Across the universe

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Across the universe
The Beatles
publication May 8, 1970
length 3 min 44 s
Genre (s) Psychedelic folk
Author (s) Lennon / McCartney
album let it be

Across the Universe ( English through the universe ) is a song by The Beatles , which on its twelfth and final studio album, 1970 Let It Be was released. Text and composition are by John Lennon , although the song - as usual in Beatles times - was attributed to the copyright Lennon / McCartney .

Emergence

Lennon wrote the song shortly after the band in late 1967 probably Bangor ( Wales ) at a seminar of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had participated. In the spring of 1968 the Beatles were supposed to go to his meditation academy in Rishikesh ( India ) to study Indian philosophy and Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation for several months . The chorus of the song - Jai Guru Dev Om ( Sanskrit ) - pays homage to Maharishi's teacher Guru Dev .

admission

On February 3, 4 and 8, 1968, the piece was recorded for the first time in a comparatively rudimentary version in London's Abbey Road Studios - around the same time as Paul McCartney's Lady Madonna and George Harrison's The Inner Light . On a whim, Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease, two of the female fans, often waiting in large numbers in front of the studio, were invited to sing the backing vocals . One version was mixed with heavy use of phaser effects on the guitar. The song was finally mixed with bird noises that Lennon had recorded himself.

Lennon was proud of this piece, but unsure what to do with it as it was out of the question as a single. It first appeared in 1969 on the benefit record No One's Gonna Change Our World in aid of the WWF . In 1978 this version was released on the record Rarities , which was initially only available as part of The Beatles Collection , but was sold separately shortly afterwards. In 1980, an alternative version of Rarities was published in the USA , which also contained the song in the WWF version. In 1988 the WWF version appeared on Past Masters , Volume 2 for the first time on CD .

After the initial publication, the original version by Phil Spector was supplemented and slowed down with an orchestral background and new choir singing. This version appeared on the Beatles' last LP in 1970, Let It Be . In 1996 a very original version of the piece ( Stereo Remix, Take 2) appeared on Anthology 2 , recorded on February 3, 1968. On Let It Be… Naked from 2003 the piece was re-released without orchestral background music and with a new mix. The three versions available in this way differ mainly in pitch or playback speed. The WWF version is slightly faster. the Let it Be version of Phil Spector is slightly slower. The version on Let it Be… Naked should be mentioned as the original pitch. This also means that the lengths of the different versions differ (WWF version [with Vogel intro ]: 3:49 min., Version Let it Be [without intro]: 3:48 min., Let it Be… Naked : 3:38 Min.).

Others

  • John Lennon advocated releasing the song as a single in 1968. Instead, McCartney's more pleasing composition Lady Madonna prevailed.
  • John Lennon called Across the Universe one of his best compositions for the Beatles.
  • A cover version of the song is on the 1975 album Young Americans by David Bowie . It was created in a joint session with John Lennon in New York .
  • There are numerous other well-known cover versions , including one by Laibach , who covered the entire Beatles album Let It Be with the exception of the title track , as well as versions by 10cc , Roger Waters , David Bowie , Fiona Apple (1998 on the soundtrack for the film Pleasantville) , Rufus Wainwright , Scorpions (2011 on Comeblack ) and Lennon's son Sean Lennon .
  • Across the Universe traditionally play Element of Crime as the last encore at their concerts. They released a studio recording in 2005 as a bonus track on the iTunes version of their album Center of the World and in 2010 on the album Fremde Federn.
  • At the Grammy - award in February 2005, an all-star tribute version of the song was created, the proceeds of the victims of the earthquake in the Indian Ocean zugutekam December 26 of 2004. Involved were u. a. Bono , Stevie Wonder , Norah Jones , Alicia Keys and, as instrumentalists, Velvet Revolver . The recording became the most downloaded song in music history. At the end of this version, the actors changed the chorus line “Nothing's gonna change my world” to “Something's gonna change my world”.
  • The title of the musical film Across the Universe from 2007 goes back to the song. In addition to Across the Universe, 32 other newly recorded Beatles pieces illustrate the story of the young Liverpool factory worker Jude at the end of the 1960s. Most Prominent Contributors: Bono and Joe Cocker .
  • On February 4, 2008 - 40 years after its recording - the song was broadcast by the US space agency NASA in the direction of Polarstern . The occasion was the 50th anniversary of NASA and the 45th anniversary of its “Deep Space” project . The song is encoded as MP3 and emitted by the Madrid deep-space antenna at the speed of light , which it reached the Polarstern region 4.08 quadrillion kilometers away after 431 years in 2439. Since then, February 4th has been referred to as Across the Universe Day .
  • Beady Eye released a cover version of the piece in April 2011 for the benefit of the victims of the Tōhoku earthquake in 2011 .

literature

  • Ian MacDonald: The Beatles. Das Song-Lexikon, Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1426-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Steve Turner: A Hard Day's Write , Rockbuch-Verlag Buhmann & Haeseler GmbH, Schlüchtern, 2002, ISBN 3-927638-10-2 .
  2. ↑ The Beatles sing in space on Monday . In: Welt Online , February 1, 2008
  3. ↑ NASA sends Beatles song into space . In: Der Standard , February 1, 2008
  4. ^ NASA Launching Beatles Tune Into Space. ( February 18, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive ) Associated Press, February 1, 2008
  5. ^ Across The Universe Day . Across The Universe Day. February 4, 2008. Retrieved July 5, 2010.