chorus to keep himself and the group in time.

A final identically-structured verse now comes in which has as its feature the erratic rhythm guitar playing of John Lennon, his playing habitually drifts into loud staccato “chops” throughout its duration.  George just plays quiet assorted fills in the background as if he’s not sure what to do.

This is followed by the final chorus which is characterized by Ringo banging away loudly on his snare drum, noticeably different from the rest of the song.  While this doesn’t appear to craft an edit in the rhythm track (as could be suggested), it is probably just his way of winding the song down climactically.  This last chorus is actually followed by another four measures that act as a conclusion to the song.  George’s guitar playing goes diminished while Ringo quietly repeats the final phrase “in your mind” from, presumably, the rhythm track.  An overdubbed ending guitar flourish from George (unheard in the mono mix) brings the song to a conclusion with a mighty crash on a syncopated beat.  The unfortunate final chord sounds out-of-tune but, with the time constraints, was deemed suitable enough.

Ringo’s drum playing kept the country swagger going without variation throughout the proceedings except for the ending cymbal crash.  His forte on this song is his vocal work which, within the small amount of range written into his part, is done amazingly well.  He keeps on pitch very well with some slight reaching for the notes in the choruses that actually work nicely with the country feel of the song.  Arguably his best vocal performance up to this point.

George is very to the fore on this song, channeling Carl Perkins for his flavored runs that ooze throughout the arrangement.  His ‘high in the mix’ guitar work, while not always confidently played, show him well able to ad-lib a little more closely to how he performed in the Cavern/Hamburg days, which were seemingly a million years before.  Guitar solos established more suited structure in their recent recordings of that day, Paul even playing them himself at times.

Speaking of Paul, his ‘walking’ bass work is phenomenal on this song, as are his usual harmony vocals.  John’s harmonies are also spot-on, expected from someone proud to have an early songwriting attempt finally see the light of day.  John declines the use of the expected acoustic guitar in favor of electric while playing an unusual staccato rhythm pattern which does get a little patchy at times.

Lyrically, the song fits Ringo’s persona perfectly; he always depicting the ‘sad and lonely’ type who is being mistreated somehow by his significant other.  Except for the rockers “Boys" and "I Wanna Be Your Man," his vocal songs up to this point are of this nature.

This time around, he sees his “future fold” when he spots his girl with another guy.  And, to top it off, he had just been with his girl that “morning, waiting for the tides of time” (this Dylan-esque phrase suggested by Ian MacDonald to be the lyrical contribution from Ringo as cited in “Revolution In The Head”).  The illusion was that everything was fine with their relationship only to find that it was “easy for (her) to lie.”  He wonders “what goes on” in a heart and mind that would cheat so openly.  He feels that she didn’t even think of him “as someone with a name,” wondering whether she really wanted to maintain their romance on the sly or whether she meant 'to break his heart and watch him die.'  Poor guy!

At least the next time he sings, he’ll be in a happy “Yellow Submarine!”

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