This is a very unusual track and hard to place. Listening to it again I didn\u2019t know what to make of it, and I decided, for a challenge, to write my initial impression before reading the Beatles Bible article or looking it up Wikipedia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s possible these thoughts will have been influenced by some of the many Beatles books I\u2019ve read, so they may not be entirely original\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You Know My Name was the B-side to the Let It Be single. Many bands in the 70s and 80s when I was growing up put inferior, throwaway material, but the Beatles took a generally took different approach and a Beatles B-side is generally to be taken seriously. However, You Know My Name sounds like a novelty or comedy record. It is quite intentional as a record (unlike some of the \u201couttake\u201d type material Maggie Mae, or half finished fragments like \u201cWild Honey Pie\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been properly produced and has a complex arrangement with lots of extra instrumentation. Each section of the song takes a different approach, and the verses are sung in comedy voices. The initial bars of the intro with piano, drums and bass really sound like something from the Magical Mystery Tour period (for example Baby You\u2019re A Rich Man) and the opening section sounds a bit like a piano-led Beatles record with extra shouting backing vocals. This then segues into a cabaret themed section with bongos, cocktail bar sounds and a distinctive boomy mock-crooner vocal. The next section is camp reminiscent of the Round The Horne<\/a> or perhaps the Goon Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The song ends with an indecipherable mumbling jazz club verse, introducing vibrophone and sax. The vocal is like a premonition of Reeves and Mortimer crossed with Paul Whitehouse\u2019s \u201cVery, very drunk\u201d character from the Fast Show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n