A busy schedule rambled over a month since The Beatles set foot
into a recording studio, May 10th of 1965 marked their last session which
produced “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” and “Bad Boy” strictly for Capitol Records to
include on their “Beatles VI” album.
After a rest period from most Beatles-related projects, they ushered
back into EMI Studio Two on June 14th of that year with the sole intention of
recording the remainder of the soon-to-be-released “Help!” soundtrack album.
The first of two sessions on this day ran from 2:30 to 5:30 pm and
resulted in two excellent Paul McCartney songs being recorded, the first being
“I’ve Just Seen A Face.” The
all-acoustic line up for this song included George on 12-string guitar ringing
out the bass notes, John on 6-string rhythm guitar, Paul doing the jangly lead
part in the introduction on 6-string guitar as well as lead vocals, and Ringo
on brushed snare drum. After six takes,
the rhythm track was complete.
Overdubs were then performed, which included Paul doubling his
jangly introductory lead part, Ringo adding maracas during the refrains as well
as the instrumental section of the song, and Paul harmonizing with himself on
the refrains. He also harmonizes during
the last verse, but a decision was apparently made to forgo this ingredient
during the mixing sessions. You can,
however, faintly hear bits of this harmony part in the right channel of the
stereo mix.
With these overdubs complete, the song was finished at
approximately 4 pm. The following
hour-and-a-half of this recording session was taken up with fully recording
Paul’s second song of the day, the ear-shattering “I’m Down.” And, after another hour-and-a-half to
recuperate, they returned to the studio for a second session on this day to
record the acoustic guitar and vocals to Paul’s beautiful “Yesterday.” All in all, this one day resulted in three
excellent songs in three diametrically opposed genres all written by Paul
McCartney, showing his immense versatility.
Both the mono and stereo mix of “I’ve Just Seen A Face” were made
on June 18th, 1965 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin and
engineers Norman Smith and Phil McDonald.
The mono mix unintentionally includes a voice at the very end of the
song as the final chord fades away, which probably was due to an engineer not
turning down the faders to the other tracks during the mixing session. The stereo mix, however, does not include
this voice so it was probably noticed during the mono mix, although they never
went back to correct it.
A further stereo mix of the song with added reverb was made in
1986 by George Martin in preparation for the British “Help!” album being
released on compact disc for the first time.
This mix has also been used on the re-mastered version of the CD, which
was released in 2009.
Another session concerning “I’ve Just Seen A Face” occurred during
May or June of 1976, but this time by Paul McCartney and Wings. This live recording was included on his
“Wings Over America” triple album set, which contained five Beatles songs. Then on January 25th, 1991, Paul recorded the
song again during his intimate "Unplugged" concert for MTV. This rendition ended up on his
"Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)" album later that year.
Song Structure and Style
The Lennon/McCartney songbook has been, as we’ve seen, chock full
of fusing many genres of music together into one. In “I’ve Just Seen A Face,” they appear to
have outdone themselves. Country and
Western, Bluegrass, Folk, Blues and Pop music ingredients are melded together
here within a fast 4/4 time signature that makes your pulse race.
McCartney returns to the use of a refrain (“falling, yes I am
falling…”) like his similarly structured “All My Loving” from 1963, although
the similarities to this song pretty much end there. The basic structure this time around consists
of ‘verse/ verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ verse (solo)/ refrain/ verse/
refrain/ refrain/ refrain’ (or aababababbb).
Adding to this a compelling lengthy introduction and a suitable
conclusion, we’re treated to a breathless two-minute-and-four-second
roller-coaster ride.
It appears that this ten-measure instrumental introduction is of a
different time signature than the standard 4/4 that we’ll hear throughout the
body of the song, but this is actually an illusion. The double-tracked triplet-styled riffs of
Paul McCartney create this effect, as well as there being no backbeat from
Ringo as of yet. However, if we use the
first two acoustic bass notes from George Harrison’s 12-string guitar as a
countdown and disregard the Paul’s triplets, we can hear the introduction as
four-in-the-bar just as easily as when Ringo’s brushed snare drum kicks in on
the first measure of the first verse.
The home key of A major finally becomes apparent as the first
12-measure verse begins, with Paul rattling off his rapid-fire vocals in
excitement about his new love. The
melody line only has a range of five notes but is skillfully repeated
identically even though the chords change below him. The first nine measures of this first verse,
in fact, is competently sung by Paul in one breath and is single-tracked, which
suitably adds a personal touch to his story.
As if to let his sentiment sink in, he ends the verse with a six-note
hummed melody line which, as we’ll see later, becomes the final trademark of
the song.
A second verse then begins which is identical in structure
although he can’t quite make it through the entire nine measures in one breath
this time around – he runs out of oxygen after the words “never beeeen
aware.” Another difference is that the
ending six-note melody line now appears as “lie-di-di-di-n-di.”
