"Yer Blues" song by The Beatles. The in-depth story behind the songs of The Beatles. Recording History. Songwriting History. Song Structure and Style.

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"YER BLUES"

(John Lennon – Paul McCartney)

History has shown that The Beatles were overwhelmingly considered trend-setters, not trend-followers. The band was continually redefining itself with every album and single that they released. If you were privileged to have had a recording contract in the mid- to late-'60s, even if you felt you had established yourself with a substantial degree of success, you were still wise to observe which musical direction The Beatles were going in and then slant your next release in that direction as well. The music of that decade is rife with examples, from fellow British acts to American artists - Motown hits included!

However, The Beatles were just as observant of musical trends as anyone else. One case in point was the re-emergence of the genre of music called the Blues. British groups such as The Rolling Stones, The Animals and The Yardbirds infused the Blues into their songwriting as well as incorporating classic Blues compositions into their repertoire. By 1968, a British Blues boom was developing, with Cream, Fleetwood Mac and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, among others, leading the way.

It's easy to notice that The Beatles had been open to taking a stab at just about any genre of music they set their attention to, and doing so quite convincingly as well as successfully. With this in mind, John Lennon thought to give the Blues a go as well. Why not give it a try? The result was the semi-serious and semi-tounge-in-cheek “Yer Blues.”

Songwriting History

"Regardless of what I was supposed to be doing, I did write some of my best songs while I was there." This quote from John Lennon in 1971 explains his experience with the other Beatles while in Rishikesh, India with the Maharishi in the spring of 1968, the purpose of this excursion being to study and practice meditation. "The experience was worth it if only for the songs that came out."

Lennon continues: “The funny thing about the camp was that although it was very beautiful and I was meditating about eight hours a day, I was writing the most miserable songs on earth. In 'Yer Blues,' when I wrote, 'I'm so lonely I want to die,' I'm not kidding. That's how I felt.” In his 1980 Playboy interview, John explains that the song was “written in India...up there trying to reach God and feeling suicidal.”

It has been speculated that John had been feeling that he was at a crossroads in his life. The Beatles had stopped touring, his marriage to Cynthia was in a shambles, and he was obsessed with avant-garde artist Yoko Ono at the time. Cynthia was present with John in India but was separated from him for a good amount of the time because of their meditation practices. Adding to the distraction were the letters from Yoko that John was receiving during their stay. These feelings resulted in the composition “Yer Blues,” a title which he described as “just a pun,” undoubtedly inspired by the current popularity of British Blues music and the highly disputed topic, “Can white men sing the blues?”

"Can Blue Men Sing The Whites (or are they hypocrites?)" was a parody song by The Bonzo Dog Band released in November of 1968, the same month as the "White Album," that poked fun at the recent Blues trend on the charts. As for the phrase "Yer Blues," "Yer" was Liverpudlian slang for "your" in the '60s and was commonly used as a replacement for the word "the." This was evidenced in the popular British TV comedy series "Till Death Us Do Part" (which was the inspiration for the American TV show "All In The Family") in which actor Alf Garnett would use lines such as "You got yer upper class and yer working class." "Paul was saying, 'Don't call it 'Yer Blues,' just say it straight,'" John explained in 1970, "but I was self-conscious and I went for 'Yer Blues.'"

“There was a self-consciousness about suddenly singing blues,” John continues. “Like everybody else, we were all listening to Sleepy John Estes and all that in art school (in the late '50s). But to sing it, was something else. I was self-conscious about doing it." Nevertheless, despite the flippant title he gave the song, he resisted the temptation to write a blues parody and decided to pour out his deep-seated feelings into the lyrics and vocal delivery. John combined his deep emotional turmoil with imagery reminiscent of classic Blues artists such as Robert Johnson (as in his “Hellhound On My Trail”) as well as the character “Mr. Jones” from Bob Dylan's song “Ballad Of A Thin Man” from his album "Highway 61 Revisited." The “Mr. Jones” reference is quite appropriate given that, in Dylan's song, the more questions he asks the less the world makes sense to him. Hence, John sings: “Feel so suicidal, just like Dylan's 'Mr. Jones.'” Yoko's influence can also be deciphered in the lyrics “My mother was of the sky, my father was of the earth, but I am of the universe,” which is quite reminiscent of her poetry.

