"There's A Place": John Lennon
“‘There’s a Place’ was my attempt at a sort of Motown, black thing.
It says the usual Lennon things: ‘In my mind there’s no sorrow…’ It’s all in your mind.”
“There’s A Place” – the very first song recorded during the 11 February 1963 Please Please Me EMI session – was exceptional for its day (and for ours). As Wilfrid Mellers later pointed out in Twilight of the Gods, it was the first Beatles song about self-reliance. It established songwriter John Lennon’s recurring theme of “finding comfort in his thoughts, dreams, and memories…[dealing] with life’s sorrow by retreating into the safety of his inner thoughts…”, a significant theme Lennon would repeat in “later songs such as ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’ ‘Girl,’ ‘In My Life,’ ‘Rain,’ ‘I’m Only Sleeping,’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.” No “moon, June, croon, spoon” song, “There’s a Place” introduces a more sophisticated scenario.
McCartney supplied the inspiration for this song: the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim tune “Somewhere,” a song that Paul had heard in West Side Story. And, of course, it took the brilliant work of Paul, George, and Ringo to bring this very personal song, “penned by John,” to life. Under the auspices of Producer George Martin, Engineer Norman Smith, and Second Engineer Richard Langham, “There’s A Place” was recorded in 13 takes.
It required 10 takes to achieve a satisfactory backing track (takes 3, 5, and 7 being incomplete). Take 10 was deemed “best” – with John on his 1958 Rickenbacker 325 Capri Electric guitar, Paul on his 1961 Hofner 550/1 bass, George on his 1957 Gretsch G6128 Duo Jet, and Ringo on his 1060 Premier 58 Mahogany Duroplastic drum kit. John sang the melody line lead vocal, in the tradition of The Beatles (permitting a composer to sing lead on his own song). Paul accompanied and at times harmonized with high harmony. Paul did not sing important solo lines such as “when I’m alone,” “only you,” “In my mind, there’s no sorrow,” and “There’ll be no sad tomorrows.” Harrison also supplied harmony. One of the superimpositions performed in Takes 11-13 was the addition of John’s wailing, poignant harmonica.
Source: culturesonar.com/Jude Southerland Kessler
