Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I know that the "Hey Bulldog/Lady Madonna" topic has been up before. Watching the video of "Hey Bulldog" on you tube today I am now certain that the "A" side that The Beatles planned to release in March '68 was "Hey Bulldog" - not "Lady Madonna".
Why else would they have let a film be made of the recording, with multiple takes and edits? Not a very likely scenario - other than to promote a single release. The Idea that this footage was made to promote "Lady Madonna" seems ridiculous. Even the US 45 sleeve photo looks like an outtake from this session.
I can guess whose idea it was to switch the A side of this 45, though the B side selection remains a mystery. At that time, I think that a "Hey Bulldog (A side)/Lady Madonna (B side)" choice would probably have been a much stronger single. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGrEZH7j1bQ

Although Hey Bulldog is perceived today as a very cool song (expecially for 60s and Rickenbacker freaks like we are), I am not sure that it could be positively compared with the comerciality and marketing strenght of Lady Madonna if we consider those as the main factors to analyse the issue.
Even back in 68 I don't think the general public would have considered HB being better than LM in overall terms.

rickinroma wrote:Although Hey Bulldog is perceived today as a very cool song (expecially for 60s and Rickenbacker freaks like we are), I am not sure that it could be positively compared with the comerciality and marketing strenght of Lady Madonna if we consider those as the main factors to analyse the issue.
Even back in 68 I don't think the general public would have considered HB being better than LM in overall terms.

Seconded. It just seems like a lot more thought went into Lady Madonna. Even though Hey Bulldog sounds cool, I've always perceived it as somewhat of a throw-away. Mostly because of John's terrible lyrics and the jokey outro. Madonna on the other hand, is another tight, concise Paul production in the same vein as Penny Lane. I wouldn't say that Madonna is to Penny Lane as Bulldog is to Strawberry Fields though.

I think HB was more of a filler track and having B sides on records they had to put something on it.
Its a good Lennon song but not a patch on Lady Madonna in terms of lyrics and hit single potential.
I always wonder if Chris Squire messed around with that HB riff and came up with Sound Chaser.

They were supposed to film a video of them miming to Lady Madonna which was recorded first. Supposedly, Lennon pushed for them to record Hey Bulldog while the camera crew filmed. Lady Madonna was already about to be released as a single when HB was being recorded.

From what I understand to be true, the Beatles went into the studio to make the promotional film for Lady Madonna and figured that since they were there, they might as well record something. Therefore, the Lady Madonna film was actually the recording of Hey Bulldog. I believe that I read this in the Beatles Recording Sessions book by Mark Lewisohn.

I thought this was going to be a thread on a Celestion Vox Bulldog single speaker...oops

I was thinking that the band (Lennon mainly) wanted it as the single release. I agree that “Lady Madonna” is a very strong track (when I first heard it on the radio in ’68, I wasn’t quite sure who was singing – Paul’s ‘Elvis voice”). “Bulldog” was most likely vetoed by the majority.
I still can’t figure how “The Inner Light” found it’s way onto the ‘B’ side, it was a very odd track, even for those times. I personally love the song. During these sessions, the band was working on “Lady Madonna”, “Bulldog”, “Inner Light”, & “Across the Universe”. Any of them could have found their way onto the single.

Must say 'The Inner Light' to me, J.W., was an odd selection as a B side to the single as well. On the flipside (pun intended), a few folks might have thought 'Yellow Submarine' was a unique choice as the B side to 'Eleanor Rigby'.

Acutally listening to "Inner Light" right now, very weird track, but a beautiful one.

I think another reason they didn't release "Hey Bulldog", is because it was recorded just for the "Yellow Submarine" film.

Across the Universe was actually being considered as the single and it was bumped by Lady Madonna. Hey Bulldog was never considered for a single release.

Honestly, I couldn't care less about what the Beatles' singles were in their later years, for me it's all about the albums. I've always hated how the recording of Across the Universe sounds, and from what I understand John wasn't too stoked on it either. I don't think their later material translates well into singles. The songs fit together so nicely that they really belong on an album together.

I tend to agree, Wes

Yes, I just read about this session in Geoff Emerick's book...it was definitely meant to be for "Lady Madonna", but they were leaving for India I think the very next day, and Lennon had just written "Hey Bulldog", so this was a quick solution to the problem: film them while they record this one, and just use the footage. Apparently, no one was the wiser at the time.

This session, according to Emerick, was the last time he saw them truly having fun together and working like a well-knit team in the studio. It was all a miserable drag after that with only the occasional punctuation of laughter and fun.

Yes, I remember that comment about the good vibe during the session from the book (great book, BTW - great insight into the various Beatles' personalities). It is nice that it was filmed. I can't imagine what a session film of the White Album would look like, and it likely wouldn't include all four of them. For all of Emerick's comments about Lennon and his temper and drug use, he seemed least happy with Ringo by the time the Beatles were done.