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
I just don’t think John plays that lead. It is very “George,” too fast for John w/ too many articulated notes. He may play the “break” (which is a lot like “Daytripper”) up to the actual lead but I think it’s George after that.
Hang on, I think the lead guitar solo is VERY John: repetitive, brash, simple, yet highly effective. It’s certainly not a very George like solo. As a template compare the Lennon/Harrison (and Macca for that matter) solos in ‘The End’ a year or so later. I’m reclaiming this for John, the ‘invisible’ lead guitarist as he called himself! I believe scholars MacDonald/Lewissohn concur. Change it back!
I disagree. I’m pretty sure it was George. If you listen to Lennon’s contribution to The End he wasn’t that good at the intricate stuff – it’s mostly chords (he was the third soloist in the cycle), whereas Harrison and McCartney were far more accomplished.
Hey Bulldog has a great solo, and I don’t think Lennon was capable of recording it. On Get Back he basically played blues runs, and Honey Pie’s solo was pretty simple (though effective), lasting just four bars.
I’m trying to think of other Lennon solos. There was You Can’t Do That, which again is mostly chords with some bluesy licks at the end. Slow Down is one of his better efforts though. I know they were done back in 1964, but I don’t think he’d become that good by the time Hey Bulldog was recorded.
Listen to the ‘Let It Be…Naked’ Album and you might be surprised at John’s dexterity. He wasn’t as bad as some people give him credit for! Yasdnil.
It’s not really “as bad”, it’s just a pretty sweet solo. No one’s taking anything away from John, we’re just looking at this realistically. Style wise, it’s has more of a flashy Paul edge, but it’s most likely George. Or John, who knows, if we were to honestly judge his guitar ability, Plastic Ono Band is the place to go and he doesn’t have any incredible solos, even though his playing on I Found Out and Well Well Well is effective, but repetetive. Hey Bulldog has two well defined parts, although they do feature repetetive variations, which wasn’t really a mark of a Lennon solo, or a McCartney one for that matter, at least not in 1968.
To you and all others saying John wasn’t a good guitarist, and Paul the BASS player was so much better, you’re dead wrong. John had many nasty licks, as someone mentions below “I want you” is epic. You try to come off like you know, but you don’t, you’re probably straights the same ones the blew smoke up Paul’s rse, the ones he believed. John has so many good licks for you nobodies to come here and say he doesn’t just reeks of jealousy, like the guy who killed john, the evangelical who killed john was jealous of him.
Hang on! John was a really good guitarist! He played the solos on Matchbox and the 1st solo of Long tall Sally, which is far from simple. And he played Chuck Berry style leads but when it came to recording he gladly let George. I think John is very underrated as a guitarist
It definitely sounds John-ish in its simplicity and repetition, but I agree that it must be George because it also sounds technically proficient.
John called himself the invisible guitarist, not the invisible lead guitarist. Harrison and Mac were true lead men, John stated that he was just a noise maker when playing the guitar.
Didn’t John play lead on I Want You (She’s so Heavy)?? It seems to me that he could be pretty fluid on the jazzy & bluesy solos,as on Honey Pie. Even George said of John’s solo on Honey Pie that it was Django Reinhartish. Oh, I got ahead of myself. It WAS George who played the lead on Hey Bulldog. Pardon me if I am miss spelling things. I have been listening to The Beatles and drinking Claret.
Hm, I remember a friend once claiming that he’d heard it was Django Reinhardt playing the flamenco intro to “Bungalow Bill” – a pretty ludicrous claim, considering that it doesn’t sound a thing like him, and that he’d been dead for years anyways.
The Bungalow Bill guitar intro was one of the samples on the Mellotron. It wasn’t Django.
Well, obviously not – neither my friend nor I actually believed that it was Django. He was just relaying some third-party misinformation that he’d read or heard somewhere. That it was a Mellotron, though, is something that I myself only learned relatively recently (possibly from this very site, if memory serves.) I didn’t realize they were ever used for anything other than strings, brass or woodwinds.
The intro to Bungelow Bill, I remember reading was actually Eric Clapton playing that acoustic Spanish style solo….not mellotron?
