Good Morning Good Morning

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (1.00)
LENNON: "I often sit at the piano, working at songs, with the telly on low in the background. If I'm a bit low and not getting much done then the words on the telly come through. That's when I heard 'Good Morning, Good Morning' . . . it was a cornflakes advertisement." Beatles in Their Own Words

McCARTNEY: "This is largely John's song. John was feeling trapped in suburbia and was going through some problems with Cynthia. It was about his boring life at the time, there's a reference in the lyrics to 'nothing to do' and 'meet the wife'; there was an afternoon TV soap called Meet The Wife that John watched, he was that bored, but I think he was also starting to get alarm bells and so 'Good morning, good morning'." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
February 8, 1967, at Abbey Road, with overdubbing February 16 and March 13, 28, and 29

MARTIN: "We weren't averse to putting recorded effects in, too. There were all sorts of sound effects that you could get on record, so in the case of 'Good Morning, Good Morning,' for instance, there was a whole farmyard of animals dubbed in from a [sound-effects] disc." Musician (July 1987)

GEOFF EMERICK: "John said to me during one of the breaks that he wanted to have the sound of animals escaping and that each successive animal should be capable of frightening or devouring its predecessor. So those are not just random effects, there was actually a lot of thought put into all that." The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970

The sound effects were taken from the EMI sound-effects tapes 'Volume 35: Animals and Bees' and 'Volume 57: Fox-hunt'. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

MARTIN: "Imagine my delight when I discovered that the sound of a chicken clucking at the end of 'Good Morning' was remarkably like the guitar sound at the beginning of 'Sgt. Pepper' [reprise]. I was able to cut and mix the two tracks in such a way that the one actually turned into the other. That was one of the luckiest edits one could ever get." All You Need Is Ears : The inside personal story of the genius who created The Beatles

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, lead guitar and solo (right-handed Fender Esquire), backing vocal
LENNON: lead and backing vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar
STARR: drums
SOUNDS INCORPORATED: three saxophones, two trombones, French horn
Sounds Incorporated was a British band that appeared on the same bill as the Beatles on the '64 British tour, '64 Christmas shows, and '65 North American summer tour.

McCARTNEY: "When we came to record it we used Sounds Incorporated to do a big sax thing; they were friends of ours who had been on tour with us. But we still felt it needed something more manic so we decided to use a lot of sound effects on the fade. The great thing about working at EMI Abbey Road was that anything you needed was within reasonably easy rech. EMI was so multi-dimensional they had everything covered and we took advantage of all this. We used Daniel Barenboim's piano that he'd just recorded on; they would sometimes lock it but we would just ask, 'Can you unlock it?' and they'd say, 'Sure.' That was used on the big chord at the end of 'A Day In The Life'. There were so many grand pianos laying around, there were Hammond organs, there were harmoniums, there were celestes, and there was a sound-effects cupboard which they used for doing plays and spoken-word albums. George Martin said, 'There is a library, what do you want?' and we said, 'What have you got?' so we got the catalogue. 'Right, elephants, cock-crowing, the hunt going tally-ho, we'll have that . . .'" Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON: "A bit of a gobble-de-gook one, but nice words." Hit Parader (April 1972)

LENNON: "It's a throwaway, a piece of garbage." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

LENNON: " 'Good Morning, Good Morning' was fairly straight rock and roll except for some strange beats on it. Sounds Incorporated playing their saxes and all that." Beatles in Their Own Words

McCARTNEY: "That was our first major use of sound effects, I think. We had horses and chickens and dogs and all sorts running through it." Playboy (December 1984)