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Posted on 08/28/2025 10:18:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Written in Rishikesh, ‘Dear Prudence’ has transcended its original inspiration to become one of The Beatles’ best-loved songs.
Over the end of the Esher demo of “Dear Prudence,” John Lennon can be heard explaining the origin of the song: “No one was to know that sooner or later she was to go completely berserk under the care of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. All the people around her were very worried about the girl because she was going insane. So we sang to her.” The girl in question was Prudence Farrow, the 19-year-old sister of American actress Mia Farrow. During the stay, Prudence had locked herself away in her hut at the ashram in Rishikesh, India, where she and her sister were studying Transcendental Meditation alongside The Beatles, Donovan, The Beach Boys’ Mike Love, and others. She was meditating far longer than anybody else, and the others were beginning to worry about her state of mind.
“Prudence Farrow got an attack of the horrors, paranoia, what you’d call these days an identity crisis, and wouldn’t come out,” Paul McCartney recalled. “We all got a bit worried about her so we went up there and knocked. ‘Hi, Prudence, we all love you. You’re wonderful!’ But nobody could persuade her out. So John wrote ‘Dear Prudence, won’t you come out and play…’.”
John told Playboy magazine, “Mia Farrow’s sister, who seemed to go slightly balmy, meditating too long, wouldn’t come out of the little hut we were living in. They selected me and George to try and bring her out because she would trust us. She went completely mental. If she’d been in the West they would have put her away. We got her out of the house. She’d been locked in for three weeks and wouldn’t come out, trying to reach God quicker than anybody else.”
For “Dear Prudence,” John deployed a fingerpicking style he’d learned in India under instruction from Donovan, a skilled folk musician who had studied under the likes of Bert Jansch and Davey Graham. Donovan recalled that John was a diligent student: “It’s a difficult style that requires perseverance. When John had it down he was so pleased to find a whole new way of songwriting emerge. That’s what happens to a natural songwriter when you get a new set of performing skills. He immediately wrote ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘Julia’.”
Back in England, The Beatles (minus Ringo, who was in self-imposed exile on Peter Sellers’ yacht in the Mediterranean) moved to Trident Studios in London’s Soho, where they had already recorded the master version of “Hey Jude,” and it was here that they assembled “Dear Prudence” across August 28-30, 1968.
‘It was a beautiful thing to have done’
Though the final version was labeled “Take 1”, that is a rather misleading name, as the initial backing of John and George on guitars and Paul on drums was recorded many times, but, unlike at Abbey Road where everything was kept, at Trident, it would appear that the trio simply recorded a new take over the previous one.
Once the backing – John and George on guitars, Paul on drums – was complete, a number of extra tracks were overdubbed, as they enjoyed the luxury afforded by Trident’s eight-track facility. Paul added bass guitar and piano, while John laid down double-tracked vocals. John, Paul, and George were assisted in a track of vocals, handclaps, and tambourines by roadie Mal Evans, Apple Records recording artist Jackie Lomax, and John McCartney, Paul’s visiting cousin, who also sang on the backing track. Paul even threw in a few notes on the flugelhorn for good measure, drawing on the experience of his brief teenage dalliance with the trumpet. The completed track would become one of the most memorable moments on “The White Album”, much imitated but never bettered.
As for the song’s inspiration, Prudence herself claimed to have no memory of hearing it during her time in India: “George was the one who told me about it. At the end of the course, just as they were leaving, he mentioned that they had written a song about me but I didn’t hear it until it came out on the album. I was flattered. It was a beautiful thing to have done.”
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Beautiful piece of music, so lyrical, evocative and innovative. One of Lennon’s best, I’d say.
yeah that was a good one. i’ve heard it so many times, i can still hear the whole thing in my head.
no idea about the wierd back story though. i just saw kids in my old neighborhood going around knocking on doors and asking friends out to play. great song. very atmospheric as they say. so is julia.
Look around………
I like the Jerry Garcia’s Band rendition of this song.
Dear Prudence has always one of my very favorites. I loved the Beatles having grown up listening to them. I was always partial to the songs written and sung by John but don’t get me wrong, Paul’s certainly no slouch.
Mike Love claims that “Back in the USSR” was also written at that Maharishi pow-wow, with him making lyrical suggestions to McCartney.
Both of which are far better songs than Back in the USSR.
“California Girls” is bubble gum pop with simple chord(s)...and later covered by David Lee Roth.
“Back in the USSR” has nothing to do with Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA”
“Back in the USSR” has nothing to do with Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA”.
Didn’t say it did.
I understand that in Hell “Hey Jude” plays 24/7 on the PA.
“Hey Jude” was a very good song...until they began droning on and on and on and on and....
The song is beautiful...memorable and one of their best.
As a group, they were amazing. Every evolution was unique and artistically stunning.
And here we are, nearly 60 years from them, still amazed by their songs.
Wonder if she was messed up on LSD and wouldn’t come out and play?
Having grown up in that era, I’m certain that everything those people did included heavy doses of all types of drugs. That was their lifestyle. Like, breathing oxygen and sleeping.
Dear Prudence always seemed a bit lengthy for me. Yer Blues, Glass Onion, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Savoy Truffle and Long, Long, Long are my top 5 from the “White Album”. I don’t care what the story is behind them, I just like the way they sound.
I think My Friends by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Needle and the Damage Done by Neil Young are very similar to the Dear Prudence song. Same chord structure and picking style.
Savoy Truffle is a most creative song written by Harrison about a box of candy and his friend’s (Clapton’s) “addiction” to sweets. Most creative.
Get up and do the “Savoy Truffle Shuffle”!
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