No. 081 - The Beatles’ “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” changed my life
An old circus poster, 2000s teen memories, and the song that transported Seth Vertelney to another dimension
This Song Changed My Life is an independent music publication featuring weekly essays from people all around the world about the songs that mean the most to them. Created (and illustrated) by Grace Lilly.
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• 3 min read •
Hanging in my basement is a replica of a poster advertising a circus in London in 1843.
Every time I see it, I think about the cosmic forces that led to John Lennon stumbling upon the original version of the advertisement in a London antiques store.
For whatever reason, the poster caught Lennon’s eye that day in January 1967, and the Beatles singer/guitarist purchased it.
Fast forward a few decades, and I’m in high school sitting in the back seat of my friend’s car. Our Beatles phase is in full effect. Every time we get in the car, the question isn’t, “What should we listen to?” but rather, “Which Beatles album should we listen to?”
We are fully immersed in the back half of The Beatles’ prolific, but short career. Their time performing live was over, studio experimentation was the order of the day, and yes, they were doing some LSD.
By the late 1960s, The Beatles had conquered traditional pop music and had entered a stage in which pushing the envelope became more of a priority. The result was several landmark albums between 1966 and 1970 including Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
While some songs from the album are more popular, like the title track, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “With a Little Help from My Friends,” for me, nothing demonstrates the transformational power of music quite like “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
The song was primarily written by Lennon, who drew many of his lyrics directly from the aforementioned poster. But it wasn't just the words that etched this song indelibly inside my brain. It was the way the music transported me to another place in a manner that up to that point, I didn’t even know music could do.
Lennon wanted the song to have a “carnival atmosphere,” and within the first few seconds, a Renaissance festival-style organ signals you’re traveling somewhere out of the ordinary.
The vocals, dripping with reverb, feature lines taken directly from the poster.
For the benefit of Mr. Kite
There will be a show tonight on trampoline
The Hendersons will all be there
Late of Pablo Fanque’s Fair, what a scene
Over men and horses, hoops and garters
Lastly through a hogshead of real fire
At about one minute, the first instrumental comes in. As the carnival music plays, I’m riding some kind of an acid-washed merry-go-round that exists only in Lennon’s brain.
Wheeeee!
The spinny ride is suddenly punctuated by a two-second burst of piano notes. We instantly snap back for verse two.
But after the next verse, we’re back on that merry-go-round from another dimension. This time, the ride lasts a little longer and gets a little trippier.
And then, after just two-and-a-half minutes, the ride stops. Everybody off.
There may not be a better example of The Beatles’ transformation from pop darlings to experimental studio wizards than “Mr. Kite.” To create the haunted carnival motif, producer extraordinaire George Martin went to great lengths.
“I got hold of old calliope tapes, playing ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ and other Sousa marches, chopped the tapes up into small sections and had [sound engineer] Geoff Emerick throw them up in the air, re-assembling them at random,” Martin said.
This is how you create a sound that nobody had ever managed before — or since. This is how you make music that expands a teenage kid’s mind, allowing them to consider the possibility that a song isn’t necessarily the product of a group playing guitar, bass, and drums.
Those moments of discovery will stick with me forever.
Thankfully, if I ever need a reminder of what it was like sitting in the back seat of that car all those years ago, I just need to walk down one flight of stairs to my basement. ◆
About Seth
Seth Vertelney is the managing editor of Pro Soccer Wire and lives in Washington DC. He writes about soccer a lot, and other stuff sometimes too.
Instagram @svertelney
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