Who Played the Pipies on the Beatles Baby Your a Rich Man?

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^{"Infant, You lot'RE A RICH MAN"}

^{(John Lennon – Paul McCartney)}

With their masterpiece "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Ring" in the can, The Beatles found themselves somewhat inspirationally spent. They had poured their hearts into the making of that album, the projection being the effect of their new-found liberty from touring and movie making. They wanted desperately to extricate themselves from other mundane pop star activities in order to concentrate on their art. And on April 21st, 1967, the album, their greatest creative expression, was complete and existence readied for release.

Although they had no plans to make a total-length characteristic movie as they had in previous years, they still had a movie contract with United Artists to fulfill. A conclusion was made to have an animated pic created in The Beatles' name that featured their music, the resulting pic entitled "Yellow Submarine." The movie's story line was to exist based loosely on popular Beatles songs with very piddling input from the group needed. This thrilled them, the program beingness to fulfill their movie contract without having to learn lines or be on any movie prepare. The movie would exist done by professional animators and story-writers.

However, The Beatles agreed to be involved in the making of this pic by doing what they did all-time; providing a few new original songs to be used in the moving-picture show. Apart from a brief cameo appearance at the end of the moving-picture show, and maybe a story-line thought thrown in here or at that place, this is all The Beatles had to do. With this in mind, John and Paul put their individual ideas together to create a vocal intended for this pic, the effect being "Baby, Yous're A Rich Homo."

Songwriting History

Ian MacDonald, in his book "Revolution In The Head," makes an astute observation regarding what most likely was the initial inspiration for "Baby, You're A Rich Man." He states: "The 'beautiful people' was what the West Declension hippies called themselves. The '14-Hr Technicolor Dream,' an all-nighttime festival at Alexandra Palace on April 29th, 1967 which Lennon attended, was the first tribal gathering of the British "cute people." This, and the fact that the session for 'Baby, You're A Rich Man' was arranged at brusk notice, suggest that the vocal was inspired by the outcome."

This was one of the probable inspirations for John to start writing a song entitled "One Of The Beautiful People." Paul, in his volume "Many Years From Now," relates another of John's inspirations: "There was a lot of talk in the newspapers and then nigh the beautiful people. That was what they chosen them...the question then was, 'how does it feel to exist one of the cute people?'" In fact, the word "cute" was condign a habitual word in Beatles language at this time. "At the back of my mind somewhere," Paul stated in interview to International Times in January of 1967, "in that location is something which tells me that everything is beautiful...that everything's great and there'south no bad ever if I can think of it all as not bad."

John himself clarified the writing process for what became "Baby, Yous're A Rich Man" in his 1980 Playboy interview. "That is a combination of two sperate pieces, Paul's and mine, put together and forced into a vocal. One half was all mine (singing ): ' How does information technology experience to be one of the beautiful people, now that you know who you are, da da da da.. .' And so Paul comes in with ( singing ): ' Infant, you're a rich man.. .' because he just had this ' Infant, yous're a rich man' around."

The verses may initially have been written by John and the chorus past Paul, simply there was some battering effectually of ideas at a writing session betwixt the two. "'Baby, You're A Rich Man' was co-written by John and me at Cavendish Artery," Paul explains. "'Tuned to a natural E ' is a line I call up us writing, a slight pun on the word 'naturally' – ' natural E.'"

Although never verified, the "rich homo" referred to in Paul'southward section of the song is rumored to refer to their manager Brian Epstein. "The point was," stated John, "stop moaning. You're a rich man and nosotros're all rich men, hey, hey, baby!."

The question/answer lyric writing that John had just put to good use in the recently written "With A Little Help From My Friends" saw a reprisal in this song. Lennon's "vague witticisms," as described by Tim Riley in his volume "Tell Me Why," are once over again on display: "How often have you been there? / Often enough to know " and " What did you run across when you were there? / Zilch that doesn't show " being prime examples of continuing the " What exercise y'all see when you lot plough out the light? / I can't tell you but I know it's mine" from the previous vocal.

Olympic Studios, London

Recording History

"The Beatles couldn't become into the studio for the next couple of nights," explains Geoff Emerick in his volume "Hither, There And Everywhere," "which forced them to record 'Baby You're A Rich Man'...at Olympic Studios...It was effectually this fourth dimension that The Beatles began frequenting outside studios more and more, for a variety of reasons."

