Publisher at The American Bystander
is Blogmom of Hey Dullblog. His novels and parodies have sold 1.25 million copies in 25 languages. He lives in Santa Monica, CA, and runs The American Bystander all-star print humor magazine.
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“..she feels GOOD”
MIKE GERBER • My long-suffering voice must be tortured somewhat in order to reach some of the notes in “Good Day Sunshine,” so out of respect for my neighbors (not to mention my own dignity) I turn the volume ‘way up when I sing. If I’m going to irritate somebody, I’d rather do it via loud Beatles instead of croaky old me.
Anyway, in the mono version of “Good Day Sunshine” (“Alternate Revolver,” track #8) at precisely 1:28, after Paul sings, “…she feels good,” I could distinctly hear Lennon answer, “She feels good” in one of his low funny voices.
Or, I could’ve belted too hard and burst a blood vessel.
One of my favorite Beatle sites is The Beatles Anomalies List:
http://wgo.signal11.org.uk/wgo.htm
I’ve been trying for years for find a noise, a doodle or scrap this guy hasn’t already catalogued, without luck. This concordance is one of the most entertaining Beatlefact resources — he even listens hard to decipher some of that underworld talk beneath the notes. (See especially his transcription, seemingly remarkably acute, of Paul’s non-sequiturs on “Helter Skelter.”)
My favorite Beatle Easter egg is still the curse word just before “Hey Jude” hits its thousand-throated climax. (THIS IS NOT A MYTH — Lewisohn confirms it in his sessiongraphy!)
The Easter egg that eluded me for years was the rumored “We already told you why!” that Lennon supposedly says at one point in answer to Ringo’s plaintive “Tell me why…” at the end of one of the verses of “What Goes On.” I read about this somewhere, and I used to try so hard to hear it on the cassette version of the album (ha!). I got really used to filling it in myself, mentally. And then one day I found myself listening to the album on CD, with headphones, and when Lennon’s voice actually said “We already told you why!” just where I was expecting it, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Now that I tell that story, it sounds kind of like a religious experience. I kept the faith and was rewarded.
Devin, I’ve added The Anomalies List to the Links section. Nice find!
Okay Mollie, now I have to go listen to “What Goes On” a bunch of times.
After a quick peek at that site’s entry for “GDS”: So you’re telling me I’ve found something new? The rest of life suddenly seems anticlimactic.
Whoops–the guy already caught it.
Well, I guess I still have something to live for. 🙂
I really love the way John says it. But there’s something else I spotted, and it lifts this song even higher for me.
On the UK Revolver release, you can clearly hear John saying “she feels good”. Paul immediately sings his next line, “you know she’s looking fine”, and you can clearly hear that John’s comment has made Paul smile.
It’s absolutely wonderful. It is one of the great delights about Paul’s voice during the Beatles years: you can hear when he has a big smile on his face. And when John says “she feels good”, Paul has one as he sings his next line.
And it always makes me smile too. It’s something that is forever frozen in time, a symbol of how much fun they used to have together.