Happiness Is a Warm Gun
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| "Dear Prudence" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles | ||
| Album | The Beatles | |
| Released | 22 November 1968 | |
| Recorded | 23-25 September 1968 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 2:43 | |
| Label | Apple Records | |
| Writer | Lennon/McCartney | |
| Producer | George Martin | |
| The Beatles track listing | ||
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Side one
Side two
Side three
Side four
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Quotes
| “ | No, it's not about heroin. A gun magazine was sitting there with a smoking gun on the cover and an article that I never read inside called "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." I took it right from there. I took it as the terrible idea of just having shot some animal. | „ |
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—John Lennon, Playboy interview, 1980 |
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| “ | I thought, "What a fantastic, insane thing to say." A warm gun means that you've just shot something. [...] It was put together from bits of about three different songs and just seemed to run the gamut of many types of rock music. [...] I consider it one of my best. It's a beautiful song, and I really like all the things that are happening in it. | „ |
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—John Lennon, The Beatles: A Celebration by Geoffrey Giuliano, 1993 |
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| “ | The idea of 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' is from an advert in an American paper. It said, Happiness is a warm gun, and it was 'Get ready for the long hot summer with a rifle,' you know, 'Come and buy them now!' It was an advert in a gun magazine. And it was so sick, you know, the idea of 'Come and buy your killing weapons,' and 'Come and get it.' But it's just such a great line, 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' that John sort of took that and used that as a chorus. And the rest of the words... I think they're great words, you know. It's a poem. And he finishes off, 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun, yes it is.' It's just good poetry. | „ |
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—Paul McCartney, 1968 |
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| “ | The first half, "She's not a girl who misses much," was just something I was writing vaguely connected with Yoko just after first meeting her and these were all different segments of songs that I wrote altogether and stuck them all in one piece. Just like a collage, instead of an album like Pepper. This was all done in one song and it went through all the different styles of rock 'n' roll and it was also about a gun and not about heroin or anything. In those days I had no idea about heroin. I'd never seen it or knew anybody that had touched it or taken it. | „ |
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—John Lennon |
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| “ | They all said it was about drugs, but it was more about rock 'n roll than drugs. It's sort of a history of rock 'n roll ... I don't know why people said it was about the needle in heroin. I've only seen somebody do something with a needle once, and I don't like to see it at all. | „ |
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—John Lennon, Hit Parader interview, 1972 |
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| “ | "Happiness is a Warm Gun" went to a great many takes," says Chris Thomas. "We used to make jokes out of it. 'Take 83!'" Eighty-three takes it did not reach, but it did make 70 rhythm track recordings rather effortlessly, mostly because of the complicated tempo changes between 3/4 and 4/4 time. | „ |
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—The Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn, p. 157, 1988 |
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