Original version – June 2nd and 3rd 1966
Ukulele version – October 2011
Lloyd Landesman – Ukulele & everything else
Produced by Lloyd Landesman at Blue Steel Music
Written & Credited to George Harrison
ABOUT THE SONG
George had never been given so much freedom. And what does freedom bring? Well for George it brought a mild irritation.
There he was the runt of the litter with less obvious skills than the rest of the gang trying to find a place for himself and then all of a sudden there were some spaces on a Beatles album for not one, not two, but three of George’s own compositions.
John and Paul could see the potential of the lad, they could see how he could take up the slack, they could see that more albums could be produced in a shorter time if George was involved. Even so they could not be bothered to put much effort into his recordings. The backing vocals for this song are viciously out of tune. Ironically this contributes to the general sense of confusion that the lyric conveys.
He originally titled this song "Laxton’s Superb" and "I Don’t Know."
Here is the transcript from the studio on the day of recording.
George Martin: What are you going to call it, George?
George Harrison: I Don’t Know.
John Lennon: Granny Smith Part Friggin’ Two! You’ve never had a title for any of your songs!
“Love You To” was originally titled Granny Smith
This is one of three George "I" songs. It was almost as if he were trying to interject. Given the power of Lennon-McCartney, I suppose that’s exactly what he was doing.
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick summed it up when he said:
"One really got the impression that George was being given a certain amount of time to do his tracks whereas the others could spend as long as they wanted. One felt under more pressure when doing one of George’s songs."
The ukulele version is a darker affair than the original. Lloyd Landesman distorts and attacks the song in a brutal manner. The arrangement reminds one of early King Crimson but the tone switches on the coda emulating the original arrangement.
Enjoy.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lloyd Landesman is a Composer/Producer/Musician whose successful career spans more than 4 decades. Throughout his career, he has worked with some of music’s most renowned artists and musicians, and has written music for commercials, TV shows, records and film.
His current project of interest is a Jazz/Fusion group called Meridian Voice.
http://meridianvoicenyc.com