{"id":8637,"date":"2022-02-28T17:18:58","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T22:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thefest.com\/kdstaging2\/?p=8637"},"modified":"2022-02-28T17:18:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T22:18:58","slug":"rubber-soul-deep-dive-part-11-in-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/rubber-soul-deep-dive-part-11-in-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubber Soul Deep Dive Part 11: In My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rubber Soul<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Side Two, Track Three<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn My Life\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

by Jude Southerland Kessler and Susan Ryan<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Throughout 2021 and the first few months of 2022, the Fest for Beatles Fans<\/strong> blog has been exploring some of the finer points of The Beatles\u2019 innovative 1965 LP, <\/em>Rubber Soul. This month, a lifelong friend of the Fest, Susan Ryan<\/strong>, joins Jude Southerland Kessler<\/strong>, author of <\/em>The John Lennon Series<\/strong> for an in-depth consideration of \u201cIn My Life.\u201d Susan is the co-author of <\/em>The Beatles Fab Four Cities, a new release thoroughly exploring the lives of The Beatles in Liverpool, Hamburg, London, and New York City. Susan is also an<\/em> experienced New York City Beatles Tour guide and the owner of<\/em> Fab Four Walking Tours<\/em><\/strong>. In her role as a noted public speaker, Susan has served as Emcee for Beatles at the Ridge and The Fest for Beatles Fans. Susan and Jude hope you enjoy this \u201cfresh, new look\u201d at Lennon\u2019s masterpiece, \u201cIn My Life.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s Standard:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Date Recorded:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

18 October 1965<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 The Beatles recorded the base track for the song: the two guitars, bass, and drums in three takes. On Take 3, John recorded his double-tracked vocals; Paul and George added backing vocals.<\/em><\/p>\n

22 October 1965<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 As per John\u2019s request for \u201csomething baroque,\u201d George Martin recorded an original piano solo for what John referred to as the song\u2019s \u201cmiddle eight.\u201d Martin did this by playing half-speed on a normal piano and then speeding it up to create the sound of a harpsichord. <\/em><\/p>\n

Studio:<\/em><\/strong> Both recordings took place in EMI Studios, Studio 2<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Tech Team<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Producer:<\/em><\/strong> George Martin<\/em><\/p>\n

Engineer: <\/em><\/strong>Norman Smith (and according to some sources, Ron Pender)<\/em><\/p>\n

Second Engineer: <\/em><\/strong>Ken Scott<\/em><\/p>\n

Stats:<\/em><\/strong> Recorded in only four takes. \u201cBest\u201d take was Take 4. However, a plethora of overdubs completed the song in later sessions.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Instrumentation and Musicians:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John Lennon, the lyrical composer and, he states, the musical composer (Lennon stated to David Sheff that \u201cAll Paul added to the song was the middle eight and the harmony.\u201d)<\/em><\/strong> sings lead vocals and guitar on his 1961 Fender Stratocaster electric. (Hammond, <\/em>The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 73)<\/em><\/p>\n

Paul McCartney<\/em><\/strong>, who also claims to be the musical composer<\/strong>, sings backing vocal and plays bass on his Rickenbacker 4001S. In his <\/em>Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, Hammack points out that the Hofner 500\/1 \u201cwas available, but probably unused.\u201d (p. 73)<\/em><\/p>\n

George Harrison<\/em><\/strong> sings backing vocals and plays lead guitar on his 1961 Fender Stratocaster electric, an exact match for John\u2019s guitar. (Hammack, 73) Harrison plays the memorable and lovely introduction to this song. (Womack, <\/em>Maximum Volume, The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, 291)<\/em><\/p>\n

Ringo Starr<\/em><\/strong> plays one of his Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl Super Classic drum sets (Hammack, 73 and Womack, 291)) and tambourine. <\/em><\/p>\n

