Released on the soundtrack to the Yellow Submarine animation, ‘Hey Bulldog’ was written and recorded while The Beatles were being filmed for a promotional film for ‘Lady Madonna’.
The song started life as ‘Hey Bullfrog’, based on a few ideas sketched out by John Lennon. The line ‘Some kind of solitude is measured out in you’ was originally ‘measured out in news’, but Paul McCartney claimed to have misread Lennon’s handwriting.
Paul said we should do a real song in the studio, to save wasting time. Could I whip one off? I had a few words at home so I brought them in.
The Beatles, Hunter Davies
The title came about after McCartney made a barking sound during the session, as he and Lennon ad-libbed during the finale. The Beatles decided to keep the barking in, and changed the title to ‘Hey Bulldog’ to fit.
Hunter Davies also recounted how Lennon originally tried playing a sitar on the track, strumming it like George Formby’s banjolele and singing in a Lancashire accent. Although an intriguing proposition, The Beatles were unable to work this into the song.
Musically, the song harks back to the early R&B riffs of songs such as ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’, and retains a similar blues feel as ‘Lady Madonna’ – the two songs were combined on the Love album.
An animated sequence for ‘Hey Bulldog’ was made for the Yellow Submarine film, although it was originally included only in European prints.
That’s me, ’cause of the Yellow Submarine people, who were gross animals apart from the guy who drew the paintings for the movie. They lifted all the ideas for the movie out of our heads and didn’t give us any credit. We had nothing to do with that movie, and we sort of resented them. It was the third movie that we owed United Artists. Brian had set it up and we had nothing to do with it. But I liked the movie, the artwork. They wanted another song, so I knocked off ‘Hey Bulldog’. It’s a good-sounding record that means nothing.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The recording of ‘Hey Bulldog’, unusually, was captured by a film crew. As The Beatles were preparing to travel to India, a promotional film for ‘Lady Madonna’ was commissioned, to be issued in their absence.
The ‘Hey Bulldog’ animated sequence was restored for the 1999 worldwide re-release of Yellow Submarine. At the same time Apple revisited the original studio footage of The Beatles and synchronised it with the song, to create a new promo clip.
When we were in the studio recording ‘Bulldog’, apparently it was at a time when they needed some footage for something else, some other record, and a film crew came along and filmed us. Then they cut up the footage and used some of the shots for something else. But it was Neil Aspinall who found out that when you watched and listened to what the original thing was, we were recording ‘Bulldog’. This was apparently the only time we were actually filmed recording something, so what Neil did was, he put it all back together again and put the ‘Bulldog’ soundtrack onto it, and there it was.
‘Hey Bulldog’ was later cited by The Beatles’ engineer Geoff Emerick as one of their final true group efforts, with equal contributions from all members. Following their Indian jaunt The Beatles’ sense of togetherness began to sour; they tended to work separately, with increasingly frequent disagreements which eventually led to their split.
In the studio
On 11 February The Beatles recorded, completed and mixed ‘Hey Bulldog’ during a 10-hour session. The basic rhythm tracks consisted of piano, drums, tambourine, lead guitar and bass.
By take 10 they had a good version, and so onto this were overdubbed more drums, fuzz bass, a guitar solo, double tracked lead vocals by John Lennon and backing vocals from Paul McCartney.
I remember ‘Hey Bulldog’ as being one of John’s songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it’s mainly his vibe. There’s a little rap at the end between John and I; we went into a crazy little thing at the end.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Yes, I am sorry. That about Across The Universe i the comment 24 december 2016, was a answer to a comment from 17 december 2016.
First time I listened to this song, I was completely into it. The mood, the instruments, specially that great walking bass line, but above all, John’s voice and melody of the lyrics. A great rock song.
Strong riff, good vocals, really nice rock vibe. It’s catchy, the kind of tune that sticks in your head. Would have made a superb single, with “It’s All Too Much” as the B-side.
I’m surprised there are so few comments on this one..
Love John’s chunky guitar solo. You can always tell Lennon’s distinctive style. He always worked chunky chords into his solo’s. Like in “You Can’t Do That” from the “Hard Day’s Night Album”. When asked if he remembered who played what on the final guitar duel on “Abbey Road” McCartney couldn’t distinguish between his part and George’s, but he remembered John’s: “John plays the stuff on the low strings. The funky stuff”. He had a really grungy sound. And it’s on display on “Hey, Bulldog”.
Geoff Emerick remembers Harrison playing the solo, and claims it was one of the few times in the recording studio that George “nailed” a solo so quickly. Although his book has some errors, this seems to be a quite specific memory. (I always thought it was McCartney).
George could really RIP it up to.
McCartney played the solo in John Lennon”s “Hey Bulldog”.
