FEATURE:
Groovelines
The Beatles – Hey Bulldog
_________
AS The Beatles’…
album, Yellow Submarine, turns fifty-five on 13th January (its U.S. release) - 17th January, 1969 in the U.K.-, I want to use the opportunity to both nod to the album on its anniversary. I also want to highlight its best song, Hey Bulldog. A song that I feel has inspired so many other artists and songs – you can feel the spirit of Hey Bulldog running right through Led Zeppelin’s early work (songs like Four Sticks have a bit of Hey Bulldog) -, it is definitely worth highlighting. There are a few albums from The Beatles celebrating big anniversaries this year. Released in 1964, A Hard Day’s Night and Beatles for Sale turn sixty. Abbey Road was released in 1969 and is fifty-five later in the year. Yellow Submarine is one of the most divisive albums from the band. With an accompanying animated film – the role of The Beatles is not voiced by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison -, Yellow Submarine arrived several months after The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album). The first half of Yellow Submarine is songs from the film. The second is George Matin’s orchestral film score. Featuring a few original songs from The Beatles on the first side – including Only a Northern Song and All Together Now -, it was a gap and change of pace from the intense and quite divisive The Beatles recording. Before getting to Hey Bulldog, I want to bring in some information about Yellow Submarine:
“Four days after its US release, The Beatles’ soundtrack LP for the Yellow Submarine film was issued in the United Kingdom.
The group’s 11th UK album (including 1966’s A Collection Of Beatles Oldies) was their first to contain non-Beatles recordings; it contained seven original orchestral pieces written by George Martin. Furthermore, it featured two songs – ‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘All You Need Is Love’ – which had been released some time previously.
The Beatles received some criticism for offering just four new songs on this full-price album – ‘Only A Northern Song’, ‘All Together Now’, ‘Hey Bulldog’ and ‘It’s All Too Much’. In light of this, a five-song mono EP, with the addition of ‘Across The Universe’, was mastered for release, but remained in the EMI vaults.
The Yellow Submarine soundtrack was issued as Apple/Parlophone PMC 7070 (mono) and Apple PCS 7070 (stereo). The mono version, however, was not a separate mix, but a ‘fold-down’ version of the stereo one.
It spent two weeks at number three in the UK charts; at the time the White Album was at number one.
The introductory sleeve notes were written by Apple’s press office Derek Taylor, and were accompanied by an article titled ‘The Beatles’ bull’s-eye’, originally written for The Observer newspaper by Tony Palmer.-2:
My name is Derek but that is what my mother called me so it is no big thing, except that it is my name and I would like to say I was asked to write the notes for Yellow Submarine. Now Derek Taylor used to be the Beatles press agent and then, in America he became the Beatles former press agent (having left them) and now Derek Taylor is the press agent for the Beatles again so when has was asked to write the notes for “Yellow Submarine” he decided that not only had he nothing new to say about the Beatles whom he adores too much to apply any critical reasoning, and by whom he is paid too much to feel completely free, and also he couldn’t be bothered, and also he wanted the people who bought the Yellow Submarine album to buy and enjoy the really wonderful “The Beatles” album out in the month of November ’68 so here and now, unbought, unsolicited, unexpurgated, unattached, pure and immeasurably-favourable is a review of “The Beatles” (the new Apple/EMI album) from the London Observer by Tony Palmer, a journalist and film-maker of some special distinction”.
Before finishing with a feature looking at the brilliance and oddity of Hey Bulldog, Beatles Bible gives us the details about the recording and personnel involved in Hey Bulldog’s creation. Recorded in 1969 when The Beatles were putting together their eponymous album, it appeared on the Yellow Submarine album almost a year later. The Yellow Submarine film arrived in the U.K. on 17th July, 1968:
“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 11 February 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
John Lennon: vocals, piano, guitar
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, tambourine
George Harrison: guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Released on the soundtrack to the Yellow Submarine animation, ‘Hey Bulldog’ was written and recorded while The Beatles were being filmed for a promotional film for ‘Lady Madonna’.
The song started life as ‘Hey Bullfrog’, based on a few ideas sketched out by John Lennon. The line ‘Some kind of solitude is measured out in you’ was originally ‘measured out in news’, but Paul McCartney claimed to have misread Lennon’s handwriting.
Paul said we should do a real song in the studio, to save wasting time. Could I whip one off? I had a few words at home so I brought them in.
John Lennon
The Beatles, Hunter Davies
The title came about after McCartney made a barking sound during the session, as he and Lennon ad-libbed during the finale. The Beatles decided to keep the barking in, and changed the title to ‘Hey Bulldog’ to fit.
Hunter Davies also recounted how Lennon originally tried playing a sitar on the track, strumming it like George Formby’s banjolele and singing in a Lancashire accent. Although an intriguing proposition, The Beatles were unable to work this into the song.
Musically, the song harks back to the early R&B riffs of songs such as ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’, and retains a similar blues feel as ‘Lady Madonna’ – the two songs were combined on the Love album.
An animated sequence for ‘Hey Bulldog’ was made for the Yellow Submarine film, although it was originally included only in European prints.
That’s me, ’cause of the Yellow Submarine people, who were gross animals apart from the guy who drew the paintings for the movie. They lifted all the ideas for the movie out of our heads and didn’t give us any credit. We had nothing to do with that movie, and we sort of resented them. It was the third movie that we owed United Artists. Brian had set it up and we had nothing to do with it. But I liked the movie, the artwork. They wanted another song, so I knocked off ‘Hey Bulldog’. It’s a good-sounding record that means nothing.
