Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 16 October 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 3 December 1965 (UK), 6 December 1965 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
Available on:
Past Masters
1
Written to order when Lennon and McCartney realised they needed a new single at the tail end of 1965, Day Tripper was released as a double a-side with We Can Work It Out.
Day Tripper was [written] under complete pressure, based on an old folk song I wrote about a month previous. It was very hard going, that, and it sounds it. It wasn't a serious message song. It was a drug song. In a way, it was a day tripper - I just liked the word.
Anthology
John Lennon had the initial idea for Day Tripper, and collaborated with McCartney to complete the song. Written at Kenwood, Lennon's house in Weybridge, Surrey in October 1965, the song is based on a 12-bar blues in E, switching up a tone (F#) for the chorus.
That was a co-written effort; we were both there making it all up but I would give John the main credit. Probably the idea came from John because he sang the lead, but it was a close thing. We both put a lot of work in on it.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The song was a knowing reference to the burgeoning drugs-based counterculture of the mid-1960s. 'Day tripper' was a slang term for someone who failed to fully embrace the hippy lifestyle.
That's mine. Including the lick, the guitar break and the whole bit. It's just a rock 'n' roll song. Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But it was kind of - you know, you're just a weekend hippie. Get it?
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Lennon and Harrison had both been introduced to LSD by 1965, although their use wouldn't peak until 1967. McCartney later admitted the song was about drugs, though The Beatles' clean-cut image at the time meant that the references were well hidden to all but those in the know.
Day Tripper was to do with tripping. Acid was coming in on the scene, and often we'd do these songs about 'the girl who thought she was it'... But this was just a tongue-in-cheek song about someone who was a day tripper, a Sunday painter, Sunday driver, somebody who was committed only in part to the idea. Whereas we saw ourselves as full-time trippers, fully committed drivers, she was just a day tripper.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The lyrics employed other double meanings. "She's a big teaser" was originally "She's a prick teaser", though they never seriously considered recorded it like that.
I remember with the prick teasers we thought, That'd be fun to put in. That was one of the great things about collaborating, you could nudge-nudge, wink-wink a bit, whereas if you're sitting on your own, you might not put it in.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Day Tripper was a part of The Beatles' live repertoire from 1965 until they gave up touring. It was the fourth song performed at their final concert at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on 29 August 1966.
In the studio
Day Tripper was recorded in three takes during the sessions for Rubber Soul. On the afternoon of 16 October 1965 the band spent some hours rehearsing the backing rhythm track, recording three takes, only the final one of which was complete.
That evening they added a number of overdubs; Lennon and McCartney both shared lead vocals, and Lennon played the climactic guitar solo.
The Beatles also recorded the rhythm track for George Harrison's If I Needed Someone during the same session.
Chart success
The Beatles originally intended for Day Tripper to be the a-side of their final single of 1965. However, after the group recorded We Can Work It Out four days later, on 20 October, it was considered the more commercial song.
Lennon's protestations resulted in the single being marketed as the world's first double a-side. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that We Can Work It Out was requested by a greater proportion of record buyers, and was likewise favoured by radio stations.
Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out was released in the UK on 3 December 1965 - the same day as the Rubber Soul album, on which it did not feature. Five days later the single entered the chart at number one, where it remained for five weeks. It sold over a million copies.
It fared less well in the US, where it was released on 6 December. We Can Work It Out was the more successful of the two titles; Day Tripper peaked at number five in the Billboard Hot 100, and stayed in the top 40 for eight weeks.
Related articles:
- UK single release: We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper
- Recording, mixing: We Can Work It Out, Day Tripper
- Recording: We Can Work It Out
- Recording: Day Tripper, If I Needed Someone
- We Can Work It Out
Doesn't McCartney sing lead on this? And why, if he claims the song's idea was Lennon's?
He doesn't sing the lead; he sings the upper harmony in the chorus, 'cause he has the higher voice. But the lead, the main melody, is actually the lower line. The verses are sung in unison, both of them together, but Lennon has that "it took me" pickup for the chorus, which only he does; so it's quite clear he has the lead.
Unless I'm mistaken, they sing in unison on the first half of every phrase in a verse:
"She's a big teaser"
then Lennon drops to a LOWER harmony (very difficult to pick out, not very many cover bands do it correctly, intuitively you want to go higher on a harmony) on the 2nd phrase:
"She took me half the way there"
On the pre-chorus/chorus they sing in nearly co-equal 3 part harmonies with George, so attributing the "lead" on this song is a bit problematic. McCartney sings out a bit more on the unison parts, and his harmony on the 2nd phrase is more prevalent, so it may seem he's singing lead, but this is near a co-lead vocal song as any in the Beatles' repertoire.
This article seems to indicate that Lennon played the lead solo, but that would have been quite out of character for The Beatles at the time, (not to mention, the timbre and licks of the solo sound very George-ish.)
Does anyone know for certain that John played lead?
If Paul seems to be singing lead in a song that is mainly a Lennon composition, that was probably due to pitch issues of the vocals... Probably Lennon couldn't sing the notes, so Paul asked to try the vocals, and they agreed that his worked out better. Same story with A HARD DAYS NIGHT and ANY TIME AT ALL.
Ultimately, however, DAY TRIPPER is a Lennon/McCartney collaboration.
I cant see that Day Tripper is a Lennon/McCartney collaboration. In my ears its a typical Lennon-Song. Paul helped him for sure, but I dont think he earned too much credits.
Think: Paul and John have agreed, that Babys in Black was the last number, which they written face to face. Later on, John or Paul would show the song only then to other one, if they had a problem to finish up.
