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#i know emerick is questionable but it does seem to say something that paul only starts playing it after george dies
get-back-homeward · 2 years
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I’ll Follow The Sun
[FULL LYRICS]
This is one of those underrated early Beatles songs I grew to love slowly over time. I don’t remember thinking much of it until randomly rediscovering it in college. It seems very simple at first glance. But I grew to like the balance between the forward-thinking sun imagery and the somber slightly wistful story, along with the resolute attitude of making a decision you believe in even if it results in loss. In the lyrics, I heard a singer who decides to lay it all on the line to a friend he loves and, whatever happens, feels secure in knowing he did all he could (”in the end you will know”). So even if they leave him, he’ll still have the sun, a metaphor for the resolve of being himself.
In the middle of my Get Back rabbit hole, it got stuck in my head. Something about that Jan 14 interview of John talking about relistening to their old songs and discovering new layers years later has taken up permanent residence in my brain. If you want a good cry, use that above take and listen to it again from a post-1969 McLennon perspective. The middle eight has this haunting quality I never heard before. I wondered whether Paul ever plays it live. So I went searching...
ORIGINS
What I didn’t know is that Paul originally writes this very early on (1958-1960), in his childhood home, before leaving Liverpool with the band. In Lewisohn’s The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Paul recalls the scene:
I wrote that in my front parlour in Forthlin Road. I was about 16. I’ll Follow The Sun was one of those very early ones. I seem to remember writing it just after I’d had the flu and I had that cigarette – I smoked when I was 16 – the cigarette that’s the ‘cotton wool’ one. You don’t smoke while you’re ill but after you get better you have a cigarette and it’s terrible, it tastes like cotton wool, horrible. I remember standing in the parlour, with my guitar, looking out through the lace curtains of the window, and writing that one.
Suddenly, I noticed the directional paths in the song. He’s staring out the window in his house (where tomorrow may rain) and talking wistfully about when he’s “gone” from the house. That makes “you” someone in his house, like his father who didn’t like John or want Paul to see him (see Tune In and I Don’t Know [Johnny, Johnny]).
This small detail flips the song inside out for me. Suddenly, it’s not a rainy day because of the decision Paul’s made. In fact, it’s because of the rain (tied to the listener, “you”) he’s making his decision. And his decision is in the title: to follow the sun.
So who’s the sun? Well, you can say it’s literal: the dream for a place that’s not Liverpool, that is a place that’s warm and sunny. You can also see it as a metaphor: the dream for the band’s success. But psychologically, Paul’s hitching his ride out of Liverpool with one person. The same person in conflict with his father, the person he’s addressing and planning to leave. What a window into the mind of 16 year old Paul McCartney.
The play with time and the tense is rather fun and made me wonder whether this was written in one sitting or developed over time. There’s three time phrases: (1) “one day”, (2) “some day”, and (3) “now”. So it starts as a thought or a dream, then a tentative but achievable goal, and finally the reality of the present, where the decision is being made.
TIMELINE/CONTEXT
Turns out, there are two (!) 1960 home recordings of this song [1] [2], recorded a couple months apart. Harsh sound quality aside, it sounds fairly different: a faster tempo in rockabilly style complete with impressive Carl Perkins-like guitar picking from 17 yo George. The barebones of the lyrics are there, both the “one day” and “some day” verses. The third part, the bridge or middle eight, is very hard to hear, but it’s clearly different from the final “now” verse in the 1964 Beatles For Sale version.
From 0:29 in the second clip, I vaguely hear “I don’t want to leave you alone...but I’m leaving to follow my dear”. BeatlesBible has another guess (”Well don’t leave me alone, my dear/I’ll hurry and call on me, my sweet”) that I don’t hear at all. A third guess from BeatlesBooks is closer to what I hear (“Well don’t leave me alone, I need you/Now hurry and follow me, my dear”) but seems kinda confusing (is the singer addressing a second person? does the singer POV change? the original singer is following the sun and the sun calls out to him?). Take a listen and let me know what you think.
The earliest home recording of the song (that we know of) is April 1960, which marks a pretty significant pre-Beatles time: where Paul finally leaves Liverpool. He jumps at a few chances. First, John and Paul literally hitchhike out of Liverpool for a weekend to perform as the Nerk Twins in April. In May, the band auditions and scores their first tour as a backing group across Scotland. By August, they’re off to Hamburg. That places this song recording at a really important time, where they take this dream of leaving Liverpool and start making it a reality, much to the disappointment of Paul’s father.
So why didn’t it get recorded earlier? Paul offers this excuse in Lewisohn’s book:
It wouldn’t have been considered good enough [to be performed by the group]. I wouldn’t have put it up. As I said before, we had this R&B image in Liverpool, a rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, hardish image with the leather. So I think that songs like I’ll Follow The Sun, ballads like that, got pushed back to later.
