Music Analysis - The "I'm In Love With That Song" Podcast - Music Commentary, Song Analysis & Rock History

In this epic episode, we embark on a sonic exploration of The Who‘s towering anthem “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” We explore the song that encapsulates the very essence of rock music– its intensity, grandeur, and unyielding spirit. We dive deep into the tumultuous history behind one of the most ambitious projects in rock history, The Who’s Lifehouse, and how it gave rise to an album that, despite its fraught genesis, stands as a masterpiece of the genre.

From Pete Townsend’s futuristic visions to the band’s quest for a universal musical connection, we unravel the tapestry of a song that has been both celebrated and misunderstood. With a careful ear, we dissect the iconic keyboard riff, Keith Moon’s explosive drumming, John Entwistle’s virtuosic bass lines, and Roger Daltrey’s soul-stirring vocals. This episode isn’t just a tribute to a classic track; it’s a deep dive into the heart of rock music and the relentless pursuit of artistic vision.

Save 15% off t-shirts & merch from The Who– and all your other favorite bands– by using our discount code lovethatsong at OldGlory.com!

PREVIEW:

TRANSCRIPT:

Time to sing your song to the wide-open spaces, and sing your heart out to the infinite sea– Because we’re back with another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, right here on the Pantheon Podcast network. My name is Brad Page, I’m the host of the show, and each episode I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together, uncovering all the elements, those little moments that make it a great song.

We’ve looked at a lot of great songs on this podcast, many of them all time classics. But if you had to pick one song that captures everything rock music has to offer– the intensity, the grandeur, the spirit, the power… one song to represent everything that’s great about rock and roll… If you had to explain to an alien what makes rock music great, what song would you pick? For me, it might just be this song: “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who.

Today were exploring a song that’s about as iconic as a song gets. But to understand how this song came to be, we have quite a journey ahead of us. From big ideas to failed concepts, through ambition and frustration, and even suicidal thoughts, to a compromise that, in the end, produced one of the greatest albums ever made.

Our voyage begins sometime after 1969. The Who had struck gold with “Tommy”, one of the first rock operas, certainly the first one to capture the public’s attention.

So how do you follow that up? Pete Townsend, guitar player, principal songwriter, and the driving creative force behind The Who, had an idea to expand on the ideas and themes he explored in “Tommy”. “Tommy”, of course, was the story of a boy who, after a traumatic experience, psychologically made himself deaf, dumb, and blind, essentially shutting himself off from the outside world. And it’s the story of his spiritual awakening.

Well, Pete had this new vision; this science fiction tale of a future where a large percentage of the population would be shut off from the outside world. They would live their lives sealed in these experience suits, linked together by something he called “The Grid”, that would be run by autocrats. In order to maintain control over the population, music was outlawed. But some people rebelled; they created a secret place where they could create music and hack into the grid to reintroduce people to music. This secret clubhouse was called the “Lifehouse”. The goal of the Lifehouse was to bring everyone together, through music, to a universal consciousness, with everyone attaining enlightenment.

Now, let’s stop right here for a minute and think about this. Because today, you can probably wrap your head around most of that, even if the spiritual stuff isn’t your kind of thing. But remember, this was happening in 1972, decades before the internet was available to the public. There was no virtual reality. There was no network. Townsend was presenting a future where people were linked together through and controlled by a computer system and faceless corporations that controlled the population.

Now, can you imagine the blank stares Pete Townsend would get from people when he tried to explain this concept? Most people just didn’t understand it, and the few that did, it all just seemed like an improbable fantasy. But let’s give Pete Townsend some credit. In some ways, he envisioned the world that you and I are living in today.

OK, so that’s the story of “Lifehouse” in a very rough summation. I’m leaving out a lot of detail, but I think you get the gist of it. But theres a whole ‘nother aspect to this story. We talked about how the Lifehouse was a place where the music would be performed and then fed back into the grid, where it would be experienced by the population. Integrated into the grid. Well, Pete Townsend envisioned a real-life Lifehouse, a venue where The Who would play, and it would be what we would describe today as an “interactive experience” for the audience.

See, by this time, The Who had played in front of some massive crowds, like the Isle of Wight festival. And Pete was aware of the energy that could be generated between the artist and the audience. Townsend always believed in the power of rock music. He had felt it. He said, “The most precious moments of my life happened on stage” when he and the audience became one. If that energy could be channeled, what could be achieved? Maybe even enlightenment.

This tied into some spiritual ideas or concepts that Pete had been studying. The idea that at the core of everything is one vibration, one musical note. As philosopher and musicologist Inayat Kahn theorized, “Music creates a resonance which vibrates the whole being. And that sound is the force which groups all things, from atoms to worlds.”

This is what Townsend was after in the Lifehouse performances: some kind of spiritual link between the band and the audience that would attain something greater.

So, Pete would write the script and the songs; the songs would be recorded for an album; The Who would perform the songs in front of an audience, and the whole thing– the dystopian story and the concerts would be filmed and released as a movie.

The thing was that Townshend was having a hard time explaining the concepts to the band and to the other members of The Who’s organization. I don’t think the fault lies entirely with Pete or with the other band members. These were very esoteric ideas, not easy to grasp, especially in the world of 1970.

The other challenge was the live performances where The Who would conduct their experiments to find the vibrations that would unite the band and the audience and provide a key element of the film. Townsend knew that he had to find a better way to meld the band and the audience than the typical one-night-only concerts that they performed on tour. They needed a venue where they could take up residency and play to an audience over time.

They made an arrangement with a theater called the Young Vic in southeast London, where they could rehearse and perform. As the concerts and the film were described in the New Music Express magazine: “It was an experiment in relationship between the group and the audience. An attempt to create a portrait in music of The Who’s own audience. And with this in view, the cameras will follow the audience out of the theater and into their own lives.” Pretty ambitious goals.

They began rehearsing at the Young Vic in late 1970, and played their first public performance there in January 1971. At a press conference that same month, Pete explained, “We shall not be giving the usual kind of who rock show. The audience will be completely involved in the music which is designed to reflect people’s personalities. We shall try to induce mental and spiritual harmony through the medium of rock music.” That’s some vintage Townsend for you.

They announced a series of free shows at the theater. Pete hoped that pretty much the same audience would return each night and they would, over time, become more and more a part of the show. But it was never really clear exactly how the audience and the band and the overarching storyline of “Lifehouse” would all coalesce. Pete had expected that, somehow, characters would develop out of the crowd and become part of the film. But no one in the audience really understood what exactly they were expected to do. The new songs were unfamiliar to the audience, and the band weren’t quite 100% comfortable performing them yet. As a result, nobody was really happy with how the Young Vic shows turned out. After only a handful of shows, they closed up shop at the Young Vic.

Around the same time, they got the bad news that Universal pulled their funding; there would be no “Lifehouse” film.

The band did return to the Young Vic once more on April 26, 1971, for one more show, primarily to record it for posterity. Here’s a bit of a track from that show, an unreleased “Lifehouse” track called “I Don’t Even Know Myself”.

The band decided to salvage what they could, and regrouped in New York City at the Record Plant studios to record some of the new songs that they’d worked on for “Lifehouse”. But those sessions only lasted a week. Townsend was already suffering from overwork and exhaustion, putting so much time and effort and heart into “Lifehouse”, when he overheard one of his managers, Kit Lambert, being dismissive of Pete and his work. Well, that sent Townsend into an emotional tailspin. He ended up on the window ledge of his hotel room, considering whether he should jump.

The band returned to England, and in April, around the time of that final Young Vic performance, they convened with producer Glyn Johns. Glyn listened to the recordings made at the Record Plant and said that they were good, but he could do better.

Initially, they set up at Stargroves, Mick Jagger’s mansion that was often used as a place to record. They only stayed there two days, managing to record the basic tracks for only one song: “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. They reconvened at Olympic Sound Studios in southwest London and, for the next two months, laid down the tracks that would become their next album, “Who’s Next”.

The album would include quite a few songs from “Lifehouse”, but not all of them. Originally envisioned as a double album like “Tommy”, Glynn, Johns pushed them to trim it down to a single, concise LP. As a result, even though many of the songs came directly from “Lifehouse”, there is no concept or story to the “Who’s Next” album. It’s just a collection of songs. But what a collection of songs. In my opinion, it’s one of the strongest albums ever made, by anybody. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is the last song on the album, bringing the album to an epic conclusion.

By this time, Townsend was spending tons of time recording demos in his home studio, a concept pretty standard these days. But back in the late sixties, very few people had anything you could legitimately call a “home studio”. But Pete had converted two rooms of his house in Twickenham, built in 1721, into a small but very functional home studio. He had a 3M M23 eight-track tape machine, a small Neve BCM10 console, and large Lakewood Tannoy speakers, along with studio gear like limiters and reverbs, plus an array of guitars, pianos and keyboards.

At the heart of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is that iconic keyboard part, played on a Lowry Berkshire organ and fed through an EMS VCS23 synthesizer to create the filtered, pulsating sound that drives the song. Here’s Pete’s original demo, recorded in that home studio. Pete is playing all of the instruments on this demo, including the drums.

The keyboard part on the demo was so good that they would reuse it for the final version rather than re-recording it. They lifted the keyboard part off of the demo and the band built the final version around it.

That final version features Roger Daltrey on vocals, John Entwistle on bass, Keith Moon on drums, and Pete Townsend on guitars and of course, that Lowery organ part. It was produced by The Who and Glyn Johns.

This was the first song laid down for the album, and as mentioned before, it was the only track recorded during the two-day attempt at recording at Stargroves. Johns set the band up in the Stargroves reception hallway. Let’s listen to the opening of the final version.

The keyboard part sounds exactly the same, right? Same as the demo version. Of course, when Keith Moon comes in on the drums, it has a very different feel than Pete’s basic drumming on the demo. Let’s listen to a little bit of those Keith Moon drums.

And there’s a tasty little guitar lick there, right before the first verse starts. Townsend throws in a lot of nice guitar fills throughout the song.

I think what Pete’s playing during the verses is pretty interesting, so let’s bring up his guitar part.

Let’s stop and talk about the lyrics, because this song has been misunderstood since the day it was released. Many people take it as a call to revolution; it’s as much a cautionary tale about revolutions as it is a call to arms. In the context of the “Lifehouse” story, the song is about the people on the front lines who are expendable to the leaders calling the shots. It’s a call to pacifism and passive resistance. It’s about the negative effects of revolt. As Townsend once said, “The revolution is only a revolution in the long run, and a lot of people are going to get hurt.” The song is essentially dubious of the forces that cause revolution. He’s not saying revolution is inherently bad, but that there is a serious cost. And you have to weigh that against the cause., or maybe more accurately, weighed against the leaders that call for revolution. Who’s to gain? To quote Townshend again, “I’m more of a fighter than a sleeper, but there are times one should think about which path to take very, very seriously.”

