HEY BULLDOG, AND ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

John made a demo recording, presumably in early February of 1968, of a snippet of a song idea in the music room of his Weybridge home. The rising piano figure, which became the refrain of "Hey Bulldog" was repeated multiple times with the lyrics that include the line "she can talk to me," this being double-tracked vocally as well as on piano along with organ. John highly expanded on this idea just prior to bringing it into the studio for recording.

The day that John brought the song into EMI Studio Three for The Beatles to record was February 11th, 1968, the session beginning at 4 pm. Incidentally, as confirmed in John and Yoko's December 1970 Rolling Stone interview with Jann Wenner, this was the first day that Lennon's “friend” Yoko Ono was in attendance at a Beatles recording session, she became an expected attendee at sessions from this point forward. Knowing the intention for “Hey Bulldog,” or "You Can Talk To Me" as some stipulate being the working title for the song, was for the “Yellow Submarine” film, they sought to record it fully in one day as they had done for previous songs intended for the movie, namely “Baby You're A Rich Man” and “All Together Now,” creating the mono mix at the end of the session as well. Of course, knowing that they were leaving for India days later, they knew the song needed to be in a completed state at the end of this day.

In his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” engineer Geoff Emerick describes the events of this session. “Even though it was destined to be given to the 'Yellow Submarine' film, 'Hey Bulldog' was a really strong song. The vibe that day was great – all four Beatles were in an exceptionally good mood because they knew they would be heading to India in a matter of days. Despite the fact that there was a film crew underfoot, it was a Sunday session, so things were quite relaxed – the Abbey Road complex was largely deserted, and The Beatles could wander around the corridors if they wanted to.”

With the cameras rolling, John gave instructions to George Martin in the control room, which the crew captured on the original tape. “Just tell us when we get a good one,” he requested, then followed by ten takes of the rhythm track. Because we can view the promo film for “Lady Madonna” filmed on this day, as well as the later assembled video for “Hey Bulldog,” this Beatles song is the most documented as to the recording process they use. The rhythm track, as we can see, consisted of John on piano singing a guide vocal, George on his Gibson SG Standard electric guitar, Paul playing two tambourines, and Ringo on drums. Earlier takes of the rhythm track featured Paul on bass as seen in the filmed footage, but apparently it was decided that he would play tambourines on the rhythm track instead and then perfect his bass part as an overdub later.

Take ten was the “good one” John was looking for, and, onto this, overdubs would follow. Geoff Emerick continues: “After they got the rhythm track down, everyone was hungry, so Mal (Evans) went down to the canteen – he had the key by now – and brought back some baked beans on toast, which was a particular favorite of George Harrison's. You can actually see them enjoying the impromptu meal at the beginning of the (“Lady Madonna”) video, with everyone in high spirits.”

Overdubs then commenced. Paul recorded his Rickenbacker bass guitar through a fuzz box while Ringo played, as the book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” called it, “deliberately off-beat drums.” George then overdubbed a stunning lead guitar solo. “Everyone's performance was excellent on that track,” Geoff Emerick continues. “Paul's bass line was probably the most inventive of any he'd done since 'Pepper,' and it was really well played. Harrison's solo was sparkling, too – one of the few times that he nailed it right away. His amp was turned up really loud, and he used one of his new fuzz boxes, which made his guitar absolutely scream.”

Another important overdub was the vocals. John sang lead vocals while Paul added harmony, both singing into one microphone simultaneously. Mark Lewisohn, in the above mentioned “Recording Sessions” book, details this vocal overdub: “It was standard practice for The Beatles to ad-lib and mess around after they had reached the point where the song would be faded out on record. In 'Hey Bulldog,' they duly began barking, shouting, and screaming.” Geoff Emerick concurs: “John and Paul gathered around a microphone for several minutes of barking, howling, and general clowning around. For those moments they were again the inseparable childhood friends they had once been, uninhibited and completely comfortable in each others presence.” Since this "clowning around" is also heard during the guitar solo section of the song, this briefly overlapping into the verse the follows while their voices are simultaneously heard singing the verse, it appears that John and Paul also separately overdubbed these extraneous shouts and mumbles here as well. With this complete, John then double-tracked his vocals during the refrains, which completed the recording of the song, filling all four tracks of the four-track tape, no reduction mixes needed.