Was Django still kicking about then?… I was always under the impression it was yet another marathon rehearsal by George! (Remember a Sitar Solo in 1965?…John never did get to redo the guitar track on ‘Norweigan Wood’ because of it!).
If it was John’s solo (which I don’t believe for a moment), how come George got filmed playing it on his Gibson SG on the promotional clip for “Hey Bulldog”? Or was George just faking it via playback to John’s solo track?
I’m also sure it was George, it’s a very well thought out intricate part, unlike Johns one take style. And since if was noted that they came in to record them while recording Bulldog for a Madonna promo, it makes sence to see George playing that solo.
Not to put John down at all he was a very underrated guitarist. You almost never see any film of John playing any of the solos he did except for on beat club or something promo videos of the time. There’s one of you can’t do that, that they’re basically lip Synching but John still plays the solo, you can see him, it’s very cool. I remember that was how I discovered that John played solos, and the long tall Sally first solo is John, second George. Sorry don’t mean to get off topic, of Bulldog.
But for a “throwaway” song, Bulldog is a great musical piece and hearing them laughing and cracking up makes it even better.
Just read “Ringo”: With a little Help” published 2015, by Michael Seth Starr (coincidence, no relation). Here’s part of a quote……”Hey Bulldog”,which was included on the soundtrack for the Yellow Submarine movie, and included Ringo’s thundering drums, and a terrific guitar solo from George Harrison………Hope that helps!
Good job, Jim. Georgee it was!
john wrote all the gtr parts- i have video of george asking john how to play the lead -john takes the red sg gibson and shows george the whole gtr part-the fast riff-its all john
John played slide on For You Blue, the intro on Revolution,and that little lick on Ballad Of John and Yoko.
John played a pretty fast solo on Long Tall Sally (the first one is John). But I think Bulldog sounds most like Paul. Especially the beginning reminds me of Taxman and Good Morning Good Morning.
Wow! I’d forgotten about John’s lead in “Long Tall Sally”! I had to re-listen and yup, that’s him!
“Hey Bulldog” solo is a hard one to pin-point. I do know that their is footage of them recording this song and George is seen with his Gibson SG. In this video it also shows John playing the SG. Can anyone pin-point the notes John is playing and maybe they match up with the solo? Just a wild idea…
Sounds like a challenge! If I remember to, I’ll give that a try tonight…even though I’ve never had the ability to identify a guitar brand from sound alone.
If you look at the footage he’s also playing what looks like a Gretsch, which I think is what was used for the solo on the final cut. Although an SG can capture a similar sound, this is definitely an ‘older’ (50’s) kind of sound.
The guitar used for Bulldog solo, sounds nothing like a Gretsch, it would have to be that hum bucket pickup sound from the SG. I know guitar sounds and I have a Gretsch and SG.
Years later George would give that SG to Pete Ham of Badfinger.
OK, this is from Geoff Emerick’s book “Here, There and Everywhere” page 222 describing the recording of “Hey Bulldog”….
“Paul’s bass line was probably the most inventive of any he’d done since Pepper, and it was really well played. Harrison’s solo was sparkling, too–one of the few times that he nailed it right away. His amp was turned up really loud, and he used one of his new fuzz boxes, which made his guitar absolutely scream.”
Thank you for putting this one to rest, BeatleMark. George’s leads always seemed to me the most methodically worked out and carefully played and this one is no exception. That’s not to say it doesn’t have spirit to it, it’s a very exciting solo!
I absolutely love that book. One of the greatest books one could read, it’s from their engineer! The amount of information that he recalls is amazing, sometimes I felt like I was there.
But isn’t there allegedly a lot of MIS-information in Emerick’s book as well?
(I agree that it sounds like a Harrison solo, however.)
You can go to youtube and see a video of George playing the solo.
From the video it does look like, to me, that George is playing the solo.
In the video to Lady Madonna, there is other footage mixed in with Hey Bulldog. A very small snippet of some of that other footage was in the Hey Bulldog clip; it seems really out of place, it was a strange choice.
Which take of Hey Bulldog was filmed?
Which take was the first to use barking?
Wow, so much nitpicking over the guitar solo – and nobody mentions that incredible snare-sound?!
