Revolution in the Head by Ian Macdonald

Author:Ian Macdonald [Macdonald, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2007-01-26T05:00:00+00:00

US release: 25th November 1968 (LP: The Beatles)

Both leading Beatles were adept at jokey ad-libs in various styles. Here McCartney spins a Tom Mix/Harry Langdon silent-cinema yarn about comedy cowboys, a song which, in earlier days, would have remained a private joke but which, in the anything-goes atmosphere prevailing at Abbey Road, was given a swift polish and accepted for the forthcoming album. (According to George Martin, who tried to persuade The Beatles to halve their new material and issue one strong LP instead of two weak ones, they were recording such fillers in order to fulfil their EMI contract faster.) Having begun as a jam with Lennon and Donovan in Rishikesh, ROCKY RACCOON became a shaggy-dog story sustained by a lyric which seems to be leading somewhere until its glib closing lines. Taped in one night, it’s a faintly amusing squib adorned with a barrelhouse piano faked with ADT and varispeed.

[U141] WHAT’S THE NEW MARY JANE (Lennon-McCartney)

Lennon vocal, double-tracked piano, effects; Harrison vocal, double-tracked acoustic guitar, Yoko Ono vocal, effects; Mal Evans (?) handbell

Recorded: 14th August 1968, 26th November 1969, Abbey Road 2.

Producen: George Martin/Geoff Emerick/John Lennon. Engineers: Ken Scott/Mike Sheady.

UK release: 28th October 1996 (2-CD: Anthology 3)

US release: 28th October 1996 (2-CD: Anthology 3)

Probably written in the informal air of Rishikesh, this sardonic nursery-rhyme appears to be a fairly specific attack on a would-be recruit to the Apple entourage. The usual explanation - that ‘Mary Jane’ is slang for marijuana - fails to account for most of the lyric, which seems to consist of in - crowd references to a person known to the participants (someone female, black, possibly American, and perhaps seeking UK residency via a convenience marriage). Not that the mystery is very tantalising, for the song, musically trite, is conspicuously unredeemed by a rambling free-form extension seemingly intended to evoke an unpleasant drug experience. (On the longest of its three initial versions, this prolonged the track to 6:31.) Left off The Beatles because it simply didn’t fit, WHAT’S THE NEW MARY JANE was revived by Lennon fifteen months later as a projected single coupled with [112] YOU KNOW MY NAME (LOOK UP THE NUMBER), to be issued under the auspices of The Plastic Ono Band. This was quashed (by EMI or the other Beatles) and the track stayed in the Abbey Road vaults, gaining an undeserved reputation as a suppressed anarchic masterpiece.

[141] WLLD HONEY PIE (Lennon-McCartney)

McCartney vocals, acoustic guitars, drums

Recorded: 20th August 1968, Abbey Road 2.

Producer: George Martin. Engineer: Ken Scott.

UK release: 22nd November 1968 (LP: The Beatles)

US release: 25th November 1968 (LP: The Beatles)

A throwaway based on a Rishikesh singalong, WILD HONEY PIE was taped at the end of the second session for [138] MOTHER NATURE’S SON and uses the same corridor drum set-up.

[142] BACK IN THE USSR (Lennon-McCartney)

McCartney double-tracked vocal, backing vocals, piano, lead guitar, bass, drums, handclaps, percussion; Lennon backing vocals, lead guitar, 6-string bass, drums, handclaps, percussion; Harrison backing vocals, lead guitar, bass, drums, handclaps, percussion

Recorded: 22nd-23rd August 1968, Abbey Road 2.

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