Let’s listen to Roger Daltrey’s vocals on this first verse.

OK. There’s so much going on in that chorus, so much to listen to. Where to begin? Let’s listen to the one thing we haven’t highlighted yet– the absolutely incredible bass playing by John Entwistle.

And not to be outdone, let’s hear Keith Moon’s drums.

Alright, we’ll look more at the chorus coming up, but for now, let’s move on to the next verse. And this time we’ll take it all one piece at a time. First, there’s a few instrumental bars before the verse begins. So, let’s hear that, starting with that keyboard part.

The sound of that part, to me, it’s like the audio equivalent of some amorphous shape, like an amoeba that keeps shifting as it moves forward. And yet, at the same time, it’s the foundation the song is built on.

Also, there’s an acoustic guitar that plays throughout the song. It’s pretty low in the mix to the point where it’s felt more than it’s heard. And that’s a production technique that’s often used quite effectively. But let’s bring that acoustic to the front so that we can hear it clearly.

And then, of course, there’s Keith Moon wailing away at the drums.

Now let’s put all of that together with the rest of the instrumentation. Notice how the keyboards are panned to the right channel, while the acoustic, if you can hear it, is on the left.

Now here’s the second verse. Let’s start by just hearing Pete Townsend’s electric guitar. I like these little guitar stabs here.

Next, how about Roger Daltreys vocal track?

And John Entwistle’s great bass part.

Now let’s hear all of that together for the second verse change.

As we get to the second chorus, let’s look at a couple of things we passed over the previous time. There are backing vocals on the chorus by Roger and Pete, and possibly Entwistle, too. In the right channel, along with the keyboard track is a backing vocal by Pete. Let’s bring those tracks to the center and hear that.

While in the left channel, there’s a backing vocal dominated by Roger, with Peter, maybe John in there too. And what strikes me about this is, listening to it with just the acoustic guitar, is how it stands up with just the guitar and vocal. There’s an old axiom that if you can strip a song down, no matter how complex, down to just an acoustic guitar and a vocal, and it still works, that’s how you know it’s a really good song. I think that’s true here.

Let’s hear that verse all together.

I really like Townsend’s guitar fills there. Let’s go back and hear some of that for a second.

I hate to keep interrupting the song, but there’s just so many great moments. How about that walk-down on the bass there? Let’s back it up and hear that again.

And that leads us into another instrumental section, this one featuring those old favorites, you can’t go wrong with hand claps. Pete is playing power chords in that unmistakable Townsend style. You can hear after the first pass that he’s doubled the guitar in stereo. There’s also an acoustic guitar, again, lower in the mix, that’s playing a more frenetic part. Let’s hear that all together.

Listen to how Pete changes up his guitar part here. And with that Keith Moon drum fill, that takes us to the bridge.

Now let’s break this down a bit. First, let’s hear the backing vocals and some guitar, including the acoustic, which is doing some riffing in the background here.

And let’s hear the bass and the drums together. The rhythm section of John Entwistle and Keith Moon is one of the most formidable in rock history.

Awesome. Let’s pick it up at the end of the bridge into the next section.

You can hear Pete interject “Do ya”. Let’s back it up again and hear that.

Townsend’s gonna play a guitar solo. You can hear that there’s two guitar leads there, playing on top of each other. Let’s see if we can pull them apart a bit. Here’s one; this is the one that’s a little bit lower in the mix compared to the other one, along with the acoustic guitar.

And here’s the other solo. This is the one that’s a little bit more forward in the mix.

Okay, let’s go back and hear all of that together.

Then there’s kind of a break with more of those huge Townsend chords. And there’s the first of Daltrey’s big screams.

Let’s play that again. This is actually the last verse, but there’s plenty more of the song to go. Let’s start this one with just Daltrey’s vocals.

Let’s listen to just Pete’s guitar fills here.

And now, let’s go back and hear those in context.

Once again, there’s more great Keith Moon drumming all through that part. So let’s go back and hear some of that.

Let’s pick it back up again. This is an extended section of the band just jamming. Maybe we’ll highlight some of the individual instruments as we go along.

Let’s hear just the guitars and now the bass. Let’s hear a little more of the guitar again. And finally, some of Keith’s drums.

And I really like Keith Moon’s drum fills here, leading into the break. Just love the sound of those floor toms.

And that brings us to the dramatic break, a tension-building section where the song is reduced to just the keyboard part. Over the course of about a minute, that keyboard part will build in intensity, until the band comes back in, in about the most dramatic way possible. So let’s listen through this section.

If you listen closely in the left channel, you can hear that the acoustic guitar actually keeps playing on a little bit longer after the rest of the band stops. Let’s hear just that.

OK, let’s go back to the beginning of that break and hear that again. This time, listen for that acoustic guitar on the left.

And the keyboard part remains primarily in the right channel. Remember that this is the same keyboard part from Pete’s original demo. It’s amazing to think that he got this sound and performance so right, back in his little home studio. But he could envision the band relying on this track, not just for the album, but for live performances, too, which they’ve done right up until this day.

Things start to build back up with the reentrance of Keith Moon’s drums.

OK, first, let’s just hear those drums.

Come on, is there any moment in rock as powerful, as iconic as that moment right there? The keyboards have reached a crescendo, Keith Moon’s pounding away, the band comes crashing in, and Roger Daltrey lets loose one of the greatest screams in rock history. This moment is cathartic, it’s orgasmic, it’s transcendent… If Pete Townsend was looking for music that reached a higher plane, well, it’s happening right here.

Let’s listen to Townsend’s electric guitar. He’s overdubbed a couple of parts here to create those massive guitar chords. Pete was known for playing Gibson SG’s around this time, but on most of the tracks for this album, including here, he’s playing a 1959 Gretsch 6120 hollow body known as the Chet Atkins model, that was given to him by Joe Walsh.

And then there’s that scream. Theres actually two screams overdubbed. Here’s one of them. It’s so throat-shreddingly loud that you can hear it overdriving the microphone, just driving the meters way into the red.

And here’s another one, along with the acoustic guitar track, no less intense.

Let’s back it up and hear all of that all together again.

“Meet the new boss same as the old boss” — says it all right there.

Notice how he doubles the vocal on the line, “same as the old boss”.

Listen to that bass part. It’s interesting what Entwistle is doing. He’s playing octaves here.

And let’s listen to just the guitars here, both the electric and the acoustic. You can hear Townsend playing some guitar fills there. They’re pretty low in the mix, in fact, you can barely hear them at all in the final mix.

Keith does some classic Keith Moon cymbal work there, and you can hear him let out a final exclamation at the end.

“Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who.

“Who’s Next” went on to become one of The Who’s best-selling and highest regarded albums. But I think Townsend couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a failure… because it wasn’t “Lifehouse”, not anywhere near how he envisioned it. Over the years, he’s revisited the “Lifehouse concept”, and tons of demos and reimaginings of the project have been released. I think he’ll always be at least a little disappointed that “Who’s Next” wasn’t the album that he wanted to make, and I can understand that from his perspective. But for me, that album is a masterpiece, and one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Out of the collapse of Townsend’s most ambitious project came one of the most essential albums in the rock canon. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Well, thanks for sticking with me for this one. This has been one of our longest episodes ever on a single song, but I think this one deserves it. Research for this episode came from a few sources, including the book “Won’t Get Fooled Again: From Lifehouse to Quadrophenia” by Richie Unterberger. That’s a great book. And especially from the “Who’s Next/Lifehouse” Super Deluxe Edition box set. That is really the ultimate story of this album and the “Lifehouse” project. It ain’t cheap, but I highly recommend it.

I’ll be back in two weeks with a new episode. If you’ve missed any of our previous shows, you can find them all on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or look for them in your favorite podcast app. Share your thoughts on this song on The Who, or any music-related subject on our Facebook page, just look for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on Facebook, or send an email to lovethatsongpodcastmail.com.

And speaking of music related subjects, there are plenty of other shows on the Pantheon Podcast network, just waiting for you to discover them, so go check those out.

And if you’d like to support this show, as I always say, the best thing you can do is to tell someone about it. Recommend this show to your friends, your family, or your coworkers, because endorsements from people like you are what keeps every podcast growing.

I’ll meet you back here again soon. Thanks for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who.

RESOURCES:

The Who
https://www.thewho.com/

Tommy
https://www.allmusic.com/album/tommy-mw0000192438

Pete Townsend
http://petetownshend.net/

Lifehouse project
https://www.thewho.com/music/lifehouse/

“Won’t Get Fooled Again: From Lifehouse to Quadrophenia” by Richie Unterberger
https://www.amazon.com/Wont-Get-Fooled-Again-Quadrophenia/dp/1900924950

Who’s Next (Lifehouse super deluxe edition box set)
https://www.thewho.com/music/whos-next-super-deluxe/

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Aerosmith were at their commercial & creative peak in 1976 when they released Rocks, a high-water mark in their career. The album opens with “Back In The Saddle”, one of their hardest-rocking songs and the perfect way to kick off their heaviest album. There’s lots to uncover in this song, so join us for this episode where we explore this classic track.

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Save 15% off t-shirts & merch from Aerosmith and your favorite bands by using our discount code lovethatsong at OldGlory.com!

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It’s time to open up pandora’s box for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I am your master of ceremonies, Brad Page, and this is the Pantheon Podcast network. Each episode of this show, I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together as we continue our quest to understand what makes a song great. As always, no musical skill or expertise is needed here. This show is open to anyone willing and able to listen.

Aerosmith, one of the greatest American bands, was supposed to be on their final tour, going out in style. But singer Steven Tyler suffered a serious vocal injury last year. They had to delay the tour, rescheduling it a couple of times, but sadly, they just announced last month that they have to cancel the entire tour– Steven’s injury was just too severe. And with that, Aerosmith’s career as a live, touring band came to an abrupt end. Unfortunately, the band will not be back in the saddle again. So I thought it would be fitting to revisit this classic track from one of their greatest albums. This is Aerosmith with “Back In The Saddle”.

We’ve featured Aerosmith on this podcast before; we covered “Seasons Of Wither” back on episode 23, and “Kings and Queens” on episode 97. So, I’m not going to rehash the whole Aerosmith history here, but let’s just set the stage for this particular track.

In 1976, Aerosmith were riding high on the success of their third album, “Toys in the Attic”. They had just finished a lengthy tour supporting that album, and after a short break, they reconvened at the band’s rehearsal space.

