The Beatles Bible

Written by Paul McCartney, ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ was inspired by a lecture on nature given by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India, although the song was mostly completed in Liverpool.

Continue reading on Beatles Bible →

Wikipedia

"Mother Nature's Son" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). The song was written primarily by Paul McCartney, and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was inspired by a …

Continue reading on Wikipedia →

This gentle acoustic song beautifully captures that feeling of enjoying the countryside on a sunny day. It’s not just the lyrics – the music has that sense of breathing in and taking the scenery.
I like the sustained brass band style notes, but – if I am being picky – I am less enthusiastic about the “um-pah” brass in the “marching” sections, and the percussion in general.

The quote from Ken Scott reported in Mark Lewisohn’s book gives an interesting insight into the working atmosphere:

“Paul was downstairs going through the arrangement with George [Martin] and the brass players. Everything was great, everyone was in great spirits. It felt really good. Suddenly, halfway through, John and Ringo walked in and you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. An instant change. It was like that for 10 minutes and then as soon as they left it felt great again. It was very bizarre.”

So Mother Nature’s Son is another example of a White Album track recorded separately by a single Beatle (Paul) working largely independently, and it does have quite a “solo” feeling to it.

All the songwriting Beatles were developing unplugged “strings” to their individual “bows” at this time, for example: Julia, Here Comes The Sun, Across The Universe. I am sure this will have been influenced by their time in India where they would have had only acoustic guitars. But of course they, and rock music in general (think of Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills and Nash), had already been gravitating toward folkier sounds. I guess a lot of it goes back to early Dylan, although he famously moved in the opposite direction.

Apparently the inclusion of Mother Nature’s Son on the White Album meant that Lennon’s similarly-themed offering I’m Just A Child of Nature had to be left off. This turned out for the best as Lennon later completely rewrote the lyrics to make Jealous Guy (a fantastic lyric IMO).