She Said She Said
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| "She Said She Said" | ||
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| Song by The Beatles | ||
| from the album Revolver | ||
| Released | August 5, 1966 | |
| Recorded | April 6-June 21, 1966 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 2:37 | |
| Label | Parlophone | |
| Writer(s) | Lennon-McCartney | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Revolver track listing | ||
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"She Said She Said" is a song by The Beatles on the 1966 album Revolver. It was primarily written by John Lennon about one of his first LSD trips. Even though the song is called "She Said She Said" the opening lyric, "I know what it's like to be dead" was a remark made to John Lennon while he (Lennon) was on acid with Peter Fonda, who remarked about an incident in his childhood in which he had almost died after accidentally shooting himself. Legend has it that Lennon had Fonda removed immediately because he was "freaking him out". Indeed the lyric was originally said to have been 'He Said He Said' in relation to Peter Fonda, with Lennon later changing the character to a girl.
After the recording of the song, The Beatles producer George Martin is reported to have said: "All right, boys, I'm just going for a lie-down."
Paul McCartney recalls that the band had a row before the track was recorded, with McCartney walking out. His vocal is certainly missing, and George Harrison is thought to be the bass player, though many sources insist that it was Paul all along.[citation needed]
The song uses mostly just 3 chords: B-flat (I), E-flat (IV), and A-flat (flat-VII). The song is in the key of B-flat Mixolydian modulating to E-flat major during the bridge sections. The modulation is affected with an f-minor (v minor) chord, a pivot chord they'd used to modulate to the key of the subdominant before on 'From Me To You' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'.
The coda features a canonic imitation in the split voice parts, an interesting development of the idea originally presented by the lead guitar in the verse.
The song was covered in 1980 by The Chords, who included it on their debut album So Far Away; Ween for their 1987 album Axis: Bold as Boognish; the Snake River Conspiracy, who included their version on the "Vulcan" single in 1999; and The Black Keys, on their first album The Big Come Up in 2002. Gov't Mule perform the song live, quite frequently, as a medley with Tomorrow Never Knows.
It is documented in the Anthology book that the line "When I was a boy, everything was right" was contributed by George Harrison.
The song is also often noted as one of Ringo Starr's most innovative contributions. The spinning, whirling drumming seems to have no connection to the vocals or any other instrument, yet still connects with them somehow in a remarkable way. Some drum enthusiasts have referred to Ringo's performance on this track as one of the best drum tracks ever recorded in pop music.
[edit] External links
- Song lyrics
- Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "She Said She Said"
- Robyn Hitchcock's commentary about She Said She Said