The year before, 1975, the band was looking for a place to rehearse. Ray Tabano was originally their guitarist, but when he was replaced by Brad Whitford, he became sort of their assistant and their fan club manager. They sent Ray on a mission to find a new place for them to practice and kind of a home base for the band. Ray found an empty building on Pond Street in Waltham, Massachusetts, not far from Boston, which they leased, rewired, built a stage, and turned into their clubhouse. They called it “A Wherehouse”. The Wherehouse became their band office as well as their rehearsal space, and it was a place they all felt comfortable.

Producer Jack Douglas, who had produced their last two albums, was there with them, helping them to develop and work out new songs for their next album. They decided, rather than move everything into a formal studio, they would just record the album right there at the Wherehouse. So, Jack brought in the Record Plant’s remote recording truck, and he mic’d up the Wherehouse,m trying to capture that raw live sound. They spent about six weeks hammering out the songs and laying down the basic tracks. Then the band took the tapes into the Record Plant studio in New York to record the vocals and the guitar overdubs.

The finished album, dubbed “Rocks”, was released on May 14, 1976. It was their hardest-rocking album to date. In fact, looking back now at their entire catalog, it’s still the hardest rocking album that Aerosmith ever made. For many fans, this is their favorite Aerosmith album, and “Back In The Saddle” is the track that opens the record.

It was written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, was produced by Jack Douglas and the band, and was performed by Steven Tyler on vocals, Joey Kramer on drums, Brad Whitford on guitar, Tom Hamilton on bass, and Joe Perry on guitar and six string bass. Joe Perry had purchased a Fender Bass VI, which more or less plays like a regular guitar, but it’s tuned an octave lower, like a bass. If you’ve seen The Beatles “Get Back” documentary, then you’ve seen John Lennon play a Bass VI in that film. But Joe Perry was inspired to pick up a Bass VI because one of his guitar heroes, Peter Green from Fleetwood Mac, used to play one. In fact, back on episode 67 of this podcast, we explored the Fleetwood Mac track “The Green Manalishi” and talked about Peter Green and his six-string bass. Then here’s a little bit of Peter Green on his six-string bass.

So, inspired by Peter Green, Joe Perry got himself a six-string bass and started messing around with it. According to Joe himself, he was in his bedroom, lying on the floor on his back, wasted on heroin, when he came up with the riff for “Back In The Saddle”.

The song begins with a long, slow buildup. You can hear the sound of a horse galloping. According to legend, that’s Steven Tyler tapping two coconuts together, Monty Python style. I don’t know if that’s really true or not, but I like to picture that in my head.

And you can hear the horse winnying in the background of the right channel, and that launches us right into the chorus. It’s not exactly unusual for a song to start with the chorus, but it is a little uncommon.

Before we go further, let’s listen to Joe Perry’s six-string bass riff. That was the genesis of this song. That is one brutal riff.

For Stephen Tyler’s voice, Jack Douglas used a particular type of microphone referred to as a shotgun mic. Very unusual choice for a lead vocal mic. Shotgun mics are extremely directional and mostly used to focus on a sound that’s very far away. In this case, it really captures all of the rasp and the ragged edge of Tyler’s voice. It also sounds like Douglas used quite a bit of compression on this vocal track, which accentuates that even more.

While they were at the record plant working on overdubs, the idea of being back in the saddle came up. With a new album coming out, the band would be saddling up and hitting the road again. It reminded Jack Douglas of that old song by Gene Autry, “Back In The Saddle

For Steven Tyler, because he’s Steven Tyler, “back in the saddle” meant having sex with his girlfriend again. But he took these ideas and his notepad and went into the stairwell at the Record Plant. He liked to go there for some quiet and privacy, and that’s where he wrote the lyrics to this song.

You can hear the footsteps there of our main character, his spurs jangling. This was achieved by taping tambourines and bells to Steven Tyler’s boots and then recording him stomping on a piece of plywood.

He mentions the Crazy Horse Saloon and a woman named Suki Jones. He just made those names up. But sometimes characters take on a life of their own. Stephen Adler, the former drummer for Guns N’ Roses, loved this song so much, he named his band Suki Jones.

Throughout the song, there’s a couple of guitars, one on the left, one on the right channel, just making these wild noises, bending and pulling notes and wrangling with their whammy bars. There is also, very low in the mix, two other guitars, one electric and one acoustic– in fact, the acoustic might even be in Nashville tuning– that are hammering on this droning part in the background. Let’s listen to these guitars.

Let’s pick it back up at the second chorus.

That brings us to the second verse. Let’s look at some of the parts that make up the verse. First, let’s hear just the guitars. And this includes the six-string bass.

Then you have the rhythm section with Joey Kramer’s drums and Tom Hamilton playing the regular four-string bass.

All right, let’s hear that all together.

There are some guitar licks in the mix there. I believe those are played by Brad Whitford. Let’s go back and listen to those.

Let’s go back and hear those in context.

There are some really intense Steven Tyler vocals there, enhanced by the use of that microphone and the compression. Let’s hear just that vocal track peeling off.

Let’s go back and listen to the guitars that play under that chorus. And there are more of those clip-clopping steps that are mixed pretty tightly with the drums. You don’t really notice them in the final mix, but you’ll hear them clearly here.

We’ll back it up again and play into the next section.

This is one of my favorite parts of the song. There’s a harmony added to the lead vocal.

The six-string bass is playing another great part. And notice how they’ve added a flanger to it to give it that swirling sound.

The bass and drums are just really driving forward and the layered guitars are really adding a lot of texture. Notice when the acoustic guitar doubles that little descending part. Let’s hear that all together again.

We’re going to hear another chorus. And then there’s a guitar solo that’s off to one side and fairly low in the mix, but we’ll fade some of the other tracks in and out so that you can hear that guitar part a little clearer.

Steven Tyler actually yodels there. You can hear that in the left channel.

There’s more of that Steven Tyler nonsense. Obviously, they were having a lot of fun in the studio with this track. You can hear the sound of a whip cracking. They actually brought a bullwhip into the studio, trying to capture the sound of a real whip. But after a few hours of messing around with the whip, all they ended up with was some cuts and bruises with no usable sounds. So, Steven Tyler ended up whirling a microphone cable around, and they used a cap gun for the sound of the whip cracking. So let’s hear all of that, along with a little more of those backing guitar tracks.

And while all of that is going, on mostly in the left channel, there’s some nice guitar playing going on in the right. So let’s check that out.

Aerosmith – “Back In The Saddle”

Joe Perry and Brad Whifford would leave the band a few years later, Joe in 1979 and Brad in ‘81. But of course, they reunited in 1984, and Aerosmith went on to do the unthinkable: they became even bigger after their reunion.

Very few bands get a second chance at success. You can count on one hand the number of bands who achieved greater success the second time around. Aerosmith is one of them, and they maintained that success for a long time. Say what you will about Aerosmith, but what they’ve done is unprecedented.

The other thing, too, is that all five original members are still with us. There have been dangerous drug habits, overdoses, car accidents. Joe Perry even had a heart attack on stage a few years ago. But at the time of this recording, they’re all still alive. Just the fact that all five of them still walk the planet is some kind of miracle. If this truly is the end of the line, I’m gonna miss them. But they’ve left behind some incredible records and some of my favorite music of all time.

Thanks for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on the Pantheon Podcast Network. You’ll find new episodes of this show on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll see you back here in about two weeks. Until then, you can catch up on all of our previous shows on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.

We always appreciate your reviews and your comments, and please go tell a friend about this show. Your help in spreading the word is better than any advertising we could ever pay for.

In these trying times for musicians, whether they’re legacy artists or new acts, remember to support the artists you love by buying their music. And thanks for jumping “Back In The Saddle” with Aerosmith.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Aerosmith
https://www.aerosmith.com/

Toys in the Attic Album
https://www.allmusic.com/album/toys-in-the-attic-mw0000192339

Rocks Album
https://www.allmusic.com/album/rocks-mw0000189173

Fender Bass VI
https://shop.fender.com/en-US/electric-basses/other/six-string-bass/

The Beatles ‘Get Back’ Documentary
https://www.disneyplus.com/series/the-beatles-get-back/4SrN28ZjDLwH

Fleetwood Mac
https://www.fleetwoodmac.com/

Gene Autry
https://www.genautry.com/

Record Plant Studio
http://recordplant.com/

Suki Jones Band
https://www.discogs.com/artist/

Click here to play the podcast

Titanic Love Affair never got a big break and flew under the radar with a couple of albums before calling it quits. On this episode, we explore a song by this underappreciated band—a supremely catchy number called “Happy” that shoulda been a contender. Join us in appreciation for this song, this band, and the late, great Jay Bennett.

Here’s the link to the GREAT episode of the “Rock And/Or Roll” Podcast that turned me on to Titanic Love Affair in the first place. Check it out:
Rock and/or Roll Episode 245 – TITANIC LOVE AFFAIR (rockandorrollpodcast.blogspot.com)

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, thanks for showing up once again to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast– the party never stops here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, home of the earth’s mightiest music podcasts. I’m your host, Brad Page. And as always, I’ve picked a song and we’ll be exploring it together, discovering what makes it a great song.

All guests are welcome at this party. You don’t have to be a musician or have any musical knowledge to get something out of the show. If you’ve got ears, this show has got something for you.

Great music and great songs aren’t measured by sales or chart positions. Despite what American Idol would lead you to believe, music is not a popularity contest. There are thousands of great songs, really great songs that most people have never heard and will probably never hear. So it’s up to us– you and me– to play them and share them.

Case in point: on this episode, we’re listening to an overlooked band that released a couple of albums in the nineties and then moved on. But what they did release, I think, was a cut above most of what came out during that time. This is Titanic Love Affair and a song called “Happy”.

I missed out on Titanic Love Affair the first time around. The first time I heard them was on the “Rock And/Or Roll Podcast”. Yeah, that’s right– It was thanks to Brian Cramp and his podcast that turned me on to this band. So, if you really want to know the whole history and story behind Titanic Love Affair, go and check out that episode of the Rock And/Or Roll podcast– it’s episode number 245. You can listen to it on their blogspot page. I’ll also put a link to that show in the show notes. It’s a great podcast. Check it out.

But just to sum things up here: the band came out of Illinois in the late eighties. Initially, they were a three piece, but by the time they signed with the Charisma label in 1991, they were a four piece, with Jay Bennett on guitars and vocals, Ken Hartz on lead vocals and guitar, Lars Gustafson on bass, and Michael Trask on drums. If the name Jay Bennett sounds familiar to you, it’s because he was a member of Wilco and was a key contributor to three of their best albums: “Being There”, “Summer Teeth” and “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”. But he was fired from the band after that album was released, which is all captured on film in the documentary about Wilco. “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”. And that documentary is worth watching, too.

