She Said She Said

She Said She Said was written by John Lennon, who said it was an "acidy" song. The words came from an encounter on August 24, 1965 with Peter Fonda and members of the Byrds in Beverly Hills during a pause in their US tour. Fonda and the Byrds visited the home that manager Brian Epstein had rented for the Beatles' rest and recuperation, He, the Byrds and George, John and Ringo all dropped acid and wound up spending many hours in a huge sunken tub, chatting away. At one point George expressed a fear that he was going to die, and Fonda, to comfort him, related his near-death childhood experience with a gunshot wound. This apparently freaked out Lennon and Harrison who did not want to hear "about what it was like to be dead."

Lennon put the song together some time in early 1966 with Harrison's help. He had a couple of song fragments that they put together. Harrison later said the middle eight was really a different song altogether, just stuck in there. On June 21, 1966 the Beatles were presented the song, rehearsed it over 25 times, recorded three hurried takes, of the rhythm track and added overdubs, all in nine hours or so. This was because the Revolver album was shy one song. McCartney had apparently has some sort of tiff with the rest of the band, as he absented himself from the whole process. Harrison played bass on the track.