Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 11 February 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 17 January 1969 (UK), 13 January 1969 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, piano, guitar
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, tambourine
George Harrison: guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Available on:
Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Released on the soundtrack to the Yellow Submarine animation, Hey Bulldog was written and recorded while The Beatles were being filmed for a promotional film for Lady Madonna.
The song started life as Hey Bullfrog, based on a few ideas sketched out by John Lennon. The line 'Some kind of solitude is measured out in you' was originally 'measured out in news', but McCartney claimed to have misread Lennon's handwriting.
Paul said we should do a real song in the studio, to save wasting time. Could I whip one off? I had a few words at home so I brought them in.
The Beatles, Hunter Davies
The title came about after McCartney made a barking sound during the session, as he and Lennon ad-libbed during the finale. The Beatles decided to keep the barking in, changing the title to Hey Bulldog to fit.
Hunter Davies also recounted how Lennon originally tried playing a sitar on the track, strumming it like George Formby's ukulele and singing in a Lancashire accent. Although an intriguing proposition, The Beatles were unable to work this into the song.
Musically, the song harks back to the early R&B riffs of songs such as Money (That's What I Want), and retains a similar blues feel as Lady Madonna - the two songs were combined on the Love album.
An animated sequence for Hey Bulldog was made for the Yellow Submarine film, although it was originally included only in European prints.
It was the third movie that we owed United Artists. Brian had set it up and we had nothing to do with it. But I liked the movie: the artwork. They wanted another song, so I knocked off Hey Bulldog. It's a good-sounding record that means nothing.
Anthology
The recording of Hey Bulldog, unusually, was captured by a film crew. As The Beatles were preparing to travel to India, a promotional film for Lady Madonna was commissioned, to be issued in their absence.
The Hey Bulldog animated sequence was restored for the 1999 worldwide re-release of Yellow Submarine. At the same time Apple revisited the original studio footage of The Beatles and synchronised it with the song, to create a new promo clip.
When we were in the studio recording Bulldog, apparently it was at a time when they needed some footage for something else, some other record, and a film crew came along and filmed us. Then they cut up the footage and used some of the shots for something else. But it was Neil Aspinall who found out that when you watched and listened to what the original thing was, we were recording Bulldog. This was apparently the only time we were actually filmed recording something, so what Neil did was, he put it all back together again and put the Bulldog soundtrack onto it, and there it was.
Hey Bulldog was later cited by The Beatles' engineer Geoff Emerick as one of their final true group efforts, with equal contributions from all members. Following their Indian jaunt The Beatles' sense of togetherness began to sour; they tended to work separately, with increasingly frequent disagreements which eventually led to their split.
In the studio
On 11 February The Beatles recorded, completed and mixed Hey Bulldog during a 10-hour session. The basic rhythm tracks consisted of piano, drums, tambourine, lead guitar and bass.
By take 10 they had a good version, and so onto this were overdubbed more drums, fuzz bass, a guitar solo, double tracked lead vocals by Lennon and backing vocals from McCartney.
I remember Hey Bulldog as being one of John's songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it's mainly his vibe. There's a little rap at the end between John and I; we went into a crazy little thing at the end.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Related articles:
- Recording, mixing: Hey Bulldog
- Yellow Submarine
- Mixing: Hey Bulldog, All Together Now, All You Need Is Love, Only A Northern Song
- All Together Now
- Sea Of Time
I just don't think John plays that lead. It is very "George," too fast for John w/ too many articulated notes. He may play the "break" (which is a lot like "Daytripper") up to the actual lead but I think it's George after that.
Hang on, I think the lead guitar solo is VERY John: repetitive, brash, simple, yet highly effective. It's certainly not a very George like solo. As a template compare the Lennon/Harrison (and Macca for that matter) solos in 'The End' a year or so later. I'm reclaiming this for John, the 'invisible' lead guitarist as he called himself! I believe scholars MacDonald/Lewissohn concur. Change it back!
I disagree. I'm pretty sure it was George. If you listen to Lennon's contribution to The End he wasn't that good at the intricate stuff - it's mostly chords (he was the third soloist in the cycle), whereas Harrison and McCartney were far more accomplished.
Hey Bulldog has a great solo, and I don't think Lennon was capable of recording it. On Get Back he basically played blues runs, and Honey Pie's solo was pretty simple (though effective), lasting just four bars.
I'm trying to think of other Lennon solos. There was You Can't Do That, which again is mostly chords with some bluesy licks at the end. Slow Down is one of his better efforts though. I know they were done back in 1964, but I don't think he'd become that good by the time Hey Bulldog was recorded.
Listen to the 'Let It Be...Naked' Album and you might be surprised at John's dexterity. He wasn't as bad as some people give him credit for! Yasdnil.
