Day Tripper
| "Day Tripper" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| A-side | "We Can Work It Out" |
"Day Tripper" is a riff-driven rock song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and released by The Beatles as a "double A-side" single with "We Can Work It Out". Both songs were recorded during the sessions for the Rubber Soul album.
Composition
Under the pressure of needing a new single for the Christmas market,[1] Lennon wrote most of the lyrics and the famous guitar break, while McCartney helped with the verses. "Day-tripper" was a typical play on words by John: "Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But [the song] was kind of… you're just a weekend hippie. Get it?"[2] In the same interview he said, "That's mine. Including the lick, the guitar break and the whole bit."[2] In his 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, however, he used "Day Tripper" as one example of their collaboration, where one partner had the main idea but the other took up the cause and completed it.[3] For his part, McCartney claimed it was very much a collaboration based on Lennon's original idea.[4]
The lyric may be partly about McCartney's reluctance to experiment with LSD. [citation needed] (Lennon and Harrison had been using LSD since the spring of 1965, when a London dentist slipped it into their coffee after an evening meal.[5] In August, Lennon confessed that he "just ate it all the time.") On the face of it, however, the song is about a girl who leads the singer on. The line recorded as "she's a big teaser" was originally written as "she's a prick teaser."[4] In this sense, it may equally be about the aloof heroine from "Norwegian Wood." In Many Years From Now, McCartney admitted that "Day Tripper" was about drugs.[4]
According to Ian MacDonald, the song "starts as a twelve-bar blues in E, which makes a feint at turning into a twelve-bar in the relative minor (i.e. the chorus) before doubling back to the expected B—another joke from a group which had clearly decided that wit was to be their new gimmick."[6] Indeed, in 1966 McCartney said in Melody Maker that "Day Tripper" and "Drive My Car" (recorded three days prior) were "funny songs, songs with jokes in." Lennon may have arrived at the song's signature riff in an attempt to better The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction."[citation needed] McCartney provides the lead vocal and Lennon the harmony, in contrast to the Beatles' usual practice of a song's principal composer singing lead.
Recording
The song was recorded on 16 October, 1965 at Abbey Road Studios. The Beatles recorded the basic rhythm track for "If I Needed Someone" after completing "Day Tripper".[1]
The released master contains one of the most noticeable mistakes of any Beatles song, a drop out at 1:58 (1:50 in the version on Past Masters, Volume Two) in which the rhythm guitar part momentarily disappears;[7] this may have been due to cover tape damage or some other recording mishap. This recording mishap was fixed for the compilation album 1.
Chart Run
09/12/1965: 2-1-1-1-1-1-2-4-7-13-27-46 (UK)
14/12/1985: 79-84-95 (UK)
Cover versions
| Year | Band | Record | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 | Herb Alpert presents Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66 |
album |
| 1966 | Nancy Sinatra | Boots | album |
| 1966 | Otis Redding | Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul | album |
| 1967 | Jimi Hendrix Experience | Radio One Sessions | album of recordings from 5 days with BBC's Radio One, released in 1988. |
| 1974 | Electric Light Orchestra | Long Beach | live album and single in Germany and the Netherlands |
| 1975 | Anne Murray | Highly Prized Possession | album, and a minor hit single, reaching #59 on the Billboard charts |
| 1978 | Whitesnake | Trouble | |
| 1979 | James Taylor | Flag | album |
| 1980 | Cheap Trick | Found All The Parts | live 10" EP |
| 1980 | Sham 69 | The Game | |
| 1980 | Yellow Magic Orchestra | Public Pressure | live album |
| 1984 | Devo | 4th Dimension | borrowed riff |
| 1987 | Bad Brains | The Youth Are Getting Restless | live album |
| 1991 | Daniel Ash | Coming Down | album |
| 1994 | Gene Wooten | "The Great Dobro Sessions | album of dobro players. |
| 1996 | Ocean Colour Scene | single with members of Oasis | |
| 1999 | tok tok tok | 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover | Album of German Jazz Award winning soul-acousic band, Day Tripper to re-appear on 2005 compilation "I wish" |
| 1999 | Type O Negative | World Coming Down | album |
| 2001 | Ian Hunter | Missing In Action | live album |
Cultural references
- On the 1966 John Mayall album Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, a faster version of the riff is interspersed within the closing section of their cover of "What'd I Say", the 1959 rhythm & blues signature hit by Ray Charles.
- In 1968, Yes used the riff in their Beatles cover "Every Little Thing" on their debut album.
- The Police incorporated part of the riff into "O My God", from 1983's Synchronicity. It can be heard in the introduction and chorus call "Fill it up".
- In 1984, Devo reused "Day Tripper"'s riff in "The 4th Dimension" on their album Shout!.
- 2 Live Crew used the riff on the As Nasty As They Wanna Be album track "Fraternity Record."
- The Wildhearts covered part of the song in "My Baby is a Headfuck", appearing on their album Earth Vs The Wildhearts.
- April Wine used the riff at the end of their song "I Like to Rock", in canon with The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" riff, and "I Like to Rock"'s own riff.
- The Eagles play the riff in the outro for "In the City" from The Long Run.
- Buffalo Springfield borrowed the riff for "Baby Don't Scold Me" (at the 1:54 mark) on their debut album.
- In the ABC comedy, Full House, Danny Tanner plays the riff on the season two episode "I'm There For You, Babe".
- Johnny Marr of The Smiths incorporated the riff from "Day Tripper" in live versions of the band's early song, "Jeane".
Notes
- ^ a b Mark Lewisohn (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. p. 64. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
- ^ a b David Sheff (interviewer) (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 177. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ Jann S. Wenner (interviewer) (2000). Lennon Remembers (Full interview from Lennon's 1970 interview in Rolling Stone magazine). London: Verso. ISBN 1-85984-600-9.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ a b c Barry Miles (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt & Company. pp. 209–210. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
- ^ The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. p. 177. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8.
- ^ Ian MacDonald (1994). Revolution in the Head: the Beatles' Records and the Sixties. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 134. ISBN 0-8050-2780-7.
- ^ "What Goes On - Day Tripper". Retrieved 2007-02-27.