That’s what gives this song the edge!
the reverb wash on the bridge snare is just amazing… you can hear it quite well if you find the isolated bass part on YouTube
The Beatles greatest single that wasn’t?
Yes, I agree. The first time I heard this song was on the Beatles “Rock and Roll Music Vol. 2” compilation. I was a wee child dancing in front the mirror with my imaginary guitar to this song. Would have been a great single b side. Maybe replacing “The Inner Light”?
I could never possibly remember where I first heard it (either on Yellow Submarine or radio.) You know what they say about the 60s: if you remember it you weren’t there 😉
I was too young to remember it! I was born in 1960! But I do first remember hearing that astounding Riff when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I guess I didn’t fully comprehend the enormity of it, back then… But ‘Hey Bulldog’ is still one of my favourite Beatles Riffs!And I never fail to attack it when I have my Epiphone Accoustic in my hands!
Yeah this has to be one of the most underrated, or unknown Beatle tracks ever…although that’s probably due to the fact that it’s on Yellow Submarine….and that solo may have been a bit complicated for John, but who knows? I mean he had been playing guitar for over ten years by this time, so it’s definately not impossible to believe he could have played this wonderful solo!
Ah! But isn’t ALL TOO MUCH on Yellow Submarine? George’s Grand Slam with the Beatles! Everybody knows that song!!!
We’ve just started covering Hey Bulldog and our guitarist (who is *blinding*) definitely agrees that the solo is way too proficient in the context of anything that Lennon is known to have played elsewhere.
I had it pegged as McCartney at first because of the similarities with his work on Taxman and Pepper in general, but he’s never one to fail to take credit for anything he’s done so I give it to George.
The solo in Bulldog does sound reminiscent of Paul’s Taxman solo. On the other hand it has the precision of a George solo. But on some sites John is credited with the solo.
I’d guess it’s George, based on how tight the solo is and the range of it, but still it does sound to me like a Paul solo. I think Carps’ comment is right too that if it was Paul he would have probably taken credit for it. someday should ask him about it 🙂
I believe Paul coached George on what to play on Bulldog and George recorded it.(Never saw that happen before)lol That’s why it sounds so confusing. Gosh I feel like House.
I read Emericks book on a Mexican cruise.
It was like being a fly on the wall of abbeyroad studios. Missed most of the cruise. The wife didn’t care though, she dresses up and plays Ringo in my Tribute band
this is another topic that I’d like a response to please. Does anyone notice the very faint electronic ring sound at the intro riff? it sounds just like a 90s phone (I noticed this in 1999) and it starts and stops just like a ring!!!
so i went back to my vinyl copies and it is there too. It seems like one of the things Lennon claims to have buried in the mixes for us to find. or???
I think Hey Bulldog would have been a great double sided single with Lady Madonna. I wondered if they considered this but didn’t want to be their own competition as with SFF/PennyLane.
Would have been another great double A-sided single for the sake of posterity.
John did the solo on this one. It’s a double-tracked solo.
It’s definitely John playing the solo. It is in the same style as ‘You Cant o That’ with the heavy vamping in parts and double string parts. George’s solo’s were much less wild and carefully planned.
Not sure if it can be “definitely” John, since Emerick says it was George – and he was there, after all! But yeah, his memory can be faulty; and yeah, all those double-stops are very characteristic of John’s soloing style, so who knows?
Either way, that video is of no help at all, since so much of it is out of context.
The solo is by George. It is well documented and even Geoff Emmerick (who essentially hates George) says that it was him. Not to mention dare I say it but the Rockband studio scenes also corroborate this (for whatever that is worth). I actually think style is similar to the solo George played on John’s “gimme some truth”. Also the solo is very well constructed and is not wild. It is one of the best solos on a Beatles record. Beautiful, just beautiful!
Neither Emerick nor Rockband are reliable sources. They tend to get many things right, but some are just wrong.
As for the solo:
Especially the part with the high jump is typical for George, since it’s very precise. John probably would have made a slide or whatever.
So I think it does sound more like George than John.
I mean ‘wild’ in the way he tremolo Picks the Octaves at the beginning of the solo. find me another solo where George plays in that Style. John does the same in parts of ‘You Cant Do That’ 3/4 the way through the solo. It’s also mentioned in every revised edition of ‘Revolution In The Head’ John played lead. ‘Gimme Some Truth’ is a slide Guitar solo btw. there is no way of proving it is John but from a players point of view it feels like a Lennon solo to play based on learning most Beatles solos myself..
