Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 21 June 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 5 August 1966 (UK), 8 August 1966 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, Hammond organ
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, shaker
Available on:
Revolver
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 one of his final interviews in 1980, 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 John and George. Extra guitar and Lennon's Hammond organ track were then overdubbed, and She Said She Said was complete.
Unusually, Paul McCartney most likely did not play on the track.
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
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.
Interesting that Paul wasn’t involved in the song or the acid trip that inspired it. Coincidence?
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.
George’s guitar speaks volumes
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?
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.
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!