The Speed of Sight

***The Speed Of Sight*** is the nineteenth studio album by the English-American rock band The Beatles. It was released on 18 March 1976 in the United Kingdom, on the Apple label. The album was recorded and released in the midst of the band's highly successful Beatles Over the World tour, with songs from the album performed on the tour after its release. Subsequently, performances of "Let 'Em In", "Time to Hide", 'Silly Love Songs' and "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" were included on the live albums.

*The Speed Of Sight* is the first Beatles album to have contributions from each of the six members. 7 months after the album's release, Lennon was detained by police at his home in New York for possession of marijuana. Lennon was sentenced to a 3-year sentence under house arrest. Leaving The Beatles indefinitely broken up.

## Background

In 1976, The Beatles had realized something. Over the span of their last few albums or so, they had been having at least some issues during sessions. Drugs were issues to some, relationships to others. People had come and people had gone. The only thing consistent was that they were The Beatles. They then decided, that they would enter the studio with the number-one priority being that they would have fun and enjoy the process of creating an album, something they hadn't done for as long as they could remember. Being as this was the goal, The Beatles did just that. The sessions were full of cheer and joy. Enough so that Linda McCartney, usually stuck on keys and backing vocals, managed to compose her own song, 'Seaside Woman'. This makes '*The Speed Of Sight'* the only Beatles album to feature compositions from all six members. The title, 'Speed Of Sight', came about from none other than Ringo. Just as *'A Hard Day's Night'* came about from Ringo's signature art of creating humorous phrases on a whim, Starr once again struck gold. As Harrison recalled in a later interview:

"We were all having dinner in the control room at about 3 in the morning, as one does, and the conversation somehow turned to life itself, and all of it's mysteries... and Richie then brought up how fast it all seemed to be going by. He said 'man, this life thing is going by faster than the speed of sight'. I looked at Paul and Linda, who then looked at John, and we all started laughing for about 5 minutes straight. I'm still not sure what we had to drink with dinner that morning''.

*The Speed Of Sight* was released on 13 March 1976 to warm reviews from critics and fans alike. The general consensus among all was, that, while many of the songs weren't full-on masterpieces, the energy the band put off turned the record into a 'down-to-earth, at-home-with-The-Beatles album'. However, while the sessions and release were full of joy, the issues had not ceased. About 7 months after the album's release, Lennon was detained by police at his home in New York for possession of marijuana (an incident which later was revealed to be planted by authorities). Lennon was sentenced to a 3-year sentence under house arrest. The news outraged the public, turning Lennon into a martyr of sorts. However, with Lennon stuck at home, and a son on the way, The Beatles agreed that the band would not continue without Lennon, thus leaving the band on hiatus.

## Songs

### Side One

#### Let 'Em In

The song starts with the sound of a vibraphone mimicking the Friedland Westminster Chime Doorbell before the rhythm begins. The lyric namechecks several famous people, between friends and relatives of McCartney who, without a justified reason, knock on the door or ring the bell of his house and he exclaims "Let 'Em In". They include McCartney's paternal aunt Gin, his brother Michael, and Linda McCartney's brother John. Phil and Don of the Everly Brothers are named (the duo had a hit with "Keep A Knockin'"), along with Martin Luther, who famously hung his "95 Theses" on a church door. An Uncle Ernie is also named, being the character Ringo Starr sang in the London Symphony Orchestra's recording of the Who's rock opera, *Tommy,* as a nod to the inspiration of *Raymond.*

"Let 'Em In" is also notable for the false fade out, which, however, becomes loud for the last two notes of the song which fades into race car sounds and fades into "Faster".

