The Story and Meaning Behind The Beatles' "I'm Only Sleeping" and How It's John Lennon's
“I’m Only Sleeping” stands as one of The Beatles’ songs that was a wee bit too weird for release as a single. But as an album cut on Revolver, it’s a perfect blend of instrumental experimentation and lyrical drollery.
What is the song about? How did it reflect the way that John Lennon liked to spend his free time? And what new recording technique gave the song a boost? Read on to find out all there is to know about “I’m Only Sleeping.”
By the time The Beatles settled in to make Revolver in 1966, their process in the studio had drastically changed. They were taking more and more time to make each record and were fearlessly trying new things. That evolution would really speed up once they quit touring after ’66, but they still tried a ton of new things on Revolver nonetheless.
On “I’m Only Sleeping,” The Beatles added backwards guitar by George Harrison as the key part of the instrumental break. In the book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, McCartney explained how the group came up with the idea to utilize what was a new technique at the time after a tape was accidentally threaded onto a player backward:
“It played backwards, and, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Those effects! Nobody knew how those sounded then. We said, ‘My God, that is fantastic! Can we do that for real?’… So that was what we did and that was where we discovered backwards guitar. It was a beautiful solo actually. It sounds like something you couldn’t play.”
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
