How Do You Sleep? (Takes 5 & 6, Raw Studio Mix Out-take) - John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band
HOW DO YOU SLEEP?
So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise
You better see right through that mother’s eyes
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead
The one mistake you made was in your head
Tell me... How do you sleep?
Tell me... How do you sleep at night?
You live with straights who tell you you was king
Jump when your Momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was yesterday
And since you’ve gone you’re just another day
Tell me... How do you sleep at night?
Tell me babe... How do you sleep at night?
You was king...
Whoah... How do you sleep at night?
Whoah... How do you sleep at night?
A pretty face may last a year or two
But pretty soon they’ll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears
You must have learned something in all those years
Oh... How do you sleep, brother?
Ohh... Tell me how do you sleep at night?
Hit it!
Jump when your momma tell you anything
But pretty soon you’ll see what you can do
Ohh... How do you sleep at night?
Tell me... How do you sleep at night?
Tell me... How do you sleep at night?
Front Left - Nicky Hopkins: electric piano
Front Right - George Harrison: electric slide guitar
Surround Left - Alan White: drums
Surround Right - Klaus Voormann: bass
Imagine you are at the Lennon’s home, Tittenhurst Park in Ascot, England.
It's night.
It's the last week in May in 1971 and you are their special guest, sat in a chair in the very center of the their recording studio, Ascot Sound Studios.
John Lennon is sat in front of you, teaching the musicians one of his latest compositions. He is talking and singing and playing the same wood-finish Epiphone Casino electric guitar he played on 'Revolution'.
A bearded George Harrison is in front of you, to the right, playing electric slide on John's pale blue Fender Strat.
Just behind you and to your right, Rod Lynton with Ted Turner from Wishbone Ash are strumming chords on twelve string acoustic guitars, and directly behind you to the right, John and George's old friend Klaus Voormann is playing his deep hand-painted Fender Precision bass.
Behind you to the left, Alan White (who would later join Yes) is playing his Ludwig silver sparkle drumkit, and in front of you to the left, John Tout from Renaissance is playing chords on the Steinway upright piano, and to his right, Nicky Hopkins is improvising on the red-top Wurlitzer Electric Piano, literally days before he leaves for Nellcôte to play on Exile on Main Street with The Rolling Stones.
You are listening to the band playing 'How Do You Sleep?' and all the hairs are standing up on your arms.
About ‘How Do You Sleep?’
..by John & Yoko excerpted from the 120 page book in the Imagine Ultimate Collection Box Set:-
John: "Somebody said the other day ‘It’s about me’. You know, there’s two things I regret. One is that there was so much talk about Paul on it, they missed the song. It was a good track. And I should’ve kept me mouth shut – not on the song, it could’ve been about anybody, you know? And when you look at them back, Dylan said it about his stuff, you know, most of it’s about him. The only thing that matters is how he and I feel about those things and not what the writer or the commentator thinks about it, you know? Him and me are OK. So I don’t care what they say about that, you know? I’ve always been a little, you know, loose. And I hope it’ll change because I’m fed up of waking up in the papers. But if it doesn’t, my friends are my friends whatever way. "
Find out more at http://imaginejohnyoko.com Credits: Directors: John Lennon & Yoko Ono (1971) Cameramen: Nick Knowland, John Metcalf & Richard Stanley (1971) Editor: Simon Hilton (2018)
John: "My album front and back is taken by Yoko as a Polaroid. It’s a new one called a Polaroid close-up. It’s fantastic. She took a photo of me, and then we had this painting off a guy called Geoff Hendricks who only paints sky. And I was standing in front of it, in the hotel room and she superimposed the picture of it on me after, so I was in the cloud with my head. And then I lay down on the window sill to get a lying down picture for the back side, which she wanted with the cloud above my head. And I’m sort of ‘imagining’".
MAKING THE ARTWORK FOR THE COVER:
http://imaginejohnyoko.com/imagine-john-yoko-making-the-imagine-album-artwork/
"Imagine" ------ 1971 ------- full lp
Track listing
All songs written by John Lennon; "Imagine" and "Oh My Love" co-written with Yoko Ono.
Side one
"Imagine"
"Crippled Inside"
"Jealous Guy"
"It's So Hard"
"I Don't Want to Be a Soldier, Mama, I Don’t Wanna Die"
Side two
"Gimme Some Truth"
"Oh My Love"
"How Do You Sleep?"
"How?"
"Oh Yoko!"
Imagine
is the second solo studio album by English musician John Lennon,
released on 9 September 1971 by Apple Records. Co-produced by Lennon,
his wife Yoko Ono and Phil Spector, the album's lush sound contrasts the
basic, small-group arrangements of his first album, John Lennon/Plastic
Ono Band (1970), while the opening title track is widely considered to
be his signature song.
Lennon recorded the album from early to
mid-1971 at Ascot Sound Studios, Abbey Road Studios and the Record Plant
in New York City, with supporting musicians that included his
ex-Beatles bandmate George Harrison, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, bassist
Klaus Voormann and drummers Alan White and Jim Keltner.
