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'''"A Day in the Life"''' is a [[song]] by the [[United Kingdom|British]] band [[The Beatles]]. It is credited to [[Lennon/McCartney]], and appears as the final track on their album ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]''. The song includes portions originally authored independently by Lennon and McCartney, and two cacophonous, part-improvised, [[orchestra]]l [[Dynamics (music)|crescendo]]s. Lennon was inspired by newspaper articles on the death of [[Tara Browne]] and a plan to fill four thousand potholes.
'''"A Day in the Life"''' is a [[song]] by the [[United Kingdom|British]] band [[The Beatles]]. It is credited to [[John Lennon]] and [[Paul McCartney]], and appears as the final track on their album ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]''. The song includes portions originally authored independently by Lennon and McCartney, and two cacophonous, part-improvised, [[orchestra]]l [[Dynamics (music)|crescendo]]s. Lennon was inspired by newspaper articles on the death of [[Tara Browne]] and a plan to fill four thousand potholes.


While recording the song, the Beatles were not certain how to fill the gap between Lennon's and McCartney's portions of the song. It was later decided that a partly-improvised crescendo by an orchestra would serve as the bridge.
While recording the song, the Beatles were not certain how to fill the gap between Lennon's and McCartney's portions of the song. It was later decided that a partly-improvised crescendo by an orchestra would serve as the bridge.

Revision as of 23:13, 24 April 2008

For other uses, see A Day in the Life (disambiguation).
"A Day in the Life"
Song

"A Day in the Life" is a song by the British band The Beatles. It is credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and appears as the final track on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song includes portions originally authored independently by Lennon and McCartney, and two cacophonous, part-improvised, orchestral crescendos. Lennon was inspired by newspaper articles on the death of Tara Browne and a plan to fill four thousand potholes.

While recording the song, the Beatles were not certain how to fill the gap between Lennon's and McCartney's portions of the song. It was later decided that a partly-improvised crescendo by an orchestra would serve as the bridge.

The song is considered as one of the Beatles' most influential, with the final E major chord becoming popularized to the point of being clichéd in modern music.[1] The supposed drug reference in the line "I'd love to turn you on" resulted in the banning of the song by the BBC.[2] It appears on many top songs lists, and is the 26th best song on the Rolling Stones Magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[3]

Since its original album release, the song has also been released on single, on compilation albums, and has been performed by other artists including Jeff Beck and The Bee Gees.

Lyrical inspiration and collaboration

John Lennon started to write the verses while reading the Daily Mail newspaper on 17 January 1967. Lennon read in that day's newspaper about the death of Tara Browne, the 21 year-old heir to the Guinness fortune and friend of The Beatles who had crashed his Lotus Elan after driving through a red light.[2] Lennon wrote the final verse of the song after reading an article in the Daily Mirror newspaper about the substantial amount of potholes in Blackburn, a city in Lancashire.[4] Lennon had a problem with the words of the final verse, not being able to think of the word "fill" for the line "Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall". His friend Terry Doran suggested fill to Lennon, and Lennon used it.[5]

The description of the accident in "A Day in the Life" was not a literal description of Browne's fatal accident. Lennon said:

I didn't copy the accident. Tara didn't blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse. The details of the accident in the song—not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene—were similarly part of the fiction.[6]

McCartney provided the middle section of the song, a short piano piece he had been working on independently, with lyrics about a commuter whose uneventful morning routine leads him to drift off into a reverie. McCartney explained that he had written the piece as a wistful recollection of his younger years, which included riding the bus to school, smoking and going to class.[7] McCartney also contributed the line "I'd love to turn you on", which serves as a chorus to the first section of the song. McCartney also provided a short, wordless vocal bridge back into Lennon's part of the song. Lennon commented on McCartney's section, saying, "I had the bulk of the song and the words, but he contributed this little lick floating around in his head that he couldn't use for anything. I thought it was a damn good piece of work." [8]

On 27 August 1992, Lennon's original handwritten lyrics were sold by the estate of Mal Evans in an auction at Sotheby's London for $100,000 (£56,600). [9] The lyrics were put up for sale again in March 2006 by Bonhams in New York. Sealed bids were opened on 7 March, 2006, and offers started at about $2 million.[10][11]

Recording

File:ADITL in audacity.png
"A Day in the Life" is characterised by crescendos and sudden instrumental changes. The repeated motif at the end is the famous "studio chatter".