#### Faster

George Harrison located the start of his enthusiasm for car and motorbike racing to his attending local events in Liverpool as a boy. He especially recalled the 1955 British Grand Prix, held at Aintree, and the dominance of Mercedes teammates Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. He said that when the Beatles achieved fame in the 1960s, he was conscious of other celebrities, like Formula 1 driver Jackie Stewart, who had long hair; he was also drawn to reading Stewart say that amid his international racing commitments, he would search out the latest Beatles record. Along with his bandmates, Harrison attended the Monaco Grand Prix in May 1966 and met Stewart. He was also present for the 1971 event, by which time Stewart had become a dominant competitor, soon to win his second world championship.

During 1975, Harrison attended many of the races on the Formula 1 calendar as a break from songwriting and recording. He first went to Long Beach, California in April, hoping to get good tickets for the upcoming United States Grand Prix West; there, he met motorbike world champion Barry Sheene, who was considering a career move into car racing. Over the course of the 1975 season, Harrison befriended racing drivers such as Niki Lauda, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jody Scheckter and Mario Andretti, and became close to Stewart, who continued to be associated with the sport in a media role. After the United States Grand Prix in October, a conversation with Lauda encouraged Harrison to resume songwriting; he wrote "Blow Away" as a song "that Niki-Jody-Emerson and the gang could enjoy".

#### Whatever Gets You Thru The Night

The inspiration for the lyrics came from late-night television. In December 2005, May Pang told *Radio Times*: 'At night he [Lennon] loved to channel-surf, and would pick up phrases from all the shows. One time, he was watching Reverend Ike, a famous black evangelist, who was saying, 'Let me tell you guys, it doesn't matter, it's whatever gets you through the night.' John loved it and said, 'I've got to write it down or I'll forget it.' He always kept a pad and pen by the bed. That was the beginning of "Whatever Gets You thru the Night".'

The recording featured McCartney on harmony vocals throughout the entire song, a first since Lennon and McCartney's early days. While in the studio.

#### Silly Love Songs

Silly Love Songs" was written as a rebuttal to music critics who had criticized McCartney for writing lightweight love songs. Author Tim Riley suggests that in the song, McCartney is inviting "his audience to have a laugh on him," as Elvis Presley had sometimes done.

> *But over the years people have said, "Aw, he sings love songs, he writes love songs, he's so soppy at times." I thought, Well, I know what they mean, but, people have been doing love songs forever. I like 'em, other people like 'em, and there's a lot of people I love -- I'm lucky enough to have that in my life. So the idea was that "you" may call them silly, but what's wrong with that?*
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> *The song was, in a way, to answer people who just accuse me of being soppy. The nice payoff now is that a lot of the people I meet who are at the age where they've just got a couple of kids and have grown up a bit, settling down, they'll say to me, "I thought you were really soppy for years, but I get it now! I see what you were doing!"*
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> *By the way, "Silly Love Songs" also had a good bass line and worked well live.*
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The song includes a build-up of multiple vocal parts sung in counterpoint, similar to the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", a song that McCartney cited as his favourite of all time. McCartney allowed the horn section to create their own parts for the song.

### Side two

#### Rip It Up / Ready Teddy

In 1969, Lennon composed the song "Come Together" for the *Abbey Road*. Inspired by the Chuck Berry tune "You Can't Catch Me", it bore a melodic resemblance to the original—and Lennon took the third line of the second verse ("Here come [old] flat-top") for the new lyric. Publisher Morris Levy brought a lawsuit for infringement, and the case was due to be heard in a New York court in October 1975. It was later settled out of court, with the agreement that, according to an announcement by Levy, The Beatles had to "record three songs by Big Seven publishers, and at least two on their next album". The songs recorded at this time were "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy" and "Stand By Me". "Rip It Up" and "Ready Teddy" were formed into a medley on the album, while "Stand By Me" was released as a non-album single instead of being on the album, being traded for George's cover of "I Really Love You".

#### Goodnight Vienna

Written during Lennon's so-called "Lost Weekend" with May Pang, the lyrics depict the pair hanging out with cohorts (including Starr, Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon) in Los Angeles. The term "Goodnight Vienna" is English slang meaning "it's all over", and the slang term "bohunk" is a mildly derogatory term for an immigrant of Bohemian descent. Although Lennon wrote the track, Starkey is the solo credit.

