Martha My Dear

From Wikipedia:

“Martha My Dear” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the “White Album”). Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song was written solely by Paul McCartney inspired in title only by his Old English Sheepdog, Martha. The song has been interpreted as a veiled reference to his break up with Jane Asher, particularly in the line “don’t forget me”. “Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you” refers to her alleged affair while away from McCartney with The Old Vic Theatre. It has been covered by several artists, including Slade, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Phish, World Party, and Les Boréades de Montréal.

Style and form

The song incorporates elements from pop rock music; it also features a music hall-inspired piano line that recurs throughout the piece, as well as a brass section. The song modulates through several keys.

The song is notated mainly in the key of E♭ major, showing up embellished chords with jazzy sprinkled dissonances. The verse is a syncopated replicate of the first melodic section adding two extra beats, a technique similar to that used later by McCartney in “Two of Us“. Though the bridge is in the key of F major, the manner in which it abruptly sets in and exits makes it sound more out-of-the-way than it really is.

Recording

According to Beatles biographers Ian MacDonald and Mark Lewisohn, “Martha My Dear” is one of the few songs by the band in which McCartney played all the instruments (except orchestral instruments played by session musicians). Such a scenario was increasingly common for him during the height of the tensions that marred the sessions for the album. Although George Harrison is known to have recorded a portion of the electric guitar on the final recording, he was not credited. Ringo Starr is credited by some sources as having played drums.

The song was recorded over two days on 4 and 5 October 1968 at Trident Studios in London. McCartney recorded the piano, drums and vocals on the first day. He was advised to have producer George Martin play the piano solo because it was believed that the solo was beyond McCartney’s competency, but McCartney persisted. Martin’s brass and string arrangements were overdubbed later that day. On 5 October, McCartney re-recorded his vocals, added handclaps, and overdubbed bass and guitar parts, completing the song that day.

Legacy

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its release, Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent listed “Martha My Dear” at number 20 in his ranking of the White Album’s 30 tracks. He called the song “one of the album’s most unfairly maligned tracks” and “irresistibly charming”. […]

You see, I just start singing some words with a tune, you know what I mean. I don’t ever write a song thinking, ‘Now I’ll write a song about…’ I do sometimes, but mainly I don’t. Mainly I’m just doing a tune and then some words come into my head, you know. And these happened to be ‘Martha My Dear, though I spend my days in conversation.’ It doesn’t mean anything, you know, but those just happened to come to my head. So that’s what this song is about… it is about my dog. I don’t mean it, you know. I don’t ever try to make a serious social comment, you know. So you can read anything you like into it, but really it’s just a song. It’s me singing to my dog. (laughs)

Paul McCartney – From interview with Radio Luxembourg, 1968

When I taught myself piano I liked to see how far I could go, and this started life almost as a piece you’d learn as a piano lesson. It’s quite hard for me to play, it’s a two-handed thing, like a little set piece. In fact I remember one or two people being surprised that I’d played it because it’s slightly above my level or competence really, but I wrote it as that, something a bit more complex for me to play. Then while I was blocking out words – you just mouth out sounds and some things come – I found the words ‘Martha my dear’. […]

[Martha] was a dear pet of mine. I remember John being amazed to see me being so loving to an animal. He said, ‘I’ve never seen you like that before.’ I’ve since thought, you know, he wouldn’t have. It’s only when you’re cuddling around with a dog that you’re in that mode, and she was a very cuddly dog. […]

It’s a communication of some sort of affection but in a slightly abstract way – ‘You silly girl, look what you’ve done,’ all that sort of stuff. These songs grow. Whereas it would appear to anybody else to be a song to a girl called Martha, it’s actually a dog, and our relationship was platonic, believe me.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

Because my mum and dad both worked and were out all day, and my brother Mike and I were at school, there was no one to look after a dog. I remember one time we heard tell of puppies being given away in the next street, so we legged it round the corner, where, sure enough, there was a litter of puppies. We took a very cute little puppy home, but my mother told us we couldn’t keep it. We were crestfallen. Totally crushed.

When I grew up and was in the Beatles, I had a house of my own in London. More than that, I actually had a housekeeper looking after the house. The time was ripe to get a dog. I had always liked the look of Old English sheepdogs, so I went along to a place in Milton Keynes, about an hour north of London, and selected this little dog. I named her Martha. I just adored her. One of the unlikely side effects was that John became very sympathetic towards me. When he came round and saw me playing with Martha, I could tell that he liked her. John was a very guarded person, which was partly where all his wit came from. He’d had a very difficult upbringing, what with his father leaving home, his uncle dying, and his mother getting killed in a traffic accident. By the time I knew him, he could be very sarcastic. Not that I couldn’t be too. It was my own way of dealing with my mother’s death, I expect. We were both quite into the witty put-down. But seeing me with Martha, with my guard down, all of a sudden he started warming to me. And so he let his guard down too.

Paul McCartney – From Paul McCartney on his lyrics: ‘Eroticism was a driving force behind everything I wrote’ | Times2 | The Times – From “The Lyrics”, 2021

The funny thing is, at the time almost no one listening to the song knew that Martha was a dog. And actually, as the song proceeds, Martha morphs into a person. As it happens, I had a relative who was having an affair and came down to London to tell me about it. Maybe for some hand-holding. If you think about it, by 1968 I represented a breath of freedom. I was now slightly outside the circle. This relative could confide in me in a way that maybe wouldn’t have been possible with other members of a gossipy Liverpool family. I’m the only person who knew the song was about someone having an affair, and that gives a line like ‘When you find yourself in the thick of it’ an added layer of poignancy.

Paul McCartney – From “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present“, 2021

Lyrics

Variations

• A Mono version • From "The Beatles (Mono)"
• A2009 2009 mono remaster • From "The Beatles in Mono (2009)"
• A2014 2014 remaster • From "The Beatles In Mono (Vinyl boxset - 2014)"
• B Stereo version • From "The Beatles (Stereo)"
• B2009 2009 stereo remaster • From "The Beatles • The Original Studio Recordings (2009)"
• C 2018 stereo mix • From "The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)"
• D Composite mix • From "The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)"

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

“Martha My Dear” has been played in 2 soundchecks.

Going further

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