But I don’t really buy it. It’s not really a ballad in 1960, and clearly they did tons of sappier love songs in the years after.
According to BeatlesBooks, Pete Best recalls Paul playing this number often in Hamburg between sets and introducing it to the crowd rather proudly (“I’ve written a song”). I wonder if it was the first original that he played in public?
They perform the song onstage several times throughout 1961 before shelving it for other more recent originals. It’s entirely possible it didn’t fit with their other numbers, wasn’t received well in this form, or wasn’t liked by the rest of the band (though George’s part sure sounded fun!). It’s also possible Paul just wasn’t satisfied with it. Or it hit to close to home.
FINISHING TOUCHES
In September 1964, the band is in a jam. They’re coming to the end of their first US summer tour: nonstop, 35 cities, chaotic scenes in each one (i mean utterly bonkers). But they need enough new songs to release a new album in time for the holidays. They arrive back in London September 21 and are back in the studio by Sept 29. So as Paul recalls, they turn to some old songs they already have on hand:
"There were certain songs I had from way back that I didn't really finish up, but they were in the back of my mind...'I'll Follow The Sun' was one of those."
That he didn’t consider it “finished” makes more sense in explaining why it was shelved and wasn’t recorded previously.
In 1964 when the song hits the airwaves, Paul said this about it to Disc:
John and I wrote this one some while ago, but we changed the middle eight bars before we actually recorded it.
At this time, their description of their songwriting process reflects a common pattern: One would write a couple verses and the other would help finish it, often by adding or fixing up the middle eight. The “we” here is distinct from Paul’s later recollections. I think it’s very possible John contributed to it at some point even though it’s mostly Paul’s POV. Paul could have been more generous about giving credit in 1964 than he was later on. Or just asserting their songwriting partnership image at the time. (In 1980, John denied having any involvement with it.🤷‍♀️)
This new middle eight is the “now” verse that holds the final decision:
Now the time has come...I must go
And the sucker punch:
In the end, you will know
So, million dollar question: Is this still the same song Paul started with?
With the sunker punch in the 1960 POV, I’m left asking what does Paul deciding to leave home with the band/John *tell* his father?
But by October 1964, the POV would be from a completely different place: seeing the result of the decision and the fame that came with it from the other side. Does that change or color the original meaning? Other than the bridge, other small changes are made, seeming to address the listener as “my love” and “a friend”.
Now the time has come
And so my love, I must go
And though I lose a friend
In the end, you will know
One day, you’ll find
That I have gone
But tomorrow may rain so
I’ll follow the sun
EMI RECORDING
George’s lead guitar comes in first, with John’s acoustic behind. Ringo taps his knees for a muffled beat. John sings harmony with Paul on alternating bars, starting with the opening lines (One day, you’ll look to see I’ve gone). Paul sings alone on the main lines: For tomorrow may rain so I’ll follow the sun. His vocals are doubletracked, similar to the effect in Blackbird.
In the middle eight, the J&P duet dominates, with John singing a descending counter harmony.
According to sound engineer Geoff Emerick (whose recollections have been sometimes questionable), John originally had the lead guitar part in this, but George fought for it:
He wasn't even supposed to play that solo: for the first few takes, John did it, on acoustic guitar. Despite the overall good vibe of the day, George Harrison seemed annoyed, perhaps because he hadn't been given much to do. At one point he marched into the control room and complained loudly, 'You know, I'd like to do the solo on this one. I am supposed to be the lead guitarist in this band, after all.’
So they gave George one take for his solo to overdub. He wanted another go but George Martin refused. :(
They only play this version live once, November 17 for BBC in promo for the album.
Paul only starts adding it to his live concert sets in 2004.
-01/30/22
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kreekey · 4 years
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also 6- I remember people used to quote how the apple crew didn't like when she ordered them as a reason to hate her like SERIOUSLY? white men hate a foreigner woman (who's recovering from a miscarriage btw) how tf is that not coming from internalized racism/sexism? and 7- I remember an audio from get back (?) sessions where Linda was repeatedly saying Jahn JAhn, making fun of yoko's accent, to get the whole squad laughing.
6 Haha I know. Here’s the Barry Miles quote, from the Zapple Diaries:
John railed to anyone who would listen that the other Beatles and the staff of Apple hated Yoko because they were racists, but this was not true. As Derek Taylor pointed out, they didn’t hate her, but they didn’t love her either. As for the accusation of racism – musicians and most of the music industry have traditionally always been free of racism and bigotry, although there might have been a residual anti-Japanese feeling (the war had only ended twenty years earlier and stories about Japanese wartime atrocities frequently featured in the newspapers). Still, the real reason that people disliked Yoko was because she ordered them about and sent them on errands in a particularly rude way; she was brought up with servants, and that’s how she treated the staff of Apple.
