Happiness Is a Warm Gun

Song infobox
Name = Happiness Is a Warm Gun
Artist = The Beatles
Album = The Beatles


Released = 22 November 1968
track_no = 8 of disc 1
Recorded = Abbey Road Studios
24–25 September 1968
Genre = Hard rock, doo wop
Length = 2:43
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""Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is a song by The Beatles featured on the eponymous double-disc album "The Beatles" (also known as "The White Album"). It is primarily a John Lennon composition, credited to Lennon/McCartney. The original, working title of the song was "Happiness Is a Warm Gun in Your Hand," which was inspired by a magazine containing the phrase, which in turn parodied "Happiness is a Warm Puppy," a Peanuts book written by Charles Schulz in 1962.

Overview

Lennon once claimed the song was "sort of a history of rock and roll," as it features five different sections but is less than three minutes long. The song begins with a brief lilting section ("She's not a girl who misses much..."). Drums, bass and distorted guitar are introduced as this portion of the song proceeds. The surreal imagery from this section is allegedly taken from an acid trip that Lennon and Derek Taylor experienced, with Taylor contributing the opening lines. [Hertsgaard, Mark (1995). "A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles". New York, New York: Delacorte Press. pg. 257] After this, the song transitions into a Lennon song fragment called "I Need a Fix," built around an ominous-sounding guitar riff. This section drifts into the next section, a chorus of "Mother Superior jumped the gun."

The final section is a doo-wop send up, with the back-up of vocals of "bang, bang, shoot shoot." The song's multiple sections would inspire Radiohead's three part "Paranoid Android" on "OK Computer". [cite web |url=http://www.greenplastic.com/lyrics/paranoidandroid.php |title=Paranoid Android |accessdate=2007-09-21]

One of the most radical musical accomplishments of the song is its frequent shifts in meter. Beginning in 4/4 time, the song shifts to a 3/4 time for the guitar solo in the "I need a fix..." section. This gives way to 6/8, 3/4, and 4/4 measures in the "Mother Superior..." section before returning to 4/4 for the majority of the doo-wop style ending. During Lennon's spoken-word interlude, the song briefly switches into 6/4. The spoken word section has its roots in the song later on the album "I'm So Tired" because, exhibited in the song's home demo, is a spoken word section in 6/4 time that is almost exactly like the one in "Happiness is a Warm Gun."

According to Lennon, the title came from the cover of a gun magazine that producer George Martin showed him: "I think he showed me a cover of a magazine that said 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun.' It was a gun magazine. I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something."cite book |first=Jann S |last=Wenner |title=Lennon Remembers (Full interview from Lennon's 1970 interview in Rolling Stone magazine) |year=2000 |pages=114-115 |publisher=Verso |location=London |isbn=1-85984-600-9]

Many different interpretations of the song have been offered down the years. It has been said that, in addition to the obvious reference mentioned above, the "Warm Gun" could also allude to Lennon's sexual desire for Yoko Ono (meaning an erect penis) and also to his well documented problems with heroin at the time of the recording of The White Album (in this case, the gun being a loaded syringe).

"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is Paul McCartney's favorite song on the White Album. Although tensions were high among the band during the album's recording sessions, they reportedly collaborated as a close unit to work out the song's challenging rhythmic and meter issues, and consequently considered it one of the few true "Beatles" songs on the album.

It was featured in the Michael Moore documentary "Bowling for Columbine" in a montage sequence and in the film "Across the Universe" in which Maxwell is being injected with morphine.

Credits

*John Lennon - lead vocals, electric guitar, piano
*Paul McCartney - bass, backing vocals
*George Harrison - lead guitar, backing vocals
*Ringo Starr - drums

Cover versions

* Tori Amos, on the album "Strange Little Girls"
* Phish, on the album "Live Phish Volume 13"
* U2, as a B-side of the single "Last Night on Earth"
* Jay-Z and Danger Mouse, as a mashup on "The Grey Album"
* Alanis Morissette, during the 1995-1996 Can't Not Tour
* Joe Anderson with Salma Hayek, for the soundtrack of "Across the Universe"
* Guns N' Roses on the Use Your Illusion Tour.
* The Breeders, on the album " Pod"
* Marc Ribot, on the album "Saints"
* Dream Theater, circulating in live bootlegs online

Notes

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445922/soundtrack Joe Anderson in Across the Universe]