February 17th, 1965 set the date of the third recording session in
EMI Studio Two for what would become the album "Help!," although it
didn't have that name as of yet. While a nine-hour session on October 18th,
1964 resulted in an eight-song agenda, this nine-hour session (from 2 to 11 pm)
resulted with only two. The first five hours were used to record Lennon and
McCartney's song "The Night Before," while the final four hours (7 to
11 pm) were utilized for George Harrison's "You Like Me Too Much."
Eight takes were required to complete the song, although multiple
overdubs ensued. George Martin's handwritten notes indicate that the rhythm
track was recorded onto 'track one' of the four-track tape. Interestingly, one
element of the rhythm track was Paul on piano during the introduction of the
song only, then switching to bass guitar for the remainder of the song. The
rest of the rhythm track consisted of George on his Gibson acoustic guitar,
Ringo on drums and John on tambourine. George's lead vocal was then overdubbed
onto 'track two' of the tape.
'Track three' of the tape included some rather interesting
overdubs. First off, John was apparently in the mood to play a Hohner electric
piano (or Pianet) on that day because he played one both on "The Night
Before" and "You Like Me Too Much," his performance on 'track
three' of this song ending up quite loud in the mix. This electric piano was
played with a touch of reverb and a tremolo effect in the introduction which
added a degree of modulated hiss in the first eight seconds of the song, ending
with an audible "click" when the tremolo effect was turned off. Also,
for the solo section of the song, George played lead guitar passages while Paul
with George Martin, both playing the same Steinway piano at the same time,
answered George Harrison's guitar phrases. This piano was run through a Hammond
B-3's rotating Leslie speaker, which was an effect they used quite often later
in their career for vocals and lead guitar (among other things).
Onto 'track four' Harrison double-tracked his lead vocals while
John and Paul added harmonies, Paul's lower harmony being heard whenever the
title is sung as well as during the bridge. This completed the song, the
session being over by 11 pm that evening.
Although the song didn't end up being used in the movie, it
definitely was a contender this early on. Therefore, a mono mix was made the
next day (February 18th) along with the songs that did end up in the film. This
mix was done in the control room of Studio Two by producer George Martin and
engineers Norman Smith and Ken Scott.
The original stereo mix of the song as heard on all releases in
the 60's was performed on February 23rd, 1965 in the control room of EMI Studio
Two. The non-importance of stereo mixes can be seen by the fact that producer
George Martin wasn't present when this stereo mixing session transpired. He
left these mixes under the supervision of engineer Norman Smith with Malcolm
Davies as 2nd engineer on that day.
When all of the British Beatles albums were being issued on
compact disc in the 80's, it was decided that the album "Help!" would
be available in stereo, unlike the first four albums that appeared on CD only
in mono. Possibly because George Martin wasn't even present when some of the
original stereo mixes were made in the 60's, he insisted on creating new ones.
Therefore, sometime in 1986, George Martin went back to the original master
tapes to re-create stereo mixes for the entire "Help!" album,
including "You Like Me Too Much." These new mixes were also utilized
when the album was remastered for the 2009 compact disc release.
Song Structure and Style
George follows the well-established pattern of Lennon and McCartney
by creating this song with the usual 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse' pattern with
a good number of surprises along the way. An introduction and conclusion (which
are virtually identical) and an instrumental section round out the arrangement,
making it an aabacba format.
The piano/keyboard introduction appears to be slow and without
tempo but in actuality, when compared to the nearly identical conclusion, it
pretty much stays in the 4/4 pattern and is six measures long. The illusion
appears because no percussive backdrop keeps the beat for us, while the rhythm
section in the conclusion keeps our feet tapping out the pattern to the
identically played keyboard phrase at the end of the song.
The last two beats of the introduction premier George's vocals,
which take us directly into the first sixteen-measure verse. The whole band
kicks in on the one-beat of the first measure, although in this case the band
consists of Ringo on drums, Paul on bass and George on double-tracked lead
vocals, while John is heard on electric piano (overdubbed). George's
double-tracked vocals are heard throughout the verse until they are joined by
Paul's lower harmony in the final two measures on the key phrase "'cause
you like me too much and I like you."
The second verse follows the same exact format, but this time ends
with a swinging drum fill from Ringo to introduce the bridge. The eight-measure
bridge premiers John's tambourine from the rhythm track for the first time as
well as continuing the harmonized vocals of George and Paul.
Interestingly, the lyrics that begin the bridge are actually a
continuing thought from the previous verse, which masks this as the beginning
of the next section of the song. The first line of the bridge is "I really
do," which extends from the line just heard at the end of the second
verse, that being "and I like you." George does the same trick with
the closing lyrics of the bridge, which end with "if you leave me..."
