George had this Byrds-ish song written and ready to record early
on during the sessions for “Rubber Soul.”
Therefore, on October 16th, 1965, which was the third day of recording
sessions for the album, George premiered the song in EMI Studio Two to record
the rhythm track. This didn’t happen,
though, until the new Lennon/McCartney masterpiece “Day Tripper” was fully
complete and ready to adorn their next single.
Approximately the first eight-and-a-half hours of this day were spent
perfecting this gem, while the last hour, from 11 pm till midnight, was deemed
suitable for rehearsing and then recording one take of the rhythm track for
"If I Needed Someone."
They apparently hit the nail on the head the first time the tapes
were rolling, the rhythm track comprising George on his brand-new Rickenbacker
12-string guitar (with a capo applied to the seventh fret), John on rhythm
guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums.
Some sources claim that George Martin also played harmonium on this
rhythm track although it’s undetected in the finished product. With much overdubbing still required, they
left this for another day.
This other day was their very next recording session on October
18th, 1965 in EMI Studio Two. Management
scheduled just over three hours on this day, from 2:30 to 5:45 pm, with
approximately only the first ninety minutes necessary to finish what was the
priority of the day, namely the overdubs for “If I Needed Someone.” George recorded his lead vocals and then
double-tracked them, which ended up on “track three” of the four-track
tape. John and Paul then sang harmony
vocals and double-tracked them as well, adding a low bass vocal during the
instrumental section of the song. These
vocals all ended up on “track four” of the four-track tape. George also overdubbed more jangly guitar
leads on his capoed Rickenbacker 12-string guitar throughout the song with
Ringo overdubbing some nice tambourine work on the same track. By about 4 pm, the song was complete, the
next hour-and-a-half or so utilized for rehearsing and recording another
“Rubber Soul” masterpiece, “In My Life.”
The only mono mix of “If I Needed Someone” was made on October
25th, 1965 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by producer George Martin and
engineers Norman Smith and Ken Scott.
The first stereo mix was done the following day, October 26th,
1965, while the group was busy receiving their MBE’s at Buckingham Palace. This mix was also made in the control room of
EMI Studio Two by Marin, Smith and 2nd engineer Ron Pender. The entire rhythm track is heard in the left
channel except for the bleed-through of the studio speaker while all the
recorded vocal tracks shifted entirely onto the right channel. In fact, there is some noticeable “phasing”
at times in the right channel of the stereo mix that possibly appears due to
the bleed-through of the studio speaker during the multiple vocal
overdubs. The lead guitar/tambourine
overdub track is also entirely on the left channel except during the
instrumental section and conclusion of the song where it was quickly switched
over entirely to the right channel. The
switch is so abrupt that the very beginning of the lead guitar/tambourine track
in the conclusion is still heard in the left channel before it makes it over to
the right.
A second stereo mix of the song was done in 1986 by George Martin
in preparation for the “Rubber Soul” compact disc. All of the above elements are exactly the
same except that the vocal tracks are positioned slightly more to the left so
that they can be detected somewhat in that channel.
Not to be forgotten is the live recording of the song done
sometime in the first half of December 1991, by George Harrison and his
band. This recording appears on the
album “Live In Japan” and features two extended solo sections performed by
band-mate Eric Clapton.
Song Structure and Style
When reading the above quote from George that the song surfaced
around the D major chord, musicians will very quickly point out that the key of
“If I Needed Someone” isn’t D at all but A major. While this is obviously true, observing their
live performances of the song point out a noticeable fact. George does play the song with the fingering
of a D major chord when the home key sounds but with a capo placed quite high
on the neck of his guitar. John plays
his guitar without a capo using the A major chord fingering. Obviously the song was written in D but then
altered to A, possibly to get the song in a key more in the range for George to
sing.
The structure is somewhat typical for Beatles compositions up to
this point, consisting of verses and a repeating bridge. The actual format is ‘verse/ verse/ bridge/
verse/ verse (instrumental)/ verse/ bridge/ verse’ (or aabaaaba). Note that, with the instrumental section of
the song, an unusual three-verses-in-a-row appears. Added to the mix includes a short intro and
nearly similar conclusion.
