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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