But back in the early nineties, Bennett was still a member of Titanic Love Affair. They released one album on Charisma, the self-titled album “Titanic Love Affair”. Then the Charisma label folded, and the band was dropped or released from their contract. Then they released a five-song EP on an indie label. That EP was called “No Charisma”. Then the band split up around 1994.

But there was one last collection of previously unreleased stuff that came out in ‘96. That album’s called “Their Titanic Majesty’s Request”. These guys had great album titles.

We’re going to listen to a song from that first self-titled album, a song called “Happy”. The song is credited to all four band members, Jay Bennett, Ken Hartz, Michael Trask and Lars Gustafson. And it was produced by Alby Galuten.

The song begins with a quick snare drum fill, and then the whole band comes in. Sounds to me like there are two guitars, one panned left, one right, but they’re playing so tightly together, it almost sounds like one guitar sometimes. This is a really energetic, spirited part, melodic. It just lifts me up as soon as I hear it. And that leads us right into the first verse.

All right, let’s take a look at the first part of this verse. For the vocals, there’s a lead and a harmony part on most of it. There’s also a little bit of echo on the vocals.

When the band started, Jay Bennett was their lead singer, but apparently he blew his voice out and didn’t want to sing anymore, so Ken Hartz took over the lead vocals. And I think his voice is perfect for a song like this.

Now let’s have a listen to Michael Trask’s drums. For the first part of this verse, he’s playing on the floor tom and the snare, a rollicking beat that really drives the song forward. But when they hit the second part of the verse, he’s going to switch from the floor tom to the hi hat.

That brings us to the first chorus. And this is just a great chorus.

The vocal melody and the guitar parts really complement each other. First, let’s listen to just the electric guitar parts again. There’s one on the left and one on the right.

Now let’s hear all the instrumental parts. And this time listen for the arpeggiated part in the left channel. Higher pitched, with a cleaner tone. It stands out against the other guitar parts. And to me, this is the secret sauce. That little bit of extra “pixie dust” on the chorus that really adds something special. Let’s put that all back together and finish up with the rest of the chorus.

A nice little bass lick there that leads right into the last part of the chorus. I particularly like what the guitars are doing here, so let’s listen to that first. Listen to how they play off of each other and how they kind of rhythmically ping pong back and forth.

Now let’s go back and hear that. See how it all fits together in the final mix.

Here’s the second verse, and this time let’s listen to what the guitars are doing during the verse.

Let’s hear the vocals on this chorus.

Nice little drum fill there. And that leads us into a guitar break. There’s a cool little harmony guitar part at the end there. You know, one of the knocks against Titanic Love Affair was that they were just a second-rate version of The Replacements. I think that’s pretty unfair. I love The Replacements. I mean, this show is named after a Replacements song, but I think the musicianship here is just a notch above. Things like this, The Replacements just wouldn’t have done.

And that takes us back into a version of the introduction again. It’s a great melodic guitar part. There’s another nice little drum fill, and he’s going to go back to playing the floor tom here on the last verse. Not many guitar fills in this song, but there’s one right there. After that, there’s going to be a break before they continue with the verse. It’s the first time they’ve done that on this song. It’s always smart songwriting to add something new, something unexpected for the listener.

And notice how there’s a little bit of guitar feedback that swells up in the background before they continue with the verse.

And we haven’t listened to the bass and drums together yet, so let’s hear a little bit of that on this last verse.

Now for the ending, there’s a short guitar solo over a new section. These chord changes don’t appear anywhere else in the song. Right at the end, they’re throwing something new at you. Check it out.

“Happy” by Titanic Love Affair.

After the band split up, I’m not really sure where most of the guys ended up. Lars Gustafson was in a band called Mother May I? But I don’t know what happened to Ken Hartz or Michael Trask.

Jay Bennett, as we mentioned before, landed a gig in Wilco, but after three albums, he was let go. Wilco has always been Jeff Tweedy’s band, and I think Jay was just pushing a little too hard. Bennett was supposed to play a reunion gig with Titanic Love Affair in May of 2009, but Bennett never showed up to the gig. Bennett had died in his sleep. He was in desperate need of hip replacement surgery, but he couldn’t afford it. Like most musicians, he couldn’t afford a healthcare plan. He was trying to manage the pain with a fentanyl patch, and he died of an accidental overdose. In fact, though I don’t think we’ll ever know for certain, his death may have been caused by a defective patch that leaked and caused the overdose.

If we had real, affordable healthcare in this country, Jay Bennett would probably still be alive today.

I want to thank you for joining me once again here on the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. Our journey continues, and we’ll be back in about two weeks with another new episode. In the meantime, you can find all of our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com. Or just look for us in your favorite podcast app. And after that, if you’re still looking for even more music related podcasts, be sure to check out the other shows here on the Pantheon Podcast Network.

If you’re inclined to support the show, well, the best thing you can do is just tell a friend about it, share it with all your music loving friends, because your word-of-mouth and recommendations really do mean a lot.

I will see you back here soon with another new episode. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode on Titanic Love Affair and “Happy”.

REFERENCES:

Rock and or Roll Podcast
http://rockandorrollpodcast.blogspot.com/

Wilco
https://wilcoworld.net/

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart Documentary
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327920/

Click here to play the podcast

“Dead End Street” marked a shift in Ray Davies’ songwriting. His songs began to take on a more UK-specific focus. And if not political, it was at least more socially pointed, as he sings about an out-of-work, impoverished couple who wonder, “What are we living for?” 50+ years on, many still ask that same question.

Visit OldGlory.com and get 15% off all of their cool music-related t-shirts & merch– just use discount code “lovethatsong“!

TRANSCRIPT:

Greetings to all of you dedicated followers of fashion, my name is Brad Page, host of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, here on the Pantheon Network of Podcasts. Each episode of this show, I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together, on our quest to understand what makes a song great. You don’t have to be a musical expert or know anything about music theory. We don’t get that technical here. We just use our ears to do some “forensic listening” and see what we discover. On this episode, we’re digging into an all-time classic song by one of the all-time classic bands: this is The Kinks with “Dead End Street”.

The Kinks are indeed a legendary band, one of the most important and influential bands to come out of the 60’s. But in some ways, I think they’re overlooked. Although in recent history they’ve been viewed in a new light, I don’t think they ever received commercial success that’s commensurate with their influence.

The Kinks formed in 1963 in an area of north London called Muswell Hill. Two brothers, Ray and Dave Davies, were the nucleus of the band. Now, I’ve heard that their last name should actually be pronounced “Davis”, but here in America, for literally decades, it’s been pronounced “Davies”. And if I said “Davis”, no one would even know who I was talking about. And I’ve been saying “Davies” for almost 50 years. And honestly, if I tried to change it now, I’m sure I would slip up somewhere along the line in this podcast, which would just make it more confusing. So, I’m going to continue pronouncing it “Davies”, and I apologize to anyone who’s annoyed by that.

Ray Davies was the primary singer and songwriter, and he played guitar. His younger brother, Dave Davies, played lead guitar and would occasionally sing a lead vocal. The original lineup of the band that became The Kinks included Pete Quaife on bass and Mick Avery on drums. Working with producer Shell Talmy, they signed a record deal with Pye Records in early 1964. The band was persuaded to cut a version of Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” and release that as their first single. To be honest, I don’t think it’s a great version. From what I understand, it was a song that they’d never even played before, and it doesn’t feel to me like their hearts were really in it. Not surprisingly, the song failed to make much of a dent on the charts.

Their second single was an original written by Ray Davies called “You Still Want Me”, which sold even less than that first single. It didn’t even make the charts, but at least it was one of their own compositions.

But their third single, that was a different story.

Written by Ray Davies, “You Really Got Me” was released in August 1964 and was a number one hit in the UK. It was a top ten hit in the US. But beyond being a hit, this song earned its place in history based on their performance and the sound alone. As legend tells it, guitarist Dave Davies slashed his speaker with a razor to get that gnarly guitar sound. As opposed to blues or 50’s rock and roll, this was the sound of Rock music, arguably the first real Rock Guitar riff. It set the template for all the hard rock and, yes, heavy metal that would come. You cannot underestimate the importance of this song.

They followed that with a string of incredible singles. Most of them have become classics, including “All Day And All Of The Night”, “Tired Of Waiting”, “See My Friends”, “A Well Respected Man”, “Till The End Of The Day”, “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion” and “Sunny Afternoon”. Just an amazing run of songs.

And in November 1966, they released their 15th single– at least I believe it was their 15th single in the UK—“Dead End Street”, once again written by Ray Davies.

Ray had been continually improving and evolving as a writer, and “Dead End Street” is, I think, somewhat of a milestone in he Kinks catalog. In previous songs, Ray had explored topics like class, fashion and wealth, all with a satirical bent. But he was tackling something a little more serious here. This is a song about poverty. It’s been said that this is the song where Ray’s lyrics moved from social observation to social commentary.

Ray started with a backstory for this song: it was about a couple that wants to emigrate to Australia under what was known as the Assisted Passage Migration scheme, which was instituted to increase the population of Australia. But the couple in this song can’t find a job in Australia, so the plans fall through and they are stuck in England with no work there either.

Ray and Dave’s sister Rose had actually emigrated to Australia, so that was a source of inspiration. And in fact, a few years later, Ray would write a whole concept album based on Rose and her husband—“Arthur”.

Now, in June 1966, before they recorded this track, Pete Quaife was injured in a car accident and decided to leave the band. John Dalton joined the band on bass and he plays on this track. However, shortly after the song was recorded, Pete Quaife returned to the band. So Quaife appears in the promo film for this song. It’s kind of a proto-MTV video. You can find it on YouTube, but it is John Dalton who actually plays on this track.

The band recorded two versions of “Dead End Street”. They initially recorded it with their regular producer at the time, Shell Talmy. Talmy added an organ and a French horn to the song, but the band was unhappy with that version. So when Talmy left for the day at 05:00, the band decided to rerecord it on their own, this time bringing in the great Nicky Hopkins on piano. And Ray decided that he wanted a trombone instead of a French horn. So they went down to the local pub, where a lot of the session musicians would hang out. And they found a trombone player named John Matthews, and they dragged him back to the studio to add a trombone part.

So, the song features Ray Davies on lead vocals, Dave Davies on backing vocals, acoustic guitar and bass, John Dalton on backing vocals and bass, and Mick Avery on drums, with Nicky Hopkins on piano and John Matthews on trombone.

