Examine individual changes

'{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2013}} {{Infobox song | Name = Julia | Artist = [[the Beatles]] | Album = [[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles]] | Published = [[Northern Songs]] Ltd. | Released = 22 November 1968 | track_no = 17 of disc 1 | Recorded = 13 October 1968 | Genre = [[Folk music|Folk]] | Length = 2:54 | Writer = [[Lennon–McCartney]] | Label = [[Apple Records|Apple]] | Producer = [[George Martin]] | Tracks = }} "'''Julia'''" is a song by [[the Beatles]], but performed as a solo work by [[John Lennon]]. The song was written by Lennon (though credited to [[Lennon–McCartney]]) regarding his mother [[Julia Lennon]], who died in 1958 at age 44. The track is the final song on side two (disc one on CD) of the band's 1968 double album, ''[[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles]]'' (also known as "White Album") and was the last song recorded for the album. It was also released as the "B side" of the Beatles single "[[Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da]]" in 1976. ==Composition== "Julia" was written by [[John Lennon]] (credited to [[Lennon–McCartney]]) and features Lennon on vocals and [[Steel-string guitar|acoustic guitar]]. It was written during the Beatles' 1968 visit to [[Rishikesh]] in northern [[India]], where they were studying under the [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]]. It was here where Lennon learned the song's [[finger-picking]] guitar style (known as [[Travis picking|'Travis-picking']]) from the [[Scotland|Scottish]] musician [[Donovan]].<ref>{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.hit-channel.com/interview-donovan/68376 |title=Interview: Donovan – Hit Channel |website=Hit-channel.com |date=2014-06-20 |accessdate=2016-10-11}}</ref> Donovan said: :He told me he wanted to write a song about his mother. He said, "Donovan, you're the king of children's songs. Can you help me? ... I want to write a song about the childhood that I never really had with my mother." He asked me to help him with the images that he could use in lyrics for a song about this subject. So I said, "Well, when you think of the song, where do you imagine yourself?" And John said, "I'm at a beach and I'm holding hands with my mother and we're walking together." And I helped him with a couple of lines, "Seashell eyes / windy smile" — for the [[Lewis Carroll]], [[Alice in Wonderland]] feel that John loved so much.<ref>{{cite web|title=Donovan on the Time He Helped Write a Beatles Classic|url=http://www.vulture.com/2016/11/donvan-on-helping-the-beatles-write-a-classic.html|website=vulture|accessdate=9 November 2016}}</ref> No other Beatle sings or plays on the song. While [[Paul McCartney]] made several "solo" recordings attributed to the group, dating back to his famous song "[[Yesterday (Beatles song)|Yesterday]]", this is the only time that Lennon played and sang unaccompanied on a Beatles track. "Julia" was written for John's mother, [[Julia Lennon]] (1914–1958), who was killed by a car driven by a drunk off-duty police officer when John was 17 years old.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/6769205/Nowhere-Boy-Maureen-Cleave-remembers-John-Lennon.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Nowhere Boy: Maureen Cleave remembers John Lennon | date=14 December 2009}}</ref> Julia Lennon had encouraged her son's interest in music and bought him his first guitar. But after she split with John's father, John was taken in by his aunt, Mimi, and Julia started a new family with another man; though she lived just a few miles from John, Julia did not spend much time with him for a number of years.<ref name=rollingstone>{{cite web|title=69 – 'Julia'|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-beatles-songs-20110919/julia-19691231|work=100 Greatest Beatles Songs|publisher=Rolling Stone|accessdate=18 June 2012}}</ref> Their relationship began to improve as he neared adolescence, though, and in the words of his half-sister, Julia Baird: "As he grew older, John would stay with us more often. He and Daddy got along well enough, and in the evenings when our daddy, a headwaiter, was at work, John and Mummy would sit together and listen to records. She was an avid [[Elvis Presley]] fan, and she and John would jive around the room to '[[Heartbreak Hotel]]' and other early Elvis recordings. John inherited his love of music from her, and she encouraged him to start with piano and banjo, making him play a tune again and again until he got it right."