The Beatles began recording this new song, at that point titled "In the Life Of ..." on 19 January 1967.[12] The two sections of the song are separated by 24 bars. At first, the Beatles were not sure how to fill this transition. Thus, at the conclusion of the recording session for the basic tracks, this section solely consisted of a simple repeated piano chord and the voice of assistant Mal Evans counting the bars. Evans's guide vocal was treated with gradually increasing amounts of echo.

The 24-bar bridge section ended with the sound of an alarm clock triggered by Evans. The original intent was to edit out the ringing alarm clock when the missing section was filled in; however it complemented McCartney's piece well; the first line of McCartney's song began "woke up, fell out of bed", so the decision was made to keep the sound.[13] Martin later said that editing it out would have been unfeasible in any case.[14]

The basic track for the song was refined with remixing and additional parts added at recording sessions on 20 January and 3 February[13]. Still, there was no solution for the missing 24-bar middle section of the song, when McCartney had the idea of bringing in a full orchestra to fill the gap.[13] To allay concerns that classically-trained musicians would not be able to improvise the section, producer George Martin wrote a loose score for the section. It was an extended, atonal crescendo, that encouraged the musicians to improvise within the defined framework.[13]

The orchestral part was recorded on 10 February, with McCartney and Martin conducting a 40-piece orchestra. The recording session was completed at a total cost of £367 for the players, an extravagance at the time.[15] Martin later described explaining his improvised score to the puzzled orchestra:

What I did there was to write . . . the lowest possible note for each of the instruments in the orchestra. At the end of the twenty-four bars, I wrote the highest note...near a chord of E major. Then I put a squiggly line right through the twenty-four bars, with reference points to tell them roughly what note they should have reached during each bar . . . Of course, they all looked at me as though I were completely mad.[16]

McCartney noted that the strings were able to keep themselves in the designated time, while the trumpets were "much wilder". [8]

McCartney had originally wanted a 90-piece orchestra, but this proved impossible; the difference was made up, as the semi-improvised segment was recorded multiple times and eventually four different recordings were overdubbed into a single massive crescendo.[13] The results were successful; in the final edit of the song, the orchestral crescendo is reprised in a more cacophonous way after the final verse.

It was arranged for the orchestral session to be filmed by NEMS Enterprises for use in a planned television special.[17] The film was never released in its entirety, although portions of it can be seen in the "A Day in the Life" promotional film, which includes shots of studio guests Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Donovan, Pattie Boyd and Michael Nesmith.[18]

Reflecting The Beatles' taste for experimentation and the avant garde at this point, the orchestra players were asked to wear or were given a costume piece on top of their formal dress. This resulted in different players wearing anything from red noses to fake stick-on nipples. Martin recalled that the lead violinist performed wearing a gorilla paw, while a bassoon player placed a balloon on the end of his instrument.[15]

The chord

Following the final orchestral crescendo, the song ends with one of the most famous final chords in music history.[19] Lennon, McCartney, Starr, Martin, and Evans simultaneously play an E-major chord on three different pianos. The sound of the final chord was manipulated to ring out for nearly a minute by increasing the tape sound level as the vibration faded out. Near the end of the chord the recording levels were turned so high that listeners can hear the sounds of the studio, including rustling papers and a squeaking chair.[20]

The piano chord was a replacement for a failed vocal experiment. On the evening following the orchestra recording session, the four Beatles had originally recorded an ending of their voices humming the chord. After multiple overdubs they found that they wanted something with more impact.[21]

Due to the multiple takes required to perfect the orchestral cacophony and the final chord, as well as their considerable procrastination in composing the song, the total duration of time spent recording "A Day in the Life" was 34 hours.[22] A duration which stood in marked contrast to their earliest work: their first album Please Please Me was recorded in its entirety in only 10 hours. [23] The Anthology 3 version of "The End" concludes with the final chord of "A Day in the Life" to bring closure to the CD series.[24]

After the chord

Immediately following the dying moments of the crashing piano chord is a tone too high-pitched for most human ears to hear, but audible to dogs and other animals and most younger listeners.[25] Lennon's alleged intention in inserting the high tone was to irritate the listener's dog.[26] The tone was only inserted on the first 5000 copies of the LP version (save the American Capitol Records pressing), but is now available on all copies of the CD.[citation needed]

The crashing piano chord and 15 kHz tone are interrupted by a loop of incomprehensible Beatles studio background noise, spliced together apparently at random sections some of which would play forward ("Never could be any other way") and others backward (possibly "Will Paul be back as Superman?").[27] This lasts for two seconds and the final three syllables are on the final groove, creating a loop that is repeated endlessly. This noise was placed in the concentric run-out groove of the vinyl LP. If the listener's record player had an auto return mechanism, a short burst of noise would be heard before the needle was lifted and moved back into place. If the listener's record player had to be returned manually, the sound would loop infinitely, leading the listener to wonder if something had gone wrong with the record or the record player.[28] Rumours of an obscene "hidden message", audible only when one played the vinyl copy backwards, abounded for many years without substantiation.[29] This was mainly due to the practical difficulties involved with manually spooling the record backwards while maintaining a constant speed. McCartney denied intentionally putting a message in, saying, "If you look hard enough you can make something out of anything."[30]

This coda to "A Day in the Life," and consequently the Sgt. Pepper's LP, was included in the original British pressings but not in American pressings. Although an infinite loop cannot be created on compact discs, the 1987 CD re-release recreates the effect by looping the noise eight or nine times before fading out.

On Anthology 2, in an early, pre-orchestral version of the song, McCartney can be heard saying "See, the worst thing about doing this, that we're doing something like this, is that I think that at first people, sort of, are a bit suspicious. You know, 'Come on, what are you up to?'. But the thing is it really is just..." before the song fades out.[31]

Song structure

"A Day in the Life" is in the key of G major, but, as Alan W. Pollack explains, "its true center of gravity is in the parallel minor and the Major keys of E".[1] The verses are in G-major/E-minor and the interlude is in E-major. A 4/4 meter is used throughout.

The song is laid out with an instrumental beginning, followed by three verses, the orchestral bridge, a middle section, the final verse, and an orchestral outro. Each verse follows the same basic layout, except each has a different way of ending. The first verse, which is twenty measures, is unique in respect to the other verses in that it ends with a repetition of the F major chord progression before returning to the home key. The second verse, two measures shorter than the first, ends on the C major chord rather than repeating the F major progression. The third verse is the same as the second, except that there is one more measure (to accommodate the "I'd love to"), and the verse does not return to the home key. Instead it leads to the bridge, a 24-measure long "glissando-like sweep" starting from low E to an E octaves higher. Random cymbal crashes are interspersed near the end to "challenge your sense of meter". [1]

An alarm clock rings, ending the bridge and beginning McCartney's middle section. The three chords in what Pollack calls the "song portion"[1] of this section are the I, flat VII, and V chords (E, D, and B). This portion is nineteen measures long, and leads to the orchestral portion of the section. The orchestral part is twenty measures long, and is a portion of the circle of fifths (from C to E) repeated twice. It leads to the fourth and final verse.

The final verse has the same layout as the third verse. Starr's drumming, however, becomes more active in this verse. It leads to the outro, which is the same glissando as the bridge. However, after the orchestra hits its highest note, there is a measure of silence, which leads to the "ready-made cliché of a final E-major chord." The fade-out of the chord lasts over a minute, at which time the studio noise can be heard.[1]

Drug references

The song became controversial for its supposed references to drugs. On 1 June 1967 (the day the Sgt. Pepper LP was released), the BBC announced it was banning "A Day in the Life" from British stations due to the line "I'd love to turn you on," which, according to the corporation, advocated drug use.[2]

Other lyrics allegedly referring to drugs include "found my way upstairs and had a smoke / and somebody spoke and I went into a dream." A spokesman for the BBC stated: "We have listened to this song over and over again. And we have decided that it appears to go just a little too far, and could encourage a permissive attitude to drug-taking".[32]

File:Back cover.gif
The back cover of the Southeastern Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, without the offending songs

Lennon and McCartney denied that there were drug references and publicly complained about the ban at a dinner party celebrating their new album to their manager, Brian Epstein. Lennon said that the song was simply about "a crash and its victim," and called the line in question "the most innocent of phrases."[32] McCartney later flatly denied the drug allegations, saying that "what we want to is to turn you on to the truth rather than...pot".[32]

Martin later commented that he had always suspected that the line "went upstairs and had a smoke" was a drug reference, recalling how the Beatles would "disappear and have a little puff", presumably of cannabis, but not in front of him.[33]

When Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in South Asia, Malaysia and Hong Kong, "A Day in the Life" was excluded along with "With a Little Help From My Friends" and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" because of supposed drug references.[34]

