Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 22 February; 18, 20 April; 8, 11 August 1969
Producers: George Martin, Glyn Johns, Chris Thomas
Engineers: Barry Sheffield, Jeff Jarratt, Tony Clark, Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald
Released: 26 September 1969 (UK), 1 October 1969 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, lead guitar, organ, Moog synthesiser
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, congas
Billy Preston: Hammond organ
Available on:
Abbey Road
Love
I Want You (She's So Heavy) was written by John Lennon and closed side one of the Abbey Road LP. A cry of love in several parts, it was recorded over a six month period between February and August 1969.
The Beatles had, in fact, first played the song on 29 January during the ill-fated Get Back sessions. Originally with the working title I Want You, the group returned to it less than a month later, as the first song to be recorded for Abbey Road. It was also one of the final songs on the album to be completed.
Coming in at just under eight minutes, I Want You (She's So Heavy) also contains some of John Lennon's simplest lyrics since the days of Love Me Do. A direct outpouring of his all-consuming love for Yoko Ono, the song contains just 14 different words.
A reviewer wrote of She's So Heavy: 'He seems to have lost his talent for lyrics, it's so simple and boring.' She's So Heavy was about Yoko. When it gets down to it, like she said, when you're drowning you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream. And in She's So Heavy I just sang 'I want you, I want you so bad, she's so heavy, I want you,' like that.
Rolling Stone, 1970
The obsessiveness of the lyrics is reflected in the repetitiveness of the music. The song contains the same phrases played over a number of rhythmic, tempo and time signature variations. Perhaps the sheer otherness of I Want You explains why it was so well-liked by all members of The Beatles.
Most remarkable, however, is the grinding three-minute finale, featuring Lennon's and Harrison's massed overdubbed guitars multitracked many times over the same relentless chord pattern, which was slashed at full volume to give the impression that it could have gone on forever. Lennon also used the white noise generator from a Moog synth to get the howling wind effect.
The finale from the song was mixed with the organ from Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! and some vocals from Helter Skelter on 2006's Love album.
In the studio
The Beatles taped 35 takes of the basic rhythm track at Trident Studios in London's Wardour Street on 22 February 1969. The next day, again in Trident, a composite edit was assembled, consisting of the early part of take nine, take 20 for the middle eight, and take 32 for the rest of the song.
On 18 April the multitracked guitars for the finale were recorded by Lennon and Harrison.
John and George went into the far left-hand corner of [studio] number two to overdub those guitars. They wanted a massive sound so they kept tracking and tracking, over and over.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
On 20 April a Hammond organ part was added, as were congas, brought into the studio by The Beatles' assistant Mal Evans especially for the song.
I Want You (She's So Heavy) wasn't then worked on until 8 August, the day the cover photos for Abbey Road were also taken. John Lennon added a Moog synthesiser part, plus the white noise heard during the finale, and Ringo Starr added more drums.
Unusually, these overdubs were added to the original Trident master, not the reduction mix that had been created on 18 April.
On 11 August, the day I Want You (She's So Heavy) was renamed from its working title of I Want You, and Lennon, McCartney and Harrison recorded their repeated "She's so heavy" harmony vocals, recorded twice to give the effect of six voices.
And with that the recording was complete, although the final version – including the distinctive cut-off ending – wasn't made until 20 August, when the mixes from 18 April and 8 August were edited together.
God this song is brilliant… The powerful guitars, the simplistic but powerful lyrics… It has so much sexual tension.
What the group accomplishes in this song is nothing short of creative genius.
The song is essentially a musical drug. It gets beneath your skin and does what it will to you. The musicality is effortless. The real beauty is in the musical language used to express the overwhelming, devouring nature of love as an emotion and catalyst for lust and loss. The song’s ending provides a definitive pièce de résistance to what is the alternative culmination of their body of work (the other being the ending medley of Abbey Road).
I am no expert with musical instruments but I enjoy reading all the comments from you that are because I am engrossed in dissecting every Beatle song harmony and instrument being played and by which Beatle. The I want you she’s so heavy is a favorite, I hear it in Santana’s Black Magic Woman. Lennon is just a musical genius, he has given praise to Paul’s bass and Ringos rhythm moving the song along and George’s expert playing…his guitar was gently weeping because he knew they could come together and leave their differences aside and just rock!
It’s frightening, frantic and horny, what a heady mix!!!! One of the best, most revolutionary songs I have ever heard in my life
Great way to close side one of “Abbey Road”. One of John Lennon’s most intense vocal performances, as he did the same year on “Don’t Let Me Down”. Both are huge love pleads to Yoko. John Lennon was never scared to show his insecurity in his writing and his love and dependence on Yoko meant it was taken to a new level. The painful events of his childhood and teenage years meant this desperation was always simmering just below the surface. Tracks on solo albums such as “John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band” and “Walls and Bridges” exhibit this trait abundantly. But there are lots of other examples. “I Want You”(“She’s So Heavy”) is a great track. I love John and George’s lead guitar work in unison and the way they and Paul voices work together to such effect. Billy Preston Hammond organ work is brilliant.
Where do you hear George and John playing in unison ? They played off each other, but I don’t hear anything with two Guitars playing exactly the same notes. The intro is either George or John playing an arpeggio under or over ( depending on how the listener wants to hear it ) the melodic single notes line . When the verse arrives it’s just Lennon playing the melody to his vocal.