The third verse then continues the sentence "...I will follow you."
George may be a somewhat new songwriter, but this clever trick could serve as a
lesson for his more experienced band mates. Very impressive.
The beginning of the third verse shows the tambourine disappearing
as we fall back into the very same arrangement as the preceding verses. This
verse ends with another similar drum break to herald in the instrumental
section of the song. This instrumental section, like the verses, is
sixteen-measures long, but deceptively appears to be following the traditional
12-bar blues pattern unlike anything in the song thus far. Paul then adds
harmony to the song's key phrase at the end to fool us a little.
This section is also unique because of the type of solo heard.
Being The Beatles' lead guitarist, one would think George would crank out a
pre-arranged guitar solo (as he had done on "Don't Bother Me"). But
instead, we hear an interesting interplay between his lead guitar phrases and
Paul and George Martin's piano phrases. If George gives a descending guitar
phrase (as he starts out with) then the piano plays an ascending phrase. If
George ascends, the piano then descends. This playfully continues through the
first twelve of the sixteen measure section until George and Paul's harmonies kick
in at the end. Also very impressive.
After an identical repeat of the bridge, the third verse is
repeated as well, but with an added repeat of the key phrase to make sure we
have the title of the song drilled into our head. This is a trick learned from
previous Beatles tracks, such as the recently recorded "Eight Days A
Week" which repeats the phrase not twice, but three times at the end to
make the final impression.
We then hear the conclusion of the song, which is nearly identical
to the introduction but with the full band arrangement in the background and a
full ending. This book-end effect rounds out the proceedings to make the song
symmetrical, also not unlike "Eight Days A Week" before it.
George puts in a well-rounded instrumental contribution, playing
both the acoustic rhythm guitar and the lead guitar solo, thereby playing all
guitars heard in the song. One has to acknowledge his fine vocal work as well.
Although the note-range he had written into the song doesn't extend past six
notes (from G to E above it), he handles it with skill.
Although it has been said that Lennon appeared disinterested
whenever a "Harrisong" was being recorded (sometimes not even turning
up that day), this occasion shows John very cooperative. His electric piano
overdub turns out to be the driving force of the song. His semi-syncopated
rhythm (usually falling on the one and two-and beat of the measure) is quite
loud in the mix, while his sporadic touches of sixths and sevenths in his
chords adds a somewhat jazzy flavor to the song. His tambourine playing on the
rhythm track also shows that he is no slouch when it comes to percussive work.
Paul's bass work suitably spices up the arrangement, although it
is not as much of a focal point as it will be on later recordings. His barrel-house piano duets with George Martin, while bordering on cliché, are excellently
performed. Ringo also turns in his usual perfectionist performance on drums.
All in all, the arrangement is very orchestrated and tightly woven. George
definitely couldn't say that they rushed through this song just to get it over with.
Lyrically, the song portrays George as being a little egocentric,
but it's probably a very honest depiction of his life experience at the time.
The subject matter is reminiscent of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The
Day," expressing that he's confident that his girl will never leave him
even though she keeps threatening to. "You've tried before to leave
me," George sings, "but you haven't got the nerve to walk out."
Buddy Holly's confidence, as heard in his line "you say you're going to
leave, you know it's a lie," is mimicked by George in the line
"you'll never leave me, and you know it's true." The reason:
"'cause you like me too much."
His honest arrogance wanes during the bridge and final verse,
where he apparently bows to the pressures of writing a standard pop song.
"If you leave me, I will follow you and bring you back where you
belong," he concedes. Saying "I'd admit that I was wrong" makes
his character more palatable to the masses, keeping the attainable fun-loving
reputation of The Beatles intact. What 60's Beatles fans may not have noticed,
though, is George stating that her leaving was "all that I deserve,"
which may be construed as his admission of infidelity.
Next Song – Tell Me what You See:
The fourth day of recording songs intended for the soundtrack of
their second movie took place on February 18th, 1965. The Beatles had two
recording sessions on this day; one from 3:30 to 5:15 pm (that saw John's song
"You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" to completion) and an evening
session from 6 to 10:30 pm (that resulted in finalizing "If You've Got
Trouble" and "Tell Me What You See"). Before the first session
and in between the two, mono mixes were made for the songs recorded in the
previous three days.
The first hour of the evening session was devoted to recording the
Lennon / McCartney composition "If You've Got Trouble," which was
created especially for Ringo to sing in the movie (and ended up being
scrapped). With that out of the way, they went to work on the newly written
"Tell Me What You See." According to George Martin's handwritten
notes, the recording of this entire song took two hours, from 8:30 to 10:30 pm.
The new procedure of recording vocals afterwards as overdubs meant
that the four takes it took to get an acceptable version of the song comprised
a rhythm track only. These handwritten notes indicate that this consisted of
Paul on bass, Ringo on drums, John on his Fender Stratocaster guitar and George
on guiro, described on the tape box as "Latin American percussion." A
guiro is an Afro-cuban rhythm instrument which looks like a grooved cylinder
that is rubbed with a stick. All of this was recorded onto 'track one' of the
four-track tape. The fourth take was deemed 'best' and was used as a bed for
multiple overdubs.
Onto 'track two" Paul overdubbed a short but intricate
electric piano passage in each bridge section as well as at the very end of the
song. This is the third of three songs on the British "Help!" album
to feature the Hohner "pianet," the first two being "The Night
Before" and "You Like Me Too Much," both of these played by
John. Onto 'track three,' Paul and John laid down their harmony vocals.
In order to fill out the song, three Beatles performed overdubs
simultaneously onto 'track four' of the tape, which then completed the song.
Paul double-tracked his lead vocal, which is especially noticeable in the
second and fourth line of each verse. Also, Ringo played tambourine and George
played claves. Claves are percussive wooden sticks that are hit together, which
were previously used the year before on "And I Love Her."
The mono mix was created on February 20th in the control room of
EMI Studio Two by producer George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Ken
Scott. This mix, along with the rest of the eleven songs being suggested for
the movie, was taken by The Beatles to the Bahamas on February 22nd where they
began filming their second movie. This way, Richard Lester could choose which
songs would be included in the film's soundtrack.
February 23rd, 1965 was the date that these eleven songs,
including "Tell Me What You See," received their stereo mix. The
importance of stereo mixing was so slight that George Martin wasn't even
present this day in the control room of EMI Studio Two, leaving the work to
engineers Norman Smith and Malcolm Davies.
Since a decision was made to release the album in stereo on
compact disc in the 80's, George Martin thought to prepare better stereo mixes
of these songs in 1986 for that release. While this new mix of "Tell Me
What You See" appears virtually the same as the one made in 1965, the new
one was used in creating the remastered version of the CD in 2009.
Song Structure and Style
Leave it to The Beatles to once again take a standard song format,
this one being the 'verse/ verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain' structure (or
aabab), and put in substantial changes to mix things up. While this format has
been sparingly used by them up to this point (see "All My Loving" and
"A Taste Of Honey"), this time around they add another verse and a
conclusion which is actually half a portion of the refrain. There are other
interesting elements thrown in along the way which we'll discuss below.
A two-measure introduction starts things off, which shows most of
the musical elements already in place. Lennon's upward strum of the guitar
actually precedes the one-beat of the first measure as if to take us by the
hand and gently pull us into the song. This subtle device is becoming more
frequent for them, as this was just used in the recently recorded "The
Night Before" as well as "I'll Cry Instead" from the year
before. The Latin-sounding percussion with tambourine appears right from the
start to create the rhythmic mood. John even performs another upward strum just
before the second measure to give it that extra Latin flavor. Also during the
introduction, we can faintly hear Paul rehearse the opening notes he's about to
sing ("if you let") in the stereo mix.
The first sixteen-measure verse immediately begins right after a
further upward guitar strum. Each verse could easily be divided into two
eight-measure sections, the first being the "verse" section and the
second being the "chorus" section but, because of a different set of
lyrics in this latter section the second time around, it's easier to identify
both of these sections as comprising a full verse of sixteen measures.
Paul and John start off the verse on the one-beat with harmonized
vocals, John singing lead with Paul providing the high harmony. Paul is the
designated lead singer of the song, determined by him being the primary
songwriter and because he sings every other line in the first half of each
verse solo (although double-tracked). As usually is the case, Paul defers
harmony singing to himself since it is more natural for him. Therefore, in the
places of the song where you hear harmony, John is singing the lead part while
Paul switches to harmony. Another example of this can be seen as early as
"Love Me Do," where Paul switches back and forth between lead and harmony
singing during the bridge. (Another reason for this, of course, was John
couldn't sing lead and play harmonica at the same time.)
The style of singing in this song is also noteworthy. Although the
voices begin directly on the one-beat of the first measure, they immediately
jump right into singing on the off-beat (with John embarrassingly struggling to
get it right), as is heard almost throughout the entire song. This adds a nice
contrast to the smooth backbeat of the usual 4/4 rhythm heard throughout. As
for the melody line itself, we see them start off with a full octave jump (on
the words "if you") and a pleasant downward fall, which is heard in
every first and third phrase of each verse. This is always followed by Paul
singing a solo lead line to complete the thought.
