Fixing a Hole
| "Fixing a Hole" | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the Northern Songs sheet music (licensed to Sonora Musikförlag) | |
| Song by the Beatles | |
| from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | |
| Released | 26 May 1967[1] |
| Recorded | 9 and 21 February 1967, Regent Sound Studios, London; EMI Studios, London |
| Genre | |
| Length | 2:36 |
| Label | Parlophone |
| Songwriter(s) | Lennon–McCartney |
| Producer(s) | George Martin |
"Fixing a Hole" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was written by Paul McCartney, although credited to Lennon–McCartney.
Writing
In a 1968 interview, McCartney said that the song was "about the hole in the road where the rain gets in, a good old analogy—the hole in your make-up which lets the rain in and stops your mind from going where it will." He went on to say that the following lines were about fans who hung around outside his home day and night, and whose actions he found off-putting:[5]
See the people standing there
who disagree, and never win
And wonder why they don't get in my door
Years later, McCartney acknowledged that the song was an "ode to pot".[6]
Recording
The first of two recording sessions for "Fixing a Hole" was at Regent Sound Studios in London on 9 February 1967, in three takes. Regent Sound was used because all three studios at EMI's Abbey Road Studios were unavailable that night, so this was the first time that the Beatles used a British studio other than Abbey Road for an EMI recording.[7][8] Also present at the session was a man who had arrived at McCartney's house in St John's Wood, shortly before McCartney was due to depart for the studio, and introduced himself as Jesus Christ.[9] McCartney later recalled: "I thought, Well, it probably isn't. But if he is, I'm not going to be the one to turn him away ... There were a lot of casualties about then. We used to get a lot of people who were maybe insecure or going through emotional breakdowns or whatever. So I said, 'I've got to go to a session but if you promise to be very quiet and just sit in a corner, you can come.' So he did, he came to the session and he did sit very quietly and I never saw him after that."[10]
The lead vocal was recorded at the same time as the rhythm track, a change from the Beatles' post-1964 approach of overdubbing the vocal.[7] Overdubs were added to this recording on 21 February 1967 at EMI Studios.[11]
Musical structure
The song alternates between the key of F minor (in verse) and F major (in bridge) in basically 4
4 time with a structure of Intro → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Verse (Guitar Solo) → Bridge → Verse → Outro (fadeout).[12] On track one George Martin opens on harpsichord, briefly playing a descending chromatic line (resembling "Michelle") in a staccato-like pattern 4
4 time, but Ringo Starr's hi-hat in the final measure of the introduction introduces a swing beat that stays for the remainder of the song. The first eight-measure verse begins with McCartney's vocals on track three ("I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in"). The optimistic word "Fixing" here is sung to a piano F major chord (bass now also on track one playing an F note) but on "hole" a C augmented chord (which includes a G♯/A♭ note that is a III (3rd) note in the thus predicted F minor scale) (bass now playing a C or V (5th) note in both the F major and F minor scales) pivoting towards the Fm pentatonic minor scale on the more negative mood of "rain gets in".[13] The Fm key melody in the verse is tinged both by blues flat 7th, and dorian mode raised 6th notes. The harpsichord repeats the descending chromatic line in the F minor key in swing beat.
In the second half of the verse, McCartney's bass begins a syncopated three-note pattern that leaves the downbeat empty, meanwhile his vocal is dropping to F an octave below (on "stops my mind"), climbing back to C ("from wandering") then sailing free of the song's established octave to a high falsetto A flat on "where it will go."[14] George Harrison then comes in on track two in the seventh and eighth measure with a syncopated distorted Stratocaster with gain, treble and bass all turned up high, providing his distinctive countermelody, double-tracked phrase descending from Paul's high A♭ vocal note through a "series of biting inversions on the tonic chord;"[14] Harrison later adds an eight bar solo that culminates in a two octave descent.[15] McCartney, Lennon and Harrison do backing vocals on track 4 for the bridge ("And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong I'm right where I belong I'm right") in the parallel major key (F).[10][16] This shift between minor (verse) and major (bridge) is also seen in the songs "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" (verse E, chorus Em); "Michelle" (verse F, chorus Fm); "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (bridge A, verse Am), "I Me Mine" (chorus A, verse Am), "The Fool on the Hill" (verse D, chorus Dm) and "Penny Lane" (verse [bars 1–3] B, verse [bars 4–8] Bm).[17]
Personnel
- Paul McCartney – double-tracked lead vocals, harpsichord,[18] bass
- John Lennon – backing vocals
- George Harrison – backing vocals, double-tracked lead guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums, maracas
- George Martin – harpsichord
Personnel per Guitar World[8]
Live performances
Paul McCartney performed the song live for the first time by any Beatle on his 1993 New World Tour. He later reprised the song on his 2005 US Tour.
Cover versions
- George Burns performed the song in 1978 for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band soundtrack, as well as in the movie.
- Hue & Cry covered the song in 1988 as part of the Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father tribute album.
- The Fray performed the song on 2 June 2007 for a 40th anniversary tribute to Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.[19]
- World Party covered the song on its 2012 release, Arkeology.
- The Easy Star All-Stars covered the song, as well as the rest of the Sgt. Pepper's album, on their Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band cover album.
References
- ^ Everett 1999, p. 123. "In the United Kingdom Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ... was rush-released six days ahead of its official date, June 1."
- ^ Fixing a Hole at AllMusic
- ^ "Steve Smith: Wyman and Taylor join the Rolling Stones onstage; Coldplay takes a break". Archived from the original on 3 December 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link). Pasadena Star-News. 29 November 2012. - ^ https://www.spin.com/2019/07/beatles-list-bad-songs-yesterday/
- ^ Aldridge, Alan. "Paul McCartney's Guide to the Beatles' Songbook", Los Angeles Times 14 January 1968: B19
- ^ McCartney, Paul. Many Years From Now, 15 October 1998
- ^ a b Lewisohn 1988, pp. 93, 95.
- ^ a b Scapelliti, Christopher (3 July 2013). "Song Facts: The Beatles - Fixing A Hole". Guitar World. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- ^ Miles 2001, p. 256.
- ^ a b Rybaczweski, Dave. "'Fixing a Hole' The Beatles Music History". Retrieved 22 May 2013.
- ^ "Fixing a Hole". Beatles Bible. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ Pollack, Alan (1996). "Notes on Fixing a Hole". Retrieved 22 May 2013.
- ^ Pedler, Dominic (2003). Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. London: Omnibus Press. p. 324.
- ^ a b Gould, Jonathan (2007). Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America. Piatkus. p. 401.
- ^ Gould, Jonathan (2007). Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America. Piatkus. p. 402.
- ^ Everett, Walter. The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the Anthology. Oxford Uni Press. p. 107. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
- ^ Pedler, Dominic (2003). Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. London: Omnibus Press. p. 185.
- ^ Womack, Kenneth (2014). The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four. ABC-CLIO. p. 275. ISBN 0313391726.
- ^ BBC Radio 2 2009.
Bibliography
- "Sergeant Pepper's 40th Anniversary". 60s Season. BBC Radio 2. 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
- "Sgt Pepper". Beatles Interview Database. The Beatles Interview Database. 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
- Everett, Walter (1999). The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the Anthology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512941-0.
{{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) - Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Miles, Barry (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-8308-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)
External links
