Paperback Writer

"Paperback Writer"
US picture sleeve
Single by The Beatles
B-side	"Rain"
Released	30 May 1966 (US) 10 June 1966 (UK)
Format	7"
Recorded	13 & 14 April 1966 EMI Studios, London
Genre	Hard rock[1] power pop[2] psychedelic rock[3] folk rock[4]
Length	2:18 (stereo version) 2:26 (mono single version)
Label	Parlophone R5452 (UK) Capitol 5651 (US)
Writer(s)	Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)	George Martin
Certification	Gold (RIAA)[5]
The Beatles UK singles chronology
"We Can Work It Out"/ "Day Tripper" (1965) "Paperback Writer" (1966) "Eleanor Rigby"/"Yellow Submarine" (1966)
Alternative cover art as a double A-side with "Rain" in one of UK vinyl pressings The Beatles US singles chronology "Nowhere Man" (1966) "Paperback Writer" (1966) "Eleanor Rigby"/"Yellow Submarine" (1966)

"Paperback Writer" is a 1966 song recorded and released by the Beatles. Written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon^[6] (credited to Lennon–McCartney), the song was released as the A-side of their eleventh single. The single went to the number one spot in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, West Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. On the US Billboard Hot 100, the song was at number one for two non-consecutive weeks, being interrupted by Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night".

"Paperback Writer" was the last new song by the Beatles to be featured on their final tour in 1966.

Recording

The track was recorded between 13 and 14 April 1966.

"Paperback Writer" is marked by the boosted bass guitar sound throughout, partly in response to John Lennon demanding to know why the bass on a certain Wilson Pickett record far exceeded the bass on any Beatles records.^[7] This changed with the "Paperback Writer" single.

"'Paperback Writer' was the first time the bass sound had been heard in all its excitement," said Beatles' engineer Geoff Emerick in Mark Lewisohn's book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. "Paul played a different bass, a Rickenbacker. Then we boosted it further by using a loudspeaker as a microphone. We positioned it directly in front of the bass speaker and the moving diaphragm of the second speaker made the electric current."^[7]

The harmonies - "Then I had the idea to do the harmonies and we arranged that in the studio," Paul continues. George Martin went on record to describe the "contrapuntal statements from the backing voices – no one had really done that before" and admitted that The Beach Boys were "a great inspiration" with regard to this song. With "Sloop John B" just entering the British charts and The Beatles being just given a preview of the entire Pet Sounds (1966) album, the trademark Beach Boys harmonies were emulated for "Paperback Writer".^[8] The background vocal harmonies at the beginning of the third chorus are provided by Lennon and George Harrison who sing the title of the French nursery rhyme "Frère Jacques". These harmonies occur at a little over one minute into the track.^[9]

Emerick stated that the "Paperback Writer" / "Rain" single was cut louder than any other Beatles record up to that time, due to a new piece of equipment used in the mastering process, referred to as "Automatic Transient Overload Control", which was devised by the EMI maintenance department.^[10]

Song lyrics

According to disc jockey Jimmy Savile, McCartney wrote the song in response to a request from an aunt who asked if he could "write a single that wasn't about love."^[11][12] Savile said, "With that thought obviously still in his mind, he walked around the room and noticed that Ringo was reading a book. He took one look and announced that he would write a song about a book."^[11] In a 2007 interview, McCartney recalled that he started writing the song after reading in the Daily Mail about an aspiring author, possibly Martin Amis.^[13] The Daily Mail was Lennon's regular newspaper and copies were in Lennon's Weybridge home when Lennon and McCartney were writing songs.^[11]

The song's lyrics are in the form of a letter from an aspiring author addressed to a publisher. The author badly needs a job and has written a paperback book based on a book by a "man named Lear".

