The Beatles' Endless Summer of Love
NOTE: Unfortunately, links expire. Please email me jstoskop@gmail.com to let me know if the particular link you are interested in has expired so I can update it. I'll try my best to avoid this situation.
In order to get a more clear picture of how 1967 shaped up in the lives of the Beatles, I'd like to take us back to where things left off in 1966. The Beatles were winding up what would be their final tour. They most assuredly knew it was going to be the last.
The final press conference they would ever have together as a group would take place in Seattle, Washington, USA on the 25th of August, 1966. From there, after a couple of days of rest, the final concerts in Los Angeles, and then San Francisco on August 29, 1966. Perhaps The Beatles left some of their magic in San Francisco, for it would be symbolized the following year as the mecca of love, tolerance and freedom.
"The flight back was far too short, and when we touched down in L.A., it was time for the real, final goodbye. Three weeks of Beatles had become a sort of delightful habit, and none of us could imagine life without them around.
"That was the problem. After being with The Beatles, who wanted to go back to normal?"
Things had to change. Once all four of them agreed upon this notion, it was smooth sailing once more. Whenever I think back on it myself, I come to the conclusion it wasn't that the Beatles seemed to stop touring at a very early time in their lives, that they were 'gone' from us all too soon, but that it was a wonder they toured for as long as they did!
Indeed, when studying their final touring year of 1966, I did find it filled with many great times that were unique in their own ways from previous tours, making this yet another special and happy time, and not the disastrous, angst filled final moments of the Beatles as we could be led to believe. It's gratifying to know, they knew most likely this was the last time, and in the end gave it their all and brought down the curtain in a pleasant way.
Things changed from night to day almost immediately following. In less than a week after the tour John was already engaged in the making of a Richard Lester film, "How I Won The War". Paul would find creative outlet with George Martin working on a score for another film "The Family Way". George, now fully bitten by the Indian influence, would return to India to begin his full immersion into an Eastern way of life. Ringo, would be completely content first at home with his wife and child, and then, as ever the brother he'd go and visit John, keeping him company during lonely moments on location.
Probably, the most famous thing about John Lennon starring in Richard Lester's film, "How I Won The War", was getting his hair shorn!
After some shooting in West Germany on 15 September, 1966, John and accompanying assistant, Neil Aspinall, left by train to Paris to meet up with Paul and Brian Epstein. Then onto Spain for the main bulk of filming "How I Won The War", where John stayed until early November.
Here's Neil Aspinall (on the left) with John.
Without confusion, this was an anti-war film, and a fitting start for what would become a true Peace & Love crusade for John.
I don't have a lot on Paul in September 1966, and I'm only guessing that this may be from that time-period. It could be, as he had just purchased his farm in Scotland as a 'tax' investment and as he'd always wanted a farm, yet I'm not certain he even had a chance to really see it until after the tour. In either case, he is shown there in this photo with Jane Asher and Martha, his dog.
Another nice photo of Jane & Paul with Martha "My Dear".
September 13, 1966: Paul did show up with Ringo for a Melody Maker Awards ceremony.
September 13, 1966: Ringo and Paul, together with Tom Jones and Dusty Springfield, the winners, ‘with their awards at the Melody Maker Pop Poll luncheon in the GPO Tower restaurant.’
Another of Ringo (with Paul and Johnny Mathis), September 13, 1966, Melody Maker Awards ceremony.
George in India, studying sitar, Yoga & Indian philosophy along with many photos using his beloved fish-eye lens.
George had tried to keep it all quiet but the press was soon onto him. (Shown with wife Pattie.)
Ringo at home with Maureen & son Zak, ca. September 1966
Ringo visiting John in Spain while he was making his movie "How I Won The War".
(ca. Sept-Oct. 1966)
This must be Cynthia Lennon and the lady behind her looks like Maureen Starkey.
Oct-Nov. 1966 - While in Spain, John had a lot of free time during the filming of "How I Won The War". During that time, he composed the ground breaking "Strawberry Fields Forever".
Select to download two John Lennon Home Demos of "Strawberry Fields Forever" (mp3 format)
Select to download two John Lennon Home Demos of "Strawberry Fields Forever" (mp3 format)
7 November 1966 - John & Cynthia return from Spain where John had completed his participation in the new film "How I Won the War".