If you know the Beatles styles you should be able to tell who’s doing the solos, but that Bulldog solo is definitely NOT Lennon. Ok let’s move on from here. Lol
It’s absolutely NOT John! Even if it has that “wild” sound it’s much more planned-out and musically intricate than anything John would come up with. Not saying John was a bad guitarist, because he wasn’t. But he didn’t COMPOSE guitar solos the way George or Paul would. Stylistically it could be either Paul or George, but we haven’t been given any reasons to believe it wasn’t George. The solo on “Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and my monkey ” shows a similar wild, yet planned-out style.
Lots of comments about the guitar solo (and it is terrific), but very little about Paul’s base line, which is the best part of the song. He does a stunning job with a complex, rapid fire riff that holds the whole thing together.
I have to agree with you on this, the most outstanding things of this song, is the amazing intensity that you feel, to me mainly because of the incredible busy bass lines from Paul and the mastery of the perfect guitar solo for this song. And of course the great middle eight of John singing You Can Talk To Me….what a great break part
Some much yukking over the guitar solo. I tell you, watching John and Paul singing into the same mike kind of brings back a great feeling. Those two relating to each other seemed to always make something right in the world. It is also worthwhile to note that John gets disparaged a lot about his latter laziness in the studio, Paul always treated John as essential and would drop back from his lording-over the proceedings to give John his head. After the breakup, of note, Paul was always the king of the studio and got along fine as long as his will reigned.
James – RE: McCartney coaching Harrison on what to play on this. That is absolutely ludicrous. One of the best Beatles solos, hands down. I believe Harrison played it. And Lennon was perfectly capable of nailing this as well. All this `it doesn’t sound like George…’ and
`John couldn’t play this…’ talk is just silly.
Harrison for sure. Although stylistically somewhat Lennonesque it is too technically proficient. As for Paul – a fine guitarist in his own right but not quite on the same level as George who had the virtuoso chops to play any style – check out The End, Old Brown Shoe, I Me Mine etc. GH wasn’t particularly fast but was exceptionally innovative. In any event – great sound from all 4 lads!
Love how the solo has been debated for 2 years on this site and probably another 41 years in real life.
Personnel :
John Lennon – double-tracked
vocal , piano, rhythm guitar, talking.
Paul McCartney – harmony vocal ,
bass , fuzz bass, tambourine, barks.
George Harrison – lead guitar.
Ringo Starr – drums, spoken vocal.
Personnel per Geoff Emerick..!!
Beautiful song indeed.. 🙂
Paul’s bass line is truly amazing here. It looks like he is so comfortable with it that he never really plays twice the same riff or line exactly. He is a true musician in this sense as it sounds so effortless. Then the bass line drives the song like nothing else.
Generally, I think also that a lot of the success of the Beatles is due to the bass lines of the songs. They are so innovative and melodic that they add a new dimension/layer to them. It renders them amazing as you can choose once to listen to the voice, and a another time to the bass line. For instance Penny Lane or Your Mother Should Know are good examples of songs where you can listen to the bass as an independant melody.
After all these years, I remain dumbfounded at the pure talent and energy of these boys.
The engineer on the session (Geoff Emerick) remembers it was George’s solo for two very specific reasons. According to Emerick, it was one of the rare times Harrison got the solo down quickly. He writes: “Harrison’s solo was sparkling, too–one of the few times that he nailed it right away.” That’s one thing that makes it “memorable”. The second memorable thing is that Harrison’s amp was turned way up and he was using a new fuzz box. “His amp was turned up really loud, and he used one of his new fuzz boxes, which made his guitar absolutely scream.” That means it was, for the engineer, something HE had to deal with, something he had to take into account, something he’d have to be careful about (ie. the levels). The solo would be ABSOLUTELY memorable for the engineer. So, it’s no surprise the engineer remembered it.
