On the other hand, if you read the books by Mark Lewisohn, which chronicle every minute they spent in the studio, you see that many songs were recorded very quickly. On some days, Paul or John would bring in a song in the morning, he'd teach it to the other guys, they'd all decide on an arrangement (sometimes trading instruments), one or two takes, one or two vocal overdubs, mixing, and it would be done before they left for the day.
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All Things Must Beat. Share Anything Beatles!!
- Thread starter Rumble Thunder
- Start date
Yes, indeed, dougie. They progressed from recording their entire debut album, Please Please Me, with multiple takes, in just under 13 hours in one day to requiring over 700 hours for The White Album. Between those extremes they produced some songs, and some albums, much more quickly than others, depending on inspiration, cooperation, the muses and other commitments.
My point was that I got the impression from their early work that they were quite the song machines, cranking 'em out, time after time. But, yes, later readings of their later work somewhat modified my impression. But, not that the inspiration was any slower, rather that, without touring and concerts taking so much time, they just put more thought and production into the recordings (and rightly so). Either way, their entire catalog of musical products are just amazing, especially in how they have withstood the test of time.
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Yes, you're absolutely right. I should have made it clearer that I meant that in their *early* days, when they had to squeeze in albums between tours, they worked very quickly.
on Rubber Soul:
You Won't See Me
Nowhere Man
Time after time you refuse to even listen
I wouldn't mind if I knew what I was missing
I wouldn't mind if I knew what I was missing
Nowhere Man
Nowhere man please listen
You don't know what you're missing
You don't know what you're missing
Fantastic album! Wonderful songs! Now that I think about it, these two songs have such similar feels and themes they could have been welded together into one! But, I'm glad they weren't.
PS: "Think For Yourself", also on Rubber Soul, was one of the first fuzz bass recordings, along with regular bass, in this case. It was a mesmerizing new sound. I was not a bassist when it came out, but usually used the low E string on my guitar to find root notes. And I loved playing the bass lines on my guitar to this song. Good ol' days!
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Good heavens...has it been 50 years already?
IMHO, "You Won't See Me" has Paul's most emotionally honest vocal, ever. He was great at writing impersonal songs about fictional characters ("Eleanor Rigby", "Lovely Rita") or abstract concepts ("Hello, Goodbye"), or in commercial genres ("Birthday" [a conscious stab at creating a "standard" birthday song], "Yellow Submarine" [a conscious stab at creating a "standard" children's song]... but this one was actually about his own failing relationship with Jane Asher, and he sounds very soulful and vulnerable on it, to me. As usual, the "other guy" puts the icing on the cake: John's "no, I wouldn't, no, I wouldn't."
There are so many incredible things about "Nowhere Man", but one thing I've noticed is how all the background guitars drop away for the ending lines, which restate the opening lines ("He's a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land..."). For some reason, this change in the arrangement always gives me goosebumps. It's like the sudden opening up of space leaves room for the big summing-up, and highlights it. They did the same thing on "And Your Bird Can Sing", where all the busy guitar background suddenly falls away just as Paul comes in to sing harmony on the final lines. Ringo's gong-like crash right there is perfect, too...
Being neglected was probably a new feeling for Paul, as the "cute" Beatle. How could any girl not be there at his every beck & call? Jane was surely a self determined person, but I've never read of her having any regrets.
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You said it, brother! As a guitarist in the '60s, I simply LOVED that fresh bright new (for George) Stratocaster sound on NM's lead guitar! A big change from his Gretsch tones. And such an elegant lead line, too! A simple arpeggioed F-shaped barre chord. Let the Strat tone carry that weight. And the smooth, steady, easy acoustic rythm guitar chords? Sublime!
Then, a decade or so later, as I'm feeling fairly well adjusted to playing bass, you know, mostly root-fifth simple stuff, the occasional walking line (yawn). OK, let's learn Nowhere Man, hmm. Uh, oops! Wait! What's he doing there, right after the a cappello intro??? A walk-down?!? And then, REPEAT the walk-down?!? And then a walk-up to punctuate the end of the chorus?!? Is he even playing the same song!?! Ok, well, the verse will be easier, right? I mean he's singing harmony while playing, so it should be simpler, right? Right? Au contra, mon cher! More walk-ups, and each one different for each chord, whoops, there's a walk-down between walk-ups! What's going on here? No wonder he's Nowhere, he's playing the bass in circles! Sorry, my jam buddies! I can sing or I can try to keep up on bass, but not both!!
I don't recall at what point in the last several decades I finally did become comfortable singing and playing bass on Nowhere Man. But, at least, I can say I'm there now. Finally! Ah! The simple pleasures in life! And several other Beatles songs have offered their own challenges and thrills over the years. But, in my-y-y life, I've loved them all!
(Well, definitely not Revolution 9!) .
With Nowhere Man, John said he tried for 3 hours to write a song that was meaningful and good. Made no progress so he went downstairs, laid on the couch and said to himself "you're going nowhere, man." (!?!?!?!?!) Said he went back upstairs and had the whole song in 45 minutes.
