Lady Madonna / The Inner Light

1968

SINGLE

RELEASED

Great Britain: March 15, 1968 / No. 1 on March 27, 1968, for 3 weeks

United States: March 18, 1968 / No. 4 on March 23, 1968

Lady Madonna

Lennon-McCartney / 2:15
1968

SONGWRITER

Paul

MUSICIANS

Paul: vocal, bass, piano, hand claps

John: lead guitar, backing vocal, hand claps

George: lead guitar, backing vocal, hand claps

Ringo: drums, tambourine

Ronnie Scott, Bill Povey: tenor saxophone

Harry Klein, Bill Jackman: baritone saxophone

RECORDED

Abbey Road: February 3, 1968 (Studio Three) / February 6, 1968 (Studio One)

NUMBER OF TAKES: 5

MIXING

Abbey Road: February 6, 1968 (Studio One) / February 15, 1968 (Studio Three) / December 2, 1969 (Studio Two)

TECHNICAL TEAM

Producer: George Martin

Sound Engineers: Ken Scott, Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald

Assistant Engineers: Richard Lush, Jerry Boys, Martin Benge

Genesis

Paul’s initial inspiration for “Lady Madonna” was the Virgin Mary, but then he quickly expanded it to include all women, especially mothers. Lady Madonna was a tribute to working-class women who courageously work and carry out their role as mothers. John was not impressed by the lyrics: “Good piano lick, but the song never really went anywhere. Maybe I helped him with some of the lyrics, but I’m not proud of them either way.”1 Years later, Paul realized that he mentioned every day of the week except Saturday. Lady Madonna likely went out this day. “So I figured it must have been a real night out.”2 The most distinctive feature of the song is the piano part based on a 1956 hit in England called “Bad Penny Blues” by trumpeter Humphrey Lyttleton, released on Parlophone. At the time, Martin was head of A&R for the label, but he did not work on the song. The piano and the lyrics were also a tribute to Fats Domino. Ringo recognized a different influence. In a 1968 interview he said, “It sounds like Elvis, doesn’t it? No, it doesn’t sound like Elvis … it is Elvis.”

FOR BEATLES FANATICS

From this point on, the Beatles released all subsequent singles on their own Apple record label.

Production

The Beatles recorded “Lady Madonna” just before their trip to India, where they studied transcendental meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They recorded three takes of the basic rhythm track on February 3. Paul probably recorded his superb piano part on the Steinway B grand piano, highly compressed by Ken Scott. Ringo, inspired by “Bad Penny Blues,” played drums with brushes. The third take was the best. Ringo added another drum track, this time with drumsticks, also very compressed. Paul added a bass part; John and George both played fuzz-toned guitars through the same amplifier. Paul added his vocal, offering a Fats Domino impression. After a reduction on February 8, John, Paul, and George recorded a distinctive vocalized brass imitation, hand claps, and tambourine played by Ringo. They double-tracked their vocals right away. Paul then opted to include real brass. At the last minute, they called in two tenor saxophone players, including Ronnie Scott from the London Jazz Club and two baritone sax players. Paul did not have any arrangements written and the saxophonists largely improvised their parts. After some rehearsals, the Beatles finally double-tracked guitar riffs and Ronnie Scott performed a wonderful tenor saxophone solo. Before ending the session, John, Paul, and George recorded See how they run vocals, and added final imitation brass vocals. The mono was mixed right away, and the stereo was made on December 2, 1969.

The Inner Light

George Harrison / 2:35
1968

MUSICIANS

George: vocal

John: backing vocal

Paul: backing vocal

Ashish Khan: sarod

Mahapurush Misra: tabla, pakavaj

Sharad, Hanuman Jadev: shanhais

Shambu-Das, Indril Bhattacharya, Shankar Ghosh: sitars

Chandra Shakher: sur-bahar

Shiv Kumar Shermar: santoor

S. R. Kenkare, Hari Prasad Chaurasia: flutes

Vinaik Vora: thar-shanhai

Rij Ram Desad: dholak, harmonium, tabla-tarang

Note: Not all Indian musicians at the session recorded in Bombay participated in the recording. This is the complete list of musicians from the record sleeve.

RECORDED

EMI Recording Studio, Bombay (India): January 12, 1968

Abbey Road : February 6, 1968 (Studio One) / February 8, 1968 (Studio Two)

NUMBER OF TAKES: 6

MIXING

Abbey Road: February 6, 1968 (Studio One) / February 8, 1968 (Studio Two) / January 27, 1970 (Studio Two)

TECHNICAL TEAM

Producers: George Harrison (Bombay), George Martin

Sound Engineers: J. P. Sen and S. N. Gupta (Bombay), Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott, Peter Brown, Jeff Jarratt

Assistant Engineers: Jerry Boys, Richard Lush, John Barrett

Genesis

In 1968, Paul commented, “Forget the Indian music and listen to the melody. Don’t you think it’s a beautiful melody? It’s really lovely.” George’s new song, with its exotic charm was subtle and spellbinding. The Beatles liked it so much that the song was chosen as the B-side of “Lady Madonna.” It was the first George Harrison song to be featured on a Beatles single. The lyrics of “The Inner Light” were inspired by poem 48 of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, which Juan Mascaró, professor of Sanskrit at the University of Cambridge, had recommended to George. Mascaró had enjoyed “Within You Without You” on Sgt. Pepper and had suggested setting the poem to music. George set this Chinese text to Indian-sounding music. It was the last song that George wrote for the Beatles with an Asian inspiration. His “incursion” into Eastern music and philosophy had a considerable impact on Western youth at the time.

Production

In early January 1968, George went to India to record local musicians at the EMI studios in Mumbai for the sound track of Wonderwall, a film directed by Joe Massot. In 1967, Massot had asked George Harrison to write a score for his film. Harrison recorded the basic instrumental track of “The Inner Light” on January 12 during his stay in India. Upon his return to London, he went to Abbey Road on February 6 to record his vocal. Mal Evans helped create a soothing atmosphere with a lot of incense, candles, and dim lighting. But George was reluctant to perform. He did not feel confident that he could do the song justice. Jerry Boys, one of the assistant engineers, recalled, “I remember Paul saying, ‘You must have a go, don’t worry about it, it’s good.’”1 John and Paul were close by to encourage him, perched on high stools. Finally, he recorded a remarkable vocal and he was satisfied. On February 8, John and Paul overdubbed some background vocals at the very end of the song (2:18), before the final mono mix was completed. The stereo mix was done on January 27, 1970.

FOR BEATLES FANATICS

Ringo was absent on February 6 because he had been invited by Cilla Black to perform on the second edition of her new live show, called Cilla, on BBC. Paul wrote “Step Inside Love” for her show.