Do we know for sure it's a woman? It always sounded like a man to me. But to be honest, I'd never heard words there - I always just heard a yodel-type voice. Do we know those words are clearly there from other sources? It's a great question!
Did George Martin continue to wear the tie that George Harrison didn't like on subsequent occasions and did they exchange a little smile whenever he did?
Thanks! I cannot say with any certainty that it's a woman, no. Just sounds that way to me. I hear the words (and full disclosure, it never really hit me until I listened to the Love remix)... but then, it might be a case of my mind fitting the perfect quote within it's perfect setting! As far as sources are concerned, I've never seen it mentioned elsewhere. However, as with all thing "Beatles," I imagine it must have been covered at some point by someone. Or perhaps not? Maybe I'm just slipping a little off my rocker? Does anyone else hear it, as well? If so, was it some (heavily treated) Found Sound sample Lennon appropriated from the vaults? Or an in-house recording of a Beatle guest? Some random EMI employee? Apple Scruff? I can't help but wonder every time I listen to the track.
I think that it's likely part of the radio broadcast. Immediately after it you hear a dude talking, who sounds not unlike the Shakespearean dudes at the end of the song. Whether it's a part of the King Lear broadcast, or it's another broadcast from the radio when John is turning the dial is debatable. There are parts in King Lear where the actors sing, though every snippet from the actual 1967 BBC show that I've found starts much later.
I don't know for sure, not sure why he'd be wearing them in the studio, but look at the epaulettes, the shoulders and the collar -- I am really close to calling that's the Shea Stadium outfit!
It's the Egyptian-Syrian singer/composer Farad Al Atrash performing "Awel Hamsa." Here is a link to a thread I did on this and below is the video. It comes up at 6:07-6:25.
If you mean subject matter/titles, I think coincidence. However, the sequencing probably has more to do with a hard rocker being followed by a change of pace slower ballad. By the way, I always appreciated that they slowed it down even further after that with Julia to close out the side/disc. Brilliant.
1988 interview with Maureen Starkey: Q: Were you there when Richy walked out? A: No, but I was surprised when he came home so soon. He told me to pack my bags without giving me much of an explanation; but I could see a look of distress in his eyes. It was just painful. I fought with him for a while, I really did and I told him that it was foolish to go away so soon, but I could tell he didn’t really care at that point. I do remember him muttering something about Paul under his breath- something really dirty which made me believe that Paul and Richy had a row. Q: Can you recall what Richy said? A: They were all curse words. I don’t really want to repeat Q: (interrupts) Just do the best you can. A: (laughs and puts her hands to her face) Ohhh.. it’s easy for you to say. Q: (Whistles) Wow! Were they that bad? A: Well pretty much. I will never forget what he muttered as he folded his socks and put them in the suitcase. He said: ”Paul is a freaking *****.” Q: You used freaking instead of the “F” word? A: (laughs) Yes I did. He put so much stress on that word that it shocked me to hear him say it because he usually isn’t like that. Q: Did you know why he left? Did he tell you? A: From what I heard him tell Peter [Sellers] on the yacht, Paul wanted a certain drum pattern on a song and Richy was just fed up with his coaching him too much. He usually did something totally opposite of what Paul specifically told him to do, and Paul would get upset.
Wow- somebody should ask Pattie Harrison what George said when he came home early from Twickenham on January 10 1969!
Actually, I just remembered that at the time of the Let It Be sessions, George was having an affair with Charlotte Martin, one of ol' Clapper's paramours. Pattie wasn't home at the time, on holiday or something like that. When George told the other Beatles he'd see them round the clubs, he went home to Kinfauns, gave Charlotte the old heave-ho and went straight up to Liverpool to see his folks. Apparently (according to the Get Back! book @RayS did) when John Lennon found out George was in Liverpool he suggested him and Paul and Ringo "pay him a visit". Cooler heads prevailed...
This has really fascinated me. I can't quite hear what you hear, but I'm definitely not gonna disagree - sometimes the brain gets so stuck on what it's been hearing for years, you just can't shift it. I really want to know what that's about now. I think the only way it can be part of the radio broadcast is if it was broadcast in that heavily processed way, because the other voice around the same time is clear. I truly hope it's someone singing "this is so weird", because I am the walrus is in my top 5 Beatles songs - its production is just amazing, the band's performance is brilliant, the structure is fantastic and the whole concept is unreal - and if John or George Martin or anyone else decided to have someone singing "this is so weird" in the middle of it, that raises it even higher as a piece of Beatles art than it already was, in my view.
I too thank you for raising this - fascinating. For all these years I've never heard this bit it as a meaningful sentence, and now it adds so much to the whole song. I've just listened to the Love mix and heard it more as this is surreal, which would enhance John's initial idea of the lyrics being an avant-garde spoof... But I like the this is so weird reading much more, it would work as a hidden dramatic climax of the song, perfect.
Yeah, Pattie got annoyed with Charlotte Martin and George blatantly flirting and left to stay with her sister Jenny for a while.
Yeah, that's right- it's all detailed in You Never Give Me Your Money, I believe (the Peter Doggett book)
