A day in the life

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A day in the life
The Beatles
publication May 30, 1967
length 5 min 39 s
Genre (s) Psychedelic rock , art rock
Author (s) Lennon / McCartney
text John Lennon , Paul McCartney
music John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Award (s) Grammy (cover by Jeff Beck )
album Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

A Day in the Life ( English One Day in the Life ) is a song by British rock band The Beatles , which on 1 June 1967, their eighth album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released as the final title. The recordings took place on January 19 and 20 and on February 3, 10 and 22, 1967 at Abbey Road Studios . The song is made up of two fragments that John Lennon and Paul McCartney each wrote and composed independently. The duo Lennon / McCartney is given as the copyright holder .

The song that appeared on the second page of the album Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as the 13th and last track - before a hidden track (Sgt.Pepper's Inner Groove) at the end of the album - was later used in compilation albums and as the B-side , for example in 1978 with the single release of the title song Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the occasion of the feature film of the same name from July of the same year. The music magazine Rolling Stone published a special issue in early 2010 with the title "The Beatles - The 100 Best Songs" and put A Day in the Life in first place.

content

Lennon wrote the main part of the song. He was inspired by newspaper articles and his own life. The first stanza refers to a millionaire and aristocrat son named Tara Browne , who was killed in a car accident on December 18, 1966 , who was friends with the Beatles and other British bands. In the second stanza, Lennon shows himself as a listless viewer who watches the British army win the war. He is referring to Richard Lester's film How I Won the War , in which Lennon had starred three months earlier. It is not clear whether he also wanted to go into the Vietnam War . In the third stanza he takes up an article of January 17, 1967 in the Daily Mail about potholes in Blackburn , Lancashire . The holes were counted on instruction and estimated at approx. 4000, which equates to one hole for every 26 residents of the district. Lennon took this absurd comparison to extremes by saying that you now know how many holes you need to fill the Royal Albert Hall .

Verses two and three of the song are bridged with a little musical sketch by Paul McCartney about life dominated by routine: waking up, combing your hair, catching the bus, smoking a cigarette, etc. McCartney was thinking of his school days. This reference to the banalities of everyday life can be seen as the opposite pole to Lennon's part, which rather addresses moral and social problems.

Recordings

When recording the base tracks, the Beatles had no idea how Lennon's and McCartney's parts would be connected. Therefore they initially released 24 bars. In the final recording, the voice of Mal Evans can be heard, who counted the 24 bars and at the end let an alarm clock go off - as a fitting introduction to McCartney's part. The alarm clock had been brought by Lennon as a gag to wake Ringo Starr as soon as they needed it for a recording.

The costly idea of ​​having the transition played by a symphony orchestra soon developed . The musicians should quietly begin their instruments on the lowest note and the highest note, a E Major - triad end, at full volume. George Martin took care of the implementation and reduced the orchestra from the desired 80 to 40 musicians.

A selection of musicians from the London Philharmonic Orchestra came to the studio on February 10, 1967 for recording. The group wanted to turn the session into a party and invited all sorts of friends, including Mick Jagger , Keith Richards , Donovan , Marianne Faithfull and Michael Nesmith . Hats, cardboard noses, balloons and gorilla paws were distributed and the event was captured on 16mm film .

The intended sound cluster was recorded in five rounds. The orchestra was then doubled twice, so that a total of 160 instruments can be heard on the recording.

For the end, the Beatles wanted an overwhelming chord that lingers for a long time. The first idea to end the song with a spoken “Hummmmmm” was discarded and an E major chord was favored on the piano instead. Lennon, McCartney, Starr, Mal Evans and George Martin played this as loud as possible on three pianos at the same time. This turned out to be complicated during the recording, however, because the five actors had difficulties with the consonance when they “hit the keys”. In order to optimally record the reverberation, the recording volume had to be kept at a constantly high level. Towards the end of the chord, the recording level was so high that the rustling of paper and the squeak of a chair could be heard. Someone utters a “Shhh!” As if it were an instruction to be as quiet as possible. There are also claims that you can hear the studio air conditioning. In total, it took about 36 hours for production.

The sound engineer Geoff Emerick reported that at the suggestion of John Lennon, a high-frequency whistling sound, comparable to that of a dog whistle , was mixed in as a prank after the final chord in order to give dogs something to listen to.

Others

  • The song was initially indexed by the BBC because it was of the opinion that the line “I'd love to turn you on” glorified drugs.
  • In the documentary The Making of Sgt. Pepper , which aired the BBC in 1992, many participants report on the creative work in the studio.
  • Prince called A Day in the Life one of 55 songs that inspired him musically.

CD version

After a short pause, the record version of the album is followed by a hidden title of about two seconds , which is located in the end groove and is played endlessly on turntables that do not have an automatic switch-off. This track was named Sgt. Pepper Inner Groove in 1980 when it was released on the sampler Rarities in the USA . In order to imitate the effect of this hidden track played in an endless loop, the piece was lengthened to around 22 seconds - so that the original loop can be heard eleven times - and, after a short pause, added to the end of A Day in the Life . What exactly can be heard in the tone loop has often been discussed. Some believed it was a secret message about the Paul is dead conspiracy theory (“Will Paul return as superman?”), Others an obscenity (“We fuck you like the supermen”). In the 1997 biography of Barry Miles, McCartney made it clear that it reads "It really couldn't be any other."

Cover versions

The song was recorded by many musicians, mainly in the field of jazz until 1970 . Wes Montgomery , Wolfgang Dauner and Grant Green recorded the song. Furthermore have Neil Young , Bobby Darin , The Bee Gees (1978), The Fall (1988), Sting (1993), Phish (2002) and Cheap Trick (2009) the song gecovert . Jeff Beck brought in his cover for the compilation produced by George Martin In My Life (1998). This version was used in the film Across the Universe and won a Grammy in 2010 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance . In 2008 a live version was released on his album Performing this Week: Live at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club , where Tal Wilkenfeld plays bass. McCartney has been playing the piece at his concerts since 2008.

Marv Newland used the final chord of A Day in the Life in his 1969 animated short Bambi Meets Godzilla .

swell

  • Olaf Benzinger: Masterpieces in a nutshell - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band of the Beatles . ISBN 3-492-23137-3 .
  • Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions . London: Hamlyn 1988.
  • Ian MacDonald: The Beatles - Das Song Lexikon ISBN 3-7618-1426-7 .
  • The Beatles - The 100 best songs . In: Rolling Stone -Special Edition No. 1; 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Beatles - The 100 Best Songs ( Rolling Stone -Special Edition No. 1, 2010, p. 9)
  2. ↑ The Beatles - The 100 Best Songs ( Rolling Stone -Special Edition No. 1, 2010, p. 10)
  3. ^ Geoff Emerick: Here, There and Everywhere . Gotham Books, New York 2006, p. 188
  4. ↑ Barry Miles : Many Years from Now. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1999. p. 393