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1.48am
I read somewhere online that Lennon's mom died in a red dress, is that true?
4.29pm
14 October 2009
Offline Jason said:
I read somewhere online that Lennon's mom died in a red dress, is that true?
There's a mention of it if you read here: http://www.songfacts.com/detai…..hp?id=9759
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5.33pm
31 March 2008
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The supposed source, the Anthology book, contains no mention of Yes It Is as far as I can tell.
If anyone goes to see Nowhere Boy, can they see what colour dress Julia is wearing at the time of the accident (sorry for the spoiler, but I suppose it's a well-known story)? Not that that means Yes It Is was written about her – I'm pretty skeptical about that.
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4.29pm
13 November 2009
Offline I did read that her favorite color was scarlet, but that doesn't prove anything. He probably picked red as an opposite of blue. Actually, orange is the opposite of blue, but “please don't wear orange tonight” just doesn't flow the same.
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12.48pm
8 August 2012
Offline Am I the only one who thinks ‘Yes It Is ‘ is a little bit out of tune some places? Like the first line : ‘if you wear red , toniiiiiiiiiiight’
The ‘tonight’ sounds a little bit wrong in my ears. What do you think?
After listening to it a thousand times to check if its out of tune, I’ve kinda got used to it and now I think it sounds in tune. lol, but the first 20 times I heard it I thought it didnt sound right.
3.35pm
14 December 2009
Offline I never thought it was out of tune; just sounds like an unconventional harmony vocal on somebody’s part. Can’t be sure, though.
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7.11pm
4 September 2009
Offline What Von Bontee said. 
I always thought it was just an added tone chord they were singing.
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8.05pm
5 November 2011
Offline I always thought they were going for it sounding out of tune.
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7.39am
8 August 2012
Offline unknown said
I always thought they were going for it sounding out of tune.
But why would they go for that?
3.17pm
26 March 2012
Offline 
It’s out of tune because the dissonant, complex harmonies don’t necessarily fit over the guitar chords. To be honest it was something they could have fixed by changing one note in the instrumental part, but I think the clash works anyway. The same thing occurs in I’ll Be Back – “you know, if you break my heart I’ll go…” George and John (I think) sing notes which are a tone apart.
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5.49pm
14 December 2009
Offline It’s a question of philosophy – if they listened to the playback and liked what they heard and decided to keep it (as they probably did), is it really “out of tune”?
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5.56pm
3 May 2012
Offline Obviously not to them. 
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7.15pm
26 March 2012
Offline paulsbass said
Ben Ramon said
It’s out of tune because the dissonant, complex harmonies don’t necessarily fit over the guitar chords. To be honest it was something they could have fixed by changing one note in the instrumental part, but I think the clash works anyway. The same thing occurs in I’ll Be Back – “you know, if you break my heart I’ll go…” George and John (I think) sing notes which are a tone apart.Sorry, I disagree.
I LOVE “clashing” notes (check out any Police album for Sting’s backing vocals), and that is not the trouble here.
The simple truth is:
They’re just a LITTLE bit out of tune. End of story.
It’s in fact the low note (out of the three), and it’s the same at the second “tonight” in the first verse and the first “tonight” in the third verse. Low notes are harder to hit anyways, and maybe the syllable doesn’t help.
“Wore” in the second verse is fine, as is the “tonight” in verse four. Here the clashing notes sound very well.
I’ve just listened to it through again and thought about it with the chords and yeah, you are right on this. It does sag flat a little bit at the times you mentioned (think it might be George?) But even then, I think the strange chord gives a weird atmosphere and helps the song; it does have an oddly eerie tone and subject matter (is it about a guy whose girlfriend has died, and he’s imploring his next one not to wear red because that’s what “his baby” wore in life? Or on the night of her death? It’s all very Miss Havisham).
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4.25am
19 February 2013
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I love this track. And the guitar swells make it even better. Gives it character that is unique. I like them more than the decent swells on “Wait ”
But it seems to me that there are two players (or tracks/layers) of fills. you can hear that sometimes there are two guitar sounds swelling at completely different registers of the instrument that would be difficult to play at the same time (or harmonics ringing while other swells are still in). And some start while others haven’t died yet. Were there two different tracks of guitar added, or two players doing fills? And, did John ever help George with the swells by toggling the volume on any tracks or is this all a foot pedal that George is using?
10.27pm
1 December 2009
Offline Yeah, that’s a foot volume-pedal. Also used on “I Need You “, “Wait ” and some other tracks that I can’t think of right now.
I would suspect there are more than two tracks of swells used on “Yes It Is “, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe the article on the song clears that up?
GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty.
3.28pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline Ben Ramon said
<chop chop> But even then, I think the strange chord gives a weird atmosphere and helps the song; it does have an oddly eerie tone and subject matter (is it about a guy whose girlfriend has died, and he’s imploring his next one not to wear red because that’s what “his baby” wore in life? Or on the night of her death? It’s all very Miss Havisham).
Indeed! Glad to see I’m not the only one who interprets the lyrics that way. It seems fairly obvious to me, even if they never explicitly state that ‘She died’, that the singer’s ‘baby’– possibly fiancée– is deceased. Particularly where he sings ‘I will remember all the things we planned’ and ‘I could be happy with you by my side’: sounds to me like they were on the verge of marriage when she died, and now he is trying to move on (with varying success, it seems). That tone of mortality is enhanced by the eerie harmonies.
Highly underrated number in my opinion! 
Edit: I expressed this under the name of BeatleBug on the comments of Joe’s page for this song.
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3.57pm
Reviewers
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1 May 2011
Offline I love the Wah Wah type effect with the volume peddle. So simple but so very effective.
One of those songs i dont listen to a lot but when i do i wonder why I was being so stupid. Any Beatles track with the three part harmony is a delight.
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6.46pm
Moderators
Members
Reviewers
20 August 2013
Offline Silly Girl, how do you work the phrase “but it’s my pride” into the meaning of the song going along with the idea that the woman is dead?
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7.13pm
17 October 2013
Offline Someone above says along the lines that, ‘red is the opposite of blue’ and then says, ‘though actually orange is the opposite of blue but ‘please don’t wear orange tonight sounds wrong’
……I’m sure,we can at last, all agree on something……. and I’ll add the well known fact there’s no english word that truly rhymes with ‘orange’ would have been a tough ask even for John.
As it is,’Yes it is’ is a little masterpiece.
In the canon poll I mentioned goose bumps at the transition from first run through to what they had a few hours later….I realise why it affected me so much. A mixture of admiration of their craft and that jolt I sometimes get that we’ve lost those harmonies forever. What we have is all we’ll ever have.
I don’t think it’s about his mother, at least not consciously. John is quite dismissive of the song and says it was just a re-write of ‘That Boy’ that didn’t come off. He wouldn’t have been so casual had it been about his mum. Injured pride, love spurned….. jealousy…Get the girl, lose the girl. All great themes for John.
They could all write songs that conjured up an emotion, or got the heart beating faster in a teenage breast. John rarely made a mis-step when emotions were central…..
Though he almost got it wrong when he wrote a song called, ‘You’re Gonna Misplace that Girl’ ?? But that’s another story.
‘Yes it is’…….Exquisite.
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