Yer Blues

"Yer Blues"
Song by The Beatles from the album The Beatles
Released	22 November 1968
Recorded	13 August 1968, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Blues, blues rock, hard rock
Length	4:01 (stereo) 4:16 (mono)
Label	Apple Records
Writer	Lennon–McCartney
Producer	George Martin
The Beatles track listing
30 tracks Side one "Back in the U.S.S.R." "Dear Prudence" "Glass Onion" "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" "Wild Honey Pie" "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" Side two "Martha My Dear" "I'm So Tired" "Blackbird" "Piggies" "Rocky Raccoon" "Don't Pass Me By" "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" "I Will" "Julia" Side three "Birthday" "Yer Blues" "Mother Nature's Son" "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" "Sexy Sadie" "Helter Skelter" "Long, Long, Long" Side four "Revolution 1" "Honey Pie" "Savoy Truffle" "Cry Baby Cry" "Revolution 9" "Good Night"

"Yer Blues" is a song by The Beatles, the second song on the third side (or second disc) of The Beatles, also known as The White Album. It is credited to Lennon–McCartney, but was written by John Lennon while in Rishikesh, India.

Lyrics

Lennon said in a Rolling Stone interview that he used the humorous title as something of a defence mechanism, so that if anyone criticised the song, he could write it off as a parody. The lyrics are extremely suicidal, and include references to Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" as well as cosmology, and were possibly reflective of Lennon's well-documented battles with his psychological demons. In the original demo of the song, Lennon sings "I feel so insecure [as opposed to "suicidal"], just like Dylan's Mr. Jones".

Recording

"Yer Blues" was recorded in EMI Studio Two's "annexe", which was actually a large closet in the control room. In interviews for the Beatles Anthology series, Ringo Starr affectionately recalls recording this song in the stripped-down conditions, saying it was like the old days of live performances by the Beatles. The stripped-down, bluesy nature of the song bears similarity to much of Lennon's early solo output, including "Cold Turkey" and his 1970 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album and marks a retreat from Lennon's concern with studio experimentation that marked such songs as "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Contributing to the live sound of the song, loud yelling between band members can be heard in the instrumental tracks.

Performance

Just after the album The Beatles came out in late 1968, Lennon performed "Yer Blues" at The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus with a supergroup dubbed the "The Dirty Mac", consisting of himself, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Keith Richards on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums. The performance was followed with a boogie instrumental jam called "Whole Lotta Yoko", featuring dissonant avant-garde violinist Ivry Gitlis and vocals by Yoko Ono. The recording was never broadcast, and for decades the performance was only available on bootleg, but it finally came out officially on both CD and video in 1996. Lennon's performance with The Dirty Mac was his first live performance since the Beatles' last concert in 1966 and may have contributed to his renewed enthusiasm for live performance in 1969 (see "Give Peace a Chance" and Live Peace in Toronto).

Personnel

• John Lennon – vocals, lead guitar
• Paul McCartney – bass
• George Harrison – lead guitar
• Ringo Starr – drums

Personnel per Ian MacDonald

Cover versions

• Elliott Smith
• Ringo Shiina
• Jeff Healey
• The Dirty Mac

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. 
• Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6. 
• Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.