George Martin, <\/em><\/strong>plays the baroque \u201cmiddle eight.\u201d The complete story of this solo is covered in the \u201cWhat\u2019s Changed\u201d section below. \u00a0(Womack, <\/em>Maximum Volume, The Life of Beatles Producer, George Martin, 290-291.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/em><\/strong> The Beatles, <\/em>The Anthology, 194, Lewisohn, <\/em>The Complete Beatles Chronicle, 202-203, Lewisohn, <\/em>The Recording Sessions, 64-65, Womack, <\/em>Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles, 122-124,Womack, <\/em>Maximum Volume, The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, 290-291 and 294, Womack, <\/em>The Beatles Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, 462-464, Margotin and Guesdon, <\/em>All the Songs, 302-303, Winn, <\/em>Way Beyond Compare, 365 and 367, Hammack, <\/em>The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 73-75, Turner, <\/em>A Hard Day\u2019s Write, 96-98, Spizer, <\/em>The Beatles for Sale on Parlophone Records, 203, Coleman, <\/em>Lennon, 299, MacDonald, <\/em>Revolution in the Head: The Beatles\u2019 Records and The Sixties, 136-137, Riley, <\/em>Tell Me Why, 166-168, \u00a0Sheff, <\/em>The Playboy Interviews, 149 and 151, Norman, <\/em>John Lennon: The Life, 417-418, Miles, <\/em>Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now, 276-278, \u00a0Babiuk, <\/em>Beatles Gear, 169-170, and Spignesi and Lewis, <\/em>100 Best Beatles Songs, 33-34, and<\/em> In My Life” by The Beatles. The in-depth story behind the songs of the Beatles. Recording History. Songwriting History. Song Structure and Style. (beatlesebooks.com)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s Changed:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Overt autobiographical references set to a solemn melody – <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Although many (if not most) of John\u2019s songs prior to 1965 had been highly autobiographical, hits such as \u201cI\u2019ll Cry Instead,\u201d \u201cTell Me Why,\u201d and \u201cHelp!\u201d had been accompanied by up-tempo music that made them seem happy, light-hearted, and upbeat. Even when John\u2019s confessionals were backed by more somber music \u2013 as in the case of \u201cIf I Fell,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m a Loser,\u201d and \u201cNot a Second Time\u201d \u2013 the public perceived them merely as universal love songs, songs that could apply to anyone. Few guessed that rich, powerful, successful John Lennon was singing about his own wounds and fears.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u201cIn My Life,\u201d however, was at last quite completely candid about the joys and sorrows John had experienced. Spurred on by journalists John respected (including Maureen Cleave and Kenneth Alsop) who encouraged John to be more openly autobiographical and literary\u2026and validated by the nature of Dylan\u2019s popular \u201cFreewheeling\u201d LP, John summoned the courage to make \u201cIn My Life\u201d an overtly personal release. He didn\u2019t try to buoy it up with lively music or brush it off as nonsense or gobbledygook. John owned \u201cIn My Life\u201d as \u201cmy first real major piece of work.\u201d (Sheff, The Playboy Interviews,<\/em> 151) Without excuse or camouflage, John laid bare his heart.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Inclusion of a classical sounding (\u201cBach inversion\u201d) piano solo \u2013 <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      John had originally envisioned a guitar solo as the instrumental solo for \u201cIn My Life.\u201d He had even devised an intricate melody line for this part of the song. And in keeping with his wishes, a guitar solo was recorded. In his book, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual,<\/em> Jerry Hammack states that this \u00a0might have been a dual solo, recorded by Harrison and Lennon. He writes: \u201c\u2026the solo appears to have been played by two different guitars. Harrison recalled that on October 22nd<\/sup>, he and John played a dual solo on \u2018Nowhere Man,\u2019 so the dual performance is a distinct possibility.\u201d (p. 74) However, this solo just didn\u2019t turn out to be as poignant or effective as John wanted it to sound, and he expressed those misgivings to George Martin.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      In Kenneth Womack\u2019s,<\/em> Maximum Volume, The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin,<\/em> we are told, \u201cLennon and Martin set about the business of recording a keyboard solo for \u2018In My Life\u2019\u2026To Lennon\u2019s mind, the solo was an essential feature \u2013 a highly melodic means of underscoring the song\u2019s nostalgic power. With a Hammond studio organ on hand, Lennon opted for a classical sound in the manner of J.S. Bach. As The Beatles lacked the ability to score music\u2026Martin sat beside Lennon in Studio 2. As Lennon sang the notes of a potential keyboard solo, Martin doubled the sounds on the grand piano with one hand while charting them in his notebook with the other. With the keyboard solo having been fully realized, Martin sat before the Hammond organ as Norman Smith cued up the existing first and second takes of \u2018In My Life.\u2019 But as he listened to the playback with Smith and The Beatles, Martin was decidedly underwhelmed [with the solo]\u2026The organ sounded thin and lifeless in contrast with the song\u2019s moving lyrics\u2026\u201d(p. 291)<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      So, the evolution of the lovely solo that John had composed did not end there. Womack goes on to say, \u201c\u2026on Friday, October 22\u2026the band\u2019s producer turned his attentions back to \u2018In My Life.\u2019 George was determined to unseat the Hammond organ solo that he had recorded\u2026a stunning song and glorious song such as \u2018In My Life\u2019 deserved a much grander fate.\u201d<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      To find out \u201cthe rest of the story\u201d (as journalist Paul Harvey used to say), join Susan Ryan later in this blog for \u201cA Fresh New Look\u201d at the so-called \u201cmiddle eight.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Highly-contested authorship and performance debates \u2013<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

