The final track recorded for Revolver, ‘She Said She Said’ was inspired by an LSD-influenced conversation between John Lennon and actor Peter Fonda.
During The Beatles’ US tour in the summer of 1965, they rented a house in Los Angeles’ Mulholland Drive. On 24 August they played host to Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of The Byrds, and the two parties, apart from Paul McCartney, spent the day tripping on LSD.
The actor Peter Fonda arrived at the house, also on acid. He attempted to comfort Harrison, who thought he was dying.
I told him there was nothing to be afraid of and that all he needed to do was relax. I said that I knew what it was like to be dead because when I was 10 years old I’d accidentally shot myself in the stomach and my heart stopped beating three times while I was on the operating table because I’d lost so much blood.John was passing at the time and heard me saying ‘I know what it’s like to be dead’. He looked at me and said, ‘You’re making me feel like I’ve never been born. Who put all that shit in your head?’
Lennon recounted the incident in 1980 in one of his final interviews, speaking to a journalist from Playboy magazine.
It’s an interesting track. The guitars are great on it. That was written after an acid trip in LA during a break in The Beatles’ tour where we were having fun with The Byrds and lots of girls. Some from Playboy, I believe. Peter Fonda came in when we were on acid and he kept coming up to me and sitting next to me and whispering, ‘I know what it’s like to be dead.’He was describing an acid trip he’d been on. We didn’t want to hear about that! We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing and the whole thing was beautiful and Sixties, and this guy – who I really didn’t know; he hadn’t made Easy Rider or anything – kept coming over, wearing shades, saying, ‘I know what it’s like to be dead,’ and we kept leaving him because he was so boring! And I used it for the song, but I changed it to ‘she’ instead of ‘he’. It was scary. You know, a guy… when you’re flying high and [whispers] ‘I know what it’s like to be dead, man.’ I remembered the incident. Don’t tell me about it! I don’t want to know what it’s like to be dead!
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Switching between 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures, ‘She Said She Said’ was written by Lennon with some help from Harrison.
I was at his house one day – this is the mid-Sixties – and he was struggling with some tunes. He had loads of bits, maybe three songs, that were unfinished, and I made suggestions and helped him to work them together so that they became one finished song, ‘She Said She Said’. The middle part of that record is a different song.
In the studio
‘She Said She Said’ was recorded when The Beatles realised they were one song short for the Revolver album. In a hectic nine hour session on 21 June 1966, during which the majority of the album’s mono and stereo mixes were also done, they rehearsed the song more than 25 times and then recorded three takes of the rhythm track.
To the last of these were added John Lennon’s lead vocals, and backing vocals from Lennon and George Harrison. Extra guitar and Lennon’s Hammond organ track were then overdubbed, and ‘She Said She Said’ was complete.
Although he performed on the rhythm track, Paul McCartney walked out of the session following an argument, prior to the song’s completion.
John brought it in pretty much finished, I think. I’m not sure but I think it was one of the only Beatle records I never played on. I think we’d had a barney or something and I said, ‘Oh, fuck you!’ and they said, ‘Well, we’ll do it.’ I think George played bass.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Contrary to McCartney’s claim, Harrison did not perform bass guitar, but additional bass notes played on an organ were added after McCartney’s departure. The notes appear from 1:55 in the final recording.
A contemporary recording sheet from EMI Studios also states that a piano was also added to the song, although none appears on the multitrack tapes.
The recording of ‘She Said She Said’ was completed by 4am on 22 June 1966. Mono and stereo mixes were made that evening.
50 years later, this song still sounds amazingly modern. Great lyrics, concise arrangement, sleek and powerful production and mix. Sonically, it really doesn’t sound dated at all, despite the technical limitations of the time (and the “interesting” stereo choices they always made then). One of my favorites, in a way it’s the pinnacle of their original combined straight-ahead guitar rock combo sound and pop songwriting hooks.
yes ! the pinnacle indeed-that’s always the way i felt about this LP. where could they go from here ? it was indeed time for sgt. pepper’s band to play. and beyond that back to rock was “helter skelter” “yer blues” “birthday” “warm gun” etc. they did not disappoint. good lord they were good. and they were so young & did everything so quickly.
How can it be “theirs” when McCartney wasn’t on the track?…..Great song but definitely 60’s sounding because of the lack of complication in the guitar and drums. However, the overall presentation is awesome, simple rock. They were the masters at making simplicity be incredible.
Great Lennon composition. His rythym guitar playing is crisp, clear and fantastic.
I don’t understand that you think the drum is uncomplicated. It shows a lot of skill and intuition. The time signature also shifts from 4/4 to 3/4 time.
