Comments on: Cry Baby Cry

By: Mr. Kite

Mr. Kite — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 20:34:50 +0000

Did George and Patty’s little house in Esher have a recording studio? It seems as though many of the White Album songs were demo’d at his house.

By: Bungalow Bill

Bungalow Bill — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 01:19:14 +0000

Yes, I was just listening to CBC today and I love Paul’s harmony on the last 3 times they sing “she’s old enough to know better.” But the credits for the song on this page indicate John did all the vocals – can anybody confirm if Paul is doing harmony on that line?

By: Teddy Salad

Teddy Salad — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 21:52:26 +0000

“Lennons hidden desire to be ‘only’ a houseman and a father and a husband?” Hardly. He had all that already in hand and couldn’t be faithful or even manage the bare minimum as a caring father.

By: Mr Mustard

Mr Mustard — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 16:29:50 +0000

It’s unfortunate that Lennon was so dismissive of some the Beatles work. Time has shown that even he could be wrong. I absolutely love this song especially the Anthology version. A very dry, raw recording, it reminds me of my old 4 track demos, and so I love the familiarity of the creative process. Hats off to Emerick for maintaining his own personal dignity and removing himself from the situation, no matter who they are.

By: Jim MacKellar

Jim MacKellar — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 07:45:28 +0000

He worked with Pink Floyd and produced Elvis Costello- I don’t think he was faint hearted. Don’t forget “O Bla Di” finally broke the Beatles. The atmosphere must’ve been pretty toxic.

By: castironshore

castironshore — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 12:06:59 +0000

I really love this song,it has a crepuscular quality too it that makes it perfectly placed just near the end of the album. Johns voice is perfect,almost childlike and his performance on guitar,piano and organ really make the track.

In retrospect its almost a solo track,the others contributions are fairly limited although paul gamely supplies a nice off the cuff bass line. It sounds like they didn’t spend much time on it – apparently the rehearsals for it on the 16 july were pretty fraught and argumentative.

By: MikeP

MikeP — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 03:40:19 +0000

Ungrateful? The guy who engineered Revolver and Sgt. Pepper and won a Grammy for the former? The guy who made those recordings of those great songs SO great? By that time, he didn’t need the hassle and it certainly couldn’t have been much fun. No wonder he quit.

By: Fernando Luna

Fernando Luna — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 19:11:24 +0000

I question whether this song was composed in India. According to Hunter Davies he quoted the lyric as “Cry Baby Cry, make your mother buy” – and I think this was played to him in late 1967, which suggests this was composed probably in England around the time Sgt Pepper came out. There is a tape that is circulating of a demo of the song, before the Esher demos and it appears along side a lot of experimental tape loops and Mellotron noises that probably were part of the tapes John played to Yoko in early 1968 as they set out to record “Two Virgins”.

By: Fred

Fred — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 11:58:54 +0000

it’s actually Kirkcaldy..

By: Young Fred

Young Fred — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 02:13:40 +0000

A haunting tune. The strumming on that G chord in between verses gives a heavy feeling to the soft melody. Superb!

By: Andrew Gaines

Andrew Gaines — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 08:03:22 +0000

Really interesting idea. I first heard this song when my older brother used to play it when I was about 10. It used to scare me as it felt so unworldly. As well as the structure of the song I think a lot of it is Lennon’s detached vocal style and the slight echo put on his voice, as though coming from “somewhere else”. Linked to your idea he does sing about having a “seance in the dark” The McCartney harmony just at the end added to the eeriness of the song.
Its still one of my favourite songs on the album and I still find it unsettling (though at 53 now I don’t get scared!)

By: Hank Smith

Hank Smith — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 20:24:54 +0000

The phonetics of the first two verses absolutely captivate me in this song. Lennon’s clever arrangement of words more than makes up for the lack of intense meaning that he felt the song might have been lacking. I imagine cartoonish material characters for the King/Queen and Duchess/Duke and it gives such a creepy feeling to the whole song that is perfectly matched by the odd chord structure.

By: Graham Paterson

Graham Paterson — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 22:44:57 +0000

Love this song. A beautiful John Lennon composition, even though he himself did not rate it. Gorgeous chorus/ melody. I love the way it sequences into McCartney’s “Can you take me Back” at the end. The “White Album” is a masterpiece. It’s eclectic nature between John, Paul and George’s, ( and Ringo’s one),compositions is extraordinary.

By: kirbygene

kirbygene — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 02:17:45 +0000

This brilliant song has always had a chilling effect on me, I always imagined that everyone John describes in his dry narration are dead spirits that share the same haunted house (like in The Shining) and have taken on lofty titles for themselves. The whole arrangement has a medieval feel to it and the scattered voices are the ghosts’ presences poking through into our world, The “cry baby cry” seems to refer to a toddler-ghost searching for it’s mother. Even Paul’s equally chilling song snippet at the end seems to add to the macabre effect, as if we hear from one last ghost desperately wanting to return to his former life. Spooky, I know, but next time you play it think of it that way and you might get a chill.

By: Kendo

Kendo — Sun, 08 Nov 2015 03:31:38 +0000

I freaking love this song! John’s voice sounds intencionally so calm n soft very different from his usual rawness,also the piano organ lines are great. He was a genius!and my favorite of them all.

By: RICHARD IAROSSI

RICHARD IAROSSI — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:39:53 +0000

Love Georges guitar work on this song.

By: MaccaFan

MaccaFan — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 23:43:42 +0000

I love the really low notes from the piano — gives the track weight. Good lesson for all the keyboard players out there who sometimes tend to overplay.

By: Sam P.

Sam P. — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:12:02 +0000

Only three notes? Is that right? I think so. Funny, as I listen to the song it’s what I look forward to most. Good call there.

A friend and I were talking about CBC years ago. The fact that each successive verse highlighted drums, bass, piano, guitar, is a testament to excellent direction.

By: Pablo Castro

Pablo Castro — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 07:19:34 +0000

The curious thing in this careful arreangement is George´s guitar appeareance : only three notes on the entire song and even so it´s fundamental do the overall feel of the song !

By: mmontana

mmontana — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 14:41:00 +0000

I always thought this song was about cheating & infidelity