Like “Julia” and “I’m So Tired” from the Beatles’ self-titled 1968 release, “Yer Blues” provides an instant snapshot of John Lennon’s future solo career. Its confessional style, straightforward lyrics, and naked vocals became hallmarks of 1970’s Plastic Ono Band, as did its back to basics sound.
No more “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” or “Strawberry Fields Forever”: Lennon had moved on to a sparer sound, a nod to his rock ’n’ roll roots as well as a salute to the blues. While “Yer Blues” contains some of his rawest vocals, one question remains: Is the track a parody of blues clichés, or a sincere cry for help?
In 1980, Lennon told Playboy that “‘Yer Blues’ was written in India, too. Up there, trying to reach God and feeling suicidal.” Lennon first tested the song during the Esher sessions, recording a demo sounding closer to Delta blues than the final version. His voice double-tracked, Lennon sang very similar lyrics to the final version with two small differences. Here, he sings “My mother was of the earth, my father was of the sky, but I am of the universe and that’s the reason why.” The final version contains the lines “My mother was of the sky, my father was of the earth, but I am of the universe, and you know what it’s worth.”
The section referring to Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Jones” (from the track “Ballad of a Thin Man”) reveals just one word change, but a significant one. In the demo, Lennon sings “I feel so insecure, just like Dylan’s Mr. Jones.” In the revised studio version, he changes the word “insecure” to “suicidal,” adding to the track’s ominous sound.
The demo could have stood on its own as a stellar example of acoustic blues, but the Beatles elected to record a full-on band version. To achieve a different effect, the Beatles recorded the basic track in Abbey Road Studio Two’s closet-sized Annex, according to Kenneth Womack’s Beatles Encyclopedia. Engineer Ken Scott unintentionally provided Lennon with the venue change. “Ken Scott jokingly complained to John about all the unconventional things the group was doing in the studio,” according to Bruce Spizer’s The Beatles White Album and the Launch of Apple. “Scott remarked ‘Bloody hell, the way you lot are carrying on you’ll be wanting to record everything in the room next door!’ John thought it was a great idea and had the studio crew set up the Beatles’ amplifiers, microphones and instruments in the control room’s tiny annex.”
Indeed, the close-miked sound provides a claustrophobic feel, an expression of walls closing in, perfectly reflecting the song’s anguished lyrics. Thus on August 13, 1968, they recorded an initial “Yer Blues” take consisting of Ringo Starr on drums, Paul McCartney on bass, George Harrison on lead guitar, and Lennon on rhythm and lead guitar.
According to Mark Lewisohn’s Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, the group recorded 14 takes. Interestingly, between takes eight and nine, the three Beatles (McCartney had stepped out of the room) jammed, playing an instrumental piece featuring electric guitar. Lewisohn says that jam was later excised from the original tape and put onto Various Adlibs, a compilation consisting of miscellaneous tapes recorded during the White Album sessions. Ultimately the Beatles decided they liked take 14 through the end of the solos, and take six for the remainder of the song.
Next a number of reduction mixes were made, with takes 15 and 16 reductions of take six, and take 17 was a reduction of part of take 14. Finally, George Martin and Scott spliced the beginning of take 17 onto the end of take 16 (listen for the change at 3:16, where Lennon’s guide vocal can still be heard. The entirety of Lennon’s guide vocal has finally emerged intact on the 2018 White Album box set; the instrumentation is also better defined on this take, particularly Paul McCartney’s bass and Ringo Starr’s drum fills.
The next day, John Lennon completed his lead vocal overdub, while McCartney added backing vocals on “girl you know the reason why” beginning at the second verse (around the 1:25 mark). According to Spizer, Lennon and McCartney thought their guitar solos could be improved, so they overdubbed two new solos, which occur at 2:28. In addition, Starr double-tracked his drum during the guitar solo. Interestingly, Lennon chose not to rerecord his vocal toward the end of take 16, instead leaving his guide vocal intact (beginning at 3:18).
By the time the Beatles returned to “Yer Blues” on August 20, Harrison was on vacation in Greece. Therefore Lennon and Starr completed work on the track, recording a very short edit piece for the begging of the song: Starr’s count-in. According to Lewisohn, this was edited onto the “best” mono remix.