The Beatles have songs where not all 4 of them are on several times. How can you hear that sound and say that it’s not Beatles. It is quintessential Beatles.
McCartney IS on the track.
Interesting that Paul wasn’t involved in the song or the acid trip that inspired it. Coincidence?
Paul got angry and left that session. That is why.
According to John C. Winn (That magic feeling) he didn’t leave before “contributing to the rhythm track”.
So he DID play the bass.
The guitar works really make the song. You can hear John’s jangling guitar rhythm through out the song. George Harrison’s opening guitar into and lead work all over the song plus what he did in the middle break is strong, unique, and effective. George made that song. It would have been a totally different sound without George. George never got the credit he deserved on so many Beatle songs.
That’s not true – George was always credited as the author of his own songs.
Yes, and the song may have ben totally different if Paul was involved. It’s one of the few case where he ´s not running things in the studio, no ? And, it’s a glimpse of what the band would have been with morte Space allowed to George.
By the way, one of his Best song (« isn’t it a pity ») was rejected for this record and say it all, imo
Paul DID play the bass, though, according to John C. Winn (That magic feeling).
And it’s pretty clear what the band would have become without Paul’s driving energy.
No Pepper, no MMT, no White Album, no Abbey Road, no LIB
And it would be quite illuminating to hear all of George’s and John’s songs WITHOUT Paul’s contributions! 😀
Correct – I’m glad that you are on the same page as me, Michael.
Mark Lewisohn confirmed that in his research, the basic track to “She Said She Said” had two guitars, bass and drums.
Paul was actually involved with the recording – the basic track had two guitars, bass and drums. For some reason, Paul failed to remember playing on it.
George’s guitar speaks volumes
John’s guitar part enhanced George’s . It is John’s song after all.
I’d still love to know WHY Paul didn’t appear on this track. For him to walk out on a session sounds uncharacteristic. certainly for this period. Indeed this predates Ringo’s White Album walkout by 2 years!
I’m surprised none of the other Beatles have mentioned what happened. Was Paul really anti LSD or this song at the time, as it seems REALLY odd for John to ask George for help?
I think Paul didn’t agree with the arrangement. George told John to put partial songs together and make one. That’s what G.Martin also did.
My guess is, the others were teasing him about his reluctance to do acid.
One noteworthy fact is that this was Leonard Bernstein’s favorite Beatles song. Also, Revolver was his fave album by the Beatles. He made this comment in the foreword of the Beatles book with the Andy Warhol cover.
Then Bernstein has two “favourite tracks” in Revolver. I’ve seen a tv-interview made in 1966-67, where he states something like this: “The pop=music has evolved a lot, lately. I just listened the Beatles latest lp Revolver, where my favourite song is Good day sunshine. It has very interesting vocal arrangement in the end of the song”.
FWIW Chris Carter of Breakfast with The Beatles says a couple of takes were made with Paul playing bass before he left. He thinks the song features Paul’s bass playing.
Paul claims he’s not on it…
There is zero chance this is George on bass
It’s definitely Paul playing bass. It sounds like a McCartney bass part.
I actually have heard as many of you probably have as well (and as is probably documented elsewhere) that McCartney walked out on Eleanor Rigby as well, mid-lyric-write, so this album quite possibly did have a few fights. I have heard much more about the fight on this track on the YouTube Podcast ‘Why Revolver is Better Than Sgt Pepper’ (unknown to me who the Beatle-oligists are on it), and yes Harrison played bass on a separate track to the rest of the band according to that and also the fact you can’t hear Paul’s vocal at all always intrigued me and that Podcast shed light on that. He was absent for it so this song could be said to be ‘John/George/Ringo’ instead of The Beatles as Paul and his bass and harmonic stylings were so important?
Curious facts and circumstances. Over 50 years later here we are still going over the fine details, sometimes beat for beat, measure for measure!
The bass on She Said She Said has an interesting history.
If, somewhat of a big “if” you can very carefully listen to the bass on an original, non remastered version of the song you can here bass notes at certain specific sections of the song which seem to have been edited out of the remastered version.
Those notes consist of a few double stops and very sophisticated bass runs, extremely characteristic of McCartney’s bass playing.
The total combined time of all these notes in the 3 or 4 at most, places they appear is somewhere on the order of less than 10 seconds!!!!!
I had written about this before on another forum with the exact spots time marker for listeners to follow along. Those notes are gone. However, a veru very very careful listen might confirm some of this.
Still more…
It has been reported the recording session studio notes, listed McCartney as playing bass at some point.
Speculation led to the unconfirmed conclusion that some of McCartney’s bass lines, for whatever technological reason, physically survived on the original versions and were not edited out and yes you can hear them but only on certain pre remastered versions of the song.
