Please consider registering
Guest
sp_LogInOut Log Insp_Registration Register
Register | Lost password?
Advanced Search
Forum Scope


Match



Forum Options



Minimum search word length is 3 characters - maximum search word length is 84 characters
sp_Feed sp_TopicIcon
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
sp_BlogLink Read the original blog post
13 August 2013
3.46am
Avatar
Von Bontee
496 km NW of the '69 Toronto Rock n Roll Revival
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 5578
Member Since:
14 December 2009
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

LOL at Grumpy George in that photo

Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.

         

13 August 2013
4.19am
Avatar
SirFrankieCrisp
Dehra Dun
The Jacaranda
Members
Forum Posts: 29
Member Since:
24 July 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

When I was in 8th grade in music class, we all had an assigned day to bring in a cd over the course of the year and we would listen to it during class. I brought Abbey Road in, and the majority of the class was not really enjoying it and kinda zoning out. I could tell even my music teacher started to get annoyed when She’s So Heavy came on. I was sitting next to my buddy and I was like when this song ends its super abrupt and everyone is gonna notice it. So once the song cut, everyone almost jumped at the lack of sound, my teacher even asked me if the cd was broken. I didn’t even say anything and Here Comes The Sun calmed everyone back down again.

a-hard-days-night-george-10

The following people thank SirFrankieCrisp for this post:

Martha
13 August 2013
3.48pm
Avatar
mewbie
A Beginning
Members
Forum Posts: 5
Member Since:
13 August 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

It’s somehow almost mystical, I know their psychedelic era songs are often mystical, but something dreamy about this song.

like alcoholic beverage for a metaphor, like a beaten up guy stranded in a bar,

somehow depressing yet very interesting.

The Beatles Summed in 10 Seconds -> http://y2u.be/oTlxatsUdpI

13 August 2013
5.52pm
Avatar
Funny Paper
America
Candlestick Park
Members
Forum Posts: 2080
Member Since:
1 November 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Has any other famous pop musician/band cut a song’s ending like that?

Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...

13 August 2013
6.03pm
Avatar
Ron Nasty
Apple rooftop
Members

Reviewers
Forum Posts: 12534
Member Since:
17 December 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

I think others have played similar tricks since, but I can’t think of instance. And I just have to say this to the people talking about hearing it on CD, and Here Comes The Sun breezing in after it, pause the CD, make a cup of cup, and then listen, because that is how it was. Last track of side 1, first track of side 2. It probably never mattered more for effect.

"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty

To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966

13 August 2013
6.49pm
Avatar
SatanHimself
Hades-on-Leith
Hollywood Bowl
Members
Forum Posts: 666
Member Since:
16 August 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Funny Paper said
Has any other famous pop musician/band cut a song’s ending like that?

Not famous internationally, but the Canadian band Sloan has a song on their 2nd album ‘Twice Removed’ called “Before I Do” which hearkens to “I Want You”.  During an extended ending, it abruptly cuts off at 7:04.

Legend at the time was that the band (who was in dispute with Geffen for dropping the Grunge sound that sold them as Canada’s answer to Nirvana) was told to shorten it and they refused, so the label just cut it off the master.  I think the truth was it was a conscious decision, but it’s still pretty jarring.

It’s an amazing song from an amazing album.

E is for 'Ergent'.

13 August 2013
9.24pm
Avatar
WETSRoosa
Mountains of East Tennessee
Candlestick Park
Members
Forum Posts: 1097
Member Since:
6 August 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

SatanHimself said

Funny Paper said
Has any other famous pop musician/band cut a song’s ending like that?

Not famous internationally, but the Canadian band Sloan has a song on their 2nd album ‘Twice Removed’ called “Before I Do” which hearkens to “I Want You”.  During an extended ending, it abruptly cuts off at 7:04.

Legend at the time was that the band (who was in dispute with Geffen for dropping the Grunge sound that sold them as Canada’s answer to Nirvana) was told to shorten it and they refused, so the label just cut it off the master.  I think the truth was it was a conscious decision, but it’s still pretty jarring.

It’s an amazing song from an amazing album.

 

Wow… I forgot all about Sloan… they never really made it here in the States (save for “The Good in Everyone,” which I do remember being on the old 120 Minutes show)… are they still around?

"There's no such thing as bad student... only bad teacher."

13 August 2013
11.45pm
Avatar
SatanHimself
Hades-on-Leith
Hollywood Bowl
Members
Forum Posts: 666
Member Since:
16 August 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Yep.  They’ve had a long and interesting history.  I’m friends with them still.  I even provided recordings for them which got used in a vinyl-only live “bootleg” release.

After Geffen dropped them, they essentially went independent and had a good string of charting singles here in Canada.  They still follow the basic rule of dividing the songwriting and singing 4 ways.

The heydays are over, but the band still reliably put out interesting and fiercely independent power pop albums.  Their next record is supposed to be a double album, where each band member gets one side.

E is for 'Ergent'.

14 August 2013
4.39am
LongHairedLady
coming in through the bathroom window
Candlestick Park
Members
Forum Posts: 2098
Member Since:
17 January 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

I saw Sloan live about 14 years ago, they were opening for Matthew Good Band.  I was impressed, they put on a really good show!  