         <\/p>\n

        In the early years, The Beatles admittedly collaborated quite frequently on songs such as \u201cShe Loves You\u201d and \u201cFrom Me to You.\u201d But as time went along and they lived further from one another, they began to write the body of a song singly, later altering that song with words or phrases deftly supplied by the other Beatles (such as John\u2019s endorsement of \u201cthe movement you need is on your shoulder\u201d in \u201cHey Jude\u201d) or tweaking a composition here or there, with a little help from their friends. (Pete Shotton, for example, claimed to have contributed significantly to \u201cI Am the Walrus\u201d).<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Of course, there were always some true collaborations such as \u201cWe Can Work It Out\u201d and \u201cA Day in the Life,\u201d but these partnership productions were less prevalent post-1964 than they had been in the group\u2019s ingenue years. Therefore, it was rare for a song\u2019s authorship to be debated. \u201cIn My Life\u201d is one of the few songs in contention. As Ken Womack points out in Long and Winding Roads, The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles<\/em>, \u201cIt was certainly a song over which claiming authorship was a worthy goal indeed.\u201d (p. 124)<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        More on this topic as we now join Beatles author Susan Ryan for\u2026<\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        A Fresh New Look:<\/strong><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Jude Southerland Kessler was thrilled to be able to interview Susan Ryan,<\/strong> for this deep-dive into John Lennon\u2019s \u201cIn My Life.\u201d When considering Lennon\u2019s masterpiece \u2013 a song that Philip Norman has called \u201ca superlative achievement\u201d (<\/em>John Lennon: The Life, 417) and Ken Womack has dubbed \u201cJohn Lennon\u2019s\u2026exquisite composition.\u201d (<\/em>Maximum Volume, 290) Ryan has conducted tours of John Lennon\u2019s New York City for many years as part of her company, Fab Four Walking Tours, and she is featured in the DVD \u201cJohn Lennon\u2019s New York City.\u201d Kessler commented, \u201cIt would be difficult to find anyone who would know John Lennon better than Susan Ryan!\u201d Here is their recent conversation:<\/em><\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

        Jude Southerland Kessler:<\/em><\/strong> Susan, congratulations on your new book co-written with David Bedford and Richard Porter, <\/em>The Beatles Fab Four Cities<\/strong>! I\u2019ve read it cover-to-cover and am really impressed with the depth of research and the wealth of Beatles history in its pages. I know you\u2019re busy promoting it on podcasts, radio programs, social media, and so forth. So, thank you for taking time out to join us for this consideration of \u201cIn My Life!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

        Susan Ryan: <\/strong>Thanks for asking me to help with this project, Jude! Rubber Soul<\/em> is pretty much my favorite Beatles album, and being able to discuss \u201cIn My Life,\u201d a song that has been one of my favorites forever, is a true privilege. I\u2019m also glad to hear that you are enjoying The Beatles Fab Four Cities<\/em>! Working on that book with David and Richard has also been a true joy, allowing us to share our personal passions as tour guides in our individual cities with all Beatle people!<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Kessler:<\/em><\/strong> Well, let\u2019s jump right into the heart of this beautiful Lennon ballad, \u201cIn My Life.\u201d Susan, Ray Coleman in <\/em>Lennon has this to say about John\u2019s work on <\/em>Rubber Soul: \u201cFor Lennon, particularly, this album marked a personal progression in his craft. Personal honesty and confession, which were to characterize his later work, were inherent. His songs are marked by a more poetic approach, and he was beginning to find his own voice.\u201d How is Coleman\u2019s observation well-illustrated in John\u2019s poignant Side Two creation, \u201cIn My Life\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