Paul, George and John had been playing together since they were teens. There’s absolutely no doubt they influenced each other. Paul speaks of he and George being able to play the lead in “And Your Bird Can Sing” in unison. There was no need to double track. Not only is a complex, unison lead difficult to do, it speaks of the musical knowledge each had of the other, of hours of practice together. In a very real sense, they were like musical “family”. It’s no surprise, then, that they sometimes sound alike, though all three also have their own characteristics. It’s understandable that there might be questions about whose solo it was, BUT in order for it to have been by anyone other than George, Emerick would have to have misremembered something clearly memorable for an engineer. AND we’d have to believe the opinions of writers on this forum not one of whom was anywhere near that studio at the time “Hey Bulldog” was recorded. To put it mildly, there’s no good reason to believe someone who THINKS it was John or Paul rather than a man who engineered the recording session.
You can argue all you want, because it’s amusing, but George Harrison played that solo. It sounds like him, It’s organized like one of his solos. It’s melodic and precise as his solos are. Geoff Emerick saw him do it. And neither Paul nor John has ever suggested it was theirs. Better to talk about Paul’s bass playing, which is fantastic.
The guitar solo debate: Tony Bramwell (who was there shooting the film coverage for the video which ended up used for Lady Madonna – ref: John C. Winn’s That Magic Feeling) recalls it as John Lennon. Geoff Emerick (who was also there as sound engineer) recalls it as George (Geoff’s Here, There and Everywhere book). The solo is very much in the style of John. In the video we actually see John playing lead and this video was from the actual session. That clinches it for me.
Four track breakdown: George plays rhythm and the fuzzy main guitar riffs on the backing track along with John’s piano and RIngo on drums. The second track has Paul’s bass and George doubling the main riff on a fuzzed guitar. The third track was John and Paul’s vocals with Paul shaking a tambourine. The fourth track were the final overdubs including the guitar solo which again I am convinced is John.
I hope this can add to the fun. (It’s fun for me.) MJ Sokes has studied the Beatles by learning their parts and their playing styles– you can find a lot of his stuff on Facebook, though Facebook pulled some of the best stuff for some reason. He just put together this video of his attempt to solve the mystery of the “Hey Bulldog” solo. I really enjoyed it, and I hope you do, too.
Yeah was gonna say that, George played the solo, but it was written by Lennon, you can see John showing it to George, George played a John-written solo
Thank you for proving Mr. Emerick wrong just ANOTHER time, Happy Nat! Funny how I notice one of your comments today!
I just hope more and more people get the drift and STOP quoting “Here, there and everywhere” as if it was The Beatles Bible”!!
Seems to me if Emerick went out of his way to praise George for anything, it probably was George’s doing. He really seemed to have it in fir George in his book, and I can’t see him complimenting him for something he didn’t do!
Geoff should never have published that book of his, because of the animosity he held towards George by inaccurately portraying him as a mediocre guitarist, an assessment with which I disagree, as would the other Beatles, Eric Clapton and George’s friends and fellow musicians.
Pete Best fitted the description of a mediocre musician – just listen to the few recordings with him on the drum stool – and you can see why he was fired.
I don’t get why Geoff was prepared to work with The Beatles as frequently as he did, or even work on sessions for George’s songs, if he felt that strongly about him? It doesn’t make sense or add up.
He also made an unconvincing claim that The Beatles came to really hate recording at Abbey Road Studios, but that is clearly balderdash, because the facts are these: a) all four them made solo recordings there, b) they never made any effort to avoid working there, c) they named “Abbey Road” after the street where the studios were located, d) Paul did lots of solo work there with Wings and e) they would usually record elsewhere if Abbey Road was fully booked or they needed to use 8-track.
If Geoff didn’t like working there or on the Beatles’ sessions, he could’ve easily changed jobs and found work at another studio, perhaps Trident, Pye, IBC or Olympic.
The video for this song is my favorite, one-off video, not connected to a movie. The piano pulls you in, then the guitar duets with the keyboard on the intro, and off the song goes. BTW, you can see a rare shot of George playing the lead on his Gibson SG, which he soon gave away to one of the members of Badfinger. It wound up being auctioned off a decade or so ago.