Aside from deviating from the subject of love, McCartney had it in mind to write a song with a melody backed by a single, static chord. "John and I would like to do songs with just one note like 'Long Tall Sally.' We got near it in 'The Word.'"^[14] McCartney claimed to have barely failed to achieve this goal with "Paperback Writer," as the verse remains on G until the end, at which point it pauses on C.^[15]

Lennon told Hit Parader in 1972 that "Paperback Writer" was primarily written by McCartney: "I think I might have helped with some of the lyrics. Yes, I did. But it was mainly Paul's tune." Lennon also told Playboy in 1980: "Paperback Writer is son of Day Tripper, but it is Paul's song."

Promotion

In Britain, the single was promoted with a photograph depicting the Beatles draped with joints of raw meat and decapitated baby dolls. This same photograph was later used, albeit briefly, as the Yesterday and Today album cover in the USA, and in that capacity it became known as the "butcher cover".^[16]

For the American release of the single, the cover depicted the Beatles playing live, but with Lennon and Harrison's images reflected so that it appeared they were playing left-handedly. (See the image at the top of the page).

The promotional film for the song, one of the first of its type, was shot on 20 May 1966 amongst ornate garden statuary at Chiswick House. It was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who went on to direct the Beatles' final film, the documentary Let It Be (1970).^[17]

Personnel

There is some dispute over who played what on "Paperback Writer". In the July 1990 and the November 2005 issues of Guitar Player magazine, Paul McCartney stated that he played the song's famous opening riff on his Epiphone Casino guitar,^[18] and photos from the song's session seem to be consistent with this.^[19] McCartney is also widely credited for the song's iconic bass line, but photos from the session show George Harrison playing a Burns Nu-Sonic bass, not an electric guitar.^[19]

• Paul McCartney – lead vocal, lead guitar, bass ^[20]
• John Lennon – backing vocal, tambourine ^[21]
• George Harrison – backing vocal, rhythm guitar ^[21]
• Ringo Starr – drums ^[21]

Personnel per Ian MacDonald^[22]

Release

Country	Title[23]
US	"Paperback Writer" b/w "Rain" Label: Capitol 5651 Released: 30 May 1966 Format: single
UK	"Paperback Writer" b/w "Rain" Label: Parlophone R 5452 Released: 10 June 1966 Format: single
UK	A Collection of Beatles Oldies ... but Goldies Label: Parlophone R 5452 Released: 9 December 1966 Format: LP
US	Hey Jude Label: Apple SW-385 Released: 26 February 1970 Format: LP

"Paperback Writer" appears on subsequent re-releases including 1962–1966 (1973), a re-released single (1976), Past Masters, Volume Two (1988), and 1 (2000). The single was later released part of a Record Store Day reissue in 2010.^[24]

Promotional films

Michael Lindsay-Hogg directed four promotional films for the song shot on 19 and 20 May 1966. On the first day they recorded a colour performance at Abbey Road Studios, for The Ed Sullivan Show, which was shown on 5 June, and two black and white performance clips for British television. The latter were shown on Ready Steady Go! and Thank Your Lucky Stars on 3 and 25 June, respectively.

On 20 May, another colour film was made at Chiswick House in west London. The Beatles mimed to the song, and they were shown in and around the conservatory in the grounds of the house. The clip was first broadcast in black and white on BBC-TV's Top of the Pops on 2 June.^[21]

The 20 May promo film was included in the Beatles' 2015 video compilation 1, and both the 19 May colour film and the 20 May film were included in the three-disc versions of the compilation, titled 1+.^[25]

The Beatles made their only live appearance on Top of the Pops to mime to "Paperback Writer" and "Rain". They were introduced by DJ Pete Murray. This session is famous for being wiped by the BBC when they were cleaning tapes for re-use. The session showed how difficult it was for the Beatles to even mime to their later material – they had difficulty in taking their performance seriously.

