Cry Baby Cry

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Cry Baby Cry is a song off The Beatles' 1968 self-titled album. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

[edit] Writing

Cry Baby Cry was one of the few, if not the only, songs on The Beatles to be written before The Beatles' trip to India to study transcendental meditation in early 1968. According to Hunter Davies' 1968 authorized biography on The Beatles, the song, like Good Morning Good Morning, was partially based on a commercial. John Lennon was quoted as saying this in the book: "I've got another one here, a few words, I think I got them from an advert - 'Cry baby cry, make your mother buy'. I've been playing it over on the piano. I've let it go now. It'll come back if I really want it. I do get up from the piano as if I have been in a trance. Sometimes I know I've let a few things slip away, which I could have caught if I'd been wanting something." John Lennon dismissed the song in 1980 as "a piece of rubbish." The song was lyrically similar to the nursery rhyme Sing A Song Of Sixpence, which went:

"Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?

The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose!"

Lennon's song was somewhat darker than the nursery rhyme, mentioning seances, voices, and midnight pranks. On the album, it was paired with Can You Take Me Back?, an improvisation recorded during the session for the McCartney song I Will.

[edit] Recording

The earliest known recording is a piano demo from December 1967. The next known verion is an acoustic guitar demo from May 1968. This demo was recorded at Kinfauns, George Harrison's home in Esher, where most of the songs that went on The Beatles wer demoed. This recording is available on bootlegs. The earliest studio recording was on July 15, 1968, when four 30-minute tapes were filled with unnumbered rehearsal takes of this song. The contents of these tapes were recorded over during the next two sessions. Paul McCartney recalls, "Because John had divorced Cynthia and gone off with Yoko, it meant that I'd hear some of the songs for the first time when he came to the studio, whereas in the past we checked them with each other." On July 16, they recorded the song in ten takes. Take one from this date, lacking overdubs, was included on Anthology 3. The tenth take was the one used on the album, with vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, organ, and drums overdubbed. Geoff Emerick, longtime engineer who had wored with The Beatles since Revolver, stopped working with The Beatles during the July 16 session as a result of hightening tensions in the studio. Emerick recalled, "I lost interest in the White Album because they were really arguing among themselves and swearing at each other. The expletives were really flying... I said to George [Martin], 'Look, I've had enough. I want to leave. I don't want to know any more.' George said, 'Well, leave at the end of the week' - I think it was a Monday or Tuesday - but I said, 'No, I want to leave now, this very minute.' And that was it." Cry Baby Cry was completed on July 18, when new lead vocals, backing vocals, more harmonium, tambourine and more percussion were overdubbed with new engineer Ken Scott. The song was mixed into stereo and mono on October 15, when the flanging effect was added to the acoustic guitar.

[edit] Recording Sessions

[edit] LOVE Mix

A mix of this song was included on the 2006 Beatles remix album LOVE in a mix of Come Together and Dear Prudence. Though none of Lennon's original Cry Baby Cry song was included in the mix, McCartney's Can You Take Me Back? section was included at the end of the recording, backed with drums from Come Together, piano from A Day In The Life, strings from Eleanor Rigby, and, at the very end, drums from Revolution.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Guest Musicians

[edit] Production

For additional information on instrumentation, see Can You Take Me Back?.

[edit] Available Versions

[edit] Available On

[edit] Cover Versions

[edit] Source

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