Written by: Harrison
Recorded: 13, 14 February; 20 April 1967
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 17 January 1969 (UK), 13 January 1969 (US)
George Harrison: vocals, organ, effects
John Lennon: piano, glockenspiel, effects
Paul McCartney: bass, trumpet, effects
Ringo Starr: drums
Available on:
Yellow Submarine
Anthology 2
Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Recorded in 1967 during the Sgt Pepper sessions, George Harrison's Only A Northern Song wasn't released until the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album in early 1969.
The song's lyrics, although light-hearted, continue Harrison's established themes of introspection and slight misanthropy. The title was a pun on The Beatles' hometown and the company which published their songs.
Northern Songs was founded in 1963 by The Beatles, their manager Brian Epstein, and music publisher Dick James to publish Lennon and McCartney's songs. Harrison and Ringo Starr were essentially writers-for-hire until their contracts expired in 1968.
Only A Northern Song was a joke relating to Liverpool, the Holy City in the North of England. In addition, the song was copyrighted Northern Songs Ltd, which I don't own, so: 'It doesn't really matter what chords I play... as it's only a Northern Song'.
Anthology
During 1966 Harrison had become disenchanted with being a Beatle, and contributed relatively little to Sgt Pepper. Only A Northern Song, while conceived as a joke, also served as a complaint against the dominance of the Lennon-McCartney partnership and the few songs he was allowed to record each year.
I realized Dick James had conned me out of the copyrights for my own songs by offering to become my publisher. As an 18 or 19-year-old kid, I thought, 'Great, somebody's gonna publish my songs!' But he never said, 'And incidentally, when you sign this document here, you're assigning me the ownership of the songs,' which is what it is. It was just a blatant theft. By the time I realized what had happened, when they were going public and making all this money out of this catalog, I wrote Only A Northern Song as what we call a 'piss-take,' just to have a joke about it.
Only A Northern Song didn't make the grade for Sgt Pepper, and so was held over for an unspecified future release until the creators of the Yellow Submarine film needed more songs for the soundtrack.
[The filmmakers] wanted some new songs from us, so we recorded Only A Northern Song in Abbey Road. I remember playing a silly trumpet. My dad used to play. I can't, but I can mess around a lot - and that song gave me the perfect framework. It was very tongue in cheek.
Anthology
The song became one of The Beatles' most psychedelic recordings, featuring a host of unusual instruments including timpani, glockenspiel and chimes, and a phasing effect caused partly by the mixing together of two versions of the same rhythm track.
In the studio
The Beatles began recording Only A Northern Song on 13 February, with the working title Not Known. They taped nine takes of the rhythm track, four of which were complete. The best was take three, onto which Harrison overdubbed two lead vocals the following day.
It was returned to on 20 April, after The Beatles had completed Sgt Pepper. They discarded the vocals from 14 February, and in their place added bass, trumpet and glockenspiel. They then made another mix with new vocals, known as take 11. The two versions were then mixed together in sync to make the final mono version.
A new, slightly faster mix of the song was included on Anthology 2 in 1996. It was made up of the basic track from 13 February. with organ, bass, drums, and the vocals - featuring slightly different lyrics - that Harrison later re-recorded. The bass and guitar from the 20 April session was also incorporated in the mix.
A stereo version of Only A Northern Song wasn't made available until 1999, when Apple released the Yellow Submarine Songtrack collection.
Related articles:
- Recording, mixing: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), Only A Northern Song
- Recording, mixing: A Day In The Life, Only A Northern Song
- Mixing: Hey Bulldog, All Together Now, All You Need Is Love, Only A Northern Song
- Mixing: Good Morning Good Morning, Only A Northern Song
- Recording, mixing: Only A Northern Song, Sgt Pepper run-out groove
The beginning of "Only A Northern Song" sounds like U2.
You mean the U2 sounds like the Beatles.
Oh, don't insult the poor Beatles like that.
This song transcends all other musical compositions. There simply isn't anything like it at all... and there probably never will be. Beatles at their creative peak I'd say.
Always thought this was BY FAR the weakest Beatles song -- but then had a listen tonight, and realized it's actually not that bad. And its value, as a document of George's real frustrations as a member of the band, is kind of incredible. It's like George's 'Glass Onion.'
Always haunted and attracted me, for all its supposed mediocrity (I disagree). Love listening to the remastered version.
Can someone shed any light on the mix found on the original CD (1987) version of "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack" The original vinyl LP (1969) had this track in fake stereo. The new remastered CD has it in mono. The remixed "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" CD (1999) has it in real stereo. What mix appears on the first CD version?
In the first cd Version appeared the fake stereo/duophonic version that appeared in 1969. Unfortunately they remastered it in mono on the 2009 Remasters.
The stereo version from the 1999 Yellow Sub is so much better than the hissy mono one on the new remasters. They should have used the stereo one again. But then again I think they should have re-mixed all the new remasters and balenced out the L/R channels, anyway!
People complain about this songs mediocrity, but listen to the lyrics...that's sort of the point of the song, "it doesn't really matter what chords I play..."
Wow, I didn't know that crazy trumpet was played by McCartney.
That man can always surprise you with ANOTHER great part on ANOTHER instrument.
The trumpet is recorded at half speed. But it certainly sounds impressive!
i read somewhere once that Brian Jones of the Stones had something to do with the "weird horns" and played the glockenspiel.