"Please don't bring your banjo back, I know where it's been..  I wasn't hardly gone a day, when it became the scene..  Banjos!  Banjos!  All the time, I can't forget that tune..  and if I ever see another banjo, I'm going out and buy a big balloon!"

 

1 December 2014
10.52am
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 25136
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Listening to the reconstructed isolated RB tracks of this (and all the other ‘Abbey Road ‘ tracks) which are fascinating. Paul’s bass work is wonderful as he will occasionally throw in a little chord run Out Of The Blue that you’re not expecting, like he was sneaking it in whilst no-one was looking. And John’s “yeah” scream towards the end is even more intense on it’s own. Great vocal.

The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:

ewe2

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

26 January 2015
11.55pm
SirHuddlestonFuddleston
St Peters Church
Members
Forum Posts: 11
Member Since:
22 January 2014
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

The Walrus said
I wish it faded smoothly into Here Comes The Sun , but other than that, it is great. I love the mesmerising guitars.

All you kids! Get off my lawn! On the Abbey Road LP the song ends the first side of the album. It cuts off into NOTHING, not Here Comes The Sun ! Throw your digital gizmos out and buy a damned turntable!

The following people thank SirHuddlestonFuddleston for this post:

Into the Sky with Diamonds, Zig
27 January 2015
12.17am
Avatar
trcanberra
Oz
Apple rooftop
Members

Reviewers
Forum Posts: 6064
Member Since:
29 August 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

SirHuddlestonFuddleston said

The Walrus said
I wish it faded smoothly into Here Comes The Sun , but other than that, it is great. I love the mesmerising guitars.

All you kids! Get off my lawn! On the Abbey Road LP the song ends the first side of the album. It cuts off into NOTHING, not Here Comes The Sun ! Throw your digital gizmos out and buy a damned turntable!

Indeed, I wish CDs had a longer gap at the appropriate place for albums that came out on LP originally to emphasise the original divisions – as track placements were often carefully planned to make use of the whole side thing. Many do this for bonus tracks which I like.

==> trcanberra and hongkonglady - Together even when not (married for those not in the know!) <==

27 January 2015
1.02am
Avatar
robert
Ed Sullivan Show
Members
Forum Posts: 415
Member Since:
19 April 2010
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

SirFrankieCrisp said
So once the song cut, everyone almost jumped at the lack of sound, my teacher even asked me if the cd was broken. I didn’t even say anything and Here Comes The Sun calmed everyone back down again.

a-hard-days-night-george-10

As others have mentioned – the vinyl “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” not only cuts out and nothing happens – but when heard for the first time, we didn’t know what the heck had happened. It wasn’t just a pause and then “Here Comes The Sun ” it was a hard break and nothing. If you didn’t have an auto turntable you had to get up and take a look at the album to make sure your turntable hadn’t broken.

In my opinion, I have always felt that the writer/director of the last episode of The Sopranos was using “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” as the model on how the series ended. Everyone thought their cable had gone out.

This is the type of effect the ending of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” had – only about 40 years earlier of course.

The following people thank robert for this post:

Ahhh Girl, ewe2

"She looks more like him than I do."

27 January 2015
3.34am
Avatar
vonbontee
Northern Ontario Inside Von Bontee's mind
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 5574
Member Since:
1 December 2009
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Wow, I never thought of that comparison. David Chase was famously fond of classic rock (his first movie was about a ’60s band trying to succeed) so who knows, it sounds plausible to me. (Of course, Sopranos ended immediately ended after the sung phrase “Don’t Stop…” (…believin‘), so that arguably makes for a less dramatic, more telegraphed finish than “She’s So Heavy” provides)

GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

         offtopic-1.png

https://rateyourmusic.com/~Myo.....Von_Bontee

27 January 2015
6.50am
Wigwam
Candlestick Park
Members
Forum Posts: 1913
Member Since:
17 October 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Who plays the guitar solo……That mellow soft smooth sound?

I ask the perhaps obvious only because on ‘McCartney’ there’s a very similar set-up on one of the guitar solos. I’ll see if i can find it on you-tube so you can compare. 

 

This is the song I’m thinking of now and thought at the time had a similarity in terms of the guitar/amp set-up.

 

What are people’s thoughts?

 

1 January 2017
6.58pm
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 25136
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

At one time I loved this and then went off it. Now i’m back to thinking it’s immense.

My feeling is that the song documents the stages of one side of a love feeling/desire/obsession.

At the beginning it’s very start/stop giving the appearance of apprehension of admittance and slowly it goes thru calm certainty of the feelings to outright defiance to angry obsession and finally stuck in this chaotic never ending infatuated insanity that will never end until it’s somehow stopped.

And to find this on the super clean ‘Abbey Road ‘. 

The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:

Ahhh Girl, Beatlebug, WeepingAtlasCedars, pepperland, GardeningOctopus

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

2 January 2017
10.42pm
Avatar
ewe2
Inside the beat
Rishikesh
Members
Forum Posts: 3031
Member Since:
8 January 2015
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Funny Paper said
Has any other famous pop musician/band cut a song’s ending like that?  

