She Said She Said

The song touches on childhood ('When I was a boy, everything was right'), along with the motifs of drugs and found inspiration, which the Beatles used more in 1965 than in any other year. The title points at a woman, something they had reached for on 'I Saw Her Standing There' 3 years earlier, and the language is grim in subject (death, madness, dissociation) and built on a limited vocabulary. The writing draws on the drug culture. Incidentally, the line "Know what it's like to" turns up in one other Beatles song, 'Hey Bulldog'.

In B♭ major at roughly 106 BPM, 'She Said She Said' is a psychedelic and acid rock song with Indian music influences underneath (modal guitar phrasing in lead lines). This is one of only 7 Beatles records in that key, the earliest of them 'Chains'. The tune carries call and response, the backing vocals answering the lead singer (she said / I said alternation), a thing they returned to 50 times across 3 years. Neither the key nor the meter stays put, since the key moves from B♭ major to E♭ major in the chorus, and the meter shifts under it. Also, the record features prominent drum fills.

The record was recorded at EMI Studio 3, written, rehearsed and recorded in a single nine-hour session - the last song cut for Revolver. McCartney left after a row, so Harrison overdubbed the bass. Lennon added Hammond organ. The bridge shifts from 4/4 into 3/4 before snapping back for the final verse. The Gibson SG was Harrison's lead guitar, the 1964 SG Standard he took up at the start of the Revolver sessions. ADT (double tracked vocal) and close mic'ing shaped the finished record, the latter a thing they returned to 42 times across 3 years. It is taken out on a fade-out. This one came 16th of the 19 songs they recorded in 1966, and 118th in the whole career.

This one is Lennon's, written and sung, and there is a role swap on it, Harrison on bass. It was recorded without all four (no McCartney - walked out after argument), and the drums play aggressive tom-led fills throughout. The organ plays a Hammond doubling guitar riff, which they used more in 1968 than in any other year.

This track came out with Revolver on August 5, 1966. America got it three days later, on Revolver (US), put out by Capitol. This track was the 9th of 16 released in that year, and the 111th counting from the start.