I Want You (She's So Heavy)

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (1.00)
LENNON: "This is about Yoko. She's very heavy, and there was nothing else I could say about her other than I want you, she's so heavy. Someone said the lyrics weren't very good. But there was nothing more I wanted to say.
"I remember that simplicity on the new album was evident on the Beatles double album. It was evident in 'She's So Heavy', in fact a reviewer wrote of 'She's So Heavy': 'He seems to have lost his talent for lyrics, it's so simple and boring.' 'She's So Heavy' was about Yoko. When it gets down to it, like she said, when you're drowning you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me', you just scream. And in 'She's So Heavy', I just sang 'I want you, I want you so bad, she's so heavy, I want you', like that. I started simplifying my lyrics then, on the double album." Beatles in Their Own Words

RECORDED
Rehearsed with the tapes running January 29, 1969, at Apple Studios. Recorded February 22, at Trident, as the first Abbey Road song seriously committed to tape. Overdubbing was added April 18 and 20 and August 8 and 11, at Abbey Road. It was the final song to be mixed for the album, on August 20, the last time all four Beatles were in the studio together.

Guitars were overdubbed during the April 18 session.

JEFF JARRATT, engineer: "John and George went into the far left-hand corner of number two [studio] to overdub those guitars. They wanted a massive sound so they kept tracking and tracking, over and over." The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, harmony vocal
LENNON: lead guitar, organ, lead vocal
HARRISON: rhythm guitar, synthesizer, white-noise maker (at end)
STARR: drums
BILLY PRESTON: organ

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
HARRISON: ". . . It is very heavy. John plays lead guitar and sings, and it's just basically an old blues riff he's doing, but again, it's a very original John-type song as well. . . . It's a very good chord sequence he used on this particular one." Late 1969, The Beatles: A Celebration

LENNON: "On 24 Hours [a BBC-TV progam] they just sardonically read the 'I Want You' lyrics: 'I want you. She's so heavy.' That's all it says, but to me that's a damn sight better than 'Walrus' or 'Eleanor Rigby' lyric-wise because it's a progression to me. If I want to write songs with no words or one word, then maybe that's Yoko's influence. . . ." Beatles in Their Own Words