Free as a Bird
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- This article is about The Beatles song. For an album by Supertramp, see Free as a Bird (album).
| "Free as a Bird" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by The Beatles | ||
| from the album Anthology 1 | ||
| B-side(s) | "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" | |
| Released | 4 December 1995 (UK) 31 December 1995 (US) |
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| Format | 7", CD | |
| Recorded | New York City, circa 1977 and Sussex, February-March 1994 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 4:26 | |
| Label | Apple Records | |
| Producer(s) | Jeff Lynne, John Lennon (posthumously), Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| The Beatles singles chronology | ||
| "Baby It's You" (1995) |
"Free as a Bird" (1995) |
"Real Love" (1996) |
"Free as a Bird" is a song, single and video released by The Beatles in December 1995 as part of their "reunion" and promotion around the release of the video documentary Anthology and their Anthology 1 compilation album.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
"Free as a Bird" was originally a piece of music that John Lennon composed, but never completed. The original Lennon recording was made circa 1977 in New York City. Yoko Ono gave a basic recording of the unfinished music to the remaining Beatles (Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) who reunited to finalise and record the completed song.
[edit] The Beatles version
The Beatles' overdubs and production were recorded between February and March, 1994 in Sussex, England. According to interviews, the group treated the song as though Lennon had gone on holiday and had left the song for them to complete. The original demo had to be stretched and cleaned up, as Lennon's voice was notably shaky and slightly out of time. As a result, some words were changed - "is the nearest thing" became "is the next best thing".
The song features a classic Beatles arrangement, layered with drums, guitars (acoustic and electric), bass guitar, piano, and harmonized Beatle voices. The recording bears a strong resemblance to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' 1991 song "Into the Great Wide Open," produced and co-written by "Free As A Bird"'s co-producer Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra.
The song ends with a slightly psychedelic coda including a strummed ukulele (an instrument for which McCartney and Harrison have expressed fondness) and the backward voice of John Lennon. The message, when played backward, is "Turned out nice again", which was the catch-phrase of George Formby, whom Lennon admired. According to McCartney, the reference was unintentional and was discovered only after the surviving Beatles completed the single and reviewed the result. This line has been noticed by many fans as it sounds like its saying 'my name is John Lennon'. Most fans believed this was intended to be the case, until it was revealed it was in fact simply the phrase 'Turned out nice again' being played backwards.
[edit] The video
The video won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video. It was produced by Vincent Joliet and directed by Joe Pytka (Space Jam) and depicts, from the point of view of a bird in flight, many references to other Beatles songs and events. Also The Beatles themselves appear several times along the clip.
It begins with the bird flying through a room (the sound of a bird's wings can be heard on "Across The Universe". The bird is "flying, a "blue jay way", a "blackbird", a bird that "has flown" or a bird that "can sing". It flies over to several old framed photographs of John, Paul, George and Ringo "in their lives" and we also see on the mantelpiece "fly and butterfly" and an "old brown shoe" in front of a picture of George. On the sofa is a cat who is "only sleeping" and perhaps having "golden slumbers" and the bird flies outside and over Liverpool's River Mersey which is a "place they will remember".
"John, Paul, George, and Ringo are then seen in the "rain" outside the Liverpool docks with people coming from a "hard day's night" of work, and people waiting to see The Beatles play "Some Other Guy" in the Cavern Club, which is guarded by a man in "old flat top". It is followed by a shot of "Strawberry Field" with a "Nowhere Man" wandering around, or perhaps "mother nature's son". Then an empty tree is shown ("No-one I think is in my tree"). There is a very quick shot of a "silver hammer" hardware store and then an 'Egg & Co' van, whom the owner of was (presumably) known as "the egg man".
On the left of the next shot you can see a "barrow in the marketplace", and, on the right, a barber’s shop, which is in "Penny Lane". Children run past "holding hands" and we "see how they run", and the moptop Beatles cross the road, walking past "Mr. Wilson and Mr. Heath". There is also a nurse "selling poppies from a tray" and looking straight ahead as if "she's in a play". There is a sign in a shop window that says, "Help", and the barber who may be "shaving another customer". The window also displays a photo of the Beatles. We also see someone about to "have another cigarette" and woman who may be "Prudence" or "Polythene Pam". Ringo stands in the doorway of a bakery. The camera then pans across a car showing two people making love "in the road", so obviously "she loves him" and he wants her to "love me do". and the later Beatles chatting together, followed by a shop window showing all three of the anthology covers, and then a cake shop window which has a "birthday" cake behind it. The numbers on the cake are "64" ("When I'm 64").
As George walks up to the door of the Apple office the brass sign was changed — on the left — to read "Dr. Robert". The next shot shows a police van and the reflection on its window shows four faces in shadows, from the album With The Beatles.