Now, you may have noticed that I credited both Dave Davies and John Dalton with playing bass, and that’s because there are actually two bass parts on this song. One is played on a typical Fender bass, while another part is played on a Danelectro bass, which has a brighter, twangier sound. When the song begins, you can hear both bass parts with that twangy Danelectro sound right up front.

And let’s hear a little of that trombone part. And that short intro will take us right into the first verse.

At this point, Ray was writing songs so rapidly that he was pulling ideas and inspiration wherever he could find them. He was living in an old house at that time. That had a crack in the ceiling and he used that to kick off this first verse.

On the second part of the verse, Ray doubles his vocals.

The instrumental backing also follows that vocal line, which reinforces the melody. Let’s hear that all together now.

That section there that leads us into the chorus that takes advantage of the woozy but mournful sound of the trombone, and there’s a nice simple snare drum fill that kicks off that part.

Really nice use of gang vocals here. Leading into the chorus, Ray sings, “We’re strictly second class and we don’t understand.” And then the crowd chants “Dead End” like they’re voicing their anger and frustration.

Then the call and response pattern switches. Instead of the crowd chanting first, they respond to Ray’s call of “Dead End Street” with a defiant “yeah”.

And that brings us directly into the second verse.

And that trombone plays a pretty prominent part in this verse.

Let’s listen to that.

And here’s the part of this song where he talks about losing the chance to emigrate to Australia and not being able to work.

“People live on Dead End Street, people are dying on Dead End Street, I’m going to die on Dead End Street”. You know, a lot of Ray’s songs are satirical, sardonic, farcical, but this song, lyrically, this song can be straight up bleak. I think Ray saw himself as kind of a champion for these people. The working class. He would mock those of us who were pompous, spoiled and greedy. But at this point anyway, he sympathized with the common man.

Mick Avery does some tasty little drum fills during the chorus, so let’s go back and listen to that.

That brings us to a short instrumental section that features the trombone. You can also hear that twangy Danelectro bass here. And they also add in some hand claps.

Let’s bring up the vocals again on this chorus.

There’s some terrific bar-room style piano under the chorus, played by the great Nicky Hopkins. Nicky was the go-to guy at the time. He must have been the busiest piano player in England all through the into the 70’s, he played on so many records. Let’s see if we can bring up his piano in the mix.

As the song approaches the final fade out, the hand claps return and the trombone takes a solo on the way out.

The Kinks – “Dead End Street”

As I mentioned before, The Kinks shot a promotional film for this song. It’s one of a number of films that could claim to be the first music video; it’s always a fuzzy science to determine the first of anything like this, but the clip for “Dead End Street” was definitely a very early precursor to the MTV style video. Instead of lip syncing to the song, the film shows the band acting out a scene where they’re dressed as undertakers carrying a coffin. Eventually the body, or the ghost from the body, jumps out of the coffin and escapes.

Of course, the BBC refused to show it, they said it was in bad taste. But you can watch it on YouTube now.

Thanks for joining me for this episode. If you enjoyed this one, there’s plenty more like it. You can find all of our previous shows on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com. Or just search for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on Amazon, Google, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere that you can find podcasts, you’ll find this show.

You can keep in touch with us on our Facebook page, just look for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. That’s also a great place to leave comments or feedback. And if you’d like to support the show, the best thing you can do is to just tell people about it. Share it with your friends, because your word of mouth is the best advertising that any podcast could get. I will be back in two weeks with another new show. Until then, check out some of the other great podcasts on the Pantheon Network. And thanks for listening to this episode on “Dead End Street” by the Kinks.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The Kinks
https://www.thekinks.info/

YouTube (Dead End Street Promo Film)
https://www.youtube.com/

Nicky Hopkins
http://www.nickyhopkins.com/

Click here to play the episode

It’s nearly impossible to pick the “best” Beatles song, but by nearly every measurement– sales, chart success, cultural impact– it’s hard to beat “Hey Jude”. Author James Campion‘s new book, Take A Sad Song, is an in-depth look at the history and legacy of “Hey Jude”. He joins us on this episode for a deep dive into this legendary, iconic song. A true classic.

If you enjoyed this episode, please check out these other Beatles-related episodes:

The Beatles – “Rain”

Special Edition: The Beatles “Get Back” Documentary

George Harrison – “Beware Of Darkness”

Paul McCartney & Wings – “Little Lamb Dragonfly”

John Lennon – “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out)”

Paul McCartney & Wings – “Daytime Nighttime Suffering”

TRANSCRIPT:

Time for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, right here on the Pantheon Podcast Network. I’m your host, Brad Page, and on this episode, I’m joined by author James Campion. He has a new book out called “Take A Sad Song” that’s an in-depth analysis of the Beatles song “Hey Jude”. So I invited James onto the show to talk about this song and this book. This is one of the longest shows we’ve ever done, but if any song warrants this kind of attention, it’s this one. So, without any further ado, here’s my conversation with James Campion on “Hey Jude”.

Brad Page: Well, James Campion, welcome to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. You’ve got a new book out called “Take A Sad Song” that’s an in-depth look at the Beatles song “Hey Jude”. You really take a look at this song from every possible angle. I thought the book was a fascinating read.

And the main thing we do here on this podcast is to take a deep dive into an individual song, just to try to understand what makes it work, why it’s such a great song. And I truly do love this song. But to be honest, I’ve been almost too intimidated to cover this song on this show. It just seems almost too… too big, like, I’d just be biting off more than I could chew. So that was almost too much for me to handle. So, when I heard about your book, I really had to invite you on the show to talk about this song, so we could do it together. I feel like I need your expertise here to tackle this amazing song. So let’s get into it.

I assume most Beatles fans know the history of the song, but for those that don’t know the story, maybe you can just give us the background, tell us the origin story of the song, how it came to be written.

James Campion: Many people know this, that originally the song, or the melody that Paul had in his head was, “Hey Jules”. And the way the story goes is, Paul is 26 years old; he’s on top of the world, really. Biggest man in the world. He’s the most eligible bachelor in the world. He just meets Linda, for all intents and purposes. A couple of months earlier, he’s driving out to comfort Cynthia Lennon and Julian Lennon, wife, soon to be ex-wife, and son of John Lennon, who has just met the woman he will live with until his death in 1980. Yoko Ono. All of this is happening within weeks of each other in 1968.

And what rock star on top of the world is going out to drive an hour out of his way to comfort the ex-wife of his partner and best friend since he was 15 years old? And then to write a song and to have this song to sing to Julian? And although Julian for years had no idea the song was about him, and when John first heard the song after Paul wrote it, he’s like, “wow, this song’s about me meeting Yoko”. And Paul’s kind of like, “Well, I wrote it. It’s kind of like me meeting Linda”. But the origins of the song in that little melody, because Paul McCartney is a melody machine, he wrote the song driving with his Astron Martin up to visit Julian. And it’s a fascinating story, just on the origin of the song itself.

Brad Page: Yeah, absolutely. A few facts about the song: It was released August 6, 1968, almost 54 years ago. It was number one in 18 countries, stayed on the top of the US charts at number one for nine weeks. It was the Beatles biggest selling song of 1968. Really their biggest hit ever. Right?

James Campion: In America. Yeah. It’s nine weeks and at number one 19 weeks overall. Internationally, I think it was number one in more countries than any other Beatles song, which is fascinating in itself, Brad, because we’re talking about 1968, and part of the reason why I loved working on this book and researching it; ‘68 is such a seminal moment in American and international history, but it is a very significant moment in the history of the Beatles, because for the first time in their career, since 1962, they were going up, up, up and up, and they just kind of hung out in the middle there. After ‘67, they weren’t going up anymore. They were just kind of part of the pop pantheon. But “Hey Jude”, of course, is the exception to that.

Brad Page: It was the first single on Apple Records, which that’s pretty significant. I mean, what a way to launch your record label! Unfortunately, it was kind of all downhill from there in a lot of ways. But, man, just as a Double-A side single, it’s totally killer.

James Campion: Yeah. “Hey Jude” and “Revolution”, of course. And again, the yin and the yang of the Beatles, the John and the Paul. But also, you mentioned it again, I tried to write about this in the first chapter, all the things that it’s the first of, and it is still to this day– the largest selling debut single for a record label. And why wouldn’t it be, right? The Beatles just were already on top of the world.

Brad Page: And it’s also, I believe, the longest in terms of actual song length of any number one pop single. Is that still true today?

Speaker A: That isn’t technically. So, as you know, in the last couple of months, Taylor Swift re-released her Red album. And, one of the songs on there, and the name escapes me, I’m sorry, the title was the ten minute longer version of that song. And that came in at number one. Before that, “American Pie” technically is longer. And that was released in 197—’71, ‘72. However, as you might remember, Brad, they split that song up. Side A was three and a half minutes or something, and Side B was four minutes. So, it wasn’t a side, a single. They fit all seven minutes and 11 seconds of “Hey Jude” on the a side of that a-b single. So up until a couple of months ago, when Taylor Swift swooped in with a ten-minute song that made it to number one, yes, “Hey Jude” was the longest running number one song ever.

They went to a different studio, not Abbey Road. They went to Trident Studios in London and recorded it on the only eight-track player recorder in London. It’s really a sonic marvel. And some of the greatest engineers and of course, George Martin produced and engineered this thing to get it to be the wonderful record. Because it’s not only a great song, it’s not only written by a great songwriter, it’s not only played by an excellent and one of the greatest bands, but it’s a great record– because there is a distinction between how good a song is or how good a record sounds. You know what I mean?

Brad Page: Right, right, yeah. Trident would later become one of the most famous recording studios in the world, but at that time, I believe they were practically a brand new studio. Right?

James Camption: They were.

Brad Page: Yeah, yeah. They were breaking them in. And as you point out in the book, the piano that McCartney plays on this track was like the house piano there at Trident. It would later go on to be performed by Rick Wakeman on Bowie’s “Life On Mars”. I believe Queen recorded “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the same piano. Is that correct?

Speaker A: That is correct, yeah.

Brad Page: So, well, let’s get into the song. The song famously opens with just Paul’s vocal and piano. In fact, the very first note that we hear is just Paul’s voice. No reverb, just really dry, which I think that just makes it really intimate. It’s like he’s right in your ear. Talking right in your singing, right in your ear.

Brad Page: On that second line, where he sings the word “bad”, he actually drops that. It’s like the lowest note that he sings, I believe, in the song. And I absolutely think that’s not a coincidence; entirely intentional, that the words he chooses to use when he sings that lowest note tend to be, like, the bummer words of the song.

