Backtrack
December 10th, 2006
Friday, December 8, has no entry. It’s blank. The day that John Lennon was killed in 1980. I’d like to say I did that intentionally, to symbolize the space that could never be filled; but, the fact is, I screwed up.
The first Beatles song that I was aware as being “a John song,” was “I Feel Fine.” I’ve always considered “I Feel Fine” to be very innovative, and not just for the guitar feedback intro. To me it represents the point when The Beatles started to really break away musically from Beatlemania.
The audio player has the original single, 42 years old, that belonged to my big sister. Perhaps it still does, but she’ll never get it back! 
When that finishes, a second track will kick in with take 6 of the instrumental for “I Feel Fine.” This one you won’t find on “Anthology.”
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Technical note: Listen to the cymbals in the left channel of the studio session recording. Hear the smearing and slurping effect? The original is perfectly clear and clean. This is a good example of where 128 Kbps MP3 comes up short.
5 Comments
1. jeanie beanie | December 12th, 2006 at 7:55 am
I wonder if this is the first pop or rock song ever to use guitar feedback. As Doug stated, I, too, felt that this song marked a new and strange departure from the Beatles’ previous works.
2. Cactus Lizzie | December 13th, 2006 at 2:25 am
That’s an interesting rock trivia question, Jeanie, which I don’t know the answer to. Some rock historian must know, though! As far as “I Feel Fine” is concerned, the Beatles were in the recording studio, I believe with George Martin presiding over the session as usual, when the feedback occurred accidentally as they prepared to do one of the takes on the song. Being the creative, innovative people they were, however, they decided they liked that beginning to the song and left it in. It’s so famous now, of course, that many of us can “name THAT tune” in just one note!
3. DogRat | December 14th, 2006 at 12:34 am
From “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988:
Armed with this knowledge, if you listen to the instrumental studio take you can hear that indeed the effect is actually two guitars, with Paul holding the bass note while John adds his guitar with feedback.
4. Cactus Lizzie | December 15th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
“Something New.” No, not the LP. What I’ve learned!!! Thanks for the correction, Doug!
5. DogRat | December 16th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
That book I quote is invaluable — which I think means it’s valuable — to anybody who’s curious about the Beatles recording process. I knew the same thing you did, Liz, about the guitar feedback, until I got the book from Dennis as a present in 1988.
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