ON THIS DAY IN BEATLES HISTORY: November 26th 1969; John Lennon works on a Beatles song for the last time when he mixes the song You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) at Abbey Road Studios. The song was used as the B-side of their Let It Be single. It didnt appear on a Beatles album until Past Masters was was released in the 80s. The Beatles started recording the song in 1967, adding all the instrumentation and a saxophone part played by Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones. Lennon and McCartney added all of the crazy vocals in April, 1969. Finally, it was released as the B-side of the Let It Be single in 1970. This is one of 4 Beatles songs never released in stereo. The others are Love Me Do, Ill Get You and She Loves You. One of the strangest songs in The Beatles entire canon, You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) was originally recorded in 1967, but remained unreleased until the Let It Be single three years later. A multi-part song containing a nightclub cabaret pastiche and a host of silly voices and effects, You Know My Name was recorded in the weeks following the completion of the Sgt Pepper album. By this time The Beatles had lost some of their focus, and were experimenting with a number of songwriting and recording techniques. Paul has said: John had arrived one night with this song which was basically a mantra: You know my name, look up the number. And I never knew who he was aiming that at, it might have been an early signal to Yoko. It was Johns original idea and that was the complete lyric. He brought it in originally as a 15-minute chant when he was in space-cadet mode and we said, Well, what are we going to do with this then? and he said, Its just like a mantra. So we said, Okay, lets just do it. In fact, the song was inspired by a slogan on the front of the London telephone directory for 1967, which Lennon had seen at McCartneys house. John has said: That was a piece of unfinished music that I turned into a comedy record with Paul. I was waiting for him in his house, and I saw the phone book was on the piano with You know the name, look up the number. That was like a logo, and I just changed it. It was going to be a Four Tops kind of song - the chord changes are like that - but it never developed and we made a joke of it. Brian Jones is playing saxophone on it. In 1988 Paul McCartney, perhaps unexpectedly, named You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) as his favourite song by The Beatles. People are only just discovering the b-sides of Beatles singles. Theyre only just discovering things like You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) - probably my favourite Beatles track, just because its so insane. All the memories... Heres Let It Be along You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)..... Enjoy!
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 16:18:25 +0000
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