Beatles "Cry Baby Cry" white album 1968

It's one of Johns granny songs.....

 

By the way, is that the earliest known hidden track in music generally?

 

Seance by children...the worst kind.

 

The ending of Sgt Pepper is older. You know, the gibberish talk after A Day In The Life.

 

Well.... that doesn't have an official title, or? It was just named 'Sgt Pepper Inner Groove' for the US Rarities album. And it's just noise, no actual music.
It's a hidden noise. But in that case it's the second oldest, because the high frequency tone shortly before that is the earliest.^^

 

Ultimate "iconoclast cred" requires that you trash your own work if it too many people like it.

 

The harmonium bit in Cry Baby Cry sets a perfect tone for the song and is only played once. I keep waiting for it to be played again and it never comes. So, Cry Baby Cry/Can You Take Me Back ends, and its like standing in front of a door and being afraid to open it. You know there's something bad behind it. But someone inside opens it anyway and Number 9...Number 9...Number 9 begins. Oh man! And after all the turmoil and horror show stuff is over, Goodnight comes to set it all right again. Maybe the finest trifecta of music they ever recorded. The most interesting for sure.

 

In fact The White Album is like a one-week-diary. Taking a trip (by plane) to a place meeting friends (Back In The U.S.S.R., Dear Prudence), attending concerts (Yer Blues, Helter Skelter), having a party (Oh-Bla-Di Oh-Bla-Da, Bungalow Bill, Birthday),
watching news on TV (Revolution 1), enjoying drug trips (Long Long Long), watching a horror movie in a cinema (Revolution No.9) and after all going home to bed finally (Good Night).^^

 

I was listening to Sgt. Pepper recently wondering if side 1 should have ended with Strawberry Fields Forever rather than Mr. Kite. I decided no!

 

Great post...love the imagery.
Sometimes I'm as unsettled by "Goodnight" as by any other part of the sequence.
The overall spooky atmosphere (its cock-eyed leer) makes the White Album my favorite.

 

Try having sweet dreams after listening to Rev. #9

 

Yeah, he even claimed a half share of Yesterday even though he had no part in writing the song, and doesn't even play on the recorded version. In fact he put his name before McCartney in the credits!

 

Evil Paul stuck his name on Give Peace A Chance and it's a solo single.

 

Just like life.

 

I thought I was the only one who felt that way! When I was a kid, this record just positively spooked me. I guess that's why I never really warmed to it, although like almost everything by the Beatles, it's full of genius.

 

He probably loved it the next day...

 

That's why I did warm to it.

 

Great track.

The lyrics are weird gobble-d-gook, if you will, but that's part of the fun. I've always enjoyed Ringo's drumming - especially his first fill/entrance - he hits a great groove with some hi-hat action too.

Finish it off with a haunting little ditty like "Can You Take Me Back" it's one of the more brilliant sequencings on a Beatle album. The entire track has a very dark, unsettled feeling to it, and having McCartney send you off the abyss into Revolution 9 just adds to it.

 

Oh heck yeah. It's a creepy album. But it sneaks up on you. It starts out all sunshine and Ob-La-Di and then we're talking about guns and suicide. THe Helter Skelter chord is just unsettling...by that point you realize you've taken a wrong turn off the nice country road and are in a horror film.

 

I wonder how Paul sleeps at night! Anyway, Yoko has righted that wrong and Macca's credit has removed on later releases eg Lennon Legend.

Back on topic - I have always really liked Cry Baby Cry. Great song in itself but it is also integral to the overall vibe of the album - creepy, as others here have noted.

 

I wondered what that accordion like sound was - a harmonium,interesting sound

 

That's pretty much it. Th

Which is why TWA continues to grow in stature over the years, for me at least. It's hard to believe the band was already going their separate ways in 1968.

 

Love it

 

The tension and release devices on the tune, with the piano and guitar combining on the third note of the first bar after the lyric, and then Ringo's growing additions on the chrorus (and his sublime work on later verses), give this simple song a surprising amount of really catchy dynamics. Add the clever lyrical adaptation of Sing A Song Of Sixpence, and you get one of my all time favorite Beatles songs. Should have been side B on a Dear Prudence single.

 

Lennon dominated The White Album and I always thought that Cry Baby Cry was one of his finest contributions. It doesn't fit a pattern on the album, it doesn't remind me of any of his other songs (although maybe it evokes some of his contributions to Rubber Soul).