Its lyrics
reflect peace, love, politics, Lennon's experience with primal scream
therapy, and, following a period of high personal tensions, an attack on
his former writing partner Paul McCartney in "How Do You Sleep?".
Extensive footage from the sessions was recorded for a scrapped
documentary; parts were released on the documentary film Imagine: John
Lennon (1988).
Imagine was a critical and commercial success,
peaking at number one on both the UK Albums Chart and US Billboard 200.
Along with John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, it is considered one of
Lennon's finest solo albums. In 2012, the album was voted 80th on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The album has been reissued multiple times, including in 2018 as The
Ultimate Collection, a six-disc box set containing previously unreleased
demos, rare studio outtakes, "evolution documentaries" for each track,
and isolated track elements along with a 5.1 surround mix and the
original 4-channel Quadrosonic mix.
Promotional film
Main article: Imagine (1972 film)
In
1972, Lennon and Ono released an 70-minute film to accompany the
Imagine album which featured footage of them at their Berkshire property
at Tittenhurst Park and in New York City. It included many of the
tracks from the album and some additional material from Ono's 1971 album
Fly. Several celebrities appeared in the film, including Andy Warhol,
Fred Astaire, Jack Palance, Dick Cavett and George Harrison. Derided by
critics as "the most expensive home movie of all time", it premiered to
an American audience, on TV on 23 December 1972.
Personnel
Personnel per John Blaney.
John Lennon – vocals (all), piano , electric guitar , acoustic guitar, whistling, harmonica
George Harrison – slide guitar, electric guitar
Nicky Hopkins – tack piano, piano, electric piano
Klaus Voormann – bass guitar, double bass
Alan White – drums, vibraphone, Tibetan cymbals
Jim Keltner – drums
Jim Gordon – drums
King Curtis – saxophone
John Barham – harmonium, vibraphone
Joey Molland, Tom Evans – acoustic guitar (credited as "Joey and Tommy Badfinger")
John Tout – piano (incorrectly credited as playing "acoustic guitar")
Ted Turner – acoustic guitar
Rod Linton – acoustic guitar
Andy Davis – acoustic guitar
Mike Pinder – tambourine
Steve Brendell – double bass, maracas
Phil Spector – harmony vocal
The Flux Fiddlers (members of the New York Philharmonic) – orchestral strings
How Do You Sleep? (John Lennon song) from Wikipedia:
| from the album Imagine | |
|---|---|
| Released | 9 September 1971 |
| Recorded | 26 May – 5 July 1971 |
| Genre | Rock |
| Length | 5:36 |
| Label | Apple |
| Songwriter(s) | John Lennon |
| Producer(s) | John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector |
"How Do You Sleep?" is a song by English rock musician John Lennon from his 1971 album Imagine. The song makes angry and scathing remarks aimed at his former Beatles bandmate and songwriting partner, Paul McCartney. Lennon wrote the song in response to what he perceived as personal slights by McCartney on the latter's Ram album. The track includes a slide guitar solo played by George Harrison and was co-produced by Lennon, Phil Spector and Yoko Ono.
Composition and lyrics
John Lennon wrote "How Do You Sleep?" in the aftermath of Paul McCartney's successful suit in the London High Court to dissolve the Beatles as a legal partnership.[1] This ruling had followed the publication of Lennon's defamatory remarks about the Beatles in a December 1970 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, and McCartney and his wife, Linda, taking full-page advertisements in the music press, in which, as an act of mockery towards Lennon and Yoko Ono,[2] they were shown wearing clown costumes and wrapped up in a bag.[3] Following the release of McCartney's album Ram in May 1971, Lennon felt attacked by McCartney, who later admitted that lines in the song "Too Many People" were intended as digs at Lennon.[4] Lennon thought that other songs on the album, such as "3 Legs", contained similar attacks although McCartney denied it.[5]
The lyrics of "How Do You Sleep?" refer to the "Paul is dead" rumour ("Those freaks was right when they said you was dead").[6] The song begins with the line "So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise", referring to the Beatles' landmark 1967 album.[7] Preceding this first line are ambient sounds evocative of those heard at the beginning of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
The lyrics "The only thing you done was yesterday / And since you've gone you're just another day" are directed at McCartney, referencing the Beatles' 1965 song "Yesterday" and McCartney's hit single "Another Day", released in February 1971. Lennon initially penned the lyrics "You probably pinched that bitch anyway", as a reference to the many times McCartney had made claims that he was not sure if he nicked "Yesterday", having asked Lennon, Harrison, George Martin and others if they had heard that melody before. Although Lennon received the sole writing credit for "How Do You Sleep?", a contemporary account by Felix Dennis of Oz magazine[8] indicates that Yoko Ono, as well as Allen Klein, Lennon's manager, also contributed lyrics.[6]
Recording
Lennon recorded "How Do You Sleep?" on 26 May 1971 at Ascot Sound Studios, during the sessions for his Imagine album. String overdubs took place on 4 July 1971 at the Record Plant, in New York City.[9] The song features a slide guitar part played by George Harrison.[10] Aside from Lennon on rhythm guitar and vocals, the track also includes contributions from Klaus Voormann on bass, Alan White on drums, acoustic guitar played by Ted Turner, Rod Linton and Andy Davis, as well as additional piano parts by Nicky Hopkins and John Tout.[6] Although he had been united with Lennon, Ringo Starr and Klein, against McCartney, in the recent lawsuit,[11] Harrison recalled that the period was one of "very strange, intense feelings" among all the former Beatles, and he was initially wary of Lennon's invitation to play on the new album. Given this, Harrison added, he was relieved that Lennon was "openly pleased I came".[12]
As with all the tracks on Imagine, several outtakes of
"How Do You Sleep?" became available on bootleg albums and in
documentary films about Lennon. A run-through of the song in the 2000
film Gimme Some Truth
includes what authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter describe as "John's
query to Paul", as Lennon faces the camera and sings: "How do you
sleep, ya cunt?"[13] Starr visited the studio during the recording of the song and was reportedly upset, saying: "That's enough, John."[6]
The final mix version as released on the album is in mono rather than
stereo, unlike all the other tracks. In 2018, two versions of the
original recording sessions were released in 5.1 surround sound as part
of the Imagine box set.[THIS VERSION...ed.].
