She's not a girl who
misses much
Do-do-do-do-do, oh yeah
She's well acquainted
With the touch of a velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane
Man in the crowd
With the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots
Lying with his eyes
While his hands are busy
Working overtime
The soap impression of his wife
Which he ate and donated
to the National Trust
I need a fix cause I'm going down
Down to the bits that I've left up town
I need a fix cause I'm going down
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun
(BIS)
Happiness is a warm gun
( bang bang shoot shoot )
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is
(bang bang shoot shoot)
When I hold you in my arms (oh yes)
When I feel my finger on your trigger (oh yes)
I know nobody can do me no harm
Because
happiness is a warm gun, momma
Happiness is a warm gun
-Yes it is.
Happiness is a warm, yes it is...
Gun!
Well don't ya know that happiness is a warm gun, momma? (yeah)
I love this song, Johns voice sounds soooooo cool in the opening bars and it goes on to show what a great rock singer he was, Paul & George do excellent work on here as does Ringo, the backing vocals and harmonies are spot on and what an incredible and inventive song for any writer to come up with, absolutely astounding IMO.....This is The Beatles at theyre most creative and best.
The title came from an article in a gun magazine John Lennon saw. "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" was the slogan of the National Rifle Association. It struck Lennon as "fantastic, insane… a warm gun means you've just shot something."
The song begins in standard 4/4 time but quickly deviates from the norm. There is a 5-bar phrase rather than the usual 4, beginning with the line "She's well acquainted...". The last line of that verse ("A soap impression of his wife...") has a 6/4 bar (the second measure of the phrase) before going back to 4/4 for the last two bars of the phrase, and Ringo Starr plays the downbeat on "1" in the fourth bar, giving a more unusual feel. The subsequent guitar lead and bridge can be analysed as a 3-bar pattern of 9/8, 12/8, 12/8, with Ringo retaining an implied 6/8 throughout, so that the snare drum downbeats are on "1" as often as not. This gives way to a faster 4-bar pattern of 6/8, 6/4, 6/8, 7/4 for the "Mother Superior..." section before returning to a slower 4/4 for the doo-wop ending.
During the "When I hold you..." section, the rest of the band returns to 6/8, but Ringo stays in 4/4. (GET IT ??)
This is a rare example of polyrhythm in The Beatles' catalogue.
"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is reportedly Paul McCartney's and George Harrison's favourite song on the White Album. I think George did a good job on the guitar solo pre-empting the 'I Need A Fix.." section with a similar flat moody melody.
Although tensions were high among the band during the album's recording sessions, they reportedly collaborated as a close unit to work out the song's challenging rhythmic and meter issues, and consequently considered it one of the few true "Beatles" songs on the album.
The song was not met warmly by American and British censors. It was banned by the BBC because of its sexual symbolism !!
PersonnelJohn Lennon – double-tracked vocal, backing vocals, guitar
Paul McCartney – bass guitar, backing vocals
George Harrison – fuzzed lead guitar, backing vocals
Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine