Only A Northern Song
Encyclopedia
"Only a Northern Song" is a song written by George Harrison
and performed by The Beatles
. The song was recorded in 1967 during the sessions for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
but was omitted from that album. It was first featured in the Beatles' 1968 animated movie Yellow Submarine and appeared on its soundtrack album
, released early the following year
.
"Only a Northern Song" has been described as Harrison's "personal denunciation of the Beatles' music publishing business".
sessions. It was recorded using two 4-track tape machines, allowing seven tracks for the complex arrangement of the song (and one for a pulse to synchronize the two machines), a method not common at the time in recording at Abbey Road. However, problems arose to getting both 4-track machines to begin playback at exactly the same time, causing difficulties mixing in stereo. Therefore only a "fake stereo" (Duophonic
) mix was created from the mono mix to appear on the original stereo release of Yellow Submarine
, and the song was one of only seven mono tracks released in the 2009 remastered Stereo Box Set
(the only mono track released on the 2009 release of Yellow Submarine), instead of the unfavoured "fake stereo" mix. This complex arrangement involves an unconventional musical form and unusual instrumentation, including distorted
trumpet
played by Paul McCartney
, Harrison's reverbed organ
, and a glockenspiel
played by John Lennon
.
, Holy City in the North of England. In addition the song was copyrighted to Northern Songs Ltd.
which I didn't own."
Northern Songs was a music publishing company formed in 1963 primarily to exploit Lennon/McCartney
compositions. The company had subsequently been floated
in 1965, but while Lennon and McCartney each owned 15% of the public company's shares, Harrison owned just 0.8%. Harrison was contracted by Northern Songs as a songwriter only, and because Northern Songs retained the copyright of its published songs, this meant "Lennon and McCartney, as major shareholders, would earn more from his [Harrison's] songs than him."
Hence the song's "mild dissonance" and "nasally sarcastic" key-changes
have been said to complement the "suppressed bitterness" of Harrison's lyric, which features such self-referential lines as: "It doesn't really matter what chords I play/What words I say or time of day it is/As it's only a Northern Song."
As well as reflecting Harrison's dissatisfaction with Northern Songs, and its major shareholder Dick James
in particular – "I was starting to get a bit of an idea that ... you'd only written half a song and he [James] would be trying to assign it" – the song also suggests that, at this time, Harrison "had yet to recover his enthusiasm for being a Beatle", having threatened to leave the group six months earlier, following their final live concert at Candlestick Park.
of the Anthology
set in 1996, with a different vocal take containing some lyrical variations. The original speed is heard in the film Yellow Submarine
.
Since the originally released version of the track had been constructed from two separate takes, the original mix of the song was available in mono
only until 1999, when a remixed stereo version of the track was released on the Yellow Submarine Songtrack
album.
As of the 2009 reissue of the Yellow Submarine album on remastered CD, four different released versions of this song are currently available: the duophonic "fake stereo" mix from the Yellow Submarine album (1969), the alternate stereo mix from Anthology 2 (1996), the remixed "true stereo" version from the Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999) and the original "true mono" mix from both the reissued Yellow Submarine album and the bonus 2-disc set Mono Masters which is found only in the box set, The Beatles In Mono (2009).
MacDonald was unsure about the trumpet and glockenspiel parts for McCartney and Lennon, respectively.
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
and performed by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. The song was recorded in 1967 during the sessions for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
but was omitted from that album. It was first featured in the Beatles' 1968 animated movie Yellow Submarine and appeared on its soundtrack album
Yellow Submarine (album)
Yellow Submarine is the tenth studio album by The Beatles in the United Kingdom, released on Apple Records. It was issued as the soundtrack to the film of the same name, which premiered in the United Kingdom seven months prior to the album's release....
, released early the following year
1969 in music
-Events:Perhaps the two most famous musical events of 1969 were concerts. At a Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, a fan was stabbed to death by Hells Angels, a biker gang that had been hired to provide security for the event...
.
"Only a Northern Song" has been described as Harrison's "personal denunciation of the Beatles' music publishing business".
Recording
The song's basic track was recorded on 13 February 1967, with overdubs added on 14 February and 20 April, during the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BandSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
sessions. It was recorded using two 4-track tape machines, allowing seven tracks for the complex arrangement of the song (and one for a pulse to synchronize the two machines), a method not common at the time in recording at Abbey Road. However, problems arose to getting both 4-track machines to begin playback at exactly the same time, causing difficulties mixing in stereo. Therefore only a "fake stereo" (Duophonic
Duophonic
*In synthesizers, capable of sounding two voices, or notes, at a time. Compare: monophonic, polyphonic.*Duophonic is also a term used to refer to a sound process by which a monaural recording is turned into a kind of "fake stereo" by splitting the signal into two channels, delaying the left and the...
