Written by: Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey
Recorded: 1977; February, March 1994
Producers: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 21 November 1995
John Lennon: vocals, piano
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards
George Harrison: vocals, electric slide guitar, acoustic guitar, ukulele
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums
Jeff Lynne: harmony vocals, guitar
Available on:
Anthology 1
Based on a 1977 demo recorded by John Lennon in New York, Free As A Bird was completed by the other three Beatles 17 years later and released as the lead single from the Anthology project.
The song was originally a simple piano demo recorded by Lennon at his home in the Dakota building, New York City. Never completed in the studio, it was one of a number of songs he taped on cassette during his 'househusband' period between 1975 and 1980.
In subsequent years the Anthology project slowly gathered pace, and by the early 1990s Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were considering recording some incidental music as a trio. This idea was discarded in favour of new songs, but agreed that they could only reunite musically as The Beatles if Lennon was on the recording.
We took the easy route, which was to do some incidental music, because what else can we do? There were four Beatles and there are only three of us left. We were going to do some incidental music and just get there and play the instruments and see what happened. Then we thought, well, why don't we do some new music? And then we always hit the wall, and OK, Paul had a song, or George had a song, or I had a song, well that's the three of us, why don't the three of us go in and do this. And we kept hitting that wall because this is the Beatles; it's not Paul, George, and Ringo.
George Harrison and Neil Aspinall are believed to have made the initial approach to Yoko Ono, suggesting that the remaining Beatles add new instrumentation to unfinished recordings by Lennon.
On 19 January 1994 Ono met McCartney in New York, for Lennon's posthumous induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. McCartney presented the award, which was accepted by Ono on Lennon's behalf.
That night Ono gave him cassette tapes containing four songs: Free As A Bird, Real Love, Grow Old With Me and Now And Then. The occasion marked a reconciliation between the pair, whose relationship had often been tainted by animosity over the years.
It was all settled before then, I just used that occasion to hand over the tapes personally to Paul. I did not break up The Beatles, but I was there at the time, you know? Now I'm in a position where I could bring them back together and I would not want to hinder that. It was kind of a situation given to me by fate.
Although touched by the songs, McCartney was initially wary about adding to them.
I'd never heard them before but she explained that they're quite well known to Lennon fans as bootlegs. I said to Yoko, 'Don't impose too many conditions on us, it's really difficult to do this, spiritually. We don't know, we may hate each other after two hours in the studio and just walk out. So don't put any conditions, it's tough enough. If it doesn't work out, you can veto it.' When I told George and Ringo I'd agreed to that they were going, 'What? What if we love it?' It didn't come to that, luckily.
Chart success
Free As A Bird had its premiere on BBC Radio 1 on the morning of 20 November 1995. It was released in November 1994 on Anthology 1, and as a single in December. The 7" was backed with Christmas Time (Is Here Again), while the CD single also contained versions of I Saw Her Standing There and This Boy.
The song was the first new recording released by The Beatles since The Long And Winding Road in 1970. It received mixed reviews, with many commentators judging it a pale imitation of their 1960s work.
In the UK, the single sold 120,000 copies in its first week, entering the UK Singles Chart at number two. It remained in the charts for eight weeks, but was kept off the top spot by Michael Jackson's Earth Song.
In the US, Free As A Bird reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming The Beatles' 34th Top 10 single in America. The song later won the 1997 Grammy award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
In the studio
Before recording could take place, the demo had to be digitally cleaned up and synchronised to a click track, as John Lennon's time-keeping was typically erratic. It was then transferred to a 48-track analogue multitrack, which was done - at George Harrison's suggestion - at producer Jeff Lynne's Hollywood studio.
It was very difficult, and one of the hardest jobs I've ever had to do, because of the nature of the source material; it was very primitive sounding, to say the least. I spent about a week at my own studio cleaning up both tracks on my computer, with a friend of mine, Marc Mann, who is a great engineer, musician and computer expert...Putting fresh music to it was the easy part! Free As A Bird, however, wasn't a quarter as noisy as Real Love, and only a bit of EQ was needed to cure most problems.
Sound On Sound, December 1995
George Martin declined to work on the song, claiming that his hearing was no longer up to the job. This is in spite of his involvement as producer and director of the entire Anthology project, and in 2006 he co-produced the Love album with his son Giles.
George wasn't involved, no. George doesn't want to produce much any more 'cause his hearing's not as good as it used to be. He's a very sensible guy, and he says, 'Look, Paul I like to do a proper job', and if he doesn't feel he's up to it he won't do it. It's very noble of him, actually - most people would take the money and run.
Bass Player, August 1995
In Martin's absence, Paul McCartney took the demos to his Sussex studio. Work began in February 1994, with Lynne co-producing with the other Beatles, and the group's former engineer Geoff Emerick manning the mixing desk.
I invented a little scenario; he's gone away on holiday and he's just rung us up and he says "Just finish this track for us, will you? I'm sending the cassette - I trust you." That was the key thing, "I trust you, just do your stuff on it." I told this to the other guys and Ringo was particularly pleased, and he said "Ahh, that's great!" It was very nice and it was very irreverent towards John. The scenario allowed us to be not too, ahh, the great sacred fallen hero. He would never have gone for that. John would have been the first one to debunk that - "A fucking hero? A fallen hero? Fuck off, we're making a record."
Ringo and Jeff sang backing vocals? Where?
Andy - according to a Sound On Sound interview (December 1995) Lynne played and sang on the track. Ringo's contribution was noted by Ian Macdonald in Revolution In The Head.
very good song, but it would be better with george martin
The impediment to an unadulterated Free As A Bird is Jeff Lynne. While he was technically adept at dealing with the audio problems inherent in John's original, home recorded cassette, removing clicks and hiss and pop, etc., his sound-stamp is all over the record. From the first drum downbeat, it sounds like a Jeff Lynne record more than a Beatles record. It's his signature drum sound, executed by Ringo. The rhythm guitars are muddled, not punching the way John's were on most Beatles songs. But the harmonies are gorgeous and gentle, the lyrics Paul wrote are poignant and apt without being sentimental, and George's vocal and slide are great. But that damn drum sound... relentlessly Jeff Lynne. Too bad.
This has always been my sentiment. When I first heard it I thought that this is definitely not George Martin. The drums sounded like something out '70s arena rock. Oh - Jeff Lynne - it figures. Quite frankly, there is a very good reason John didn't put this among those he was going to release any time soon - it was a snippet of an idea but I just know he didn't think it was good enough yet. It wasn't. Like most of the tracks on Milk and Honey, which were more fleshed out than this, with the possible lyrical exception of 'Forgive Me (My Little Flower Princess", you could see John getting some of his old melodic sense back. The potential here was the stuff of awesome expectations. We can only imagine. "Grow Old With Me" -- I would have loved to see where that would have ended up.
This song is vastly underrated. The original progression and recording are very Beatlesque and the bridge and instrumentation added were pure vintage Beatles. Certainly it was neither experimental, trailblazing or original on the one hand (and Paul's bass part was a bit more controlled than in the fabs' heyday - but IMHO it captured both the spirit, magic and heart of some of the best Beatles tracks. It was unrealistic to expect a new Strawberry Fields or Penny Lane but this track rates higher than a number of vintage Beatle tracks. It was so superior to much of John's solo work (after Imagine) it's kind of shocking he didn't finish and record it for Double Fantasy.
In my opinion, there are more than a few individual tracks from Mind Games and Wall And Bridges that are superior to Free As A Bird.
Songs from the above mentioned albums did not receive anything near the massive publicity that was attached to Free As A Bird which included a prime time television broadcast.
There were certainly a lot of Lennon solo songs superior to this one, but that doesn't mean this isn't a terrific Beatles song. It is. Great harmonies, classic Harrison guitar work, and the "whatever happened to" line, while originally written by John, seems handpicked for a reunion song.
Nearly everything on 'Mind Games' and 'Walls And Bridges' was at least as good as anything on 'Imagine'. But the difference is, once again, John's lazy approach in the studio. He had this idea that if he filled the studio with top-notch session musicians the resulting sound will reflect that. As I understand it, even though 'Mind Games' brags that John was the producer, they actually had someone else come in to clean it up afterward. It result is somewhat muddy and homogenized - but the underlying music is excellent John. His singing was oddly lack-luter as well. "Walls And Bridges" was a cleaner sound but it was obvious that John still had some issues with filling out his arrangements (something Paul was apt to suggest to John). I figured if Paul was able to flesh out some of the arrangements on this collection they would be earth-shattering. In fact, I even tried to imagine what Paul might do with some of the tracks. "Going Down On Love" ended up being very much sounding like a Beatle classic from '65. That tambourine --- who does that anymore?