There appears to be some dispute, but the generally accepted date that John Lennon first met Yoko Ono seems to be November 9, 1966. Either way, happy 50th anniversary to a day that definitely led to creating some ripples in the water over time! Peace & Love, John & Yoko.
When looking to find something, anything, of a photo of Paul McCartney for October 1966, this is all I could come up with. (Passport photos?) I believe one of these was used for the "White Album" poster art in 1968, but other than that, I can't find any information whatsoever about them. I believe people have used these photos of 'proof' there was a Paul 'double' that eventually replaced the real Paul. The images appear to be strikingly like 'him' to me.
Late Oct. 1966 - As I understand it, this was taken of George at Heathrow airport on his way to pick up Ravi Shankar. This must have been for a continuation of their student/teacher relationship.
Ringo enjoying the home-life. (Late 1966)
November 1966 - Paul, with George Martin, recording the soundtrack album for "The Family Way".
Paul on his own. There is actually a story about how John really felt about Paul making music without him told to Paul from Yoko Ono. I've included an interview with Paul about this topic a little further down with more information about "The Family Way".
24 November 1966 - Reuniting to record "Strawberry Fields Forever". Arriving at 7pm, they began with take one, perfecting it by 2:30 in the morning of November 25th. But take one, although complete, wouldn't be heard of until a version of it was officially released in 1996 on The Beatles Anthology.
On the first night back together since the Summer of 1966, they laid down take one of "Strawberry Fields Forever" which had Paul playing the mellotron, John on lead vocal, George on guitar, Ringo's drums, tom-toms, maracas & harmonies by John, Paul & George.
24 November 1966 - George & Ringo joining John & Paul to record "Strawberry Fields Forever". It was the first time they used the mellotron "made mostly for producing sound effects but it also had flutes, brass and string sounds..."
Geoff Emerick remembers: "John had one of the first ones, in a polished wooden cabinet. In the end the Musicians' Union tried to stop manufacture because of the way it reproduced the sounds of other instruments."
24 November 1966 - I think it must have been the longest they'd been apart since becoming Beatles. It was going to be a fresh start as the four reunited at EMI Studios, London, to record "Strawberry Fields Forever".
This version of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2. The backing vocals are mixed further into the background.
27 November 1966 - Two years prior, John Lennon had appeared on the BBC2 show "Not Only...But Also", and today he came back again, but his on screen presence was not even for 1 minute. It would be broadcast on Boxing Day, December 26th.
John's small role was recorded during the quiet Sunday morning hours in Broadwick Street in the Soho area of central London.
28 November 1966 - Although "Strawberry Fields Forever" had been 'completed' with take one on the 24th, maybe it was possible with a few days away from it, John decided it could be done again more to his satisfaction. Today's attempts were simply labeled takes 2-4. Take 3 was just a false start. All were rhythm track recordings.
Takes 2-4 of "Strawberry Fields Forever" included overdubs of the mellotron, drums, guitars, bass and maracas. Take 4 was good enough to be given a John Lennon vocal and in addition to that it would also go through 3 mono remixes. They must have thought they were onto 'something' with take 4.
Please select this link to download and listen to "Strawberry Fields Forever" [Takes 2-4]
Take 4 of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
Take 4 of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
*Here's a little more information about where "Strawberry Fields Forever" came from.
Today, Take 5 & 6 were additional rhythm tracks. Take 5 had a false start but Take 6 was complete. A John Lennon vocal was added and then the entire Take 6 was mixed down (to free up more recording tracks) to what was called Take 7. Take 7 then had ADT (artificial double tracking) added to John's vocal along with more piano & bass guitar.
Afterwards three mono remixes were made of this version of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and for a while longer, this second version of the song was considered the 'best'.
The file is in the .mp3 format so anyone should be able to play it.
Take 7 of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
Take 7 of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
6 December 1966 - "When I'm Sixty-Four" was not a new song in 1966 (much like "I'll Follow The Sun" was not new in 1964) going back to the very pre-Beatles days of Paul's songwriting history.
After recording some Christmas messages, this time for a couple of pirate radio stations, the Beatles then focused on rehearsing this number & recording two takes of the rhythm track featuring Paul on piano. The second take was marked as being the best.
