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It was a Lennon-centric day in the studio, beginning with another go at “Sexy Sadie.” Although they had previously done 47 takes, the numbering for today’s started at 100 — perhaps to tweak George, whose “Not Guilty” had ended up in the triple digits? It was Take 107, with some overdubs, that became the recording we know and love today.
After that all four Beatles crammed into the tiny room where the studio’s four-track tape machines were stored. There, according to Ken Scott,
They literally couldn’t move. They had to find a position with their guitars and not move, or they would hit someone in the face or in the guitar.
Under these conditions they recorded John’s fierce new composition “Yer Blues.” Think of the Fab Four wailing away in a closet, occasionally whacking each other with the necks of their axes, when you listen this time:
“Yer Blues” is not everyone’s favorite Beatles song. I personally think it shreds. Ringo agrees:
Yer Blues, on the White Album, you can’t top it. It was the four of us. That is what I’m saying: it was really because the four of us were in a box, a room about eight by eight, with no separation. It was this group that was together; it was like grunge rock of the sixties, really – grunge blues.
A lot of people have taken inspiration from “Yer Blues” over the years. Jon Spencer, for one, owes his whole career to it. Even now, on some plane of existence, there’s a tiny John Lennon playing it in a shoebox with Kurt Cobain, Keith Moon, and Lemmy.
No, I’m not high… but I do feel a little funny. Maybe that’s enough for tonight.
[…] guide vocal): Kind of fun because you can imagine that you’re huddled up in the corner of the tape room opposite John, whose vocals are barely audible in the noisy mix. At the end you can hear the boys […]