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is Blogmom of Hey Dullblog. His novels and parodies have sold 1.25 million copies in 25 languages. He lives in Santa Monica, CA, and runs The American Bystander all-star print humor magazine.
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Dig the lineup on this EP. Way to confuse Portuguese fans, EMI.
Eagle-eared commenter Bill Garrity writes to say:
“I was just listening to ‘Paperback Writer’ and wondered if anybody noticed some flubs along with background noise — coughs, extraneous breathing, muttering, etc. Notable are the following:
0:08-0:10 extraneous breathing
0:57 cough
1:19-1:21 missed cue on background vocal
1:45-1:48 extraneous breath, sniffling or something like that, someone practicing a background vocal.
Let me know!”
Can you hear these, and any more? Let Bill know in the comments!
PS—Certainly filming this video was a mistake. Most Bored Beatles Ever.
Related posts:
Thoughts on "Paperback Writer"
White Album Not All That, Writer Claims
Me on Lennon on Huffpo
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
“Paperback” Trail; or, The Hunt for Mark Shipper
Lewisohn on Strawberry Fields Take 1
God’s eye view
Cries and Whispers, Crashes and Flutters: 10 Favorite Beatles Musical Micro-Moments
It’s been a long time—
First bass
What goes on cataloged these a long time ago:
http://wgo.signal11.org.uk/html/content/p.htm#pw
Website sez it was last updated in 2010, so it was at least 3+ years ago. (I myself have never bothered to try to verify the existence of these anomalies. But at least one person other than Bill has heard them.)
As far as I’m concerned, the Beatles never made mistakes — you have to redefine your idea of perfection.
When asked if he used the mistake in his work, Jackson Pollock replied, “I deny the mistake”!
Beatle songs are full of imperfections like this, some barely perceptible unless you listen closely with headphones. They were never too polished, unlike many albums of the ’70s, when producers had endless tracks to play with, and they smoothed everything over until the end product was “perfect” and boring. On the primitive four-track Beatle songs you could hear little mistakes, giggles, extra noise (I’m convinced someone brought a dog’s squeak toy to the White Album sessions; it can be clearly heard on several tracks) and other rough edges. Lennon said they purposely created some imperfections (like missing a bass note on “Day Tripper”) just to see if anyone noticed.
Could be Ringo’s notorious Squeaky Bass Drum Pedal!
http://wgo.signal11.org.uk/html/content/m.htm#mis
Could be Ringo’s notorious Squeaky Bass Drum Pedal!
Ahh! Perhaps…. All these years I believed Paul brought in one of Martha’s chew toys. It can be heard on Helter Skelter and a few other tracks. But maybe it’s Ringo’s pedal after all.
I’ve heard that, too! I love the idea that, in the middle of this deep, dark song, there’s a chew toy. That’s very Beatles…even if it was Ringo’s pedal. 🙂
It is interesting that they made a really upbeat song out of such a pathetic story.
I love this video. Here John and George were the definition of mid-60s cool. Theirs was the look that McGuinn, Crosby, Gene Clark, and hundreds of beat group aspirants desperately tried to copy (and failed in the attempt). Poor Paul was game but self-conscious about his appearance—and he was the lead singer! Can you imagine a contemporary musical group ploughing ahead to film a video with one of its’ musicians still recovering from a disfiguring accident? For our sake, I’m glad Brian Epstein and the Boys went through with it, but I am surprised Brian didn’t scrap the video shoot.
We all know that is Paul communicating from beyond the grave.