I don't know why they didn't get George Martin to produce. Could it be that his ears where too far gone? I think his hearing was still good enough to produce in '93/'94. Although I do think Jeff Lynne did an excellent job.
Yes, it is a mystery unsolved, although there was excellent work accomplished by Jeff Lynne.
I read somewhere that George refused to do any new recording for the Anthology project unless Lynn produced - Paul wanted George Martin, but Harrison refused - it's what I read - I think in the new Peter Doggett book.
Apparently, George Martin conceded that his hearing was NOT as good as it should have been (logically enough due to his age ) and was a noble gent who told McCartney that he did "not want to undertake a project of such importance" if it could not be the BEST that it could be.A class act to be sure.
He couldn't produce but he could have created all the new mixes and edits of The Anthology albums and Love? Gimme a break. They claimed his hearing was shot to avoid a pr disaster .
One of course can only speculate about this, but, speculatingly... agreed.
It's a beautiful song that poetically, metaphorically addresses John's death and absence without being maudlin. George's vocal is particularly strong.
It is unfortunate that George Martin wasn't producing. As nice a song and effort as it is, and as fulfilling as it is to hear all four beatles playing and singing (minus Ringo) together again at long last... at the end of the day, it sounds like a Jeff Lynne song. There is no escaping his production signatures, particularly what he does to drum sounds. Ringo's drums on FAAB sound just like the drums on Tom Petty's Lynne-produced album et al. Listen to them, and then listen to Ringo's drums on Abbey Road... I know which I prefer.
Paul played a 5-string bass on this: http://www.macca-central.com/macca-archives/bassplayer.htm
"Wal 5-string bass. I said, 'Oh, that's cool: low B, great.' So I got one too, based on his recommendation, and I really like it. "My favorite thing I've done recently on it was the new Beatles record we've made ['Free Like a Bird'], which is really cool. I don't want to build it up too much because we've got to sit on it for a while, because it's for this big TV series The Beatles Anthology."
" I played the Wal, and what I liked was I played very, very normal bass, really out of the way, because I didn't want to 'feature.' There are one or two moments where I break a little bit loose, but mostly I try to anchor the track. There's one lovely moment when it modulates to C, so I was able to use the low C of the 5-string-and that's it, the only time I use the low one, which I like, rather than just bassing out and being low, low, low. I play normal bass, and then there's this low C and the song takes off. It actually takes off anyway because a lot of harmonies come in and stuff, but it's a real cool moment that I'm proud of. That's my Wal moment."
When I first heard the Shangri Las "Remember" I thought "Hey, that melody sounds familiar. But I couldn't remember from which song I knew it...until I heard "Free as a bird". The complete Bridge or Chorus or what you might call it is EXACTLY the same - even the original lines John had written for the song's bridges/choruses "Whatever happened to...and so on". I mean John often used lines from other people's songs for his own material (for example in "Run for your life"), but also stealing the melody...I wonder why the "Beatles" weren't sued in 1995 by the Shangri Las or whoever owns the rights of this song. I think they should have mentioned in the booklet of Anthology 1, that the melody of the bridge of "Free as a bird" originally is the one of "Remember" - if they had done so, they wouldn't have took that risk. Don't get me wrong I really like "Free as a bird" (but not the way it was produced) and also "Remember"; I only think that musicians who are (were) as gifted as Lennon and McCartney really don't need to actually STEAL other groups' melodies - that's way below their own talent. If they do so, maybe as a (conscious) quote, they should have the guts to be honest about it. But not even mentioning it at all is pretty "grutty" - because really noone who has heard both songs can deny the resemblence or the equality of the melodies. Does anybody know if this was ever an issue in the Beatles camp during the re-making of "Free as a bird" or in the time that has passed since the song was released?
That's a stretch.
There's only so many notes that can be used.
How many MODERN SONGS come from classical music? Such as Whiter Shade Of Pale.
Shadow Morton hasn't sued the Beatles because Remember (Walkin' In The Sand) UNDOUBTEDLY came from somewhere else.
FOR INSTANCE, if you listen to the Back To Black single (AMY WINEHOUSE)
it ALSO sounds like Remember (Walkin' In The Sand).
WINEHOUSE HAS NOT BEEN SUED.
Lennon had nothing to do with the release of this song. John and Paul ARE (NOT WERE) still gifted songwriters.
UNLESS YOU ARE A MUSICOLOGIST YOU SHOULDN'T ACCUSE SOMEONE OF STEALING A SONG.