) mix was created from the mono mix to appear on the original stereo release of Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine (album)
Yellow Submarine is the tenth studio album by The Beatles in the United Kingdom, released on Apple Records. It was issued as the soundtrack to the film of the same name, which premiered in the United Kingdom seven months prior to the album's release....
, and the song was one of only seven mono tracks released in the 2009 remastered Stereo Box Set
The Beatles Stereo Box Set
The Beatles Stereo Box Set is a box set compilation comprising all of the remastered stereo recordings by The Beatles. The set was released on 9 September 2009, the same day both The Beatles: Rock Band and the remastered mono recordings were released...
(the only mono track released on the 2009 release of Yellow Submarine), instead of the unfavoured "fake stereo" mix. This complex arrangement involves an unconventional musical form and unusual instrumentation, including distorted
Distortion
A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
played by Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, Harrison's reverbed organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, and a glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
played by John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
.
Composition
Harrison himself described the song as "a joke relating to LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, Holy City in the North of England. In addition the song was copyrighted to Northern Songs Ltd.
Northern Songs
Northern Songs was a company founded in 1963, by music publisher Dick James, Brian Epstein, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, to publish songs written by Lennon and McCartney , as well as songs written by George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who were all members of The Beatles...
which I didn't own."
Northern Songs was a music publishing company formed in 1963 primarily to exploit Lennon/McCartney
Lennon/McCartney
The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership is one of the best-known and most successful musical collaborations in history...
compositions. The company had subsequently been floated
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
in 1965, but while Lennon and McCartney each owned 15% of the public company's shares, Harrison owned just 0.8%. Harrison was contracted by Northern Songs as a songwriter only, and because Northern Songs retained the copyright of its published songs, this meant "Lennon and McCartney, as major shareholders, would earn more from his [Harrison's] songs than him."
Hence the song's "mild dissonance" and "nasally sarcastic" key-changes
Modulation (music)
In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
have been said to complement the "suppressed bitterness" of Harrison's lyric, which features such self-referential lines as: "It doesn't really matter what chords I play/What words I say or time of day it is/As it's only a Northern Song."
As well as reflecting Harrison's dissatisfaction with Northern Songs, and its major shareholder Dick James
Dick James
Dick James , born Reginald Leon Isaac Vapnick, was a music publisher and the founder of the DJM record label and recording studios, as well as The Beatles' publisher Northern Songs.-Early life:...
in particular – "I was starting to get a bit of an idea that ... you'd only written half a song and he [James] would be trying to assign it" – the song also suggests that, at this time, Harrison "had yet to recover his enthusiasm for being a Beatle", having threatened to leave the group six months earlier, following their final live concert at Candlestick Park.
Alternate versions
An edited and slightly sped-up version of the song's basic track, without the overdubs added 20 April, was released on volume twoAnthology 2
Anthology 2 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in March 1996. It is the second of the three-volume Anthology collection, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. The opening track is "Real Love", the second of the two recordings that...
of the Anthology
The Beatles Anthology
The Beatles Anthology is the name of a documentary series, a set of three double albums and a book focusing on the history of The Beatles. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all participated in the making and approval of the works, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the...
set in 1996, with a different vocal take containing some lyrical variations. The original speed is heard in the film Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine (film)
Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated musical fantasy film based on the music of The Beatles. It is also the title for the film's soundtrack album, released as part of The Beatles' music catalogue. The film was directed by animation producer George Dunning, and produced by United Artists and King...
.
Since the originally released version of the track had been constructed from two separate takes, the original mix of the song was available in mono
Monaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
only until 1999, when a remixed stereo version of the track was released on the Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Yellow Submarine Songtrack is a compilation /soundtrack album by The Beatles for the 1999 re-release of the 1968 film Yellow Submarine...
album.
As of the 2009 reissue of the Yellow Submarine album on remastered CD, four different released versions of this song are currently available: the duophonic "fake stereo" mix from the Yellow Submarine album (1969), the alternate stereo mix from Anthology 2 (1996), the remixed "true stereo" version from the Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999) and the original "true mono" mix from both the reissued Yellow Submarine album and the bonus 2-disc set Mono Masters which is found only in the box set, The Beatles In Mono (2009).
Personnel
- George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
– vocalLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
, organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, tape effects, noises - Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, tape effects, noises - John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, glockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, tape effects, noises - Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
- Personnel per Ian MacDonaldIan MacDonaldIan MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
MacDonald was unsure about the trumpet and glockenspiel parts for McCartney and Lennon, respectively.