Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
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"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" is a song by the English rock group the Beatles from their 1968 album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). The song was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney.
Background
"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" was written about Lennon's future wife, Yoko Ono.[2][3] Lennon said of the song:
That was just a sort of nice line that I made into a song. It was about me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love. Everything is clear and open when you're in love. Everybody was sort of tense around us: you know, 'What is she doing here at the session? Why is she with him?' All this sort of madness is going on around us because we just happened to want to be together all the time.
Many listeners, including Paul McCartney, believed that the song was about heroin, as the term "monkey" is often associated with the drug.[3] Although Lennon and Ono used the drug, McCartney, Harrison and Starr did not, with McCartney later saying, "It was a harder terminology, which the rest of us weren't into."[3]
Recording
Lennon's working title for the composition was "Come on, Come on".[4] An unreleased demo of the song, recorded in George Harrison's Esher home in May 1968, features all-acoustic instrumentation, and a vocal sung in a more Bob Dylan-like spoken word style than the released version.
The released version of the song was recorded at EMI's Abbey Road Studios on 27 June 1968, and an overdub session on 1 July. Final stereo mixing was completed on 12 October.[5]
Personnel
- John Lennon – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion, handclaps
- Paul McCartney – backing vocals, bass guitar, bell,[6] percussion, handclaps
- George Harrison – backing vocals, lead guitar, percussion, handclaps
- Ringo Starr – drums, percussion, handclaps
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald[7] except as noted.
Cover versions
- Fats Domino covered this song in 1969.
- The Feelies did a cover of the song on their 1980 debut album Crazy Rhythms.
- Soundgarden covered the song during a 1989 Peel session.[8]
- Phish, on the album Live Phish Volume 13.[9]
- Kristin Hersh on the 1999 EP Echo.
- When Mojo released The White Album Recovered in 2008, part of a continuing series of CDs of Beatles albums covered track-by-track by modern artists, the track was covered by My Brightest Diamond.[10]
References
- ^ Sound & Vision 2001, p. 103.
- ^ a b "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey". The Beatles Bible.
- ^ a b c d "100 Greatest Beatles Songs: No. 73 – 'Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey'". Rolling Stone.
- ^ a b Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write. New York: MJF Books.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 139.
- ^ Emerick & Massey 2006, p. 387.
- ^ MacDonald 2005, p. 293.
- ^ "BBC — Radio 1 - Keeping It Peel - 14/05/1989 Soundgarden".
- ^ "Live Phish, Vol. 13: 10/31/94, Glens Falls Civic Center, Glens Falls, NY - Phish". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ "The White Album Recovered 2 - Track Listing — Mojo Cover CDs — The Definitive List". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014.
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Sources
- Sound & Vision, Volume 67, Issues 2-5. Michigan: Hachette Filipacchi Magazines. 2001.
Go forward to 1968 and The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album) and you get a veritable hard-rock clinic on what used to be, in the days of vinyl. Side 3: "Birthday," "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey," "Helter Skelter"
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Emerick, Geoff; Massey, Howard (2006). Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 1-59240-179-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-84413-828-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - 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.
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