This is not unique to this Beatle song where remnants of prior recordings found their way into a final published cut.
The fact that this example was edited out of the remastered version makes the whole issue an extremely fascinating to curious and courageous listeners. Listen on!
Actually part of the first remnant, a bass run, at :54.5 to about :55.5 still partially exists in the remastered version!
Paul McCartney 110% plays bass on She Said She Said. Beatles did 3 full run throughs w/ Paul. Then he spilt the studio (as he recalls in Miles book). There was NO bass overdub. Plus at the point (June 21st 1966) no one BUT Paul had ever played the bass on a Beatles song. So this would have been historic for George to play the bass at this point. Plus he didn’t it is PAUL. Again no bass overdub ever happened. Just check the studio log for the day.
Chris Carter/Breakfast w/ the Beatles – Sirius /Xm – Beatles Channel
Chris, you are right. As I mentioned earlier, Mark Lewisohn found that the basic track was of two guitars, bass and drums, so it was clearly Paul playing bass.
Someone needs to write a little article about this — it’s clearly Paul playing, but the fact that this appears in Revolution in the Head and elsewhere, citing that interview from the 80s where Paul fails to remember playing it, seems to rule the internet. Once there’s another source, update the wiki will stick.
Gareth, you are absolutely right on the money.
Ian MacDonald should not have taken all of Paul’s subsequent claims or recollections, correct or incorrect, as fact instead of taking them with a grain of salt and it was also irritating for him to mistakenly credit John and George’s guitar and keyboard parts to Paul for no real reason.
Given the limitations of 4-track recording, George would not have realistically been able to remove Paul’s bass part without Ringo’s drums being removed either on the one track.
Despite having nothing to do with it’s creation or performance Paul rates this song 60-40 in Johns favor. Hehe
Nothing of any relevance to add, I see……hehe
The arrangement / recording is better than the song. George H said it was bits and pieces and it sounds like it. A last minute rush job.
Bits and pieces? I guess you could say the same thing about Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”. It’s just how some songs come together, even some great ones.
I had read on another website that The Beatles realized two days before the beginning of their final European tour that they were one song short for Revolver. They debated whether to release Revolver with just 13 songs. Effectively they had just one day to record a song because they would need one travel day to get to Munich. Paul was apparently present at the beginning of the session but then left after the “barney”. I suspect that Paul didn’t just want to knock out a throw-away song in one session. By the time of Revolver, the group just didn’t do that anymore. My speculation is that that’s why Paul left. But the others thought that they could pull it off, which they did. Personally I consider it one of the best songs on Revolver, albeit not as polished and produced as the other songs. I still think that “Rain” and “She Said She Said” have the greatest guitar sound anyone ever attained and Ringo’s finest drumming.
Even that feels a bit weird. You don’t just “discover” after several weeks of work that you are one song short!
Maybe it was a very late decision to have a 14 track album, after all ADHN went out with 13 tracks and nobody feels short changed about it.
The reason for the absence of Paul was because John and George Harrison had recently taken the plunge and tried an LSD ‘trip’, but Paul McCartney had so far declined to do so. Ringo Starr took an ’acid trip’ shortly after to be in the same head-space with George and John.
Previously, the four of them had experimented with drugs together. That Paul didn’t want to take LSD, created a rift between them. And as this song of John’s was specifically about the LSD trip he had had in Beverly Hills, when it came time in the studio to record it John rejected ALL of Paul’s un-psychedelic musical suggestions.. Apparently, it wasn’t just a few suggestions: John shot down every single one of Paul’s attempts at contributing, for no other reason than because it was the ‘LSD-virgin’ Paul who was suggesting them.
Paul understandably became irritated and frustrated and eventually left the studio in a huff.
Thus it was that rather uniquely it was George Harrison, John’s LSD-buddy, who ended up playing lead guitar, bass guitar and singing the harmony vocals on the song.
Mark Lewisohn discovered that the basic track to “She Said She Said” actually had drums and bass on track 1 and two guitars on track 2 of the 4-track tape, so this implies that Paul did in fact play bass on the basic track. Paul did state this 30 years later and you can’t expect his recollections to be as clear as day, not with all of the copious amounts of drugs being taken.
I don’t doubt that he did storm out of the studio that day, but it’s not clear precisely when it happened that day.