Geoff Emerick goes on to explain what these reasons may have been: "Peradventure they but had motel fever and were sick of staring at the same four walls. There weren't really whatever amenities at Abbey Road: at that place were no couches or armchairs in our cramped control rooms, simply a couple of uncomfortable, hard chairs. In contrast, when they went into Olympic...at that place would exist large control rooms with plush leather sofas and comfortable chairs to sit in, all accented past low lighting and a modern décor...In add-on, by mid-1967, every other major studio in London had an eight-track auto, and we however had simply four-track, which really made u.s.a. seem like we were lagging far backside...There was likewise a much more than relaxed mental attitude toward drugs in other studios, and information technology wouldn't surprise me if the staff at those facilities would partake with clients, so perchance The Beatles related to the other engineers better...I imagine they thought information technology was actually cool to share a articulation with the control room staff. In dissimilarity, nosotros must have seemed really directly and square."

In whatsoever consequence, on May 11th, 1967, but days after the contracts were signed for the new "Yellowish Submarine" moving picture projection, The Beatles entered Olympic Sound Studios for work on the starting time new vocal to be used for this movie. "Olympic was ane of the peak independent studios in Britain," Mark Lewisohn explains in his book "The Beatles Recording Sessions," "turning out many striking records. The Rolling Stones had taken to recording in that location, even though studio manager Keith Grant was equally smashing to promote the venue's valuable motion-picture show soundtrack work."

George Martin was all the same used equally producer of the session, although the same Keith Grant oversaw engineering duties. "The Beatles said that this was the fastest record they'd ever fabricated," Grant relates. "They were used to a much more leisurely footstep. Nosotros started the session at about 9 pm."

Twelve takes of a rhythm rails were recorded first with the instrumentation being John on pianoforte, Paul on bass, George on electrical guitar and Ringo on drums. Keith Grant remembers, "They kept on playing, version after version, and then we spooled back to the one they liked and overdubbed the vocals." Take 12 was accounted the best rhythm track, onto which John sang lead vocals with Paul and George singing backing vocals. (Legend has it that John sings "Baby, you're a rich fag jew" as a reference to Brian Epstein toward the finish of the song...listen carefully to meet if you can discover it!) Other overdubs included Paul playing an additional piano, Ringo on tambourine and then maracas, George and Ringo adding handclaps, John double-tracking his lead vocals in spots, and Eddie Kramer (hereafter producer for Jimi Hendrix and Osculation who happened to be 2nd engineer on the session) adding a little vibraphone. A droning sound resembling a tamboura is besides present on the finished recording, undoubtedly played by George.

Attending this session was friend and young man musician Mick Jagger, who may accept contributed something to the proceedings every bit well. Author Mark Lewisohn, while listening to the tape in training for his book "The Beatles Recording Sessions," spotted the following notation on the tape box: "The Beatles + Mick Jagger?". It has been speculated that he could have joined in on the singalong choruses of the song, although this has not been verified.

One other overdub at this session was a very interesting musical instrument called a Clavioline which was played by John. Eddie Kramer explains: "We wanted to brand sure that they walked out of (Olympic Studios) being completely blown away. Which they were...There was a Clavioline that happened to exist in the studio, and John played it. This was a French electronic musical instrument with a small keyboard. It had a little strip which y'all put your thumb on and moved information technology up and downwardly the length of the keyboard as yous played, to get vibrato."

Andy Babiuk, in his volume "Beatles Gear," gives more detail near this instrument. "The Clavioline was a monophonic keyboard – meaning but 1 annotation sounded at a fourth dimension, precluding chords. Information technology was in effect a predecessor of modern synthesizers...The instrument consisted of two units: the keyboard, with built-in valve (tube) sound generator; and the dissever amplifier-and-speaker box...A built-in octave transposer switch gave the keyboard'south single oscillator a five-octave range. The overall book was controlled by a human knee-operated lever. The Clavioline'southward unusual sound, heard whirling intermittently through 'Baby Y'all're A Rich Human being,' had also been axiomatic on 'Telstar,' a big hit for the British group The Tornados on both sides of the Atlantic in 1962."

As for John Lennon's utilize of the instrument on this day, one apocryphal story suggests that he achieved his rapid-fire wail by rolling an orange upward and downwardly across the keyboard. This, or course, has not been verified, but makes for an interesting chestnut when relating the details of this recording session.

As far as the vocals were concerned both Keith Grant and Eddie Kramer discussed this evening'south session with engineer George Chkiantz, who related: "They were both amazed at John Lennon'southward vocalisation. They'd long been wondering what it would exist like to record and they were saying how great it was. They couldn't believe anyone could sing that well."

