Cheers to John Lennon

One of my many favorites of the Beatles, written mainly by Lennon, is the catchy, upbeat, stinging musicality of the superb number 'Hey Bulldog'. It was spring of 1968, and despite cooling relationships among the group, their creativity just kept on growing. In the video below, they were in studio to make a promotional film for 'Lady Madonna', but they were recorded while performing an equally brilliant piece of music. It's been said by their engineer Geoff Emerick, that this was the last time that "featured a team dynamic with enthusiasm from every member". He went on to say in his book Here, There, and Everywhere, "Paul's bass line was probably the most inventive of any he'd done since Pepper, and it was really well played. Harrison's solo was sparkling, too--one of the few times that he nailed it right away."

Lennon's voice and humour are also evident, not to mention his buddy Paul's as well. They both harmonize naturally, and engage the listener. McCartney remembers it this way:

"I remember (it) as being one of John's songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it's mainly his vibe. There's a little rap at the end between John and I, we went into a crazy little thing at the end. We always tried to make every song different because we figured, 'Why write something like the last one? We've done that.' We were on a ladder so there was never any sense of stepping down a rung, or even staying on the same rung, it was better to move one rung ahead".

Here it is as this tribute to John Lennon, and the Fab Four.