I'm only sleeping

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I'm only sleeping
The Beatles
publication June 20, 1966
length 3 min 1 s
Genre (s) Psychedelic rock
Author (s) Lennon / McCartney
Label Parlophone
album revolver

I'm Only Sleeping ( english I sleep now only ) is a song by British band The Beatles in 1966. It was composed by the rhythm guitarist of the band, John Lennon ; however, it is under the Beatles' usual copyright Lennon / McCartney .

background

In I'm Only Sleeping , John Lennon addresses his considerable sleepiness . Paul McCartney had to wake him up at his house regularly in the afternoons to be able to compose together. In an interview with the Evening Standard , Lennon stated that he fell asleep suddenly and was physically lazy. His only physical effort is sex.

admission

I'm Only Sleeping took four days to record at London's Abbey Road Studios . The recording was produced by George Martin , assisted by Geoff Emerick . On April 27, 1966, eleven takes were recorded instrumentally. Two days later the band began recording again because they were dissatisfied with the results of April 27, 1966. Five more takes were made. Ultimately, the Beatles were also dissatisfied with this new recording and instead continued their work on the version recorded two days earlier, to which Lennon added his vocals .

A striking feature of the recording of I'm Only Sleeping is the guitar solo played backwards by George Harrison . This idea goes back to a mishap of a technician who inserted a tape the wrong way round during production. The band loved the sound of the song played backwards. Harrison recorded his guitar solos twice in a five-hour until three in the morning session on May 5, 1966 - once with a distorted guitar sound, once with an undistorted guitar sound. Both solos were later mixed together. Harrison had previously noted down every note of the solo and then copied and played the notes backwards.

On May 6, 1966, work on I'm Only Sleeping was completed. Background vocals were added and the song was then mixed in mono and stereo . In total, Harrison had recorded passages recorded backwards at five points in the song, none of which can be heard in either the mono or the stereo version.

publication

I'm Only Sleeping first appeared on June 20, 1966 on the US album Yesterday and Today . In Great Britain it did not appear on the album Revolver until August 5, 1966 .

In 1996 two alternative versions of I'm Only Sleeping were released as part of the Anthology series . Both were made on April 29, 1966. The first was an incompletely preserved test recording on which a vibraphone can be heard among other things . The second version is take five of the canceled re-recording.

Cover versions

There weren't many covers of I'm Only Sleeping out . It has been interpreted by The Lettermen , Suggs , Rosanne Cash , The Vines and Quorthon, among others .

Web links

Individual evidence

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