For You Blue

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For You Blue is a song off The Beatles' 1970 album Let It Be. It was written by George Harrison.

Contents

AKA and Working Titles

Writing

George Harrison wrote For You Blue for his then-wife Patti. It was a blues song recorded during the Get Back sessions. George commented, "It's a simple 12-bar song following all the normal 12-bar principles, except that it's happy-go-lucky!"

Recording and Mixing

For You Blue was recorded in six takes at a Get Back session on January 25, 1969, under it's working title George's Blues (Because You're Sweet And Lonely). The last take from this day was considered in early acetate versions of the album and actually was included on the final album. John played a lap steel guitar for this song, using a shotgun shell as a slide. George ad-libbed words of encouragement for John during his solo, such as "Go, Johnny, go" and "Elmore James' got nothing on this baby!" Glyn Johns remixed the song on January 8, 1970. George Harrison had rerecorded his vocals beforehand. Another mix of Take 6 was included on Let It Be... Naked in 2003. An alternate take from this date was included on 1996's Anthology 3. On a March 30, 1970 mix of For You Blue, Phil Spector made a sixteen-second loop of the song's instrumental break, inserting speech clips from the film into the foreground. It ended up not being used. According to Mark Lewisohn's book, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, "Several mixes were made in this fashion, utilising such cinéma vérité moments from the rooftop performance element of the film as the old woman's "I just can't see that it makes sense!", the young girl's "Yeah, I think it's great... livens up the office hours, anyway", the bowler-hatted vicar's "Nice to have something for free in this country at the moment, isn't it?", the taxi driver's "Is it their new record? Oh, great, I'm all in favour of it!" and the pompous businessman's "This type of music is all right in its place, it's quite enjoyable. But I think it's a bit of an imposition to absolutely disrupt all the business in this area..."" In the end, Spector only used one clip of speech from the Get Back sessions at Twickenham Film Studios. This was a clip of John Lennon saying "Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members." It can be heard quietly right before the music starts on the song.

Single Release

For You Blue was released as the B-Side to The Long And Winding Road US single, released May 11, 1970.

Available Versions

The Beatles

George Harrison

Paul McCartney

Available On

Personnel

The Beatles

Production

Cover Versions

Source

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