DM's Beatles forums
Beatles forums => Songs => Song Of The Week Series => Topic started by: Hello Goodbye on April 20, 2015, 10:25:45 PM
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Hello Goodbye
(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/36/18/5e/36185e03b6ad52de4f842dd2d3e11065.jpg)
Hello Goodbye was one of my songs. There are Geminian influences here I think: the twins. It's such a deep theme in the universe, duality – man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write. It's just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive. "You say goodbye, I say hello…You say stop, I say go." I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day.
Paul McCartney Many Years From Now
One evening in August 1967, Paul McCartney had Brian Epstein’s personal assistant Alistair Taylor over for drinks at his Cavendish Avenue home. Paul explained to him that it was quite easy to write a song. To demonstrate, Paul asked him to sit down at the old hand-carved harmoniim he had in his dining room. Paul was seated at the bass end and Alistair Taylor at the treble end. Paul said "What I want you to do is hit any note, any note at all. Don't worry about what ones; just hit notes with both hands, as you feel like it. I'll do the same this end, and I'm going to shout out a word, and I want you to shout out the opposite word. That's all, and then we'll write a song." Paul shouted "black" and Alistair shouted "white." "Come." "Go." "Hello." Goodbye." "There you go," said Paul, "we've got a song!"
On 2 October 1967, The Beatles entered EMI Studio Two at 10:00 PM to begin recording Paul’s new composition Hello Goodbye. After first creating a mono mix of their previously recorded song Your Mother Should Know, they began recording the rhythm track for this new composition which was named Hello Hello at this point. The rhythm track consisted of Paul on piano, John on organ, Ringo on drums and George on tambourine...
Hello Goodbye - The Beatles - Early Take. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMMhLNGwGdQ#)
Fourteen attempts were made of the rhythm track, the final take (Take 14) being deemed the best. The arrangement was fully decided upon right from the beginning, especially evident by the presence of the reprise ending, nicknamed the “Maori Finale,” even on the first take. The session ended at 2:30 AM.
Vocal and instrumental overdubs were done on 19 October beginning at 7:00 PM and ending at 3:30 AM. Viola overdubs were added on 20 October. Paul overdubbed his bass guitar on 25 October and final tape reductions were made on 1 November. The song was renamed Hello Goodbye on that day too...
Hello, Goodbye by The Beatles (2009 remastered MONO mix!) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3_1_WVFe-o#ws)
Paul McCartney - Lead Vocals, Piano (Hamburg Steinway Baby Grand), Bass (1964 Rickenbacker 4001 S), conga drums
John Lennon - Organ (Hammond B-3), Piano (Hamburg Steinway Baby Grand), Background Vocals, handclaps
George Harrison - Lead Guitar (1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster), tambourine, Background Vocals, handclaps
Ringo Starr - Drums (1964 Ludwig Super Classic Black Oyster Pearl), maracas
Ken Essex - Viola
Leo Birnbaum - Viola
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One of my faves from that period. So upbeat and cheerful. Just right as a pick-me-up.
:)
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The repetitive words always made this sound a bit thrown together for me. But the music and arrangement are bright and cheery and it's hard not to enjoy it. It does tend to get referenced by non Beatle fans when they want to slag them off. So Paul made a bit of an easy target here.
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I enjoy it every time I hear it. Paired with Lady Madonna and you have two monstrous Paul upbeat songs. Fun.
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It does tend to get referenced by non Beatle fans when they want to slag them off.
I saw a comment on a Facebook page once regarding this song. The person said they hated it and that it sounded like a song from Barney and Friends (a kid's show on public television). I replied "them's fightin' words!". I've always liked this song but seeing the promo video during the Anthology broadcast made me really like it. I wondered if I'd ever see that magnificent bit of cinematography again. Little did I know...
The Beatles - Hello Goodbye [HIGH QUALITY] (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xilr3e)
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Ed Sullivan played that promo on his show when Hello Goodbye was released in late November 1967. I used to watch the Ed Sullivan Show every week hoping he'd have a Beatles promo to show.