“I never enjoyed writing third person songs,” John explained. “Most of my songs, the good ones, are in the first person.” John was obviously very proud of the songs he wrote that could adequately express his pain, something he continued to do in his early solo career and evidenced in the single “Cold Turkey” and the album “Plastic Ono Band.” As for “Yer Blues,” he was proud enough of the song to perform it for the aborted television show “Rock And Roll Circus” in late 1968 and for his premier “Plastic Ono Band” appearance in Toronto in late 1969, the only “White Album” composition that he felt strongly enough about to continue to perform.

Paul has never claimed any actual songwriting credit for this "Lennon / McCartney" song. As for the time of writing, the "Kinfauns" demo The Beatles recorded in late May of 1968, as described below, shows that lyrical changes were made by the time he actually laid down his lead vocal track in EMI Studios on August 14th of that year. This places the writing of the song between his arrival in India in mid February, 1968, and August 14th of that same year.

Recording History

May 28th, 1968, was the first of two consecutive days that The Beatles assembled at George's "Kinfauns" home in Surrey, Kent, to record demos of songs they were considering for their upcoming album which they were due to begin officially recording on May 30th of that year. John had written a slew of new songs while in India and "Yer Blues" was among the first to be demoed on this day at George's house.

This recording consisted of John on two different acoustic guitar parts and double-tracked vocals along with George doodling on lead acoustic guitar passages and Paul and Ringo on bongos and tambourine. The lyrics were pretty much in place at this point with a couple of exceptions. The third verse was sung as “My mother was of the earth / my father was of the sky / but I am of the universe and that's the reason why,” these lyrics being written in this way on his original handwritten lyric sheet, which was designated as the #13 song he had written while in India. Both the lyric sheet and the "Kinfauns" demo shows that the worm "eats my bone" instead of 'licking' it in the final version. The original lyrics state that he's "feeling so uptight now / just like Dylan's Mr. Jones," while in the demo John sings that he feels “so insecure, now,” which he eventually changed to “suicidal.” John gets tripped up with both his tempo and his time-signature changes during this demo which, incidentally, omits an ending solo section but concludes with John repeating the line "Yes, I'm lonely" many times without changing the time-signature of the song as we're used to hearing. Otherwise, this is a very compelling acoustic version of the song.

The official recording of “Yer Blues” at EMI Studios was predated by a conversation that transpired on August 12th, 1968, when George Harrison wanted to record his lead vocals onto his song “Not Guilty” in the control room. Engineer Ken Scott recalls: “George had this idea that he wanted to do it in the control room with the speakers blasting, so that he got more of an on-stage feel...I remember that John Lennon came in at one point and I turned to him and said, 'Bloody hell, the way you lot are carrying on you'll be wanting to record everything in the room next door!' The room next door was tiny, where the four-track tape machines were once kept, and it had no proper studio walls or acoustic set-up of any kind. Lennon replied, 'That's a great idea; let's try it on the next number!' The next number was 'Yer Blues' and we literally had to set it all up – them and the instruments – in this minute room. That's how they recorded 'Yer Blues,' and it worked out great!”

John brought “Yer Blues” into EMI Studio Two the following day, on August 13th, 1968, the session beginning sometime after the usually designated 7 pm. The first order of business was recording a re-remake of the song “Sexy Sadie” which took the time to approximately 1 am the following morning. Then, as John previously requested, they had the studio crew set up all of their instruments in this small control room annex, amplifiers, drums, microphones etc., and began recording “Yer Blues.” Ringo recalls: “And 'Yer Blues' on the 'White Album,' you can't top it. It was the four of us. That is what I'm saying: it was really because the four of us were in a box, a room about eight by eight, with no separation. It was this group that was together; it was like grunge rock of the Sixties, really – grunge blues."