The intro is four measures long and consists of a two-measure
guitar riff that repeats twice. The
first time it is heard by the guitar alone (although double-tracked) not unlike
“Day Tripper” which the band recorded on this same day. On the third measure, the second time the
riff enters, the full band appears to take us into the main body of the song. An overdubbed tambourine also begins at the
point which continues through the entire song.
However, it now is just being accented on the two- and four-beats of
each measure.
The first verse begins immediately thereafter, which is eight
measures long. It starts with George
singing solo (although double-tracked) right on the downbeat of the first
measure. Funnily enough, this word “if,”
heard in the sixth measure, and the word “you’re” heard on the downbeat of the
third measure, are the only words sung on a straight beat. All of the rest of the lyrics are sung on the
off-beat, or in syncopation. While the
melody line George is singing is engaging, it only comprises a range of four
notes being sung mostly in a ‘stair-step’ (up and down) pattern.
Other interesting features of this verse are the change to G in
the fifth and sixth measure. While the
guitars make this change, Paul’s bass playing continues the same
rising-and-falling pattern that he has been playing while the A chord has been
heard throughout the verse thus far.
Ringo spices up the sixth measure with accented eighth notes on his
snare and bass drum while the title of the song takes over, climaxing with a
cymbal crash on the downbeat of the seventh measure. Also, when the title of the song reappears,
it is sung in three-part harmony by George, Paul and (prominently) John. During all this time, the beginning guitar
riff continues as a mimic to the melody line that George sings.
A second eight-measure verse then occurs, which sounds identical
in structure to the first with the exception that three-part harmony
brilliantly emerges throughout.
The first eight-measure bridge follows next, which is sung solo
(double-tracked) by George and is also mostly sung in syncopation, the words
“had,” “it” and “but” mark the only lyrics sung on the downbeat. George stretches the melodic range somewhat
for the bridge, but it still only comprises five notes. The tambourine playing changes from just
accents to an eighth-note shaking rhythm for the bridge.
A third eight-measure verse then appears following the same
structure as the other two, which is quickly followed by the instrumental
section played to the chords of a verse.
Since the rhythm of the guitar riff doesn’t alter, this can be more
considered as an instrumental break than an actual solo, although the range of
the melodic notes does make some interesting reaches. The tambourine changes back to its
eighth-note shaking rhythm and Ringo continues his eighth-note accents in the
sixth measure even though the title of the song lacks at that time. What is unmistakably present, however, is
four sets of four-part (listen for the low note) harmony “ahh”s that stretch
throughout the entire instrumental section.
John’s guitar playing on the rhythm track alters to an interesting
finger-picking style during this break.
It’s interesting to note that, while he doesn’t play this pattern in the
break during their live performances, he performs a similar pattern through the
chord changes of each bridge, which sounds very impressive.
After an identical repeat of the second verse and bridge, the
third verse is then repeated, which is nearly identical as well. The only difference here is that Ringo
forgets (or alters for redundancy sake) the eighth-note accents in the sixth
measure. Following this, a short
four-measure conclusion closely copies the introduction. The guitar riff stands one and the same, but
the full band participates throughout with two three-part “aah” harmonies
filling out the landscape. A final
suspended chord with crashing cymbal ends the song with a satisfying thud.
George’s sullen vocals work well with the sentiment of the song
and are performed well in pitch. His
showcase, of course, is his haunting guitar passages that permeate the entire
two-and-a-quarter minutes. Paul comes up
with an interesting but simple bass figure that accentuates the arrangement
nicely without being gaudy, not to mention being easy to play live. Ringo, as always, could be counted on for a
steady hand on drums and tambourine, keeping the steady metronome rock beat
going with simple fills to accentuate the arrangement.
John may not have shown himself very cooperative with Harrison
songs on later occasions, but he is very present and puts in a concerted effort
here. His guitar work, while somewhat
low in the mix, is carried out well as is his syncopated singing. We might remember his struggle with this
exercise back in February of 1965 with “Tell Me What You See.” Those near-disastrous results have now been
refined to perfection, as were his syncopated harmonies on George’s similarly
phrased “Think For Yourself,” the next Harrisong to be tackled in November of
that year.
