Hey Bulldog
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| "Hey Bulldog" | |
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"Hey Bulldog" is a song by The Beatles which first appeared on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album in 1969. Written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney), the song was recorded during the filming of the "Lady Madonna" promotional video, and is one of the few Beatles songs to revolve around a piano riff.
Overview
During the recording, Paul McCartney started to bark without warning. The next lines, initially written as "Hey Bullfrog", were changed mid-song to "Hey Bulldog". This became the song's title.
Geoff Emerick, the Beatles' engineer, would subsequently claim this was the last song the band recorded that featured a team dynamic with enthusiasm from every member, he also praised the performance, in his book Here, There, Everywhere, saying "Paul's bass line was probably the most inventive of any he'd done since Pepper, and it was really well played. Harrison's solo was sparkling, too--one of the few times that he nailed it right away. His amp was turned up really loud, and he used one of his new fuzz boxes, which made his guitar absolutely scream." When the group reconvened in the studio in May 1968 for the The Beatles sessions, their group cohesion had already been undermined by the business, artistic, and personal differences that would culminate in their eventual break-up.
During these sessions, a film crew photographed the four Beatles recording the song. It was one of the few times they allowed themselves to be extensively filmed recording at EMI's Abbey Road studios, for a promotional film to be released during their scheduled four-month retreat to India (which was later edited together as a promotional film for the single "Lady Madonna").
The song was used in an animated segment of the Yellow Submarine film which initially appeared only in European theatrical prints. It was cut from the American version by the movie's producer Al Brodax as he and the group felt the segment was too long.[1] It was restored for the film's 1999 re-release. To promote the reissue, Apple went back to the original footage shot for the "Lady Madonna" promo film and restructured it for use as a promotional clip for "Hey Bulldog" (as it is possible to identify what they were playing, and therefore possible to synchronise the music with the original footage).
The guitar riff from "Hey Bulldog" was included in the 2006 album Love in its version of "Lady Madonna". Some of Lennon & McCartney laughing was featured in the "Blue Jay Way" transitional piece.
McCartney spoke fondly of "Hey Bulldog" in 1994: "I remember (it) as being one of John's songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it's mainly his vibe. There's a little rap at the end between John and I, we went into a crazy little thing at the end. We always tried to make every song different because we figured, 'Why write something like the last one? We've done that.' We were on a ladder so there was never any sense of stepping down a rung, or even staying on the same rung, it was better to move one rung ahead".
The song has also been featured in the logo sequence for Bulldog Studios.
Differences between versions
The two stereo versions of "Hey Bulldog" that are featured on the original Yellow Submarine soundtrack album and the remastered Yellow Submarine Songtrack, respectively, differ in many ways. In the original stereo mix, the backing track is on the left channel, the bass in the centre, and vocals and lead guitar on the right channel. There is a sharp edit in the lead guitar track at 01:04, and again when this edit piece ends at 01:32. There is audible laughing and chatter during the solo. The backing track also has its volume turned down slightly to make the coda chatter seem louder. The fade out in this take is only 7 seconds long.
On the Songtrack version, the studio engineers remixed each song from the film using the original multitrack tapes. This results in a much cleaner sound (easily noticeable when comparing the piano intro with the drum stick beats on both versions). The stereo placement has more of a modern feel, with the backing track to the left, vocals in the centre, and bass and lead guitar to the right (although the lead vocal moves slightly to the right when the backing vocals appear to the left in each chorus). This track's guitars on both the Songtrack and Love albums have far more bottom-end than in the original. The laughing and chatter during the guitar solo is quieter compared to the music, and the talking at the end of the track is slightly quieter too, but easily audible. The fade out is somewhat longer, taking 10 seconds to fade out. This also makes a final "Hey bulldog!" call audible.
A mono mix, done for a never-released EP of songs from the film, was included in the Mono Masters compilation as part of the 2009 box set The Beatles in Mono. (While the original soundtrack album had also been issued in mono, the version of "Hey Bulldog" used was a "fold-down" mix created by electronically combining the two channels of the stereo version, rather than a true mono mix.)
Early version
There is an early version of the song with just John at the piano. The 48 seconds demo is entitled "She can talk to me" and appeared in bootlegs like "Artifacts" (Vol. 1, Disc 4) or "The Lost Lennon Tapes" (Vol 18).
Cover versions
"Hey Bulldog" has been covered by Alice Cooper, Crash Kings, Jim Schoenfeld, Tea Leaf Green, Eric McFadden, Ween, Elvis Costello, Fanny, Honeycrack, Ian Moore, Gomez, Rolf Harris, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Firewater, The Gods, Skin Yard, U-Melt, Dave Matthews, Paddy Milner, of Montreal, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Bill Deal & the Rhondells, Boxer, the Golden Ticket, Southern Culture on the Skids, Dave Matthews & Friends, the Chaperones, Die Andalusischen Hunde, Les Shattels as well as The Roots, who cover it during jams in their live shows with the Beatles' vocals replaced by rapping from their MCs. The Eric McFadden Trio recorded "Hey Bulldog" on their Diamonds to Coal CD (2003).
Personnel
- John Lennon – double-tracked vocal, piano, guitar
- Paul McCartney – harmony vocal, bass, tambourine, barks
- George Harrison – Lead guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums, spoken vocals
- Personnel per The Beatles Bible, and Geoff Emerick
Notes
- ^ "Billboard". 111 (37). September 11, 1999: 25.
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References
- MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3.
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