The Beatles filmed three promos for Hello Goodbye at London's Saville Theatre on 10 November 1967. Here's the second version...
The Beatles - Hello Goodbye 2 - HQ - Original Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ8CVGB1MnE#)
The third version was a mix of the first two with these scenes added during the “Maori Finale...”
The Beatles - Dancing in Hello Goodbye (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz1f0GWEwGw#ws)
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Target commercial 2007...
you say goodbye (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJzuntQlcvg#)
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I have to be honest and say this isn't one of my favorites. I think I'm just still sick of it from when I was younger and listened to it time after time to learn the drums. Its a nice, upbeat piece, but pretty middle of the road for me.
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I have to be honest and say this isn't one of my favorites. I think I'm just still sick of it from when I was younger and listened to it time after time to learn the drums. Its a nice, upbeat piece, but pretty middle of the road for me.
I don't think the lyrics are great or overly inventive but the pace, beat and bass throughout is "fun" to me.
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"Mindless fun" are the words that describe this song, I think.
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I really really like this song. Probably in my top 5 Beatles singles. I think it has immaculate production and arrangement - its warmth, clarity and brightness leaps out from all that md-sixties clutter normally on the radio at the time. If paul did indeed have a Brian Wilson inspired vision to make pristine pop then he achieves it here.
The contentious point is of course the lyric. I make no secret that I find some of their earlier songs rather unpalatable because of the inane words - I'm thinking Love Me Do, From Me To You and I Want To Hold Your Hand in particular. But nor do I believe pop/rock needs to be "deep", whatever that means.
But the lyrical simplicity here doesn't bother me. They might even enhance the song.
And love those Tom toms at the end. Heyla, heyla halo. Fantastic!
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Listened again just now, trademark Beatle backing vocals are awesome too. Very subtle "hello goodbyes" from John and maybe George. Love their backing harmonizing in songs.
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Love their backing harmonizing in songs.
Me too blmeanie. Some people were just meant to sing together.
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Always liked it. Whenever George gets to play some guitar it's a good song. Especially in 67!
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I like the girl dancing on John's left.
(http://i56.tinypic.com/2cxzuhj.jpg)
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I like the girl dancing on John's left.
([url]http://i56.tinypic.com/2cxzuhj.jpg[/url])
How they move their hips like that?!
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While not a fave of mine, I love the overall production and sound. It sounds very modern even after 48 years
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How they move their hips like that?!
Other than their hips. What an awesome paint job on Paul's bass! Too bad her stripped it when John and George stripped their Casinos. It could be an icon like Georges Bepop a lula
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(http://lmw-28if.de/features/50/mccartneyrickenbacker.jpg)
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(http://archives.rickresource.com/oldattachments/81574.jpg)
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(http://beatlephotoblog.com/photos/blogger/_AInLCzbQBXM/StfACZf9R2I/AAAAAAAANxE/yM8NCRUFirc/s1600/1.jpg)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Gc_-2Yg_U0s/TGMyYB_X_8I/AAAAAAAAAF0/_d3UjHd9yh8/s1600/bass3.jpg)
(http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/11/0f/7a/110f7ae398d491aed68fddc2bb9b6abc.jpg)
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(https://beatlemedo.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/paul20mccartney2020wings20-20rockshow20620197620mpl20communications20ltd2020photographer20robert20ellis.jpg)
Rickenbacker 4001S stripped. Treble and bass bouts filed.
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Ive always liked this song
Yes, the words are a bit mind numbingly simplistic and a bit annoying after a while, but for me the wonderfully constructed song that it is more than makes up for it.
I think of The Jacksons song ABC and that too had a wonderful melody & construction.
Paul had a knack of writing some songs that sounded simple but were in fact quite complicated in their structure, Penny Lane comes to mind as well, another bright and breezy well crafted song, although in this case with great lyrics.
Probably my favourite bit of HG is the very beginning - YOU SAY YES !! .............kind of slaps you in that face, it really is a great opening, and the chromatic run down the piano scale when Paul sings "I say Go Go Go" is really nice.
Apparently John dismissed Hello, Goodbye as "three minutes of contradictions and meaningless juxtapositions" and he may have had a point, surely his Walrus the better of the two, quite an outstanding piece of music, monumentally new for its time and massively influential.
I remember in Britain it was treated as a double A side really with both songs getting loads of airplay.
Its no classic, but a piece of very well crafted pop music.
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I think of The Jacksons song ABC and that too had a wonderful melody & construction.
I still like that one too Kev.
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Hey Kev. Great to see you're back.
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I still like that one too Kev.
Yes me too Kelley
another very simple lyric
catchier song than Pauls I think
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Hey Kev. Great to see you're back.
Thanks moog ;)
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Paul had a knack of writing some songs that sounded simple but were in fact quite complicated in their structure
This
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Ive always liked this song
Yes, the words are a bit mind numbingly simplistic and a bit annoying after a while, but for me the wonderfully constructed song that it is more than makes up for it.
I think of The Jacksons song ABC and that too had a wonderful melody & construction.
Paul had a knack of writing some songs that sounded simple but were in fact quite complicated in their structure, Penny Lane comes to mind as well, another bright and breezy well crafted song, although in this case with great lyrics.
Probably my favourite bit of HG is the very beginning - YOU SAY YES !! .............kind of slaps you in that face, it really is a great opening, and the chromatic run down the piano scale when Paul sings "I say Go Go Go" is really nice.
Apparently John dismissed Hello, Goodbye as "three minutes of contradictions and meaningless juxtapositions" and he may have had a point, surely his Walrus the better of the two, quite an outstanding piece of music, monumentally new for its time and massively influential.
I remember in Britain it was treated as a double A side really with both songs getting loads of airplay.
Its no classic, but a piece of very well crafted pop music.
It's funny you mention Johns opinion of contradiction as he must have been influenced by it as Everybody'sGSTHEFMAMmonkey is a song about opposites. I'm sure there are a couple more.
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It's funny you mention Johns opinion of contradiction as he must have been influenced by it as Everybody'sGSTHEFMAMmonkey is a song about opposites. I'm sure there are a couple more.
Yes, and you could say John himself was the epitome of contradiction :)
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Paul had a knack of writing some songs that sounded simple but were in fact quite complicated in their structure, Penny Lane comes to mind as well, another bright and breezy well crafted song, although in this case with great lyrics.
Very true. And this to me is what separates catchy songs that you tire of quickly and Paul-type catchy songs that bear long term listening. There's more going on than is apparent. Which I think is a key characteristic of the Beatles. They weren't alone of course but particularly with their mid period stuff they were very consistent.
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From WogBlog:
Outtakes from the "Hello Goodbye" video
! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WALLLcfN1rk#)
Scenes recorded for the music video for "Hello Goodbye" have been made public on YouTube by Revolver Records. We see Tony Bramwell with the clapper board and then John, Paul and George are fooling around while Ringo is on drums in the background. This is raw footage that hasn't previously circulated! The Beatles are on stage at Saville Theatre, Paul acted as director for this video and the day was 10 November, 1967. At the time the theatre was still leased by NEMS Enterprises, despite the recent death of Brian Epstein.
"I directed the promo film we made for Hello, Goodbye. Directing a film is something that everyone always wants to get into. It was something I'd always been interested in, until I actually tried it. Then I realised it was too much like hard work. Someone summed it up when they said: 'There's always someone arriving saying: "Do you want the gold pistols or the silver pistols?"' Then you think: 'Um, um...' There was so much of that going on - so many decisions to be made - that I ended up hating it.
I didn't really direct the film - all we needed was a couple of cameras, some good cameramen, a bit of sound and some dancing girls. I thought, 'We'll just hire a theatre and show up there one afternoon.' And that was what we did: we took our Sgt Pepper suits along and filmed at the Saville Theatre in the West End."
Paul McCartney
Anthology
We have a sneaking suspicion that this outtake, along with others, will eventually appear on a future underground DVD release, without the "Revolver TV" watermark.