In the last three minutes, the guitars are literally mass overdubbed (as stated in this above article and by listening to how deep the guitar chord sounds)
Are you sure John is singing the main phrases ? For me, it is Paul voice
John. — Mark Lewison – The Beatles Recording Sessions – Manuscripts.
I’ve read somewhere that John and Yoko were experimenting at this time with minimalist poetry, with the goal of writing a poem consisting of a single word. Lennon carried this over into his music. This is why this song has only 14 words and simple, repeated musical phrasing. Ultimately, Yoko did write the poem of a single word: “Water”. Before you laugh and dismiss it as just more of her eccentricity and spaciness, think about it. Water is the essence of life, a substance without which no one could exist; it provides movement, change, sustenance, death, destruction, erosion, elation, birth and rebirth. Think of how many songs are about rain, rivers, tears, and tides.
Paul’s bass at the end is absolutely fantastic!!
I have to agree with you. I love his bass playing on this song, especially the ending. I always wondered if Paul helped write the ending because the bass is kinda playing the lead riff and it’s very catchy. Or did John have that bass-driven riff written already? I never read this in any of the Beatle books and would like to know. If Paul wrote it, it would be a perfect example of how a band member can make the song even though he did not write it. I’m assuming Paul wrote it, but would love to hear the John demo to be sure.
Where do you hear George and John playing in unison ? They played off each other, but I don’t hear anything with two Guitars playing exactly the same notes. The intro is either George or John playing an arpeggio under or over ( depending on how the listener wants to hear it ) the melodic single notes line . When the verse arrives it’s just Lennon playing the melody to his vocal.
I wonder what came first,
the bass line or the guitar part that has the same notes
That depends on which section of the song you’re refrring to . A,B,C,D etc. If you’re thinking of the outro it sounds very influenced melodically like Paul. Remember they recorded this in sections …
How can you tell who’s playing which guitar in any Beatles song?
The Beatles engineer’s reported that info
That’s a great question when you get to a song like this. On most ,but certainly not all, you can tell who’s who, as it were. Lennon had an uncanny knock to come up with rather sophisticated riffs in respect to arpeggios. On Honey Pie ( a song I’m in no way thrilled by ) apparently John played the intro guitar line. I NEVER would have expected that to be Lennon. Then on Get Back, Lennon plays the lead, and it sounds like something he would do,same goes for Revolution,and his third and sixth guitar solos on The End . The Beatles were musical chameleons…
Magnificent powerful deep song. Blues? Rock? Jazz? Yes…all together but much more (were The Beatles, dude) in a “simple” composition. Minimalist and with the effect of a volcano.
Can anyone tell me who sings which part, especially when the harmonies start. Can´t tell their voices apart yet
Paul is usually the high part. He had the best range of the 4 of them.
What makes that unison end riff even more ominous are those guitar chords with the same persistent top note all the way through. And those bass runs! Brilliant.
Is that John playing the bluesy guitar solo after the first “She’s So Heavy” break? It sounds like his simple, emotive style.
I was wondering the same thing. Is it Lennon?
I swear at one point it sounds like George singing….this song sounds different every time I listen, it seems.
In the documentary “Lennon or McCartney” on YouTube, in which heaps of musicians, actors and other luminaries give their one-word answer to that question, Robert De Niro answers “Lennon.” I imagine songs like this are why – just the raw emotion in it and the way it captures the ravages of obsessive, unsatisfied sexual desire. That said, kudos to Paul’s crucial bass.
And many picked McCartney. Why did you pick DeNiros vote? Seems random.
A wonderful Lennon bookend to side one of Abbey Road, and a single of Come Together with I Want You would have been perfect ?. Then, after almost eight minutes, you get to put on side two with the sparkle of Here Comes The Sun kicking it off. This ‘track arrangement’ – a piece of theatre – is an aspect which is (sadly) missing in the digital world – it *did* alter the appreciation of albums (all of them, but especially Abbey Road I think).
I still remember the first time I heard this song as a teenager, I had bought the Abbey Road album on cassette, and when the song cut off at the end, I honestly thought I had got a defective tape, I couldn’t believe a song would just be cut off midway through. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered that it indeed was intentionally done that way.
It’s an absolutely epic rocker from the Beatles, and it’s one of my favourite songs they ever did.
That dynamite blues riff in intro (George) is never mentioned, whoa- but what a start!
Paul has always been my favorite bassist. Not that he was necessarily played the hardest licks, but that his playing was so melodic and beautiful and strayed far from simply being rhythmic. I have never enjoyed any bass player more then Paul. Truly 1 part of the “4- headed monster”!
I have to agree with those who regard this the most boring track on Abbey Road. Not politically correct, but a fact. We got the message after 30 seconds, the rest is endless, painful repetition…
It would have been a great 5 minute song instead of 8.
Except, I do like John’s guitar work, Paul’s bass, and Ringo’s “jazzy” drumming throughout (well, up to the “tornado” part).
The arrangement is certainly much greater than the song, which isn’t much of one.
Would love any insight into who made the decision to “cut” the ending and why. I grew up with this album, and at five years old, this track was nightmare inducing. “Want you” at that age meant the boogey-man. And the sudden “death” at the end made an indelible impact. In my memory, the end of the song is actually *skritch-skritch-pop, skritch-skritch-pop, skritch-skritch-pop*.
This was played by Martin Barre at this years prog rock festival in Wales
Fantastic