| "Long, Long, Long" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles from the album The Beatles | ||||
| Released | 22 November 1968 | |||
| Recorded | 7 October 1968 | |||
| Genre | Jazz waltz, psych folk | |||
| Length | 3:04 | |||
| Label | Apple Records | |||
| Writer | George Harrison | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| The Beatles track listing | ||||
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"Long, Long, Long" is a song written by George Harrison, and first released by The Beatles on their 1968 album, The Beatles, also known as The White Album.
Music analyst Alan Pollack said the song has "an off-beat mixture of styles typical of the times: a three-way cross between jazz waltz, folk song, and late sixties psychedelia."[1] Critic Richie Unterberger wrote that "Long, Long, Long" is one of the most underrated songs in the Beatles' large discography.[2] Ian MacDonald also argues that the song is Harrison's "finest moment" on The Beatles.[3]
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"Long, Long, Long" is a love song, though as Nicholas Schaffner notes, it was "the first of dozens of Harrison love songs that are ambiguous in that he could be singing either to his lady or to his Lord". This ambiguity became more prevalent during Harrison's solo career.
According to Harrison's autobiography, I Me Mine, the rattling heard at the end of the song was the result of a bottle of Blue Nun wine sitting on the Leslie speaker. When Paul McCartney played a certain note on the Hammond organ, the bottle began to rattle.[3] To compound the sound, Starr recorded a fast snare drum roll.[4]
Under the working title "It's Been a Long, Long, Long Time", recording for the song began on October 7, 1968.[4] The Beatles, minus John Lennon, recorded 67 takes of the rhythm track, with Harrison on vocals and acoustic guitar, McCartney playing a modified Hammond organ, and Starr on drums.[4]
The Song is in the key of F but has a "floating feel" because Perfect cadences are avoided, the dominant (V) C7 chord refusing to anchor on the tonic I (F chord); for example, the Plagal changes (IV-I) (here B♭-F chord) in the chorus are fleeting.[5] The role of the bass descending in a '4-3-2-1' pattern as the chords drop from IV-iii-ii-I is a way of establishing an almost subliminal tonic.[6] A notable moment is the use of a minor triad 1st inversion on 'long time' (at 0.17 secs) in which in the triad formula ♭3-5-1, the 1st note (♭3) B♭ is heard as the lowest note in the chord, this being described as a Gm/B♭ 'slash' polychord.[7]
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