John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The recording of ‘Hey Bulldog’, unusually, was captured by a film crew. As The Beatles were preparing to travel to India, a promotional film for ‘Lady Madonna’ was commissioned, to be issued in their absence.
The ‘Hey Bulldog’ animated sequence was restored for the 1999 worldwide re-release of Yellow Submarine. At the same time Apple revisited the original studio footage of The Beatles and synchronised it with the song, to create a new promo clip.
When we were in the studio recording ‘Bulldog’, apparently it was at a time when they needed some footage for something else, some other record, and a film crew came along and filmed us. Then they cut up the footage and used some of the shots for something else. But it was Neil Aspinall who found out that when you watched and listened to what the original thing was, we were recording ‘Bulldog’. This was apparently the only time we were actually filmed recording something, so what Neil did was, he put it all back together again and put the ‘Bulldog’ soundtrack onto it, and there it was.
IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney during filming of the Hey Bulldog video
‘Hey Bulldog’ was later cited by The Beatles’ engineer Geoff Emerick as one of their final true group efforts, with equal contributions from all members. Following their Indian jaunt The Beatles’ sense of togetherness began to sour; they tended to work separately, with increasingly frequent disagreements which eventually led to their split.
In the studio
On 11 February The Beatles recorded, completed and mixed ‘Hey Bulldog’ during a 10-hour session. The basic rhythm tracks consisted of piano, drums, tambourine, lead guitar and bass.
By take 10 they had a good version, and so onto this were overdubbed more drums, fuzz bass, a guitar solo, double tracked lead vocals by John Lennon and backing vocals from Paul McCartney.
I remember ‘Hey Bulldog’ as being one of John’s songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it’s mainly his vibe. There’s a little rap at the end between John and I; we went into a crazy little thing at the end.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles”.
I am going to end with this feature from 2013. There is this sense that Hey Bulldog is throwaway. A John Lennon song with improvisation and a sense of urgency, he sort of dismissed it as not being serious. It is often now regarded as one of The Beatles’ best tracks. A real gem. I think it is the standout track from the Yellow Submarine album:
“According to Rolling Stone, McCartney had played drums on a Paul Jones track entitled “The Dog Presides” just a few days earlier; apparently with dogs on the brain, he and Lennon mimicked that song’s sound effects by enthusiastically barking and howling. Legend has it that McCartney’s misreading of the lyrics also altered the nature of the song in significant ways. He claimed that he misread the original lyric, “some kind of solitude is measured out in news” as “some kind of solitude is measured out in you”; Lennon preferred the word change, and the group left in the slip.
More importantly, as Lennon and McCartney improvise at the tune’s outro, McCartney accidentally said “bulldog” instead of “bullfrog (perhaps confusing the “bullfrog” and “sheepdog” references); again, Lennon enjoyed the new lyric. As McCartney told biographer Barry Miles: “There’s a little rap at the end between John and I; we went into a little crazy thing at the end.”
The instrumentation also underwent several changes. According to Hunter Davies’ Beatles biography, Lennon originally wanted to play sitar on the track and sing in a Lancashire accent; obviously the group rejected the idea. The final version consisted of Lennon on piano and guitar; McCartney on bass and tambourine; George Harrison on guitar; and Ringo Starr, of course, on drums. They recorded the song in a ten-hour session, with take ten deemed the best.
According to the Beatles Bible, the group then overdubbed more drums, fuzz bass, a guitar solo, Lennon’s double-tracked lead vocals, and additional backing vocals from McCartney.
Two mono mixes were immediately made, with one given to King Features for the Yellow Submarine film. As the Beatles Bible notes, the tape machine ran slightly faster during the mixing, thus raising the pitch and tempo of “Hey Bulldog.” On October 29, Emerick oversaw the stereo mixes; interestingly, “All Together Now,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “Only A Northern Song” also received remixing for the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album.
The footage of the Beatles recording “Hey Bulldog” was superimposed over the “Lady Madonna” single; thus viewers assumed the group was performing the latter for the song’s video. But Harrison revealed the truth behind the clip to Billboard Magazine in 1999: “Neil Aspinall who found out that when you watched and listened to what the original thing was, we were recording ‘Bulldog,’” Harrison explained. “This was apparently the only time we were actually filmed recording something, so what Neil did was, he put (the unused footage) all back together again and put the ‘Bulldog’ soundtrack onto it, and there it was!”
The restored video was part of the rerelease of the Yellow Submarine film and soundtrack, or “songtrack,” as it was retitled. Another addition to the rerelease: the restoration of the “Hey Bulldog” sequence in the film, as it was deleted from American prints.
While never released as a single, “Hey Bulldog” remains an underrated rocker in the Beatles’ oeuvre. McCartney’s bass fascinates; the isolated track in the video above reveals the intricate lines that prove crucial to the song’s pounding rhythm. While hotly debated whether Lennon or Harrison played the guitar solo (my guess is Harrison), it still cuts sharply through the background, lending a harder edge.
Indeed, the lyrics conjure silly images — a Lennon trademark — yet the instrumentation rescues the track from becoming a simple novelty. Hearing Lennon and McCartney shouting and laughing toward the end demonstrates that despite their growing differences, they loved recording together and never strayed far from their youthful Liverpool roots”.
On 13th January, it will be fifty-five years since the Yellow Submarine album was released in the U.S. I wanted to mark the fifty-fifth anniversary of the album. I was also keen to spend time spotlighting a remarkable track from it. The riveting and hypnotic Hey Bulldog is a song that still sound magical and insatiable to this day. Maybe recorded at quite a tense time for the band, there is a child-like glee and innocence to it. A swaggering and swinging song from The Beatles, I have a lot of love for it! We are going to be celebrating and digging this song…
FOR decades to come.