The first eight-measure refrain now occurs, which has the melody
line open up beyond the five notes of the verses and also introduce Paul
harmonizing with himself throughout.
Ringo also adds maracas for the first time in the song, although they
stop suddenly as the refrain ends.
After a third structurally identical verse, which show Paul’s
voice warble and gasp for air after the words “out of sight,” we hear the
joyous refrain repeated as well. The
instrumental section then appears which is played above the chord pattern of a
verse. George strictly plays the melody
line on his 12-string for the first nine measures and then plays a welcome
lower version of the six-note ending melody line before ending with a sighing
flourish just before the refrain is repeated yet again. To add some depth to the solo section, Ringo
maintains his maraca overdub from the previous refrain. Also noticeable is Paul's overdubbed harmony
exclaiming an ad-libbed "ay...bob-a-dop-bob" as the guitar solo
begins.
The first verse is then heard again as we hear Paul barely make it
through all nine measures in one breath this time around, the final work “met”
being almost inaudible. The six-note
ending melody line is this time a combination of the two used elsewhere in the
song, culminating into “mm-mm-mm-lie-di-di.”
While a three-times repeat of the key figure of the song has
become commonplace in Beatles compositions up to this point (as in “Eight Days
A Week” and “What You’re Doing” for example), they actually repeat the full
refrain three times in a row this time around.
The third time through, however, Paul mixes it up by adding an “oh” just
before the one beat to give the effect of actually “falling” as the lyrics
depict.
This final refrain is actually extended by one measure to a total
of nine in order to include a satisfying conclusion to the song. You guessed it, the six-note melody line that
ends each verse becomes the identifying trademark of the song, this time played
by George note-for-note on his 12-string.
With one final countrified guitar strum, the roller-coaster ride is
complete. One only wants to get back in
line to ride again!
Paul is in top form throughout this song, with his animated vocal
delivery and acoustic guitar versatility.
George was also up for the task with his characteristic 12-string bass
accents and rhythm work, not to mention his well-crafted solo. John’s rhythm guitar is low in the mix and
acts as a backwash to the proceedings while Ringo, ever the Country music fan,
knew all too instinctively how to add a convincing bluegrass feel to the song
with brushed snare and maracas.
Upon examination, Paul must have worked painstakingly to put
together rhymes that fit strategically within the framework of each verse. First of all, looking at the first verse, he
rhymed the first beat of the second and fourth measure (“face” with “place”) while
rhyming the first beat of the third, fifth and ninth measure (“forget,” “met”
and “met”…OK, I guess that wasn’t all that clever).
While going through the same exercise for the second verse, he
even had to pronounce words in a certain way to pull it off. For instance, the word “been” changes into
the British exaggerated “beeeen” in order to rhyme (sort of) with “dream.” This verse also pronounces “aware” in British
slang as “awere” in order to rhyme with “her.”
The sentiment of the lyrics as a whole, however, is very
convincing. He’s so excited about this
woman he’s just met that he can’t contain himself. He wants “all the world to see” what a
perfect match they are. He also realizes
how grateful he is for being so attentive on that day, because “had it been
another day, I might have looked the other way” and missed the opportunity of a
lifetime. Since the singer views himself
as a loner (“I have been alone and I have missed things and kept out of
sight”), this experience is very new to him (“I have never known the like of
this”). At any rate, we can’t help but
be swept away by his experience of being head-over-heels in love.
Next Song – Dizzy Miss Lizzie:
The Beatles entered EMI Studio Two on May 10th, 1965, after a long
day of filming, for this three-and-a-half hour recording session which ran from
8 to 11:30 pm. "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" was the first song to be tackled on
this evening as they went through two takes of the song live, since they were
well acquainted with the song since 1960. These takes consisted of The Beatles
all on their usual instruments with John belting out lead vocals
simultaneously. Take Two was considered 'best' at this point, so they went on
to the next Larry Williams song of the evening, "Bad Boy."
After this second song was complete, overdubs and all, they
returned to "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" feeling that they could do it better.
At some point during these later takes, a confrontation of sorts occurred as
remembered by Paul.
"We did occasionally get pissed off with him," McCartney
recalls in connection with producer George Martin. "As time went by,
things crept in. In an out-take I heard recently - recording 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy'
- John is saying, 'What's wrong with that?' and George Martin says, 'Erm...it
wasn't exciting enough, John,' and John mumbles, 'Bloody hell,' - that kind of
thing was creeping in a bit - 'it wasn't exciting enough, eh? Well, you come
here and sing it, then!' I think that's just pressure of work. When you've been
working hard for a long time, you really start to need a break."
