Be What You See

Song facts

“Be What You See” is a 34 seconds-long song from 1982 album “Tug Of War“, serving as a link between “Get It” and “Dress Me As A Robber“. As explained by Paul :

The idea originally was that I wanted a few moments on the album where, like on a Pink Floyd album, you’ll get a sound developing into another sound, and I like that kind of thing, like where a radio play atmosphere develops. Carl (Perkins) and I had a joke at the end of ‘Get It’ and he started laughing. It was a nice way to end the track. It was genuine laughing but I wanted the laughing to go on into something more mystical. So I got on a vocoder, which Herbie Hancock, the musician, uses, where you play the actual notes with your mouth. And I got into this and it developed like the way you hear on the album, mixed into the next track. It’s difficult because if you start a short track and it starts to sound good, how do you finish it? It’s only a link you’re making, but you’ve got to get out. You can’t stay there forever, because it was only meant to be a link. We kept it like that with the laughing.

Paul McCartney, from Badman, Keith. The Beatles: The Dream Is Over – Off The Record 2 (p. 303).

Last updated on April 16, 2020

Lyrics