Baby's in Black

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Baby's In Black is a song off The Beatles' 1964 album, Beatles for Sale. It was written by both John Lennon and Paul McCartney, a rare occurance even though almost all Beatles songs are cedited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

[edit] Writing

The song was co-written by John and Paul in a hotel during the summer 1964 world tour. It is speculated to be about Astrid Kirchherr, the photographer whom former bassist Stuart Sutcliffe had met and fallen in love with. The couple were engaged, only to have Sutcliffe die of a brain haemorrhage on April 10, 1962. Paul later said about the song in the Anthology book, "Baby's In Black we did because we like waltz time - we used to do If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody, a cool 3/4 blues thing. And other bands would notice that and say, 'Shit man, you're doing something in 3/4.' So we'd got known for that. And I think also John and I wanted to do something bluesy, a bit darker, more grown-up, rather than just straight pop. It was more 'baby's in black' as in mourning. Our favourite colour was black, as well." Paul also recalled in his authorized biography, Many Years From Now, that the song was "very much co-written and we both sang it. Sometimes the harmony that I was writing in sympathy to John's melody would take over and become a stronger melody. Suddenly a piebald rabbit came out of the hat! When people wrote out the music score they would ask, 'Which one is the melody?' because it was so co-written that you could actually take either. We rather liked this one. It was not so much a work job, there was a bit more cred about this one. It's got a good middle."

[edit] Recording

It was the first song recorded for the album Beatles for Sale, on August 11, 1964. They recorded fourteen takes, although only five were complete. Lennon and McCartney both sang their vocal parts into the same microphone. After the session, the opening guitar note was causing quite a few problems, so George recorded many edit pieces to try and perfect it. None of these ended up being used. This was the first time George used a volume swell pedal, a trick he had just learned from Colin Manley. He was supposed to begin with the pedal up, and bring it in, which gave a gradual swelling effect. George said, "But I could never co-ordinate it, he said. So what we’d do is, I played the part, and John would kneel down in front of me and turn my guitar’s volume control." This effect can be heard at the beginning and end of the song.

[edit] Recording Sessions


[edit] Live

The song became part of their regular setlist, until their final concert on August 29, 1966. A live version from a concert at the Hollywood Bowl appears as a B-Side to the Real Love single in 1996. It was usually third in the set, with the first two being Rock And Roll Music and Long Tall Sally. Paul later commented "We used to put that in there, and think, 'Well, they won't know quite what to make of this but it's cool.'"

[edit] Available Versions

[edit] Available On

[edit] Personnel

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Production

[edit] Sources

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