This room was called Room 2A, which was adjacent to the control room of EMI Studio Two and was a mere 8 ft. by 15.5 ft. The room had been used for storing Telefunken four-track machines before they were installed in Studio Two, and then as a storage area that had recently been emptied. It was very tight quarters for The Beatles once they set everything up, as described by Ken Scott in the liner notes of the 50th Anniversary "White Album" box set. "If one of them turned and swung his guitar, he'd hit someone else in the head it was so tight." Their confinement has been described to be what the group had been used to on the stage of The Cavern Club in Liverpool, which can be seen in the Granada TV film of them playing the song "Some Other Guy" in 1962.

It appears that this is what John intended - to recreate the enjoyable atmosphere they experienced in their formative years. "People that heard us in Liverpool and Hamburg, and on the early dates before we turned into just a mass scream, that's how we played - heavy rock," John stated in 1968. "But when it was put down on the early records, there was never enough bass in it, the guitar solo never came through, because we didn't know about recording then. We sounded more like us on (the "White Album"). We rid ourselves of the self-consciousness bit, so we were doing what we were doing earlier on, but with a better knowledge of the technique of recording. Quite a few of the tracks are just straight takes of us playing," Lennon undoubtingly referring to "Yer Blues" among these tracks.

They recorded fourteen takes of the song, consisting of Ringo on drums on track one, Paul on his newly acquired Fender Jazz Bass (this being one of the very few songs he used it on) on track two, and John and George's electric guitars on tracks three and four of the four-track tape. Although no vocal microphones were set up, John, and periodically Paul, can be heard on these takes singing guide vocals as picked up by the other mikes in that small room.

"Take five" was a complete version of the song that was included on the Super Deluxe 50th Anniversary "White Album" box set. The tape catches John counting down the song with the falling vocal tones "twoooo, threeee" which ushers in an excellent instrumental performance. John's guide vocals are faintly heard throughout, but are much more clearly desciphered during the various instrumental breaks, which reveal John ad libbing the forgotten lyrics in the third verse and still feeling "insecure," not "suicidal," like "Dylan's Mr. Jones." There are three guitar solos performed to conclude the song, the first one being John performing a repetitive syncopated guitar pattern simultaneous to an interesting bluesy solo from George. The second solo was an excellent screeching solo from George with a subtle single-note guitar solo from John heard in the backgroud. The third solo was also played by both guitarists but was less effective throughout, this take ending with a standard Blues conclusion. All in all, however, this performance was thought to be one of the best.

"Take six" was also a complete performance that they were happy with, but they continued to see if they could improve upon it yet further. Just after "take eight," John, George and Ringo were inspired to perform an impromptu jam which they liked enough to ask the engineering staff to cut out of the original tape for adding to another reel entitled "Various Adlibs" which would be kept as a keepsake, this tape naver surfacing anywhere since. After "take ten," John exclaimed, "All right, we'll do one more. You can have one of the other ones, I just want to get into the song," which prompted them all to turn up their guitar amps for "take eleven." After this take was complete, John stated, "Too loud for you? Can you get louder?"

With this challenge, the group ran through three more takes of the song to deafening porportions before a decision was made to go back and review previous takes to determine which could be used for the finished version. Upon close listening to "take five," which was eventually released in 2018, it appears that the first two verses of "take five," complete with John's introductory countdown, were edited onto the remainder of "take six" up to the point of the guitar solos. At this point, "take five" was edited back in to utilize the excellent guitar solos of both John and George. Therefore, since portions of two 'takes' were being chosen for the finished rhythm track, two reduction mixes were required to open up an additional track for overdubbing purposes on each take. "Take five" now became "take 15" and "take six" now became "take 16," both of which combined both John and George's guitars to track three in order to open up track four for overdubbing. Both of these reduction mixes were then edited together to form the usable rhythm track to overdub other elements onto track four, this edited track being called the new "take 16."

