Being a Girl (Song)

'Being a Girl' is a Mansun song that was featured on the second album, Six.

Liner Notes:

"The first part was recorded by me and Mike, the second half by me and Spike.

'Being a Girl' was an allegory for not being happy in the situation I was in and wanting something different. It was the last thing written, recorded and mixed during the sessions.It had an XTC stylee verse, but a powerful chorus during the first part, the guitar was played on a vintage Fender Jag, I wrote the part like that on acoustic but Chad played it as I'd written it on the record.

Chad played the breakdown on an old organ knocking round the studio which I got Mike to mic up from across the room. During the mastering I really pushed the chorus so the track really exploded when it kicked in. Once the first part was completed I quickly wrote the second part. I like the little drop down before the 'Marx' bit. I play bass and guitar and Chad overdubs his lead line later on over the whole thing with me humming and pointing at frets n stuff which isn't really conducive to creating a good atmosphere in a band, but it got the job done.

At 6.44 we hired a 32 piece orchestra to drop in 2 string plucks from the orchestra into the background of the track. No, not really it was some random fret buzz from the lead guitar on the master tapes that I sampled and dropped onto the tape in a strategic place to sound like an orchestra, and the most decadent use of a recording studio ever, which 'Six' actually was. Details you see, were important to this record. We were in a rush to finish the whole thing now, we only had a day or so left. I grabbed a load of reasons out of my notebook as to why things weren't going that great, using some other notes I'd made from the books, the Taoist stuff, some Buddhist stuff that I'd liked but to be honest didnt know that much about. I added some of my own thoughts about communism n stuff and a bit on my own thoughts on life in general Id jotted in the notebook. The little bit tagged at the end is just a few elements from the album in general, including a recording of Tom Baker leaving the pub after his voiceover." Paul Draper, Six 10th Anniversary Blog