Sexy Sadie

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

Contents

Writing

The song was originally written about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, right before John left India. John told Rolling Stone in 1970, "That's about the Maharishi, yes. I copped out and I wouldn't write 'Maharishi, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone.' But now it can be told, Fab Listeners." After Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr had left, Alexis "Magic Alex" Mardas, a friend of John's who fascinated him with various technological gadgets, came to India. He is thought to have started a rumor that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had made a sexual advance to one of the women in the camp. John's then-wife, Cynthia Lennon, recalled, "Alexis and a fellow female meditator began to sow the seeds of doubt into very open minds... Alexis's statements about how the Maharishi had been indiscreet with a certain lady, and what a blackguard he had turned out to be gathered momentum. All, may I say, without a single shred of evidence or justification. It was obvious to me that Alexis wanted out and more than anything he wanted The Beatles out as well." It had been said that Mia Farrow was this woman, but both Paul McCartney and George Harrison have denied this. McCartney said in his authorized biography, Many Years From Now, "It was a big scandal. Maharishi had tried to get off with one of the chicks. I said, 'Tell me what happened?' John said, 'Remember that blonde American girl with the short hair? Like a Mia Farrow lookalike. She was called Pat or something.' I said, 'Yeah'. He said, 'Well, Maharishi made a pass at her.' So I said, 'Yes? What's wrong with that?' 'He said, 'Well, you know, he's just a bloody old letch just like everybody else. What the fuck, we can't go following that!' They were scandalised. And I was quite shocked at them; I said, 'But he never said he was a god. In fact very much the opposite. He said, "Don't treat me like a god, I'm just a meditation teacher." There was no deal about you mustn't touch women, was there? There was no vow of chastity involved.' So I didn't think it was enough cause to leave the whole meditation centre." Even though it may have not been true, John left India because of it. It was this incident that inspired John to write this song. "That was written just as we were leaving, waiting for our bags to be packed in the taxi that never seemed to come. We thought: 'They're deliberately keeping the taxi back so as we can't escape from this madman's camp.' And we had the mad Greek with us who was paranoid as hell. He kept saying, 'It's black magic, black magic. They're gonna keep you here forever.' I must have got away because I'm here." John previewed the song to George Harrison when driving to Delhi. George recalled, "John had a song he had started to write which he was singing: 'Maharishi, what have you done?' and I said, 'You can't say that, it's ridiculous.' I came up with the title of Sexy Sadie and John changed 'Maharishi' to 'Sexy Sadie'. John flew back to Yoko in England and I went to Madras and the south of India and spent another few weeks there." Beatles press agent Derek Taylor remember John scratching the lyrics into a piece of wood at Apple Studios. Maureen Starkey kept the piece of wood, and later sold it to a Beatles collector.

Recording

A demo of the song was recorded at Kinfauns, George's home in Esher in May 1968. It was first formally recorded on July 19, 1968. During this session, John demonstrated the song to Paul. As they were presented to McCartney, they lyrics were:

"You little twat
Who the fuck do you think you are?
Who the fuck do you think you are?
Oh, you cunt"

They spent much time jamming to the song, but after they did that, they recorded 21 formal takes of the song. Take six from this day, including vocals, electric guitar, drums and organ, was featured on Anthology 3 in 1996. These takes, according to Mark Lewissohn varied in length between 5:36 and 8:00. A remake of the song was recorded on July 24, when they recorded 23 takes. These were not used and they remade the song once again on August 13, when they recorded eight takes, numbered 100 to 107. Take 107 was overdubbed onto, and would later become the album version. On August 21, they overdubbed another lead vocal part, organ, bass, tambourine, and backing vocals. The song would be informally rerecorded during the Get Back sessions on January 29, 1969.

Recording Sessions


Personnel

The Beatles

Production

Available Versions

Available On

Cover Versions

  • Phish
  • Paul Weller

Source

Retrieved from "http://www.beatleswiki.org/wiki/Sexy_Sadie"
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