This song is considered to be the only Beatles song which Paul McCartney did not participate in any part of the recording process.*
Background & Inspiration
In late August 1965, Brian Epstein had rented a house at 2850 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills, California for the Beatles' six-day respite from their US tour. The Beatles found it impossible to leave and instead invited guests, including actress Eleanor Bron (their co-star in the film Help!) and folk singer Joan Baez. On 24 August, they hosted Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of the Byrds and actor Peter Fonda.
Fonda wrote for Rolling Stone magazine:
I finally made my way past the kids and the guards. Paul and George were on the back patio, and the helicopters were patrolling overhead. They were sitting at a table under an umbrella in a rather comical attempt at privacy. Soon afterwards we dropped acid and began tripping for what would prove to be all night and most of the next day; all of us, including the original Byrds, eventually ended up inside a huge, empty and sunken tub in the bathroom, babbling our minds away.
As the group passed time in the large sunken tub in the bathroom, Fonda brought up his nearly fatal self-inflicted childhood gunshot accident, writing later that he was trying to comfort Harrison, who was overcome by fear that he might be dying. Fonda said that he knew what it was like to be dead, since he had technically died in the operating theatre. Lennon urged him to drop the subject, saying "Who put all that shit in your head?" and "You're making me feel like I've never been born." Harrison recalls in The Beatles Anthology: "[Fonda] was showing us his bullet wound. He was very uncool."
Lennon explained in a 1980 interview:
We didn't want to hear about that! We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing and the whole thing was beautiful and Sixties, and this guy – who I really didn't know; he hadn't made Easy Rider or anything – kept coming over, wearing shades, saying, "I know what it's like to be dead," and we kept leaving him because he was so boring! ... It was scary. You know ... when you're flying high and [whispers] "I know what it's like to be dead, man."
Lennon eventually asked Fonda to leave the party.
Composition
Lennon began working on "She Said She Said" in March 1966, shortly before the Beatles started recording Revolver. On the home recordings he made at this time, the song was titled "He Said" and performed on acoustic guitar. Lennon said that the episode with Fonda had stuck with him, and when writing the song, "I changed it to 'she' instead of 'he.'" Harrison recalled helping Lennon construct the song from "maybe three" separate segments that Lennon had. Harrison described the process as "a real weld".
Recording
"She Said She Said" was the final track recorded during the Revolver sessions, and was hastily added when the album lineup was found to be a song short. It took nine hours to rehearse and record the entire song, complete with overdubs. After the recording of the song, The Beatles producer George Martin is reported to have said: "All right, boys, I'm just going for a lie-down."
The creative cooperation among the four Beatles was at its highest during the Revolver period. There nevertheless remained a philosophical divide between McCartney and Lennon, Harrison and Ringo Starr due to McCartney's refusal to try LSD. McCartney took part in the early takes for "She Said She Said" but did not contribute to the finished recording. He recalled: "I think we had a barney or something and I said, 'Oh, fuck you!,' and they said, 'Well, we'll do it.' I think George played bass." Harrison played a Burns bass guitar, which he had used earlier in the Revolver sessions, during initial recording for "Paperback Writer". Harrison also contributed the lead guitar part, incorporating an Indian quality in its sound and providing an introduction that Riley describes as "outwardly harnessed, but inwardly raging". Case describes the recording as "a metallic spiral of guitar and drums as aggressive as anything by the Who or the Yardbirds".
Rodriguez highlights McCartney's walkout as one of "a handful of unsolved Beatles mysteries".[69] When identifying the probable causes for McCartney's uncharacteristic behaviour, he cites later comments made by Lennon: specifically that Lennon appreciated Harrison's tendency to "take it as-is" whereas McCartney often took a musical arrangement in a direction he himself preferred; and that, given Lennon and Harrison's habit of teasing their bandmate over his refusal to take LSD, McCartney possibly felt alienated by the song's subject matter. Lennon expressed satisfaction with the completed track, adding, "The guitars are great on it."
*: Side two of Yellow Submarine soundtrack album consists of original score for the movie composed and arranged by producer George Martin but was credited to The Beatles.
She Said She Said
The Beatles Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
"I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it is to be sad"
And she's making me feel like I've never been born
I said
"Who put all those things in your head?