Subsequently all overdubs were complete, anybody stayed a petty longer to put information technology all together. A tape reduction was deemed necessary and so two attempts at this were done, the second one considered the better one. Then the 1 and only mono mix of the song was made, making "Baby, You're A Rich Homo" the first Beatles song to be recorded and mixed for record entirely outside of Abbey Road.  Keith Grant explains: "It was finished and mixed by about 3 am." Paul himself remembers this mean solar day in his book "Many Years From Now" as "a rather exciting recording session at Olympic, in Barnes, where Keith Grant mixed it, instantly, right at that place. He stood up at the console as he mixed information technology, so information technology was a very heady mix, we were actually quite buzzed. I always liked that track."

"Whenever they did a rail at an outside studio," relates Geoff Emerick, "I usually had to do a lot of repair work to the tapes considering they but couldn't achieve the sound they were used to anywhere else. This time around, though, they actually got the entire song done – including the last mix – in a single session...It had been a long time since they'd been and so efficient. I had to admit that the results were pretty skillful...Keith Grant did the session himself and he knew what he was doing. In add-on, Olympic's mixing console was a totally different pattern than ours and was capable of passing lower frequencies, so there was quite a smooth bass sound, which I thought was great."

The next fourth dimension attention was given to the song was on August 22nd, 1968, when George Martin made a copy of this mono principal in the control room of EMI Studio Ii. It was reportedly taken abroad past George Martin, possibly to forward to the makers of the "Yellow Submarine" motion picture, a scrap of which being included in the American version of the moving picture.

Since the song was merely released in mono as a single, a stereo mix wasn't made until October 22nd, 1971, past George Martin and Geoff Emerick at his AIR Studios in London. Certain differences are evident, most noteworthy is the presence of George Harrison's guitar part which is non equally prominent in the mono mix. The finish of a vocalized "xi " which is present at the very beginning of the mono mix (possibly someone attempting to identify what take information technology was) was faded out of this stereo mix. Also, there is an event referred to by some as a "spin" that appears at strategic places in the verses of the song (such as afterwards the lines " eye can come across " and " enough to know"). These "spin" effects are missing in the stereo mix. This stereo mix is also nine seconds shorter than the mono mix. In the US, this stereo mix was offset heard on the CD release of the album "Magical Mystery Tour."

A further stereo mix of the song was made in 1999 in preparation for the release of the anthology "Yellow Submarine Songtrack." The engineering team working on this project comprised Peter Cobbin, Paul Hicks, Mirek Stiles and Allan Rouse . The engineering of the 1990's made for a cleaner and more vibrant version of the song, the excitement of the recording session coming through very well for the listener.

^{Song Structure and Style}

The structure of "Baby You're A Rich Homo" is quite standard for Beatles compositions, namely a 'verse/ verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus' format (or aabab) with an introduction and repeating conclusion added on.

The introduction is eight measures long and consists of the bones rhythm track of piano, guitar and drums with the overdubbed tambourine throughout all eight measures. Interestingly, George'due south guitar thumps propel the beat of the song nicely in this introduction, fifty-fifty slightly overshadowing Ringo'southward usual time-keeping role in the early moments of the song. The overdubbed maracas announced at the beginning of the 2d mensurate, Paul'south bass emerges in the middle of the third measure out, John's "ophidian-mannerly" Clavioline appears first at the very terminate of the tertiary mensurate, and then the handclaps come in in the fifth measure out. All these elements are brought in 1 at a time as if to build up the arrangement layer by layer.

The first eleven-measure verse then appears every bit the Clavioline fades from view and John and Paul's unison vocals appear, sung partially in falsetto. The instrumentation of the introduction continues throughout the poesy with the Clavioline filling in the open spaces of the lyrics in measures v and nine. John and Paul sing in unison during the unabridged verse except for two lines, namely " what do you want to exist " (measure six) and " far equally the eye tin see " (mensurate 10) which are sung past John solo. Another characteristic is the two breaks that appear in the verse; the kickoff is in measure vii with only a slight pianoforte being heard along with all percussion, the second in measure eleven which cuts out all percussion and only features piano chords playing an 8th-note rhythm that swells in volume as the measure ends.

The second poesy begins immediately afterwards. Noteworthy differences include Ringo'south pulsate fills in the first two measures and Paul's outset harmony in the third mensurate on the word " people ." John'due south solo lines " often enough to know " and " nix that doesn't show " are both mimicked by George on guitar this time around. The final piano smashing in the eleventh measure is this fourth dimension accented by a vibrant drum fill from Ringo in anticipation of the first chorus that follows.