It's not really "as bad", it's just a pretty sweet solo. No one's taking anything away from John, we're just looking at this realistically. Style wise, it's has more of a flashy Paul edge, but it's most likely George. Or John, who knows, if we were to honestly judge his guitar ability, Plastic Ono Band is the place to go and he doesn't have any incredible solos, even though his playing on I Found Out and Well Well Well is effective, but repetetive. Hey Bulldog has two well defined parts, although they do feature repetetive variations, which wasn't really a mark of a Lennon solo, or a McCartney one for that matter, at least not in 1968.
It definitely sounds John-ish in its simplicity and repetition, but I agree that it must be George because it also sounds technically proficient.
John called himself the invisible guitarist, not the invisible lead guitarist. Harrison and Mac were true lead men, John stated that he was just a noise maker when playing the guitar.
Didn't John play lead on I Want You (She's so Heavy)?? It seems to me that he could be pretty fluid on the jazzy & bluesy solos,as on Honey Pie. Even George said of John's solo on Honey Pie that it was Django Reinhartish. Oh, I got ahead of myself. It WAS George who played the lead on Hey Bulldog. Pardon me if I am miss spelling things. I have been listening to The Beatles and drinking Claret.
Hm, I remember a friend once claiming that he'd heard it was Django Reinhardt playing the flamenco intro to "Bungalow Bill" - a pretty ludicrous claim, considering that it doesn't sound a thing like him, and that he'd been dead for years anyways.
The Bungalow Bill guitar intro was one of the samples on the Mellotron. It wasn't Django.
Well, obviously not - neither my friend nor I actually believed that it was Django. He was just relaying some third-party misinformation that he'd read or heard somewhere. That it was a Mellotron, though, is something that I myself only learned relatively recently (possibly from this very site, if memory serves.) I didn't realize they were ever used for anything other than strings, brass or woodwinds.
Was Django still kicking about then?... I was always under the impression it was yet another marathon rehearsal by George! (Remember a Sitar Solo in 1965?...John never did get to redo the guitar track on 'Norweigan Wood' because of it!).
John played slide on For You Blue, the intro on Revolution,and that little lick on Ballad Of John and Yoko.
John played a pretty fast solo on Long Tall Sally (the first one is John). But I think Bulldog sounds most like Paul. Especially the beginning reminds me of Taxman and Good Morning Good Morning.
Wow! I'd forgotten about John's lead in "Long Tall Sally"! I had to re-listen and yup, that's him!
"Hey Bulldog" solo is a hard one to pin-point. I do know that their is footage of them recording this song and George is seen with his Gibson SG. In this video it also shows John playing the SG. Can anyone pin-point the notes John is playing and maybe they match up with the solo? Just a wild idea...
Sounds like a challenge! If I remember to, I'll give that a try tonight...even though I've never had the ability to identify a guitar brand from sound alone.
If you look at the footage he's also playing what looks like a Gretsch, which I think is what was used for the solo on the final cut. Although an SG can capture a similar sound, this is definitely an 'older' (50's) kind of sound.
OK, this is from Geoff Emerick's book "Here, There and Everywhere" page 222 describing the recording of "Hey Bulldog"....
"Paul's bass line was probably the most inventive of any he'd done since Pepper, and it was really well played. Harrison's solo was sparkling, too--one of the few times that he nailed it right away. His amp was turned up really loud, and he used one of his new fuzz boxes, which made his guitar absolutely scream."
Thank you for putting this one to rest, BeatleMark. George's leads always seemed to me the most methodically worked out and carefully played and this one is no exception. That's not to say it doesn't have spirit to it, it's a very exciting solo!
I absolutely love that book. One of the greatest books one could read, it's from their engineer! The amount of information that he recalls is amazing, sometimes I felt like I was there.
But isn't there allegedly a lot of MIS-information in Emerick's book as well?
(I agree that it sounds like a Harrison solo, however.)
You can go to youtube and see a video of George playing the solo.
From the video it does look like, to me, that George is playing the solo.
In the video to Lady Madonna, there is other footage mixed in with Hey Bulldog. A very small snippet of some of that other footage was in the Hey Bulldog clip; it seems really out of place, it was a strange choice.
Which take of Hey Bulldog was filmed?
Which take was the first to use barking?
Wow, so much nitpicking over the guitar solo - and nobody mentions that incredible snare-sound?!
That's what gives this song the edge!
The Beatles greatest single that wasn't?
Yes, I agree. The first time I heard this song was on the Beatles "Rock and Roll Music Vol. 2" compilation. I was a wee child dancing in front the mirror with my imaginary guitar to this song. Would have been a great single b side. Maybe replacing "The Inner Light"?
I could never possibly remember where I first heard it (either on Yellow Submarine or radio.) You know what they say about the 60s: if you remember it you weren't there
I was too young to remember it! I was born in 1960! But I do first remember hearing that astounding Riff when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I guess I didn't fully comprehend the enormity of it, back then... But 'Hey Bulldog' is still one of my favourite Beatles Riffs!And I never fail to attack it when I have my Epiphone Accoustic in my hands!
