Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 18 February 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 6 August 1965 (UK), 14 June 1965 (US)
Available on:
Help!
Personnel
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, electric piano
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, tambourine
George Harrison: güiro
Ringo Starr: drums, claves
Written mainly by Paul McCartney, ‘Tell Me What You See’ was first released in the UK on the Help! album, and in the US on Beatles VI.
‘Tell Me What You See’ was offered to Richard Lester for the soundtrack of the Help! film, but was rejected. McCartney later described the song as a filler track, co-written with John Lennon as a ‘work song’.
I seem to remember it as mine. I would claim it as a 60-40 but it might have been totally me. Not awfully memorable. Not one of the better songs but they did a job, they were very handy for albums or b-sides. You need those kind of sides.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Certain lines in ‘Tell Me What You See’ are reminiscent of a religious motto which had hung on the wall of Mendips, John Lennon’s childhood home he shared with his aunt Mimi and uncle George:
However black the clouds may be
In time they’ll pass away
Have faith and trust and you will see
God’s light make bright your day
Those lines were almost quoted directly by The Beatles in ‘Tell Me What You See’:
Big and black the clouds may be
Time will pass away
If you put your trust in me
I’ll make bright your day
In the studio
‘Tell Me What You See’ was recorded in four takes on 18 February 1965, the same day the group also recorded ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ and the rejected ‘If You’ve Got Trouble’. ‘Tell Me What You See’ was the last of those to be completed.
The song introduced the sound of the güiro, a Latin-American instrument played by striking a wooden stick across a series of notches, to The Beatles’ sound. It was played on the recording by George Harrison. Ringo Starr also played the claves.
‘Tell Me What You See’ also features a Hohner Pianet electric piano, which can also be heard on the Help! songs ‘The Night Before’ and ‘You Like Me Too Much’.
Contents of the four-track tape:
Backing Track:
1.) drums (Ringo), bass (Paul), electric guitar (John), guiro (George)
Overdubs:
2.) Lennon-McCartney vocals (shared lead)
3.) tambourine (John) and claves (Ringo)
4.) electric piano (Paul) and additional harmony vocal part by Paul for the chorus
The session is also well documented by Ray Coleman:
“The group tapes the instrumental backing with George forsaking his guitar and getting a comb and paper effect with a drumstick and a piece of wood… They record the vocal by Lennon and McCartney, and later, they overrecord on to the original with Lennon, cigarette between his lips, shaking a tambourine and Ringo playing maracas*… At 10 pm, with Paul playing electric piano.” (Coleman in ‘Melody Maker’ Feb 27 1965)
* Mistake by Coleman, Ringo played claves as you hear them on the record.
A pretty weak song, yeah, but one I like just because it sounds ‘nice’, with the claves, electric piano, and especially the way John and Paul alternate bettween high harmony and midrange unison singing.
Listen to the different insturments and electric piano parts. They were already expanding in 1965, which was going to lead the way for Revolver and Sgt Pepper year and half later.
I’ve put together some of the choice tracks from the Beatles VI, Help and Rubber Soul period. Great to listen to in the car. Kind of like a 65-66 version of Love Songs.
The singing on this track is beautiful, really. I love how when they sing “no surprise now”, you can hear it vibrate.
You should mention, Lennon said, in his interviews with Playboy (1980) and Hit Parader (1972), that Tell Me What You See was Paul’s song completely.
A so-so Paul song from side 2 of Help. I see it as interesting mainly as a transition toward the great Rubber Soul album.
Truly under rated track and one of my favorites. It harkens back to 1963 in the way that it is formatted and in the use of the personal me / you lyrics. John and Paul’s great singing of notes in unison and breaking off into harmony for us makes it especially endearing to me.
I’m shocked really that this song is often referred to as “weak.” Folks, music doesn’t really get much better than this.
I fully agree. They sound great on this one. Everything.
Yep, I agree too! Most songwriters would give their right arm to pen a song as good as this. Just shows how incredibly rich the Beatles’ musical legacy is, that this song suffers by comparison with their other love songs.
Yes , it’s a joke that it’s thought of as a weak song. A beautiful melody and feel with great lyrics.
Any songwriter would give their hind teeth to write such a perfect song.
Everything I love about the Beatles in this one. Great vocals, melodic, interesting instrumentation and of course, Ringo’s drumming.
Completely agree.
Same here. Mediocre only by Beatle standards – for virtually any other group, a sterling, career-capping number!
It has great rythum, harmonies and neat instrumentation. Love the piano inerlude with the drums and guitar.
I hear three voices when they sing both “Tell me what you see” and “MM mm mm mm mmm,” after the chorus part. Should George get a singing credit, or so you think John or Paul sings the lowest part?