Another unique editing idea was then presented. Someone, probably John, wanted to edit the beginning of “take five” of the backing track onto the end of the song to create an interesting fade-out for the song instead of the typical Blues conclusion that they had performed. Therefore, the engineering team did a tape reduction of the first two verses of "take five," which now became "take 17," and actually spliced the four-track tape to line up the beginning of “take 17,” just after John's "twoooo, threeee" countdown, to the conclusion of the second solo at a strategic spot at the end of George's excellent solo at the 3:17 spot in the recording. This edit piece was noted as "Intro on end" on the original tape box.

As Mark Lewisohn's book "The Beatles Recording Sessions" indicates: "For the first time on a Beatles recording, the original four-track tape was itself edited (editing was usually done only at the two-track quarter-inch tape stage), bringing the beginning of 'take 17' onto the end of 'take 16.'" Since this edit pieced together two sections of the song which were at different tempos and time-signatures, it is definitely noticeable to the listener. After the edit was completed, it was 5:30 am and time to end the session for the day.

The following day, or actually later that day, August 14th, 1968, The Beatles returned to EMI Studio Two at around 7 pm to add overdubs onto “Yer Blues.” John overdubbed his lead vocals onto track four of the tape with Paul adding some backing vocals in strategic spots. After the vocals were sung, the remainder of track four was filled with an added snare drum from Ringo, which began at 2:25 on the recording. Onto track three, they re-inserted both John and George's excellent lead guitar solos from "take five" but this time adding ADT ("Artificial Double Tracking") with the same 'wobble' effect used on various "White Album" tracks, such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," which was accomplished by an engineer "wobbling the oscillator," as producer Chris Thomas described it.

Thinking the song was complete, a mono mix was also performed on this day in the EMI Studio Two control room by producer George Martin and engineers Ken Scott and John Smith. Four attempts were made at getting the perfect mono mix, the third try being the best. In the process, they added some "slap-back" echo onto John's vocals throughout the song, something John used a lot during his solo career years later. The last section of the song was manually faded out on this mono mix since it was actually a performance of the beginning of the song that went on for quite a while. After the group worked at recording yet another new song, John's “What's The New Mary Jane,” a tape copy of “Yer Blues” was made for review by John. The session finally ended at around 4:30 am the following morning.

On August 20th, 1968, it is documented that John and Ringo entered EMI Studio Three at 5 pm for a quick half-hour session to complete the song. It has been stipulated that Ringo called out a countdown for the song that was to be edited onto the beginning of the finished track. However, upon listening to the unadulterated "take five," as included in the Super Deluxe "White Album" box set in 2018, it was John's original countdown from this take that was used on the finished recording and not this attempt at an overdub by Ringo.

The stereo mix of the song was done on October 14th, 1968, in the control room of EMI Studio Two by the same engineering team of George Martin, Ken Scott and John Smith. While applying ADT and "slap-back" echo, this stereo mix is quite similar to the mono with the exception of the introductory “twooo, threeee” being quieter and the fade out being fifteen seconds shorter. A further tape copy of the mono mix of the song was made on October 18th, 1968 by engineer John Smith in the control room of EMI Studio One. Mark Lewisohn's book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” explains the purpose of this tape copy as for “ironing out master tape imperfections” in preparation for the discs to be cut by Harry Moss on that day and the next.

One other slight recording of the song deserves to be mentioned here, apparently done sometime in November of 1968. The Beatles owed their official fan club another Christmas message for 1968 but did not want to be bothered to assemble in EMI Studios to record one. Disc jockey Kenny Everett was requested to tape separate messages from each Beatle and assemble them all into a recording that could be pressed and distributed to their fan club members in Britain and the US.

George's message was taped from a telephone call to America where he was busy producing the first Jackie Lomax album, and both John and Paul's contributions were taped individually at their respective homes. As for Ringo's, the liner notes on the British cover of the disc explains that it was recorded “in the back of Beatle Ringo's diesel-powered removal van somewhere in Surrey.” Whether this is true or not, in the background of his message you can faintly hear playing the finished recording of “Yer Blues,” which Ringo has since stated was one of his favorite songs on the “White Album.”

