One of George Harrison’s first philosophical songs, ‘Think For Yourself’ was first released on the 1965 album Rubber Soul.
An unusually harshly-worded warning about the perils of leaving bad deeds unrectified, the inspiration behind the song is unknown. In his 1980 autobiography I Me Mine, Harrison claimed not to remember its origins, although he made a self-deprecating reference to the likes of ‘Taxman’ and ‘Piggies’:
‘Think For Yourself’ must be written about somebody from the sound of it – but all this time later I don’t quite recall who inspired that tune. Probably the government.
I Me Mine
Whereas a number of Harrison’s later songs were awash with pseudo-cosmic wisdom, ‘Think For Yourself’ is remarkable for its earthy sourness. Parallels can be drawn between the song and ‘Within You Without You’, which found Harrison more at peace with the differences of others.
Although your mind’s opaque
Try thinking more if just for your own sake
The future still looks good
And you’ve got time to rectify all the things that you should
Try to realise it’s all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you’re really only very small,
And life flows on within you and without you
In the studio
‘Think For Yourself’ was recorded in a single session on 8 November 1965, under the working title ‘Won’t Be There With You’.
The Beatles recorded the basic track – rhythm guitars, bass and drums – in a single take. They then overdubbed lead guitar, more bass (this time fed through a fuzz box), tambourine, maracas and organ, along with two three-part vocal tracks.
Paul used a fuzz box on the bass on ‘Think For Yourself’. When Phil Spector was making ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’, the engineer who’s set up the track overloaded the microphone on the guitar player and it became very distorted. Phil Spector said, ‘Leave it like that, it’s great’. Some years later everyone started to try to copy that sound and so they invented the fuzz box. We had one and tried the bass through it and it sounded really good.
Prior to the recording, George Martin taped the group rehearsing the song. The Beatles were aware of this, deliberately playing up to the microphones.
The recording went mostly unused, although a six-second segment of the group practising their harmonies found its way into the Yellow Submarine film, when The Beatles were called upon to revive the mayor of Pepperland.
George played a rhythm guitar part (it’s not a lead guitar) on the basic track and John the Vox Continental organ (not an electric piano).
Paul actually played two basses. One on the basic track and another one (the fuzz bass) as an overdub, recorded together with maracas (Ringo?) and tambourine (John?) on one track.
George’s song-writing is still fairly primitive in this song He had a ways to go, and by the time of the White Album, his lyrics had become much more polished.
Who plays the lead guitar?
I’d say it’s George for sure on lead guitar. Definitely his quality and sound. Paul’s fuzz bass is amazing!! A very well recorded song indeed.
I believe the fuzz bass serves as the lead guitar in this song as no other guitar sound can be heard in it.
I think it might actually be a distorted guitar part rather than a bass. It’s certainly within a guitar’s range, and it’s all played higher than the bass line (but otherwise mirrors it). What do other people think?
Naturally, with enhanced treble, the distorted bass sounds at times like a distorted guitar, but (1) the cover notes explicitly say that it’s fuzz bass–why lie?–, and (2) there are some notes too low for ordinary guitar (listen in particular to the last section of each chorus before and during the words, “Think for yourself”).
Maybe the Organ with a special effect?
It is Paul on the fuzz bass. I don’t understand why there is any confusion. All of the evidence points to it being Paul. It SOUNDS like Paul doubling his original bass track.
Definitely. That little 7-note descending bit after “…Go where you’re going to” is too low to be guitar. (Unless it’s WAY detuned)
Whichever type of guitar was used to lay down the “fuzz” melody – it is not a double of the bassline – it is it’s own melody. You can hear the bassline underneath playing different notes.
The lead bass track on “Think for Yourself” has to be the Fender 6 string they purchased right before this recording session. Paul, George and John all used it as a lead instrument and I think that’s the instrument used for the lead line in this song. It sounds like George playing the lead on six string Fender bass.
It’s out of guitar’s range. Definitely a bass.
I can add something from a sort of first hand experience: I was at a George Harrison tribute concert this evening in Roermond (Netherlands) and the main sound for this was indeed delivered by a fuzz distorted bass. At first, it was a complete surprise to me since I did not know this fact, but the sound fell completely together with the original recording: it was a fuzz bass.
wrong , it’s definitely Paul playing bass through a fuzz bo
That’s true and even the original liner notes can confirm that it was Paul on fuzz bass. When I first learnt this, it was the first time I had ever heard of a fuzz bass and originally, I thought it was a specially made type of bass guitar – it never occurred to me that the ‘fuzz bass’ was in fact Paul simply hooking up a standalone fuzzbox to his Rickenbacker bass.
He did use the fuzz bass technique on subsequent recordings, namely “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and “Mean Mr. Mustard”, but I’m not certain if he used it on Wings’ recordings.
A common side effect of the early fuzz boxes was that they stripped out the bass frequencies and emphasized the treble and mid-range. That is why we all hear a higher pitch range on the bass fed into the fuzz…
I have a hofner, a fuzz pedal, and a vox amp. It’s a roundwound-strung hofner bass, for sure – certain bits go too low for a guitar.
The very opening of this song is George’s guitar along with Paul then George basically he plays a rhythm riff. Paul’s fuzz bass does kinda serve as lead guitar but it sounds like he’s playing it through a Leslie speaker. Nice recording!!
Update: after relistening to “Think For Yourself” using headphones. a rhythm guitar can be heard ever so lightly being played in the background (stereo left channel).
In the right channel, on the phrase, “…and you’ve got time to rectify all the things that you should”, the high vocal harmony on the word “time” is slightly higher-pitched than on previous verses. It’s spine-tingling.
