Beathoven

Beathoven

Studying the Beatles

The John Lennon Anthology

1.1 Working Class Hero
Lennon on guitar and vocal.

Lennon had high hopes for this song, which he described as revolutionary. It makes it a good choice to open the collection with.

It's an early take before the final edit ("the A and R" he mentions at the start of the take). There's a touch more venom here that gets lost in the clean-up. Here's some of the things that changed.

1. Chose lower register hammer-ons, and restricted the variety
2. Avoided the pick noise on the strumming
3. Varied the backing by strumming close to the nut on one verse
4. Avoided some Dylan mannerisms in the vocal
5. Didn't pop his "p"s into the mike

The final version is more restrained, more controlled. He is very disciplined. The strumming patterns and hammer-on's are strictly selected.

Lennon maintains the distinctive 3+4 bar pattern throughout. On the final version he deviates at least once. The pace is identical. Better sonic quality than any boot I have.

Here's the details.

[offline]
Lennon tunes his guitar, and say's he'll "try it".

[intro]
Slightly different chords in the intro.

[verse/chorus -- "born"]
Slightly different melody and guitar pull-on's and a more intimate vocal. The bluesy Eb on "pain" is more pronounced. A slightly different tune in the chorus.

In the chorus, that majestic rubato between voice and splashing chords is fully formed.

[verse/chorus "home"]
"fucking" is more natural here. More conspiratorial. The chorus tune is more like the final.

[verse/chorus "tortureed"]
Doesn't go up to the nut for the muted chords on the "career" verse. Chorus is better.

[verse/chorus "t.v."]
Doesn't have that cutting upperclass accent on "classless" here.

(final goes up at end of chorus)

[verse/chorus "room"]
A minor strumming error at the end of the first line.

(final has higher riff)
(final has build up in chorus)

[coda]
Voice breaks slightly. The end not quite there...

[offline]
Goes into end of Well Well Well
Lennon: "How's the sound?"