The Ahhs in A Day in the Life-Poll*

I never noticed it before yet I'm now convinced that ADITL's musical "pattern of fives" was no accident.

Even the orchestra's "ba, ba ba, ba ba...." leading into the last verse is a fiver!

As for the video author's sociocultural theory, that does sound like a stretch....

 

Listen to Baby You're A Rich Man and tell me the same guy did the "aaahhh".

"How does it feel to be one of the beaooooooteeeefull peeeep ol" sounds like the final wails of dying roadkill.

Come on, mate.

 

There's a difference between natural voice and falsetto.

 

Only by screaming ("Slow Down", "Yer Blues", "Don't Let Me Down", "Dig A Pony") or using falsetto (end of "It's Only Love", "Baby You're A Rich Man"). Listen to John struggle to hit the high G in his harmony on "Rain" -same upper note as on the "Ahhs" in ADITL.

 

Here I go again dragging myself into a counter-argument, hehe... Vocal range on paper doesn’t say much, since they both had about the same range, but McCartney was much more comfortable in a wider range than Lennon. The notes sung by McCartney in the ADITL bridge were in Lennon's range as well. The highest notes in the bridge are F#4's, Lennon did those often enough. But just not in this typical McCartney style and character, effortless, without forcing, on top of the long-held notes, at all.

 

Okay, that's fine, you may be right.

Please let me know the names of songs where John hit high notes in a long, sustained, stylized manner like the "aaahh" in question. Not trying to be difficult. I can't think of any. I just mentally whipped through Revolver, Pepper, Mystery, White, Let It Be, and Abbey and I can't recall a time where John did anything like that, to my ears it would be a Herculean feat for him to hit that ADITL note and the only time I would be able to recall him doing something as stylized as that.

Whereas Paul, of course, easy peasy, that's his day job, these overly melodic flares and vocal gymnastics, it was one of his specialties. Which is why it's Paul and not John.

Love Lennon, truly, but that's not his thing. Especially during this period. I'm Only Sleeping, Tomorrow Never Knows, Strawberry Fields, Lucy In The Sky, Mr. Kite, I Am The Walrus, All You Need Is Love, Lennon's psychedelic songs almost drone in a completely structured manner, very little runs up-the-scale, very little octave bouncing, very little improv. He hit those classics like a soldier, left/right, left/right, forward march, like a machine gun, not like a floating butterfly.

 

G actually.

 

Now hold on there, mate! Funny, but not at all fair!

 

Not to mention, the Lennon part has nothing to do with a dream or sleeping, it's a guy reading some newspaper in a very pragmatic way. Reads about a car crash. Saw a film. Reads about enough holes to fill a hall.

One guy is high and the other is dreaming.

 

Hm, he might even slip into that, yes. Not really full notes, but reaching for it.

 

It was Paul and John. All other answers are wrong.

 

I'm a huuuuge Lennon fan, more than you know, but I know the guy's limitations. We all do, right?

Someone please put up a clip of Lennon doing this kind of "aaah" thing in another song, a congruent moment, pick a few syllables, I really don't mind if I'm proven wrong, I've got no skin in this game- other than my sanity, because it so obviously is Paul (to me).

#9 Dream "ah....bowakawa, pousse pousse"and Baby You're A Rich Man are falsetto and I think we all agree that the ADITL "aaah" is most definitely not falsetto. Mind Games "doing that miii-iiii-iiii-nd gueri-illa...." that sounds like the top of his range in this s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d syllable stylization, in fact in the same song he goes "looove isssss the answerrrrr" back up in that falsetto.

I need a little work on this thesis, but I think that the smoking gun grassy knoll to the ADITL "aaaah" may be the Falsetto Man. I can't think of another example in the Lennon canon where he does something like he's being credited for in the dream sequence.

 

Even though that answer is the most improbable of all?

 

Wrong.

 

For my part, I grew up listening to this album on a stereo picture disc my mom had, which as a child I dubbed to cassette to listen to on trips in the car. I always heard this bit as Paul even then. To me it was an obvious continuation of Paul's section, musically, and in my mind represented his character drifting off into his dream and yielding the song back to John's narrative. Since then, I have heard it multiple times from the 1987 stereo CD and the 2009 mono CD, and have never come away thinking it was John singing the part. In contrast to several others' posted experiences, it was only after seeing here that there was a debate about it, and subsequently hearing the isolated vocal, that I began to question if some parts of it didn't sound like John. I think I can understand what is making it come across that way to people, but I still think it's pretty unmistakably Paul. ("Lovely Rita" is to me the exhibit on display that provides the most apt comparison. It sounds very similar, and his voice even cracks just a little like on "Day," which I think is one of the features that seems John-like to people.)

I don't believe I feel any personal need for it to be Paul over solid evidence to the contrary in order to validate my initial impression. There are already plenty of matters about which I know my childhood impressions were entirely mistaken, and I'm perfectly comfortable with that prospect. (Embarrassingly, as a kid I used to think a couple of songs by the Beach Boys were actually by the Beatles when I first heard them, if you can believe that!) I certainly don't feel anything remotely approaching anger or contempt for those who believe it is John. I do feel a bit, shall I say, concerned or dismayed that (what in my considered opinion is) a mistaken view has gained the amount of cachet and currency demonstrated here, especially despite the presentation of aural evidence providing objective refutation of what might otherwise be ostensibly taken as the most direct or "authoritative" account supporting the—apparently not uncommon, it should be acknowledged—impression of it being John.

I think it's perfectly natural that we each perceive and describe things in our own way, so it's no surprise that different people come away from the same experience with differing impressions and recollections. (In effect, it really never is the same experience between two different observers.) I wouldn't fault nor hold myself above anyone else for perceiving something differently from me. However, where subjective viewpoints come to a head in disagreement, as they seem to have done here, it must be examined whether the objective evidence available tends to favor one more than it does the other. So I guess what I feel more than anything else is glad that this conversation is continuing. (And among such reasonable people as we, no less!)

 

@schnitzerphilip OK, I was just referring to this bit:

 

But more importantly... Who is sneezing during the Aaaahs? Ringo? Mal? Neil? Mike Love?

 

Both John and Paul sing non- falsetto "ahhs" on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

 

Okay. I only hear one voice singing the "Ahhs" and two in the background doing the "Oohs". Guess you know the truth though.

 

His reply must be: "Wrong."

 

Wrong.

 

If you look at it closely though, over 40% hear Paul singing the "Ahhs", although 17.9% think John sings the "Ahhs" with him. The remaining 6.7% might go either way.

 

Exactly.

52% are sure John solo and 48% not John solo.

 

And 100% pointless in pursuit of the truth.

 

How are John's falsettos in other songs relevant to this?

If he didn't sing the "Ahhs" in this song, it's not because he didn't possess the capability (or the melisma - just listen to "All I've Got To Do")