I'm Down, and its Incredible Recording Process

 

As film production for the movie “Help!” came to a close, manager Brian Epstein took pain not to put too much on their agenda for about a month (mid-May to mid-June) for a well-deserved vacation if they so desired. (Paul, for instance, went on a five-hour car trip from Lisbon to Albufeira on May 27th that allowed him finally finishing off the lyrics to “Yesterday.”)

 

On June 14th, however, all returned “back to business” with the first of three recording sessions in EMI Studio Two for crafting the second side of their next British album, “Help!” Jokingly christened as “Paul McCartney day,” in the realm, all three songs put on tape were primarily, if not entirely, written by Paul. Two sessions were scheduled on this day: the first, a three-hour session from 2:30 to 5:30 pm that resulted in laying down two Paul songs to completion.

 

The first approximate hour-and-a-half  utilized their talents for recording the country-flavored “I’ve Just Seen A Face,” and, when that was complete, they jumped head-long into Paul’s screamer “I’m Down.” Seven takes of the rhythm track were needed until they all were satisfied with the results. These rhythm tracks consisted of Paul on bass and lead vocals, George on rhythm guitar with solo, John on organ, and Ringo on drums.

 

With Paul’s encouraging Americanism, “Let’s hope this one turns out pretty darn good, huh,” they jumped into the first take, which showed George struggling somewhat with his guitar rhythm but more confident suggests his guitar solo was somewhat thought through. The plan had arranged for John to play an organ solo in the second instrumental spot, but when the time came, he just kept the rhythm going and indicated verbally for Paul to “keep going” with the song. Paul responded to the absence by shouting “oooh yeah” and “oooh-hooo,” not to mention woofing like a dog. (This take can be heard in its entirety on “Anthology 2”).

 

This take ended with George practicing his rhythm chords and solo, Ringo mocking Paul’s flamboyant vocal gymnastics, and an interesting genesis of a future Beatles term. “I think the title ‘Rubber Soul’ came from a comment an old blues guy had said of Jagger,” McCartney explains. He adds, “I’ve heard some out-takes of us doing ‘I’m Down,’ and at the front of it, I’m chatting on about Mick. I’m saying how I’d just read about an old bloke in the States who said, ‘Mick Jagger, man. Well, you know they’re good – but it’s plastic soul.’ So ‘plastic soul’ was the germ of the ‘Rubber Soul’ idea.” Therefore, at the end of take one, we hear Paul repeat “plastic soul, man, plastic soul.”

 

Having identified the seventh take as best, they were ready to add overdubs. George’s guitar solo on this take was isolated onto a separate track to adjust the volume or add effects during the mixing stage. In this case, however, they felt the solo could be improved, so they just had him overdub a better solo on top of the old one. There was one problem, though. Paul’s microphone picked up the original solo, and it can be heard in the stereo mix of the song on the right channel.

 

Other overdubs included John’s flamboyant organ solo, complete with the clicking of the keys during his Jerry Lee Lewis-like finger runs in the seventh and eighth measures. Even though the solo was performed later as an overdub, this doesn’t stop Paul from exclaiming in the rhythm track, “tear it up, John.” Ringo then adds some enthusiastic bongo-playing during the first and second verses and again at the song's conclusion.

 

Interestingly, two sets of background vocals were recorded as overdubs on “I’m Down.” The most discernible are the answering harmonies from John and George during the fifth-through-tenth measures of each verse, namely with the lyrics “I’m really down, down on the ground,” as well as the accented words “how can you laugh” that are sung in the thirteenth measure. These vocals are also repeated throughout the conclusion as the song fades away.

 

The second set of overdubbed background vocals, heard clearly when the stereo mix of the song is played out-of-phase, encompass John singing the word “down” in bass notes followed immediately by George and Paul harmonizing the same word in a slightly higher register. These are performed simultaneously as the first set of background vocals, which adds compensated vocal depth for the absence of a second guitar in the song. All in all, in about an hour-and-a-half (4 to 5:30 pm), it appears evident that The Beatles had a “pretty darn good” time recording this song.

 

An interesting side note, after a 90-minute break, to let Paul’s shredded vocal cords heal, he returned to the studio to record the classic, tender ballad “Yesterday.”

 

The mono and stereo mixes of “I’m Down” occurred on June 18th, 1965, in the control room of EMI Studio Two by producer George Martin and engineers Norman Smith and Phil McDonald. Usually, stereo mixes were not initially made of songs intended only for singles, since they were only pressed in mono at that time. The fact that a stereo mix was made on this day indicates that the decision to place “I’m Down” as the b-side of the single “Help!,” and not on the resulting album, was not made this early on. In fact, this stereo mix didn’t surface in Britain or American until the mid-’70s.

 

Two further recordings of “I’m Down” were made during their second American tour. On August 29th and 30th of 1965, The Beatles played at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, both performances fully recorded for an intended live album. The first show was produced by Engeman and engineered by Hugh Davies, while the second show was produced by Capitol vice-president Voyle Gilmore and engineered by Pete Abbott. Unfortunately, neither song made it on to the resulting 1977 album “The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl” and remain in the vaults to this day.

 

One final Beatles recording session concerning this song occurred on January 5th, 1966, at CTS Studios in London. In preparation for the television special “The Beatles At Shea Stadium,” the group was called in to “sweeten” some audio tracks. This resulted in Paul overdubbing a better bass track to “I’m Down,” and John adding a more discernible and cleaner organ part.

