Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 15, 16, 18 July 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott
Released: 22 November 1968 (UK), 25 November 1968 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, organ
Paul McCartney: bass
George Harrison: lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
George Martin: harmonium
Available on:
The Beatles (White Album)
Anthology 3
Written by John Lennon while in India, Cry Baby Cry recalled the nursery rhymes of his childhood.
According to Hunter Davies' authorised 1968 book on The Beatles, the song was, like Good Morning Good Morning, partly inspired by an television commercial.
I've got another one here, a few words, I think I got them from an advert - 'Cry baby cry, make your mother buy'. I've been playing it over on the piano. I've let it go now. It'll come back if I really want it. I do get up from the piano as if I have been in a trance. Sometimes I know I've let a few things slip away, which I could have caught if I'd been wanting something.
The Beatles, Hunter Davies
The song was completed in India, and the group recorded a demo at George Harrison's Esher house in May 1968.
Lennon was later dismissive of Cry Baby Cry, describing it in 1980 as "a piece of rubbish". The song's most obvious debt was to the nursery rhyme Sing A Song Of Sixpence, with which it shares a number of lyrical themes:
Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose!
The ominous descending chords take Lennon's song somewhere darker than the rhyme, as does the final verse's mention of seances, voices and midnight pranks.
On the White Album, Cry Baby Cry was followed by Paul McCartney's Can You Take Me Back, an ad-libbed song recorded during the 16 September session session for I Will. Although unrelated to Cry Baby Cry, the songs are often classed as one.
2006's Love album featured Can You Take Me Back as a transitory piece. It was billed as Cry Baby Cry, although none of Lennon's song was included.
In the studio
The Beatles began recording Cry Baby Cry on 15 July 1968. They filled four 30-minute tapes with unnumbered rehearsal takes, which were later wiped during the following two sessions.
Because John had divorced Cynthia and gone off with Yoko, it meant that I'd hear some of the songs for the first time when he came to the studio, whereas in the past we checked them with each other.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
On 16 July the group recorded 10 takes. The rehearsals evidently paid off: although it lacked overdubs, take one - released in 1996 on Anthology 3 - wasn't significantly different from the final version.
The tenth take was the one selected for further work. The basic track - vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, organ and drums - received harmonium and piano overdubs later in the session.
Abbey Road's long-serving balance engineer Geoff Emerick, who had made invaluable contributions to The Beatles' music since Revolver, stopped working with the group during the 16 July session as a result of the ongoing tensions.
I lost interest in the White Album because they were really arguing among themselves and swearing at each other. The expletives were really flying... I said to George [Martin], 'Look, I've had enough. I want to leave. I don't want to know any more.' George said, 'Well, leave at the end of the week' - I think it was a Monday or Tuesday - but I said, 'No, I want to leave now, this very minute.' And that was it.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
With Ken Scott taking Emerick's place, Cry Baby Cry was completed on 18 July. John Lennon recorded new lead vocals, along with backing vocals, more harmonium, tambourine and further percussion.
The song was mixed for mono and stereo on 15 October, during which the acoustic guitar beginning was given its distinctive flanging effect.
Related articles:
- Recording: Cry Baby Cry
- Recording: Cry Baby Cry, Helter Skelter
- Mixing: Happiness Is A Warm Gun, I'm So Tired, Cry Baby Cry
- Baby It's You
- Recording, mixing: Revolution, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Cry Baby Cry
'The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey'
Lennon again uses the same nursery rhyme in 1980. The lyrics of Clean Up Time, the third song of the Double Fantasy album (1980),go:
The Queen is in the counting house,
counting out the money.
The King is in the kitchen
Making bread and honey...
A slight altering. In Lennons version, the male person is the housekeeper, while the wife is doing big business.
I wonder, are these lines (in both songs) about Lennons hidden desire to be 'only' a houseman and a father and a husband?
Fact is, he was making bread and honey, and doing nothing much more, in the mid-Seventees, wasn't he, and it was (quote:) "the happiest time of my life"...
Before I forget: Great songs, both!
X
How about being a Beatles engineer who quits over 'tensions' and 'foul language'? wow. I imagine Geoff Emerick didn't like horror films or rainy days for that matter.
I was thinking the same thing myself. You're with some of the best musicians ever, what kind of excuse is that? Ungrateful bastard.
You weren't there. I'm sure those sessions were traumatic for him. Give him some slack, he held out as long as he could. Poor guy. I'm just glad he didn't have to sit through the Get Back sessions.
Have you read Geoff Emerick's book. He makes it quite clear that very few people enjoyed working with the Beatles at the time when, regretfully, he felt obliged to quit. Thankfully, they were able to persuade him to return for Abbey Road.
Ringo left too. If he was frustrated as a fab...
Maybe it was heartbreaking to see the wonderful Beatles falling out with each other. It almost broke my little sixteen year old heart when they did break up and started fighting in public.
Well, those same tensions also induced Ringo & George to temporarily leave the group, so...
Geoff Emerick was a genius whose work is largely uncredited. Read his book, it mind change your view on alot of things.
I have, and he comes off as a selfish, ungrateful man.
You got that right.
To read Emerick the way he writes, you would think HE was the Beatles!
Couldn't believe it when I read it: "Lennon was later dismissive of Cry Baby Cry, describing it in 1980 as a piece of rubbish"
I think that for all his bravado, John was always his own toughest critic, and most of the time it was completely unwarranted. This song is easily my favorite song of the second WA set, it is such a groovy tune, with that syncopated drum groove and funky piano-bass interchange. I truly believe it to be one of his best.
John liked to hearken back to the Beethoven style of always criticizing his own work, always believing he could do so much better.
It must have been stressful, but it brought him the the heights of fame.
I always grin when it gets to
The Duchess of Cicaldy always smiling
And arriving late for tea
The Duke was having problems with a message at the local Bird and Bee
especially those twin guitar licks right after "tea" and "bee". Pretty witty guitar work from George.
I love this song too. I really like Ringo's drumming on the Anthology version. He never does the same fill twice.
Interesting tidbit: This song is in the Mixolydian mode, meaning that there is no traditional V (dominant) chord. Instead of playing the usual G-D-G ending, John sticks to a G-F-G progression. This adds a strange, otherworldly quality, somthing I imagine John was seeking, without knowing or caring what the hell a mode is. Try strumming the chords and substitute a D everytime he plays F. Using D turns it into a mediocre ditty.
Interesting, thanks, I tried with the D replacement and certainly it would have been much too bright a chord for this ominous song. And I would absoultely shocked if John knew that he did this.