Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!

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Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
The Beatles
publication June 1, 1967
length 2 min 38 s
Genre (s) Psychedelic rock , experimental rock , circus music
Author (s) Lennon / McCartney
album Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! ( English in favor of Mr. Kite! ) is a song by the Beatles , which was released in 1967 as the seventh track on the LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . It concludes the first page of the LP.

The composition by John Lennon was recorded on February 17th and from March 28th to 30th, 1967 at Abbey Road Studios . Lennon / McCartney are named as the copyright holder .

During the shooting of the promotional film of Strawberry Fields Forever on 31 January 1967 in Sevenoaks ( Kent ) John Lennon discovered in an antique shop an old poster for Pablo Fanques Circus Royal and bought it. He developed the song from its text.

Lennon envisioned a real fun fair atmosphere. In the archive of Abbey Road Studios there were tapes with excerpts from marches played by steam and fairground organs. Copies of these tapes were cut into small snippets by sound engineer Geoff Emerick and then randomly taped back together. The result was a chaotic sound collage that Lennon liked. Parts of this tape have been mixed into the end of the song and let it end.

At Being for the Benefit of Mr.Kite! Lennon wanted "that you could literally smell the sawdust". Such statements were typical of him. It was up to producer George Martin and sound engineer Geoff Emerick to implement these wishes. Emerick always tried very hard to create the recordings according to the ideas of the Beatles.

Still, Lennon wasn't entirely satisfied with the end product because he didn't think the song was the result of real work, which he told Beatles biographer Hunter Davies in 1967. Over time, he revised his judgment and in an interview for Playboy magazine from 1980 he described the song as “cosmically beautiful […] The song is pure, like a painting, a pure watercolor”.

The text of the poster

Poster for Pablo Fanque's circus that inspired John Lennon ; it is the original poster from Lennon's possession.

PABLO FANQUE'S CIRCUS ROYAL,
TOWN-MEADOWS, ROCHDALE .

Grandest Night of the Season!
AND POSITIVELY THE
LAST NIGHT BUT THREE!
BEING FOR THE
BENEFIT OF MR. KITE,
(LATE OF WELL'S CIRCUS) AND
MR. J. HENDERSON,
THE CELEBRATED SOMERSET -THROWER!
WIRE DANCER. VAULTER. RIDER. etc.
On TUESDAY Evening, February 14th, 1843

Mssrs. KITE & HENDERSON, in announcing the
following Entertainments ensure
the Public that this Night's Production will be
one of the most splendid ever produced in this Town,
having been some days in preparation.

Mr. Kite will, for this night only, introduce the celebrated
HORSE ZANTHUS!
Well known to be one of the best Broke horses
IN THE WORLD !!!

Mr. HENDERSON will undertake the arduous task of
THROWING TWENTY-ONE SOMERSETS,
on the solid ground.
Mr. KITE will appear, for the first time this season,
On The Tight Rope,
When Two Gentlemen Amateurs of this Town will
perform with him.
Mr. HENDERSON will, for the first time in Rochdale,
introduce his extraordinary
TRAMPOLINE LEAPS and SOMERSETS!
Over Men & Horses, through Hoops, over Garters
and lastly through a Hogshead of
REAL FIRE! In this branch of the profession
Mr. H challenges THE WORLD!

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions . Hamlyn, London 1988. p. 98
  2. ↑ George Martin: Summer of Love . Macmillan, London 1994. pp. 90-93
  3. ^ Geoff Emerick: Here, There and Everywhere . Gotham Books, New York 2007. p. 167
  4. ↑ Steve Turner: A Hard Day's Write . HarperCollins, New York 2005. p. 128