Written by: Harrison
Recorded: May 1968
Unreleased
George Harrison: vocals, organ
Recorded among the May 1968 demos for the White Album, Circles was a George Harrison composition which eventually saw light of day in 1982.
Upon their return from India, all four Beatles gathered at Kinfauns, Harrison's Esher bungalow. They recorded demos of 27 songs, to be put forward as potential titles for the White Album. Of these songs, 19 eventually found their way onto the album.
One of the discarded titles was Circles, seemingly recorded alone by Harrison with just an organ accompaniment. Speaking voices can be heard in the background; they may be those of the other Beatles, or possibly the sound of a television or radio.
One of Harrison's more philosophical songs, Circles is lyrically similar to The Inner Light or Within You Without You, although the concept of the changing world being observed by a stationary individual perhaps best recalls John Lennon's I'm Only Sleeping.
The Beatles never recorded Circles as a group, although Harrison's demo was later widely bootlegged along with the other Kinfauns recordings. Like Lennon's Child Of Nature – which also resurfaced in a different form some years later – Circles wasn't included on Anthology 3, although some of the other May 1968 demos did feature.
Harrison eventually released a version of Circles on his 1982 album Gone Troppo. It was recorded with a full band – including Billy Preston on organ and piano – and with largely different lyrics to those written in 1968.
Lyrics
Friends come and friends go
As I go round and round
In circles
Love warms and love colds
As I go round and round
In circles
He who knows does not speak
He who speaks does not know
And I go round in circles
Life comes and life goes
As I go round and round
In circles
He who knows does not speak
He who speaks does not know
And I go round in circles
Life comes and life goes
As I go round and round
In circles
Life comes and love goes
As we go round and round
In circles
There’s tons of copies of the Kinfaus demo of this song floating around the internet.
It has got to be the most horrible Beatles song ever.
I can barely make out the lyrics, it’s just a repetion of George playing the same jntes on and on and singing apparent gibberish. No wonder it wasn’t released.
Personally I wish the Beatles had recorded it. I think its got a haunting melody and the lyric concept is basically sound. I don’t think he did it very well on Gone Troppo but the Beatles would probably have nailed it.
I agree with you James, I think this is a very eery song, a great, dark melody, similar in vein to “Blue Jay Way”, another vastly underrated Harrison composition. I do not like his solo version at all, and I completely agree a Beatles version would have far surpassed it – much like their Anthology vers of “Not Guilty”, another great Harrison gem that has been criminally ignored, which blew away the eventual Harrison solo recording. Love the line “He who knows does not speak, he who speaks does not know…”. Seriously one of my favorite lyrics of all time and a perfect reflection I think of George’s philosophy of people at the time.
This reminds me of the line from ‘Inner Circle’ – “The farther one travels
the less one knows
the less one really knows”
The Inner Light, not Inner Circle. 🙂
I recall finding a band version of Circles on Youtube with swirling guitar parts, but I haven’t been able to locate it again.
George’s demo sure is dreary, but I can’t help thinking there is a good Beatles song in there somewhere. Imagine if Paul had been willing to whip the melody into shape, and John had cared enough to spice it up with some of his witty, cryptic wordplay. The question is: Did the other Beatles go out of their way to be creatively uncooperative with him, or did George actively discourage any collaboration on his compositions?
Well, it wasn’t because he discouraged collaboration because he was fine with Paul collaborating with him on other songs (I Want to Tell You, Long Long Long, While My Guitar Gently Weeps).
This is interesting, Apple Scruff. I read somewhere that Paul DID add the distinctive, somewhat “dissonent” piano notes to the verses of “I Want To Tell You.” But I never read anything about him contributing to “Long, Long, Long” or “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Let me know what YOU know about Paul’s collaborative efforts with these songs. Thanks! (Hmm… Maybe Paul felt he deserved a co-write on some of George’s tunes because of his help. I KNOW he added the rocking “middle bit” to “I, Me, Mine,” and DIDN’T get a co-writer’s credit; Did he want one?)
Well I can say Paul wrote the classic piano part that opens and somewhat dominates the instrumental intro to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. Always confused me when I was younger than a piano was playing the coolest parts in a song with such a title (bring on the Clapton-lovers). I def DID NOT know Paul wrote the dissonant piano in “I Want To Tell You”! Are we sure about that? That part virtually makes the song! (again bettering an otherwise cool guitar riff)
Also I too would like to know Paul’s contribution to “Long, Long, Long”. But wait, you KNOW, 100% that Paul wrote the “middle eight” to “I Me Mine”?? I love the verse but I simply cannot imagine that song without the chorus. Really one of the standouts on Let It Be, at least to me, because I love the straight rock of that section, something the Beatles didn’t do a lot of after Revolver. I always liked the Beatles “straight rock” (Day Tripper, Revolution, Some Other Guy, Money, Rock n Roll Music) than the more bluesy-type rock that made up a large part of Let It Be.
Anyway the Gone Troppo version is one of my all-time favourites.
I love this song and even this version though the recording quality’s not very good. Would have been awesome along with Not Guilty on the white album… Neither remake was very good owing to bland studio musicianship and unnecessary tinkering IMO.
Syd would have been proud…
Indeed, it is a very Syd Barett song. The 1968 demo is decidedly the creepiest song known to mankind: there is a swirling, hissing, demonic-sounding organ with no other accompaniment than George’s Leslie Speaker-equipped voice, which sounds, with no other way to describe it, like a 5,000-year-old ghost emerging from a tomb from a lost civilization. It’s the only song that has ever genuinely scared me: there are creepy songs, but the 1968 demo of “Circles” is R-rated for creepiness. And don’t even get me started on those whispering voices in the background, which I didn’t notice until I read this article which pointed them out. Now they gave me nightmares.
I might have heard it on a bootleg as a kid YEARS ago, but as far as I can remember, this is the first time I’ve heard the song or even heard OF it. I always thought Long, Long, Long was a creepy sounding song, so maybe Circles was excluded as one too many creepy George songs for the album.
Love it. Very trippy.