Always had the same impression. I have a kind of Help Reconstruction CD where se can hear the instruments track a vocal track with kind of separation…. Really the 3rd voice is like George…..
Hello Sam,
Maybe you already know the answer—it’s been a while since your comment.
But anyway, as written somewhere in the text above and in other sources, it was sung by Paul. Additional harmony vocal part for the chorus was sung by Paul during one of the overdubs after the base (backing) track was recorded. George played güiro on the backing track.
Here’s an interesting bit from “Tune In” about John’s childhood that’s related to the song:
“[…] he was fascinated by a religious motto which Mimi or George had framed and hung on the wall at Mendips:
However black the clouds may be
In time they’ll pass away
Have faith and trust and you will see
God’s light make bright your day”
Remove the God connotation & there you have it! John tapping into his early memories for a verse of the song.
I was BLOWN AWAY when I read that part in Lewisohn’s book. Thank the higher powers that Mark exists, haha. 🙂
That’s really interesting.
I’ve always found the lyrics to this song to be deliciously creepy – it’s like someone dangerously, obsessively, wanting to be everything to another person, to be their every waking hour: ‘If you let me take your heart….we will never be apart: if I’m part of you’, ‘Can’t you see that I’m trying to get to you’, ‘Open up your eyes, tell me what you see, it is no surprise now, what you see is me’; and I love the way they scream ‘Tell Me What You See!!!’
So having the protagonist borrowing this religious passage and seeing himself as almost Godlike (God’s light make bright your day/I’ll make bright your day) adds even more depth and interest to a song that many dismiss as a throwaway love song.
That is a truly excellent take on this great song. Deliciously creepy! I love it!
One of the weakest songs on the album but I still like it.
The vocal dynamics between John and Paul (switching melody) reminds me of “Wait”
Yep, another throw away song, that would have probably been a minor hit for another Band!
This is a classic. It is not weak. Are you kidding me?? Got dam dummies, get it together.
Steely Dan borrowed the melody for “Barrytown” on Pretzel Logic.
Hey, I never noticed that!
Has a kind of indian drone to it in parts. Inspired by See my Friends from year before???
The songs lyrics about the perception of others could be deemed psychedelic? Not sure if they had taken LSD at this point.
I agree with poster who consider this a preview of where they would be interms of arranging music in a few months- consider all the textures of sound that weave in and out, each
verse being slightly different, constantly building.
My favorite part is Ringo’s drums during the piano break- perfect!
Sam, I hear a 3rd voice too during the “Tell me what you see” parts and the “mmm,mmm,mmm…” part at the end. my guess is that Paul put that high part in later.
Filler track? Wow. IMHO, “rock” music really doesn’t get any more beautiful than this. And funny how some stuff that was recorded just last week doesn’t sound this warm and spacious.
This is one of my favorite Beatles songs; John and Paul sound great singing it together.
A professor of mine once told the story of him listening to this song immediately after his first son was born and just being hit by it. I’m years away from having any children of my own, but I think looking at it in that context makes it absolutely beautiful, especially considering it’s not necessarily a romantic song.
Beautiful song. Not weak to me at all. I love Ringo’s drumming. And great vocals.
is Paul singing lead vocals, or George? it doesn’t sound like Paul at all.
Doesn’t George sing on this? In the chorus (at 1:02 first time around) the line “Tell me what you see” has three-part harmony.
Lennon takes the middle (D-D-D-D-C), while Paul sings the high part (F-F-F-F-E). But there also is a lower-register harmony that’s single tracked. It has the notes A-A-A-A-G. That sounds like George taking the low part, like he did on “Tell Me Why,” “You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me,” and other songs.
It could be Paul, but it’s got a slightly rough quality to it that makes me think it’s George.
I just noticed “Sam” made the same comment before I did. My apologies to Sam and good observation. I broke down the harmony parts, though, so there’s that.
An interesting song/ recording because it’s different, not because it’s good (it isn’t; it’s very mediocre both melodically and lyrically). The arrangement (instruments and harmony vocals) keep it from being a washout.
I’ve become fascinated with this song lately. For those of you who play, take your acoustic guitar and rhythmically strum along with this one. It is so simple and yet so calming and satisfying. The droning nature of the song really comes through. The lyrics can be used in many situations: to show someone how you feel about them, to comfort them, to remind them they are not alone. A very nice song that is, apparently, too often overlooked. This is the song that, to me, brings the Help album up to an equal of A Hard Day’s Night. Without it, side 2 of Help is severely lacking. Again, imho, of course.
Do I detect a 12 string electric guitar in this? If so, I would be interested to find out if it’s played by George or John.
The player keeps his little finger on the top G pretty much throughout (E string third fret). Oasis would ‘borrow’ this idea for their Wonderwall song.
