Why Don't We Do It in the Road?

Song infobox
Name = Why Don't We Do It in the Road?
Artist = The Beatles
Album =

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Released = 22 November 1968
track_no = 15 of disc 1
Recorded = 9-10 October 1968
Genre = Rock and roll, Blues rock
Length = 1:42
Writer = Lennon/McCartney
Label = Apple Records
Producer = George Martin
Tracks = Side one
#"Back in the U.S.S.R."
#"Dear Prudence"
#"Glass Onion"
#"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
#"Wild Honey Pie"
#"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"
#"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
#"Happiness Is a Warm Gun"Side two
#

"Martha My Dear"
#"I'm So Tired"
#"Blackbird"
#"Piggies"
#"Rocky Raccoon"
#"Don't Pass Me By"
#"Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
#"I Will"
#"Julia"Side three
#"Birthday"
#"Yer Blues"
#"Mother Nature's Son"
#"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey"
#"Sexy Sadie"
#"Helter Skelter"
#"Long, Long, Long"Side four
#

"Revolution 1"
#"Honey Pie"
#"Savoy Truffle"
#"Cry Baby Cry"
#"Revolution 9"
#"Good Night""Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" is a song by The Beatles released on their 1968 album "The Beatles", commonly referred to as "The White Album". It was writtencite book |first=Barry |last=Miles |authorlink=Barry Miles |title=Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now |year=1997 |pages=498-499 |publisher=Henry Holt & Company |location=New York |isbn=0-8050-5249-6] cite book |first=David |last=Sheff |title=All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono |year=2000 |pages=189 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=0-312-25464-4] and sung by Paul McCartney,cite book |first=Mark |last=Lewisohn |authorlink=Mark Lewisohn |title=The Beatles Recording Sessions |year=1988 |pages=200 |publisher=Harmony Books |location=New York |isbn=0-517-57066-1] cite book |first=Ian |last=MacDonald |authorlink=Ian MacDonald |title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties |year=2005 |pages=325 |edition=Second Revised Edition |publisher=Pimlico (Rand) |location=London |isbn=1-844-13828-3] but credited, as usual, to Lennon/McCartney. "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" is short and simple; 1:42 of twelve-bar blues that begins with three different percussion elements (a hand banging on the back of an acoustic guitar, handclaps, and drums) and features McCartney's increasingly raucous vocalcite web |first=Alan W |last=Pollack |authorlink=Alan W Pollack |work=Notes on ... Series |url=http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/wdwdiitr.shtml |title=Notes on "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"] repeating a simple lyric with only two different lines.cite book |last=Aldridge |first=Alan |authorlink=Alan Aldridge |title=The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics |year=1990 |pages=69 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin / Seymour Lawrence |location=Boston |isbn=0-395-59426-X]

Inspiration

While on retreat in Rishikesh, India with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, McCartney saw two monkeys copulating in the street and marvelled in the simplicity of this natural scenario when compared to the emotional turmoil of human relationships. He later said:

Recording

On 9 October, 1968, while John Lennon and George Harrison were working on two other songs for the album, McCartney recorded five takes of the song in Studio One at Abbey Road Studios. Unlike its heavy blues result, the song began as an acoustic guitar number with McCartney alternating by verse between gentle and strident vocal styles.cite album-notes |title=Anthology 3 |pages=21 |albumlink=Anthology 3 |year=1996 |bandname=The Beatles |format=booklet |publisher=Apple Records |location=London |publisherid=34451 |pages=69] On this first night, McCartney played all the instruments himself.cite book |first=Mark |last=Lewisohn |authorlink=Mark Lewisohn |title=The Beatles Recording Sessions |year=1988 |pages=160-161] This version of the song can be found on the Beatles' Anthology 3.

On 10 October, McCartney and Ringo Starr finished the song, Starr adding drums and handclaps, McCartney adding more vocals, bass guitar, and lead guitar. Lennon and Harrison were again occupied, supervising string overdubs for "Piggies" and "Glass Onion."

Lennon's reaction

Lennon was unhappy that McCartney recorded the song without him. In his 1980 interview with "Playboy", he said::Playboy: "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?":Lennon: That's Paul. He even recorded it by himself in another room. That's how it was getting in those days. We came in and he'd made the whole record. Him drumming. Him playing the piano. Him singing. But he couldn't—he couldn't—maybe he couldn't make the break from the Beatles. I don't know what it was, you know. I enjoyed the track. Still, I can't speak for George, but I was always hurt when Paul would knock something off without involving us. But that's just the way it was then.:Playboy: You never just knocked off a track by yourself?:Lennon: No.:Playboy: "Julia"?:Lennon: That was mine.

"Julia" was recorded four days after the first session for "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?," and is a solo performance by Lennon (double-tracked lead vocals and acoustic guitar).cite book |first=Ian |last=MacDonald |authorlink=Ian MacDonald |title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties |year=2005 |pages=326]

In a 1981 conversation with Hunter Davies, who had written a biography of the Beatles in 1968, McCartney responded to a Yoko Ono interview where she said McCartney had hurt Lennon more than anyone else, by saying, "No one ever goes on about the times John hurt "me" ... Could I have hurt him more than the person who ran down his mother in his car?" He then brought up Lennon's comments about "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?": "There's only one incident I can think of that John has mentioned publicly. It was when I went off with Ringo and did 'Why Don't We Do It in the Road'. It wasn't a deliberate thing. John and George were tied up finishing something and me and Ringo were free, just hanging around, so I said to Ringo, 'Let's go and do this.'"cite book |first=Hunter |last=Davies |authorlink=Hunter Davies |title=The Beatles: The Illustrated and Updated Edition |year=2006 |pages=398-399 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York |isbn=0-393-32886-4]

McCartney also expressed some lingering resentment about a similar incident with "Revolution 9", recorded in June 1968, a few months before "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?": "Anyway, he did the same with 'Revolution 9'. He went off and made that without me. No one ever says that. John is the nice guy and I'm the bastard. It gets repeated all the time."cite book |first=Hunter |last=Davies |authorlink=Hunter Davies |title=The Beatles: The Illustrated and Updated Edition |year=2006 |pages=401]

Personnel

*Paul McCartney – vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, lead guitar, bass guitar, handclaps
*Ringo Starr – drums, handclaps:"Credits per Ian MacDonald."

Cover versions

* Lowell Fulson covered the song on his 1970 album "In A Heavy Bag". [cite web |url=http://www.mp3.com/artist/lowell-fulson/songs/?tag=tabs;songs&om_act=convert&om_clk=arttabs |title=Lowell Fulson Albums |publisher=MP3.com |accessdate=2007-10-10]
* Phish covered the song live—along with the rest of the "White Album"—and released it on "Live Phish Volume 13". [cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:isjx7i34g78r |title=AMG Review of Live Phish Volume 13 |last=Jarnow |first=Jesse |publisher=AllMusic.com |accessdate=2007-03-22]
* Lydia Lunch released a version on her album "Transmutation".cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=17:1719735 |title=Artists who performed "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" |publisher=Allmusic |accessdate=2007-03-22]
*In 2005, the a cappella band Toxic Audio covered the song on their album "Word of Mouth".
*In 2007 it was recorded by Dana Fuchs for "Across the Universe" and is featured on the soundtrack.

Notes