With the exception of the love-lorn romanticism of “I Need You”
from earlier that year, George continues his usual quirky spin on relationships
with “If I Needed Someone.” The reality
of Beatlemania seems to be depicted candidly in the lyrics of this song, with
girls standing in a single-file line for each band member with aspirations to
be their next girlfriend or lover. But
George just didn’t “need” anyone at this time because he was “too much in love”
at the moment. (I’m assuming this would
be Patti since they were married three months later!) But, if he “needed someone to love,” he
assures this particular bird: “you’re the one that I’d be thinking of,” quickly
reiterating “…if I needed someone” to make sure she doesn’t get her hopes up
too high.
Being unfaithful to who he is in love with doesn’t seem to be much
of an issue as he contemplates: “If I
had some more time to spend…I’d be with you,” making sure he forthrightly but
bluntly includes the phrase “I guess.”
She apparently just caught him at a bad time, since “some other day…it
might not have been like this.” But he
isn’t counting out the future possibility of hooking up with her. He advises her: “Carve your number on my wall, and maybe you
will get a call from me.” Love comes and
goes, you know. With this girls’ phone
number carved into the wall of his home, there’s a good chance he’ll remember
her…unless, of course, many girls are in the habit of carving numbers on his
wall. :-)
Next Song – Run For Your Life:
With the pressure of time constraints to record a new album by the
end of the year, The Beatles entered EMI Studio Two on October 12th, 1965 for
what was the first recording session for “Rubber Soul.” This four-and-a-half hour recording session,
running from 2:30 to 7 pm, was devoted entirely to recording the new
composition “Run For Your Life.” This session
was all that was needed to complete the song in its entirety, overdubs and
all. Another new song, “Norwegian Wood,”
was also ready to record, but that began to be taped immediately afterward on
the second session of the day.
The rhythm track was the first to be tackled, which comprised John
on acoustic guitar and guide vocals, Paul on bass, George on electric rhythm
guitar and Ringo on his brand-new set of Ludwig drums. They tried five takes of the rhythm track,
although the fifth was the only one that made it all the way through to the
end, the first four all breaking down at some point.
John’s vocal performance on the rhythm track thrived with much
bravado and enthusiasm, possibly with the intention of it proceeded onto the
finished product. It was even recorded
with a reverb effect to give it some depth.
However, because he repeated the second verse where the third verse
should have been, this was later scrapped in favor of a new overdubbed vocal
work. Luckily, the guide vocal was
recorded on a separate track so it could be mixed out or recorded over with
little or no bleed-through on the rhythm track.
Although John was later very insistent about his dislike for the
song, this guide vocal reveals that he was very much into the spirit of the
recording and was wholehearted about his performance. The same can easily be said about his
overdubbed vocals on the finished master tape.
Obviously, his distaste for the song came later.
Onto take five, overdubs began immediately. With the guide vocals still in place, Ringo
laid down a tambourine part, and George got busy putting down multiple lead
guitar passages, including the solo. His
other parts included the distinctive riff heard in the introduction as well as
throughout the song, all double-tracked to make them sound full. He also overdubbed chord ‘slides’
accomplished by pulling the chord position on his left hand up into D major as
heard repeatedly throughout the song.
During strategic places, there are actually four of George’s
contributions heard at one time!
At some point during this overdubbing process, John voiced a complaint. “You know, as soon as the backing came in the
rhythm went all soft,” he informed the EMI staff. His concern was that the overdubs sounded
louder than the original rhythm track.
He continued, “By the time we put something else on there’ll be no
‘Jumbo’ Gibson at all,” referring to his acoustic guitar as played on the
rhythm track.
With that settled, John’s lead vocals, as well as Paul and
George’s higher harmony vocals on the choruses, were added. The three of them then double-tracked their
vocals but only during the choruses, strategically omitting the final “little
girl” as heard at the end of each chorus.
Once they indeed harmonized the “little girl” phrase, the song was
complete.
The first date that any mixes occurred for the “Rubber Soul” album
materialized on October 25th, 1965, nearly two weeks after the completion of
“Run For Your Life.” Curiously, this
song passed over mixed at this time. The
other six completed songs received a mono mix on this day, but other songs that
were recorded but not deemed complete at this point stood left for later with
good reason. However, why wouldn’t they
create a mix for “Run For Your Life” at this point? Could they have viewed the song as incomplete
as well? Or was it just forgotten at
this stage?
Either way, they did include it in the mono mixing session held on
November 9th, 1965 in Room 65 at EMI Studios.