I have "Yellow Submarine" on VHS (the U.S. re-release!) and I always fast-forwarded past this song because the animations in that scene always freaked me out. I like this song because it's such a slap in the face.
And truly if The Beatles recorded them screaming & breaking glass and put on the A-side of a single it would go ot the top 10.
I have always felt this is one of the Beatles and certainly George's most psychedelic songs. The barrage of non-rock type instruments, the lack of a "pretty little melody" and the catchy hook being a total piss-take add up to a total disregard for convention. It's also nice that they can't be accused of taking themselves seriously on this one. It probably helps that the first few times I heard it I was "listening late at night" but I thought the band quite right.
To me this is the BEST Beatles song. IT just incredible how uncoordinated songs can mix and sync themselves to produced a brilliant song. Splendid.
Isn't there a bit of folklore with this tune in that Ringo is apparently so drunk for one of the sessions, he sings or slurs something & falls into the glokenspiel? I believe you can hear some of this in the background...too funny! But a GREAT tune...nice chord changes going into the refrain...very cool!
Now that Rock & Roll is Dead (2010), the Beatles are consigned to the ashheap of history we loving know as ROCK-N-Roll. Fifty year out, I still don't understand their fame. They were the Premier Mersy Beat Band of 1963 but Mersy beat died by 1965. The Beatles should have died along with Mersy Beat (Chad&Jeremy, Lulu, Billy J.) but they MORPHED into Folk-Rock (Rubber Soul), Psychedelic (Revolver/SGTPepper), AOR (White LP) and Symphonic Rock (Abby Road). For the life of me, I can't figure why they were so restless and inventive---why didn't they just take the money and run back in 1965? Why did the Beatles feel so compelled to push the out limits of RockNRoll? Mark my words, you will NEVER see a group as Advengard as that of the Beatles again.
NOT a strong "George Song" to me,but I can certainly appreciate its origin,and his motivation behind writing it.Giving it a more Beatle-ish sound, in hindsight, would have heightened George's disdain and feelings of an "after-thought" composer, because he certainly wasn't.The campy-psycho arrangement really robbed the song of it's true quality..but it fit the times, as they say. BUT how well-received would it have been, otherwise?
Whether some consider this song weak or not, I have always like it for some reason. I only first heard it in '96 when the 2nd Anthology collection was released. George is my favorite Beatle and I have always felt that his contributions to the Beatles were never fully appreciated. This song is just pure 1967 Beatles - weird, pyschedelic, a bit disjointed but brilliant. The famous Harrison wit, or contempt, providing the song's inspiration and perhaps deciding its fate.
The bass line is great.
I much prefer the basic track found on Anthology. Without all the added sounds, the organ is constantly audible and makes it a very psychedelic and atmospheric song.
Was the official final version (which appears in the 1969 YELLOW SUBMARINE LP) actually mixed in 1967 or was it eventually re-mixed in 1968 instead ?
It's fun to include this and Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields in a Sgt Pepper playlist. The three missing songs! Where would you sequence them?
After Lovely Rita:
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Only A Northern Song
Then: Good Morning Good Morning...and so on. It's sounds great like that!
Hm. I'd do it this way:
SPLHCB/WALHFMF/LSD/Getting Better/Fixing A Hole/Only a Northern Song/She's Leaving Home/BFTBOMK!/Within You Without You/When I'm 64/Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane/Lovely Rita/Good Morning Good Morning/SPLHCB (reprise)/A Day In The Life
(Damn, that was harder than I thought! The idea of a single album containing both "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "A Day In The Life" is something I can barely contemplate.)
SPLHCB/WALHFMF/LSD/Getting Better/Fixing A Hole/She's Leaving Home/BFTBOMK!/Penny Lane/Only A Northern Song/Within You Without You/When Im 64/Good Morning Good Morning/Lovely Rita/SPLHCB reprise/Strawberry Fields Forever/A Day In The Life
I'm slightly reluctant to have a load of lists of song titles on this page - it clogs up the comments section. This discussion would be far better in the Fab Forum - please go there if you'd like to continue, and keep this page about Only A Northern Song. Thanks!
I can't claim to like this song. Certain elements of the recording and information about the song are interesting and I an appreciate intellectually, but aesthetically it's a dud for me. I just don't enjoy listening to it.
I will say that I would have liked it better on Sargent Pepper than on Yellow Submarine--I had not known this was written during that time until I read this, but that very fitting IMO. Its acerbic tone is evident to me and that made it always seem out of place with the Yellow Submarine set. Had it been included on Sargent Pepper, I think that would have helped play down the Gilbert and Sullivan vibe of that album that I never care for much either.
The other thing is this song's background kind help me fill out my understanding of George's evolution as a songwriter. Being in a band with a pair of egos like John and Paul, with their own intense dynamics and drama between them, would have been at times insufferable for someone less assertive, I'm sure. So for George, his only path to making being a Beatles bearable was to develop his songcraft and really stand out on his own. It was a sink-or-swim situation for him. I mean, he may have dismissed this as a piss-take, but it didn't make the cut while the tedious "She's Leaving Home" and the irritating ...Mr. Kite" did. I bet that stuck in George's craw when they revisited this song in the studio. I have to wonder if that helped motivate him more to write songs the other Beatles couldn't dismiss so easily.