| "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" | ||||
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| Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | ||||
| Released | 1 June 1967 | |||
| Recorded | 17 and 20 February and 28, 29, 31 March 1967 | |||
| Genre | Psychedelic rock, circus music, experimental rock | |||
| Length | 2:37 | |||
| Label | Parlophone | |||
| Writer | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing | ||||
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"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is a song from the 1967 album by The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was composed by John Lennon[1]. The song is credited to Lennon–McCartney.
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Lennon was inspired to write the song by a 19th century circus poster for Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal that he purchased in an antique shop in on 31 January 1967, while filming the promotional video for "Strawberry Fields Forever" in Sevenoaks, Kent.[2] Lennon said that "Everything from the song is from that poster, except the horse wasn't called Henry."[3] (The poster identifies the horse as "Zanthus".) Mr. Kite is believed to be William Kite, who worked for Pablo Fanque from 1843 to 1845.
The full text of the original Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal poster is:
"Mr. J. Henderson" was John Henderson, a wire-walker, equestrian, trampoline artist, and clown. While the poster made no mention of "Hendersons" plural, as Lennon sings, John Henderson did perform with his wife Agnes, the daughter of circus owner Henry Hengler. The Hendersons performed throughout Europe and Russia during the 1840s and 1850s."[4]
One of the most musically complex songs on Sgt. Pepper, it was recorded on 17 February 1967 with overdubs on 20 February (organ sound effects), 28 March (harmonica, organ, guitar), 29 March (more organ sound effects), and 31 March.[5] Lennon wanted the track to have a "carnival atmosphere", and told producer George Martin that he wanted "to smell the sawdust on the floor." In the middle eight bars, multiple recordings of fairground organs and calliope music were spliced together to attempt to produce this request; after a great deal of unsuccessful experimentation, Martin instructed recording engineer Geoff Emerick to chop the tape into pieces with scissors, throw them up in the air, and re-assemble them at random.[6]
On 17 February Lennon sings the words "For the benefit of Mr. Kite!" in a joke accent, just before Emerick announces, "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite! This is take 1." Lennon immediately responds, "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" reinforcing his title preference, a phrase lifted intact from the original Pablo Fanque poster. The exchange is recorded in The Beatles Recording Sessions (slightly misquoted)[2] and audible on track 8 of disc 2 of Anthology 2. The original recording can also be heard during the loading screen for the song if it is downloaded in the video game The Beatles: Rock Band.
Although Lennon once said of the song that he "wasn't proud of that" and "I was just going through the motions,"[7] in 1980 he described it as "pure, like a painting, a pure watercolour."[3]
It was one of three songs from the Sgt. Pepper album that was banned from playing on the BBC, supposedly because the phrase "Henry the Horse" combined two words that were individually known as slang for heroin. Lennon denied that the song had anything to do with heroin.[3]
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