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Fixing A Hole
(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
Paul McCartney:
Vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar
John Lennon: Vocals
George Harrison: Electric guitars, vocals
Ringo Starr: Drums, maracas
George Martin: Hapsichord
Recorded
February 9, 21 1967.
Available
on:
Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Paul's
Fixing A Hole was the first Beatles song to be recorded
outside Abbey Road Studios. The recording on February 9
had to be done in Regent Sound Studio since all the studios
at Abbey Road were booked. Regent Sound Studio is an independent
recording studio, and the Rolling Stones recorded some of
their early hits there. It's worth noting that EMI wouldn't
let Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick and the usual crew work
in another studio than Abbey Road, so Adrian Ibbetson was
the studio engineer on this day.
It's a
well-known theory that Paul got the idea to write Fixing
A Hole as he was covering up a hole in the roof on his farm
house in Scotland. It's true that Paul in 1966 bought a
farm house called High Park near Campbeltown on the west
coast of Scotland, after he had been advised to invest money
in property. It's also possible that the roof on the old
farm house needed attention since nobody had lived there
for years, and the property was in a poor condition.
It's however
debatable if this really is what McCartney is singing about.
Fixing A Whole seems to have a deeper meaning than trivial
DIY work, and it seems to touch into Paul's relationship
with other people. This is particularly apparent in the
line;
"Silly
people run around/they worry me and never ask me /why they
don't get past my door."
There
has also been speculation if Fixing A Hole really is about
shooting heroin, but McCartney himself has rubbished such
rumors.
"If
you're a junkie sitting in a room fixing a hole then that's
what it will mean to you, but when I wrote it I meant if
there's a crack, or the room is uncolourful, then I'll paint
it," Paul said in 1967.
Some have
said that Paul played the hapsichord on this tune, but Mark
Lewisohn pointed out in his book The
Complete Beatles Recording Sessions that this is impossible
since the bass and the hapsichord were recorded at the same
time. It's therefore more likely that it was producer George
Martin who played the hapsichord.
The bass
line on the song is wonderfully McCartney-ish though, and
George Harrison adds a delightful guitar solo.
Fixing A Hole
(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
I'm filling the cracks that ran though the door
and kept my mind from wandering
where it will go
And it
really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
See the people standing there
who disagree and never win
and wonder why they don't get in my door
I'm painting
my room in a colorful way,
and when my mind is wandering
there I will go
And it
really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
Silly people run around
they worry me and never ask me
why they don't get past my door
I'm taking
my time for a number of things
that weren't important yesterday
and I still go
I'm fixing
a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
where it will go
I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
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