In The Beatles vast canon, there are many, many great rockers: Day Tripper, Ticket to
Ride, Come Together, Revolution, to name a few…
But there is one that rarely made the Top 10 lists.
This is the story behind Hey Bulldog, the 1968 eventual-classic that refused to be forgotten.
The odds were stacked against it: it was recorded in one day in one session, not widely included
in the film it was written for, and eventually relegated to a throwaway spot on what is arguably
the group's most obscure album.
But in recent years, it's taken on a life of its own, propelled by a growing respect
from fans, rockstars, and the surviving Beatles, although the most love Lennon ever gave it
was when he called it "a good-sounding record that means nothing."
Most pop tunes start with at least a fragment to build from - lyrics or music - and Hey
Bulldog was no exception.
Before the sheepdog and the bullfrog took center stage, Lennon's initial idea for
the song was "She Can Talk To Me," a bluesy demo featuring a rough piano part and double
tracked vocals.
At this point, the song is far from complete.
Compared to the finished product, it's lacking its trademark riff, and frankly, all of the
production elements that made the song a loud, infectious rocker.
But that would change on February 11, 1968 when The Beatles finished writing, and then
arranged and recorded Hey Bulldog in one ten-hour studio session.
Like they had done countless times over the last 5 plus years, they headed to EMI Studios
at Abbey Road, with long time producer George Martin at the controls.
On this day they were in Studio 3 instead of their more famous home, Studio 2, to shoot
a promo film for "Lady Madonna."
That song had been completely recorded in the last couple of weeks, and had already
been chosen as their next single.
The way the story goes, The Beatles were initially going to be filmed in the studio, pretending
to work on the-now-finished Lady Madonna for the film crew.
The details about how Hey Bulldog came to be recorded that day get a little muddy here.
According to Lennon, "Paul said we should do a real song in the studio, to save wasting
time.
Could I whip one off?
I had a few words at home so I brought them in."
On the other hand, Geoff Emerick, the Beatles' famous engineer, was also present that day
and has a different story.
He recalled in his 2006 book, "Here, There, and Everywhere," that recording the new
song was John's idea.
"Oh, the hell with 'Lady Madonna.'
I've got a new song for us to do - let's film that instead."
Emerick notes that Paul was annoyed at this, but couldn't overrule John, "who was like
a bulldozer that day."
My gut tells me that Paul probably doesn't regret standing down.
While we don't know exactly how the "She Can Talk To Me" demo morphed into Hey Bulldog,
we do know that by the time Paul heard it, it was more fleshed out and known as "Hey
Bull*frog*."
The name was changed after Paul playfully barked during the recording session, and then
he and Lennon ad-libbed other dog sounds in the fadeout.
For the studio recording, aside from overdubs, it only took ten takes to create a solid backing
track, with John saying to George Martin in the middle the attempt, "Just tell us when
we get a good one!"
As for that main riff, in the beginning of the recording it's piano-based, and the
guitar doubles - and later triples - the lick.
The decision to start with it solely on piano was likely John's call.
It was mostly his tune, and he was behind the keys in the studio.
Beyond that, it doesn't take a musical genius to hear similarities between Hey Bulldog and
Lady Madonna.
The latter would have been top of mind - they just finished its recording and, again, were
in the studio this day to record the promo video for it!
Lady Madonna was Paul's song, and as any Beatle fan knows, the friendly rivalry between
John and Paul could be fierce.
So, one week Paul has a throwback piano-based song, and John follows up almost immediately
with a bluesy, piano-based answer.
This was no accident.
While we're discussing opinions: who plays the solo - George?
John?
Paul?
We may never know the real answer.
For one, since the solo was overdubbed late in the session, the cameras had already stopped
rolling.
The final video does show George's beautiful 1964 cherry red Gibson SG being traded back
and forth between him and John, even though John's Epiphone Casino is within reach,
so you could say they're both contenders for playing the solo.
Opinions still abound, including some that say it's Paul's style.
As a guitarist, I can say this solo would not be technically beyond any of them, so
without a definitive answer, it comes down to what your ears tell you or who you want
to believe.
You're probably safe to assume it wasn't Ringo though.
Let's go back to Geoff Emerick, who was the only person present in Studio 3 that day
who has written more than a sentence or two on the song.
Emerick says it was George Harrison's solo, and 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."
Screaming guitar?
That's a great way to put it.
The promo film for Lady Madonna was released on March 14, 1968, on BBC's Top of the Pops,
just a little over a month after the studio sessions for Lady Madonna and Hey Bulldog.
Mind you, it was the same footage we now know and love as Hey Bulldog, but officially - the
footage was all about Lady Madonna.
The filming for the day was directed by Tony Bramwell, long time friend of the band and
future head of Apple Films.
Bramwell, who had produced previous Beatles promo films like Rain and Paperback Writer,
said after the film had been edited, all of the raw footage: " …vanished, completely
disappeared.
We thought it had been stolen, as things often were if not nailed down."
In the time between the release of the Lady Madonna promo video and the late 90s, serious
Beatles fans knew the band was actually recording Hey Bulldog in the video - not Lady Madonna!
However, there were only crude fan-made edits of the video syncing the right song with the
right footage.
There was too much video missing to do much else.
But, as George Harrison said in 1999: "It was Neil Aspinall who found out that when
you watched and listened to what the original thing was, we were recording 'Bulldog.'
This was apparently the only time we were actually filmed recording something, so what
Neil did was, he put (the unused footage) all back together again and put the 'Bulldog'
soundtrack onto it, and there it was!"
Whether you love the Beatles, or you just appreciate pop culture, this footage is spectacular
to watch.