*Here is some more information (above) on "When I'm Sixty-Four".
9 December 1966 - What? No Beatles for Christmas this year? Well, not exactly. Knowing as far back as October that new material would not be forthcoming, EMI prepared the first UK Greatest Hits LP compilation for the group called, "A Collection of Beatles Oldies, But Goldies".
In doing so, for the Stereo copy of this 'new' LP, some of the Beatles' songs were mixed in Stereo for the first time. They include "Paperback Writer" on October 31st, and although "I Want to Hold Your Hand" had been mixed to Stereo twice previously, a third mix was done on November 7th, "She Loves You" was made into a mock stereo mix on November 8th because the original 2-track recording was lost already by this time, "Day Tripper" & "We Can Work it Out" were also re-done as previous stereo mixes were either scrapped or considered inadequate, and on November 10th, along with those two, "This Boy" received a stereo mix by accident. Someone inadvertently mixed up "Bad Boy" with "This Boy" and before the error was noticed, "This Boy" had already been taken care of. "From Me To You" did not get a proper stereo mix and the original 2-track recording was simply used instead. It appears "I Feel Fine" had been mixed to stereo back at the end of 1964 and that version must have been deemed adequate. All other tracks on this LP had stereo mixes already created.
Also, in December of 1966, the Beatles' Fan Club Members received their 4th produced Christmas message from the group called "Pantomime: Everywhere It's Christmas". It was begun on November 25th in the basement studio below the office of their music publisher, Dick James. It was 'produced' by George Martin, and Tony Barrow assisted Geoff Emerick on the mixing session at EMI Studios, December 2nd, 1966.
8 December 1966 - During the afternoon hours on this day, Paul McCartney was in Studio One with George Martin & Geoff Emerick adding his vocal overdub onto take 2 of "When I'm Sixty-Four".
Previously, John Lennon & George Martin realized that John wanted yet another go at "Strawberry Fields Forever". George had recalled that when John originally played the song to him on acoustic guitar, "It was absolutely lovely." Yet 2 versions into attempting to record it and George could see that it "began to get heavy".
John came to George with a suggestion of bringing in outside musicians to supplement the Beatles' playing. On this day, December 8th, the Beatles arrived to tape a brand new rhythm track for just that purpose. They were suddenly ready to roll, but there was one 'minor' problem. George Martin & Geoff Emerick were not available when they arrived early that evening!
(Photo unrelated, taken from earlier in 1966 with John & Ringo and unidentified person.)
Dave Harries remembers: "...the Beatles arrived, hot to record. There was nobody else there but me so I became producer/engineer. We recorded Ringo's cymbals, played them backwards, Paul and George were on timps (timpani) and bongos, Mal Evans played tambourine, we overdubbed the guitars, everything. It sounded great. When George and Geoff came back I scuttled upstairs because I shouldn't really have been recording them.
"Geoff was moaning because there was a lot of top (treble) on the cymbals. I said it was the only time there'd been top on any Beatles records! ...I'm very proud of that, it was a very good record."
(Photo of Dave Harries, the engineer who stepped in for the Beatles' Producer George Martin & Engineer Geoff Emerick on this day.)
Only nine of the 15 takes on this date were complete. Amazingly, the two takes chosen to be worked with were the incomplete take #15 & the incomplete take #24.
When George Martin & Geoff Emerick did arrive around 11pm, about 3/4s of take #15 and the final quarter of take 24 were edited together and an attempt to mix them down into a complete take #25 was made but as it was almost 4am the next day, it was decided to try again later after a few hours rest.
Note, this recording was used on "The Beatles Anthology 2" records, but here is the original, unadulterated version.)
December 9, 15, 1966: So, finally all the work done on the 8th of December was mixed down to just one track and called take 25. Then more overdubs were added to the 3 remaining tracks, including percussion from Ringo, an Indian instrument called a swordmandel by George, more backwards cymbals by Ringo, and then on the 15th of December additional musicians were invited to add four trumpets & three cellos. This provided the brass sound that George Martin and John Lennon had decided was necessary for this 3rd attempt at making "Strawberry Fields Forever".
