A Day in the Life

"A Day in the Life" is a song by the English rock group The Beatles. It is the last song on the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is a very famous song.

"A Day in the Life"
Song by The Beatles
from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
Released1 June 1967
Recorded19 and 20 January and
3 and 10 February 1967,
EMI Studios, London
GenreArt rock, progressive rock,[1] baroque pop, psychedelic rock[2]
Length5:03
LabelParlophone, Capitol, EMI
Songwriter(s)Lennon/McCartney
Producer(s)George Martin
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing

Inspiration

Many people think that the first verse was written about the death of Tara Browne, the 21-year-old heir to the Guinness fortune and close friend of Lennon and McCartney, who had crashed his Lotus Elan on 18 December 1966 when a Volkswagen pulled out of a side street into his path in Redcliffe Gardens, Earls Court.[3] In many interviews, Lennon said this was the verse's main inspiration. However, George Martin thinks that it is a drug reference (as is the line "I'd love to turn you on" and other passages from the song) and while writing the lyrics Lennon and McCartney were imagining a stoned politician who had stopped at a set of traffic lights.[4]

The description of the accident in "A Day in the Life" was not a literal description of Browne's fatal accident. Lennon said, "I didn't copy the accident. Tara didn't blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse. The details of the accident in the song — not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene — were similarly part of the fiction."[5]

The final verse was inspired by an article in the Daily Mail in January 1967 regarding a substantial number of potholes in Blackburn, a town in Lancashire. However, he had a problem with the words of the final verse, not being able to think of how to connect "Now they know how many holes it takes to" and "the Albert Hall". His friend Terry Doran suggested that they would "fill" the Albert Hall.[6]

Personnel

A Day In The Life Media

Notes

  1. Bill Martin, Listening to the future: the time of progressive rock, 1968–1978, (Open Court Publishing, 1998), ISBN 0-8126-9368-X, p.39.
  2. J. DeRogatis, Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (Milwaukie, Michigan: Hal Leonard, 2003), ISBN 0-634-05548-8, p. 48.
  3. "Sold On Song — TOP 100 - Day in the Life". BBC Radio 2. Retrieved 31 December 2006.
  4. Martin, George (1994). Summer Of Love: The Making Of Sgt Pepper. London: Macmillan Ltd. p. 50. ISBN 0-333-60398-2.
  5. Davies, Hunter (1968). The Beatles. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Book Co. p. 357. ISBN 0-070-154-570.
  6. Bona, Anda Mitchell-Dala. "The Origins of "A Day in the Life"". Archived from the original on 19 April 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2008.
  7. Bona, Anna Mitchell-Dala. "The Musicians and Arrangers". Archived from the original on 16 June 2008. Retrieved 5 April 2008.

Other websites