Its a great song and Paul had zero to do with it. Much like a lot of other Lennon creations. Don’t forget that someone actually has to come up with the “idea” for a song and create it out of thin air. And Paul could never – not in a million years – come up with several of John’s songs and by virtue of that, the very best songs the Beatles ever did. Paul was an “embellisher” at best and was certainly good at it, like adding tape loops and other tertiary things like that, plus a very good bass player and harmonizer, but he could never come up with Strawberry Fields, ADITL, TNK, LSD, etc. etc. Far cry from actually creating songs of Lennon’s character and caliber musically, especially when you even break them down chord-wize, rhythmically, lyrically, etc.. (and yes I know there are exceptions – Fixing a Hole was a great song for example) Anyway the old question still prevails – if Paul was such a big deal in the Beatles then why did his solo music show absolutely no quality’s of the kinds of songs that John had put out? “Someone’s knockin’ at the door, someone’s ringin’ the bell … ” I rest my case, Paulyphants.
Opinions are like assholes: everybody has one.
Paul’s solo music shows absolutely no quality’s of the kinds of songs that John had put out?
I could give you thirty but I’m old and tired. You better listen to his records sure you’ll enjoy them
I can’t help but disagree. I acknowledge that John’s solo career was certainly more distinguished in the 1970-80 era, but I think a lot of this can be attributed to John being a more controversial figure during the period. Paul was more content to play traditionally popular styles of music, and this meant (among other things) that his LPs didn’t make as many headlines. Of course, this whole conversation is ultimately pointless, given that both Paul’s and John’s discographies pale when compared to the greatness of RINGO!
“Paul was an ’embellisher’ at best” —
now THAT’S a hoot. A hoot and a half.
To LilNancy Magill, I would say Paul’s solo career was more adventurous in the 1970s than both John and George’s, who went down the road of AOR soft rock. Both of them were elevated after their deaths. Perhaps Paul’s hits were more traditional pop but not the albums, which had a bold variety of songs. Monkberry Moon Delight and Temporary Secretary being only two examples. I think this has only been recognized retrospectively. Reviews at the time, particularly of Ram, have dated badly. Like you say, it’s pointless.
Enjoy what you enjoy.
Great song. Great bass line and guitars.
I just read in John C. Winn’s EXCELLENT book that Paul DID in fact leave the session, ” but not before contributing to the rhythm track”.
So he DID play the bass.
Mark Lewisohn seems to confirm it as well.
So please correct the line-up, Joe.
Michael, you are absolutely right.
I can’t understand why so many books and websites repeat that myth about George playing bass on the song when he actually did not.
one thing is certain. with songs from the first 3 solo albums published in the eaerly 70s by John Paul and George the could have released a couple of albums as 100% BEATLES of the highest quality , and certainly superior compared to yellow submarine or Let It be just to name a few of the latest official LPs ..
September 17, 2022
I just saw a interview with Giles Martin, hosted by Fab 4 Free For All, where he said it was DEFINITELY Paul McCartney who played the Bass Guitar on “She Said She Said” when they were talking the new Relvolver album that is coming in October 2022.
About time that this myth of George playing bass got disproven once and for all.
The origin of the “myth” isn’t so mysterious: McCartney himself stated- right or wrong- that he left the sessions for “She Said She Said” before the track was finished and it wasn’t his bass part; we have a couple photos of Harrison playing a Burns NU Sonic bass in the same time period as Revolver; therefore, it isn’t too far of a leap for people to assume the latter was actually responsible for the bass on “She Said She Said.”
But it is an assumption all the same, and most likely an incorrect one. What I don’t understand is why you are so apparently perplexed by the confusion; I think it is really very simple.
It’s definitely Paul on bass. I’m listening to take 15 , the backing track of the song. He can clearly hear him in the banter with the other three at this stage and he clearly counts the song in on this particular take.
Thanks to Giles Martin’s new mix of Revolver, you can now hear something clearly in She Said She Said that was previously much harder to catch (but was there all along – listen back to your older versions!). Amazingly, don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone, anywhere mention it before so, here goes…. at about 1min 23secs, listen to the drum part: a couple of beats have been reversed!
As I say, this is not a new thing (and, to be honest, it’s a tad nerdy!), it just pops out a little more on the new mix. Crazy that it seems not to have been picked up before now (or mentioned much more widely if it has) considering the close scrutiny the Beatles’ music has received in the last 60-odd years.
It is remarkable how everyone here ” knows ” Paul WAS on the track , even tho the man himself , and everyone else who was in the room says he was’nt . Either way I don’t really care . It’s still one of my top 10 Beatles tracks , even if its just Ringo and Val Doonican . Oh , and the piano referred to in the EMI notes was possibly the barrelhouse piano tacked onto the end ?
So Paul claims he wrote a higher percentage of the songs John claims he wrote alone and his defenders take Paul’s word to the death. Here Paul says that She Said She Said is the only Beatle song he doesn’t perform on and his defenders don’t believe him. Why? Because the bass playing is good and George or John couldn’t possibly play it that good?