For the guitar solo in "Nowhere Man", they EQed it with maximum treble, then put that signal into another channel, and EQed it again with maximum treble... I'm not sure how many times they did that, but they ended up with something so bright that the "guys in white coats" at Abbey Road probably were NOT happy about it!Being neglected was probably a new feeling for Paul, as the "cute" Beatle. How could any girl not be there at his every beck & call? Jane was surely a self determined person, but I've never read of her having any regrets.
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You said it, brother! As a guitarist in the '60s, I simply LOVED that fresh bright new (for George) Stratocaster sound on NM's lead guitar! A big change from his Gretsch tones. And such an elegant lead line, too! A simple arpeggioed F-shaped barre chord. Let the Strat tone carry that weight. And the smooth, steady, easy acoustic rythm guitar chords? Sublime!
Then, a decade or so later, as I'm feeling fairly well adjusted to playing bass, you know, mostly root-fifth simple stuff, the occasional walking line (yawn). OK, let's learn Nowhere Man, hmm. Uh, oops! Wait! What's he doing there, right after the a cappello intro??? A walk-down?!? And then, REPEAT the walk-down?!? And then a walk-up to punctuate the end of the chorus?!? Is he even playing the same song!?! Ok, well, the verse will be easier, right? I mean he's singing harmony while playing, so it should be simpler, right? Right? Au contra, mon cher! More walk-ups, and each one different for each chord, whoops, there's a walk-down between walk-ups! What's going on here? No wonder he's Nowhere, he's playing the bass in circles! Sorry, my jam buddies! I can sing or I can try to keep up on bass, but not both!!
And several other Beatles songs have offered their own challenges and thrills over the years. But, in my-y-y life, I've loved them all!
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About the bass playing on it: Last November, I subbed for someone else at a concert (a live radio show with musical interludes), and the other band members wanted to do "Nowhere Man." Of course, I took it upon myself to play what Paul played, note for note. I didn't have enough time to transcribe it myself, so I found a good transcription online (which is fairly rare) and checked it against the recording. Yes, his little variations are amazing, as is the "rolling" feel that he gives it. So, I had it ready for the next rehearsal, but they'd decided to dump "Nowhere Man" in favor of "The Two of Us." This time I learned George's performance on Fender VI Bass all the way through, and it was TOUGH-- his fills are a guitarist's melodic ideas... and George was one melodic guitarist. One more rehearsal before the show, and... now they'd decided to dump "The Two of Us" in favor of "In My Life." This one was easy to pull off at the show, but it still had a bit of Paul's quirkiness (like leaping up to the 7th in a dominant 7th chord). There's no end to their creativity.
Someone might say, "Why copy what they did? Do it your own way!" which is fine, but for songs like these, there's no harm done in playing them the way the masters did, IMO. I once had the pleasure of seeing Jack Bruce with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, and it was impressive, because when Ringo sang Beatles songs, even Jack played Paul's parts note for note. He recognized that they were just slightly etched in stone.
As bright as the guitar is in "Nowhere Man", the lead chords are blisteringly stinging in "Here, There and Everywhere"! Whatever disapproval they got for NM must have made them redouble their efforts for HT&E!
And George on Fender Bass VI? Oh, ho, ho! Fuhgeddaboudit! He probably hated to have to do it, but he did set a very high bar, for sure. Especially on "Two Of Us", he really played a lead bass line, kinda in the same sliding vein as "Drive My Car" that serves the song quite well, I think. Yeah, for all George's fancy country & rock licks in their early days, he seems to have gotten more elegant and soulful as he went along.
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I was mostly talking about what George plays on the *bridges* in "The Two of Us." It's not insanely difficult, by any means-- it's just melodic enough that most bass players would refrain, rather than stepping on the lead singer's toes. But George was clever and creative enough to pull it off.
Alkali Ike
Gold Supporting Member
- Jan 1, 2011
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Nowhere Man is 100% magic. Don’t try convincing me otherwise. 
Alkali Ike
Gold Supporting Member
- Jan 1, 2011
- 2,854
- 15,663
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- I never actually learned to play very well
There used to be a more complete version of the instrumental “backing track” for NM on YouTube that had all the instruments*, just no vocals. It was taken down and I’ve never been able to find it again. 
*including the guitar solo
And while I’m in the mood to talk Beatles, I strongly prefer the stereo mixes over the supposedly superior mono mixes. Why? Because the way they hard-panned instruments in the 2 channels makes them stand out very clearly. The mono mixes may have been fine for mono AM radio but that’s about it.
*including the guitar solo
And while I’m in the mood to talk Beatles, I strongly prefer the stereo mixes over the supposedly superior mono mixes. Why? Because the way they hard-panned instruments in the 2 channels makes them stand out very clearly. The mono mixes may have been fine for mono AM radio but that’s about it.
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'Hey Jude' handwritten lyrics sell for $910k at auction
Not sure how long the link will last, but the opening sentence in the article – in classic New York Daily News editorial style – is: "Take a sad song, and make a fortune."
Not sure how long the link will last, but the opening sentence in the article – in classic New York Daily News editorial style – is: "Take a sad song, and make a fortune."
