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I have to grit my teeth for this one, because the song recorded on these days is my personal most detested Beatles track. Nothing in the catalog is more likely to send me scrambling for the Skip button than “Honey Pie” — not even “Revolution 9,” though it’s telling that both were dumped on Side 4 of the White Album. They show John and Paul at their most divergent: John experimental to the point of sadism, Paul backward-looking, rooty-tooty, and friendly to the point of nausea.
I’ve always imagined John being actively hostile to “Honey Pie,” but I could be projecting. According to Paul, “Both John and I had a great love for music hall, what the Americans call vaudeville.” And I guess he ought to know. John certainly played on “Honey Pie,” adding — according to George Harrison — “a brilliant solo [that] sounded like Django Reinhardt or something. It was one of them where you just close your eyes and happen to hit all the right notes.”
However lightweight it may seem, a lot of effort went into “Honey Pie,” particularly in terms of giving it a vintage sound. Should you be so inclined, you can read a detailed account on The Beatles Bible, or an even more detailed one on Beatlesbooks.com. I recuse myself from this one on grounds of disinterest; I promise to do a better job on “Savoy Truffle.”
Everybody stinks up the joint at some point, just leave the fan on and f’get bout it. Unfortunately, Honey Pie will be with us forever.
i’m sorry you feel this way. This song is ten times better than o-blah-di o-blah-da. No, a million times better. And if you had been alive at the time of its release, you would know how reassuring and calming it was. A break from the looming darkness. Nixon had just been elected. The riots were happening in Berkeley. Well, it was a lull between the summer of ’68 riots and the People’s Park riots to come in early ’69. A time I lived through. It still gives me the shudders when I think about it. Honey Pie was a momentary… Read more »
Thanks for the counterbalancing opinion. I know my take is subjective – as is yours, but there is room for all sides.
BTW the solo is John, not George; it was George’s quote though.