Personnel:
Cliff Wilson: Guitars, Acoustic Bass, Vocals
Judy Wilson: Vocals
Paul Enuco: Drums, Percussion
Why this song is on the album:
Judy initially suggested this as a song for her and me to sing at Hannah and Joe’s wedding, which we did (9/28/2019). It went well, I think – at least I have not yet been presented with convincing evidence to the contrary. So we did it again for this project; now when we listen to the recording, we will recall that wonderful weekend in North Georgia.
Performance notes:
Judy and I performed together in a band in high school. As I went on to Princeton and pursued other musical outlets, she continued singing with bands, as her livelihood, for decades. Our voices always blended well, and even now I find a special comfort in singing alongside her — even virtually so, as we recorded our parts separately.
Paul recorded the drum part using my digital kit, and used the same kit to record the woodblock tracks.
I played the bass part on acoustic bass.
How it’s different from the Beatles’ version:
The bass part on the Beatles recording is sung by McCartney, not played on a bass. It’s quite dreadful, IMHO. I have no objection to sung bass parts generally; I sang with the Princeton Footnotes for four years, and we had terrific singers doing all kinds of cool bass parts. But, yuck! This song is a cautionary tale about what happens when a high first tenor sings bass. Honestly, I don’t know what he was going for here. So I chose to play it on acoustic bass, which I think melds nicely with the acoustic guitar and works with the mellow vibe of this ballad.
Fun fact:
George Harrison does not appear on this song at all. McCartney plays the guitars, sings the bass part, and does all the vocals. Ringo and John play various percussion instruments.
CCW