The Beatles‘ “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” is one of their more psychedelic songs. A specific instrument helped make the tune stand out from the pack. An engineer revealed how the track came together in the studio. “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” became the fitting B-side of a more famous Fab Four song.
Why The Beatles worked a synthesize into ‘Baby, You’re a Rich Man’
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Engineer Eddie Kramer worked at Abbey Road Studios. He had collaborated with The Beatles during the recording of the albums Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. During a 2013 interview with Guitar World, Kramer said his boss, Keith Grant, had wanted Kramer to impress the Fab Four. “Keith said to me, ‘Look, we’ve got to really prove it to these guys that we are not only as good as but probably better than EMI Abbey Road,’” he recalled. “And that was the mantra for the night.”
Kramer revealed how The Beatles were exposed to an interesting instrument. “If you can imagine, we’ve cut the track and it’s coming along really nicely,” Kramer said. “I think John wandered into the studio and said, ‘Oy, what’s this?’ And there on a table is the Clavioline [analog synthesizer]. So we hooked it up and he started fooling around with it. And he says, ‘OK, that’s what I want.’ So we stuck a mic in front of the amp, and he was done in a couple of takes.”
Eddie Kramer said The Beatles had to make the song ‘really explode’
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Kramer revealed what he thought of “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” in retrospect. “We were duty bound to make this thing really explode, and we did,” Kramer opined. “It was an amazing track.”
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Kramer and The Beatles were only able to realize “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” because of the tools available to them at Abbey Road. “If you can imagine Olympic Studios in 1967, we were at the cutting edge of virtually every studio in London,” Kramer explained. “We were very innovative, and of course, we had, I think, the best console in England and possibly the world at the time.”
John Lennon and Paul McCartney said ‘Baby, You’re a Rich Man’ was once 2 songs
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The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In the book, John was asked to explain the origin of “Baby, You’re a Rich Man.” He said the track started out as two different songs, one which he wrote and one which Paul McCartney wrote. John said he wrote the hook of the song, specifically the line about “beautiful people.” He gave Paul credit for the chorus.
“Baby, You’re a Rich Man” served as the B-side for “All You Need Is Love.” Those two songs worked together very well. “All You Need Is Love” is an anti-materialistic song. Meanwhile, “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” pokes fun at the wealthy. Of course, it’s odd that a band that successful would give us those two songs.
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“Baby, You’re a Rich Man” is a classic track and it wouldn’t be as otherworldly without the Clavioline.