What’s odd is, as George mentioned, they needed to make a video for “Lady Madonna”, which they did. But if you look closely, you’ll notice that a lot of the video clips came from “Hey Bulldog”. For one, it has the same shots of George playing his SG. As this article mentions, Beatle assistant Neil Aspinall re-assembled the HB video then dubbed the song onto the soundtrack. Thanks, Neil, and RIP.
I’m on Team George with the solo, but….
Has anyone else noticed that the solo begins with the same two notes as the start of Revolution?
Are my ears deceiving me, or are the solos on the stereo and mono mixes different takes? The mono one sounds a lot more sloppy to me. Is it possible John wrote the solo and played it for mono, but wasn’t satisfied with the outcome and had George play it on the stereo mix?
It sounds like a John solo played by George.
That’s Great–I love it!
If only the 2009 remasters were as good as the remixing and remastering of the Songtrack version of YS and the “1” album! These 2 sound much better than the 2009s. Hey Bulldog in particular sounds far better than the original, jarring hard-panned version, which sounds cobbled together. On Songtrack, it actually sounds like a group playing.
The bass is truly fantastic, especially on the “You can talk to me” section!
Can someone explain what is the real meaning of the lyric for Hey Bulldog? are they talking as a bulldog?
Love all of these comments. The guitar solo is one of my all time favorite solos and Paul’s bass line is stunning. However, how has no one mentioned Lennon’s PERFECT vocal. It’s so damn edgy and fitting. For the chorus “you can talk to me” section, it’s almost reminiscent of his badass vocal on “Twist and Shout.” Love this song and all of its beauty.
Agree 100%!
Also his one word Yyyyyyyeeeaaaaahhhhhh! In I want you/she’s so heavy….
I came here specifically to find out who did the solo, because I’ve heard varying accounts and thought it would be settled here. So much for that.
It’s an easy enough solo for any of the three to have done, but it sounds like John most. However, I like this idea that maybe John wrote the solo and had George play it. George was really good at picking up how to play the songs of John or Paul’s(he spent most the doing just that) so maybe that’s why he was able to pull it off so easily, as Emerick says. It could have already been laid out for him and he didn’t get all muddled with improvising his own ideas into the solo, he just had to play it.
But really the bass line, John vocals and his maniacal laughter amid the barking frenzy at the end is the best part of this song. There’s really no such thing as a Beatle’s song being a hidden gem because they’re all too well know to be, but Hey Bulldog is the closest thing to it.
Every time Paul McCartney has one of those things where you can ask him any question I always pray that someone will ask him who actually played the solo. I feel that its probably George playing it but if it does happen to be a John solo its easily the best he ever played and he probably would have claimed it at some point as he did with his other great guitar achievements like the rhythm on All my Loving, I’m Happy just to dance with you and his lead on You cant do that
I still crack up every time I hear John answer the “Big man” phrase with “Yeah?”. Great song, well played.
But … that’s Ringo. Sounds just like him, and the faintness and thinness of the sound indicates that it is recorded from a distance, like through the microphones picking up the drums. It is also placed in the same stereo position.
That would explain why Ringo is credited with drums and “spoken word”. Indeed, a single spoken word!
I came here to find out what is being said at the end of the song (by McCartney, it sounds like). I’ve never seen a transcription and have never been able to figure it out (after the “He did it, he did it” and before the “quack quack”… something like “Don’t look at me, man, I only had grandchildren” – which makes no sense.
“Don’t look at me, man, I only had ten children.” Which also makes no sense. But it works!
I thought it was John and Paul getting rowdy and pretending to be fighting dogs. I hear Paul going “You BIT me! You BIT me! Now cut it out!” while John laughs. Then later that’s John yelling “Quiet! Quiet!” because it’s time to sing “Hey bulldog” one more time.
The piano! Pianists should take note – simplicity can often add so much to a song. I love how the piano stays on the low end the entire time, giving the track weight and beautiful texture.
Lennon´s Hey Bulldog is the best song in the film Yellow Submarin. A heavy passionate song. It has some innovations: The piano in the middle part doesn´t follow the melody, just like Schumann´s sometimes. Listen to Schumann´s Liebeslied. In the end we have the first rapsong ( – only Lennon is raping, not McCartney). The song was recorded in February 1968. Ackording to Geoff Emerick,Lennon wanted it to released as a single, but he was stoped by George Martin and McCartney, they wanted Lady Madonna.