Cover versions

• Tempest covered the song on their 1974 album Living in Fear.
• Kris Kristofferson recorded a version of the song for the 1995 Beatles tribute album Come Together: America Salutes The Beatles.
• Sweet covered the song and released it as a limited single in 1973. The cover version does not appear on any original Sweet album, but is included on the 2004 re-release of their 1971 debut album Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be.
• Eric Johnson covered the song on his Internet release Souvenir (2002).
• Les Fradkin recorded an instrumental version for his 2005 album While My Guitar Only Plays.
• The Cowsills recorded the song for their 1969 live album The Cowsills in Concert.
• In 1969, Gershon Kingsley recorded a version featuring the Moog synthesiser on the album Music to Moog By.
• ApologetiX parodied the song as "David & Goliath" on their debut album.
• Italian rock band The Bastard Sons of Dioniso covered the song on their 2007 acoustic album Even Lemmy Sometimes Sleeps.^[26]
• The Bee Gees recorded the song in 1966 in Australia. It was first released on the album Inception/Nostalgia in 1970.
• The B-52's covered the song in 2005 for a Buick TV commercial.

Notes

1. Scott Miller, Music: What Happened?, (125 Records, 2010), ISBN 0-615-38196-0, P.39.
2. John M. Borack, Shake some action: the ultimate power pop guide, (Shake Some Action – PowerPop, 2007), ISBN 0-9797714-0-4, P.175.
3. DeRogatis, Jim. Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock. p. 48.
4. Icons of Rock. ABC-CLIO. pp. 170–. ISBN 978-0-313-33845-8.
5. RIAA 2009.
6. Sheff 2000, p. 179.
7. Lewisohn 1988, p. 74.
8. Miles, Barry (October 1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now. Henry Holt & Co. ISBN 0-8050-5248-8.
9. MacDonald 2005, p. 196.
10. Emerick 2006, p. 117.
11. Turner 2005, p. 101.
12. Fontenot 2008.
13. Colapinto 2007.
14. Aldridge 1990, p. 24.
15. Pollack 1993.
16. Ayoub 2008.
17. "Shooting the "Paperback Writer" promotional video" at thebeatles.com
18. "McCartney And His Casino on Cover of Guitar Player". Epiphone.com. 25 October 2005. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
19. Babiuk, Andy. Beatles Gear. pp. 179, 182, 183.
20. Mulhern, Tim (July 1990). "Paul McCartney Interview". Guitar Player. Retrieved 30 May 2013. Also, it stayed in tune right up the neck; the Hofner had problems when you got right up near the top. So I hardly ever went up there-although some of that stuff in "Paperback Writer" is Hofner, so it did actually stay in tune for that. But it was a little more difficult to work with, being a cheaper instrument. I guess you pay for that precision.
21. The Beatles Bible 2008.
22. MacDonald 2005, p. 195.
23. Lewisohn 1988, pp. 200–201.
24. Beatles, The – Paperback Writer / Rain (Vinyl) at Discogs
25. Rowe, Matt (18 September 2015). "The Beatles 1 To Be Reissued With New Audio Remixes... And Videos". The Morton Report. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
26. "Discography". Tbsod.com. Retrieved 21 August 2011.

References

• Aldridge, Alan, ed. (1990). The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin / Seymour Lawrence. ISBN 0-395-59426-X.
• Ayoub, Chuck (2008). "Paperback Writer Lyrics". Retrieved 5 March 2008.
• Colapinto, John (4 June 2007). "When I'm Sixty-Four". The New Yorker. Retrieved 24 February 2012.(subscription required)
• Emerick, Geoff (2006). Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles. New York: Gotham (Penguin). ISBN 978-1-59240-269-4.
• Fontenot, Robert (2008). "Paperback Writer". About.com. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
• MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-84413-828-3.
• Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying. St Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.
• "Paperback Writer". The Beatles Bible. 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
• Pollack, Alan (22 December 1993). "Notes on "Paperback Writer" and "Rain"". Notes On ... Series.
• "RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database – The Beatles Gold Singles". RIAA. 2009. Retrieved 20 July 2009.
• Turner, Steve (2005). A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song (3rd ed.). New York: Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 0-06-084409-4.