I Feel Fine
From Beatles Wiki - Interviews, Music, Beatles Quotes
| “I Feel Fine” | |||||
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| Single by The Beatles | |||||
| B-side | "She's A Woman" | ||||
| Released | 27 November 1964(UK) 23 November 1964(US) |
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| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | Abbey Road Studios: 18 October 1964 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 2:18 | ||||
| Label | Parlophone (UK) R5160 Capitol (US) 5222 |
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| Writer(s) | Lennon/McCartney | ||||
| Producer | George Martin | ||||
| The Beatles singles chronology | |||||
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| “ | This was the first time feedback was used on a record. It's right at the beginning. | „ |
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—John Lennon, 1972 |
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| “ | That's me completely. Including the guitar lick with the first feedback anywhere. I defy anybody to find a record... unless it is some old blues record from 1922... that uses feedback that way. So I claim it for the Beatles. Before Hendrix, before the Who, before anybody. The first feedback on record. | „ |
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—John Lennon, 1980 |
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| “ | John had a semi-acoustic Gibson guitar. It had a pick-up on it so it could be amplified... We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp. I can still see him doing it... and it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!" And we went, 'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' Wow, it's a great sound!' George Martin was there so we said, 'Can we have that on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on the front.' It was a found object-- an accident caused by leaning the guitar against the amp. The song itself was more John's than mine. We sat down and co-wrote it with John's original idea. John sang it, I'm on harmonies. | „ |
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—Paul McCartney, 1994 |
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| “ | I wrote 'I Feel Fine' around that riff going on in the background. I tried to get that effect into practically every song on the LP, but the others wouldn't have it. ... George and I play the same bit on guitar together — that's the bit that'll set your feet a-tapping, as the reviews say. I suppose it has a bit of a country-and-western feel about it, but then so have a lot of our songs. The middle-eight is the most tuneful part, to me, because it's a typical Beatles bit. | „ |
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—John Lennon, The Beatles Anthology, p.160, 2000 |
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| “ | I'll tell you exactly how that came about. We were crossing Scotland in the back of an Austin Princess, singing 'Matchbox' (Carl Perkins) in three-part harmony. And it turned into 'I Feel Fine.' The guitar part was from Bobby Parker's 'Watch Your Step,' just a bastardized version. | „ |
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—George Harrison, Musician Magazine, March 1990, p. 34, 1990 |
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| “ | The guitar riff was actually influenced by a record called 'Watch Your Step' by Bobby Parker. | „ |
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—George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology, p.160, 2000 |
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| “ | 'Watch Your Step' is one of my favourite records. The Beatles have used the lick in various forms. The Allman Brothers used the lick straight as it was. | „ |
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—John Lennon, The Beatles Anthology, p.160, 2000 |
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| “ | I wrote this at a recording session. It was tied together around the guitar riff that opens it. | „ |
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—John Lennon, 1974 |
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2009 Remaster of "I Feel Fine" w/video montage of performance:
Listen to guitarist Bobby Parker's influential 'Watch Your Step' (1961). NOTE the drumming — virtually identical to the Beatles' song — and, of course, the similarity in the guitar riff, as John notes:
