The Beatles Song Where Paul McCartney Tried and Failed to Conduct an Orchestra
The Beatles were influential for the innovative and fresh techniques that they implemented for much of their music. These techniques created sounds that many rock fans weren’t used to hearing. For one Beatles song, Paul McCartney wanted to up the ante by bringing in an orchestra. However, it was a hilarious failure when he tried to conduct the orchestra.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon worked on ‘A Day in the Life’ together
“A Day in the Life” is the final track from the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who realized they were making a more edgy Beatles song. In an interview with GQ, McCartney described the process of writing the track with Lennon.
‘A Day in the Life’ was a song that John had started, and he kind of had the first verse, and this often happened. One of us would have a little bit of an idea, and instead of sitting down and sweating it, we’d just bring it to the other one, and we’d kind of finish it together,” McCartney explained. “He had the first verse, ‘I read the news today, oh boy,’ and we sat in my music room in London, and just started playing around with it, got a second verse, and then we got to what was gonna lead into the middle, and we kind of looked at each other and kind of knew we were being a little edgy…We kind of knew this would have an effect. And it worked.”
Paul McCartney attempted to instruct the orchestra for the Beatles track
For the recording of “A Day in the Life,” The Beatles brought an orchestra to give the track a more epic sound. McCartney wanted the orchestra to play the track in a specific way. However, the British artist didn’t realize that orchestras don’t operate that way. They need specific written instructions, so producer George Martin clarified what Macca wanted.
“I’d been talking to people and reading about avant-garde music. Sort of atonal stuff, crazy ideas,” McCartney shared. “And I came up with this idea, I said to the orchestra, ‘You should start, all of you…’ And they were all looking at me, puzzled. We got a real symphony orchestra in London who were used to playing Beethoven. And here’s me, this crazy guy out of a group, and I’m saying, ‘All you’ve gotta do is, everyone, start on the lowest note that your instrument could play and work your way up to the highest at your own pace.’”
“That was too puzzling for them,” he added. “Orchestras don’t like that kind of thing. They like it written down, and they like to know exactly what they’re supposed to do. So, George Martin, the producer, realized that. He kept the random aspect, but he said to the people, ‘You should be at about this note at this point of the song, and then you should’ve gotten to this note, and this note…’ And he left the random thing. So that’s why it sounds sort of chaotic.”
‘A Day in the Life’ got banned by the BBC
“A Day in the Life” is one of The Beatles’ edgier songs, and it went over the edge for the BBC. The BBC banned the song for the line “I’d love to turn you on,” which they believed was a reference to drugs. The Beatles were not unfamiliar with being banned by the BBC, and “A Day in the Life” joined an extensive list of tracks that got banned for allegedly alluding to drugs.