James Campion: Right, right. And you hit it right on the head. Think about this: this is 1968. This is AM radio. Because that’s where you played all the big hits and the sound effects and the booming DJ’s and all the traffic reports and the sports news and the car rumbling down the street that you’re listening to this, this song, you know? And here comes Paul, completely cold, out of the blue. Literally. And he sings the title and the melody of the song. I interviewed dozens of songwriters for the book: Musicologists, psychologists, sociologists, Beatle biographers, writers, music journalists… Almost every person, too, that I interviewed said, think about when you ask someone, how does “Hey Jude” go? What do you say? “Hey Jude, don’t make it bad”. There it is. There’s the song. He’s telling you the title, he’s telling you where he’s going. It’s amazing artistry, amazing craftsmanship. And by the way, The Beatles did that better than anyone. And I went through The Beatles catalog, and you probably know this as well, Brad, how many great Beatles songs start with just their voices telling you the title?

Brad Page: Right!

James Campion: “Help”. “Nowhere Man”, “She Loves You”. I mean, there’s at least 15. And it comes right out, “Hey Jude”, he’s telling you it all right now. It’s brilliant. And getting to the second part, you were saying about the song going down and up? Some of the musicologists I interviewed said this makes it a classic lassic ballad in the American, in the great American songbook– or in the case of Paul, the great British songbook, in the sense where you have the lilting of the voice go up and back down again, up and back down again. And the words seem to reflect that.

Brad Page: Yeah, I love the way, “don’t make it bad”, and then “take a sad song”, and he goes up. He’s literally taking a bad moment or a bad feeling and making it better as he’s singing those actual words.

Brad Page: And then he hits the word remember, and then there’s a pause.

Brad Page: That’s so conversational I think, in the way that it’s like… I mean, if I say to my kids, “remember to take out the trash”, that’s one thing; If you say, “Remember– take out the trash”. That pause in there. To me, that whether it’s intentional or not, it hits you in a very specific way.

James Campion: Again, all the musicologists that I spoke to, and some of the songwriters I spoke to, pointed out that very point. Remember, this song is written in the second person. He is talking to someone. I think a lot of listeners hear him kind of talking to them like, “buck up, it’s going to be great.” But he’s talking to someone we know; he’s talking to Jules. If we look back, but he’s talking to the thematic Jude. And by doing that, he’s bringing you in slowly. And the way George Martin arranged this, along with The Beatles, where each instrument, an acoustic guitar comes in, the tambourine, and the height and those beautiful fills by Ringo, it’s just an incredible way of arranging this conversation that Paul is having with you.

Brad Page: And then you get the line “let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better.” So you get that internal rhyme there, which is just classic old school songwriting.

Brad Page: And like you said, he’s having a conversation, relatively specifically between two men. It doesn’t exclude a conversation with a woman; but this comes up in your book, right?

James Campion: I want to give credit where credit’s due. The great Beatle musicologist and author Tim Riley, who gave me hours of his time, had this incredible light bulb go off. And Tim said, there is definitely a line to be drawn between “She Loves You” and “Hey Jude”. And “She’s Loves You”, it’s two young men, a young man telling another young man, “hey, you better get on this because she really loves you, and you’re blowing it. Okay?” And then, “Hey Jude”, here he is, a little older, a little wiser, and he’s saying the same thing to someone. “You found her, now go and get her.” “Don’t hold back. If you’re cold, you’re only making your world colder.” This is Paul’s way of communicating again. And I love the fact that we have that lineage in the way The Beatles communicate.

Brad Page: Yeah. I mean, there have been songs of two guys sort of fighting over a girl; you know, that sort of, “well, if you don’t take her, I’m gonna.” “If you don’t treat her right, I’m gonna take her”. Neither of those songs are that. [Referring to “She Loves You” and “Hey Jude”.] Both of these songs are one friend encouraging another friend to make a move, you know, to think positive.

That’s fairly unique, I think, in sort of the macho rock and roll culture, right?

James Campion: Totally unique. And one of the things that I used to love when I was a kid is when he says, you know, “it can’t be bad”. He’s saying, “she loves you and it can’t be bad.” Now, I believe that because Paul and John both lost their mothers at a very young age. Paul, over the years, because he has lived into his seventies, he’s said many times that they got each other through. That’s the bond that they had. And I really do believe that that sentiment, that empathy that those guys put in those songs is real.

Brad Page: The acoustic guitar comes in on the stereo version. That’s in the left channel. I believe the drums are also in the, primarily in the left channel. And there’s an overdubbed tambourine. Now, there’s an interesting history of the stereo mix, right? That the stereo mix– correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the stereo mix wasn’t done until, like, a year later or something?

James Campion: Yeah. When they were doing the Alan Klein “Hey Jude” record, which is just a bunch of singles that didn’t come out in America on a record. But interestingly enough, when they did the mono mix of “Hey Jude”, they did it from the original stereo acetate. It’s very odd– they did a stereo mix, but they didn’t do a true mono mix. They had to do a mono mix from the stereo, two tracks. And then that later was made a true… not “true”, but you know what they used to say, “fake stereo”, but, right, there was no official studio stereo version or mix of that until, like, 1970, almost when The Beatles were broken up. Oh, and by the way, the stereo version, the one you hear in the “Number Ones” album, the one you hear on the “Hey Jude” album, the one you hear today on Spotify, is not seven minutes and 11 seconds. So, in case anybody, and I’m sure people are going to come out of the woodwork when they read my book, this thing isn’t seven minutes. It’s seven minutes and 8 seconds, or seven minutes and 9 seconds. Because the stereo version they did, to get rid of the hiss, they just faded at that extra 2 seconds. And let’s face it, they’re singing “na na” for four minutes. Nobody felt they would ever notice this. But you know, uh, we’re nuts.

Brad Page: Of course! Yeah, hardcore Beatle fans are going to notice every bit of minutiae, but for the average listener…

And so, then on that second verse, you get the line, “don’t be afraid”. And again, when he says the word “afraid”, another kind of, if you will, negative word, like “bad”, he drops his voice down on that.

James Campion: Right?

Brad Page: Then there’s that line, “The minute you let her under your skin”… the songwriters in your book talk about it; usually, when you talk about somebody getting “under your skin”, it’s a negative, it’s an irritant. Right here, he’s encouraging it. He’s telling you to open up, to be vulnerable, to let that person in. You’re open to that potential irritation. But there’s a benefit there, too. There’s a positive to that. I just think it’s a really interesting turn of phrase.

James Campion: Yeah. And that’s, you know, my good friend and a gentleman I’m working on a book with currently, Adam Duritz, lead singer and main songwriter for Counting Crows. He was nice enough to give me some time for the book, and he really nailed it for me. He’s such an emotional singer and songwriter that it makes sense he would come up with this. He said, you know, Paul is writing from such a vulnerable point, and he’s saying, if you really want to love and be loved, you gotta be willing to be hurt.

Brad Page: Yes.

James Campion: You gotta let go and just lay it out there, man. Otherwise, you’re just cheating yourself and the person you love.

Brad Page: Yeah, yeah.

Brad Page: At that point, the backing vocals come in. I’m pretty sure that that’s the three of them, right? John, George, and Paul overdub, doing the, at that point, it’s the “Ah” right, the “ooh’s”. But they harmonize on the word “better”. It’s one of the few times where the backing vocals are actually hitting a word.

Brad Page: I think there’s an extra measure in there, isn’t there like a 9th measure?

James Campion: Yes, there is.

Brad Page: Yeah. There’s just that little extra measure there that kind of gives Ringo a chance to do a bit more of a fill. One of those classic Ringo drum fills with the tea towels on him.

James Campion: Right.

Brad Page: That real muffled drum sound that so classic Ringo. And he hits the ride cymbal, which is kind of an interesting choice there. That’s usually more of a chorus kind of thing, right? But he goes right for that there. And it’s so obvious in the mix. It really jumps out. That ride cymbal in the mix.

James Campion: And again, credit where credit’s due: Rob Sheffield, the great pop culture writer and music writer for Rolling Stone magazine, another guy who gave me hours of his time over and over again. He kept saying, “Ringo is the best on this song”. This song is not a song if not for Ringo. Ringo gives it all on this. Listen to Ringo here. This is a band song because Ringo’s making it a band song. He’s not letting you think that this is a singer songwriter. This isn’t Paul’s lament. This is a Beatles song. Yeah.

Brad Page: Just one of the most unique drummers. There’s a sound that you can, you know, it’s Ringo. There’s also the bass guitar comes in there, which is overdubbed by McCartney. Sometimes on Beatle tracks, the most flashy performance is the bass part. But this song, he’s really, he really holds back. It’s just very… it’s basic, and keeps the focus on the vocal and the piano part. But it’s not your typical McCartney. Sometimes the bass parts steal the show on some of the Beatles tracks, you know… not here.

James Campion: Yeah. And again, I have to give credit to the musicologists that I interviewed for the book, pointing out that Paul is writing the bass line on the piano. This is a piano bass line. He’s a bass player, but he’s adding that bass player aesthetic to the piano. And I write extensively, and I learned much about how much the piano meant to Paul as a child, getting over his mother’s death. His father used to play the piano, really engaging him into playing. The family all hung around the piano that sings songs. When he was a child, he really, to the point where Paul actually, in his twenties, when he was already a famous Beatle, took piano lessons. So he’s adding all those different elements into this bass line. And interestingly enough, when they did the live to tape version of it for the David Frost show– that famous clip, you could see it on YouTube– you see George is playing sort of a bassy guitar.

Brad Page: Yeah, the Fender VI. The Fender Bass VI, which is a six-string bass guitar.

James Campion: Yes. And just such a great subtle, you pointed out, a subtle way because Paul does, and thank goodness, add so much with his bass in all the songs and all The Beatles songs. But here, you’re right, he pulls up, he lets that piano, that left hand, really tell the story of music, right?

Brad Page: And he’s just following that. He’s not really embellishing much on the bass part, which, again, it’s fairly unique for him. I think of all his many talents, I think the one that he doesn’t, that he doesn’t give himself enough credit for is as a bass player. He’s my favorite bass player of all time.

At that point we get to the bridge, which is a descending chord progression. I always felt that when he’s saying, “don’t carry the world on your shoulders”, the chords are descending down, and to me, that kind of feels like you’re literally taking that weight off as the chords slowly descend there.

James Campion: The Beatles used that to great effect on dozens of songs. And Paul is utilizing, and we haven’t gotten into it, and if you want to, we can, Brad; you know, the origins of two melodies that Paul had ingrained into his system. Everyone takes something and then it incorporates it, whether it’s, you know, Bach, in the case of Brian Wilson in the Beach Boys, or the Mozart pieces that were used for Stevie Wonder; Paul is using two things. And I won’t get too deeply into it. I talk about it in the book, but in that bridge, there is a little bit of The Drifters’ “Save The Last dance For Me”.

