"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" was written primarily by John Lennon. However, the guys considered it one of the few "Beatles" songs on The White Album because they had to work closely together in order to successfully perform the "challenging rhythmic and meter issues" in the song. Also, according to Wikipedia, "this is one of the few examples of polyrhythm in The Beatles' repertoire", as it changes many times over the course of the song.
Wikipedia gives us a blurb about the inspiration for "Happiness":
According to Lennon, the title came from the cover of a gun magazine that producer George Martin showed him: "I think he showed me a cover of a magazine that said 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun.' It was a gun magazine. I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something." The reference, whether or not intermediately from the magazine, was one of many 1960s riffs on Charles M. Schulz's culturally popular saying, Happiness is a Warm Puppy, which began in the Peanuts comic strip and became a widely sold book.
Other interpretations involve Lennon's growing attachment to Yoko Ono, or his involvement with heroin at the time. Also, the first verse was apparently inspired by an acid trip. So there's that. :P
I really like this song; it's definitely got that psychedelic vibe we learned from Sgt. Pepper, and the various tempo changes are wonderful and musically challenging, both to play and to hear/follow. :)
That's it for now... See you tomorrow!
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Heard It Tally: 36
Songs Completed: 146
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