As a result of this conversation in the studio, these next five
takes witnessed John adding extra "yelps" and singing raspier than
heard in the earlier takes. By 'take seven,' the song was finally deemed worthy
enough for overdubs, although only three were needed. John overdubbed himself
playing a Hammond organ, George Harrison overdubbed his lead guitar work
throughout the song, and Ringo added a cowbell. Even with these overdubs, only
three of the available four tracks were used. By 11:30, the recording session
was over and the group was off to sleep in order to start fresh with more
filming for their second movie in the morning.
This is not to say that the lights were turned out in Studio Two
at this time. George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Ken Scott still had
pressing work to do. Since Capitol Records were in dire need of these two
songs, they worked from 11:30 pm until 1:15 the next morning preparing mono and
stereo mixes of both "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Bad Boy" so
that they could ship copies of these mixes via air freight to Los Angeles when
the sun came up. Other than a slightly quicker fade-out on the mono mix of
"Dizzy Miss Lizzy," these mixes are virtually the same.
Recording sessions for this song wouldn't be complete without
mentioning both live appearances The Beatles made at the Hollywood Bowl in Los
Angeles during their second American tour. Even though the August 29th, 1965
performance (produced by Engeman and engineered by Hugh Davies) was mostly
unusable due to technical problems, part of the recording of "Dizzy Miss
Lizzy" on this day was edited together with the August 30th performance
(produced by Voyle Gilmore and engineered by Pete Abbott) for its eventual 1977
release on the album "The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl." The editing
and re-processing work on the track was performed on January 18th, 1977 by
George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick.
"Dizzy Miss Lizzy" was the subject of one more overdub
on January 5th, 1966, but not in connection with their EMI session from May of
1965. Since the song was included in their Shea Stadium concert on August 15th,
1965, it needed to be touched up in preparation for a television film being
made entitled "The Beatles At Shea Stadium." Since the bass quality
on the tape was not discernable enough, Paul overdubbed a new bass track to
"sweeten" it up. This session, which included touching up (even
re-recording) many songs, took place at CTS Studios in London.
There was one more version of the song recorded by The Beatles,
but it was just an impromptu run-through on January 6th, 1969 in Twickenham
Film Studios during rehearsals for the "Get Back/Let It Be" project.
This was just one of a huge number of old songs they jammed with for fun during
this exhaustive month of rehearsals and recording.
Another recording of the song that is worthy of mention took place
on September 13th, 1969 by John during the debut performance of his
"Plastic Ono Band." This live rock and roll revival concert in
Toronto, Canada, which also featured Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats
Domino among many others, saw John take the stage with Yoko, Eric Clapton,
Klaus Voormann and Alan White to perform eight songs, the third of which was
"Dizzy Miss Lizzy." Their set was recorded and released on December
12th, 1969 as the album "Live Peace In Toronto, 1969." John himself
created stereo mixes for the album on September 25th, 1969.
An additional mix of the original Beatles version of the song was
done by George Martin in 1986 for release on the first compact disc of the
album "Help!" In order to add a degree more depth to the original
recording, Martin decided to add a substantial amount of echo to John's vocal,
which caused many die-hard fans to be disappointed, since the song wasn't
available as it was heard in 1965.
Song Structure and Style
Here we see another example of a strict 12-bar blues pattern; so
strict in fact that every section of this song has twelve measures as well as
the identical chord pattern. The 12-bar blues framework was especially usual
for the 50's rock 'n' roll music The Beatles loved so much, as evidenced by
many of these songs that wound up on early Beatles releases (such as
"Boys," "Money (That's What I Want)" and "Long Tall
Sally"). Therefore, it's no wonder that this pattern began to creep in to
their own songwriting, especially seen in early 1964 with "Can't Buy Me
Love" and "You Can't Do That."
The song begins with George's insistent double-tracked guitar riff
appearing before the one-beat of the first measure. The original Larry Williams
version starts the same way, although the guitar is single-tracked and
noticeably out of tune. While a quick hit on the snare drum brings the rest of
the band in on the original, Lennon invites The Beatles into the song with a
small Jerry Lee Lewis slide on his Hammond organ (although this was overdubbed
later).
The brassy piano-based rhythm section of the original is replaced
by John and Paul's climbing rhythm pattern being played simultaneously along
with John's overdubbed organ "chunking." The seventh measure of this
first instrumental verse shows the first excited "ow" from Lennon, no
doubt the result of his earlier encouragement from George Martin. The
repetitious guitar riff continues throughout this section, except for the ninth
verse where the last note deviates to accommodate the chord change, something
that Larry Williams' band didn't feel was necessary.