Song Structure and Style:

“It’s really a blues song,” McCartney explained in 1994. While it does have a standard 12-bar-blues feel and chord pattern, there is, as is usual for The Beatles, more than meets the eye. Always keen to add nuances to make their recordings unique, the boys played with the arrangement until it grew to fourteen measures per verse with many “Beatles breaks” thrown in for good measure. It may have been patterned initially after Little Richard, but the end result is pure Beatles.

 

While “Long Tall Sally,” for instance, stays in line with an identical pattern for all the verses, whether vocal or instrumental, “I’m Down” changes things up by showing a subtle-but-noticeable difference between the verses and solo sections of the song. These differences best described the format as ‘verse/ verse/ solo 1/ verse/ solo 2/ outro’ (or aabacd).

 

The first fourteen-measure verse starts in a very startling manner with Paul’s solo vocal. He sings a cappella for the entire first two measures (“you tell lies thinking I can’t see”), placing the listener somewhat disoriented about the time signature and key. It’s not until the third measure, with the group's accent on the downbeat, that we can tell where the measure begins and that the song is in the key of G major.

 

In the fourth measure, Ringo kicks in an energetic drum fill to invite the band and himself on overdubbed bongos, in on the fifth through tenth measures. These six measures actually feature six overdubbed voices, two of Paul, John, and George, which focus primarily on the title of the song. The eleventh measure mostly comprises an accented band fill switching from D major to G major that highlights the phrase “how can you laugh,” which is sung by Paul alone. This is followed by the twelfth measure, which comprises another "break" that allows Paul to finish the phrase a cappella, namely “when you know I’m down.” The final two measures repeat this same pattern, only it’s John and George who sing “how can you laugh” this time around. The verse ends with a small drum fill from Ringo, which ushers in the next verse. With two breaks at the beginning of the verse and two breaks at the end, a uniformity, or bookend effect, is purposely created.

 

After a structurally identical second verse (minus the final drum fill), the first solo section of the song occurs, which is the first time an actual 12-bar blues format tailors in the music. The two accented breaks of this section mimic the first two verses, but from the fifth measure on, we hear the established structure of most blues and early rock-and-roll songs. In fact, this guitar solo could work as interchangeable with the ones we hear in The Beatles version of its precursor, “Long Tall Sally.”

 

The third verse then appears, which is also identical to the first two, except for the absence of bongos and for two useful building notes from George at the end of the second measure after Paul’s lyrics “nobody else.” This transitions nicely into the second solo section of the song, performed by John on an organ. The difference between this and the first solo section is that the beginning accents are gone, resulting in a very standard 12-bar blues format. Paul’s laughs and mostly unintelligible screams add much to the flamboyant atmosphere of this solo.

 

The conclusion (or “outro”) to the song follows next, which is actually a three-times repeated 12-bar blues pattern consisting primarily of repeating the song’s title. Ringo’s bongos reappear for this section since they had taken a hiatus at the second verse, but now they are higher in the mix and, therefore, more noticeable. All six voices create possibly the highest energy heard in any Beatles track up to this time, complete with Paul’s blood-curdling screams of “I’m down” and “baby, baby, baby.” As the song fades away, the piece actually leaves you breathless and wanting to put another dime in the jukebox to hear it again (if you can remember back to those days)!

 

While Paul tended to dominate the proceedings in the recording studio that year (playing bass, lead guitar, and piano at times), he appropriately allowed this to be a full band performance, probably assumed it was destined to be a concert staple shortly after the final take. He restricted himself to bass guitar, which ended up relatively low in the mix, and concentrated more on his enthusiastic vocal delivery.

 

Paul explains his vocal delivery for the song: “I could do Little Richard’s voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing, it’s like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it. You have to actually go outside yourself. It’s a funny little trick, and when you find it, it’s very interesting.”

 

Little Richard himself remembers Paul’s fascination with his vocal style when he shared the bill with The Beatles at the Tower Ballroom in Liverpool on October 12th, 1962. “Paul especially was into my music and had been playing it since he was in high school. He was impressed with my hollerin’, and when I was on stage in Liverpool, and later in Hamburg (the following month), he used to stay in the wings and watch me sing…People know that if they sing one of my songs on stage, they’re gonna light up the house.”

 

Actually, all four Beatles are on top of their game on “I’m Down.” John’s electrifying organ work, while rudimentary, exemplifies Jerry Lee Lewis to the best of his ability and succeeds in creating the necessary atmosphere. His background vocals, especially his low-register bass notes, show he was very much interested in creating the perfect "screamer" for their repertoire.

 

After much practice, George’s guitar solo is very fitting and confidently played, as is his rhythm work throughout the song. His sense of pitch is also nicely displayed in his two background vocal parts. Ringo reprises his bongo playing expertise once again, as heard four months earlier in “You’re Going To Lose That Girl,” but his strong suit is his spirited performance at the drum kit. Especially after seven takes, he plays as if he was back at the Cavern Club in 1962.

 

As a possible extension of John’s lyrics in the recently recorded track “Help!,” Paul’s lyrics in “I’m Down” loosely convey the depressed state of someone whose girl treats him disrespectfully. “How can you laugh when you know I’m down?” he asks. However, the sad lyrics are obviously not meant to create sympathy but used as a vehicle to deliver a “rock ‘n’ roll shouter,” as Paul called it. This is evidenced by humorous lyrics like “we’re all alone, and there’s nobody else, you still moan ‘keep your hands to yourself.’” Even the line about the woman throwing away the man’s ring (which apparently actually happened to Paul during his courtship with Heather) comes across as humorous in this setting.

 

In actuality, analyzing the lyrics of “I’m Down” could be compared to trying to analyze the lyrics of “Tutti Frutti.” Some lyrics just weren’t meant to be explored.

 

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