        Ryan:<\/strong> Certainly, by the time Rubber Soul<\/em> and \u201cIn My Life\u201d came out, John\u2019s songwriting was maturing at rapid rate. His lyrics had already begun to exhibit a much more personal bent, less of the \u201cI love you; you love me; she loves you\u201d of earlier works. \u201cIn My Life\u201d is absolutely an intensely personal reflection, a look back on simpler days and the people and things that were near and dear to John\u2019s heart, and much more straightforward than previous \u201cpersonal\u201d songs that were covered up by cheerful pop melodies.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        It is also interesting that the song came from someone so young \u2013 normally, a listener would not expect a man of just under 25 years of age to be able to craft such a heartfelt song about \u201clooking back,\u201d but John manages it, and you can hear his longing for times gone by, even if those times were not so very far in his past. Given everything that The Beatles had been through up to this point, becoming virtual prisoners of their fame, it\u2019s not surprising that he would be wishing for the way things had been before they were swallowed up by fame and fortune.\u00a0 It is also a definite step towards the sometimes brutal honesty that would characterize so many of John\u2019s later songs, both with The Beatles and solo \u2013 songs like \u201cJulia\u201d on the White Album<\/em>, where he sings about his mother, but also inserts his hope for the future with Yoko, or the songs on the John Lennon Plastic Ono Band<\/em> album, nearly all of which are personal to the point of pain.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        But it is with songs like \u201cIn My Life,\u201d however, where the seeds for those songs and others begin to take root, and where his ability to craft beautiful, passionately personal songs that were destined to endure as pop standards began to emerge, although he could (and did) still write perfect bits of more commercial pop as well.\u00a0 It\u2019s no wonder this song means so much to so many people \u2013 even though they are John\u2019s memories, there\u2019s a universality to the lyrics, set to the lovely melody, that resonates with so many people and their lives.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Kessler: <\/em><\/strong>John wrote a third verse for \u201cIn My Life\u201d that specifically mentioned places in Liverpool he so vividly recalled. However, he removed this bit because he said it felt too much like a \u201cWhat I Did on Summer Vacation\u201d essay. Share that verse with us, please, and if you don\u2019t mind, please give us your reaction to the lyrics that were omitted.<\/em><\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

        Ryan:<\/strong> Here\u2019s the omitted verse:<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Penny Lane is one I\u2019m missing<\/strong>
        \nUp Church Road to the clock tower
        \nIn the circle of the Abbey
        \nI have seen some happy hours<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Past the tram sheds with no trams
        \nOn the 5 bus into town
        \nPast the Dutch and St Columbus
        \nTo the Dockers Umbrella that they pulled down.        [i]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Frankly, anyone who hears this song in its final form would have to agree with John; it reads like a travelogue or a \u201cguide to Liverpool landmarks.\u201d If it had been left in, it would have made what is a poignant, universally accessible song into something a little too<\/em> personal and specific.\u00a0 By omitting this verse, the song becomes something else \u2013 it takes on a life as a song any listener can relate to, no matter who they are or where they\u2019re from. Everyone looks back at some point in their lives to \u201cpeople and things that went before,\u201d or remembers \u201cfriends and lovers\u2026.some (who) are dead and some (who) are living.\u201d But not everyone is from Liverpool \u2013 and while the places mentioned specifically in those omitted lyrics may have meant something to John personally, or to the other Beatles or other Liverpudlians, they just would not have the same resonance to someone from New York or Los Angeles or any other place.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Removing this verse and leaving the form of the song as we know it was a brilliant move, whether originally intended or not, because even though the song remained intensely personal as far as John was concerned, it allowed other people to hear it and put themselves in the situation \u2013 the best way to create a \u201cstandard.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason this song is sung at weddings and funerals and other life-cycle events \u2013 it means something to everyone precisely because it is not time- or place-specific.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Kessler: Susan, John admitted that several influences led him to write this very autobiographical song in 1965. Tell us about those people who encouraged him to be more introspective.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