The second section, which is actually the first vocal verse, is
introduced by a left-handed snare roll from Ringo while John shouts his first
lyric line. For some reason, The Beatles decide to continue the guitar riff
throughout the verse (as well as all of the verses), while the original version
lets it rest during these times. Since the vocal lines are sung where the
guitar riff usually occurs, Harrison plays the riff after each line is sung
(which causes some confusion later in the song).
Those who are only familiar with The Beatles' version of
"Dizzy Miss Lizzy" may be surprised by the subdued vocal delivery of
Larry Williams on the original. Larry hardly puts any vocal accents in the song
except for one "wow" to introduce the solo. The original version of
"Bad Boy," however, has Larry belting out some flamboyant yelps
throughout, so after The Beatles finished recording their cover of that song,
George Martin may have thought this was needed to spruce up "Dizzy Miss
Lizzy" as well (as Martin probably wasn't familiar with the original
version). Therefore, John reluctantly put some of those in to pacify his
producer even though it didn't stay very true to the Williams song.
The third verse, which was the second vocal verse, is ultimately
the same in arrangement. Notice though that Lennon appears to sing "dizzy
diss lizzie" in the fourth measure and that Harrison decided not to change
the final note in the guitar riff to accommodate the chord change in the tenth
measure this time (which also causes some confusion later in the song). The
verse ends with a blood-curdling scream from John while George realizes to
change his guitar riff back to where the vocal lines were sung, since the next
verse comprises an instrumental section of the song.
This instrumental verse focuses primarily on George's guitar riff
although John throws in a couple of vocal accents, a screeching
"ooow" at the end of measure four and a more subdued "wooh"
at the very end of measure eight. Guitar-wise, George goes back to changing the
last note of the phrase in measure nine and then ends the section with a
descending guitar line not heard in the original version.
This new guitar line appears to have confused George because, as
the third vocal verse begins, he doesn't come in with his guitar riff when he
should the first time around. Remembering that George double-tracked his
playing, one of the tracks shows him shyly playing the riff in the second
measure on top of John's vocal line "when you call my name." George's
other track shows him playing the riff quietly on the third measure while John
wasn't singing, which is where he should have played the riff. Not to worry,
though, because by the fifth measure he regained his equilibrium and
confidently played the riff where he should have.
With another screech from John, The Beatles decide to add a second
instrumental section to the song which is not a feature of the original. George
does realize to change his riff to the opposite measures for this section, but
embarrassingly misses the last note on one of his tracks in the first measure
and then hits it late afterward. John humorously adds a couple low-toned
"oohs" in this section, the first during the third measure and the
second during the seventh measure which is quickly mimicked by him on his
Hammond organ. As if George Martin was giving him the evil eye, he lets out
another "oowaah" yelp at the end of the eighth measure to make him
happy. Harrison then finishes off this section with an attempt at
double-tracking an ad-libbed guitar phrase as a segue into a final set of vocal
verses.
This fourth vocal verse, while virtually identical
arrangement-wise, reveals George not changing the last note of his riff in the
tenth measure again. This time around you can actually hear someone excitedly
yelling in the eleventh measure as if to spur John on to sing more
enthusiastically. We then go into a repeat of the second verse (beginning with
the line "come one, give me fever") which then shows George appearing
to play both ending notes during double-tracking in the tenth measure before
ending the song with an anti-climactic descending run. The twelfth measure ends
the song with a crashing band chord with the cymbal ringing out until it fades
away.
John reigns as the focal point once again with his vivacious
(albeit irritated) vocal delivery and driving rhythm guitar runs. His thumping
Hammond organ also works well to fill out the sound in the absence of the piano
and brass of the original. Paul's bass work is paired nicely with John's rhythm
runs to give the song the excited drive it needs. Ringo pushes the song to the
enthusiastic brink that it needs to take it 'over the top' with his relentless
hi-hat sizzle, crashing cymbals and sometimes-rushed drum fills. His overdubbed
cowbell is low enough in the mix not to be intrusive but high enough to be
noticed.
George Harrison's guitar work, on the other hand, can appear to be
annoying after much repeated listening. Hindsight indicates that maybe he
should have let the riff rest during the vocal verses like heard in the
original version, but then again this may have been what made the song a
stand-out on both the British and American albums they were included on. All
opinions aside, and all recording flubs aside, it is what it is and it worked.
There isn't much substance to Williams' lyrics, as there usually
wasn't in the early days of rock 'n' roll or rhythm 'n' blues. The singer is
undoubtedly smitten with Lizzy by how she dances "the stroll" as well
as her "rockin' and a rollin'." Because she looks "so
fine," the singer goes as far as to say, "girl, I want to marry
you." He asks her to inform her "mama" and "brother"
of his intentions so that she would ultimately put her "little hand"
in his. One wonders if he still felt the same way once he noticed "Miss
Molly" who was probably "rockin' and rollin'" at the same juke
joint that day.
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