Introduced by Starr’s count-in, Lennon bares his soul from the first lyric: “Yes I’m lonely / Wanna die,” he virtually screams. “If I ain’t dead already / Girl you know the reason why.” Cracks audible, Lennon’s voice instantly encourages listeners to experience his pain. In his seminal work Tell Me Why, Tim Riley specifies the instrument placement, with Lennon’s lead guitar on right and Starr’s drums to left. As in “I’m So Tired,” “the beat is tired again, Lennon’s guitar line first spicing the sound with rhythmic jabs and then falling, hanging on to the beat for dear life.”
Riley indicates two movements of the guitar solo section. “The first round of guitar solos simply rocks off the beat — it sounds warped, as though we’re hearing it from underwater. The second guitar solo (probably George) is more melodic, even though its brittle tone is tense and pinched.” Starr ends this portion of “Yer Blues” with a drum fill, signaling the last segment.
In The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology, Walter Everett describes the rhythm pattern as ranging from a plodding tempo to a “stop-time passage” and a “rock and roll-inspired swing blues” and “tongue-in-cheek improvisational solos.” Everett speculates the variation in tempo may have been inspired by Yoko Ono, who criticized the predictable rhythms of “Hey Bulldog.”
Lennon’s voice can be heard faintly after the guitar solos, as if drowning in his sorrow and anger. “Lonely” and “die” can be detected most clearly; it is evident why Lennon chose to include his original guide vocals, as he accidentally underscored the depression clouding the atmosphere. “Feel so suicidal / Even hate my rock ’n’ roll!” he cries, the darkness overtaking him.
“Yer Blues” remains a classic blues jam, but one rumor persists: the track was meant to be a parody of English blues bands. In various interviews, John Lennon refused to answer the question directly but provided some clues.
Lennon likened the title to a “pun” concerning English soul music, similar to McCartney’s Rubber Soul title, during his infamous 1971 Rolling Stone interview. At the same time, Lennon seemed to downplay the notion of a definite parody. Speaking of “I’m So Tired” as well as “Yer Blues,” Lennon said “they’re pretty realistic; they were about me. They always struck me as — what is the word? funny? ironic? — that I was writing them supposedly in the presence of guru and meditating so many hours a day, writing ‘I’m So Tired’ and songs of such pain as ‘Yer Blues,’ which I meant. I was right in the Maharishi’s camp writing ‘I wanna die.’”
The title itself suggests a parody, using “yer” rather than “your.” In the Rolling Stone interview, Lennon admitted insecurity inspired the title. “We were all listening to Sleepy John Estes and all that in art school, like everybody else. But to sing it, was something else. I’m self-conscious about doing it,” Lennon said. “Paul was saying, ‘Don’t call it ‘Yer Blues,’ just say it straight.’ But I was self-conscious and I went for ‘Yer Blues.’”
The title reflects Lennon’s penchant for wordplay, but what about the song itself? Author Steve Turner argues that the lyrics express genuine pain, reflective of the turmoil the singer was then experiencing: the disintegration of his marriage, uncertainty over his career, and increasing arguments with his friends and bandmates. Turner states that “Yer Blues” was a cry for help, specifically to his new love: Ono. Spizer adds that Lennon viewed the song as “pretty realistic,” but avoided direct imitation of American blues artists.
Clearly, “Yer Blues” held personal meaning for Lennon. It was the only Beatles song he performed at two events: the Rolling Stones Rock ’n’ Roll Circus, filmed on Dec. 11, 1968; and the Toronto Rock ’n Roll Revival Concert on September 13, 1969. Before its official release, the former appeared in widely circulated bootlegs containing nine minutes of the track, with Lennon, Ono, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Mitch Mitchell (drummer for Jimi Hendrix Experience) performing as the supergroup the Dirty Mac. The latter surfaced as the Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album, with Lennon, Ono, Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and Alan White appearing under the “Plastic Ono Band” moniker.
Anyone delivering the opening lines “yes I’m lonely / Wanna die” as convincingly as Lennon would presumably not intend the track to be a complete parody. It would not be out of place on this first proper solo album, because of the confessional qualities and agony in Lennon’s voice – not unlike the “primal scream” vocals on Plastic Ono Band.
For years, John Lennon expressed the desire to rerecord “Help!” to accurately reflect the original intention of the song. Perhaps “Yer Blues” can be seen as an addendum to “Help” in that it represents a cry for help, a wish to be recognized. Only Lennon could deliver such a message in a sincere — yet hard rocking— way.
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