As thecurvature said in response:  
...I’m really just smacked in the face and simply can’t ignore the utter absurdity, obliviousness, and inability to self reflect in the assertion that musicians!!!! and the music indutry!!!! have always been free of racism and bigotry!!!!! Like that’s literally the dumbest whitest shit this white woman has ever fucking heard. Anyone who has the gall to believe that to the extent that they actually wrote it down and shared it with the world has shown their racist hand and relinquished their right to a fucking opinion.
X
(There is no war in Ba Sing Se no racism in the 1960s. Maybe a teeny tiny bit lol. Certainly not enough to influence anybody’s opinions at all.) But yes it’s true she was born with servants, in fact in 1945 after the US firebombings of Toyko, Yoko's mother took her three children and their last remaining servant to the countryside where the chance of air raid was decreased. But yes, Yoko had a relatively privileged childhood, and when she grew older, she also rebelled against materialism and such facets of her background lol, I believe she hadn’t had a ‘servant’ in roughly two decades by that time? And it’s true she suffered miscarriages and a car crash during that time, was also already hated by the public, and was dealing with the fact contemporaries were saying her avant-garde career was dead already. And there is the factor that, especially at that time, many white men would’ve (subconsciously?) resented a non-subservient foreigner woman. But it’s not like the Beatles themselves have ever been rude to staff. For one example, Emerick recalled in his biography that during a White Album recording session, John’s amp was up to “an ear-splitting level” and he politely asked John to lower the volume so he could better record it. John replied caustically and asked him to just do his bloody job, and “Come on, get with it, Emerick. I think it’s about bloody time you got your act together.” This made Emerick mad, he couldn't even respond. He also said it was more memorable than the fact Yoko first joined them that same day too (she was reportedly very quiet/shy, John just plunked her there lol). And I don’t have a link, but Barry Miles did a talk/Q&A during which he had an anecdote where Paul really chewed out an underling who had brought him a drink, but forgot a coaster. Around that time, some of Paul’s staff mentioned he could be hard to deal with. ...However, this was around the time Linda’s health wasn’t great, so he was under stress. But does Yoko’s stress not count, or something? Idk. There is a certain empathy usually extended to idols like Paul and withheld from Yoko.
Also some other accounts on Yoko’s personality:
...Yoko seem[ed] to many people a manipulating, psychic, power-wielding egotist who would stop at nothing to get her way. This judgement hid the truth from people who didn't want to face it: Yoko's appeal, to John and the people close to her, was that she was such a strong-minded, artistic individualist. She combined all this with a fearsome practicality. Above all, she would not tolerate weakness in people. Many people who were aware of their own frailties winced at Yoko's intuitive recognition of their failure to do anything about them. John did not; he wanted his woman forceful, intelligent, powerful, domineering, and one step ahead of the game.
... One of the popular myths about John Lennon has been that he was tough, hard-hearted, vicious, and unsentimental. One of the great myths of Yoko Ono is that she is a manipulative witch, power-hungry, and cold. The reverse is true in both cases. Lennon was incurable romantic all his life and that quality manifested itself with great intensity after his reunion with Yoko. Yoko too has always been emotional, tearful, and compassionate.
Lennon, by Ray Coleman
It was a big plus to her [Yoko's] personality, that she's strong... but not to say overbearing, not 'mean' strong, you know. She's a tough girl. You know, a good New Yorker can take care of herself and she doesn't get pushed around too easily. And I think that helped John 'cause John would have more of a tendency to be nice to somebody or you know, say, 'Okay,' when he didn't really mean 'Okay,' because he didn't want to piss somebody off. You know, whereas, Yoko would be much more pragmatic. It the answer was 'No,' she'd just say 'No' and say, 'Next question.'
Elliot Mintz in Lennon Revealed, by Larry Kane
7 I haven’t heard that audio, so I really can’t comment on it. If someone has a link? The Get Back tapes are hours and hours long so I can’t look for it myself haha sorry. I’d love to give Linda the benefit of the doubt, and the social climate of the 1960s was surely different (and the mood just in Abbey Road Studios was tense as well.) 
Anyway thank you anon for sending these in! Interesting points to consider, some comparisons and things I hadn’t even thought of. Also nice to hear people bring that up because it can be hard to discuss things like this, things like racism in the fandom or double standards. But it’s worthwhile, IMO. If anyone has anything to add, I’d be interested in that too <3. 
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