Mother Nature's Son

This song touches on childhood (Young, boy, lullaby), along with the motifs of nature and spirituality. The telling is sung in a persona, most at home in the Beatles' 1965 writing. Worth noting, the title is sung in the refrain, and the language is full of nonsense words and reaching for the poetic (pastoral, imagistic register). The writing draws on folk and eastern philosophy.

'Mother Nature's Son' moves at about 83 BPM in D major, a folk and ballad song with Nat King Cole influences (McCartney has said 'Nature Boy' gave him the title and the theme). The harmony reaches for an add9 chord, which turns up on eleven of their records, and McCartney reached for it more than the others, on six of them. The record has fingerpicking rather than strumming and a guitar intro. A curiosity, the chords run D → Bm → A → E, the same move 'Long, Long, Long' makes as B♭ → Gm → F → C. To add to that, 3 songs open on guitar alone, Blackbird, Dear Prudence, and Mother Nature's Son.

McCartney recorded 25 takes alone at EMI Studio 2. Take 24 was selected and overdubbed with timpani, second guitar, brass, and drums set up in a corridor for a staccato sound. McCartney is on the Martin D-28, his guitar, one of sixteen Beatles records to use it, such as 'Across the Universe (Wildlife version)' and 'Blackbird'. The Ludwig Super Classic was on the session. Double tracked vocal and close mic'ing were used in making the record. It was the 19th of the 37 songs they began recording in 1968, and the 165th of their career.

This is one of only 8 records with only one Beatle on it, McCartney on drums and timpani, among them 'Within You Without You' and 'Yesterday'. He wrote it and took the lead vocal, with trumpet and trombone on it. There is a role swap on it, McCartney on acoustic guitar, and it was cut without the whole band. The other percussion you hear is finger slaps on a book.

The record reached the public on November 22, 1968, with The Beatles (The White Album), and was never a single. This is their 166th record, and the 24th of the 34 they released in that year.