<ref>{{cite journal|title=John Lennon's Sister Julia Breaks Silence to Tell of the Brother She Loved and Lost|journal=People|date=6 May 1985|volume=23|issue=18|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20090602,00.html|accessdate=18 June 2012}}</ref> "I lost her twice," Lennon said. "Once as a five-year-old when I was moved in with my auntie. And once again when she actually physically died."<ref name=rollingstone /> The song was also written for his future wife [[Yoko Ono]], whose first name, which literally means "child of the sea" in Japanese, is echoed in the lyric "Oceanchild, calls me."{{sfn|"Brought to Book," 31 July 1971 interview with Alan Smith, Uncut Presents NME Originals Beatles-The Solo Years|2010|p=42}} Towards the end of his life, he often called Yoko "Mother."<ref name=rollingstone /> The line "Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you" was a slight alteration from [[Kahlil Gibran]]'s "Sand and Foam" (1926) in which the original verse reads, "Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you". Lennon also adapted the lines "When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind" from Gibran's "When life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind". ==Musical structure== The song is in the key of D and begins with a I–vi⁷–v⁷–v⁹–VI⁷ progression from D chord note A on "Jul..." to Bm⁷ chord on "...ia" to Am⁷ chord on "Jul..." to Am⁹ chord on "...ia" to B7 chord on "ocean child".<ref>Dominic Pedler. The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. Music Sales Limited. Omnibus Press. NY. 2003. pp197</ref> A feature is that the ninth degree in the minor ninth chord Bm⁹ (1–{{music|b}}3–5–{{music|b}}7–9) is heard in the melody as well as the guitar chord (at 0.20secs on "Julia, Ju-li-''a'').<ref>Dominic Pedler. The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. Music Sales Limited. Omnibus Press. NY. 2003. pp706, 708.</ref> ==Release== "Julia" was originally released as the final song on side two of ''The Beatles'' on 22 November 1968.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=200–201}} In 1976, it was released as the [[A-side and B-side|B-side]] of the "[[Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da]]" single.{{sfn|Wallgren|1982|p=109}} In 1988 "Julia" was one of the nine Beatles songs on the soundtrack album ''[[Imagine: John Lennon]]''. A portion of the song also appeared on the ''[[Love (The Beatles album)|Love]]'' album mixed with "[[Eleanor Rigby]]". ==Personnel== *[[John Lennon]] – [[double-tracked]] [[lead vocals]], [[acoustic guitar]], [[classical guitar]], [[humming]] ==Other versions== "Julia" has been covered by [[Ramsey Lewis]], [[Bongwater (band)|Bongwater]], [[Chocolate Genius]], [[Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood]], [[Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey]], [[Waltari]], [[Priscilla Ahn]], [[Pedro Aznar]], [[Mike Patton]] & [[Carla Hassett]] as a duet and [[Sean Lennon]]. Sean Lennon performed the song live on 2 October 2001 at [[Radio City Music Hall]] in New York City, as part of the ''[[Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music]]'' concert special. On [[Danger Mouse (musician)|Danger Mouse]]'s [[mashup (music)|mashup]] album, ''[[The Grey Album]]'', "Julia" is mixed with [[Jay-Z]]'s "[[Dirt Off Your Shoulder]]". According to producer [[Butch Vig]], [[Kurt Cobain]] covered "Julia" during sound checks for Nirvana's breakthrough album ''[[Nevermind]]''; it was also said to be Cobain's favorite Beatles track. ==Notes== {{Reflist}} ==References== * {{cite book |last=Lewisohn |first=Mark |year=1988 |authorlink=Mark Lewisohn |title=The Beatles Recording Sessions |publisher=[[Harmony Books]] |location=New York |isbn=0-517-57066-1 |ref=harv}} * {{cite book |last=Wallgren |first=Mark |year=1982 |title=The Beatles on Record |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |location=New York |isbn=0-671-45682-2 |ref=harv}} ==External links== * {{noteson|http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/j.shtml|Julia}} * [[Walter Everett (musicologist)|Walter Everett]]'s [https://books.google.com/books?id=1CAvwZPKTkoC&pg=PA170#v=onepage&q&f=false ''Notes on'' "Julia" (pp. 170–72)] *[http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/julia/ The Beatles Bible: Julia] {{The Beatles (White Album)}} {{The Beatles singles}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Julia (The Beatles Song)}} [[Category:1960s ballads]] [[Category:The Beatles songs]] [[Category:1968 songs]] [[Category:Rock ballads]] [[Category:Song recordings produced by George Martin]] [[Category:Songs written by Lennon–McCartney]] [[Category:Capitol Records singles]] [[Category:1976 singles]] [[Category:Songs published by Northern Songs]] [[Category:Songs in memory of deceased persons]] [[Category:Songs about women]]'