I Want You (She's So Heavy)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Image:Beatles - Abbey Road.jpg | ||
| Song by The Beatles | ||
| from the album Abbey Road | ||
| Released | September 26, 1969 | |
| Recorded | July 9-July 11, August 6, 1968 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 7:47 | |
| Label | Apple Records | |
| Writer(s) | Lennon-McCartney | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Abbey Road track listing | ||
| "Octopus's Garden" (5) | "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" (6) | "Here Comes the Sun" (7) |
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is a song by The Beatles, from their album Abbey Road. It was written by John Lennon, although it is credited as a Lennon-McCartney collaboration.
The song is an unusual Beatles composition for a variety of reasons, namely its length (7:47), its disproportionately small number of lyrics (there are only fourteen different words in the song), its three-minute descension through the same repeated guitar chords, its hard rock sound, and for its instantaneous and unanticipated end. It is also one of the last songs that the Beatles ever recorded as a group, on August 20, 1969.
David Gates writes of the song, "The hypnotically repeated guitar figure in 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' is suddenly, arbitrarily cut off, jolting us into embarrassed awareness that we've let a mere recording carry us away."
The sudden end of the song was intentional and orchestrated by John Lennon. In the spirit of the band, it was pushing the boundaries of what was 'allowed' on a record; full volume slashes were certainly not the norm.
The opening guitar segment of the song is later repeated in the album, in the song Because.
[edit] The recording
The song was rehearsed several times during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, the basic track was recorded at Trident Studios on 22nd February 1969 shortly after filming for the film project ended. The song was reworked in August and changed from "I Want You" to "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" with the heavy guitar overdubs and was included in the Abbey Road album.
Three takes from February 22 were edited into a master (2d generation), which was overdubbed, mixed down on April 18 (3d generation), and overdubbed on April 18 and 20 and August 11. Different overdubs were made to the 2d generation tape August 8. The mix is the 3d generation for 4:37 (up to "she's so") and then the 2d generation tape, which has a white noise added August 8.
