Beatles--- 《 Ob-La-Di,Ob-La-Da 》诞生记

下面的英文出自 www.beatlesbible.com

看完后，觉得有意思的几点：

1.Paul 这首歌的灵感来一个尼日利亚康茄鼓手，“ Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da ”在约鲁巴语里的意思是“ life goes on ”（生活还在继续）。不仅想起动画片《狮子王》里，那句有名的“ Ha-Ku-Na-Ma-Ta-Ta ”，主题曲里唱到：“ It means no worrys ,for the rest of your days”;

2. 我们的反叛青年 John Lennon 此时正和那个怪兮兮的大野洋子 YoKo 打得过热并沉溺于毒品，他说这首歌就是“保罗他奶奶的一坨屎！”（ Paul's granny shit ）；

3. 这首歌录了 3 天才最终确定，录音时间大概花了 42 小时；

4. 在开始录前几遍时，大家都在瞎折腾，没好好干活。P aul 唱完 "Desmond lets the children lend a hand" 这句后， Lennon 喊了声 "Arm ！ " ，紧接着 Harrison 喊了声 "Leg!" 最后 Paul 还故意把男女性别唱反，把描写 Molly “对镜贴花黄”的那一句唱成“ Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face ”。这个瞎折腾的版本，收录在《 White Album 》（白色专辑）里；

5. 在录这首歌时，保罗反复修改，重复录制了多次还没有定下最终版本。据说到第三天，我们的反叛的 John Lennon 因为毒瘾有点发作，而且搞了两天也累了，再不想穷折腾，刚进录音室就冲到钢琴前坐下来，嚷嚷着要和大家进行现场录音（再不管什么多音轨了！）。 Lennon 把钢琴弹得“邦邦邦”响，节奏也比原先快了一倍，大家就这么把曲子录完了，最后一听，效果好哇！这就是 Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da 的最终版，收录在《 Anthology 3 》里。

 

“ We went to a cinema show in a village where a guy put up a mobile screen and all the villagers came along and loved it. I remember walking down a little jungle path with my guitar to get to the village from the camp. I was playing 'Desmond has a barrow in the market place...”

----Paul McCartney
Anthology

' Ob la di ob la da' was a phrase McCartney had heard from a friend called Jimmy Anonmuogharan Scott Emuakpor (known as Jimmy Scott), who he met in the Bag O' Nails club in Soho , London . The phrase was said to be Yoruba for 'Life goes on'.

“I had a friend called Jimmy Scott who was a Nigerian conga player, who I used to meet in the clubs in London . He had a few expressions, one of which was, ' Ob la di ob la da, life goes on, bra'. I used to love this expression... He sounded like a philosopher to me. He was a great guy anyway and I said to him, 'I really like that expression and I'm thinking of using it,' and I sent him a cheque in recognition of that fact later because even though I had written the whole song and he didn't help me, it was his expression.

It's a very me song, in as much as it's a fantasy about a couple of people who don't really exist, Desmond and Molly. I'm keen on names too. Desmond is a very Caribbean name.”
----Paul McCartney
Anthology

John Lennon, by this point infatuated by Yoko Ono and addicted to heroin, hated working on Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. He described the song as "Paul's granny shit".

McCartney's insistence in re-recording the song a number of times with different arrangements didn't help matters, and the process contributed to the fraught atmosphere that dominated many of the White Album sessions; balance engineer Geoff Emerick quit the sessions the day after Ob-La-Di was completed.

McCartney's hope was for the song to become a Beatles single, although this was vetoed by the others. Instead the Scottish group Marmalade took it to the top of the UK chart at Christmas 1968.

“If the recording process was fractious, The Beatles' version sounds unusually high-spirited. The line "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face" was sung accidentally by McCartney and left in.”

The backing vocals were also full of fun asides: listen out for Lennon and Harrison singing "Arm!" and "Leg!" after the line "Desmond lets the children lend a hand". Harrison can also be heard saying the word "Foot" in the final verse, after McCartney sings "Molly lets the children lend a hand".

 

In the studio

The Beatles spent around 42 hours completing Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. Recording began on Wednesday 3 July 1968 , though the song was subsequently remade twice.

On the first day the rhythm track was recorded, with McCartney on acoustic guitar and Starr on drums. McCartney overdubbed vocals and more guitar onto take seven, before deciding take four was better and adding guitar to that too.

The next day he added lead vocals onto take four, together with backing vocals from Lennon and Harrison. McCartney then recorded an additional lead vocal part.

More overdubs followed on 5 July. Three saxophones were taped, along with bongos played by Jimmy Scott. A piccolo flute was also recorded, although this was wiped during the session and replaced by another guitar part by McCartney - deliberately recorded at a hiangh level so it distorted and sounded like a bass.

This version of Ob-La-Di can be heard on Anthology 3. On 8 July, however, The Beatles scrapped the recordings to date and began a remake. A dozen takes were recorded, with the group playing live. The line up was McCartney on fuzz bass, Lennon on piano, Harrison on acoustic guitar and Starr on drums.

By this point Lennon had grown tired of recording the song. He reportedly came into the studio under the influence of drugs, sat down at the piano and banged out the introduction on the keys.

John Lennon came to the session really stoned, totally out of it on something or other, and he said, 'All right, we're gonna do Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. He went straight to the piano and smashed the keys with an almighty amount of volume, twice the speed of how they'd done it before, and said, 'This is it! Come on!' He was really aggravated. That was the version they ended up using.

Richard Lush, engineer

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

The 8 July session saw the group record 12 takes of the song, after which lead and backing vocals and percussion instruments were overdubbed onto the final attempt.

The next day Paul McCartney began yet another remake, but after two attempts this was scrapped and work resumed on the first remake. The lead and backing vocals recorded the previous night were redone, along with assorted sound effects, handclaps, ho-ho-hos and what Mark Lewisohn describes as "vocal percussion".

On 11 July three saxophones were recorded together with a bass part. The sax players' names are not known. Four days later McCartney re-recorded his lead vocals, and the song was finally complete.