        Ryan:<\/strong> Prior to this song, although John had definitely written songs that were personal, he\u2019d hidden that behind catchy pop melodies or found other ways to disguise the fact.\u00a0 By the time he was working on this song, however, he\u2019d done a couple of interviews with people who had asked him outright why he didn\u2019t write more sophisticated, introspective songs. One of these was Maureen Cleve of the Evening Standard<\/em>, who quite literally asked him why he \u201cdidn\u2019t ever write songs with more than one syllable?\u201d A second journalist, Kenneth Allsop, asked him why his songs didn\u2019t contain the same kind of depth and meaning that his poetry and prose did when interviewing him after the publication of In His Own Write<\/em>. All of this led John to begin thinking about doing something more serious and personal.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Add to this the release of Bob Dylan\u2019s seminal work, \u201cFreewheeling,\u201d which was full of autobiographical songs, and John realized that if he wanted to do something more serious, he had to take that leap and be willing to share things of a more personal nature in his work.\u00a0 For a man who most often carried his most intense personal feelings close to the vest, it was a huge step into the unknown, but as I mentioned above, it was also the seed that grew into so many other personal, autobiographical, confessional songs later in his life. The beautiful, tender melody also brought out a softer side of the man who had previously been perceived by many as the \u201crocker\u201d of the group.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Kessler:<\/em><\/strong> All right, let\u2019s address the elephant in the room. John was very proud of \u201cIn My Life.\u201d In fact, he said it was \u201chis first real major piece of work.\u201d John emphatically said that Paul didn\u2019t even see the song until the lyrics were finished and that \u201c[Paul\u2019s] contribution melodically was the harmony and the middle eight.\u201d Paul, just as insistently, claims to have written the melody. This is the short version of this disagreement. Give us the details, please.<\/em><\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