James Campion: And it was Walter Everett who pointed that out to me, and we listened to it, and it’s there. There is echoes, there are fingerprints there of the music that made Paul want to pick up an instrument, that doo-wop sound, that late fifties, early sixties. It’s really amazing how he was able to combine sort of a gospel, African-American, southern feel in with a classically structured ballad.

Brad Page: In the book, you also talk about sort of a classic Irish piece of church music that you think was influential.

James Campion: If you listen to the first notes of John Nicholson’s, Ireland’s 1917 liturgical piece called “Te Deum”. But Paul goes in a palatable, more pop, more romantic way by lifting the melody, whereas the Te Deum, it’s much more solemn, written for like an organ, where Paul, but again, he’s taking these things. And in essence, and it was pointed out to me by Professor Devers and Professor Everett that Paul sang in the Liverpool Angelical Choir in 1950. So he was born in 42, so he had been, what, eight? So Paul is singing these songs. It has to be absorbing into him. And the fact that he’s writing this sense of comfort for another person, whether it’s Julian losing his dad and his family is breaking up, or he’s trying to implore John or himself or a friend to go after that woman of his dreams, the one that will complete him. To go back to something, uh, dare I say, religious or spiritual, really does speak to how important this song was for Paul. And nobody is suggesting that Paul ripped off or stole or was taking a homage to something. I truly believe these things were subconscious, and I doubt if he has, Paul now, he’d even remember that. But I think it’s in there purposely. I think the subconscious sometimes speaks to us when we’re being creative. And Paul is giving us the density of this early liturgical piece and saying, this is, again, a very important song I’m writing here. Yeah.

Brad Page: And I mean, let’s face it, in western music, at least, you’ve only got eight notes; There’s only so many combinations. I mean, sometimes it feels limitless, but it’s all in the little tweaks and spins you put on them. But they’re absolutely, no one’s going to invent a new note that no one’s ever heard before.

James Campion: And especially in pop music, let’s face it, this is pop music, certainly popular music, and it’s now considered a classic in the sense of rock class. But again, that’s what The Beatles did so well, didn’t they? You know, they changed it up. They did break molds.

Brad Page: And the second part of the bridge, the backing vocals change from “Ah” to “Ooh”.

And you mentioned it before that this is where the song sort of takes a break. He does that little “na, na, na”.

Brad Page: And you can actually hear George playing some electric guitar behind that, which actually echoes that little melody. So the few times George actually pops, his guitar pops out of the mix there. But in the book, you describe that little break, little piano break there as almost like a moment of Zen. I love that. It is a place to take a breath almost, and subconsciously reassess or something.

James Campion: Yeah. And it also foreshadows the na-na’s at the end. Yes, Brad, again, this is the combination of that magical thing that Paul talks about dreaming “Yesterday” and writing about it, but also his tactical, the structural things that The Beatles did so well. I talked about earlier about having the name of the song sung right off the bat to get people, jumps out of the radio. Here’s the song, here’s the melody. Everything you need to know is right here. What Paul’s doing there, I think, is he’s letting us breathe, as you mentioned, and I said a moment of Zen, because he’s going back to that “Hey Jude”. And it gets back to those two notes from the liturgical piece from 1917. Again, he’s letting you take a break there. And it’s amazing when there’s silence in a song like that. And it’s very quick, but when there’s silence in a song like that, it’s on purpose. But it also is something that we, subconsciously, we don’t get. But it’s there and it’s so important, man, it does reset the song.

Brad Page: And again, we got the line “don’t let me down”, and he hits a low note on “down”, about the lowest note in the song, and then we get lifted up again. And the way he sings that line, “you have found her”– the way he hits the word “her” there…

Speaker A: He uses different phrasing. I do spend some time, and did talk to vocalists and songwriters, about Paul’s phrasing here. Paul could have gone this way or that way, but he doesn’t. He changes it up for you. So even though it’s what seems like a pretty provincial ballad, is not because of the way he’s singing it. And you mentioned earlier about how he goes down on some of these words, which are significant. I also find it very significant that the first time he goes up high and, probably the highest point of his singing until he hits that real high note before the na-nas, is when he says, “take a sad song”, like he goes there. So the “sad song” is really the underlying theme of the song. There’s the sad song. And of course, I extrapolate that out in my book. 1968 was a pretty sad year with assassinations and war and riots. And he’s saying, we are in the midst of a sad song here. And I think it was Howard Sunes, one of his biographers told me, when Paul goes to the song, when he goes to music to describe an emotion, he’s not screwing around. That’s a big deal to Paul McCartney. So again, I hate to keep bringing this back to the fact that this seemed like a really important thing for Paul, but I really do think so. I think he really knew he was onto something here and he was trying to communicate some important elements and themes.

Brad Page: Yeah, yeah. There’s an interesting part where there’s an overdubbed voice, or maybe it’s a leftover voice that says, “let it out and let it in, Hey Jude”, kind of between the regular verses.

James Campion: I love that.

Brad Page: I love that too. That doesn’t happen anywhere else in the song. It happens here in sort of the third verse. And again, I always look at those things as just another creative way of giving you something new, that every time something cycles around, you’re just not repeating the first verse again. You’re building on that, you’re adding new elements. It keeps your ear interested and it makes the song exciting. It makes it something new in there that you didn’t hear before.

James Campion: You’re right. No, musically too. And that little part you’re talking about, “let it out, let it in, Hey Jude, begin”, you know, that whole bit, one of the things that was pointed out to me in his brilliant book, “The Recording Sessions”, Mark Lewison, who is the number one Beatle historian in the world, who was kind enough to send me back a couple of emails to sort of keep me on track. He lists out in that book all the parts in which, when Paul recorded it with the band, before he did the lead vocal, he recorded what they would call a guide vocal, which, you know, Brad, and they left a lot of that in that. You could hear that in there.

Brad Page: So you’ve got that there and then you’ve got John and Paul singing harmony and it’s just always so great.

James Campion: Yeah.

Brad Page: When the two of them sing together, there’s just really nothing like it. When they sing, “remember to let her into your heart” together, it’s just beautiful. John typically sings below Paul, but when you get to that line, “then you can start”, John goes high.

Brad Page: He goes over Paul. And that’s, that does not happen very much in The Beatles catalog.

James Campion: In fact, according to Tim Riley, never. That’s the only time that John went above him in a song, to his recollection. And this is a guy who’s written about every Beatles song several times. Now, I didn’t go that in depth, but I did quote him on that. Maybe somebody will go in and try to find another spot where John, now, there’s some times where John and Paul both go up—“It Won’t Be Long”, yeah, that kind of thing. And of course, “She Loves You”. And some of the high notes, they both sing, but yes, on a harmony, a single two- part harmony, John going up there and his voice sort of cracking, and it’s just the two of them singing… Oh, my God, it just breaks my heart every time, because I know what this song meant to John. “I thought this song was about go get Yoko”, and he was so in love with Yoko, you know, and it changed his life. It did. It changed his life. It changed everyone’s lives in the 1960’s. It changed the Beatles. So, to hear him singing that with Paul there, there’s just way more for us Beatles fans.

Brad Page: It’s just a beautiful, beautiful moment in the song. I just, I love that part. And then you get the next verse where you get the “let it out and let it in” the second time. He says that, which you actually talk about that line a few times in the book; you know, there’s just a lot said in “let it out and let it in”, just by itself, says a lot.

James Campion: It means nothing and it means everything. It really comes down to that. If you’re a poet or you’re a songwriter, or you’re someone who likes to deconstruct music the way I like to do it, and you do it on the show, that thing is just rings all the bells. I think it was Kylie Lotz, who goes by the name of “Petal” in her professional career– wonderful singer songwriter, young woman– just really nailed it when she said, it’s breathing, isn’t it? It’s just breathing.

Brad Page: The “Ooh’s” return in the harmony, and you get that line, “You’re waiting for someone to perform with”, which just is such a specific phrase that you know, so much of the rest of the song, I think anyone could apply it to their own personal feelings, but I’m not sure most people are looking for a partner to “perform with”, however you want to take that. But it’s just an interesting phrase to put in there that literally applies to the future of both John and Paul, Right” Because they both end up performing for the rest of their careers, as long as their partners are alive, with their significant other.

James Campion: Right.

Brad Page: But at that time, they weren’t. That line literally predicts the future.

James Campion: There’s no way that Paul didn’t know that when he wrote that. That’s what he’s saying now, did he think he was going to be in a band called Wings with Linda? No. Did John think? I think John did. I think John knew from the very beginning, because he did all those tape loops with her. He worked on the tape loop “Revolution Nine” with Yoko. She sings on “Bungalow Bill” with him. That line about, that is a very odd line for a love song. You find someone to perform with. Not perform sexually or…

Brad Page: No, it’s not a sexual thing at all.

James Campion: No. You’re going to go off and do this thing together. And this is a song about, you know, “you could do this”. You could do it. I’m right here with you. You don’t have to do it alone. So it’s pretty cool.

Brad Page: There’s another little George Harrison guitar fill that pops out there. Then you get the line– this is the line that always strikes me—“Don’t you know that it’s just you, Hey, Jude, you’ll do”. And that just touches me in a way that’s, it’s difficult for me to kind of really put that into words. But, you know– and I know Bruce Springsteen often gets a lot of crap for that line in Thunder Road where like, “eh, you’re not a beauty, but you’re all right”. And you could maybe say that here, that’s like, “you’ll do”. Well, that’s not like, you know, that’s not saying “you’re great”, “you’re awesome”… it’s “you’ll do”. But there’s something about that that’s just saying, it’s not hyperbole, it’s just like, “you’re good enough. You can do this”. “Don’t you know that it’s just you, you’ll do”, it moves me every time. And the way he sings “and don’t you know that it’s just you”, it’s probably his most soulful, most bluesy vocal effect, on the whole song.

James Campion: Yeah, I mean, his vocals, again, magnificent here. Uh, yes, I think this is the tightrope that he walks in this song. He’s saying, “I’m going to be there for you. I’m rooting for you”. But he also says, “you got this, you got this”. This is completely different than “All You Need Is Love”. But in a way, he’s telling Jude or Jules or you or me, you know, “you got this”. You got this. You don’t need a lot of mumbo jumbo. You don’t need the Maharishi. You don’t need a big steeple. You don’t need a ton of cash. You know, you could do this and whatever you want to apply to it. I think that’s what he’s saying.

Brad Page: Yeah, exactly. And then you get the line, “the movement you need is on your shoulder”. The most enigmatic line in the song.

