[V. Kmetz]

I've got an irregular 30 min playlist nearly queued up, but first...so, I've been obsessing on the Beatles song, "I Feel Fine" for a few weeks; it's probably like the 64th best Beatles song, but like almost every Beatles piece, it's got something perfect, something special, a particular clever lyric, a perfect vocal range in harmony, an exuberance, an orchestral touch, a surprising blend, an unexpected fresh distinct thing, a novel tempo.... I can't get this central drum beat out of my pleasure center...it sounds like what? ...swinging London/Carnaby Street in 1965?...an cruise around a city in a jalopy?...somehow it's as purposeful as Lennon's vocals are "sharp," a laconic as that Hofner bass, as carefree and noodling and twitchy as that Rickenbacker lick



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrAV5EVI4tU

When my thirst for greater insight as to how Ringo developed that, I of(f) course went into the incredible internet. It's literally incredible...incredible that this Eurolescent fawn made this so I and 3.45 million other people might watch it... if you're like me and just want to obsess on "I Feel Fine," then shoot to 6:27 of the 15 min video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NCczct2ZIM

Your forthcoming playlist will have little to do with this...call it an appetizer.

[Rick Lane]

I think I recall that Lennon said that that bit of feedback that starts off the song was the first time ever that someone recorded feedback intentionally?

[Stewart Abramson]

"I've been obsessing on the Beatles song, "I Feel Fine" for a few weeks"


Bad 'shrooms? 

Here's some related insight from the horse's mouth   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl9188EPdLI

(edited to make font legible)

[John Kirk]

I'm pretty sure the drum part of "I Feel Fine" is inspired by the drum part in "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles.

And I've got "I Feel Fine" in the top 40-50 Beatles songs at least.  It's really great, almost as great as "What'd I Say".

[V. Kmetz]

I'm pretty sure the drum part of "I Feel Fine" is inspired by the drum part in "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles.
And I've got "I Feel Fine" in the top 40-50 Beatles songs at least.  It's really great, almost as great as "What'd I Say".

Contextually, no doubt; directly, Lennon and Harrison are on record as the entirety of the song being influenced by Bobby Parker's "Watch Your Step."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thfAz2uQmHw

But as these Take 6 and 7 (of what would be 9 total)... Ringo didn't settle on this beat until late in the process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfhofK3Ujyc

(late? what am I saying, they did the entire song in Nine Takes in one day, while recording 6 other songs for what would be Beatles for Sale)

[V. Kmetz]

"I've been obsessing on the Beatles song, "I Feel Fine" for a few weeks"

Bad 'shrooms?    No such thing.  Acid? Occasionally.  Mescaline? Definitely.   Peyote? When you least expect it.  But not the philosophers sticks and stones.

Here's some related insight from the horse's mouth   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl9188EPdLI

(edited to make font legible)

[V. Kmetz]

I think I recall that Lennon said that that bit of feedback that starts off the song was the first time ever that someone recorded feedback intentionally?

Lennon explained it thus:



"That’s me completely. Including the electric guitar lick and the record with the first feedback anywhere. I defy anybody to find a record – unless it’s some old blues record in 1922 – that uses feedback that way. I mean, everybody played with feedback on stage, and the Jimi Hendrix stuff was going on long before. In fact, the punk stuff now is only what people were doing in the clubs. So I claim it for The Beatles. Before Hendrix, before The Who, before anybody. The first feedback on any record."

It is on Take 1 and is well corroborated among those few present that unexpected feedback from leaning his Rick on the amp was advantaged when it came time to record this song some days later. This is one of those subtle ways that the Beatles changed recording production, as EMI's stodgy codes forbidding such experimental practice, were broken by the Beatles' power.

[John Kirk]

I'm pretty sure the drum part of "I Feel Fine" is inspired by the drum part in "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles.
And I've got "I Feel Fine" in the top 40-50 Beatles songs at least.  It's really great, almost as great as "What'd I Say".

Contextually, no doubt; directly, Lennon and Harrison are on record as the entirety of the song being influenced by Bobby Parker's "Watch Your Step."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thfAz2uQmHw

But as these Take 6 and 7 (of what would be 9 total)... Ringo didn't settle on this beat until late in the process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfhofK3Ujyc

(late? what am I saying, they did the entire song in Nine Takes in one day, while recording 6 other songs for what would be Beatles for Sale)

All very interesting to you and me.  I've actually had those take 6/7 recordings of "I Feel Fine" for 25+ years, and it was great to revisit them.  They make the key adjustment starting between 6 and 7, and the whole thing works.  I hadn't heard the Bobby Parker song, but the Beatles song is clearly derivative.
Beatles for Sale is an interesting record.  It may be the weakest of the first four (UK) albums, but there are few if any songs I can do without.  "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" is the hidden gem in my book.

[Sean_A]

I'm pretty sure the drum part of "I Feel Fine" is inspired by the drum part in "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles.

And I've got "I Feel Fine" in the top 40-50 Beatles songs at least.  It's really great, almost as great as "What'd I Say".

That's interesting. I recall R Davies saying he wanted the guitar on You Really Got Me to sound fuzzy and distorted like the electric piano for What'd I Say.

Ciao

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