Lady Madonna

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Lady Madonna is a 1968 single by The Beatles. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

[edit] Writing

Lady Madonna was The Beatles' first release of 1968, written shortly before The Beatles went to India to study Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was also the last Beatles release on the Parlophone/Capitol Records label. All albums and singles from Hey Jude onwards would be released on The Beatles' own Apple Records. Paul McCartney recalled in his authorized biography, Many Years From Now, "The original concept was the Virgin Mary but it quickly became symbolic of every woman; the Madonna image but as applied to ordinary working class woman. It's really a tribute to the mother figure, it's a tribute to women. Your Mother Should Know is another. I think women are very strong, they put up with a lot of shit, they put up with the pain of having a child, of raising it, cooking for it, they are basically skivvies a lot of their lives, so I always want to pay a tribute to them." Though the lyrics differ greatly from the psychedelic style of the songs of 1967, it does contain a reference to I Am The Walrus; the line "See how they run." McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now, "I was writing the words out to learn it for an American TV show and I realised I missed out Saturday; I did every other day of the week, but I missed out Saturday. So I figured it must have been a real night out." The music, also, was a throwback from before 1967. The intro is similar to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit Bad Penny Blues (which, coincidentally, was produced by Beatles producer George Martin). Paul's left-handed, bass-led piano playing was inspired by Fats Domino, who released his own cover of Lady Madonna later in 1968. McCartney recalls, "Lady Madonna was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing. I got my left hand doing an arpeggio thing with the chord, an ascending boogie-woogie left hand, then a descending right hand. I always liked that, the juxtaposition of a line going down meeting a line going up. That was basically what it was. It reminded me of Fats Domino for some reason, so I started singing a Fats Domino impression. It took my voice to a very odd place."

[edit] Recording

The Beatles started recording Lady Madonna on February 3, 1968. First, they recorded three takes of the basic track, which included Paul on piano and Ringo on drums with brushes. Later that evening, Paul added his bass part and John and George added fuzz-toned guitars through the same amplifier. Ringo also added another drum track. Also during this session, Paul added a lead vocal part and John and George added backing vocal parts. On February 6, Paul double-tracked his vocals and added another piano part. All Beatles contributed handclaps. John, Paul, and George sang the "See how they run" vocals and vocalized imitation brass during the middle eight section. Later that evening, four saxophone players were brought in to finish the song. They came in at the last minute and their parts were mostly improvised. Saxphone player Bill Jackman, "Paul went through the song on the piano and we were each given a scrap of manuscript paper and a pencil to write out some notes. Had there been music we would have been in and out in about 10 minutes. As it was, it took most of the evening, recording it in A major pitch with the rhythm track playing in our headphones." The saxophone solo was played by Ronnie Scott, but much of it was removed in the mix. Scott was apparently displeased with this, but it was The Beatles' and George Martin's decision. A new mix of Lady Madonna was included on the 1996 compilation Anthology 3. This is an edit of Takes 3, 4, and 5. It included an extended saxophone break by Ronnie Scott and an extra flourish at the end. The band informally returned to the song on September 5, 1968, during the session for While My Guitar Gently Weeps, when working on the arrangement of the song. This version, which features only McCartney on organ and vocals, is only available on bootlegs as an offline recording of a mixing session. The Beatles returned to the song on January 31, 1969, the final day of the Get Back sessions. This version contined the improvised lines "Lord and Lady Docker, in your private yacht, all the people wonder why you have such a lot." This version was actually mixed and thought of for release but it was later considered too rough.

[edit] Recording Sessions

[edit] LOVE Mix

A new mix of the song Lady Madonna appears on the 2006 Beatles remix album LOVE. It includes a long drum intro including rain sounds, studio dialog, "vocal percussion" from the four Beatles, and other percussion sounds taken from the intro of Why Don't We Do It In The Road?. During the solo, it breaks into the guitar riff from Hey Bulldog, with Billy Preston's organ from I Want You (She's So Heavy) and Eric Clapton's guitar from While My Guitar Gently Weeps on top. The mix ends with the saxophone flourish included on the Anthology 2 mix of the song.

[edit] Promotional Videos

See main article: Recording Session - February 11, 1968

Two promotional videos were filmed for Lady Madonna on February 11, 1968, both for worldwide syndication to television companies. The single was going to be released while the band was studying meditation in Rishikesh, India, so they couldn't make any personal appearances to promote the single. Possibly to avoid issues with the Musicians' Union over lip-synching (the same issues that prevented the Hello, Goodbye videos from being shown in the UK), the Lady Madonna videos showed The Beatles recording in a studio and the band didn't even try to look like they were playing Lady Madonna. In fact, during the filming for the video, they were recording Hey Bulldog. Dennis O'Dell, head of Apple's film division, told Mojo Magazine, "I spent a few days coming up with ideas for Lady Madonna, [but] when The Beatles wanted to get on with recording Hey Bulldog, all that went out the window!" NEMS Enterprises distributed the two clips to British and US TV stations. The BBC broadcast one of the clips in black and white on four occaisions. In America, the first showing of a clip was in color on ABC's The Hollywood Palace on March 30, 1968. In 1999, using clips from the Lady Madonna promotional video, a new video for Hey Bulldog was made, this time synched up to the song.

[edit] Single Release

Lady Madonna was first released as a single in the UK on March 15, 1968 with The Inner Light as the B-Side. It entered the charts on March 20, and got to number one a week later. It remained at number one for another week and spent eight weeks total in the UK charts. In the US, the single was less successful, being released on March 18 and peaking at number four on March 23.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Guest Musicians

[edit] Production

[edit] Available Versions

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Paul McCartney

To Be Completed...

[edit] Ringo Starr

  • Live at the Riverport Amphlitheatre in Maryland Heights, Missouri, USA, May 28, 2000, (Bootlegs)

[edit] Known Unavailable Versions

A (%) indicates an overdub, edit piece, or basic track available only as part of another recording. The overdub, edit piece, or basic track by itself has not been released.

[edit] Available On

[edit] Cover Versions

[edit] Sources

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