#### Seaside Woman

"Seaside Woman" was the first song Linda McCartney wrote by herself, in response to a lawsuit by Northern Songs and Maclen Music alleging Paul had violated an exclusive rights agreement by claiming to collaborate with Linda on the song "The H.M.S. Admiral Halsey". The collaboration had the effect of transferring a 50% share of the publishing royalties to his own McCartney Music company. According to a 1974 interview with Linda, she wrote the song during a McCartney family visit to Jamaica in 1973 "*when ATV was suing us saying I was incapable of writing, so Paul said, 'Get out and write a song.'"* The lawsuit, which alleged that Linda's co-writing credits were inauthentic and that she was not a real songwriter, was "amicably settled," according to an ATV spokesman, in September 1975.

#### Magneto And Titanium Man

The song is in narrative form, and includes the Marvel Comics characters Magneto, Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo in its story. When asked his opinion of the song decades after its release, Stan Lee (who co-created all three characters) said he thought it was "terrific." While it was performed, comic art of Magneto, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and Titanium Man & the Crimson Dynamo, created by Stan Lee and Don Heck, was projected onto the large screen behind the band. The song ends with a snippet of Lennon's demo "Don't Be Afraid".

#### Soft-Hearted Hanna

During a conversation about the songs for a new album in London with the band, Lennon, expressed his admiration for "Deep Blue", the B-side of The Beatles' 1974 single "Photograph"; Lennon suggested he write another song in that style. Harrison came up with the music for the new song that night, using similar chords to "Deep Blue". He said that it was a "more 'up'" tune than "Deep Blue", which was "down" and written about his mother's deterioration from cancer, but he was unable to find the right lyrics at first.

Harrison then went to Hana on the Hawaiian island of Maui in April 1975, where he finished the song during a fruitful period for his songwriting. He titled it "Soft-Hearted Hanna" after the town of Hana, and as a play on the title of "Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah)". The latter was a 1920s ragtime standard that Harrison had become familiar with through a 1961 recording by the Temperance Seven, which was produced by George Martin. Harrison's inspiration for the "crazy" lyrics came from ingesting magic mushrooms, which he said was his first experience of hallucinogenic drugs for perhaps ten years. He also wrote "Here Comes the Moon" during this time which would later appear on his solo album *If You Believe*, drawing inspiration again from the lush natural surroundings on Maui and from the magic mushrooms. Another new composition was "Sooty Goes to Hawaii", a comedy song that Harrison wrote about Sooty, the popular glove puppet character from British television. Olivia Harrison – Harrison's girlfriend at the time, and soon to be his wife – recalls that this visit represented the start of their "love affair with Hawaii", as well as providing the inspiration for "Soft-Hearted Hanna" and other songs on future albums.

#### Dream

"Dream" came to Lennon in a dream. Lennon has said that the song was just "churned out" with "no inspiration".

> *That's what I call craftsmanship writing, meaning, you know, I just churned that out. I'm not putting it down, it's just what it is, but I just sat down and wrote it, you know, with no real inspiration, based on a dream I'd had.*
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According to May Pang, the working title for the song was "So Long Ago". Pang also states that the phrase repeated in the chorus, "Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé", came to Lennon in a dream and has no specific meaning. Pang added that Al Coury of EMI initially protested against the use of the word "pussy" in the chorus, but after Lori Burton, the wife of studio engineer Roy Cicala, suggested that it should be sung as "poussé", as if in a foreign language, the lyrics were kept.

The song was notable as a favourite of Lennon's, despite his later claim that the song was a "throwaway". Pang said on the matter, "This was one of John's favorite songs, because it literally came to him in a dream. He woke up and wrote down those words along with the melody. He had no idea what it meant, but he thought it sounded beautiful". Lennon wrote and arranged the song around his dream, hence the title and atmospheric, dreamlike feel, including the use of cellos in the chorus. The song's intricate production is reminiscent of "Strawberry Fields Forever".

