Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“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, which was released on 22 November 1968. Although credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was written by John Lennon.

Writing and inspiration

According to Lennon, the title came from a magazine cover 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.” The title is one of many 1960s riffs on Charles M. Schulz’s axiom that “happiness is a warm puppy“, which began in the Peanuts comic strip and became the title of a related book.

Composition

Lennon said he “put together three sections of different songs … it seemed to run through all the different kinds of rock music.” This results in a three-part through-composed structure. The song begins with surreal imagery allegedly taken from an acid trip that Lennon and Derek Taylor experienced, with Taylor contributing the opening lines.

In the studio

“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” reportedly is Paul McCartney’s and was George Harrison’s favourite 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 metre issues. Recording of the song began at 7 pm in Studio Two at EMI Studios in London on 23 September 1968, continued over the following two nights, with daytime breaks, and was completed at 5 am on 26 September. Piano, electronic organ and tuba parts in this recording are unattributed; the tuba was all but removed through mixing. George Martin was on holiday while this song was recorded, and had left a note asking Chris Thomas to take over as producer.

Personnel

While officially uncredited, Chris Thomas (the track’s producer) has stated that he provided the keyboards for the track.

Interpretations

Many different interpretations of the song have been offered. Some writers have suggested that, in addition to the Peanuts reference, the “warm gun” could refer to Lennon’s sexual desire for Yoko Ono. In his 1980 Playboy interview Lennon admitted to the double meaning of guns and sexuality but denied that the song had anything to do with drugs: “that was the beginning of my relationship with Yoko and I was very sexually oriented then“. American and British censors were unhappy with the song, and it was banned by the BBC. […]

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

• [a] mono 26 Sep 1968. edited.
  UK: Apple PMC 7067 white album 1968.
• [b] stereo 15 Oct 1968. edited.
  UK: Apple PCS 7067 white album 1968.
  US: Apple SWBO 101 white album 1968.
  CD: EMI CDP 7 46443 2 white album 1987.

The 2d generation master is an edit of (copies of) two takes with more material overdubbed. Mono [a] has tapping (organ) on the beat from the start until the drums come in, but it is soft and mixed out 4 beats earlier in [b]. In the “I need a fix” section in stereo [b], by error, although the first line was mixed out, the last “down” is just audible. Mono [a] has louder bass in the “I need a fix” section. Mono [a] has laughter near the very end, just before the last drumbeat, not heard in [b].

From Anthology 3 liner notes:

Inside the final days of May 1968, immediately before beginning work on the White Album at EMI, the Beatles gathered at George Harrison’s house in Esher, south-west of London, to routine their latest compositions. The first of seven Anthology selections from these private recordings, all previously unreleased, might well be titled I Need A Fix, permitting the earliest glimpse of John Lennon’s Happiness Is A Warm Gun. John later revealed that the final song comprised three separate elements – the I Need A Mix, Mother Superior Jumped The Gun and Happiness Is A Warm Gun sections – and here the first two can be heard without the third. Like all the Esher recordings, the instrumentation is sparse and acoustic.

Last updated on May 13, 2017

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