Something does need clarifying regarding the promo clips filmed on this day. John is seen on different occasions with a guitar in his hands, one being a staged performance with Paul on drums which was made specifically for the cameras, and then with George's Gibson SG Standard teaching him the guitar riff, then handing George his guitar afterward. This is not to say that John actually played guitar on the track as some assert, these scenes displaying the practical purposes outlined above.

Before the session was over for the day, George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald, along with The Beatles, worked at creating the mono mix for the song. Two mixes occurred on this day, the second being deemed best. Mark Lewisohn relates: “During this day's mono remixing – done, incidentally, at 51 cycles per second – they decided to keep some of the extraneous material in.”

Paul explains why in his book “Many Years From Now”: “There's a little rap at the end between John and I, we went into a crazy little thing at the end. We always tried to make every song different because we figured, 'Why write something like the last one? We've done that.' We were always on a staircase to heaven, we were on a ladder, so there was never any sense of stepping down a rung, or even of staying on the same rung; it was better to move one rung ahead...We liked to be inventive. It seemed to us to be crucial to never do the same thing twice, in fact, as they say now, 'They never did the same thing once!'” Of course, they did do this once before, allowing their vocal sound effects at the end of “Lovely Rita” to make it through to the final mixing stage, Lennon insisting during the recording process to “leave it.”

Regarding this mono mix, Geoff Emerick recalls, “That was a really fun song. We were all into sound texture in those days, and during the mixing we put ADT on one of the 'What did he say? Woof woof'' bits near the end of the song. It came out really well.”

Emerick elaborates that the song “turned out so well there was some campaigning from Lennon that day for it to serve as the A-side of the single instead of 'Lady Madonna.' Naturally enough, Paul wasn't thrilled with the idea, but the discussion was ended by George Martin, who stated flatly that it was far too late to make the change because they already printed the record sleeves. That may or may not have been true, but I suspect that George, like Paul, felt that 'Lady Madonna' was the more commercial song.” This choice decided, the session ended at 2 am the following morning.

Since the “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack album halted released until after the “White Album,” a stereo mix wasn't made until October 29th, 1968 in preparation for the soundtrack's January 1969 release date. In George Martin's absence, Geoff Emerick and engineer Graham Kirkby created this stereo mix in the control room of EMI Studio Three, the third of three attempts being deemed best. Emerick decided to pull down the volume on the music during the few seconds of ending dialog between John and Paul that he applied ADT to, lifting up the volume again after that section was over.

Sometime in 1999, the engineering team of Peter Cobbin, Paul Hicks, Mirek Stiles, Allan Rouse, Peter Mew, and Steve Rooke returned to the master tape of “Hey Bulldog” to create a brand new stereo mix of the song. This new mix would appear in the newly mastered version of the “Yellow Submarine” film as released that year on VHS and DVD as well as on the accompanying album "Yellow Submarine Songtrack." As can be heard, they did not lower the volume of the music during the ADT applied vocalizations of John and Paul near the end of the song, but the clarity of the new mix is phenomenal.

Not to be forgotten is George Martin and his son Giles Martin returning to the master tape of “Hey Bulldog” sometime between 2004 and 2006 for creating two tracks on the innovative album “Love.” The iconic guitar riff of the song mingles in the version of “Lady Madonna” that appears on the album, as does some of John and Paul's vocal banter on the track “Something (with Blue Jay Way transition).”

Song Structure and Style

With "Hey Bulldog," The Beatles return to the tried-and-true format of writing a song around a two-measure riff, most notable in earlier tracks such as "You Can't Do That," "I Feel Fine" and, of course, "Day Tripper." Since the iron-clad riff that permeates "Hey Bulldog" is first heard at the beginning of the song, this recurring section will be referred to as the "intro" throughout its various appearances in the song. The structure for "Hey Bulldog," therefore, is 'intro/ verse/ verse/ refrain/ intro/ solo verse/ verse/ refrain/ intro' (or abbcabbca).

The first 'intro' is six measures long and comprises three repeats of the two-measure riff. Interestingly, John introduces this riff to us on piano only, this taking up the first two measures of this intro, which sets the stage for the entire song. The next appearance of the riff adds George on lead guitar and Ringo on drums playing only the toms. The third riff then follows, which adds Paul's bass playing the same riff as well as his tambourine hits on the first two eighth-note beats of each measure. Therefore, in the fifth and sixth measure of this introduction we hear John, Paul, and George all playing the exact same riff on their usual instruments.

