The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

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The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill is a song off The Beatles' 1968 album, The Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

Writing

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill was written in Rishikesh, India, in early 1968, when The Beatles were studying meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. John had written it about another member of the meditation camp that left for a short amount of time to go hunting. John recalled, "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill was written about a guy who took a short break to go shoot a few poor tigers, and then came back to commune with God. There used to be a character called Jungle Jim, and I combined him with Buffalo Bill. It's a sort of teenage social-comment song and a bit of a joke." This American man was named Richard Cooke III, better known as Rik. He, like indicated in the song, had brought along his mother, named Nancy, on his hunting trip, as well as to the Maharishi camp. Mia Farrow, also studying meditation with The Beatles, later recalled, "Then a self-important, middle-aged American woman arrived, moving a mountain of luggage into the brand-new private bungalow next to Maharishi's along with her son, a bland young man named Bill. People fled this newcomer, and no one was sorry when she left the ashram after a short time to go tiger hunting, unaware that their presence had inspired a new Beatles song - Bungalow Bill." Right after he came back, Rik had explained to the Maharish that he felt extremely regretful. Nancy Cooke later said, "Rik told me that he felt bad about it and said that he didn't think he'd ever kill an animal again. Maharishi said, 'You had the desire Rik and now you don't have the desire?' Then John asked, 'Don't you call that slightly life destructive?' I said, 'Well John, it was either the tiger or us. The tiger was right where we were'. That came up in the lyric as 'If looks could kill it would have been us instead of him'."

Recording

The song was recorded on October 8, 1968, when three takes, plus several overdubs, were recorded. The Beatles had arranged to have anyone available at the time contribute backing vocals, including Ringo's wife Maureen Starkey and John's wife Yoko Ono. In addition to this, Ono also contributed a brief lead vocal line which was supposed to be spoken by Bungalow Bill's "mother." This marks the only time where a female contributed a lead vocal part to a Beatles song. The assistant of producer George Martin, Chris Thomas, recorded the Mellotron parts for the song, including mandolin sounds in the verses and trombone parts in the chorus. The Spanish guitar introduction was also from the Mellotron, although it was recorded seperately on October 16 and October 17, during the only 24-hour Beatles session. It was a part of several seven-second music samples included on the Mellotron Mark II.

Recording Sessions


Personnel

The Beatles

Guest Musicians

Production

Available Versions

Available On

Cover Versions

  • Phish
  • Tally Hall
  • Tea Leaf Green

Source

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