The high point of the song is and then reached in this first twelve-mensurate chorus with John and Paul repeating the song's title for the first three measures in an excitedly high pitch in unison. Paul swings into harmony in the fourth measure for the word " also ." John's vocals are sung solo but double-tracked in the fifth through 8th mensurate while his Clavioline appears in the open spaces in measures four, vii and 8. Full instrumentation, every bit previously heard in the verses, continues throughout this chorus until the twelfth measure where another break occurs, the only elements present are the piano swell, a tambourine and a stray hand clap at the beginning of the measure.

Then comes the third verse, which this time features a very mellow showtime line sung single-tracked by John until Paul joins in on the third mensurate with a harmonized " people ." Ringo plays some meandering "lead drums" in the first ii measures while the Clavioline appears in measures five, seven and nine this fourth dimension. A dawdling sound which very much resembles a tamboura is heard quite prominently throughout this verse as well, undoubtedly played by George as he did in the song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" which was recorded two months prior. Ringo ends this poetry with a snare drum fill to usher in the following chorus.

This 2nd chorus is identical to the first in most respects, the most notable differences being more appearances of the Clavioline (measures four, seven, viii, nine, ten and twelve) and an extemporaneous actress " baby " from Paul in the 8th measure. There is no break at the cease of this chorus, the instrumentation standing in full strength with Paul yelping out a " Oh-oh-oh-oh " in the final measure.

This moves straight into the conclusion of the song which is a continual repeat of the first four measures of the chorus sung with energetic spontaneity until it fades out. Full instrumentation appears throughout this decision, including uninterrupted Clavioline noodling from John. The conclusion in the stereo mix extends but viii measures until it is faded away while the mono mix is extended for eleven measures.

All iv Beatles were fully involved in the making of this song, playing on the rhythm rail as well as multiple overdubs. With team spirit abounding, they all played in top grade; John on pianoforte and his wild Clavioline, Paul on bass and pianoforte, George on guitar and perhaps tamboura, and a very spirited Ringo on drums and percussion. This post "Pepper" rails may not have been every bit masterfully written or recorded, but one thing that is obvious is the fun temper of the recording session that easily comes through to the listener. Everyone involved was undoubtedly having a blast recording this vocal. And the undeniable hook of the chorus tin can't help but get you to sing along, even if you lot accept no idea why anyone would keep all their money " in a big dark-brown bag inside a zoo! "

^{American Releases}

Shortly before "All You Need Is Beloved" was broadcast on live television on June 25th, 1967, it was decided to release the song as the adjacent Beatles single immediately later on. Although "Baby You're A Rich Man" was designated for a future release with the "Yellow Submarine" pic, a B-side to "All You Need Is Love" was required in order non to delay the single's worldwide release. Therefore, the recently recorded "Rich Human" was an piece of cake solution.

"Baby You're A Rich Human being" was get-go released as a unmarried in the US on July 17th, 1967, paired with the landmark recording "All You lot Need Is Love." With the fizz of the long-awaited "Sgt. Pepper" album in the air, it just being released on June second, 1967, swell attending was given to this new single that was NOT on that album. After a seemingly long absence, The Beatles had a tremendous amount of material to unleash on their fans.

While "All You Need Is Dear" made information technology all the way to the top of the charts, "Baby You're A Rich Man" managed to elevation within the height 40 of the Billboard charts also, at number 34 (although the mag mistakenly listed the song as "Baby Yous're A Rich Human Now"). Interestingly, Capitol Records inadvertently gave "Rich Man" a suffix number one digit lower (45-X46047) than "All You Need Is Honey" (45-X46048), something that would normally indicate which was the A-side of the single. This confusion resulted in "Rich Man" being printed on the "full-Apple" side of the single when it was somewhen released on Apple Records in the 70's, "All You Need Is Love" being relegated to the "sliced-Apple" side.

Simply over four months later, on November 27th, 1967, the vocal was included on the Us album "Magical Mystery Tour," an album Capitol concocted to flesh out the vi songs The Beatles recorded for their British television special of the same name. Since a stereo mix of the song didn't exist at the time, a false-stereo version of the vocal appeared on the stereo copies of this anthology. The vinyl version of this album continued to exist reissued in the US throughout the years, while the meaty disc edition, containing a true stereo mix of "Baby You're A Rich Homo," was released on compact disc on September 21st, 1987, this CD existence remastered and re-released on September ninth, 2009.

An interesting US vinyl edition of the "Magical Mystery Tour" album was released on February 1st, 1981. This was manufactured by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in Chatsworth, California and was office of their " Original Master Recording " series, which prepared its albums utilizing half-speed mastering technology from the original principal tapes. In this example, however, they leased the chief tape from EMI in the UK, not realizing that this was a second generation master tape originally supplied by Capitol Records in America. While this release sounded superior to conventional vinyl versions, it still contained the duophonic (fake stereo) mixes of "Penny Lane," "Baby, You lot're A Rich Man" and "All You Demand Is Love." Too, equally was the instance with all of the vinyl editions of the album past this time, the original multi-folio booklet was omitted from this new vinyl release. Withal, this edition of the album was only available for a short time and is quite collectible today.