The first verse then begins, which is a standard eight measures long. The rhythm track of John on piano, Paul on tambourines, Ringo on drums, and George on subdued guitar is heard as well as John and Paul's overdubbed vocals and Paul's overdubbed bass. Both Ringo and Paul play a very straightforward 4/4 beat on drums and tambourines while John plods along rhythmically on piano not unlike what we'll hear him do a couple years later on his solo song “Remember” from the “Plastic Ono Band” album. For the first four measures of the verse Paul harmonizes with John on the first phrase (such as “sheepdog”) while John sings the second phrase solo (such as “standing in the rain”), this repeating twice. John emphasizes the word “again” to rhyme with the previously sung “rain,” showing a bit of Liverpudlian humor. Paul then harmonizes with John throughout the remainder of the verse.

The second verse comes immediately afterward and is identical in instruments used and structure. Interesting to note in this verse is John's somewhat evil-sounding “in your sweaty hands” in the fourth verse and the first prominent but slight appearance of George on guitar at the end of the sixth measure after the words “measured out in years.”

Then comes the first refrain, which is five measures long and consists entirely of the words, sung double-tracked by John alone, “you can talk to me / you can talk to me / you can talk to me / if you're lonely you can talk to me.” This section is instrumentally identical to the previous verses, John's rising piano figure (as demonstrated in his home demo) being the primary focus. Just after his final lyric, we go immediately into the next 'intro' section which is four measures long this time instead of six, the riff being repeated only twice instead of three times. The instrumentation here is similar to the final two measures of the first 'intro' but with George's highly distorted overdubbed guitar playing the riff on top of his guitar playing the same riff during the rhythm track. Paul's tambourine bashing moves from the first two beats of the measure to a steady 4/4 beat during the fourth measure as a segue into the solo verse that follows.

The solo verse is also eight measures long and features the same instruments from the rhythm track as well as Paul's overdubbed bass. The most noteworthy feature, obviously, is George's exuberant guitar solo, which is well thought out and executed, distortion to the fore and high in the mix. Also heard as a subtle but interesting feature of this verse is a backdrop of voices from John and Paul purposely left in the mix just for fun. Ringo gets a little adventurous here as well, adding a drum fill in both the second and fourth measures.

Another verse follows, which is most identical to the second verse, George's little guitar figure in the sixth measure and all. The very end of John and Paul's vocal shenanigans from the solo verse carry over a little into the first measure of this verse, a voice (some sources say Ringo) uttering a “yeah” just after the lyric “big man.” A touch of cleverness is present in John, and Paul's very quickly paced final line “haven't gotta clue.” This is followed by another refrain, which is identical to the first.

Next comes the final section of the song, the final 'intro' that, in this case, is 29 measures long before it finally fades away. The first four measures are patterned after the four-measure second 'intro' heard earlier but without George's overdubbed highly distorted guitar. Vocally, however, we hear John belt out a double-tracked “hey” at the end of the first measure, and Paul utters some dog barks in the third and fourth measure.

The remaining 25 measures of this 'intro' consist of an alternating of two chords back and forth, and George adjusting the iconic two-measure riff to fit with the repeating chord changes. Ringo rides heavily on the cymbal for the remainder of the song, throwing in drum fills in measures 6, 8, 10 (this one with triplets), 12, and 18. John sings his first ad-lib “Hey Bulldog” in measures 6-7, Paul joining in on harmony when it's repeated in measures 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, and then two more times as the song fades away in measures 26-27, and 28-29. Geoff Emerick pulls the faders down slightly on all the instruments when he was making the stereo mix during measures 14 through 19 to highlight John and Paul's silly dialog, which appears to be the following:

Paul: “Hey, man.”

John: “What's that, boy?”

Paul: “Rooofff.”

John: “What do you say...I say....Rooofff...Do you know any more?...Roooooooo Rooofff...Aaaaah, haha.” (and then manic laughter for a few measures).

Paul: “You got it, that's it, you hit it, that's it, man, wooooh, that's it, you got it!...”

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