This song is NOT THE BEATLES and should not be referred to as an authentic Beatles song. While it has nice production values and contains hints of Beatles melodies... it just sounds like a whole lot of people tried very hard to make something from very little. The worst part is the bridge ("Whatever happened to..." song by Paul). Obviously it's been added and has nothing to do with the original song (and the lyrics only have context as a nostalgic yearning for the Beatles in their prime). I'm sure John would voice his opinion on this (if he were still around) and it would be "rubbish".
Actually, in the original demo John had the lines "Whatever happened to the life that we once knew". From "Can we really live without each other" to the end of the bridge it was Paul, so don't say that all of this is written by Paul.
As is your opinion. Rubbish? What song are you listening to? Lyrics needn't always be Shakespearean to be good.
I don't think Lennon and Paul saw this one "eyeball" to "eyeball".
I must disagree that this is not a Beatle song. All four Beatles literally worked on this song and played on it. It is a beautiful song, as Paul said; it is what the Beatles would sound like today. I have to say, I wish we could go to a parallel universe where John and George are still alive and the Beatles got back together some how some way. Sorry to go Star Trek there folks…. just wishful thinking.
Well?I'm a young listener from china.
One thing about this song confuses me a lot.
Did Paul write the bridge?or John wrote some lines of it .Paul just recreate it?
I mean,what's the original version sounds like.
Thanx all. Sorry for my English.Wish u could get it
Free as a bird was written by John Lennon in 1977. Paul McCartney wrote the section you hear him singing. If you want to hear the original version go to YouTube and put in John Lennon demo Free as a bird.
On John's demo you can hear him singing the first couple of lines of the bridge.
The original demo-version is just John on piano (it's great, I like it even more than the finished version). In the bridge John sings "whatever happened to the life that we once knew" and then he sings the melody without proper lyrics, going "doo doo doo". The lyrics after John's original line were written by Paul AND George ("Can we really live without each other? Where did we lose the touch that seemed to mean so much? It always made me feel so free..." - these lines go DEEP and add a lot to the emotional impact of the song). The bridge has an almost eerie feel to it. When they sing those lines one can hardly escape the feeling that they refer directly to John or the breakup of the Beatles. Especially George's vocal has this mournful tone, as if he's crying.
I completely agree! Those parts of the song are very emotional - everything comes to the forefront - John's loss, the magic the band had and produced and how it affected so many people. I personally love the song and was grateful that something, anything "new" came from them so long after their breakup and John's tragic death.
If I had my way: George and Paul record their vocals on a cheap recorder as Lennon had. Would have made Lennon's `filtered' vocal sound less jarring. Love the record though... very touching.
My guess is that Lennon, had he lived, would never have agreed to Jeff Lynne as producer.
@apple_jam: Great Idea! You're right, adding a 90s pro studio sound to a cheap no-fi homerecording that was done in the 70s (and they didn't even use the original recording, Lynne said it was "at least a couple generations down") HAS TO sound horrible. Maybe they did this for commercial reasons. I don't think that the "average listener" would have been too pleased with a low-fi record (and one has to think of millions of fans around the world here).
@Jammy_jim: it's so hard to imagine what John would have done with this song. I think basically he wanted to be authentic and really just play it like it is (and to me the essence of this is his "plastic ono band" album - totally stripped down), but he realized that these "naked" records wouldn't sell and so he drowned everything in corny violins and horns. To me, starting with the "Imagine" album, every single demo or stripped down version is actually better than the finished product. I think besides considering record sales, John was very insecure - he hated his voice, he didn't think of himself as a great guitarist (he thaught Paul was a better guitar player than him!) and he never spoke with great enthusiasm of his own songs. This wall of sound production that all his records after "Plastic Ono Band" have was a way for him to hide. His voice is often hardly audible, all the instruments are brickwalled and tend to sound the same. And finally EVERYTHING gets lost in the mix (this happens when one tries to mix 25 instruments down to mono - in the end there's not much left). This was always a mystery to me: how could he be so unsure of himself? (But maybe it was this feeling that drove him).
The John Lennon 1998 Anthology Box Set did for Lennon what The Beach Boys Box Set did for Brian Wilson: it confirmed that, despite many poor production choices, the music is, quite simply, that of a genius. His vocals on the Box Set version are wonderful. Also, I have the MSFL versions of POB, Imagine, and Mind Games and his voice is fantastic! There's a quality in his voice that cuts right through your soul. Quite lovely.
The Beatles? I don't think so. Perhaps 'The Necropheatles' would be more apt.