Yeah this has to be one of the most underrated, or unknown Beatle tracks ever...although that's probably due to the fact that it's on Yellow Submarine....and that solo may have been a bit complicated for John, but who knows? I mean he had been playing guitar for over ten years by this time, so it's definately not impossible to believe he could have played this wonderful solo!
We've just started covering Hey Bulldog and our guitarist (who is *blinding*) definitely agrees that the solo is way too proficient in the context of anything that Lennon is known to have played elsewhere.
I had it pegged as McCartney at first because of the similarities with his work on Taxman and Pepper in general, but he's never one to fail to take credit for anything he's done so I give it to George.
The solo in Bulldog does sound reminiscent of Paul's Taxman solo. On the other hand it has the precision of a George solo. But on some sites, like the About.com "Oldies" site: http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatlessongs/a/heybulldog.htm John is credited with the solo.
I'd guess it's George, based on how tight the solo is and the range of it, but still it does sound to me like a Paul solo. I think Carps' comment is right too that if it was Paul he would have probably taken credit for it. someday should ask him about it
I believe Paul coached George on what to play on Bulldog and George recorded it.(Never saw that happen before)lol That's why it sounds so confusing. Gosh I feel like House.
I read Emericks book on a Mexican cruise.
It was like being a fly on the wall of abbeyroad studios. Missed most of the cruise. The wife didn't care though, she dresses up and plays Ringo in my Tribute band
this is another topic that I'd like a response to please. Does anyone notice the very faint electronic ring sound at the intro riff? it sounds just like a 90s phone (I noticed this in 1999) and it starts and stops just like a ring!!!
so i went back to my vinyl copies and it is there too. It seems like one of the things Lennon claims to have buried in the mixes for us to find. or???
I think Hey Bulldog would have been a great double sided single with Lady Madonna. I wondered if they considered this but didn't want to be their own competition as with SFF/PennyLane.
Would have been another great double A-sided single for the sake of posterity.
John did the solo on this one. It's a double-tracked solo.
It's definitely John playing the solo. It is in the same style as 'You Cant o That' with the heavy vamping in parts and double string parts. George's solo's were much less wild and carefully planned.
Not sure if it can be "definitely" John, since Emerick says it was George - and he was there, after all! But yeah, his memory can be faulty; and yeah, all those double-stops are very characteristic of John's soloing style, so who knows?
Either way, that video is of no help at all, since so much of it is out of context.
The solo is by George. It is well documented and even Geoff Emmerick (who essentially hates George) says that it was him. Not to mention dare I say it but the Rockband studio scenes also corroborate this (for whatever that is worth). I actually think style is similar to the solo George played on John's "gimme some truth". Also the solo is very well constructed and is not wild. It is one of the best solos on a Beatles record. Beautiful, just beautiful!
Neither Emerick nor Rockband are reliable sources. They tend to get many things right, but some are just wrong.
As for the solo:
Especially the part with the high jump is typical for George, since it's very precise. John probably would have made a slide or whatever.
So I think it does sound more like George than John.
I mean 'wild' in the way he tremolo Picks the Octaves at the beginning of the solo. find me another solo where George plays in that Style. John does the same in parts of 'You Cant Do That' 3/4 the way through the solo. It's also mentioned in every revised edition of 'Revolution In The Head' John played lead. 'Gimme Some Truth' is a slide Guitar solo btw. there is no way of proving it is John but from a players point of view it feels like a Lennon solo to play based on learning most Beatles solos myself..
Lots of comments about the guitar solo (and it is terrific), but very little about Paul's base line, which is the best part of the song. He does a stunning job with a complex, rapid fire riff that holds the whole thing together.
Some much yukking over the guitar solo. I tell you, watching John and Paul singing into the same mike kind of brings back a great feeling. Those two relating to each other seemed to always make something right in the world. It is also worthwhile to note that John gets disparaged a lot about his latter laziness in the studio, Paul always treated John as essential and would drop back from his lording-over the proceedings to give John his head. After the breakup, of note, Paul was always the king of the studio and got along fine as long as his will reigned.
James - RE: McCartney coaching Harrison on what to play on this. That is absolutely ludicrous. One of the best Beatles solos, hands down. I believe Harrison played it. And Lennon was perfectly capable of nailing this as well. All this `it doesn't sound like George...' and
`John couldn't play this...' talk is just silly.
Harrison for sure. Although stylistically somewhat Lennonesque it is too technically proficient. As for Paul - a fine guitarist in his own right but not quite on the same level as George who had the virtuoso chops to play any style - check out The End, Old Brown Shoe, I Me Mine etc. GH wasn't particularly fast but was exceptionally innovative. In any event - great sound from all 4 lads!