Paul – lead
vocals, bass, piano, comb and paper
John – harmony and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, comb and
paper
George – harmony vocals, acoustic guitar, comb and paper
Ringo – drums, comb and paper
George Martin – piano
Finally, we reach another song that we might loosely define as “rock” – albeit rock with a hint of ragtime. If we should need reminding of the stunning diversity of this album, we can look back over the half dozen songs that straddle the two sides. Since ‘Fixing A Hole’ we’ve had chamber music, a trip to the circus, and then to India, followed by 1920s music hall. And now we come back to the band that set us on the journey in the first place.
Maybe because we’ve encompassed such a range of styles and subjects, ‘Lovely Rita’ tends to be dismissed – by Riley as lyrically “whimsical”, by Mellers as musically “almost perfunctory”, and most tellingly by George Martin himself as “padding”. A “silly song” it may be, but it’s good fun and packs a lot in it.
As might be expected, some time after the song’s release, a muse appeared in the form of traffic warden Meta Davies. Davies claims to have given Paul a ticket in St John’s Wood, and that, on learning her name was Meta, said, “That would be a good name for a song. Would you mind if I use it?” This unlikelihood of this last detail rather undermines the story, and indeed, Paul denies it – “I didn’t think, Wow, that woman gave me a ticket, I’ll write a song about her – never happened like that”.
The song was actually conceived when Paul heard the phrase “meter maid” referring to American traffic wardens. It struck him as so American, and somehow vaguely sexual, that he let his fantasy loose on a “come back to my place” scenario.
“I was thinking vaguely that it should be a hate song, ‘You took my car away and I’m so blue today’ … but then I thought it would be better to love her and if she was very freaky too, like a military man, with a bag on her shoulder. A foot stomper, but nice.”
And again there’s the reference that could be misconstrued – “take some tea with me”. “Tea, not pot. … not consciously introduced just to say pot and be clever”, but worth leaving in anyway.
In the end the song sums up the fun of finding something exceptional in an unexpected place. The reversal of the phrase “little black book” (to rhyme with “fluke”), the carefree shout “Rita!”, it’s all tongue-in-cheek and fanciful, belied by the direct vocal attack after the throwback of ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’. (Incidentally, a studio photograph showing the original manuscript reveals Rita filled in the ticket “with her little blue pen”. Again, Paul makes a subtle lyrical change that is laden with subtext.)
The sequence of chords for ‘Lovely Rita’ take us back to the sequence of fifths that characterised ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, amongst others. But, of course, Paul rings the changes this time and instead of using the standard doo-wop sequence (the diatonic sequence, that is, comprising chords in the home key) he opts for the chromatic or non-diatonic, which moves exactly in fifths, whether or not this results in a chord that is in the home key. The “Lovely Rita” section begins E–D–A–E–B7 (I–bVII–IV–I–V7) before starting the chromatic sequence with C#m–F#–B7 (vi–II–V7). The “verse” then picks this up and carries the sequence further with E–A–D (I–IV–bVII) before returning to base camp via the “glimpse of Rita” in G (bIII).
The basic recording was made with each Beatle having his own track of the tape – although by now a recording with all four Beatles playing together was a rare occurrence. George and John each played their Gibson J-160E acoustic guitars (bought for them by Brian Epstein back in 1962), Ringo was on drums, and Paul played the echo-laden piano. A longer piano introduction was cut to four bars for the released song. These four tracks were then mixed to one (with the tape slowed by 2½%) ready for the overdubs – Paul’s bass and then his vocals (with the tape now slowed down by 7%), and George’s slide guitar (the magnificent swoop after “nothing can come between us”). John and Paul then recorded the backing vocals and the four added the comb-and-paper mock military band (after “military man”).
For the instrumental break, studio techniques once again rather took over. Having apparently dismissed the idea of a George Harrison guitar solo, Paul reluctantly agreed to the idea of a George Martin piano solo. His honky-tonk-style improvisation works well and is in keeping with the tenor of the song, but there was no way it would appear in an unadulterated form on the album. For a start, on recording the insert, the tape was slowed down by 17½%, or about a tone and a half, meaning George Martin could play the solo more slowly, giving him a little more space to nail it accurately. At the same time this changed the sound produced to that of a cheap piano badly recorded, which was evidently what was wanted.
To further degrade the sound, “wow” was added by putting sticky tape on the capstan of the tape recorder to wobble the sound. (Both Geoff Emerick and George Martin claim credit for this idea.)
It seems that you only had to slap a pair of headphones on John and plaster the sound in his head with echo to make him immerse himself in producing ever more outlandish sounds. And so it was at the end of the track. Whether it was to highlight the near-miss at going no further than the sofa with the three sisters, or whether it was just an excuse to get down and get dirty, John led the pack in a series of pants and grunts and moans as piano and bass build and build and build over an unchanging A minor, until the entire gang collapses in a sweaty heap, everything spent, the song’s whimsy now utterly undermined …
On the second day of recording ‘Lovely Rita’, George celebrated his birthday. Astonishing to think, he was just 24 years old.