The Beatles - It’s All Too Much

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by bherbert, Dec 10, 2017.

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  1. edenofflowers

    edenofflowers A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular!

    Location:
    UK
    I know it's not from the period but I can almost imagine It's All Too Much as a final track to Pepper. Mid way through the long piano fade this track kicks in, it's a really triumphant end to an album although it would be the opposite, mood wise, from what they actually went with.
     
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  2. maywitch

    maywitch Forum Resident

    According to some John plays the bass on this song, because Paul's playing the feedback and George is playing the organ(per George on George and Paul's roles). But maybe they just decided to leave it even if it was Paul.
     
  3. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    Yeah, there's some 'Oooh! Oooh!' in there.
     
  4. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    By the way, in the intro I think it's George saying "See ya, Mo!"... Mo was Maureen, Ringo's lady.^^
     
  5. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    It's actually from that period.
    Recorded just before Sgt. Pepper was released. But I think if Magical Mystery Tour was a proper album (in the UK and elsewhere) that song would've been a great album closer.
     
  6. 2141

    2141 Forum Resident


    Written by: Harrison
    Recorded: 25, 31 May; 2 June 1967
    Producer: George Martin
    Engineer: Dave Siddle

    Released: 17 January 1969 (UK), 13 January 1969 (US)

    George Harrison: vocals, Hammond organ
    John Lennon: harmony vocals, lead guitar
    Paul McCartney: harmony vocals, bass
    Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
    David Mason and three others: trumpets
    Paul Harvey: bass clarinet

    I just looked this up. So it's John playing all that shredding guitar on this song?! John could really surprise in the guitar dept, but this one takes the cake. What a monster!
     
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  7. mjlynott

    mjlynott Forum Resident

    Location:
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    lot of theories on the Beatles Bible that Paul played the lead due to similar styles on other tracks of the time and in the future. it also sounds like Paul's bass playing too. Maybe he had more input to this track than George would admit to. The borrowed trumpet segments would also seem to be more of a Paul thing.

    Also for me the mono version wins hands down. it all meshes together wonderfully whereas the latest stereo mix focuses "too much" on the lead guitar and misses all the other aspects that makes it a track you can listen to again and again
     
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  8. mjlynott

    mjlynott Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oldham Lancashire
    Both IATM and Only a Northern Song really got some bad press particularly in the 80s and 90s. In his book Revolution In the Head Ian McDonald described IATM as g pedal monotony. glad they have been reappraised.
     
  9. maywitch

    maywitch Forum Resident

    See I don't entirely trust their breakdown, because George himself said Paul played at least some guitar on the song because he specifically, when asked about it, said Paul played the feedback(and it certainly sounds like the feedback goes right into the guitar part but who knows but it sounds more like his style). George isn't going to credit Paul with something unless Paul did it so he played at least that much guitar on it. LOL Yet the Beatles Bible doesn't credit him with any guitar at all.
     
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  10. Angel66

    Angel66 Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    That's a spectacular track I keep in rotation and the perfect way to start a Sunday.
     
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  11. SixOClockBoos

    SixOClockBoos The Man On The Flaming Pie

    It was my favorite Beatle song for a while. I really liked the guitar sound and extended coda.
     
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  12. I agree that it would have fitted better on MMT than on Pepper. The latter has a slightly gloomy feel about it, and isn't much of a "summer of love" album in the end (how could it really be anyway?)...
     
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  13. bodine

    bodine Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington DC
    Would someone pls enlighten me what Lennon mutters at the start of the song?
     
  14. Cast Iron Shore

    Cast Iron Shore Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    I read in one of the zillions of Beatle books that it's actually John and that he's saying "To your mother." It sounds like John to me and something he might say, but it does sound like "mo." The word coincides with the first feedback guitar chord, so maybe the second syllable just got drowned out. One of the Beatles' best and most underrated songs.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2017
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  15. What makes me think it's John, besides the voice uttering those words, is the manic Ah-a-a-a-a... which follows the first guitar strum. Really sounds like John doing one of his "spastic whatevers"....
     
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  16. beatleroadie

    beatleroadie Forum Resident

    Should have been the penultimate track on Magical Mystery Tour as it was recorded in the summer of '67 and really captures the hippy summer of love vibe so well. Also a rare example of a George rock song in '67. It's a shame this song and Hey Bulldog got "wasted" by making their debuts on an animated film soundtrack. Would have been cooler if both of those songs had come out earlier on different projects. Hey Bulldog as a b-side to a White Album song (or on the album itself), and It's All Too Much on MMT.

    Having just "All Together Now" and "Only A Northern Song" as the two "new" Beatles songs on YS would have been nice, if the band could have gotten away with it contractually. Or they could have knocked out a few cover songs or something if they needed more recordings for YS. Save these two killer songs for proper albums/singles IMHO.
     
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  17. Dinstun

    Dinstun Forum Resident

    Location:
    Middle Tennessee
    I realize you're discussing it's appearance on the albums, but it's hard to imagine "It's All Too Much" getting a better film treatment in Magical Mystery Tour than it did in Yellow Submarine.
     
  18. beatleroadie

    beatleroadie Forum Resident

    I imagine it over the end credits of MMT instead of Hello Goodbye.... Or maybe a piece of it also used over some driving footage in the bus. Could have still been used in YS film in the same animated scene it ends up in (which is indeed cool), I'm just saying it's a shame that's the only way it was used, and 18 months after it was recorded when the hippy vibe it captured had faded.
     
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  19. tages

    tages Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I don’t think we’ll ever know because he’s in the middle of saying something when it starts. It cuts in mid-statement so I’ve no clue but it’s definitely not “to your mother”! :laugh:
     
  20. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    How about "To Your Mothra" ?

    [​IMG] ;)
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2017
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  21. Gila

    Gila Forum Resident

    That "bad note" is a ending of a small riff he plays starting from 2:21 that is a variation of a simplified vocal melody of a chorus line.
     
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  22. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    We all know the story about how Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane did not end up on Pepper's, when they seem to have been initially intended to. But at this point I and I think most others are so used to hearing the Pepper's that was released as it was as a whole, even if we maybe have a couple of tunes on it we are less than thrilled by. MMT on the other hand by design was a mix of the first side songs from the UK EP with those on the back as from different sources, that I think IATM is a better fit there.

    But at this juncture I think the better idea raised a week or so ago on a thread about the latter Beatles period is a separate album made up of the four songs on YS plus the singles from the first half of 68 (Lady Madonna/Inner Light/Hey Jude/Revolution electric version), plus the 68 version of Across the Universe, would be a great album. Use the extended version of All Too Much, too.

    As for this song, it really holds up for me. I love its acid rock sound and vibe.
     
  23. SJB

    SJB Beloved Parasitic Nuisance

    No one seems to know. Lots of guessing but I'm taking it all with a salt lick. The default guess that I've seen here and elsewhere is "to your mother," but everything after "muh-" is obliterated so I think people are just assuming a fairly common word that starts with that syllable.
     
  24. zipp

    zipp Forum Resident

    Yeah, SLB, I agree. People are assuming the word mother but there's no reason to. 'To your mother' is not a British English expression, just part of a bigger sentence.

    And if, Janet, as you say, there are 'zillions of Beatle books' and only one mentions 'to your mother' then that's a good reason to discount it.
     
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  25. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    I also consider this isn't a bad bass note. An actually bad one can be heard in 'Polythene Pam' though.^^
     
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