On June 10th 1966 the Beatle’s 11th single Paperback Writer entered the UK charts. The single occasioned a number of important firsts for the group, and for rock in general. Of paramount importance is the essential heaviness of the record. The band had clearly been working towards a new and heavier sound, as evidenced by the previous singles Ticket to Ride, Help and Day Tripper, but these efforts merely hint at what would come to fruition on the Paperback Writer single, and it’s accompanying B Side Rain.
Over the course of ’66, John Lennon had been impressed with the heaviness of the bass guitar sounds on the current crop of R&B records coming from across the ocean, specifically Wilson Pickett’s In the Midnight Hour. As a result, Lennon wound up demanding the engineers at Abbey Road find a way to beef up the bass sound to compete with the records from America. This was done by using an actual loudspeaker cone to mic the bass amp. Combined with Paul’s switching from his old Hofner violin body bass to a new Rickenbacker model, a massive new bass tone was acheived on the single and its accompanying B Side. In addition, new techniques and equipment at Abbey Road allowed for a much more dynamic recording, and the record wound up sounding much louder than anything previously released by the group. Coupled with the powerful fuzz tone riff played in tandem by John and George, a much heavier, raw and powerful sound was created, highly indicative of what was to come with the appearance of Psychadelic Rock the following year.
Another first for the single was the fact that never before had The Beatles released an A Side that deviated from the theme of romantic relationships. Although they had clearly been branching out lyrically, as evidenced by Help, Drive My Car and Day Tripper, it was this single that was the first Beatles effort to completely eschew relationship topics in its lyrics. Paul had earlier been chastised by his Aunt for consistently writing love songs, and Lennon had been feeling challenged by Dylan, resulting in several new songs on a wider range of topics. It must have been somewhat of a gamble bringing such an unconventional single to the heads of Capitol. Record companies are not traditionally open to experimentation, and even by modern standards, both songs were highly unconventional, and full of new and exciting sonic trickery, including tape echo, contrapuntal harmony and backmasking.
The single also occasioned the birth of the music video as a force in the industry. The Beatles were quicky approaching retirement from the touring life, and had decided that it would be more viable to film promotional videos to send out rather than making constant publicity appearances. This freed up time in their schedules to allow for the unprecedented levels of musical intricacy that would come to categorize their latter ’60’s records. Both Rain and Paperback Writer had accompanying performance videos that were sent to a variety of television shows. This lead to another tantalyzing first: The fact that Paul appears in the videos with an obviously damaged tooth would later give rise to the Paul is Dead/Imposter Paul conspiracy!
On a side note, listen to the Beach Boys inspired backing harmonies…what the hell are John and George singing behind the melody on the verse portion of the song? Hint: It’s a pretty big hit with the nursery crowd.
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written by Shaun Lee