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Thank you for posting that, Cor!! I think this video qualifies as another version of the Hello Goodbye promos. Paul's pantomimes are cute. John's trying to say something with his signing. :)
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It's great, isn't it? icon_good
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I sincerely love this song. I know the lyrics are simple but I've always thought (and I think said s before on this forum) that they're really about the end of a relationship. Whether that was his romantic relationship with Jane or his professional relationship with John I don't know. It's about disagreements and trying to make a situation work when the other person clearly doesn't want to. Very Paul-like to shroud his real meaning in a sweet melody.
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I've always been fond of "Hello Goodbye" - the flower power follow up to "We Can Work It Out" I feel - Apart from that searing guitar phrase and Ringo's wonderfully elastic drumming it's got a crisp, spangly freshness about it... somehow more "fun" than Pepper and the promo with 1967 Beatles shoehorned back into 1963 collarless jackets is a nod and a wink back to simpler times.
Paul has fun playing with lyrical paradox and those tight harmonies from John and George seal the deal. A nice tongue-in-cheek dash of mischief and number one hit written all over it.
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I can probably say this about a lot of Beatles songs, but definitely 1 of my fav, like top 10! icon_king
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The Maori Finale
I found this interesting article on WogBlog - all things Beatle! Maori Finale (http://wogew.blogspot.com/2013/06/maori-finale.html)
So, from the Maori language:
"Kushi hela" = "glad"
"Purna Heba" = "a desire fulfilled"
"Dukh, sukha Helu" = "discussing many things, good and bad"
http://youtu.be/suEUPQFSJm0 (http://youtu.be/suEUPQFSJm0)
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"Hello Goodbye" by the Beats.
! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN31byRh60A#)
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The Maori Finale
I found this interesting article on WogBlog - all things Beatle! Maori Finale ([url]http://wogew.blogspot.com/2013/06/maori-finale.html[/url])
So, from the Maori language:
"Kushi hela" = "glad"
"Purna Heba" = "a desire fulfilled"
"Dukh, sukha Helu" = "discussing many things, good and bad"
Yeah, interesting, but he sings 'helloa' at the end. I've always thought it's a mixture of maori and hawaian! Sort of 'glad to see you, it's a fulfilled desire, greetings'. A positive end to the song by the optimistic singer.
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([url]https://beatlemedo.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/paul20mccartney2020wings20-20rockshow20620197620mpl20communications20ltd2020photographer20robert20ellis.jpg[/url])
Rickenbacker 4001S stripped. Treble and bass bouts filed.
Love that Ringobacker bass! icon_cool
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Sing your best vocal to this early take...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR9EqJHxFaA# (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR9EqJHxFaA#)
:)
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Sing your best vocal to this early take
Only if I’m positive that no one else is home!
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^
Well, you can start with the hello goodbye hello goodbyes.
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Even these little kids can do it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V5w4HHxYCE# (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V5w4HHxYCE#)
(http://i56.tinypic.com/2cxzuhj.jpg)
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Even Zoe and her class can do it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csYJT00A0zU# (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csYJT00A0zU#)
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And the Lake Forest High School Combined Choirs...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayxHW1TixIw# (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayxHW1TixIw#)
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Le Petit Choeur de Creil chante Hello Goodbye...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PnsLRrQ9gI# (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PnsLRrQ9gI#)
Magnifique! icon_good
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Et Paul McCartney en Montréal...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdU_b0ALFOo# (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdU_b0ALFOo#)
icon_good
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Even these little kids can do it...
Aww...they sure did! All these videos are great. It’s not that I don’t think I can do it (though not as well as the older kids, of course!). I just don’t want anyone around while I think I can do it, if that makes sense! But those littlest kids made me think about the programs we did when I taught preschool. It often ended up as my assistant and I doing a duet. Somehow I was okay in that scenario but I could never, ever sing alone in front of anyone, even though I love to sing.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrsyY7_YMec# (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrsyY7_YMec#)
icon_good
Some nice drum fills here, Todd. She knows what she's doing.
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A chance to study Ringo's drum fills here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMMhLNGwGdQ# (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMMhLNGwGdQ#)