The most well-known is probably I See Red by Split Enz, a band very popular here in Australia/New Zealand in the mid-70’s to mid-80’s. Stories differ about how the ending came about (they were huge Beatles fans too which is suspicious!), several people claim to have had “the idea” to cut it, and others say the tape actually ended. But as there is a version that fades out, I think it was a decision with the mix. It was recorded with free time at none other than Startling Studios (Tittenhurst Park) according to Tim Finn, so it’s possible that the mix is a combination of tracks done there and little could be done to “fix” the end.

 

meanmistermustard said
At one time I loved this and then went off it. Now i’m back to thinking it’s immense.

My feeling is that the song documents the stages of one side of a love feeling/desire/obsession.

At the beginning it’s very start/stop giving the appearance of apprehension of admittance and slowly it goes thru calm certainty of the feelings to outright defiance to angry obsession and finally stuck in this chaotic never ending infatuated insanity that will never end until it’s somehow stopped.

And to find this on the super clean ‘Abbey Road ‘.   

I think of this as John using “surrender to emotion” in musical form, and it really does stick out like a sore thumb, which is a good effort on that side of the record! It’s interesting to compare this to I’m So Tired   as examples of the Beatles using dynamics in their songs, which happens a lot more with John than Paul. Like I’m So Tired it builds up in three phases including an anti-climax, and I always hear the organ as playing horror chords. It’s far more dramatic than the former song though, and there’s that uneasy lounge-music feel in the “verses” and solo. I think it owes a lot to the style of songs John was writing during the Get Back sessions. Paul goes somewhere else with that bass, man. If you can listen to an isolated track of it, you can hear it’s a really overdriven sound and he skips around the fretboard so much because he knows the guitars will carry the main line and he can get away with it. The mogg is a lot of fun to listen to.

Someone said it was one of those songs made up of fragments, and it would be except for the makeover it gets once those bits are put together, they do sound more organic than compared to Happiness Is A Warm Gun . On the whole though, John seems to write the best endings, there’s this, A Day In The Life , I Am The Walrus , Strawberry Fields Forever , all dramatic, interesting and unique.

The following people thank ewe2 for this post:

georgiewood, Beatlebug, Beatlebug, WeepingAtlasCedars, GardeningOctopus

I'm like Necko only I'm a bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin and also everyone. Or is everyone me? Now I'm a confused bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin everyone who is definitely not @Joe.  This has been true for 2016 & 2017 Sig-Badge.png but I may have to get more specific in the future.

aus-flag-v-small.png

30 January 2018
2.01pm
Avatar
QuarryMan
Rishikesh
Members
Forum Posts: 3761
Member Since:
26 January 2017
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

I have few words for how great this song is. It astounds me when there are only about 12 different words and a few different melody lines that they made so much out of so little just by alternating and building up. The coda is amongst the best three minutes in their discography with those huge towering guitar lines ploughing through the stormy white noise. Not to mention the amazing vocal performance by John and the great guitar solo by whoever played it.

The following people thank QuarryMan for this post:

Beatlebug, Ahhh Girl

I've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound. 

30 January 2018
2.15pm
Avatar
sir walter raleigh
In our yellow (IN OUR YELLOW) submarine (SUBMARINE AHA!)
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 5916
Member Since:
26 January 2017
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

QuarryMan said
I have few words for how great this song is. It astounds me when there are only about 12 different words and a few different melody lines that they made so much out of so little just by alternating and building up. The coda is amongst the best three minutes in their discography with those huge towering guitar lines ploughing through the stormy white noise. Not to mention the amazing vocal performance by John and the great guitar solo by whoever played it.  

I’m fairly certain the guitar solo is played by George. 

The following people thank sir walter raleigh for this post:

Beatlebug

"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"

-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"

-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl

30 January 2018
4.00pm
Avatar
Beatlebug
Find me where ye echo lays
Moderator

Moderators
Forum Posts: 18219
Member Since:
15 February 2015
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

I’m fairly sure that there are 14 different words, including ‘yeah’.

([{BRACKETS!}])
New to Forumpool? You can introduce yourself here.
If you love The Beatles Bible, and you have adblock, don't forget to white-list this site!
whiteheart.png
avatar_creative_signature_Hmm.pngStarSpangledBanner.png

Forum Timezone: Europe/London
Most Users Ever Online: 2057
Currently Online:
Guest(s) 185
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
Starr Shine?: 16105
Ron Nasty: 12534
Zig: 9827
50yearslate: 8759
Necko: 8047
AppleScruffJunior: 7585
parlance: 7111
mr. Sun king coming together: 6394
Mr. Kite: 6147
trcanberra: 6064
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 88
Members: 2899
Moderators: 5
Admins: 1
Forum Stats:
Groups: 3
Forums: 44
Topics: 5552
Posts: 383227
Newest Members:
olboldie, AnoushBeatlesMegaFan, Carl simpson, themuse69, Johnny Silver
Moderators: Joe: 5710, meanmistermustard: 25136, Ahhh Girl: 22591, Beatlebug: 18219, The Hole Got Fixed: 8410
Administrators: Joe: 5710