Julia

Death comes into the lyric (Elegy for deceased mother), which is uncommon for them, set against the motifs of love and autobiography. Formally it is confessional in tone, something the Beatles started 4 years before and went on doing for 22 songs. The lyric turns to personification ('Windy smile', 'silent cloud, touch me'), as it does in 'I'm Looking Through You', 3 years earlier. Worth noting, the title is sung in the refrain and refers to a person, and the language is reaching towards poetry (imagistic, metaphor-dense). The writing draws on literature and Donovan.

'Julia' runs near 70 BPM in D major, and it is a folk and ballad piece all the way. The tune carries an appoggiatura leaning against the chord, as it does in 'This Boy', 5 years earlier. Also, the record has fingerpicking rather than strumming (travis-picking learned from Donovan) and a capo moving the shapes up (2nd fret, key of C shapes sounding in D). Listen to the shape and you find it is built without verses and choruses. The harmony reaches for a min9 chord, one that four of the Beatles' records feature, such as 'Golden Slumbers' and 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun'. Worth a footnote, the chords run D → Bm7 → F♯m → A, which is 'Sie Liebt Dich''s C → Am → Em → G7 in another key.

The tape rolled at EMI Studio 2. Lennon completed the song in three takes, double-tracking both vocal and acoustic guitar, and it was written in Rishikesh after Donovan taught him Travis-picking. That Gibson J-160E is Lennon's guitar, which they used more in 1964 than in any other year. The studio work runs to ADT (double tracked vocal), one of 28 Beatles records to use it, going back to 1965. Among the 37 songs they recorded in 1968 this was the last, and the 183rd of the career.

The words and the music are both Lennon's, and it was made without all four Beatles. It is the last Beatles session Ken Scott engineered, which they used more in 1965 than in any other year.

The record was never a single, and it reached the public with The Beatles (The White Album), on November 22, 1968. This song was the 21st of the 34 records they released in that year, and the 163rd of their career.