The second half of the first verse comprises Paul and John singing
in unison. Comically, the emphasis on the last two words of the first and third
melodic phrase are drawn out, such as on the words "eeeeys noooow."
This possible inside joke may be a result of them viewing this as "not one
of the better songs." The second verse is identical to the first in
structure and musicianship, although we see that John is now getting the hang
of hitting the off-beats in the first half.
We then go into the eight-measure refrain, which begins with a drawn-out
harmonized repeat of the title of the song. This is sung in labored half-notes
as if to make certain we know for sure what the name of the song is. As the
third measure begins on the word "see," the band performs the
standard "beatles break" for two measures. Here we see Paul jump in
with his overdubbed electric piano part to fill in the gap (while we hear a bit
of hiss from the piano circuitry during the silence). The fifth measure sees
Ringo crashing in with his cymbal and playing a highly compressed rhythm on
just his snare and bass drum with only Paul accompanying him on piano, until
the whole band returns to normal for the final two measures of the refrain. In
this way, the refrain also acts as an instrumental section of the song.
A third verse is then heard, which still shows John rushing the
syncopated rhythm of the melody line. After the refrain is identically
repeated, the third verse is heard for the second time, but John now tries hard
to get the timing of his syncopated vocals correct and finally nails it.
Afterwards, a modified refrain acts as the conclusion of the song. Instead of
singing the title of the song again, Paul and John hum the notes, not unlike
the similar effect created on "All I've Got To Do" a year and a half
earlier. The 'beatles break' then becomes the end of the song, only to be
outdone by Paul's overdubbed electric piano riff as heard during the other
refrains of the song. This becomes the final word, albeit with even more
noticeable hiss from the keyboard's circuitry.
Although John's presence is definitely felt, it is Paul who takes
center stage on this song. His attention to detail in his vocal delivery is
evidence of him being the song's primary composer (if not entire composer).
While his bass work is rudimentary in comparison to much of his earlier work,
it's quite higher in the mix this time around. Especially noteworthy is his
keyboard work which is interjected only during the refrains and conclusion.
They were prone to work this way at this stage of the game, not to include the
keyboards throughout a track but only as an embellishment in certain parts.
Other recent songs to do this were "What You're Doing" and the
acoustic piano in "You Like Me Too Much."
John performs his rhythm guitar in quite a Latin-sounding fashion
with upward guitar strums and up-strokes as if played on an acoustic guitar
(which was in fact played with his newly acquired Fender Stratocaster
electric). His distinctively nasal overtones are prominently heard throughout
most of the song and, while struggling to get the syncopated timing right, he
ends up putting in a confident performance.
Ringo's drumming is pretty straightforward throughout, with his
closed hi-hat and basic 4/4 drum beat. After the break occurs in the refrains,
however, he kicks it up with a strident forcefulness that can't help but be
noticed, followed by a simple drum fill that signals the business-as-usual
approach of the rest of the song. His overdubbed tambourine (especially during
the first two measures of the refrains and conclusion) make him appear as the
man-in-charge, percussion wise.
George's entire role on "Tell Me What You See" appears
to be that of "Latin American percussion," him playing a guiro during
the rhythm track and claves as a later overdub. He impressively plays the guiro
with a good amount of finesse and then works the claves appropriately to give
the song a good Latin feel overall.
While The Beatles had been showing themselves much more expressive
and personal in their lyric writing up until this point, they still hadn't
shaken themselves from writing songs with hypothetical romantic subject matter.
This being a classic case, which may have fitted in nicely on the British
"With The Beatles" album, it displays the singer requesting a girl to
open up to him. "Open up your eyes, now, tell me what you see,"
depicts honesty and openness as his dominant qualities. "What you see is
me" shows that he is not hiding any secret agenda. Paul, as well as John,
always prided themselves on clever lyrics, which in this case point to the line
"we will never be apart, if I'm part of you."
It appears that Paul gave a gentle tip of the hat to one of their
musical heroes in the lyrics to this song. "Elvis made a huge impression on
us," McCartney stated in the book "Anthology." Being especially
impressed with his early Sun recordings, his rendition of the McCoy / Singleton
composition "Trying To Get To You" made a big enough impact on Paul
that he and George wrote the first original Beatles composition to be recorded,
"In Spite Of All The Danger," based on that Elvis song. Therefore,
Paul's inclusion of the line "can't you try to see that I'm trying to get
to you" is no doubt a reference to his early idol.
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