Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

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Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is a song from The Beatles' 1968 self-titled album. It was written by Paul McCartney.

Contents

[edit] Writing

The song was written during The Beatles' trip to India in winter and spring of 1968. It was influenced by ska. Paul remembers, "We went to a cinema show in a village where a guy put up a mobile screen and all the villagers came along and loved it. I remember walking down a little jungle path with my guitar to get to the village from the camp. I was playing 'Desmond has a barrow in the market place...'" The title was derived from a Yoruba phrase meaning 'Life Goes On,' which Paul had heard from Jimmy Anonmuogharan Scott Emuakpor (AKA Jimmy Scott), a friend he met in the Bag O' Nails Club in Soho. Paul recalls, "I had a friend called Jimmy Scott who was a Nigerian conga player, who I used to meet in the clubs in London. He had a few expressions, one of which was, 'Ob la di ob la da, life goes on, bra'. I used to love this expression... He sounded like a philosopher to me. He was a great guy anyway and I said to him, 'I really like that expression and I'm thinking of using it,' and I sent him a cheque in recognition of that fact later because even though I had written the whole song and he didn't help me, it was his expression. It's a very me song, in as much as it's a fantasy about a couple of people who don't really exist, Desmond and Molly. I'm keen on names too. Desmond is a very Caribbean name." After Jimmy Scott heard Paul singing the song, he took credt for inventing the expression, though in reality he didn't. John, whose attention was turned to Yoko Ono and his heroin addiction, hated working on the song, calling it "Paul's granny shit."

[edit] Recording

Paul insisted on recording the song several times with different arrangements, much to John's dismay. Geoff Emerick, who had been The Beatles' engineer since Revolver decided to quit on the day that Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da was completed. Paul had wanted it to be released as a single, though the others disagreed, and it was not put out as a single until 1976, long after the band had broken up. Instead, the band Marmalade recorded it and it topped the UK charts on Christmas 1968. On the master version, McCartney mistakingly sings "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face," when he meant to say that Molly did her pretty face. For reasons unknown, this was left in. Although hating to do this song, John and George did have fun with the bacing vocals, inserting subtle jokes into the recording. For example, when Paul sings "Desmond lets the children lend a hand," John and George sing "leg" and "arm" while McCartney says "hand." Also, Harrison sings "foot" when Paul sings "Molly lets the children lend a hand." It took over 42 hours to record this song, starting on July 3, 1968, with two remakes on the way. On that first day, Paul recorded his acoustic guitar and Ringo recorded his drums. Paul then overdubbed vocals and more guitar onto take seven, then deciding that take four was better, overdubbing guitar onto that. On July 4, lead vocals were recorded, as well as backing vocals from Lennon and Harrison. McCartney then recorded another lead vocal part. More overdubs were done on July 5, including saxophones, bongos (played by Jimmy Scott), and piccolo flute (a part later erased from the recording). In place of this piccolo flute part, another guitar part was recorded. This part was intentionally recorded at a high level so it sounded distorted. This version was included on Anthology 3. On July 8, they remade the song, this time with McCartney on fuzz bass, Lennon on piano, Harrison on acoustic guitar and Starr on drums. John had become sic of recording this song, reportedly coming into the session under the influence of drugs. Engineer Richard Lush recalls, "John Lennon came to the session really stoned, totally out of it on something or other, and he said, 'All right, we're gonna do Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. He went straight to the piano and smashed the keys with an almighty amount of volume, twice the speed of how they'd done it before, and said, 'This is it! Come on!' He was really aggravated. That was the version they ended up using." They recorded twelve more takes, the twelfth of which had percussion and backing vocals overdubbed onto it. On July 9, they made another remake, this time only with two takes recorded. They then turned their attention back to the first remake, recording backing vocals, with sound effects, such as handclaps, ho-ho-hos, and "vocal percussion," as described by Mark Lewisohn. On July 11, three saxophones were recorded as well as another bass part. On July 15, Paul rerecorded his lead vocals, finishing work on the song.

[edit] Recording Sessions

  • July 4, 1968: Recording Session. Songs Recorded: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. →
  • July 5, 1968: Recording Session. Songs Recorded: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. →
  • July 9, 1968: Recording Session. Songs Recorded: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. →


[edit] Personnel

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Guest Musicians

  • Three unknown saxophone players.

[edit] Production

[edit] Available Versions

[edit] Available On

[edit] Source

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