The song got its official mono mix at this time, which was created by
George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Jerry Boys.
The stereo mix was made the next day, November 10th, 1965, also in
Room 65 at EMI Studios by the same engineering team. The entire rhythm track was isolated in the
left channel as was the tambourine overdub, the second set of harmonized vocals
in the chorus, and one of the overdubbed guitar riff tracks. The lead vocal track, which included the
first set of harmonized vocals from Paul and George, are isolated in the right
track, as are George’s ‘slide’ chords, the other guitar riff track, and the
guitar solo. Separating the guitar riffs
in separate channels adds a very effective fullness to the finished recording.
A few anomalies in this mix include a loud popping sound heard
during the eighth measure of the guitar solo, possibly from someone
accidentally hitting a microphone or guitar pick-up. The second curiosity is that, during the
introduction, all of George’s guitar overdubs are heard in the left channel
only, while some of his elements slip in on the right channel for the rest of
the song. This being the case, the first
four measures of the song are heard entirely in the left channel of the stereo
mix, while on the fifth measure we hear a little of the rhythm track, overdubs
and all, fade up in the right channel just before John’s vocals begin. This occurred because of the instrumental
backing played too loud in the studio, and was picked up by John’s vocal
microphone during that overdub session.
George Martin made a second stereo mix in 1986 in preparation for
the compact disc release of “Rubber Soul” in 1987. The elements were essentially placed in the
exact same locations with the exception of the lead vocals, which were panned
slightly more toward the center. George
Martin took the opportunity at this point to fix the loud popping sound in the
guitar solo, which may have been originally present due to an unused track left
blank in the original mix.
There were a couple more recordings made of the song late in The
Beatles career. On January 21st, 1969,
during the “Get Back/Let It Be” sessions, an impromptu 30-second run-through of
“Run For Your Life” occurred on tape.
John started singing the first verse while playing acoustic guitar,
joined by the rest of The Beatles with Paul singing harmony. It obviously didn’t make it on the resulting
album, but it adorns bootlegs to this day.
Something similar took place again on January 31st of that year, both of
these recordings taking place at Apple Studios on Savile Row in London.
Song Structure and Style
Here is yet another example of The Beatles use of a chorus,
“Rubber Soul” utilizing this element more than any other of their albums up to
this point. The structure contained in
“Run For Your Life” consists of ‘verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ instrumental/
verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus’ (or ababcabab).
The format also includes a brief introduction and a similar but fading
conclusion.
A six-measure introduction triggers this tune, which starts with a
two-measure acoustic guitar intro from John in the folksy rhythmic style that
we’ll hear throughout the entire song.
He actually starts playing just before the downbeat, but when the rest
of the band kicks in at the beginning of the third measure, we then know for
sure where the true one-beat lies. The
entire introduction stays planted in the home key of D major while George
premiers the catchy guitar riff he continues to use as a transition between the
chorus and verse in most instances throughout the song.
This guitar riff takes on the familiar two-measure repeating form
that The Beatles utilized many times previously and will again in the later
years. While it may not be as inventive
as that heard in “You Can’t Do That” and “I Feel Fine” from the previous year,
nor as identifiable as “Day Tripper” and “Paperback Writer” which it preceded,
it still works nicely as a foundation to build the song upon. Its descending structure may very well have
been a template for Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to work into “Last Train To
Clarksville” the following year since The Beatles’ influence on that song has
already been verified to come from “Paperback Writer.”
The rest of the instrumentation, bass, drums, tambourine, and lead
guitars, all appear simultaneously in the third measure of the
introduction. With the exception of the
recurring lead guitar parts, they all continue in full force throughout the
entire song without a break.
The first eight-measure verse then begins with John’s
single-tracked vocals coming in just before the downbeat with the words “Well,
I’d / rather see you dead…” All three of
George’s lead guitar overdubs disappear during the verse, as with all of the
verses, although his rhythm playing from the rhythm track flows very
prominent. Also noteworthy is John
flubbing the lyrics at the end of the sixth measure, singing “you better keep
your head, little girl, or I won’t know where I am” instead of “or you won’t
know” which makes more sense. He sings
the lyrics correctly when the verse repeats later.