Open up your eyes now sure sounds a lot like Under My Umbrella!
Weak song? A throw-away? I don’t think so.
It’s kind of obvious George is singing on this song. You can clearly hear him…
Although I can be rough on the Beatles sometimes re “throwaway” songs and ditties, this is not one! Simple doesn’t have to mean insignificant. What I love about it is the reaching back to their early skiffle-influenced, classic rock ‘n roll style, the bit of yearning and heartbreak, the spice of the ethnic percussion, the plain but lovely lyrics. Weird, tho–like Sasha, I always thought I heard George singing “open up your eyes, girl, etc.” in his husky, sexy best, but listening on youtube now I don’t hear it anymore.
Although John and George had the reputations for being the most dismissive of Christianity, in reality, it was Paul, that, in word, thought and deed {and therefore, in his songs, whether initially consciously or unconsciously – as is more likely} that had the biggest downer on God, Jesus, religion. His comments about “the stupidity of religion” and by extension, God, and, by Western extension, Jesus, go back to the death of his Mum and his anger and contempt at his prayers “not being answered” when he “really needed them to” – he was praying that his Mum would come back. This stayed with Paul, right through the Beatle period and can be seen in his taking up of the Maharishi, half-heartedly {he said he liked the idea that there was no creator to be ultimately accountable to} but it also shows in his songs. For him, women often assumed the role that God would in the religious, but with a twist. Even more than John, Paul was to be the one in control.
Now, in R&B, and as it mutated into soul, soul too, the idea of taking God out of ideas and notions of devotion and replacing God with ‘woman’ had been quite a controversial thing to do in Black America – but not in White England where religion in the 1960s, especially among the new young, that generation born in the war years, wasn’t really looked upon as a particularly good, healthy or important thing {hence John’s 1966 statement, which, however you look at it, was correct}, let alone vital for life. But that generation was still searching for meaning and the devotion to pop stars and the new and burgeoning experimentation with drugs and alternative lifestyles was evidence of this.
John and Paul stepped into this realm.
That little dictum that was hung in Aunt Mimi’s house may have had more of an imprint on their young and questing minds than many have realized because the very devotion to God that is being spoken of is transferred over to the singer {read:writer} of the song. And youngsters were starting to look at the Beatles as some kind of guide. It is clear that by the time of Rubber Soul, and certainly Revolver, John, Paul and George were tentatively taking on the role of songwriting advisors/suggesters and spokesmen. They were starting to move beyond just having a laugh and throwing drug and/or sex references obliquely into songs. When asked in 1970 when he started writing message songs, John said “Probably after Rubber Soul,” and he maintained that they did take part of the role as spokespeople seriously. He also said, in 1980, and quite significantly in my estimation, that while the Beatles didn’t create the ‘60s, they were in the crow’s nest showing everyone the dry land ahead. A song like “Tell Me What You See,” whether consciously or not, has the singer taking on the role of God from that Aunt Mimi poem and saying ‘trust me’ and “I’m going to make your life better.” It’s not out of the realms of possibility to suggest that drugs were part of this showing and making life better. It is also possible that around this time, Paul could have been tinkering with “Got To Get You into My Life” – he said, of that song, that it was written “when I had first been introduced to pot. I’d been a rather straight working-class lad but when we started to get into pot it seemed to me to be quite uplifting. It didn’t seem to have too many side effects like alcohol or some of the other stuff, like pills….I kind of liked marijuana. I didn’t have a hard time with it and to me it was mind-expanding, literally mind-expanding. So ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ is really a song about that, it’s not to a person, it’s actually about pot. It’s saying, ‘I’m going to do this. This is not a bad idea.’ So it’s actually an ode to pot, like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret. It wouldn’t be the first time in history someone’s done it, but in my case it was the first flush of pot.”
Had Paul not said this about the song, and John not speculated it was about Paul doing acid, who, in reality would have ascribed such a meaning to it ? Or who would have ascribed “Day Tripper” to writing about drugs ? Well, “Tell Me What You See,” for me, falls into similar territory regarding both drugs and God. It’s interesting that references to both come thick and fast after this song, in both other songs, and then later on, interviews and busts. Religious Christians certainly got the message. They could see that the Beatles were moving into territory that they {and by extension, their children} reserved for God and while the writing Beatles weren’t saying they were better than God, Paul was certainly mooting the idea that they had something more relevant to say. Even to this day, John’s “Jesus Christ” quote is routinely misquoted. Even though he never said the Beatles were bigger or greater, that is what the perception was. Even in one of his last interviews, the Playboy one, he says his comment was an “off-hand” one and the interviewer {David Sheff}, showing that he’s well clued up, says “That the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ ?”, to which John replies “Right.”