On December 11th, 1968, John Lennon performed the song for a film called “The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus.” This proposed film included performances by The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal, Marrianne Faithfull, and a quickly assembled “supergroup” called The Dirty Mac which consisted of John Lennon and Eric Clapton on guitar, Keith Richards on bass and Mitch Mitchell (of the Jimi Hendrix Experience) on drums.

“The first time I performed without The Beatles for years was the 'Rock And Roll Circus,” explained John. “It was great to be on stage with Eric (Clapton) and Keith Richard and a different noise coming out behind me, even though I was still singing and playing the same style. It was just a great experience. I thought, 'Wow! It's fun with other people,' you know. I did 'Yer Blues' and then Yoko came on and did her blues.” Two takes of "Yer Blues" were recorded on this day, both of which being eventually released commercially, the second take being inferior only because of John's lyrical hesitation during his "I was of the universe" vocal. Photographer Michael Randolph relates: “John repeatedly fluffed his lines and had to tape a lyric sheet to the microphone. The lyrics in question had actually come from a ripped-up poster taken from the 'White Album.'” And still, he reverted back somewhat to his original third verse, singing "My mother was of the earth, my father was of the sky."

This film was intended to be shown on British television but this never happened. It was eventually released on VHS and Laserdisc as well as on audio CD in 1996 and then on DVD in 2004.

One final recording of “Yer Blues” was on September 13th, 1969, by the hastily formed Plastic Ono Band for a Rock & Roll revival Concert in Toronto, Ontario. John remembers: “It was late, about 11 o'clock one Friday night, I was in my office at Apple, when we got a phone call from this guy saying, 'Come to Toronto.' They really were inviting us as King and Queen to preside over the concert and not to play. But I didn't hear that part and I said, 'OK, OK. Just give me time to get a band together.' So, I thought, 'Who could I get to come and play with me?' So it all happened like that. We left the next morning.”

The band John scraped together was Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Vorrmann on bass, and Alan White on drums along with himself and Yoko. “We didn't know what to play because we never played together before. On the airplane we're running through these oldies.” Since Eric was already familiar with “Yer Blues” because of playing it with John the previous year on the “Rock And Roll Circus,” it was an obvious choice. The performance was filmed and recorded, the audio results being released on the album “Live Peace In Toronto 1969,” the video footage being released under different names throughout the years, most notably as “Sweet Toronto."

Sometime in 2018, George Martin's son Giles Martin, along with engineer Sam Okell, returned to the master tapes of The Beatles' version of "Yer Blues" to create a vibrant new stereo mix of the song for inclusion on the 50th Anniversary releases of the "White Album." While they were at it, they also created a stereo mix of the "Kinfauns" demo of the song that The Beatles recorded on May 28th, 1968, as well as the full "take five" rhythm track as recorded in EMI Studio Two on August 13th, 1968.

Song Structure and Style

At first blush, the structure of "Yer Blues" seems quite complicated, but upon further examination, it actually only consists of nine verses (or aaaaaaaaa), each containing twelve measures (hence, a "twelve-bar-blues"). However, with John Lennon's eccentric sense of timing, various interesting things happen along the way.

After John's simple verbal count-in and Ringo's taps on the hi-hat, the drummer rounds out the simulated two-measure introduction with a drum fill to signal John's anticipated first line “Yes, I'm / lonely,” the final word starting off the beginning of the first twelve measure verse. All measures in this verse are in 6/8 time with the exception of measure ten which is in 4/4. This tenth measure comprises a 'Beatles break' of sorts, the drums and bass ringing out along with the remnants of John's vocalized “Woooh” as this measure begins. Basically explained, John and George harmonize an interesting guitar run in the first two beats of this measure, the final two measures being filled with John's line “girl, you know the reason why.”

