The Million-Mile Medley

***The Million Mile Medley*** is a 25-minute medley of twelve tracks consisting of several short songs and song fragments. TBATBA TBA TBA TBAAAAAAAAAA

## Get On The Right Thing

**"Get On The Right Thing"** was left off *Everybody Out*, but was considered for release as a single in late 1974. After that plan was shelved the song ended up on *Earth & Mars*.

## Hold Me Tight

**"Hold Me Tight"** was recorded at Abbey Road on 15 November 1974 in seven takes, two of which were false starts. Take seven became the master version, onto which Denny Laine and George Harrison overdubbed a dual guitar solo. The group then added harmony vocals.

## Ol' Lazy Dynamite

**"Ol' Lazy Dynamite"** was written in late 1972 or early 1973 by McCartney under the working title of “Baby Dynamight”. The song was recorded in three takes at Abbey Road on 16 November 1974, the last of which was chosen as the best. McCartney played piano and sang a guide vocal, and Denny Laine played harmonica.

Ringo Starr then overdubbed drums, McCartney added his lead vocals, and the band added two tracks of harmony vocals. George Harrison also taped an electric guitar part that was left out of the final mix.

Lennon later commented on his dislike of the song:

"I remember it being really torture doing ‘Lazy Dynamite’, because it’s very empty. There’s lots of space with just the voice. It’s all vocal, almost a capella."

## Goin' Down

The lyrics of **"Goin' Down"** reflect Lennon's feelings during his so-called "lost weekend" separation from wife Yoko Ono. Lennon laments the fact that even though his life at the time looked like fun, he actually needed to be rescued from his pleasure seeking, loveless situation. The singer accepts his loss of his "precious and rare" love as the price for his past abuses.

Lennon recorded home demos of the song in the early summer of 1974. At that stage, ‘Goin' Down’ was recorded separately on both acoustic guitar and piano, in a style which revealed the depression that was intermittently clouding Lennon’s life.

By the time it was recorded in the studio, ‘Goin' Down’ had become considerably more sprightly, although Lennon’s directions to the musicians to play it straight with no frills – as featured on *Anthology V -* were discarded as backing vocals, horns and percussion was later overdubbed. In its initial state, however, it was not far from the raw sound of *Untitled*.

The song opens with a percussion accompaniment that author Andrew Jackson compares to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," albeit slower. The song alternates between slow, smooth sections and sections with a funky rhythm punctuated by bongo drums. Urish and Bielen believe that this approach generates a "feeling of nervous energy," which they consider appropriate to the song's anxious and resigned mood. Although it is a "song of loss," music critic Johnny Rogan states that the "jaunty tone" of the song produces an effect of irreverence and defiance. Rogan finds the two most notable elements of the song are Lennon's "strident" vocal and Bobby Keys' horn arrangement. The phrase "Somebody please, please help me" is sung to a similar melody, albeit at a slower tempo as the similar phrase Lennon sang in "Help!"

## Back Off, Boogaloo

"**Back Off Boogaloo**" is a song by English-American rock band the Beatles that was released on their 1975 album Earth & Mars. Starr's former Beatles bandmate George Harrison helped Starr write the song,

The title for the song was inspired by English singer-songwriter Marc Bolan. Several commentators have interpreted the lyrics as an attack on John Lennon, reflecting Starr's disdain for the music Lennon had made as a solo artist. "Back Off Boogaloo" demonstrates the influence of glam rock on Starr. Described by one biographer as a "high-energy in-your-face rocker", the song features a prominent slide guitar part by Harrison.

## Sour Milk Sea

"**Sour Milk Sea**" is a song by the English-American rock band the Beatles that was released on their 1975 album Earth & Mars in 1975. It was written by George Harrison during the Beatles' stay in Rishikesh, India, and given to Lomax to help launch Apple Records. Performed in the hard rock style, the song also includes a musical contribution from Eric Clapton although without Lennon.

Harrison wrote "Sour Milk Sea" to promote Transcendental Meditation, which the Beatles had been studying in Rishikesh with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In the lyrics, Harrison espouses meditation as a remedy for worldly cares. The group recorded a demo of the song while considering material for their 1968 album *The Beatles* (also known as the White Album), but was shelved until 1975 where Harrison revisited the track due to his writer's block that year.

## At A Crossroads

Written by Tony Hatch, it was the theme of the low-budget British soap opera that initially ran from 1964 to 1988. Although McCartney intended ‘Crossroads’ as a moment of levity at the end of *Earth & Mars*, the makers of the show used it in some episodes in the mid to late 1970s, normally to mark a dramatic ending.