According to music engineer Geoff Emerick, "Hey Bulldog" was the last song that the Beatles recorded as an enthusiastic and willing team. The title was inspired during the recording of the song, when McCartney started randomly barking. The next lines were then changed from "Hey, bullfrog" to "Hey, bulldog", and the title was born. Paul credits the song to John, adding that he helped a bit as well. He said, in 1994:
I remember (it) as being one of John's songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it's mainly his vibe. There's a little rap at the end between John and I, we went into a crazy little thing at the end. We always tried to make every song different because we figured, 'Why write something like the last one? We've done that.' We were on a ladder so there was never any sense of stepping down a rung, or even staying on the same rung, it was better to move one rung ahead.
This song is pretty unique and interesting. I recognized the last two lines of the first verse ("Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles / What makes you think you're something special when you smile?"); I'd read them somewhere before and thought they were neat. When I looked them up to see where they came from, I found out about "Hey Bulldog" but I didn't listen to it.
As one of the few Beatles songs to center around a piano riff (the riff from this song is very similar, though in a different key, to the one from the single "Lady Madonna"), with strange lyrics and a wicked guitar accompanied by barking dogs (and a barking Paul), "Hey Bulldog" is definitely a song you need to listen to more than once to get the full effect--particularly of what Paul called the "rapping" near the end. :P
That's all for now... see you tomorrow!
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Heard It Tally: 39
Songs Completed: 170
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