Things that make me feel that I'm mad
She said, "You don't understand what I've said"
I said, "No no no, you're wrong"
When I was a boy
Everything was right
Everything was right
I said
"Even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave
'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born"
She said, "You don't understand what I've said"
I said, "No no no, you're wrong"
When I was a boy
Everything was right
Everything was right
I said
"Even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave
'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born"
She said
She said
I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it is to be sad
I know what it is to be sad
I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it's like to be dead
The lyrics of "She Said She Said" by The Beatles are enigmatic and can be interpreted in different ways. The song was written by John Lennon and inspired by an encounter that he had with Peter Fonda during a party in Los Angeles in 1965. Fonda, who was stoned at the time, kept telling Lennon that he knew what it was like to be dead because he had almost died from an accidental gunshot wound when he was a child. The surreal conversation left a deep impression on Lennon, and he later incorporated it into the lyrics of the song.
The first verse of the song starts with the mysterious woman saying that she knows what it's like to be dead and to be sad. Her words are unsettling and make the singer feel like he has never been born. The second verse has the singer questioning the woman and wondering who put those thoughts in her head. He feels like he's going mad and that the woman is pushing him to the edge of his sanity. In the chorus, the singer insists that he's ready to leave the situation because the woman is making him feel like he's never been born. However, the woman rebuffs his objections, saying that he doesn't understand what she's going through.
The final verse repeats the same pattern as the previous one, with the singer trying to convince the woman that he wants to leave and start anew. However, the woman keeps repeating that she knows what it's like to be dead and to be sad, creating a haunting and eerie atmosphere. The song ends with her eerie repetitions of those lines, leaving the listener with a sense of unease and uncertainty.
Overall, "She Said She Said" is a deeply introspective and surreal song that delves into the mysteries of life and death. Its trippy and psychedelic vibe captures the counterculture spirit of the 1960s and remains a classic example of The Beatles' musical and lyrical experimentation.
Line by Line Meaning
She said
"I know what it's like to be dead
She claims to have experienced death and come back from the other side.
I know what it is to be sad"
She asserts that she possesses an intimate knowledge of sadness.
And she's making me feel like I've never been born
Her words are so vivid and powerful that they make the artist feel like a blank slate or a non-entity.
I said
"Who put all those things in your head?
The singer is questioning the source of the woman's unusual experiences.
Things that make me feel that I'm mad
The singer feels crazy due to the woman's statements.
And you're making me feel like I've never been born"
Again, the woman's words render the artist's identity meaningless or insignificant.
She said, "You don't understand what I've said"
The woman is claiming that the artist is not capable of comprehending her experiences.
I said, "No no no, you're wrong"
The artist is pushing back against the woman's assertion that he cannot understand.
When I was a boy
Everything was right
The artist recalls a time when his life felt easy and uncomplicated.
Everything was right
Reinforcing the idea that the singer once lived in a state of innocence and bliss.
I said
"Even though you know what you know
The woman's experiences are still not enough to convince the singer that he is not real.
I know that I'm ready to leave
The artist is primed to end the conversation or relationship with the woman.
'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born"
The woman's words have so disoriented the artist that he feels like he has never existed at all.
She said
She said
I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it is to be sad
I know what it is to be sad
I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it's like to be dead
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@CipherSerpico
This song basically, single-handedly invented “Alternative”.
I mean, ‘Revolver’ in general, invented ‘Alternative’, but I think “She Said She Said” is the best example of what was to come.
You can’t listen to this Album/Song, and not hear how it influenced stuff like Radiohead (especially the Album ‘Ok Computer’), U2’s ‘Achtung Baby’, as well as the entire genre of ‘Shoegaze’; and even Bands like Big Star and Pink Floyd.
It’s crazy to think that-in the span of 3 years—they created/shaped virtually every genre of the next 6 decades.
‘Rubber Soul’ created ‘Art-Pop’.
‘Revolver’ not only created ‘Alternative’, & ‘Intellectual/Avant-garde Pop Music’… it introduced the idea of “Music Production”.
‘Sgt. Pepper’ created ‘Art/Album-Rock’ and ‘Conceptual Rock’.
‘The White Album’ created ‘Indie’.
Then, on ‘Abbey Road’ they found a way to synthesize all of the things they had created, and turn it into one cohesive piece of Music.
It’s absolutely insane.
On top of all that, Revolver (and Sgt. Pepper) in particular—introduced the concept of ‘Album Production’, as well as Tape Loops/Sampling; All of those things have become ubiquitous in Modern Music, and they’re the foundation for every single ‘Production-Based’ Genre or Aesthetic in modern Music;
i.e. everything from Hip-Hop, to Electronic, Electronica, Dub, to Home studio recordings, etc…
Everything from David Axelrod, to ‘A Tribe Called Quest’, to ‘Massive Attack’, ‘Boards Of Canada’, ’Burial’, to ‘Animal Collective’, to ‘FKA Twigs’…
We’re talking about the ‘Blueprint for the Digital Age of Music’...
