Lady Madonna | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Speaking of Paul’s voice, it almost sounds in this song like he’s recording his voice in a box or from a tinny radio station — which produces a neat effect.

I didn’t take to it when it came out…………It seemed to halt their progression……..No John to compensate on the ‘B’ side…….But I still preferred George’s ‘Inner Light’

However, when The Beatles switch direction others duly followed…….Notably The Stones. I see now the LM was a stronger single than I’d appreciated. 

There are only two songs I’ve taught myself to play on a piano..The first was Let It Be ….with both hands playing the same thing………and after hours of painstaking parroting…… beginning with the learning of that descending base run…..finally Paul’s Lady Madonna .

Great song…….but weren’t they all!!!

Sometimes John was such a snit.  Joe’s section on the Songs has this quote from John about Lady Madonna :

“Good piano lick, but the song never really went anywhere. Maybe I helped him on some of the lyrics, but I’m not proud of them either way.”

Never went anywhere?  Wtf?  Where is a song supposed to “go”, anyway?  I think John tended to think of songs & music from an abstract intellectual view or from a purely emotional view, and he sometimes forgot about the pure level of the joy of music for music’s sake — something Paul never forgets.

Thanks Zig for reminding me of Bulldog which I haven’t listened to in years.  It’s an amazing song in its own right, but to me it doesn’t have that je ne sais quoi of Lady Madonna , somehow. 

Funny Paper said
DrBeatle, didn’t know that about the drums.  Interesting.

Atlas, congrats on learning the piano.  While I spent a couple of years leaning piano, I don’t think I could ever get that far..  Am I correct that his left hand is doing the same riff as the electric bass?

I bought a book with photos of the piano chord shapes and four variations of each chord….. so that the shape that shifted most easily from the preceding chord could be used.

I worked out the base run with little fingers and thumbs on both hands playing the spread. It sounds spot on. But for the main part it’s only my approximation of what I hear.

I worked this out before there was a youtube…….now…..!!

Here’s the way.

Enjoy.

Having just gone through this I realize I don’t play it well at all.

This song was one of the best to see Paul do live.  His voice naturally is lower now so it suits his voice today!  I also love how into the piano he gets when he plays it, bouncing around like a happy old Beatle.   

meanmistermustard said
John wasn’t satisfied with the Beatles recording of ATU so agreed that TIL should get the b-side.

Ahh I didn’t know that. i always thought it was considered a perfect contribution to an agreed Wildlife…….save the earth compilation. 

Wiki suggests Spike heard the song early in it’s recording in Feb 1968…. and thought it would fit perfectly with the wildlife project to be released later that year and discussed the idea at the time.

My personal recollection is from a ‘Beatles monthly’ entry about this song along the lines that: ‘The boys loved the song but decided it would be the best choice for an upcoming Save our world Wildlife album.’ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A…..e_Universe

I’ve just found what sounds to me like the Beatles Monthly entry I recall…….

“A much more recent example is “Across The Universe “, a very potent piece recorded in February of this year with John handling the lead vocal and a couple of hastily recruited fans who had been waiting outside the studios–Beatle People Lizzie Brave and Gayleen Pease–helping to add high falsetto voice effects to the accompaniment. At one stage it looked as though “Across The Universe ” would be on The Beatles’ first new single of 1968–until they completed “Lady Madonna ” and decided to issue that instead. So the “Universe” tape was put back into stock with the vague idea that it might form The Beatles’ promised contribution to an all-star charity LP. To date that charity LP has not gone into production so “Across The Universe ” has stayed “in the can” with no available information for future release”  

So? Who knows?………Bet john was miffed though.