Composition
Harrison wrote "Wah-Wah" as soon as he arrived home at Kinfauns that afternoon. In his autobiography, he explains that the song title was a reference to "a 'headache' as well as a footpedal", the wah-wah pedal being a guitar effect that Harrison favoured for much of the early Get Back sessions. The message of the song, in its author's own words, was: "you're giving me a bloody headache." Musical biographer Simon Leng identifies "Wah-Wah" as being directed at the "artifice" and "pretense" surrounding the Beatles.
Like "Run of the Mill", a song written by Harrison later in 1969, the lyrics touch on the failure of friendships within the band, which in the case of McCartney and Lennon dated back to school years:
You've given me a wah-wah
And I'm thinking of you
All the things that we used to do ...
The second verse reflects Harrison's frustration at being viewed by Lennon and McCartney as subservient to their ambitions, just as his 1968 song "Not Guilty" had found Harrison defending himself for supposedly leading his fellow Beatles "astray" to the Maharishi's meditation retreat in India. In "Wah-Wah", he states sarcastically:
You've made me such a big star
Being there at the right time
Cheaper than a dime ...
Harrison then complains that his bandmates never take the time to notice his sorrow – to "see me crying" or "hear me sighing".
Religious academic Joshua Greene has written of Harrison being "too sure of his life's higher purpose" by January 1969, through his dedication to Hindu spirituality, to continue wasting time on the band's "petty squabbles". This point is borne out in the song's final verse, which has been identified as both a "simple, spiritual sentiment" and Harrison's statement of independence from the Beatles:
Now I don't need no wah-wah
And I know how sweet life can be
If I keep myself free
Wah-wah, I don't need no wah-wah.
Musically, while mainly in the key of E major, the tune incorporates chord changes that Wilfrid Mellers once described as "audacious" – a reflection, Harrison biographer Elliot Huntley suggests, of the "intense atmosphere" of the Twickenham sessions. Unsurprisingly, "Wah-Wah" was never offered to the Beatles once Harrison joined the proceedings at Apple Studio; although, the choice of Harrison songs that would end up on the Let It Be album in May 1970 – "I Me Mine" and "For You Blue" – has led some authors to speculate that he deliberately withdrew his higher-quality compositions rather than risk having them played without the attention they deserved.
Leng lists "Wah-Wah" among a number of solo Beatles songs that are "self-referential" in their lyrical theme and provide "further instalments of 'the Beatles' soap opera'". In this case, "Wah-Wah" "trashes the roseate memory" of the band. Harrison's bitterness at being what he termed "pigeon-holed" during the Beatles years resurfaced explicitly in "Who Can See It", a song written in 1972.
Read more about this topic: Wah-Wah (George Harrison Song)
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