Getting Better

Wrote that at my house in St. Johns Wood. All I remember is that I said, “It’s getting better all the time,” and John contributed the legendary line “It couldn’t get much worse.” Which I thought was very good. Against the spirit of that song, which was all superoptimistic – then there’s that lovely little sardonic line. Typical John.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Playboy, 1984

From Wikipedia:

“Getting Better” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was written mainly by Paul McCartney, with some of the lyrics written by John Lennon, and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership.

Composition

The song has been said to be musically reminiscent of the Beatles’ hit single “Penny Lane“. It moves forward by way of regular chords, produced by Lennon and George Harrison’s electric guitar. George Martin plays Pianet and piano, on the latter bypassing the keyboard and directly striking the strings. These heavily accented and repetitive lines cause the song to sound as if it is based on a drone. Harrison added an Indian tambura part to the final verse, which further accentuates this impact. The sound of the percussion introduced in this section combines with the tambura to create an Indian mood.

McCartney’s bassline, in counterpoint to this droning, was described by music critic Ian MacDonald as “dreamy” and “well thought out as a part of the production by McCartney”. It was recorded after the main track was completed, as were many of the bass lines on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Starting out in the verse with a pedal on the root note (G) that leaps two octaves, McCartney moves to a marching quarter-note (walking) bass line for the first (and only the first) chorus. In stark contrast, all subsequent choruses are played using a fluid, swing feel, full of anticipated notes that propel the song forward despite the quarter-note droning of the guitar and keyboard.

According to Beatles biographer Hunter Davies and MacDonald, the initial idea for the song’s title came from a phrase often spoken by Jimmie Nicol, the group’s stand-in drummer for the Australian leg of their 1964 world tour. The title and music suggest optimism, but some of the song’s lyrics have a more negative tone. In this sense, it reflects the contrasting personas of the two songwriters. In response to McCartney’s line, “It’s getting better all the time”, Lennon replies, “Can’t get no worse!” In a December 1983 interview, McCartney praised this contribution as an example of things he “couldn’t ever have done [him]self”. In a 1969 interview, Lennon cited “Getting Better” as an example of “pure Beatles” music, whereby, with the four band members developing a song, “we’ve all written it and we’ve all turned it into sort of pure Beatle.”

Referring to the lyrics “I used to be cruel to my woman / I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved / Man I was mean but I’m changing my scene / And I’m doing the best that I can”, Lennon admitted that he had done things in relationships in the past that he was not proud of.

In a 1980 interview in Playboy with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lennon, when asked about the song, said that the song’s lyrics came personally from his own experience abusing women in relationships in the past. He states: “It is a diary form of writing. All that ‘I used to be cruel to my woman / I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved’ was me. I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically – any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn’t express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything’s the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster.”

Lennon’s LSD incident

One of the recording sessions for “Getting Better” is infamous for an incident involving Lennon. During the 21 March 1967 session in which producer George Martin added a piano solo to “Lovely Rita“, Lennon complained that he did not feel well and could not focus. He had accidentally taken LSD when he meant to take an upper. Unaware of the mistake, Martin took him up to the roof of EMI Studios for some fresh air, and returned to Studio Two where McCartney and Harrison were waiting. They knew why Lennon was not well, and upon hearing where Lennon was, rushed to the roof to retrieve him and prevent a possible accident. […]

Live performances

Paul McCartney performed the song live for the first time by any Beatle on his 2002 Driving World Tour. He later reprised the song on his 2003 Back in the World Tour. […]

I would go to Paul’s house at four o’clock in the afternoon and I would have tea with him, muck around and go for a walk. I remember once, I was walking around Primrose Hill with Paul and his dog Martha one spring morning. It was the first spring-like morning of that year, and as we got to the top of the hill, the sun came up. He turned to me and said, ‘It’s getting better,’ meaning that spring was here. Then, he started laughing and I asked him what he was laughing about, and he said it reminded him of something that the reserve drummer, Jimmy Nicol, they had used in 1964 when Ringo fell ill, used to say at the end of every concert. John and Paul would ask him how things were going and he would always say, ‘Oh, it’s getting better.’ John used to take the piss out of him and it became a joke phrase. Then, in his little studio in his house, Paul began working out a tune on his guitar. At seven o’clock this evening, John came round to the house and they’d give each other the other bits of songs they’d written. Now and again, they’d have written whole songs but mostly it was half a song and the other one would help finish it. So, Paul played that song, explained it to John, and they recorded the first part of it the next evening.

Hunter Davis – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

‘Getting Better’ I wrote on my magic Binder, Edwards and Vaughan piano in my music room. It had a lovely tone, that piano, you’d just open the lid and there was such a magic tone, almost out of tune, and of course the way it was painted added to the fun of it all.

It’s an optimistic song. I often try and get on to optimistic subjects in an effort to cheer myself up and also, realising that other people are going to hear this, to cheer them up too. And this was one of those. The ‘angry young man’ and all that was John and I filling in the verses about schoolteachers. We shared a lot of feelings against teachers who had punished you too much or who hadn’t understood you or who had just been bastard generally. So there are references to them.

It’s funny, I used to think of the bad grammar coming from Chuck Berry but it’s actually more Jamaican, like writing in slang. It just appeared in one of the verses, it felt nice, it scanned nicely, rather than ‘I used to be an angry young man’, ‘me used…’ We’d always grab at those things, lots of precedents with Elvis, ‘ain’t never done no wrong’. At school the teachers would have said, ‘Isn’t it terrible grammar?’ and you’d say, ‘Yeah, isn’t it great?’

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

I was sitting there doing ‘Getting better all the time’ and John just said in his laconic way, ‘It couldn’t get no worse,’ and I thought, Oh, brilliant! This is exactly why I love writing with John. He’d done it on a number of other occasions, he does a Greek chorus thing on ‘She’s Leaving Home’, he just answers. It was one of the ways we’d write. I’d have the song quite mapped out and he’d come in with a counter-melody, so it was a simple ordinary story.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

It is a diary form of writing. All that, ‘I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved,’ was me. I used to be cruel to my woman, and psychically, any woman. I was a hitter! I couldn’t express myself and I hit. I fought men and hot women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything’s the opposite, but I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated woman as a youngster.

John Lennon, September 1980 – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

[a] mono 23 Mar 1967.
UK: Parlophone PMC 7026 Sgt Pepper 1967.
US: Capitol MAS 2653 Sgt Pepper 1967.

[b] stereo 17 Apr 1967.
UK: Parlophone PCS 7026 Sgt Pepper 1967.
US: Capitol SMAS 2653 Sgt Pepper 1967.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46442 2 Sgt Pepper 1987.

Lyrics

Variations

• A Mono version • From "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Mono)"
• A2009 2009 mono remaster • From "The Beatles in Mono (2009)"
• A2014 2014 remaster • From "The Beatles In Mono (Vinyl boxset - 2014)"
• B Stereo version • From "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Stereo)"
• B2009 2009 stereo remaster • From "The Beatles • The Original Studio Recordings (2009)"
• C 2017 stereo mix • From "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (50th anniversary boxset)"
• D Take 1 - Instrumental and speech at the end • From "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (50th anniversary boxset)"
• E Take 12 with overdubs • From "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (50th anniversary boxset)"
• F 2017 Dolby Atmos mix
• G 2022 Dolby Atmos mix
• L1 Live version • Denver • Pepsi Arena • USA • May 07, 2002 • From "Back In The U.S."

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

“Getting Better” has been played in 101 concerts and 2 soundchecks.

Latest concerts where “Getting Better” has been played