Sexy Sadie

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For other uses, see Sexy Sadie (disambiguation).

"Sexy Sadie"
Cover of the song's sheet music
Song by the Beatles
from the album The Beatles
PublishedNorthern Songs
Released22 November 1968
Recorded19 and 24 July, 13 and 21 August 1968
StudioEMI, London
GenreRock
Length3:15
LabelApple
Songwriter(s)Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)George Martin

"Sexy Sadie" is a song by the English

diss track.[1][2][3][4]

Composition

Main article: The Beatles in India

Lennon originally wanted to title the song "Maharishi",[5] but changed the title to "Sexy Sadie" at George Harrison's request. Lennon was disillusioned after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had allegedly made a sexual advance on Mia Farrow,[6] who was attending a course the Maharishi was teaching at his ashram in Rishikesh, India. Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Cynthia Lennon later said that they thought the story, which had come from Alexis Mardas, also known as "Magic Alex", had been fabricated.[7][8][9][10][11] Lennon once said of the song: "That was inspired by Maharishi. I wrote it when we had our bags packed and were leaving. It was the last piece I wrote before I left India. I just called him 'Sexy Sadie' instead of (sings) 'Maharishi what have you done, you made a fool...' I was just using the situation to write a song, rather calculatingly but also to express what I felt. I was leaving the Maharishi with a bad taste. You know, it seems that my partings are always not as nice as I'd like them to be."[12] He told Rolling Stone that when the Maharishi asked why he was leaving, he replied, "Well, if you're so cosmic, you'll know why."[13]

After returning from India, Lennon scratched the lyrics into a piece of wood, with the original title "Maharishi". According to Harrison's account in the director's cut of the Beatles Anthology (1995) documentary, the recorded version changed only after Harrison insisted that if the song was used its name must be changed and persuaded Lennon to retitle it "Sexy Sadie". Derek Taylor remembered Lennon's scratching the wood in the Apple offices.

According to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (1988), an early outtake of "Sexy Sadie" features Lennon demonstrating the song's original working lyrics to the rest of the band: "Maharishi, you little twat/Who the fuck do you think you are?/Who the fuck do you think you are?/Oh, you cunt."[14]

The song's instrumental fadeout was originally 39 seconds longer and featured a breakdown based around the

middle eight
. This was edited out before mixing.

In a 1968 Rolling Stone interview, Lennon compared the song to "I've Been Good to You" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.[15] The Miracles song begins with the lines "Look what you've done/You made a fool out of someone",[16] echoing "Sexy Sadie"'s "What have you done?/You made a fool of everyone".[17][15]

Legacy

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its release, Jacob Stolworthy of

Time Out London ranked "Sexy Sadie" at number 14 on its list of the best Beatles songs.[19]

George Harrison commented years later, "Now, historically, there's the story that something went on that shouldn't have done – but nothing did." In 1992, Harrison gave a benefit concert for the Maharishi-associated Natural Law Party, and later apologised for the way the Maharishi had been treated by saying, "We were very young" and "It's probably in the history books that Maharishi 'tried to attack Mia Farrow' – but it's bullshit, total bullshit." Cynthia Lennon wrote in 2006 that she "hated leaving on a note of discord and mistrust, when we had enjoyed so much kindness from the Maharishi". Asked if he forgave the Beatles, the Maharishi replied, "I could never be upset with angels." McCartney took his daughter, Stella, to visit the Maharishi in the Netherlands in 2007, which renewed their friendship.[20]

Mia Farrow meanwhile maintains she was sexually harassed by the Maharishi, saying, “[s]uddenly I became aware of two surprisingly male, hairy arms going around me.” [21]

Personnel

Influence

Cover versions

When

Rachel Unthank and the Winterset. The disc also featured a bonus track of the same song performed by Paul Weller.[26]

The song was also covered by Anderson .Paak on multi-instrumentalist and producer Kush Mody's first album Creature Comforts (2014).[27]

References

  1. ^ "10 Classic Rock Songs You Didn't Know Were Diss Tracks". Society Of Rock. 5 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Welkom | Stubru". Archived from the original on 21 January 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  3. ^ "Diss Tracks In Rock Music". Ultimate-guitar.com.
  4. ^ "The 10 most vicious songs about real people - BBC Music". Bbc.co.uk. 28 April 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  5. ISBN 0-7137-1521-9
    .
  6. ISBN 1-85984-376-X
    . Yeah, there was a big hullabaloo about him trying to rape Mia Farrow or trying to get off with Mia Farrow and a few other women, things like that.
  7. ISBN 0-451-20735-1
    .
  8. ISBN 0-316-80352-9
    .
  9. ^ Lennon, Cynthia (1978). A Twist of Lennon. Avon. pp. 174–176.
  10. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8
    .
  11. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6
    .
  12. ISBN 0-312-25464-4
    .
  13. ^ "93 – 'Sexy Sadie'". 100 Greatest Beatles Songs. Rolling Stone. 10 April 2020.
  14. ISBN 0-681-03189-1
    .
  15. ^ a b Cott, Jonathan (23 November 1968). "The Rolling Stone Interview: John Lennon". Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  16. ^ ""I've Been Good to You" lyrics". 30 April 2010. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  17. ^ ""Sexy Sadie" lyrics". Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  18. ^ Stolworthy, Jacob (22 November 2018). "The Beatles' White Album tracks, ranked – from Blackbird to While My Guitar Gently Weeps". The Independent. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  19. Time Out London. Archived from the original
    on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  20. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8
    .
  21. Elle Magazine. Archived from the original
    on 12 January 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  22. ^ a b c Howlett, Kevin (2018). The Beatles (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Version) (book). Apple Records.
  23. ISBN 978-0-313-37532-3
    .
  24. ISBN 1-4234-0609-5
    .
  25. ^ Webb, Robert (15 September 2006). "Story of the Song: 'Karma Police' Radiohead (1997)". The Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
  26. ^ "The White Album Recovered 2 - Track Listing | Mojo Cover CDS - the Definitive List". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  27. ^ Kush Mody - Topic (22 August 2015), Sexy Sadie (feat. Anderson .Paak), retrieved 6 June 2017[dead YouTube link]

External links

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