![]() The song would have a prominent harpsichord part and propel itself on the back of a loping bass guitar. Rehearsals and then recording commenced for “Fixing a Hole,” which McCartney had pretty well worked out, with its minor key verses and major key bridges. Regent Sound’s head engineer Adrian Ibbetson took over. The situation didn’t sit well with them, because they had worked on everything for Sgt. Because George Martin was a freelance producer, he could travel offsite with the band, but they had to leave EMI engineers Geoff Emerick and Richard Lush behind. ![]() Eager to continue work on the new material, the lads headed to the smaller Regent Sound Studios, where the Rolling Stones had made some of their first recordings. EMI’s London Studios (aka “Abbey Road”) were fully booked on that day and even a band as big as the Beatles – who had never before used another British studio – couldn’t get in. With “Jesus” in tow, McCartney went to the session to record “Fixing a Hole” on Feb. ![]() They said, ‘Who’s this?’ I said, ‘He’s Jesus Christ.’ We had a bit of a giggle over that.” … So I said, ‘I’ve got to go to a session but if you promise to be very quiet and just sit in a corner, you can come.’ So he did, he came to the session and he did sit very quietly and I never saw him after that. But if he is, I’m not going to be the one to turn him away.’ So I gave him a cup of tea and we just chatted. “I said, ‘Well, you’d better come in then.’ I thought, ‘Well, it probably isn’t. “This guy said, ‘I’m Jesus Christ.’ I said, ‘Oop,’ slightly shocked,” McCartney recalled. The Beatle said he would always answer the door when he was home and would decide whether or not to let the visitors in depending on how interesting they seemed. One person that McCartney did let past his door was a man who appeared at the house, claiming he was Jesus Christ. The lines on the song’s bridge, “See the people standing there / Who disagree and never win / And wonder why they don’t get in my door,” refer to those folks – although the songwriter claimed that he tried to be hospitable and actually sometimes had let them inside to greet them. No, not all Beatle fanatics – just the obsessives who would set up camp outside McCartney’s home and hope to be let inside. McCartney wasn’t just extolling the virtues of pot on “Fixing a Hole,” but taking a shot at his fans. (Although it is thought that Evans received royalties for his contribution as a silent partner.) Pepper,” McCartney indicated that Evans would get songwriting credit on the LP, but later changed course to preserve the Lennon/McCartney brand. Pepper, which were crafted around the same time. ![]() It’s not known precisely when McCartney wrote “Fixing a Hole,” although according to the diary of Beatles road manager Mal Evans, it was probably in late January 1967, a couple of months after the band had started work on its new album. Evans wrote about assisting his buddy in the writing of both this song and the title track to Sgt. “‘Fixing a Hole’ was about all those pissy people who told you, ‘Don’t daydream, don’t do this, don’t do that.’ It seemed to me that that was all wrong and that it was now time to fix all of that,” McCartney said in Many Years From Now. “Mending was my meaning. Wanting to be free enough to let my mind wander, let myself be artistic, let myself not sneer at avant-garde things.” He used the analogy of fixing something to represent how pot had opened his mind. ![]() Pepper was released, McCartney revealed that the song was an “ode to pot.” It was actually the Beatle bassist’s second song in that vein, following the marijuana tribute “Got to Get You Into My Life” on Revolver. As it turns out, the heroin theorists were closer to being right. ![]()
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