        Ryan:<\/strong> Wow, Jude, you really want to open a can of worms here, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        There are numerous interviews where John states that he wrote the lyrics to the song first and the music later. This was frequently how he wrote \u2013 he\u2019d start with an idea and then come up with the music. In the group\u2019s early years, both John and Paul emphasized their \u201ccollaborative\u201d songwriting, stressing the idea that every song they created was a totally collective endeavor by \u201cLennon and McCartney.\u201d<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        However, in later years, both of their recollections about who wrote the actual melody began to diverge. In a 1980 interview, John said, \u201cThere was a period when I thought I didn\u2019t write melodies; that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. But of course, when I think of some of my own songs \u2013 \u201cIn My Life\u201d or some of the early stuff\u2026.I was writing melody with the best of them.\u201d[ii]<\/a>\u00a0 In that same interview, he stated unequivocally that \u201cPaul helped with the middle eight.\u201d\u00a0 But there was controversy as early as 1976-77 \u2013 when Paul was shown a list of Lennon-claimed songs by Hit Parader Magazine<\/em>, the only one he disputed was \u201cIn My Life,\u201d claiming that he\u2019d written the whole melody from beginning to end, inspired by Smokey Robinson.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        This claim to the authorship of the melody continued when Paul reiterated his statement in 1998, in Barry Miles\u2019 biography of him, Many Years From Now, <\/em>disputing previous statements by John insisting that his contributions to the song were minor. The fact that John died in 1980 and isn\u2019t here to clarify these claims certainly makes it difficult to discern who was the real author of the music, but given that the song is so intensely personal, it seems logical that John wrote the majority of the song, with only small contributions from Paul in sections such as the middle eight\/bridge.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Another fascinating thing is that the handwritten lyric sheet of the completed song, which is in John\u2019s handwriting, has only one credit at the bottom \u2013 John Lennon! When songs were more collaborative, they\u2019d sign them with both their names.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        I did find an interesting tidbit that said that in 2018, Harvard University applied an artificial intelligence model to the music of the song, and determined, by their calculations, that there was a \u201c.018% possibility of McCartney having written the whole of the music.\u201d\u00a0 They gave John an 81.1% certainty of having written the verses, and Paul a 43.6% certainty of writing the middle eight, which means that although the song did contain some obvious collaboration, the vast majority of it was written by John.\u00a0 I\u2019m inclined to agree.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Kessler<\/em><\/strong>: As Ian MacDonald points out, there really is no bridge in this song. However, there is an instrumental bridge, artfully created by George Martin. It wasn\u2019t the first bridge composed for the song, however. Please tell us about both bridges and how, by strange coincidence, they \u201ccome together.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Ryan:<\/strong> As Jude mentioned earlier in the \u201cWhat\u2019s New\u201d segment of this blog, \u201cIn My Life\u201d doesn\u2019t really have a \u201cmiddle eight\u201d as people who are familiar with the songs of Lennon and McCartney would recognize. Instead, it has an instrumental bridge, played by George Martin on what is credited on the album cover as a harpsichord.\u00a0 More on that later\u2026<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        The song was recorded on October 18, 1965, during what was a relatively short studio session for The Beatles. By the end of the day, they had completed most of the song, but there was a section in the middle that was left out because John couldn\u2019t decide what to put there.\u00a0 Originally it was a guitar piece by George Harrison, but that didn\u2019t hit the right note. George Martin left a gap in the song and John suggested that he supply one himself.\u00a0 In a 1970 interview, John stated, \u201cIn \u2018In My Life\u2019 there\u2019s an Elizabethan piano solo.\u00a0 We\u2019d do things like that.\u00a0 We\u2019d say, \u2018play it like Bach,\u201d or \u2018could you put twelve bars in there?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        With that rather vague instruction, George Martin was left to his own devices to create something to place into that section of the song. He worked on the section four days later, on October 22, 1965, when he wrote and recorded something he described as being \u201clike a Bach inversion.\u201d He recorded it first on a Hammond organ, but then did it again on the piano because he didn\u2019t like the sound of the organ. It\u2019s here where George Martin\u2019s genius really shows through, because he used a technique called the \u201cwind-up piano,\u201d with the solo recorded at half speed and an octave lower. When played at normal speed, this made the piano sound like a harpsichord \u2013 an auditory trick that no one even realized at the time!\u00a0 When he played it back for the Beatles when they came back to the studio, they loved it, and left the \u201charpsichord\u201d solo that we all know and love as part of the song.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Kessler:<\/em><\/strong> Susan, amazing work! I\u2019ve so enjoyed this. Thank you for taking time out of your preparations for the New Jersey Fest coming up on April 1-3 to be with us this month for the Fest Blog!<\/em><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Ryan:<\/strong> Thanks again for this opportunity, Jude!\u00a0 It\u2019s been a true pleasure!\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to hearing what people think about our discussion of this special song, and to seeing folks at the New Jersey Fest in April!<\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        For more information on Susan Ryan and The Beatles Fab Four Cities<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        The Beatles Fab Four Cities<\/em><\/strong> by Ryan, Bedford, and Porter had been acclaimed as \u201ca must for every Beatles fan\u201d by Billy J. Kramer. To find out more about the book, HEAD HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        To purchase The Beatles Fab Four Cities<\/em>, HEAD HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        To hear Susan Ryan, David Bedford and Richard Porter discuss The Beatles Fab Four Cities<\/em> on the \u201cShe Said She Said\u201d podcast, HEAD HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        To discover more about Ryan\u2019s Beatles Tours of New York City, HEAD HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        To follow Susan Ryan on social media, HEAD HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        [i]<\/a> The original lyrics to \u201cIn My Life\u201d may be viewed here<\/a><\/p>\n

        [ii]<\/a> Sheff, David, The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, p. 116-117<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Rubber Soul Side Two, Track Three \u201cIn My Life\u201d   by Jude Southerland Kessler and Susan Ryan   Throughout 2021 and the first few months of 2022, the Fest for Beatles Fans blog has been exploring some of the finer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,28],"tags":[142,8,89,117],"class_list":["post-8637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john-lennon-2","category-the-beatles","tag-in-my-life","tag-john-lennon","tag-rubber-soul","tag-the-beatles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8638,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8637\/revisions\/8638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}