I hear John’s and Paul’s voices during the “rap” portion of this song but if you need for John to be crowned the first to rap, so be it. It’s certainly not Wagner or Puccini, and there’s no artistic tension.
“A heavy passionate song”? Schumann? Oooookaaaaayyyyy………………….
Your attempts to elevate anything “John” has definitely reached the point of ridiculousness and, dare I say it, pure trolling.
This is a throw-away bit of fun. Nothing more.
Interesting to read the opinions on here. I sort of associate this one with john returning to heavier rock sounds and his vocals and riff here are amongst his best. I actually think paul’s bass playing is a little too busy and almost overwhelms the track at times but the real quality of the track is that it feels very much like the beatles playing as a band again after 2 or 3 albums where they were exploring what they could do with the studio.
John definitely plays the lead. Listen to “You can’t do That”, which John Plays lead on, then compare to Bulldog lead …
I love this song, but the volcals are a little bit too low. The guitar solo sounds not as organized as a Harrison solo would,
maybe Lennon played it. i don’t know. But stil a very good and agressive solo.
Maybe the vocals sound “low” because this song features a relative rarity for a Beatles song: Paul sings the LOW harmony (during the verses)!
Can we all agree it isn’t Ringo playing the solo?
My favorite song off the “Yellow Submarine” album and film. John Lennon and the rest of the boys at their playful best. I love the lyrics and Lennon’s singing. Like a lot of the rest of you, I love the lead guitar solo- who ever it is!! My pick it is George Harrison. I agree to with a number of other people that this would have made a great single or at least a B side i.e. to”Lady Madonna”. Instantly loved this song when I got my copy of the “Yellow Submarine” album in 1981.
Hey Bulldog is one of at least a few examples of Lennon songs that should have been A-sides of singles. I am the Walrus and Day Tripper also come to mind. I love George Martin, but I think he erred by choosing Lady Madonna, Hello Goodbye and We can work it out as A-sides over equal or better songs by John.
How do we know it was not Ringo that did the lead?!?!? (ducks)
Speaking of Ringo, how about those portentous whaps on the snare while John rasps out the line, “You can talk to me!” For me, that’s the high point of this underrated classic, really hearkens back to their hard-edged With the Beatles period.
Come to think of it — anyone ever notice how John’s line “You can talk to me” resembles the opening line of “Any Time At All”?
It´s a Harrison´s guitar solo. Otherwise, what would be there doing ? Playing tamborine ? Apart from this discussion, it´s interesting to note the piano, played by John, with all those low inversions, and the incredible bass line. The Beatles were a very even band, and there was equilibrium , most of the times.
One of The Beatles best. Heavy hammering on the piano. Not only a lovely rythm, actually even a wunderful melody. Interesting is that the singing and the piano goes different ways. (A speciality by the romantic piano composer Robert Schumann). Then we have the first rapsong? Fantastic is the end with the screaming. The guitar accompaniment goes on and on during the screaming as i f nothing has happened, that give you an hypnotic feeling. It´s great music.
I heard it the first time when I saw Yellow Submarin. “Oh my God! why hasn´t this been released as a single??” I thaught.
Ackording to Geoff Emerick in his “Here, There and Everywhere”, Lennon wanted it to be released as a single, but was stoped by George Martin and McCartney.
Seven days before the recording of this song, they had recorded Across The Universe, another masterpiece carelessly lost.
How was Across The Universe carelessly lost? There are at least 3 completed versions out there.
I said it above to your relentless, repetitious meanderings:
Ridiculous and obviously trolling.
Hey Bulldog is a whimsical , throw-away, fun-bit-of-nonsense. Nothing more.
The first version from 1968 wasn´t recorded in the way Lennon wanted it. He gave it up and instead .It came to be released on a charity record for the World Wildlife Foundation.It ouight to have been released as a single.
Then it was recorded in a new commercial sentimental way with strings and a lower speed, and was included on the Let It Be-album 1970..
To what are you referring? Which song I mean? Please
You’re talking about Across the Universe, I think.
You mean Across the Universe I think. Hey Bulldog never had strings.
Johan.. so Lennon obsessed he can’t even stay on-topic.