For You Blue
| "For You Blue" | ||||||||||||
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| Single by The Beatles | ||||||||||||
| from the album Let It Be | ||||||||||||
| A-side | "The Long and Winding Road" | |||||||||||
| Released | 8 May 1970 | |||||||||||
| Recorded | 25 January 1969 Apple Studios 8 January 1970 Olympic Studios |
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| Genre | Blues | |||||||||||
| Length | 2:32 | |||||||||||
| Label | Apple | |||||||||||
| Writer(s) | George Harrison | |||||||||||
| Producer | Phil Spector | |||||||||||
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"For You Blue" is a Beatles song written by George Harrison. It was the B-side to "The Long and Winding Road" (in the US) and the eleventh track on the Beatles' final LP release, Let It Be. "For You Blue" was listed with "The Long and Winding Road" as a double-sided hit when the single reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1970.
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[edit] Musical characteristics
The song is in the key of D and is one of the few original Beatles songs in which every section follows a classic twelve bar blues (I-IV-V) pattern.[1] Indeed, in his vocal at 1.18 secs Harrison states this is "the twelve bar blues." The 'bluesy' feel to the song is accentuated by the addition to the blues-based minor pentatonic scale (I-flat3-4-5-flat7) of a flat7 on each of the I (D7), IV (G7) and V (A7) chords.[2] A variation from the twelve bar blues pattern is the insertion of a IV7 (G7) chord on "lovely girl" in the opening I (D7) verse bar.[3]
[edit] Recording
The song features John Lennon playing lap steel guitar[4] using a shotgun shell as a bottleneck.[5] Harrison makes a few spoken comments during the song, including, "Bop, bop-cat-bop", "Go, Johnny, go", "There go the twelve-bar blues", and "Elmore James got nothin' on this baby."
[edit] Song name
The song's working title was "George's Blues (Because You're Sweet and Lovely)" when it was recorded on 25 January 1969.[6] It was renamed sometime between 10 March and 28 May when it was listed as "For You Blue" on the final mix for the unreleased Get Back album.[7] Lennon can be heard on the session tapes reading this title off a list of songs The Beatles had been working on, and dialogue suggests that this was an error in writing and the title was actually meant to be "For You Blues".[8] When Phil Spector remixed the song for inclusion on the Let It Be album, he added an introduction by Lennon, "Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members." This comment was edited in from dialogue recorded at Twickenham Studios in early January 1969, long before "For You Blue" was recorded.[9]
[edit] Personnel
- George Harrison – vocal, acoustic guitar
- John Lennon – lap steel guitar
- Paul McCartney – piano
- Ringo Starr – drums
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald[4]
[edit] Live performances
This song was part of the set during Harrison's Dark Horse Tour of North America in 1974.
On 29 November 2002, McCartney sang this song at the Concert for George, a memorial concert for Harrison held on the first anniversary of his death.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Alan Pollack. Notes on For You Blue http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/fyb.shtml accessed 12 Feb 2012
- ^ Dominic Pedler. Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. Omnibus Press, London 2003 p 24.
- ^ Alan Pollack. Notes on For You Blue http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/fyb.shtml accessed 12 Feb 2012
- ^ a b MacDonald 2005, p. 337.
- ^ Robert Fontenot. "For You Blue: The history of this classic Beatles song". Oldies.about.com. http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatlessongs/a/foryoublue.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 166.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 176.
- ^ The Beatles - A/B Road: The Complete Get Back Sessions, January 24th
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 198.
[edit] References
- Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
- MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3.
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