I agree Mr. Gil, that harmony on the word “time” (“and you’ve got TI-EM to rectify”) always got me, still does after 40 years. I think it was Paul, as he usually took the high harmonies. I love Rubber Soul so much because, as the album had to be recorded very quickly to meet the Christmas deadline, the Beatles had to crank out these recordings very fast. Many of the songs contain little imperfections in some of the vocal harmonies, such as this one. You can even hear an occasional cough and chatter here and there. I love hearing them, I think it adds something to the songs, perhaps character, that makes them even more endearing. There’s such brilliance and spontaneity captured in these songs.
Are you the same Mr Gil who was a substitute teacher at E Roosevelt High in Green belt, MD?
Was Paul using the Hofner or his new Rickenbacker? According to some RIC fan sites, this was the first song he recorded with his Rickenbacker. They quote George as saying so…but I can’t find a definitive answer.
The Ric was surely used on this ALBUM for the first time , not for all of the tracks. The best source for a 100% true answer is the book “The Beatles recording sessions”. In my opinion and experience , the Ric carries the “fuzz bass” sound much better than the Hofner. The Hofner is hollow , and tends to feedback when played through a fuzz pedal. The Ric dosen’t.
I read somewhere that Paul used the Ric extensively throughout RS, Revolver, Pepper, and the White Album. It is quite a different bass sound than what we were used to hearing in the previous albums. The Hofner has a woodier, more mellow sound, and being a short-scale bass, it has less sustain. The Ric, being a neck-through bass is much punchier and has that piano-like ring and sustain to it. The fuzz bass on this track could very well be the Ric on the bridge pick-up only, which is very trebly. Doesn’t sound like the Hofner at all.
I remember the album liner notes saying “Hofner fuzz bass”. However, after George’s comments about the Rickenbacker, I’ve come to the conclusion that the lead fuzz bass is the Rickenbacker 4001, but the regular low bass lines are played on the Hofner 500/1.
I’d argue other way around – Ric’s come with flatwounds. Flatwounds are really mute and thumpy, and you lose much of the harsh fuzz tone when you switch to them. I’ve tried this song with a hofner, which has roundwound strings, through a vox and it sounds identical. When putting flats on it, though, it does not. Though, who really knows other than the people who watched it go down?
I have two, factory-new Rickenbackers (325C64 and 360/12C63) and neither came with flat-wound strings. John Lennon’s own Rickenbacker 325 (his second one, received in Miami in 1964), when on public display, was seen to be strung with round-wound strings. True, The Beatles did originally use flat-wounds, but only in their earlier years).
The liner notes on Rubber Soul only say ‘Paul on fuzz bass’
No mention of the model of bass.
I thought Paul’s first recording with a Rickenbacker 4001 was “Rain” although he could have used one on Rubber Soul. His Hofner sounds better anyway. Rickenbacker’s have a much deeper tone.
Having tried playing this myself with the right equipment, I’ve found flatwound strings are too mute to get the right time for it – Ric’s usually come with flats by default. I’d assume this is the hofner, which comes with roundwound strings by default, and sounds almost perfect.
Kinda new sound with the 2 basses. I wouldnt doubt if George and Paul played bass on the same track because the styles are different. The fuzzy bass sounds like George’s techniches. I love to rip apart the tracks on this one. You know what they write and who played what, but half the time one of them wasnt there and they made due. One reason I think that they both played the bass is because George really did not like to play it, but this was after all a first when you look at it
That’s both Paul.
Obviously he would play two different bass lines, one as the lead (fuzz), one as the tonal fundament.
They both have Paul’s typical rhythmic and melodic feel.
It always sounded to me like he was singing: “the future’s still obscure(d); and you’ve got time to rectify all the things that you should”…
In a song that uses words like “opaque” and “rectify”, “obscure(d)” seemed to work just fine (even the off-rhyme seemed very Harrisonesque) – I actually find “still looks good” to be a bit of a let down…oh well…great song either way!
This is the first George Harrison song that, to me, really sounds like a George Harrison song — the sliding, gliding melody lines, and melody/lyric lines that are longer than most (the “rectify” line, for example). It’s a great song and the higher bass counterpoint (sorry, don’t know the more precise terms) really brings the vocals into focus.
I like George’s double tracked voice in this song using the ADT (artificial double tracking).
it sounds great, panned hard left & hard right.
Now I experimenting with this technique on my home recordings.
Thanks for the Beatles songs/recordings… I found a lot of old recording methods on them which is very much effective today.
It’s out of guitar’s range. Definitely a bass.
As someone who plays metal and uses fuzz bass myself, I can clearly hear that this is a fuzz bass. Go listen to Motörhead, any track. Lemmy is/was famous for playing fuzz bass.
Yeah, I guess we should take your word for it over George Harrison who said it was a fuzz box.
The recording George Martin made of the rehearsal of this song is on YouTube. It is a hilarious, “fly on the wall” masterpiece.
I have a superior sound system that allows clear discernment of every instrument and voice – yet, after listening through the (great) song intently multiple times, I cannot hear a lick of the organ John supposedly added (per the article and several comments). Can anybody point me to where it appears?
If you listen to this deconstructed video on YouTube, you can hear it in the segment isolating organ, fuzz bass, tambourine and maracas.
Also, the first segment shows two guitars, maracas and drums, so this proves that contrary to what was misreported, John’s rhythm guitar was actually not erased.
It was really nice of George to acknowledge that Paul played the fuzz bass on “Think for Yourself” and he praised the sound as really good, so this proves that he always had the decency to praise Paul’s bass playing and never falsely claimed that he did most of the bass playing on The Beatles’ records.
Given the limitations of 4-track recording, it would not have been possible to remove John’s rhythm guitar part without having to rerecord the whole basic track from scratch, contrary to what Ian MacDonald unconvincingly claimed in his book. IMO, that book should be disqualified as a reference altogether.