The eight-measure chorus is heard next, which surprisingly begins
with the last chord of the verse, changing the key to B minor at this point
instead of D major as heard from the song’s beginning. John’s vocals are now double-tracked as are
the background vocals from Paul and George which occur for the first time at the
beginning of this chorus. These background
vocals follow John’s emphasis to the tee, especially evident in the seventh
measure on the line “that’s the end-ah.”
The lead guitar is still nowhere to be found except for the eighth
measure (just after the delayed lyrics “little girl”) when it begins a climb to
segue into a four-measure version of the introduction which immediately follows
the chorus. This repeat of the
introduction returns us to sure footing by bringing back the home key of D
major. The catchy-but-familiar guitar
riff is then repeated, double-tracking spanned between both channels this time
around.
A second verse and chorus then occurs, which repeats the same
instrumentation with the exception of the omission of the climbing lead guitar
in the final measure of the chorus.
Instead of moving into another repeat of the introduction, the band
slips back to the home key of D major for an instrumental break. This appears in a full nearly-standard
twelve-bar-blues format, the only time it’s heard in the entire song. The only thing that isn’t ‘standard’ is the
tenth measure where they stay on the A major chord instead of moving back to G
as expected.
A third verse follows immediately afterward, which features John’s
single-tracked and slightly menacing vocal delivery, especially the emphasized
final line, “I’d rather see you dead-ah.”
An identical repeat of the chorus follows with another occurrence of the
introduction coming immediately afterward.
Then the first verse is repeated, John, this time getting the words
right. The fourth and final chorus
includes a stray lead guitar note appearing in the eighth measure.
The introduction now becomes the conclusion and fade-out of the
song as the descending guitar riff repeats endlessly while John emphasizes the
end of the song with his “nah, nah, nah” scat vocal lines. With this, “Run For Your Life,” and in
actuality, the entire “Rubber Soul” experience, comes to a fitting conclusion.
From listening to the song, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind
that John Lennon is truly at the helm; he is definitely steering this
ship. Playing the role of folk
singer/songwriter, acoustic guitar in hand, he has a definite and clear message
to convey and commands our attention with his deliberate and intentional vocal
delivery. Paul plays a supporting character
through echoing and accentuating John’s thoughts in harmony as well as his
tasteful bass work. Ringo, while barely
noticed on the drum kit, makes his presence felt through his relentless
tambourine, which is much higher in the mix.
George is instrumentally the major player in the song, sounding as
if he’s in his comfort zone from beginning to end. While his input in some “Rubber Soul” songs
appear to be minor (such as in “In My Life” and “I’m Looking Through You”), his
presence is definitely felt here, adding three-guitar overdubs as well as an
excellently executed guitar solo.
As stated earlier, John is now writing lyrics without any pretense
of keeping within an established pop mentality.
If he wants to write autobiographically (“In My Life”), he does. If he wants to write about an affair
(“Norwegian Wood”), he does. If he wants
to sing about his revelations reached during drug use (“The Word”), he does. And, if he wants to write about his murderous
and jealous rage, no one, not even Brian Epstein, can tell him at this point
that he can’t.
This may have been the reason why Norman Smith, who had been their
primary engineer up to this point, decided to abandon The Beatles project after
these sessions ended. “’ Rubber Soul’
wasn’t really my bag at all,” he was quoted as saying, “so I decided that I’d
better get off The Beatles’ train. I
told George (Martin), and George told Eppy (Brian Epstein) and the next thing I
received a lovely gold carriage clock inscribed ‘To Norman. Thanks.
John, Paul, George, and Ringo.’”
While admitting that he is “a wicked guy” with “a jealous mind,”
John justifies his irrational intent by saying that he’s not going to spend his
“whole life” trying to get her to “toe the line.” Taking the Arthur Gunter line “I’d rather see
you dead” to a literal degree, he warns her to “run for your life” and “hide
your head in the sand” saying “that’s the end” for her if she’s
unfaithful. To show he’s not kidding one
iota, he reiterates that the lyrics to this song are to be as his “sermon” to
her, emphasizing that he’s “determined” to see her “dead.”
The seriousness of the lyrical content is diluted, however, by a
silly play-on-words in the first and final verse. “You better keep your head, little girl, or
you won’t know where I am,” he playfully repeats. After all, if she doesn’t have a literal
head, she wouldn’t be able to see where he is.
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