A recording of John Lennon and Paul McCartney working on Beatles classic “Day Tripper” has been released, after having lived in storage since it was made in 1965.
The final version of the song was released in December that year, as a double-A side with “We Can Work It Out,” and reached number one in the U.K. and number five in the U.S.. Both songs were tracked during sessions for their sixth album, Rubber Soul.
In the newly released “Day Tripper (Songwriting Work Tape),” John Lennon and Paul McCartney are heard laying down the structure and trying vocal styles using an acoustic guitar and an electric.
At one point they cut the take with a fit of the giggles, then later Lennon says “I can’t balance this…” after another attempt. Later still, the pair giggle again after Lennon’s delivery of the line ‘I tried to please her.’
The song was created by Lennon, initially as a folk-rock style piece, before McCartney helped with a verse and they turned it into the trademark style. “Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right?“ Lennon told Playboy in 1980. “Usually on a ferry boat or something. But [the song] was kind of [saying], ‘You’re just a weekend hippie.’”
In his the 1997 memoir, Many Years From Now, McCartney described it as “a tongue-in-cheek song about someone who was committed only in part to the idea. Whereas we saw ourselves as full-time trippers.”
The work tape is one of a number of bonus tracks to be packaged with the special edition of Rubber Soul, which arrives on October 2. Produced by Giles Martin with assistance from engineer Sam Okell, the box set also includes new stereo and Dolby Atmos versions of the record, the Capitol edition as released in the U.S., and the original British mono mix. It’s available for pre-order in multiple formats.