James Campion: Yeah. When I saw him in ‘89, when he sang it, it gave me the chills, too. And then I find out later on that he told Bob Costas, Bob asked him, “do you ever think about the audience when you’re playing a song or singing to them?” And he’s like, “No, no. It’s just like being an actor. You’re doing lines, you’re trying to get through it, you’re in the song. You like to interact with the musicians on stage, but when I sing that line, I think of John.” And when you think of “the movement you need is on your shoulder”, which is such, as you said, perfectly enigmatic, could mean everything. And again, nothing. But John, of course, loved it. Paul just put it in there. He just had that in there. He even told John, “this is just a filler.” And he goes, “no, no, no, it’s the best line in the song”. And he respected John so much for it. And I think it was, again, Tim Riley, who told me, think about the ego and the it ownership, that John had a lot of those songs. If he did, when he did the Playboy interviews right before he died, he went through every Beatles song and he would say, “I helped him with this line. He helped me with that line”. “I kept Paul from going to Saccharine here, we did this”, he always said over. And even during their dark times, when they were fighting with each other publicly, he always said, “’Hey Jude’, that’s Paul, Paul’s baby. Probably his best song.” So to have that line in there, and him to blow Lennon away with it, and Lennon insisting he keeps it in there, and that Paul plays it 30, 40 years later and it still thinks of John on stage. Just absolutely beautiful.

James Campion: I love the fact that it’s on your shoulder. It comes right after you’ll do. It’s about you. You can do this.

Brad Page: Right? Right. You can move mountains. You can do it. The song is so full of those little moments that are just uplifting to your soul.

There’s another pause for that short little “na na na”, which he adds a yeah, at the end, which I would normally think that would just be like an ad lib, but it’s actually doubled. And then you get the last verse, the “Hey Jude”, where he has that melisma on the voice, where you’re not just hitting a note, but you’re scatting around it. McCartney was so great at that. “Hey Jude” harmonies on that verse by John.

Brad Page: And then– and this is something that I feel foolish, because, again, one of my favorite songs, I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to this song… Never heard it till I read your book. But after they sing under your skin, John in the background says…

James Campion: Yeah, you can’t unhear that. Yeah. And it’s, and many people had a theory, and I throw them all in there, but I stick with the one that because Paul changed “heart” to “skin”, John was doing the harmony, and he blows the line, and then he just says, #@!&

And then when they were mixing it, I just wondered, why would they leave it in there? According to Jeff Emmerich, who was cleaning up the mix of it, John just came up to him and said, leave it in there. Leave it in there. No one will hear it. And if they do, it’ll be a little bauble for everybody. And, you know, biggest single in the history of Rhe Beatles, the biggest band on the planet, has the F-word in it, right?

Brad Page: That’s so great. And leave it to John to say, just leave it in there. But that would be my take on it, too. I think if you listen closely, it’s tough to tell, even when you isolate just the vocals, but I think you’re right that the previous verses “let her into your heart”, here he sings “let her under your skin”. And you can almost hear there, John start to sing “into” instead of “under”, and then, like, catches himself, and then lets the F-word fly because he blows the line.

Brad Page: It’s just funny. And again, when you think of The Beatles, how many people have played their songs backwards and forwards and inside out, looking for crazy stuff, backwards masking and whatnot? And this is right there, and nobody ever points that out, but it’s just great.

Then we get to really kind of the climax of the song, where they repeat the word “better”, climbing in pitch each time. There’s a classic Ringo drum fill. Under that little pause, Ringo hits a single hit on the hi hat. And then we are off into the second part of the song, which is a whole different animal. But I always hear– and I almost hate to put it this way, because I don’t mean it to be in a sexual way at all, but that “better, better” and then when he screams, yeah, it’s orgasmic.

James Campion: Oh, uh, no question.

Brad Page: You know, “orgasmic” just in the sense of release; build, climax, release. And it’s so emotional.

Brad Page: And that launches you into that second half of the song, that is longer than the beginning. I believe the first part of the song, where we are up until now is about three minutes. The remaining part of the song is four minutes, roughly, right?

James Campion: Yeah, it’s four minutes plus of just “na na’s”. So, we’re less than halfway through the actual record, but the song structure is over now. And now you have the “double amen”, or “plagal cadence” in the parlance of music, where you repeat that line over and over again. The famous, famous, nobody can forget it, everyone loves to sing along with it part. But before we leave the scream, I defy you to find, you could probably find equal, but is there one that’s better when someone goes up and up and up and he just exploded. And now he’s leaving that other part behind. He’s done talking to you, and now he’s making you feel like you’re part of something. He’s making Jude feel like, “don’t worry, you’re not alone here”. And that’s when the na na’s come in, and that’s where I feel he’s using gospel cords. He’s using gospel phrasing. He starts to do the melisma to get us there. The blues tropes.

Brad Page: Yeah. And as you just kind of pointed out, at this point, the song shifts from being very personal and intimate to being a communal experience. The first part is kind of like about you and making you feel better. Then you get to this part and it’s like, “You know what? We’re all together in this. We all have to figure this out, all have to work together if we’re going to survive, get through this together. We got to do it together.”

James Campion: Yeah. And of course, you know, that’s the sixties edict that The Beatles helped build.

Brad Page: You’ve reached a point in the song where you’ve transcended what you can say with actual words, and now you’re just chanting. He’s already said everything he could say to you in those first couple of verses now. It’s just the uplift of. It’s just like pure, unfiltered joy almost.

James Campion: And again, the “na na’s” break the barriers of language. I’m reminded of Paul playing it at the Kremlin, and I mentioned it in the beginning of the book, and I’m reminded of the thousands and thousands of young Russian kids singing “na, na, na”. And no matter where you go, you could sing that.

Brad Page: An interesting thing you also point out in the book is that, during this final section, the coda, if you listen closely in the right channel, you can hear some of those previous ad-libs from the initial run through. It’s still there buried in the mix.

I believe it repeats 18 times. Do I have that right? Is that the number?

James Campion: Yeah.

Brad Page: The number of “na na na’s”?

Speaker A: Yeah, it’s right around there. It’s fun to play with that and figure out how many, and I break it all down in the book. I can’t remember all of them right now. And George Martin said for years, music is mathematics. It’s magical math, but in the end, it’s math.

Brad Page: You just get this continual build here through the coda, where the second time around they add hand claps. I think it’s the fourth time around, the orchestra comes in, and then that’s where Paul comes in with that famous “Judy, Judy, Judy”. The 6th time around, I think the brass gets a little louder and he does that, you know, “you can make it, you’re not going to break it” ad lib in there. That’s great. The 7th time around, just riffing on the verse lines. “Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad. Take a sad song. Make it better.”

Brad Page: Around the 10th time, the fade starts to begin, so you get this really long fade that just takes forever. The 11th time, I think you can hear him say, “don’t go back, Jude”. And then the second to last time, Paul’s voice comes up a little bit in the mix for one last little screaming ad lib in there. And then that song just rides out. Just what a communal experience again, you get from that, that whole end section. It’s just, I find it so emotional.

James Campion: Yeah, well, I think I titled the last chapter “Comfort and Unity”. He got the comfort part. “Hey, Jude, you could do this, buddy”. And then, we’re all doing it together. No one should ever sleep on the fact that, again, as Rob Sheffield so beautifully said, this is a band song all the way through. And I think somewhere around the fifth or 6th, they just stop trying to play the song, and they’re just into that whole plagal cadence. Like that the band is a groovin’, there’s a part where they just groove. They’re not doing staccato punches on the acoustic guitar. They’re just flowing, and the bass is going, and Ringo is just doing his thing, and it’s a full… and Paul is really banging on the piano, so it’s a full, full band song on the way out. As you just pointed out beautifully, each section builds on another, and it never makes it boring. Ever makes it boring.

Brad Page: I my book, it’s just one of the greatest songs ever written and ever recorded. It’s a perfect song, I think.

James Campion: Yep. I agree.

Brad Page: So your book, called “Take A Sad Song”, what inspired you to write a whole book about this one song?

James Campion: Well, when I was a kid, as I said earlier, it affected me greatly. I just saw, I came up with this idea in late 2019, but then my father got sick and passed right before the pandemic. And then the pandemic hit. And I was home and I had the time and I said, this song seems to speak to that. To this. We’re all alone, but we’re kind of together. We’re going through this thing. We’re going to try to survive this thing. And it seemed to work in 1968, because when all that craziness was happening during the summer, and then, of course, after the election, it just seemed to be ‘68 again. Everybody’s saying, well, this is the worst year since ‘68. And it just, I felt like I was in it, you know, it just spoke to me. So “Hey Jude” is my favorite Beatles song, period. And once I started looking up different things about it and all the stuff we talked about on this podcast, and also, I thought it would be really cool to just break down one song to figure out why songs work, not just this song, but why songs affect us. And that’s why I talked to a psychology professor and a sociology professor in musicology, and history and songwriters and biographers and music journalists. I just kept asking them, why? Why do we still care about these songs, this song particular? And I think I got the answer in the book. And it really buoyed my spirits during the pandemic, and I hope it does when people read it, because that’s what I meant to do, is make them understand why music affects us.

Brad Page: It’s a remarkable piece of work, and I really enjoyed your book. It was such a great insight into this song. It was just a great read. I loved every minute. It was a pleasure reading the book. It’s been a total pleasure having you on the show to talk about this fantastic song. So, thank you for writing the book, and thank you for joining me on the show.

James Campion: Brad, thank you. You do some great work here. I really enjoy listening to your breaking down songs. I think you’re doing some, you’re doing a service to all of us who love music. Thank you. Coming from you, I really appreciate that. And, um, I hope people get out of it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. It really was a lot of fun, and it made me love the song more, made me love Paul more, and it certainly made me understand and love The Beatles more.

Brad Page: James Campion, thank you so much for joining me on this episode. It’s been great. Thank you.

James Campion: Thank you, Brad.

Brad Page: And thanks to everyone for listening. I hope you enjoyed this show. James Campion is the author of a number of great books, including “Accidentally Like A Martyr”, which is a series of essays on Warren Zevon, and “Shout It Out Loud”, the story of how Kiss made the “Destroyer” album, which was a big help to me when I put together my previous Kiss episodes. This new book is called “Take A Sad Song: The emotional currency of ‘Hey Jude’”, and it’s available online and in bookstores today. Please check it out, you won’t regret it. And please join me here again in two weeks for another new episode. On behalf of everyone on the Pantheon Podcast network, I thank you for listening. Now go take a sad song and make it better.

Tag: Music Analysis

The Who – “Won’t Get Fooled Again”

Aerosmith – “Back In The Saddle”

Titanic Love Affair – “Happy”

The Beatles – “Hey Jude” (with special guest James Campion)