The Beatles, “I Call Your Name” from Past Masters (1964): Deep Beatles
This week’s edition of Deep Beatles could be retitled “A Tale of Multiple Mixes.”
Originally intended for the Hard Day’s Night soundtrack, the Beatles’ “I Call Your Name” stands out for its cowbell-led percussion, unusual musical structure, and distinctive guitar solo. While omitted from the album due to its slight similarity to “You Can’t Do That” (chiefly its cowbell), “I Call Your Name” resurfaced on the Beatles’ 1964 UK EP Long Tall Sally and the U.S. Capitol release The Beatles’ Second Album. Today, it can be found on the Past Masters compilation.
John Lennon had been hanging on to “I Call Your Name” since the Beatles’ pre-Hamburg days, according to a 1980 Playboy interview. “That was my song. When there was no Beatles and no group, I just had it around,” he said. “It was my effort as a kind of blues originally, and then I wrote the middle-eight just to stick it in the album when it came out years later. The first part had been written before Hamburg even. It was one of my ‘first’ attempts at a song.” In a 1994 interview, Paul McCartney recalled helping Lennon revise the track before the recording.
Lennon first gave “I Call Your Name” to Billy J. Kramer, a singer Brian Epstein had recently signed to his roster of artists. Kramer and his backing band the Dakotas recorded the song along with another early Lennon/McCartney composition, “Bad to Me,” in 1963; Parlophone then released the single, but chose “I Call Your Name” as the B-side. A year later, John Lennon apparently decided enough time had passed for the Beatles to record their own version. In The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn said Lennon could be heard discussing Kramer’s version in the control room. “Do you think it’s a bit much doing Billy J’s intro and solo? ‘Cos it’s our song anyroad, innit?” he said before the group attempted take one.
By: Kit O'Toole
Source: Something Else Reviews