The shot pans past Ringo with his camera to show someone "in a car crash" that a crowd, including John, is looking at, which was obviously just part of "a day in the life" of the firemen who have a "very clean machine". The policemen standing nearby are all "standing in a row" and a woman "gently weeps". The camera moves from a "Helter Skelter" to a view of a kite, which was for "the benefit of Mr. Kite".
In the back alley, we can see a step ladder leading up to a bathroom window, probably because "she came in through the bathroom window", whilst in the back garden/yard some sunflowers are growing "so incredibly high". A group of small children run down the alley wearing masks that make them look like little "piggies" and we "see how they run like pigs from a gun". As the camera pans up and into a room, on the windowpane you can glimpse the sight of a "lizard on a window pane". Inside the room a "paperback writer" is typing near a clock which reads 10:10, which is, logically, "one after 9:09". John is seen in a chair next to a television showing the Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. On the table is a bowl of Granny Smith apples, a box of "savoy truffles" and the "Daily Mail" with the front page headline "4,000 Holes Found In Blackburn, Lancashire". On the floor is "a portrait of the Queen", otherwise known as "Her Majesty", and on the window is a "picture of Chairman Mao".
Outside, a "blue meanie" pops up from "a hole" in the roof, which a man is "fixing". Then, down in the street, a "bulldog" is being walked and a "newspaper taxi" pulls up as a girl walks out of a door. Maybe she is "leaving home" or "for no one". Two people are carrying a large portrait of "Chairman Mao" in the background, which is obviously part of the "revolution". The Blue Meanie is seen again, and apparently he "sleeps in a hole in the road"". In the foreground, John Lennon is "happy just to dance" with Yoko, and far away, you can see a coach passing that is possibly going on a "magical mystery tour"...
The scene changes, and we see a figure dressed in Marsellaise attire (perhaps "all he needs is love?") at the front of a building, which we enter. We see "Bungalow Bill" with his gun, and, "in case of accidents, he always took his Mum", who is behind him, as are some Indian servants who "carrying their weight", perhaps suffering because they are "so heavy". The camera moves through the crowd — past Ringo and past an Indian playing a sitar — and we see Brian Epstein putting his scarf on to leave because he "doesn't want to spoil the party". The camera pans over to a bass drum with "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" painted on it. Behind it is a cardboard cutout of James Dean with Stuart Sutcliffe's face on it, which is next to what seems to be the Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The bird flies up into the sunshine, so that "here comes the sun".
The graveyard: "Mother Mary" or "Lady Madonna" — a statue — turns her head to face the camera. "Eleanor Rigby's" gravestone is in full shot, and then "Martha" the dog runs across the graveyard, with "Father McKenzie" in the background. Paul is seen dancing like "the fool on the hill", with a girl who is "leaving home", on the road. A "long and winding road" can be seen in the distance.
The shot before last is the "Abbey Road" zebra crossing. A woman, presumably "Lovely Rita, meter maid", is giving a Volkswagen a parking ticket - the same car seen on the cover of "Abbey Road" which fueled the "Paul Is Dead" rumour.
We then see the Beatles from A Hard Day's Night rushing through the corridor to see an actor, playing George Formby, finishing a song on the ukelele on a stage in front of an audience, and Lennon (played backwards) says, "It's turned out nice again", which was Formby's catch-phrase. The curtain falls to signify "the end".
[edit] Critical reception
The song was released in November 1995, the promotional video being broadcast during episode one of "The Beatles Anthology" that aired on ITV in the UK and ABC in the US. Its release was criticized by some commentators as an unimpressive track, owing less to The Beatles than Jeff Lynne, being used as a publicity gimmick, or cashing in on The Beatles brand [1]. However, "Free as a Bird" later won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
[edit] Track listings
- 7" R6422
- "Free as a Bird" - 2:42
- Original composition by Lennon; Beatles version by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starkey.
- Produced by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starkey and Jeff Lynne.
- "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" - 3:02
- By Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starkey.
- Music recorded 28 November, 1967 at EMI Studios, London. Greetings recorded 6 December, 1966 at EMI Studios, London.
- CD CDR6422
- "Free as a Bird" - 4:26
- "I Saw Her Standing There" - 2:51
- By McCartney and Lennon. Recorded 11 February, 1963 at EMI Studios, London. Produced by George Martin.
- This version (take 9) was recorded before the more familiar version released as an album track on Please Please Me. The introductory count-in from take 9 was actually edited onto the start of take 12 to create the version that can be heard on the Please Please Me album.
- "This Boy" - 3:17
- By Lennon and McCartney. Recorded 17 October, 1963 at EMI Studios, London. Produced by George Martin.
- Here are two fun, but incomplete, versions (takes 12 and 13) of this song; both of them break down in laughter.
- "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" - 3:02
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Do they believe in yesterday? Caroline Sullivan reports from the Savoy Hotel on the launch of the second wave of Beatlemania -- article from The Guardian, November 21, 1995
