TL;DR:
- John Lennon once explained the meaning of The Beatles’ “I’m Only Sleeping.”
- Paul McCartney revealed why the song features the sound of a guitar getting played in reverse.
- The tune appeared on Revolver, which was more popular in the United States then the United Kingdom.
The Beatles‘ “I’m Only Sleeping” was inspired by an aspect of John Lennon’s life. Subsequently, Paul McCartney explained why the song features the sound of a guitar played backward. “I’m Only Sleeping” isn’t the only time The Beatles sang about wanting to sleep.
Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ had a good central concept
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John was asked about the meaning of “I’m Only Sleeping.” “That’s me — dreaming my life away,” he said.
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the origin of “I’m Only Sleeping.” “It was a nice idea, there’s nothing wrong with it,” he said. “I’m not being lazy, I’m only sleeping, I’m yawning, I’m meditating, I’m having a lay-in the luxury of all of that was what it was about.”
How The Beatles’ producer reacted to the band wanting to use a backward guitar
Paul discussed why the guitar on the song was played backward. “It played backwards, and, ‘What the hell is going on?’” he said. “Those effects! Nobody knew how those sounded then. We said, ‘My God, that is fantastic! Can we do that for real?”‘
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The Beatles’ producer, George Martin, went to work. “So George Martin, give him his due, being amenable to ideas like that, being quite experimental for who he was, a grown-up, said, ‘Yes. Sure, I think we can do that,’” he said. “So that was what we did and that was where we discovered backwards guitar. It was a beautiful solo actually. It sounds like something you couldn’t play.”
Notably, the song works well alongside other Beatles tunes. The cheeriness of “I’m Only Sleeping” contrasts with The White Album‘s take on a similar subject: “I’m So Tired.” The Beatles portray sleep in a positive light with “I’m Only Sleeping” but make waking up seem like a burden in “Good Morning Good Morning.”
How ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ performed in the United States and the United Kingdom
“I’m Only Sleeping” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on the album Revolver. Revolver reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for six weeks, and stayed on the chart for 94 weeks.
According to The Official Charts Company, “I’m Only Sleeping” didn’t chart in the United Kingdom. It was never a single there. On the other hand, Revolver reached No. 1 in the U.K. It lasted on the chart for seven weeks and remained on the chart for 34 weeks in total.
“I’m Only Sleeping” isn’t one of The Beatles’ most famous songs but it’s innovative from a technical perspective.
