Martha My Dear

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“Martha My Dear” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 eponymous double album The Beatles (also known as the “White Album”). Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song was written solely by Paul McCartney about his Old English Sheepdog, Martha. It has been covered by numerous artists, including Slade, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Phish, and Les Boréades de Montréal.

Style and form

The song incorporates elements from pop rock music; it also features a music hall-inspired piano line that recurs throughout the piece, as well as a brass section. The song modulates through several keys.[page needed]

The song is notated mainly in the key of E♭ major, showing up embellished chords with jazzy sprinkled dissonances. The verse is a syncopated replicate of the first melodic section adding two extra beats, a technique similar to that used later by McCartney in “Two of Us“. Though the bridge is in the key of F major, the manner in which it abruptly sets in and exits makes it sound more out-of-the-way than it really is. […]

“Martha My Dear” was recorded over two days on October 4 and 5, 1968 at Trident Studios in London. The basic track was recorded on the first day with Paul McCartney on piano and lead vocals, George Harrison on electric guitar and Ringo Starr on drums. John Lennon was absent from this session. Later in the evening, fourteen session musicians recorded a brass and strings arrangement. Then McCartney re-recorded his lead vocal track and added handclaps. He then double-tracked both the vocals and the handclaps. On October 5, he overdubbed his bass part, and the song was mixed in mono and stereo.

You see, I just start singing some words with a tune, you know what I mean. I don’t ever write a song thinking, ‘Now I’ll write a song about…’ I do sometimes, but mainly I don’t. Mainly I’m just doing a tune and then some words come into my head, you know. And these happened to be ‘Martha My Dear, though I spend my days in conversation.’ It doesn’t mean anything, you know, but those just happened to come to my head. So that’s what this song is about… it is about my dog. I don’t mean it, you know. I don’t ever try to make a serious social comment, you know. So you can read anything you like into it, but really it’s just a song. It’s me singing to my dog. (laughs)

Paul McCartney, from interview with Radio Luxembourg, 1968

Because my mum and dad both worked and were out all day, and my brother Mike and I were at school, there was no one to look after a dog. I remember one time we heard tell of puppies being given away in the next street, so we legged it round the corner, where, sure enough, there was a litter of puppies. We took a very cute little puppy home, but my mother told us we couldn’t keep it. We were crestfallen. Totally crushed.

When I grew up and was in the Beatles, I had a house of my own in London. More than that, I actually had a housekeeper looking after the house. The time was ripe to get a dog. I had always liked the look of Old English sheepdogs, so I went along to a place in Milton Keynes, about an hour north of London, and selected this little dog. I named her Martha. I just adored her. One of the unlikely side effects was that John became very sympathetic towards me. When he came round and saw me playing with Martha, I could tell that he liked her. John was a very guarded person, which was partly where all his wit came from. He’d had a very difficult upbringing, what with his father leaving home, his uncle dying, and his mother getting killed in a traffic accident. By the time I knew him, he could be very sarcastic. Not that I couldn’t be too. It was my own way of dealing with my mother’s death, I expect. We were both quite into the witty put-down. But seeing me with Martha, with my guard down, all of a sudden he started warming to me. And so he let his guard down too.

Paul McCartney – From Paul McCartney on his lyrics: ‘Eroticism was a driving force behind everything I wrote’ | Times2 | The Times – From “The Lyrics”, 2021

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

[a] mono 5 Oct 1968 at Trident.
UK: Apple PMC 7067 white album 1968.

[b] stereo 5 Oct 1968 at Trident.
UK: Apple PCS 7067 white album 1968.
US: Apple SWBO 101 white album 1968.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46443 2 white album 1987.

This has a lot of tape hiss.

Last updated on December 30, 2021

Lyrics

Variations