#### The Back Seat Of My Car

"The Back Seat of My Car" is one of several compositions Paul McCartney presented to the Beatles in January 1969 during their *Get Back* rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios in London. Played on 14 January, the song was still a work-in-progress, with the lyrics unfinished while the song's melody was well developed.

According to McCartney, this song and other car-based songs in his late-60's to mid-70's, such as "Two of Us" and "Helen Wheels," were inspired by the long road trips he and Linda used to take as the Beatles were breaking up. Most of the song is a piano-based ballad, but it is interspersed with orchestral sections and sections inspired by 50s-style rock 'n' roll. *Allmusic* critic Stewart Mason likens the main tune to those of McCartney's songs "Two of Us" and "You Never Give Me Your Money." Mason compares the effect of the various song sections to the medley from the *Abbey Road* and to some of the Beach Boys' post-*Pet Sounds* work. McCartney said of the song:

> *"Back Seat of My Car" is the ultimate teenage song, and even though it was a long time since I was a teenager and had to go to a girl's dad and explain myself, it's that kind of meet-the-parents song. It's a good old driving song. [Sings] "We can make it to Mexico City." I've never driven to Mexico City, but it's imagination. And obviously "back seat" is snogging, making love.*
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McCartney further stated that *"That's a really teenage song, with the stereotypical parent who doesn't agree, and the two lovers are going to take on the world: 'We believe that we can’t be wrong.' I always like the underdog."* The song was initially intended for 1971's *Junk In The Yard,* but was shelfed in favor of Harrison's closers, "The Day The World Gets 'Round" and "The Light That Has Lightened The World".

## Reception

*The Speed of Sight* was released in late March 1976 to lukewarm critical reviews. *Rolling Stone*'s reviewer described it as a "Day with the Beatles" concept album. The introduction, "Let 'Em In" was perceived as an invitation to join the Beatles on this fantasy day, driving to a beach ("Faster"), with explanation of their philosophy ("Silly Love Songs"), arriving at the beach ("Seaside Woman"), partying with Ringo and George ("Goodnight Vienna" and "Soft-Hearted Hanna") and driving back home ("The Backseat Of My Car").

The album reached number 1 in the United Kingdom (and was the 2nd best-selling album of 1976). It spent eleven nonconsecutive weeks at number 1 throughout the summer. *The Speed of Sight* sold 5.4 million copies worldwide.

    Much of the album's success can be attributed to its two smash singles. "Silly Love Songs", a response to his critics and one of McCartney's biggest hits, followed the album in April, and became one of 1976's biggest-selling singles. This was followed in July with "Dream", which also scaled the singles charts. Amid all this, Before the release of the album, The Beatles went on their 1975-1976 Beatles Over The World Tour, to euphoric reaction; six selections from *The Speed of Sight* were added in the tour setlist; "Let 'Em In", "Faster", "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night", "Silly Love Songs", "Seaside Woman" and "Goodnight Vienna".

## Track listing

**Side one**

1. "Let 'Em In" (McCartney) - 5:32
2. "Faster" (Harrison) - 4:15
3. "Time To Hide" (Laine) - 4:36
4. "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:27
5. "Silly Love Songs" (McCartney) - 5:56

**Side two**

1. "Rip It Up" / "Ready Teddy" (Blackwell-Marascalco) - 1:35
2. "Goodnight Vienna" (Starkey) - 2:38
3. "Seaside Woman" (L. McCartney) - 3:54
4. "Magneto And Titanium Man" (McCartney) - 3:36
5. "Soft-Hearted Hanna" (Harrison) - 3:57
6. "Dream" (Lennon) - 4:46
7. "The Back Seat Of My Car" (P. McCartney-L. McCartney) 4:15
8. "I Really Love You" (Swearingen) - 1:37