TheBeatlesOnline

I Want To Tell You

George Harrison: Vocals, electric guitar
John Lennon: Vocals, tambourine
Paul McCartney: Piano, bass guitar, tambourine
Ringo Starr: Drums, maracas

Recorded June 2, 3 1966.

Available on:
Revolver

It was rare that George Harrison had though of a title when he presented a new song to the others. A few weeks beforehand, the working title for Love You To had been Granny Smith. It was therefore no coincidence that the working title for I Want To Tell You was Laxton's Superd, another apple brand. (The Granny Smith apple was later used as logo when Beatles established their own record company, Apple Records). The working title later changed to I Don't Know, based on Harrison's answer to George Martin when he asked what the song was going to be called.

I Want To Tell You is an unusual and perhaps underrated song. Its got a slightly oriental feel to it, athough Harrison didn't use Indian sitars this time. Two things that stand out on the recording are Paul McCartney's almost disharmonic piano line and his excellent backing vocals.

As for the lyrics, George later said in his autobiography I Me Mine:

"It's about the avalanche of thoughts that are so hard to write down or say or transmit."

George also said that if had the chance to rewrite the song, he would have changed the bridge section to;

"Although I seem to act unkind, it isn't me, it is my mind that is confusing things."

"The mind is the thing that hops about telling us to do this and do that. What we need is to lose the mind," he said.

However, one is left with the impression that the Beatles could have spent more time on the production of the song. Engineer Geoff Emerick gives us a clue why;

"One felt under more pressure when doing one of George's songs," he said in The Complete Beatles Sessions, a book by Mark Lewisohn.

"One really got the impression tht George was being given a certain mount of time to do his tracks whereas the other could spend as long as they wanted."

A live version of I Want To Tell You is available on Harrison's Live In Japan from 1991. This version also features Eric Clapton on guitar.

I Want To Tell You

I want to tell you
My head is filled with things to say
When you’re here
All those words they seem to slip away

When I get near you
The games begin to drag me down
It’s alright
I’ll make you maybe next time around

But if I seem to act unkind
It’s only me, it’s not my mind
That is confusing things

I want to tell you
I feel hung up and I don’t know why,
I don’t mind, I could wait for ever
I’ve got time

Sometimes I wish I knew you well
Then I could speak my mind and tell you
Maybe you’d understand

I want to tell you,
I feel hung up and I don’t know why
I don’t mind, I could wait for ever
I’ve got time
I’ve got time