song, John said, was finished with help from Yoko herself when they met up back in England because, besides being an artist and film maker, she was a poet who wrote in a minimalist style.
BIRTHDAY
The songs on The Beatles composed in India were guitar-orientated because guitars were the only instruments available at the ashram.
However, ‘Birthday’ was written in Abbey Road Studios, on September 18, 1968, with Paul thumping out the basic tune on a piano. According to John, Paul had been thinking of ‘Happy, Happy Birthday’, a 1957 hit in America for the Tuneweavers, but wanted to produce something which sounded contemporary and rock’n’roll. It was also Linda Eastman’s 26th birthday in six days’ time and Paul knew that she was arriving in London the following week, just in time to celebrate.
Paul went in the studio late in the afternoon and worked out the basic keyboard riff, the start of which was based on the introduction of Rosco Gordon’s ‘Just A Little Bit’ (1960). Later, George, John and Ringo came in and added a backing track. During the evening, the four of them took a break and went round to Paul’s house to watch the British television premiere of The Girl Can’t Help It (1956), which starred Jayne Mansfield and featured music by Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, the Treniers, the Platters, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran.
Perhaps inspired by this dose of early rock’n’roll, the Beatles returned to the studio around 11pm and completed the vocals. Each of the Beatles threw in lines and Yoko Ono and Pattie Harrison helped with the backing. “We just made up the words in the studio,” said Paul. “It’s one of my favourite tracks on the album because it was instantaneous. It’s a good one to dance to.”
John’s opinion, volunteered 12 years later, was par for the course: “It’s a piece of garbage.”
YER BLUES
‘Yer Blues’ was the most despairing song John had written to date, representing an anguished cry to Yoko for help. John felt he was at a crossroads in his life: his career as a performing Beatle was nearly over, his manager was dead and now he was contemplating bringing an end to his marriage.
He felt loyalty to Cynthia and yet he knew that in Yoko he’d met his artistic and intellectual match. She was, he later said, the girl he had always dreamed of meeting; the girl he had imagined when he wrote ‘Girl’.
During the stay in Rishikesh, John and Cynthia were often separated because of their different meditation routines and it wasn’t until the flight back to London from Delhi that John mentioned to Cynthia his indiscretions during their six-year marriage. She was shocked: “I never dreamt that he had been unfaithful to me during our married life. He hadn’t revealed anything to me. I knew of course that touring abroad and being surrounded by all the temptations any man could possibly want would have been impossible to resist. But even so my mind just couldn’t and wouldn’t accept the inevitable. I had never had anything concrete to go on, nothing tell-tale.”
John later said that this dilemma had made him feel suicidal. In this song, he jokingly compares himself to ‘Mr Jones’, the witless central character in Dylan’s ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’. Musically, ‘Yer Blues’ was indicative of the direction he would eventually take with his post-Beatles career.
MOTHER NATURE’S SON
Both John and Paul wrote songs after hearing a lecture by the Maharishi about the unity of man and nature, but it was to be Paul’s ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ that made the album’s final selection.
John’s song, ‘A Child Of Nature’, made similar observations about the sun, sky, wind and mountains but, whereas Paul fictionalized his response by writing in the character of a ‘poor young country boy’, John wrote about himself ‘on the road to Rishikesh’.
A demo of ‘A Child Of Nature’ was made by John in May 1968, but the Beatles didn’t record it. Three years
BIRTHDAY
The songs on The Beatles composed in India were guitar-orientated because guitars were the only instruments available at the ashram.
However, ‘Birthday’ was written in Abbey Road Studios, on September 18, 1968, with Paul thumping out the basic tune on a piano. According to John, Paul had been thinking of ‘Happy, Happy Birthday’, a 1957 hit in America for the Tuneweavers, but wanted to produce something which sounded contemporary and rock’n’roll. It was also Linda Eastman’s 26th birthday in six days’ time and Paul knew that she was arriving in London the following week, just in time to celebrate.
Paul went in the studio late in the afternoon and worked out the basic keyboard riff, the start of which was based on the introduction of Rosco Gordon’s ‘Just A Little Bit’ (1960). Later, George, John and Ringo came in and added a backing track. During the evening, the four of them took a break and went round to Paul’s house to watch the British television premiere of The Girl Can’t Help It (1956), which starred Jayne Mansfield and featured music by Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, the Treniers, the Platters, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran.
Perhaps inspired by this dose of early rock’n’roll, the Beatles returned to the studio around 11pm and completed the vocals. Each of the Beatles threw in lines and Yoko Ono and Pattie Harrison helped with the backing. “We just made up the words in the studio,” said Paul. “It’s one of my favourite tracks on the album because it was instantaneous. It’s a good one to dance to.”
John’s opinion, volunteered 12 years later, was par for the course: “It’s a piece of garbage.”
YER BLUES
‘Yer Blues’ was the most despairing song John had written to date, representing an anguished cry to Yoko for help. John felt he was at a crossroads in his life: his career as a performing Beatle was nearly over, his manager was dead and now he was contemplating bringing an end to his marriage.
He felt loyalty to Cynthia and yet he knew that in Yoko he’d met his artistic and intellectual match. She was, he later said, the girl he had always dreamed of meeting; the girl he had imagined when he wrote ‘Girl’.
During the stay in Rishikesh, John and Cynthia were often separated because of their different meditation routines and it wasn’t until the flight back to London from Delhi that John mentioned to Cynthia his indiscretions during their six-year marriage. She was shocked: “I never dreamt that he had been unfaithful to me during our married life. He hadn’t revealed anything to me. I knew of course that touring abroad and being surrounded by all the temptations any man could possibly want would have been impossible to resist. But even so my mind just couldn’t and wouldn’t accept the inevitable. I had never had anything concrete to go on, nothing tell-tale.”
John later said that this dilemma had made him feel suicidal. In this song, he jokingly compares himself to ‘Mr Jones’, the witless central character in Dylan’s ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’. Musically, ‘Yer Blues’ was indicative of the direction he would eventually take with his post-Beatles career.
MOTHER NATURE’S SON
Both John and Paul wrote songs after hearing a lecture by the Maharishi about the unity of man and nature, but it was to be Paul’s ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ that made the album’s final selection.
John’s song, ‘A Child Of Nature’, made similar observations about the sun, sky, wind and mountains but, whereas Paul fictionalized his response by writing in the character of a ‘poor young country boy’, John wrote about himself ‘on the road to Rishikesh’.
A demo of ‘A Child Of Nature’ was made by John in May 1968, but the Beatles didn’t record it. Three years
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