First, the group is obviously having a great time in the studio.
As diehard fans know, things wouldn't be this bright for much longer.
Second, aside from the Let It Be era, there is very little footage of the band working
in the studio.
And there's even less footage of the band actually recording parts that made it to record.
This is hard to imagine today, when artists in the studio go live from their phones on
social media, but in the 60s it just didn't happen.
In January 1969 - a long 11 months after it was recorded - Hey Bulldog finally saw a release,
and even then, seemed destined for obscurity.
Not only was it not a single, it wasn't even a B-side, or included on a normal album.
(It should be noted that, according to Emerick, Lennon was vying for Bulldog to replace Lady
Madonna as the next single, but couldn't persuade Paul and George Martin.)
Hey Bulldog eventually did surface, appearing on the soundtrack for the Yellow Submarine
animated film that featured only 4 new songs, 2 re-released classics, and on the flip-side,
George Martin's film score.
I won't take anything away from Martin's work here or the other Beatles songs appearing
for the first time, but suffice it to say, most fans today still don't play this LP
as often as, say, A Hard Day's Night or Revolver.
And I'd imagine that was the case at the time: there was some known disappointment
from the public with the lack of new tunes.
Mark Lewsiohn mentioned this in "Recording Sessions," saying that "fans were having
to buy a full-price album for just four "new" songs."
This likely resulted in a sales drop - and therefore fewer ears hearing Hey Bulldog in
the years immediately after its release.
Beyond getting buried as a very deep track in the LP, the song was only included in the
movie for some audiences.
There was a drawn sequence for Bulldog, with themes from the lyrics in in the animation.
But unfortunately, only a fraction of audiences paying to see the movie in 1969 got to see
the Bulldog sequence.
In the US version, it was edited out the film entirely!
Why?
The story I've always heard was that it was removed as producer Al Brodax tried to
tighten up the film in editing.
But whether that's incomplete or simply incorrect information, I've recently learned
that, according to the animation director for the film, Bob Balser: 1) the song was
a late addition making it harder to fit with the rest of the movie, and 2) the sequence
was animated more in the style of the Beatles cartoon TV show, much to the distaste of both
Balser and the film's art director, Heinz Edelmann.
Balser said simply: "*I* took it out."
But back to the song: it simply seems to have been severely under-appreciated by its creators
since the breakup.
For instance, Paul nor John ever played it live in their solo years.
And it was rarely brought up in interviews.
(Producer George Martin told Rolling Stone in 1976, just 8 years after the record was
made, that the band didn't care for the song: "They said, ;We really don't need
this in the album, let's just give them that one.'")
And to illustrate the way the group thought of the song up until very recently, The Beatles
Anthology book, the band's official word on their time together, barely mentions "Hey
Bulldog" once in 365 pages.
It's only in passing, as part of a letter detailing which songs were to be included
in the Yellow Submarine film, and the letter itself is pasted over a photo collage.
Fast forward a few years, and the tide has turned.
Even as early as 1998, Beatle author and fan Alan Pollack noted: "Nowadays the song enjoys
a cult-like popularity and high regard among the cognoscenti that I am convinced is amplified
and enhanced in part by the song's accidental, relative obscurity."
And this was apparently contagious, as the fans' love for the song eventually made
its way to the top.
Here are 4 recent big examples of Apple Corp, the band's holding company, trying to bring
it more awareness:
1.
It was featured in The Beatles Rock Band video game, released in 2009, and was the only song
from the Yellow Submarine album to be included.
And for what it's worth, the game-play closely mimics the footage shot that February day,
with one exception: it shows George playing the guitar solo!
A 2.
In 2012, Hey Bulldog was included on an iTunes compilation of what was called the group's
"most influential" rock songs.
Other tunes on the digital album included Helter Skelter, Savoy Truffle, and Back in
the USSR.
3.
Shortly after the 2017 launch of the Beatles Channel on SiriusXM satellite radio, Hey Bulldog
was played over and over again on the broadcaster's primary modern hits station.
No explanation was ever given, but I'd bet money it was guerrilla marketing to get people
talking about the new channel and The Beatles in general.
4.
Most recently, as of the making of the video you're watching, the sync'd promo video
for the song has been re-mastered and uploaded in full on The Beatles Vevo YouTube channel
- no small deal considering there are only a few full-length tracks available there.
Add it all up, and this single track has gotten significantly more attention than most Beatles
tunes in the last 20 years, even well known hits like Help! or Can't Buy Me Love .
Sure, Hey Bulldog may have nonsense lyrics, but they are full of fun, classic, and near-tangible
imagery from John.
The music is the highlight here anyway - Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, a massive Beatles
fan himself, called the song a "quintessential Beatles rocker."
It all comes together with a little in-your-face fuzz bass from Paul, *somebody's* blistering
guitar solo, Ringo's driving drums, the clever artificial double tracking on the ad-libbing,
the piano groove, and of course John's unique throaty vocal performance.
Engineer Geoff Emerick has said "this was their last song that they approached with
a team dynamic."
Undoubtedly there was something special about this recording session, and that's saying
something considering all sessions with these four men must have been special - this is
The Beatles after all.
Like so much of their work, Hey Bulldog has truly stood the test of time, and as its recent
increasing popularity proves: it has refused to be forgotten.
Hello hello! I'm Lance. Thanks a lot for watching this video.
I had a blast putting it together, so I really hope you enjoyed it.
If you have any suggestions for future videos, or if you have any comments on this one for Hey Bulldog
please leave them in the comments section below.
And also don't forget to subscribe to this channel for future updates.
Take care! See ya next time!
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