Recognition

"A Day in the Life" is one of the Beatles' most influential songs. Paul Grushkin in his book Rockin' Down the Highway: The Cars and People That Made Rock Roll, called the song "one of the most ambitious, influential, and groundbreaking works in pop music history."[35] In "From Craft to Art: Formal Structure in the Music of the Beatles", "A Day in the Life" is described thus:

"A Day in the Life" is perhaps one of the most important single tracks in the history of rock music; clocking in at only four minutes and forty-five seconds, it must surely be among the shortest epic pieces in rock.[36]

The song is on many top songs lists. It placed twelfth on CBC's 50 Tracks, the second highest Beatles song on the list, "In My Life." ranked higher.[37] It placed first in Q Magazine's list of the 50 greatest British songs of all time, and was at the top of Mojo Magazine's 101 Greatest Beatles Songs, as decided by a panel of musicians and journalists.[38][39][40] "A Day in the Life" was also nominated for a Grammy in 1967 for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) Or Instrumentalist(s).[41]

Cover versions and references

A Day in the Life has been covered and referenced numerous times by other artists. Jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery covered the song and used it as the title track to his instrumental album "A Day in the Life" (arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky).[42] Phish have covered the song several times throughout their career.[43] The Cat's Miaow version of "A Day in the Life" omitted the orchestral and middle sections, and appeared on their A Kiss and a Cuddle album.[44] Alternative rock band Mae recorded a version of the song.[45] Jazz guitarist Grant Green covered the song on his 1970 album Green is Beautiful (Blue Note Records).[46] The Libertines' Carl Barat and Pete Doherty covered "A Day in the Life" for BBC Radio 2's 40-year-anniversary celebration of Sgt. Pepper, broadcast June 16, 2007.[47] Sting recorded a version of the song on MTV Unplugged.[48] Brie Larson recorded an acoustic version exclusively for her MySpace page.[49]

The Devo song "Some Things Never Change" from the album Total Devo paid homage to the song, starting each verse with the nearly identical, "I saw the news today oh boy", and following similar structure.[50] Soundhog produced a remix version of the song called "A Day in Tracy's Life", incorporating Mogwai's song "Tracy" and bits of work by Kid Loco.[51] In 2008, Yoko Ono toured with a 100-piece collection of Lennon’s artwork drawn between 1968 and 1980 under the title, "A Day in the Life." The tour presented non-original limited edition copies, with many having colour added later on Ono’s orders.[52]

Personnel

Words and Music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Published by Northern Songs

Performance:

  • Roger Lord: oboe
  • John Marston: harp
  • Eric Gruenberg, Granville Jones, Bill Monro, Jurgen Hess, Hans Geiger, D. Bradley, Lionel Bentley, David McCallum, Donald Weekes, Henry Datyner, Sidney Sax, Ernest Scott: violin
  • John Underwood, Gwynne Edwards, Bernard Davis, John Meek: viola
  • Francisco Gabarro, Dennis Vigay, Alan Delziel, Alex Nifosi: cello
  • Cyril Mac Arther, Gordon Pearce: double bass
  • Basil Tschaikov, Jack Brymer: clarinet
  • N. Fawcett, Alfred Waters: bassoon
  • Clifford Seville, David Sandeman: flute
  • Alvin Civil, Neil Sanders: French horn
  • David Mason, Monty Montgomery, Harold Jackson: trumpet
  • Raymond Brown, Raymond Premru, T. Moore: trombone
  • Michael Barnes: tuba
  • Tristan Fry: timpani.[53]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Pollack, Alan W. (1996). "Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "A Day in the Life"". Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  2. ^ a b c "BBC - Radio 2 - Sold On Song - TOP 100 - Day in the Life". Retrieved 2006-12-31.
  3. ^ "A Day in the Life". Rolling Stone. 09 Dec 2004. Retrieved 2008-02-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "A Day In The Life (Lennon/McCartney)". Smackbomb. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  5. ^ Bona, Anda Mitchell-Dala. "The Origins of "A Day in the Life"". Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  6. ^ Davies, Hunter (1968). The Beatles. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Book Co. p. 357. ISBN 0-070-154-570.
  7. ^ Henke, James (2003). Lennon Legend: An Illustrated Life of John Lennon. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. p. 29. ISBN 0-811-835-170.
  8. ^ a b "Songwriting & Recording Database: Sgt Pepper". Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  9. ^ "Lennon Original Lyrics for Sale". BBC Company. 18 Jan 2006. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  10. ^ ""A Day In The Life": The Autograph Manuscript of John Lennon". Bonhams. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  11. ^ Heritage, Stuart (2006-01-18). "Buy Lennon's 'A Day in The Life' Lyrics for $2 Million". Hecklerspray. Retrieved 2008-04-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Bona, Anna Mitchell-Dala. "Recording "A Day in the Life": Take 1". Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  13. ^ a b c d e Bona, Anna Mitchell-Dala. "Recording "A Day in the Life": Friday, January 20, 1967". Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  14. ^ Hamel, Stephen. "A Day in the Life". Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  15. ^ a b Bona, Anda Mitchell-Dala. "Recording "A Day in the Life":A Remarkable Session". Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  16. ^ Martin, George (1994). All You Need is Ears: The Inside Personal Story of the Genius Who Created the Beatles. New York: St. Martin's Griffin Press. ISBN 0-312-114-826.
  17. ^ "A Day in the Life Song Details". The Beatles Studio. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  18. ^ Mironneau, Serge. "Donovan Sessionography". Retrieved 2008-04-08. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ Unterberger, Richie. "A Day in the Life Song Review". Macrovision Corp. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  20. ^ Bona, Anna Mitchell-Dona. "Recording "A Day in the Life": The Final Touch". Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  21. ^ Ave, Christopher (20 May 2007). "The Spark of Genius". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  22. ^ Vaughn, Don R. (3 Feb 2008). "'A Day in the Life': Story of Beatles song fascinating". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  23. ^ "Music Notes: Please, Please Me". 30 Nov 2006. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  24. ^ Calkin, Graham. "Anthology". Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  25. ^ Calkin, Graham. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  26. ^ Uslontseva, Annya. [auadesign.com/resources/Bet+J27.pdf "The Beatles Sgt. Pepper"] (PDF). Retrieved 2008-04-08. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  27. ^ Jim, Kendall (4 June 1998). "Paul is dead?!?". Retrieved 2008-04-11. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Album". BBC Co. 4 Oct 2002. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  29. ^ Faust, Edwin (1 September 2003). "The Beatles - The Beatles". Stylus Magazine. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  30. ^ Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now. New York: Henry Holt & Company. pp. 332–333. ISBN 0-805-052-488.
  31. ^ Brown, Mike. "Anthology Chatter Transcriptions". Retrieved 2008-04-09.
  32. ^ a b c "Beatles' Song Nasty". Associated Press. 8 June 1967. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  33. ^ Chan, Dale. "A Day in the Life". Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  34. ^ "The Sgt. Pepper's Album". Walrus Media. 15 Dec 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  35. ^ Grushkin, PaulR (2008). Rockin' Down the Highway: The Cars and People That Made Rock Roll. MBI Publishing Company. p. 135. ISBN 0760322929.
  36. ^ Womack, Kenny (2006). Reading the Beatles. SUNY Press. p. 48. ISBN 0-7914-6715-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  37. ^ Jian, Ghomeshi (January 2007). "50 Tracks". Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  38. ^ "Top Ten British Songs of All Time". Top-Ten-10.com. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  39. ^ "He One Mojo Filter". 5 June 2006. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  40. ^ "Beatles hailed 'best of British'". 2005-09-11. Retrieved 2008-04-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. ^ "The Beatles' Grammy and Academy Awards and Emmy Awards Nominations". 2/11/08. Retrieved 2008-04-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ Scott, Yanow. "A Day in the Life (Wes Montgomery)". Macrovision Corp. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  43. ^ The Phish Companion. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. 2000. p. 64. ISBN 0-87930-631-9.
  44. ^ "The Cat's Miaow". Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  45. ^ "Mae - A Day in the Life". Last.fm Ltd. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  46. ^ Huey, Steve. "Green Is Beautiful". Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  47. ^ "Ex-Libertines Reunite". Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  48. ^ "A Day in the Life (Acoustic) - Sting". Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  49. ^ "Brie Larson Myspace". Myspace. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  50. ^ "Devo - Some Things Never Change". Lyrics Time. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
  51. ^ "A Day in Tracy's Life (The Beatles vs. Mogwai vs. Kid Loco)". Retrieved 2008-02-17.
  52. ^ De Young, Bill (2008-04-12). "Yoko Ono on Lennon's art: 'He would not have minded'". De Young. Retrieved 2008-02-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  53. ^ Bona, Anna Mitchell-Dala. "The Musicians and Arrangers". Retrieved 2008-04-05.

Further reading

External links

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