| McCartney (Miles
1997: 155): "This Boy" was another hotel-bedroom song, twin beds, one
afternoon somewhere, we had arrived around one 'o'clock. We had a couple
of hours to kill. So we thought, Well, let's write one. Rather like the
hotel where we wrote "She Loves You." It's funny, I remember the room
and the position of the beds; John and I sitting on twin beds, the G-Plan
furniture, the British hotel with olive green and orange everywhere, that
marvellous combination, the colours of vomit. |
| It was very co-written.
We wanted to do a close-harmony thing, we liked harmonies and we were
quite good at them. We used to do a close-harmony version of the Teddy
Bears' "To Know Her Is to Love Her," which was good for the versatility
in the band. We weren't all rock 'n' roll, we could change the pace, which
was always nice after you'd played for three hours. So this was our attempt
to write one of those. We wrote it in two-part harmony and then put the
third part in for George to sing. That was quite a departure for us, the
close-harmony thing; we'd never actually tried to write something like
that. Nice middle, John sang that great, then we'd go back into the close-harmony
thing. It was one of those: This boy says that, that boy
. . . . |
| Geoff Emerick: Once
the vocals were recorded, however, there was another snag: Harrison's
overdubbed guitar solo, which was particularly uninspired. George Martin
didn't like it one bit, and insisted on substituting vocals during the
middle section instead—which was a good thing, because John did an incredible
job of singing them, and an even more brilliant job of double tracking
his heartfelt performance, hitting every pitch and inflection spot on.
Unfortunately, the editing job Norman did later that night was not up
to his usual standard, and, especially on CD, it's obvious that the middle
section was recorded separately and spliced in. (2006: 75) |
| Text |
|
| That
boy, took my love away, though he'll regret it someday, But this boy wants
you back again. |
a |
| That
boy, isn't good for you, though he may want you too. This boy wants you
back again. |
b |
| Oh
and this boy, would be happy, just to love you, but oh my! That boy won't
be happy, till he sees you cry. |
c |
| This
boy, wouldn't mind the pain, would always feel the same, If this boy gets
you back again. |
d |
| This boy (repeat) |
e |