Instrumentally, throughout the first eight measures of this verse we hear Paul plod away with an uncharacteristically simple bass pattern, John playing a triplet-like chord piece during the three and four beats on measures one, three, five and seven (adding another surprising one also in measure eight), George playing single-note phrases on his Gibson Les Paul in the open spaces left by John's guitar, and Ringo playing spirited drum-work with fills at the end of each even numbered measure. The ninth measure shows both George and John gearing up with guitar phrases in preparation for the above mentioned harmonized guitar run in the tenth measure that follows, this being the signature of the majority of the verses in the song. We also see Paul and Ringo setting up for this guitar phrase through a raising bass run and drum fill respectively, while John sings “If I ain't dead already.” Measures eleven and twelve wind through the expected blues chord changes to set up another verse, George playing a similar single-note guitar passage as heard throughout most of the verse so far, while John and Paul lumber through the chord changes and Ringo adds yet another drum fill.

The second verse is nearly an identical copy of the first, albeit with slightly altered lyrics and a quick harmony from Paul on the line “girl, you know the reason why” in the tenth measure being the only differences.

Then comes the third verse which alters the structure significantly from the first two. The first three measures comprise three consecutive 'Beatles breaks' in a row, the time signature changing to a 4/4 swing beat with only the one- and four-beat being played by John (chopping guitar chords) Paul (bass notes) and Ringo (three swing-style snare beats) for the first two measures. During the breaks John sings his startling lyric lines in typical old-style blues fashion with the instrumental accents baiting him along. The third measure contains only the instrumental accent on the downbeat while the fourth measure ushers the song back into the 6/8 feel heard in the majority of the song thus far. This fourth measure consists of John's climactic final line “and you know what it's worth” while Ringo flails away with a rapid fire drum fill mostly contained on the snare drum and with Paul appropriately raising up on the bass neck for a suitable bass line. This is followed by the remaining eight measures of the verse being identical in scope to the first two, John excitedly adding some extra triplet-like guitar chops throughout and Paul reprising his harmony in measure ten.

The fourth verse is a virtual repeat of the third except for the different set of lyrics in the first four measures. Interestingly, you can easily hear John's guide vocal underneath his later recorded lead vocals during the first four measures, most notably on the lines “feel so suicidal, just like Dylan's 'Mr. Jones.'” The fifth verse sounds like it will also repeat the pattern of the previous two verses but, with a very audible vocal coaxing from Paul during the rhythm track in the first three measures, we are treated to a continuation of the 4/4 swing beat throughout the rest of the verse with Ringo's snare and Paul's bass leading the way in the fourth measure. Full instrumentation ensues thereafter, Ringo loudly riding on his cymbal and John bashing away on rhythm guitar while George timidly fumbles through some ad-lib lead guitar phrases. John also finishes out his usual lyrics, screamed out somewhat awkwardly because of the time signature change.

Two concurrent instrumental verses follow, numbered six and seven, the first being highlighted by John's interesting syncopated guitar solo which was treated to a healthy dose of ADT. The second of these verses, which would be the seventh, features George's screeching guitar solo, which is also drenched with ADT while a lumbering ad-lib solo John is heard in the background. Just after the downbeat of the eleventh measure, however, the above mentioned startling edit to the original "take five" rhythm track occurs, coming in directly at the start of Ringo's introductory drum fill. Two full instrumental verses from this take are heard here in the mono mix (faded out during the fifth measure in the stereo mix) with John's subtle guide vocal heard quite clearly throughout.

The listener can almost cut Lennon's enthusiasm, as heard in the recording of this track, with a knife. The strategic placements of his rhythmic guitar chops in the earlier verses are erratically multiplied in later verses just by sheer adrenaline, while his guitar solo (as demonstrated in the “Rock And Roll Circus” film) shows he had a definite statement to make with this song, one that apparently came across as intended. George was definitely up for the task at hand, providing innovative rhythm and solo work while Paul played more of a perfunctory role here. Ringo, however, sure rose to the occasion, thrashing his heart out and feeling very much a part of the band that he ended up temporarily quitting a little over a week later.

American Releases

November 25th, 1968, was the US release date for their double-album entitled "The Beatles," aka the "White Album." "Yer Blues worked nicely in continuing the louder rock 'n' roll vibe set by "Birthday" at the beginning of side three of the album. "The "White Album" first appeared on compact disc on August 24th, 1987, then as a 30th Anniversary limited edition release on November 23rd, 1998, and then as a remastered CD on September 9th, 2009. The mono vinyl set didn't hit American shores until September 9th, 2014, while a vibrant new stereo mix was released on vinyl on November 9th, 2018.