In the end it is not important, if its 80:20, 70:30 or 85:15. They worked togehter, not only for Day Tripper cause nearly each time.
And you have given the answer: Paul sings the "Got a good reason" and so on line, because John couldnt have reached the higher notes and it sound much better when they alternate the vocals.
In his 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, John used "Day Tripper" as one example of their collaboration, where one partner had the main idea but the other took up the cause and completed it.
Not exactly 'From Me To You', sure, but up until India, this kind of collaboration wasn't untypical for John and Paul.
If John hadn't started it, there would be no song, so I guess it would be fair of people to associate it mostly with John, as I think they do.
Agree,
but just like the mime video's :
Paul sings first verse alone, and they join the rest together
One of the coolest guitar songs the Beatles did. The best version is the 2nd stereo mix done for the U.S. album "Yesterday..& Today". It's lead guitar is more distorted in the beginning, making it sound rough! All other mixes are like ice cream.
This is one of my favorites songs.
McCartney is the lead singer on the verses but on the chorus, the lead switches to Lennon. It's a Lennon song, but it's a Lennon-McCartney Writing/Collaboration.
Something that is not mentioned, is that the lead guitar dissapears on early mixes pre-1 album. After the line ''Try to please her...'' Up to Past Masters 1988 version, the lead guitar dissapears briefly.
On the bootlegs, in early mixes it's discovered that it's a tape error when it was recorded, the tape was speeding up and suddenly stopped recording the lead guitar a second or two, and caused a technical glitch, corrected on post-1 albums. But up to 1988 Past Masters the guitar just dissapear to cover the glitch. Only on bootlegs we can find the untouched version with no fade-out and with the technical glitch error.
I didn't know it was a tape glitch - I always thought it was a mistake in the guitar part. It was corrected on Past Masters and Mono Masters too. I think I'd have preferred it if they'd left it in.
The glitch you can hear it only on a bootleg. Fortunately, i have various bootlegs with the glitch in all of these, the correction they did on post 1-albums was copying and pasting a previous part carefully. Also because the song fades-out, there was a long breakdown that also had two error glitches at the end. Neither in the mono version (that is 10 seconds longer than the Stereo of Past Masters) can't be heard.
Has anyone noticed that the tambourine disappears at the exact same time?
The 1988 CD has the guitar out but the 2009 CDs use the 2000 edit of Day tripper
It's the coolest guitar riff ever. I'm curious to know how and when Lennon came up with it.
If you take away the riff, the bass and drums, you have the folk song Lennon claimed it was based on (i.e. basic chords, melody and the words).
I seem to remember reading somewhere that Paul said he had his hands full trying to finish "We Can Work It Out" and that this was mainly John's song. On Wikipedia it says that Paul's contribution was working on the verses. Which makes sense given that his voice is a bit more prominent there.
As I understand it, Paul has said in the past that The Beatles at least once intentionally left an entire beat out just to see if anyone would notice much like the "tit-tit-tit" in "Girl". The dropped out guitar, drums, and tambourine for one beat after "Tried to please her" had always been completely intentional. I was disappointed to see it placed back in on the 2009 remasterings - seems a bit like retouching a work of Michelangelo after 500 years; unnecessarily revisionistic. Then again, Paul must have given his approval to the remasterings so perhaps that little nuance change had his blessing or he didn't notice it.
I have always noticed that cut, I just thought it was a bit of a hiccup on the part of Mr. Martin. Silly me.
I really don't think that this drop out was intentional, I think it was a technical error that just went unnoticed and unfixed. It's one of those things that once you discovered it, you almost wait for it when the song plays. It's a mistake that becomes a cult moment. I think dropping the tape out intentionally for a song meant to be their new hit single, that would have been too Avantgarde, too Yoko Ono - for that time. I mean in 1965 the Beatles were just starting to get into experimentation - it goes a bit too far for me to believe they did this on purpose. But this could be one of those legends that were distributed by John himself (it sounds like John doesn't it?). Even if he would have liked to do it, the other three (and especially George Martin, not to mention Brian Epstein) would have never let him his way - I'm sure about that. This would be like manipulating or sabotaging your own song (a song you want to be a hit), why would anybody do that? John said that at times he was just miming on stage (intentionally) and nobody noticed the difference because of the screaming. Maybe these stories got mixed up. If it was in fact intentional why would they now change it (but stick to those often horrible stereo mixes)?
The so-called "glitch" (guitar dropout) on DT was a tech. slip. It's on the mono version, too-but not as audible, but it's there. Same thing happened on "Rock & Roll Music". Probably ten yrs. from now, EMI will correct that, too..and thank the miraculous digital technology. It's nothing they couldn't fix in '64-just drop in a couple measures of piano from an earlier verse-problem solved!..worked on IF I FELL!
In his revealing Rolling Stone interview in 1970, John Lennon was asked about the "Paul is dead" rumor. He responded in a typically forthright fashion:
"I don't know where that started, that was barmy. I don't know, you know as much about it as me... No, that was bullshit, the whole thing was made up. We never went for anything like that. We put tit-tit-tit in Girl. It would be things like a beat missing or something like that, see if anyone noticed - I know we used to have a few things, but nothing that could be interpreted like that."
That alone doesn't prove the guitar, drum, and tambourine drop out in Day Tripper was intentional but it's enough for me to lean toward that belief. It could have very easily been fixed at the time back in 10/65 so I think you can only conclude it was there because The Beatles with George Martin's consent wanted it there. Don't forget that Martin in the past had been the producer of comedy records so I could see him getting a small laugh from allowing something like that to pass on to an issued recording.