You Won't See Me
From BeatlesWiki
You Won't See Me is a song off The Beatles' 1965 album, Rubber Soul. It was written by Paul McCartney, but credited to Lennon/McCartney.
Contents |
Writing
The song was written about Paul's then-girlfriend Jane Asher. She had left her parents' house, where she and McCartney were livin, to perform in Great Expectations, a play at the Old Vic Theatre in Bristol. He wrote it about his inability to contact her. It's length was 3:23, making it the longest Beatles song to date. Paul recalls the song as being inspired by Motown, "This was written around two little notes, a very slim phrase, a two-note progression that I had very high on the first two strings of the guitar: the E and the B strings. I had it high up on the high E position, and I just let the note on the B string descend a semitone at a time, and kept the top note the same, and against that I was playing a descending chromatic scale. Then I wrote the tune for You Won't See Me against it... To me it was very Motown-flavoured. It's got a James Jamerson feel. He was the Motown bass player, he was fabulous, the guy who did all those great melodic bass lines. It was him, me and Brian Wilson who were doing melodic bass lines at that time, all from completely different angles, LA, Detroit and London, all picking up on what each other did."
Recording
The song was recorded in a 13-hour session, beginning at 4:00 PM on November 11, 1965. This session was intended to be the last session for the album Rubber Soul. They started work on the song at 6:00 PM, when two takes of the basic track were recorded, as well as a series of overdubs. One of these overdubs included Mal Evans playing a single organ note through the last verse. Also recorded during this session were Girl, and the finishing overdubs on Wait and I'm Looking Through You.
Recording Sessions
- November 11, 1965: Mixing and Recording Sessions. Songs Mixed: The Word. Songs Recorded: Wait, You Won't See Me, Girl, and I'm Looking Through You. →
- November 15, 1965: Mixing Session. Songs Mixed: I'm Looking Through You, You Won't See Me, Girl, Wait, Michelle, and The Word. →
Personnel
The Beatles
- Lead Vocals: Paul McCartney
- Bass: Paul McCartney
- Piano: Paul McCartney
- Backing Vocals: John Lennon
- Lead Guitar: George Harrison
- Backing Vocals: George Harrison
- Drums: Ringo Starr
- Tambourine: Ringo Starr
Guest Musicians
- Organ: Mal Evans
Production
- Producer: George Martin
- Engineer: Norman Smith
Available Versions
- Edit of Takes 1 and 2 plus overdubs, November 11, 1965, (Rubber Soul)
Available On
- Rubber Soul, 1965.
Cover Versions
- Paul Brady
- Brian Ferry
- Anne Murray
- Dar Williams