"The Beatles Sixth Christmas Record," as mentioned above, was sent to American members of their fan club sometime in late 1968, Ringo's message including a faintly heard "Yer Blues" in the background. Sometime in the spring of 1971, American Beatles fans were shipped a full album entitled "The Beatles' Christmas Album" on Apple Records, this disc containing all seven of the messages from the previous years, including the 1968 message with "Yer Blues" quietly heard in the background.

An interesting US vinyl edition of the “White Album” was released on January 7th, 1982, this being manufactured by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in Chatsworth, California as part of their "Original Master Recording" series. Their practice was to prepare a new master utilizing half-speed mastering technology from the original master tapes, in this case using the leased sub-master from Capitol Records. This release, which sounded superior to to all previous British and American pressings, was packaged in a non-embossed unnumbered cover that did not include the usual poster/lyric sheet or individual Beatles portraits as contained in standard releases. This nonetheless excellent edition of the album was only available for a short time and is quite collectible today.

The first time the mono version of the “White Album” was available in the US, however, was on the CD box set “The Beatles In Mono,” which became available on September 9th, 2009, the longer version of “Yer Blues” being heard by American audiences for the first time.

Various editions of the "White Album" were released on November 9th, 2018 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of its original release. The "Deluxe" edition, which was made available in a 3CD set and a limited edition 180-gram 4LP vinyl set, contained the newly created Giles Martin mix of the "White Album" as well as the complete set of Esher demos that The Beatles recorded in late May of 1968. The "Super Deluxe" 6CD + 1Blu-ray edition also contains the original "take five" of the instrumental rhythm track as recorded on August 13th, 2018.

On December 12th, 1969, not long after The Beatles released their “Abbey Road” album, John Lennon released “Live Peace In Toronto 1969” by The Plastic Ono Band. As described above, this release included their entire performance at the Rock & Roll Revival Concert in Toronto on September 13th of that year, “Yer Blues” being among the songs performed. This was the first ever released live album by any member of The Beatles. The album was received quite well by Beatles fans, reaching #10 on the Billboard album chart with John receiving a gold record of which he said in 1980, “I still have it somewhere.”

On October 14th, 1996, the album “Rock And Roll Circus” was finally released to the general public which featured, as also described above, John with his quickly assembled make-shift band The Dirty Mac playing “Yer Blues.” It only reached #92 on the US album chart, many Beatles fans probably not even knowing of its availability, which is a shame since the performance and recording is excellent. A remastered box set of "Rock And Roll Circus" (4 CD and 3 LP vinyl) was released on June 7th, 2019 which included both takes one and two of The Dirty Mac's version of "Yer Blues."

Live Performances

With their touring days long over, The Beatles never performed “Yer Blues” live. As outlined above, the only two John Lennon performances of the song were on December 11th, 1968 for the program “Rock And Roll Circus” and on September 13th, 1969 for the Rock & Roll Revival Concert in Toronto.

Conclusion

As it turned out, John Lennon's "Yer Blues" comes across as half parody and half sincerity: a send-up of the British Blues boom of the late '60s with, on the other hand, John using this medium to express some of his current deep inner turmoil.

The results cannot be described as sonically excellent, given Lennon's eccentric whim of wanting to record it in the least acoustical environment imaginable. However, the live energy through comradery is easily felt by the listener, both John and Ringo later expressing their favorability of the track, Ringo through interviews and John through taking it upon himself to perform the song live. In fact, it's one of only four Lennon / McCartney Beatles songs he ever performed live in his solo career (the others being “Come Together” in 1972 and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and “I Saw Her Standing There” with Elton John in 1974). “Yer Blues” was obviously viewed by Lennon as something special, but he never specifically tried to tackle straight-forward blues again in his lifetime, nor did he need to. Been there, done that!