For many the Beatles creative genius reached a peak at the time of the recording of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, which is an album so obviously exhibiting the influence of major drug use. Described by Macca as John and I doing a work song for Ringo, a little craft job, this song was written for and sung by the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr as the character Billy Shears at the beginning of the masterpiece album, which even today still ranks a one of the greatest of all time. It was ranked No. 311 on Rolling Stone s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and needs no explanation as to what it is really all about! This track is also memorable for a number of other reasons. Firstly, it was briefly called Bad Finger Boogie and later became the inspiration for the band name Badfinger, supposedly because Lennon composed the melody on a piano using his middle finger after having hurt his forefinger! Secondly, Lennon and McCartney deliberately wrote a tune with a limited range – except for the last note, which McCartney worked closely with Starr to achieve. Speaking in the Anthology, Starr insisted on changing the first line which originally was What would you think if I sang out of tune? Would you throw ripe tomatoes at me? He changed the lyric so that fans would not throw tomatoes at him should he perform it live! (In the early days, after George Harrison made a passing comment that he liked jelly babies, the group was showered with them at all of their live performances.)
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 03:40:11 +0000
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