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"The Palace of the King of the Birds", also known as "The Castle of the King of the Birds", is a name given to an instrumental by the English rock band the Beatles. It was written by Paul McCartney and was originally recorded by the band during the Let It Be album sessions in three takes between 6 and 9 January, 1969, at Twickenham Film Studios. The recordings vary in length—the 6 January session is fourteen minutes one second long and turned into a loose jam, and was recorded with the demo of "Carry That Weight". The track was later forgotten, until McCartney recorded a still unreleased version, in his solo recordings, named "The Castle of the King of the Birds"; this version was recorded for the unreleased album Rupert the Bear, sometime in 1978, with Wings with a duration of 1:42. The song was used as the end-credits music for the first episode of the Disney+ documentary The Beatles: Get Back, in which it also makes a brief appearance earlier in the episode, where it was credited to Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey.

Personnel for the January 9 version

• Paul McCartney – organ
• John Lennon – guitar or bass
• George Harrison – lead guitar, drums
• Ringo Starr – drums

Reception

Music critic Richie Unterberger noted McCartney's "particularly elegiac" organ, and the "flowing, bluesy guitar lines", saying it was about as close as the band ever came to progressive rock jamming - "highly uncharacteristic territory for the group to be wandering into, but interesting precisely for that reason." Tom Taylor of Far Out Magazine put it at #1 in his list of "The 10 Greatest Unreleased Beatles Songs," praising the "effervescing melody that you could listen to all day." New York Magazine's Vulture website called each musical element "beautifully considered," saying "it's all very turn-off-your-mind-relax-and-float-downstream."

References

1. ^ "The Beatles Bible – Get Back/Let It Be sessions: day six". 9 January 1969. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
2. The Beatles – The Palace Of The King Of The Birds (Get Back sessions), retrieved 11 November 2015 – via YouTube
3. Beaumont, Mark (29 November 2021). "Every song The Beatles play in Peter Jackson's 'Get Back'". NME. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
4. "The Beatles: Get Back Part 1: Days 1–7". Disney+. 26 November 2021. 1:50:52 & 2:31:22. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
5. Unterberger, Richie (2006). The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film. Backbeat Books. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-87930-892-6.
6. Taylor, Tom (14 April 2021). "The 10 Greatest Unreleased Beatles Songs". Far Out. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
7. Marchese, David (14 November 2016). "The 15 Best Unreleased Beatles Songs That You Can Listen to Now". Vulture.com. Retrieved 24 September 2021.

• The Beatles songs
• 1969 songs
• The Beatles bootleg recordings