Julia (Beatles song)
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| "Julia" | |
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| "Julia" | |
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| A-side | "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" |
"Julia" is a song by The Beatles. It is the final song on side two (disc one on CD) of the band's 1968 album, The Beatles (often called The White Album).
Composition
"Julia" was written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and features Lennon on vocals and acoustic guitar. It was written during the Beatles' 1968 visit to Rishikesh in northern India, where they were studying under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was here where Lennon learned the song's finger-picking guitar style (known as 'Travis-picking') from the Scottish musician Donovan. No other Beatle sings or plays on the song. While Paul McCartney made several "solo" recordings attributed to the group, dating back to his famous song "Yesterday", this is the only time that Lennon played and sang unaccompanied on a Beatle track.
"Julia" was written for John's mother, Julia Lennon (1914–1958), who was knocked down and killed by a car driven by a drunk off-duty police officer when John was 17 years old. It was also written for his future wife Yoko Ono, whose first name, which literally means "child of the sea" in Japanese, is echoed in the lyric "Oceanchild, calls me." In an interview in 1971 John Lennon said, "I wrote 'God Save Us' with Yoko, and 'Do the Oz', and there's one track on the album that she wrote. She had written other things, even 'Julia' back in the Beatles days."[1].
The line "Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you" was a slight alteration from Kahlil Gibran's "Sand and Foam" (1926) in which the original verse reads, "Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you".
Musical Structure
The song is in the key of D and begins with a I-vi7-v7-v9-VI7 progression from D chord note A on "Jul..." to Bm7 chord on "...ia" to AM7 chord on "Jul..." to Am9 chord on "...ia" to B7 chord on "ocean child."[2] A feature is that the 9th degree in the minor 9th chord Bm9 (1-♭3-5-♭7-9) is heard in the melody as well as the guitar chord (at 0.20secs on "Julia, Ju-li-a).[3]
Release
"Julia" was originally released as the final song on side two of The Beatles on 22 November 1968.[4] Eight years later it was released as the B-side of the "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" single.[5]
A portion of the song also appeared on the Love album mixed with "Eleanor Rigby".
Personnel
- John Lennon – double-tracked vocals, double-tracked acoustic guitar
Other versions
"Julia" has been covered by Ramsey Lewis, Bongwater, Chocolate Genius, Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Priscilla Ahn, and Sean Lennon. Sean Lennon performed the song live on 2 October 2001 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, as part of the Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music concert special.
On Danger Mouse's mashup album, The Grey Album, "Julia" is mixed with Jay-Z's "Dirt Off Your Shoulder".
Notes
- ^ "Brought to Book," July 31, 1971 interview with Alan Smith, Uncut Presents NME Originals Beatles-The Solo Years 2010, p. 42.
- ^ Dominic Pedler. The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. Music Sales Limited. Omnibus Press. NY. 2003. pp197
- ^ Dominic Pedler. The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. Music Sales Limited. Omnibus Press. NY. 2003. pp706, 708.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 200–201.
- ^ Wallgren 1982, p. 109.
References
- Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Wallgren, Mark (1982). The Beatles on Record. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-45682-2.
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