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Controversial Beatles Song That Made Sound Engineer Quit And Was ‘Hated' By John Lennon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gzznaantj0
By Ewan Gleadow, Social News Reporter
A song from legendary rock group The Beatles was so hated by members of the band it led to a sound engi- neer quitting.
The White Album was mired by in-fighting between the Fab Four, with drummer Ringo Starr departing the group
and John Lennon voicing his disgust at "granny music" written by Paul McCartney. Though the recording was fraught with issues between the group and the engineering team producing the album, it is regarded as one of the best-ever releases from The Beatles.
A post to Reddit shared some of the behind-the- scenes issues the band were dealing with, includ- ing a "perfectionist" McCartney lashing out at fellow bandmate George
Harrison. The song in question is still played by McCartney, most recently on the Got Back tour.
The post reads: "John Lennon hated The Beatles' song Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, calling it more of Paul's 'granny music s**t'. When George Martin offered McCartney, a perfectionist, vocal tips, McCartney responded, 'Well you come down and sing it,' causing Martin to get really upset. Recording engineer Geoff Emerick quit the next day."
Emerick's departure from the sessions is, according to one fan, because he had to deal with The Beatles at their "most unhinged". One user wrote: "He was also dealing with The Beatles at perhaps their most unhinged.
"The whole reason he came up with the Leslie amp for vocals technique was because John said he
wanted to hang himself upside down and spinning so his voice sounded like it was coming from a moun- tain top, and Emerick was like 'no...'"
Others say the "general animosity" in the studio at the time of recording was heightened by comments made after the band split up. Another user wrote: "There’s good reason to think that John Lennon’s comments here are more based on break-up animos- ity than what he actually thought at the time.
"Comments from when they were making it in India have John enthusiastically singing it as he did in early performances of the song. Oh-La-di even appears on one of John and Yoko’s avant garde works and there’s an account of John playing it in the late 70s along with Rigby (but the source is shakier for that last bit)."
Some agreed with Lennon's disparaging com- ments on Ob-La-Di, Ob-La- Da. One wrote: "I’m a huge Beatles fan but that song is objectively 'granny music s**t,' lol Paul loved writing stuff like that."
In his autobiography, Emerick recalled the ten- sion when recording Ob- La-Di, Ob-La-Da, and claims a "stoned" Lennon returned to the studio hours after "ranting" at McCartney, who had want- ed to re-record the song from scratch.
He wrote: "When Paul
announced several nights later that he wanted to scrap everything that had been done so far and start the song again from scratch, John went ballistic. Ranting and raving, he headed out the door, with Yoko trailing closely behind, and we thought that we’d seen the last of him that evening.
"But a few hours later he stormed back into the stu- dio, clearly in a highly altered state of mind. ‘I am f**king stoned!!’ John Lennon bellowed from the top of the stairs. [...] ‘I am more stoned than you have ever been. In fact, I am more stoned than you will ever be!’ [...] ‘And this,’ Lennon added with a snarl, ‘is how the f**king song should go.’
"Unsteadily, he lurched down the stairs and over to the piano and began smashing the keys with all his might, pounding out the famous opening chords that became the song’s introduction, played at a breakneck tempo. [...]
"‘Okay, then, John,’ [McCartney] said in short, clipped words, staring his deranged bandmate straight in the eye. ‘Let’s do it your way.’ [...] The remake, I had to admit, was quite good."
But McCartney, in an inter- view with Howard Stern, rubbished the scenario and instead suggested Lennon was "really enthusiastic" about recording Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.
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