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http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/i-feel-fine/ Take 1: 0:00- 1:28 Take 2: 1:28- 3:18 Take 5: 3:18- 5:46 Take 6: 5:46- 8:36 Take 7: 8:36- 8:52 Take 8: 8:52-11:29 The Beatles recorded I Feel Fine on 18 October 1964, in a nine-hour session that also saw them complete Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!, Mr Moonlight, I'll Follow The Sun, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby and Rock And Roll Music. They also taped edit pieces for the intro and ending of Eight Days A Week. I Feel Fine was completed in nine takes. The first eight were of the rhythm track only, and the final take was an overdub of the vocals. It was the first Beatles song to have the backing track recorded before the vocals, as John Lennon had trouble singing and playing at the same time. "I wrote I Feel Fine around the riff which is going on in the background. I tried to get that effect into practically every song on the LP, but the others wouldn't have it. I told them that I'd write a song specially for this riff. So they said, 'Yes, you go away and do that,' knowing that we'd almost finished the album. Anyway, going into the studio one morning, I said to Ringo, 'I've written this song, but it's lousy.' But we tried it, complete with riff, and it sounded like an a-side, so we decided to release it just like that." John Lennon, 1964 Anthology John Lennon played an acoustic Gibson guitar on the recording, although it was amplified to give the impression of an electric guitar. George Harrison used an electric Gretsch Tennessean. The distinctive opening note was the result of a low A note plucked by Paul McCartney on bass, while Lennon's guitar pickups were directed towards his amplifier. It was one of the very first instances of feedback being used on a record, and demonstrated the increased confidence of The Beatles as recording artists. "That's me completely. Including the electric guitar lick and the record with the first feedback anywhere. I defy anybody to find a record - unless it's some old blues record in 1922 - that uses feedback that way. I mean, everybody played with feedback on stage, and the Jimi Hendrix stuff was going on long before. In fact, the punk stuff now is only what people were doing in the clubs. So I claim it for The Beatles. Before Hendrix, before The Who, before anybody. The first feedback on any record." John Lennon, 1980 All We Are Saying, David Sheff The use of feedback violated Parlophone's strict recording policies, and so the band came to downplay it as an accident during recording. In actual fact it was present from the very first take. John had a semi-acoustic Gibson guitar. It had a pick-up on it so it could be amplified. John and George both had them... "We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp. I can still see him doing it. He really should have turned the electric off. It was only on a tiny bit, and John just leaned it against the amp when it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!' And we went, 'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' 'Wow, it's a great sound!' George Martin was there so we said, ' Can we have that on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on the front.' It was a found object, an accident caused by leaning the guitar against the amp." Paul McCartney Many Years From Now, Barry Miles I Feel Fine was a riff-driven, blues-based number. It was written by John Lennon, possibly during the 6 October 1964 recording session for Eight Days A Week. "The guitar riff was actually influenced by a record called Watch Your Step by Bobby Parker. But all riffs in that tempo have a similar sound. John played it, and all I did was play it as well, and it became the double-tracked sound." George Harrison Anthology