On June 30th, 1992, the CD box set up entitled "Compact Disc EP Collection" was released which featured a bonus disc that besides contained the true stereo version of "Infant You're A Rich Human being."

In February of 1994, the "Baby You're A Rich Man" single was re-released past Capitol Cema every bit a jukebox unmarried on pink vinyl, which is quite a collectible today.

The Nov 20th, 2006 released compilation album "Love" featured snippets of "Baby Y'all're A Rich Man" on two of its selections. John Lennon'due south distinctive Clavioline playing was included on the rail "Lucy In The Heaven With Diamonds" and vocals from the vocal are featured on the runway "All You Demand Is Dearest."

On September 9th, 2009, the box ready " The Beatles In Mono " was released, which contained the entire mono Beatles catalog in a newly remastered status, "Baby You're A Rich Human" being amid the collection.

George Harrison in a park at Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, Baronial 7th, 1967

Live Performances

The Beatles were well past their touring life at this stage, but in that location is one known fourth dimension that "Babe You're A Rich Man" was performed past a Beatle. On August 7th, 1967, just three weeks after the single was released in the Usa, George Harrison and entourage decided to brand a cursory visit to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California, to visit the highly publicized "cute people" of the surface area.

Co-ordinate to David Swanson of the San Francisco Chronicle, "A young homo was entertaining a oversupply of virtually xx hippies. Harrison and his wife listened for a minute then Harrison asked, 'Can I infringe your guitar?' The immature homo said, 'Sure.'  Harrison took the guitar and started to play...hippies clambered down hills, dropped from trees and sprang from behind bushes. A sizeable crowd formed. Harrison played for about 10 more minutes and then shouted, 'Let'due south go for a walk'...And off they went. Harrison strumming the guitar with the hippies following forth." George relates, "We walked into a park and it only became a joke. All these people were but following usa along." At this point, as outlined in Steve Turner'southward book "A Hard Day's Write," "George sat on the grass, listened to other people's songs and and then started to sing 'Baby You're A Rich Man.'"

Other than a few seconds of the song appearing in the moving-picture show "Yellow Submarine," which was released in the US on Nov 13th, 1968, "Baby Y'all're A Rich Man" has never again been performed by any Beatle.

^Conclusion

It has been postulated that the Lennon/McCartney collaboration efforts had disintegrated as the years progressed, resulting in John and Paul writing individually and, at best, allowing the other to put in his ii-cents after the song was otherwise completed. While this has proven to be true, even disintegrating into non bothering to include the others' input toward the end of the partnership, in 1967 they were offset to experiment in their collaborative efforts. Ane would have a partial vocal written, the other would have another partial song written, and they would piece them together. Before this yr, the masterful " A Twenty-four hours In The Life " was written this way, as was 1969'due south "I've Got A Feeling." In this same mode, "Baby You lot're A Rich Man" came to fruition, resulting in a lighthearted romp of psychedelia that was just as fun for them to create as information technology is for us to listen to.

Song Summary

" Baby You lot're A Rich Man "

Written past: John Lennon / Paul McCartney

• Song Written: May, 1967
• Song Recorded: May 11, 1967
• First US Release Date: July 17, 1967
• United states Single Release: Capitol #5964
• Highest Chart Position: #34 (b-side to "All You Need Is Love")
• Commencement Usa Anthology Release: Capitol #SMAL-2835 "Magical Mystery Tour"
• British Anthology Release: Parlophone #PCTC 255 "Magical Mystery Tour"
• Length: 3:07 (mono) 2:58 (stereo)
• Cardinal: G major
• Producer: George Martin
• Engineers: Keith Grant, Geoff Emerick, Eddie Kramer

Instrumentation:

• John Lennon - Atomic number 82 Vocals, Pianoforte (Steinway Grand), Clavioline (Selmer Concert)
• Paul McCartney - Bass (1964 Rickenbacker 4001 South), Piano (Steinway M), bankroll vocals
• George Harrison - Guitar ( 1965 Epiphone Casino ES-230TD ), handclaps, backing vocals, tamboura?
• Ringo Starr - Drums ( 1964 Ludwig Super Classic Blackness Oyster Pearl), tambourine, maracas, handclaps
• Eddie Kramer - Vibraphone
• Mick Jagger - Bankroll vocals ?

Written and compiled by Dave Rybaczewski

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