Nowhere Man

It's strange to put Rubber Soul on and suddenly be greeted with, I've just seen a face, from what I had on the British copy of Help, as opposed to starting it with the big bang that is Drive My Car.

And there were some other bits as well, like Nowhere Man, it was weird not having that But then again, the American record companies were a bit shrewd with their ordering of songs on albums, weren't they?

Yes, and that all lays at the feet of Dave Dexter, who was the head of A&R at Capitol at the time.

was common practice for all american labels everyone had a standard of how long an album should be in the united states and usually it's about 11 or 12 tracks and anything that was coming over anything that was recorded and released in the uk no matter what label it was whether it was hollies or the rolling stones or the kinks their american counterparts were always going to mess with the songs and also change the packaging and sometimes even the title.

Wow.

So briefly, Marv, for your benefit, side one, this is the LP version, not the 8-track version.

Drive My Car, I'm Only Sleeping, Nowhere Man, Dr. Robert, Yesterday, and Act Naturally.

Side two, And Your Bird Can Sing, If I Needed Someone, We Can Work It Out, What Goes On, and Day Tripper.

I don't remember that.

But I know that there are enemies called Blue Meanies, and I know they meet the Nowhere Man.

Sounds pretty psychedelic to me.

It was a psychedelic.

Mostly guitar, drums, and tambourine.

Track 15 is Nowhere Man, the first version, take two.

Again, I don't have that much to say.

It's the birds-like version, which we got on Anthology 4.

It's nice to have it here because of the next version.

yes definitely

so track 16 is nowhere man the second version take five the instrumental backing track so they decided not to try the harmonies again and ringo's just sort of tapping through where the harmonies are going to go again keeping time

yeah didn't have the click tracks back then so this is how you did it take five

Okay, what's another one of yours here?

Okay, then I've got Nowhere Man, first version, take two.

Oh.

It's got the...

Maybe we have different tracks here.

It's kind of an instrumental background, but it starts out with...

He's a real nowhere man.

It's got kind of a different feel in the vocal intro.

This is the point in the 60s 9 where I usually have a little waffle, but bear with me, I'll do it on track 9.

Track 7 is going to be The Beatles from 1965, a track from the Rubber Soul LP Nowhere Man.

It was issued as a single in the United States and Canada in 1966, and you can also find it over there, or over here, I should say, in Yesterday and Today.

Track 8 will be The Shadows, a track on which Bruce Welch... was missing.

So track nine will be um, um, um, um, um, um, a bit of Chicago soul from Major Lance.

But first, the Beatles.

a real nowhere man sitting in his nowhere land making all his nowhere plans for nobody doesn't have a point of view knows not where he's going to isn't he a bit like Well, man, please listen You don't know what you're missing as blind as he can be just sees what he wants to see nowhere man can you see me at all nowhere man don't worry take your time don't worry believe it all till somebody else lends you a hand Doesn't have a point of view.

Knows not where he's going to.

... dominant on this album still with all his different tracks.

You know, when you look at, you look at John's list of songs, well, you've got Norwegian Wood, you've got Nowhere Man, and you've got The Word, um, you've Girl, you know, uh, you've In My Life.

Um, just looking at the list here.

You've got, uh, Wait and Run For Your Life.

Because it, because it-

... straightforward?

Well, no, because it's right, placed right beside, uh, Nowhere Man.

Oh, okay.

Norwegian Wood.

But they also go, though, they also did another bit of work on that day, which was they introduced Nowhere Man.

Yes.

How do you feel about Nowhere Man?

I'm not going to, I think...

You're not going to

Again, it goes back to this thing we said in the first part that Lennon is really trying.

I think stylistically, I don't think there's any album where Lennon is doing so many different kind of styles and moods.

It's The Beatles with Revolution.

I was asking you guys, what's the Beatles song with the best lyrics? Great suggestions here from you guys: In My Life, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, A Day in the Life, Norwegian Wood, Nowhere Man, Eleanor Rigby, Here, There and Everywhere, Across the Universe, Blackbird, Girl, I Am the Walrus, and Because.

But we love Revolution, of course.

Revolution, uh, not Revolution 1 or Revolution 9, but Revolution from The Beatles.