If I Needed Someone – Leah Siegel
Recorded on September 11, 2010, original version recorded on October 16, 1965.
Leah Siegel: Vocals
Roger Greenawalt: Ukulele
Produced by Roger Greenawalt at Shabby Road Studio in Brooklyn, NY
Essay by Roger Greenawalt
About the Song
George Harrison was smart enough to know that money and fame is a chimera, that materialism is a dead end. Well, life itself is a dead end.
Is that all there is? Que sera sera?
Sic transit gloria mundi.
So passes the glory of the world. All things must pass.
George craved meaning, which is a rough go when you are a natural born cynic.
But inside the armor of every isolated cynic is a jilted lover of truth. He tried all the world had to offer and kept on looking.
It’s like The Wizard Of Oz, George’s circular spiritual quest.
There’s no place like home. His home was music. That’s why after groupie this and sports car that and Krishna up the ass he ended up a wise and dying man with two ukuleles as his carry on baggage. Why two? Because once you’ve found yourself, the only possible future is other people. He carried two ukuleles in case he met someone else on his plane who could play.
Then they could play. Together.
He was already there. Music is the answer. Music will save you.
Ubi spiritus est cantus est
Where there is spirit there is song.
If I Needed Someone is a song about singing. It’s subject is music. George just didn’t realize it at the time. It would have been better if every word had been “La”. Or, “I don’t need you I have music, music is the best drug in the world. Baby I Love Music.”
Lyrically, this particular tune is totally devoid of spiritual meaning. If I Needed Someone is a slight story about wanting to have an affair but not wanting to have a commitment, emotionally, physically, spiritually, or otherwise.
“Put your number on my wall and maybe you will get a call from me.”
This may be the shallowest line in any Beatles’ song. Translated, it’s saying, “put your number on my speed dial and next time I’m excruciatingly horny you can blow me, you lucky, lucky girl, but right now I’m tapped out.”
Compare the lyrics of If I Needed Someone to Lennon’s Norwegian Wood. They are no match for the emotional complexity of John’s tale of an unsatisfying night of attempted debauchery. George would have happily slept in the bathtub. He wouldn’t burn the house down in the morning either. He’d swallow his disappointment, befitting his role as the runt of the litter.
Tossed off, these lyrics are incidental to the song’s more elemental pleasures. Skillful and tasteful use of 12-string Rickenbacker guitar recalls the breezy West Coast sound of the Byrds, a kind of feedback loop since Roger McGuinn tells the story of running out and getting a 12-string Rickenbacker after seeing George play it in “A Hard Day’s Night.”
While touring America, The Beatles fell in with the Laurel Canyon crowd emerging out beyond the Hollywood Hills. No doubt grateful to get some of Crosby’s great weed, the Beatles became fast friends with the Byrds (who quite cleverly managed to have ties to Bob Dylan as well).
The sound of If I Needed Someone captures the slightly fuzzy but happy spaced-out buzz of someone enjoying the California sunshine, before the inevitable crash and incipient feeling of “Get me the fuck out of here.”
As with most George Harrison Beatle’s songs, the production sounds like an obligation, not a pleasure. When uninspired, The Beatles could always fall back on their signature sound, harmony vocals. The harmonies here are exceptional, and while beautiful, they are a cognitive dissonance. McCartney’s hi note ending the phrases sounds celebratory, and it is, it’s a celebration of McCartney’s voice and his ability to conceive and execute such a hi note. The lyric however, is pure adolescent self-pity, not a party at all.
And when in doubt about the groove, The Beatles had one and only one fallback strategy.
MORE TAMBOURINE.
It sounds like Ringo Starr is hitting the drum set like a pussy, and slamming the tambourine as if had just insulted his sister. It’s hard to listen to.
The stereo production of If I Needed Someone is disastrous. (I’ve never heard the mono). All the vocals are on the right. All the music is on the left. No one would ever do that today, except as some sort of misguided mock tribute to badly mixed mid period Beatles records i.e. how Dave mixed the 1st verse of our version. During the solo, a guitar is placed in the right speaker to replace the silent vocals, along with…
ANOTHER TAMBOURINE.
Good grief.