"Hey Bulldog" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles released on their 1969 soundtrack album Yellow Submarine. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, but written primarily by John Lennon, it was finished in the recording studio by both Lennon and Paul McCartney.[1] The song was recorded during the filming of the "Lady Madonna" promotional film, and, with "Lady Madonna", is one of the few Beatles songs based on a piano riff.
It had a working title of "She Can Talk To Me". For many years, "Hey Bulldog" was a relatively obscure and overlooked song in the Beatles' catalogue; it has since been reappraised.[2]
The finished composition of "Hey Bulldog" is in common time (4 4) and employs a shifting key,[7] changing between B major, A major and B minor.[8] Commentators have variously described the song as hard rock,[9][10]blues-based rock,[11]psychedelic rock,[12]pop rock,[13]acid rock[14] or a simple rock number.[15][16] In a beginning reminiscent of the Beatles' cover of Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)",[17] the song's opening piano riff is played in octaves before being doubled in a higher register by two guitars and a lower bass register.[18] The song includes two bridges and two middle verses, with the bridge closer in style to a refrain. The song's introductory riff repeats throughout the song, appearing at the end of the refrain and the outro, as well as further influencing the refrain.[7] The song's lyrics utilize heavy word play,[7] which Lennon later said "[mean] nothing".[5]
Recording
The Beatles went to EMI's Studio Three on 11 February 1968 to record a promotional film for "Lady Madonna",[4] but decided upon arrival to record a new song instead.[19] Lennon suggested his half-completed idea "Hey Bullfrog",[4] which he and Paul McCartney finished while in the studio.[3] McCartney later recalled misreading Lennon's handwritten lyrics, changing "measured out in news" to "measured out in you", which Lennon preferred to the original.[20][21]
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.[22]
George Martinproduced the session, assisted by balance engineerGeoff Emerick.[19] The camera crew remained in the studio with the band as they recorded the basic track,[23] featuring piano, drums, tambourine, bass guitar[19] and rhythm guitar.[23] As the band neared the end of the basic track for "Hey Bulldog", McCartney attempted to make Lennon laugh by barking like a dog.[21][note 1] Lennon changed the song's name to "Hey Bulldog",[4] though the title phrase does not appear until the outro.[7]
After the band had recorded ten takes, the last attempt was marked "best".[19] The camera crew left as the band continued working on the song with various overdubs onto take ten,[23] including off-beat drums from Ringo Starr, a distorted Gibson SG from George Harrison for the song's intro, double tracked vocals from Lennon and a harmony vocal from McCartney.[4] Borrowing Harrison's SG, Lennon recorded a lead guitar solo.[25][note 2]
That was a really fun song. We were all into sound texture in those days and during the mixing we put ADT (automatic double tracking) on one of the "What did he say? Woof woof" bits near the end of the song. It came out really well.[19]
After the band finished adding overdubs, Martin and Emerick mixed the song for mono twice. While the Beatles would often ad lib offhandedly at the end of recordings, their other songs faded out before this became audible.[19] Martin and Emerick decided to instead leave the dog barks, shouts and screams in the final recording,[19] at one point adding heavy compression to some of Lennon's dialogue and dog noises.[27] They raised the song in pitch slightly, running the playback fast. With the mono version intended for use in the animated film, Emerick returned to Studio Three on 29 October 1968 to mix the song for stereo, this version being included on the original soundtrack LP.[23]
Release
Apple released Yellow Submarine in the US on 13 January 1969, with "Hey Bulldog" sequenced as the fourth track, between "All Together Now" and "It's All Too Much".[28] Release in the UK followed four days later.[29] Emerick praised McCartney's bass playing on the recording, describing it as his most inventive since that of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[26]
During these sessions, a film crew photographed the Beatles recording the song 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").[30]
The song was used in a segment of the animated film Yellow Submarine. Initially, it appeared only in some European theatrical prints. It was cut from the American version by the movie's producer Al Brodax as he and the group felt the film was too long.[31] 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 1999 clip was included in the three-disc versions (titled 1+) of the Beatles' 2015 video compilation 1.[32]
In 2018, the music staff of Time Out London ranked "Hey Bulldog" at number 28 on their list of the best Beatles songs.[2]Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 81 in its list of the 100 best Beatles songs.[33]
Cover versions
The US rock group Fanny covered the song on their 1972 album Fanny Hill. The arrangement includes different lyrics to the original which were reportedly approved by the Beatles.[34]
Notes
^Earlier in the month, McCartney participated in a recording session at EMI for singer Paul Jones's new Apple Records single, "And the Sun Will Shine". Beatles writer John C. Winn suggests that the single's B-side, an acid rock song titled "The Dog Presides", likely inspired McCartney with its sound effects of a dog barking.[24]
^Among Beatles writers and musicologists, Everett, Ian MacDonald and Winn write Lennon performed the song's guitar solo.[25] In his 2006 memoir Here, There and Everywhere, Emerick instead recalls Harrison as having performed the solo, writing: "Harrison's solo was sparkling... 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."[26]
^ abcEverett 1999, p. 155: "Lennon's distorted lead guitar solo..."; MacDonald 2007, p. 287: "Lennon:... lead guitar"; Winn 2009, p. 157: "John apparently recorded the biting guitar solo himself: At one point in the footage, he can be seen borrowing George's Gibson SG Standard, and the finished solo has all the trademarks of a Lennon performance in its jaggedness".
Cowan, Philip (1978). Behind The Beatles Songs: The Book that Sets the Record Straight. London: Polytantric Press. ISBN0-905150-09-0.
DeRogatis, J. (2003). Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing. ISBN0-634-05548-8.
Emerick, Geoff; Massey, Howard (2006). Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles. New York City: Gotham. ISBN978-1-59240-179-6.
Everett, Walter (2009). The Foundations of Rock: From "Blue Suede Shoes" to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-531024-5.
Riley, Tim (2002) [1988]. Tell Me Why: The Beatles: Album by Album, Song by Song, the Sixties and After (Revised and Updated ed.). Cambridge: Da Capo Press. ISBN978-0-306-81120-3.