That was definitely George playing the solo. I’ve never understood why the film doesn’t show him playing it, or John with his hands on the piano (except for about a second). Did the film crew go to lunch when the solo was recorded?
the solo was an overdub, the cameras weren’t rolling at that point
I think it sounds like John too. It’s funny, they filmed them recording the song, even overdubs, but they didn’t film the guitar solo? Or maybe they did, but it never made it into the Lady Madonna video, and the rest was scrapped.
GUITAR SOLO: There has been a sh*tload of discussion about who did the solo on Hey Bulldog. I was 13 when the Beatles came to America and we had already worn out our “Meet The Beatles” LP before they took the stage on Ed Sullivan’s show. I followed them with the same intensity for their entire run and also their individual musical travels. SO, in my opinion it is quite obvious (let’s say 98%) that John plays the solo on Hey Bulldog. The giveaway is the little triad 7th chord (NOT on the low ‘funky strings’, sorry Paul)…. The 2% error possibility would make George the player, and zero percent chance of it being Paul. What say ye?
You can see George Harrison playing the solo on YouTube while Lennon and McCartney are going crazy with the barking. This was definitely a George Harrison solo and no one else’s. Geoff eEmerick was the engineer, he is quoted as saying George nailed it on the very first try.
Shouldn’t Paul be credited for “barks”?
Yep, it’s definitely John on the guitar solo
Yes is Sound rough and nice, No one could play it better than John
The rock band game has George playing. It had to be approved by Paul, Ringo, Olivia, and Yoko. If John had played the solo, there is no way Yoko would’ve allowed them to have George play it for the game.
I doubt Yoko would have known. I mean, did John sit her down and listen to every Beatle song and he told her ‘I wrote this’, ‘I played that’. She wouldn’t know if he played the solo or not. She probably doesn’t even know he plays the solo in ‘Get Back’
My understanding is that Yoko was in the studio when ‘Hey, Bulldog’ was recorded and filmed.
Doesn’t sound like Lennon’s style at all. Actually, it sounds very McCartney, though George could pull it off as well.
I have always thought so, too. Paul tended to structure his solos so they repeated. For this solo it’s
2 bars
2bars repeat
2 different bars
2 different bars with a variant second bar.
Fuzz bass?
This is one song that felt like a rediscovered gem to me, rarely played (and I hadn’t heard!) before the Beatles channel on XM recently played it a lot. But I just now loved watching the video of them recording it, such a rare thing of beauty to watch them play it and have fun that late in their run together. You only hear about the frictions in ’69 on and only visually tend to think of the rooftop concert from the end of the Beatles, but seeing them in early ’68 (with almost no facial hair) and joking around is really magical. Like finding an old home movie of your parents when they were young and vibrant and lovingly raising small kids. I didn’t think the Beatles could affect me in a new way at this point, but this did, thanks!
Yes, everything concerning The Beatles seemed to operate at 10 times the speed of other groups. The incredible output, but also the steep decline. Early 68, great group vibes, 18 months later the group was effectively dead.
Rough sound ! So Lennon, so walrus!
At the end when they are messing around, it sounds like Paul saying “Don’t look at me I only want grandchildren” Does anyone else hear this?
Sometimes, the ones that are meaningless can be the most fun to listen to.
Actually, John says: “Don’t look at me, man, I only have ten children”, as in, I only have ten puppies.
Actually, that’s Paul. John is simultaneously doing his manic laughing bit.
Sounds like a George solo to me. Great riff.
That’s George Harrison all the way. Reminiscent of old brown shoe solo and aggressive attack on a Gibson SG.
I recently listened to the Grass Roots “I’d Wait a Million Years” and I reckon they’ve used the Hey Bulldog riff in it
IMO its a Mccartney solo. It doesnt sound like J or G at all. Ive been playing lead guitar for over 30 years and learnt every Beatles song – every guitar part – and Mcartney has a very definite style especially in his attack. Very angular – like a bass solo would be like. Lennon was sloppy and imprecise with timing all over the place and Harrison is way smoother full of bends eg like a normal ‘lead’ guitarist. The solo is angular, has good timing with no Harrison flourishes.
Also play the solo on bass guitar instead and its defiantly Mccartney.
Anybody agree?
I listened to this song multiple times over the last few days, and even played it for my musically gifted 21 year old son, who really enjoyed it. Of course I’d heard it multiple times over my life, and always loved playing the basic riff on piano. My primary instrument is an electric guitar however, and my gut tells me it was George on guitar. The more credible sources seem to credit George on the guitar solo as well.
One of my personal favorites along with Baby I’m a Rich Man,….just good fun rockers that the boys could go a little crazy on. I think it might be Paul on the guitar solo. The fuzz bass, g. solo, some backing vocals were overdubbed and like the Taxman intro that Paul does, this kinda gives me that vibe as well. He could nail the hard, chaotic sound……George could and did as well but this one sounds like Paul messing about afterward all fired up.