And it all started with Revolver.
The Beatles are literally more influential than every other Artist-combined.
@CipherSerpico
@Velvet Watermelon That’s the one other Artist I was thinking about; The only slight difference is that I think of Velvet Underground as inventing “Underground Music” rather than “Indie”.
Granted, they’re arguably the same thing.
I just think of “Underground” as the “noisier/ more primal genre”; and I think of “Indie” as being the “more sophisticated/intellectual genre”.
Like, I think of Sonic Youth’s “Daydream Nation”, and Pavement’s “Slanted & Enchanted” as “Underground”;
And I think of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Aeroplane Over The Sea”, and Arcade Fire’s “Funeral” as being “Indie Albums”.
And I think of something like The Pixies “Doolittle” as being a combination of Indie & Underground.
That probably doesn’t make any sense, but that’s just how I think of them lol.
Anyway, to your point though… Velvet Underground & Nico is without question one of the Greatest and most influential/innovative Albums of all time.
@CipherSerpico
@G Walker The Beach Boys definitely had a huge impact on a ton of the “indie bands” of this generation.
On top of that, their influence on Animal Collective probably shaped modern Music more than anything in a long time. I think Animal Collective is one of the 5 Greatest/Most Important Artists of this era, and they arguably have the Greatest Body of work—since Radiohead.
Virtually every Indie Artist started incorporating AC’s sound into their Music. It had a massive impact on Modern Music. And all of that started with The Beach Boys.
When you listen to Animal Collective’s Masterpieces, like ’Merriweather Post Pavilion’, ‘Strawberry Jam’, or ’Feels’…
It’s basically impossible to imagine these songs without the influence of The Beach Boys.
“Bluish”: https://youtu.be/U-IEnKdkzLg?si=XQuiriiDKTWVZo5O
“Also Frightened”:
https://youtu.be/55pDa5_CJP8?si=Z2kKvmWFpgIfmMxO
“Fireworks”: https://youtu.be/8pUD4MxgQZk
“My Girls”: https://youtu.be/V00VrmmoWPw?si=sOjvgB8ceIsUBaom
“Comfy In Nautica”:
https://youtu.be/7xqOz_YqDxM
Have you heard those before?
@eleanor8079
Lyrics.
She said
"I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it is to be sad"
And she's making me feel like I've never been born
I said
"Who put all those things in your head?
Things that make me feel that I'm mad"
And you're making me feel like I've never been born
She said, "You don't understand what I said"
I said, "No, no, no, you're wrong"
When I was a boy
Every thing was right
Every thing was right
I said
"Even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave
Because you're making me feel like I've never been born"
She said, "You don't understand what I've said"
And I said, "No, no, no you're wrong"
When I was a boy
Every thing was right
Every thing was right
I said
"Even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave
Because you're making me feel like I've never been born"
She said, she said
"I know what it's like to be dead (I know what it's like to be dead)
I know what it is to be sad (I know what it is to be sad)
I know what it's like to be dead"
@paulbadoo9326
IMO , Ringo 's best performance. Those fills he plays totally make the song, and those are original fills nobody else would do.
@richwilde6550
Yeah this is my fave ringo drumming. Always thought it was better than Rain and other, although they’re still amazing.
@adamblackshaw9151
Great drumming. He's terrific on RAIN as well.
@applescruff1969
I think Rain's his best. This is definitely a close contender, though.
@jamesarmstrong5903
Rains my favorite but just noticed he's amazing in this as well
@JET7C0
Yes - I'd avoided listening to the Beatles in high school, because I was trying too hard to be "punk rock" (lol), and so on, but started listening to them around 20, and his drumming on this blew me away. People think of the drums as so mechanistic, anyone can fill in for anyone else, provided they have adequate skill - but Ringo proves that's not the case, and drumming styles are really just as characteristic as fingerprints or voices.
@maristelaalves9266
John's voice send shivers to my spine. What a phenomenal song.
@lindastoakes1268
I've loved john Lennon for 60 years x
@hansvandijk1487
@Linda Stoakes So did I and I still do (born 1950).
Greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱.
@gabrielfanin1412
What about Paul's Voice? I think is so cool too.