Reception and aftermath
In a contemporary review of Imagine, Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone highlighted "How Do You Sleep?" among the album's three "really worthy, musically effective numbers" but found it "horrifying and indefensible" as a song that "lay waste to Paul's character, family and career". Gerson concluded: "The motives for 'Sleep' are baffling. Partly it is the traditional bohemian contempt for the bourgeois; partly it is the souring of John's long-standing competitive relationship with Paul."[14]
Writing in the NME, Alan Smith said of the track: "Musically, it's tremendous – open, big, powerful, thundering, dramatic – but this is a song which will be remembered for its lyrics …" As its ultimate putdown of McCartney, Smith identified the couplet "The sound you make is muzak to my ears / You must've learned something in all those years."[15]
In Melody Maker, Roy Hollingworth lauded Imagine as the best work that Lennon had ever done and described "How Do You Sleep?" as "the unnerving slash at McCartney … a slow funk with Commanche or maybe Sioux flavoured strings".[16]
Soon after the album was released, Lennon said that the song "was an answer to Ram" but added:
"There's really no feud between me and Paul. It's all good, clean fun. No doubt there will be an answer to 'Sleep' on his next album, but I don't feel that way about him at all. It works as a complete song with no relation to Paul. It works as a piece of music. I started writing it in 1969, and the line 'So Sergeant Pepper Took You By Surprise ...' was written about two years before anything happened. There was always a musical difference between me and Paul – it didn't just happen last year. But we've always had a lot in common, and we still do. The thing that made The Beatles what they were was the fact that I could do my rock 'n roll, and Paul could do the pretty stuff ... But hardly a week goes by when I don't see, and/or hear from one of them."[17]
In 1980, Lennon stated: "I used my resentment against Paul … to create a song … not a terrible vicious horrible vendetta … I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and The Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write 'How Do You Sleep'. I don't really go 'round with those thoughts in my head all the time".[18]
Personnel
- John Lennon – vocals, guitar[19]
- George Harrison – slide guitar
- Nicky Hopkins – Wurlitzer electric piano
- John Tout – piano
- Ted Turner – acoustic guitar
- Rod Linton – acoustic guitar
- Andy Davis – acoustic guitar
- Klaus Voormann – bass
- Alan White – drums
- The Flux Fiddlers – strings
References
External links
Languages
pic taken by the Embassy chauffeur around 13.30GMT on Sunday 21 June 2015...around 3rd anniversary [19/06/2012] https://www.680news.com/2015/06/19/wikileaks-assange-marks-3-years-inside-embassy-police-say-operation-has-cost-17-6-million/ of Assange entering Embassy, London, where he was to remain for a total of 6 years 9 months approx. until 11 April 2019, when he was arrested and dragged from the Embassy by London police who had permission to do so by Ecuador's newer + more recent president Lenin Moreno: "London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement Thursday [11/04/2019] that they were
“invited into the embassy by the ambassador, following the Ecuadoran
government’s withdrawal of [Assange's] asylum” “Ecuador has sovereignly decided to terminate the diplomatic asylum
granted to Mr. Assange in 2012” President Lenín Moreno said in a video
statement on Twitter. “The asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no
longer viable.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/04/11/how-british-police-arrested-julian-assange-without-breaking-international-law/ Assange then was forced into the UK's highest maximum security prison HMP Belmarsh the following day [12/04/2019] where he remains, bail refused on 06 Jan. 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKvhqu2NQ78&feature=emb_title after extradition to the US was denied due to "mental health grounds" 2 days earlier on the 04 Jan. 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHxJHQAEs9s The US government is appealing the extradition refusal, which might take a year to get into court.