At this point it is still a work in progress.
Once their music was recorded on tracks 3 & 4, all four tracks were then mixed down again so John Lennon could use the newly vacated tracks 3 & 4 for his vocals.
This was the day when near the end of the recording, John mutters the words, "cranberry sauce". Why? Only John would know, but hey, it goes with the season doesn't it? On some mixes of the song you can hear him say it twice. In either case, he most certainly does not say the words, "I buried Paul".
Take 26 of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
15 December 1966 - "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Version 3) remix #9 of take 26 in mono.
Although there would still be more overdubbing onto take 26 in a few days, this is how the song was taking shape on this date.
It has some interesting editing from the 'original' take 26 and you can hear it and download a copy from the link above.
December 1966 - At the end of the year, Independent Television News broadcast on their weekly series "Reporting '66" a 'special' called "End of Beatlemania". (An original sub-title was to be "Beatles Breaking-Up Special".) It included much footage of their last North American tour, interviews with fans, 'library footage' of the group, but most importantly, a current few moments with each individual Beatle, which showed them entering EMI Studios talking briefly with reporter John Edwards.
"The Family Way" soundtrack LP, which featured Paul McCartney & George Martin music would be released in the UK in January. The film was released in time for Christmas 1966.
This is from my CD of "The Family Way" soundtrack which Paul McCartney & George Martin recorded late 1966. I'm including these very short interviews that Paul & George gave from around 1995.
Paul shares some insights about John's reaction to him doing this work with George, which I'd not known before.
The caption for the photo (below) says: By virtue of the Beatle's song, Penny Lane has become one of the best known street names in Britain. The original signs have long since been stolen by zealous fans--those that exist today are firmly fixed in vandal-proof positions.
Paul shares some insights about John's reaction to him doing this work with George, which I'd not known before.
21 December 1966 - Three clarinets are added to the working tracks of "When I'm Sixty-Four" brought by the musicians Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie and Frank Reidy.
*(Here is some more information about "Penny Lane".)
It is not known why suddenly after being away from Liverpool for three years now, that both John and Paul would write about places they remembered from their youth.
On the 29th, Paul alone would work on a basic track for "Penny Lane" first putting down piano on track one. Another piano went on track two, this time as played through a Vox guitar amplifier. Track three saw another piano played at half-speed along with tambourine. Track four got 'two-tone high-pitch whistles from a harmonium, again fed through a Vox guitar amplifier and various strange percussion effects'.
On the 30th, lead vocal was added with John's backing.
Above is more information about "How I Won the War" below, taken from the book "Beatles At The Movies" by Roy Carr (1996).
"How I Won The War" is available for home viewing, and happily you can now get an HD copy via the Blu-Ray format.
5 January 1967 - Unreleased Beatles!
...and that is all there really seems to be 'special' about this day, the fact that there still is a track out there from The Beatles that remains unheard of, dubbed "Carnival of Light".
It came about because Paul agreed to provide a soundtrack to an upcoming event known as "The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave" (or "Carnival of Light Rave") which was to be held at the Roundhouse Theatre, London, at the end of the month. It would be a tape of 'electronic noises'.
According to Mark Lewisohn, it lasted close to 14 minutes and there was a basic track of 'hypnotic' drum and organ sounds. Then a distorted lead guitar, church organ, voices, effects (like gargling of water), tape echo and 'manic' tambourine.
Then John and Paul added 'screaming' phrases like "Are you alright?" and "Barcelona!".
A mono mix was made, although David Vaughan, the person who asked Paul for this recording in the first place, recalls hearing it in stereo.
It was blocked from being released on "The Beatles Anthology 2" by George, who incidentally by that time, had dabbled in electronic avant garde music himself. (Perhaps he found it okay as a solo venture, but not for the Beatles?)
Mark Lewisohn states it is not as 'structured' as "Revolution 9" and that the only mystic about it is that people haven't heard it. He believes once they do, it will be forgotten.
Geoff Emerick recalls George Martin at the time saying, "This is ridiculous, we've got to get our teeth into something a little more constructive." When reminded of this track in the late 1980s, George could not even recall it and stated, "...and it sounds like I don't want to either!"
The poster shown here above, although difficult to read, is apparently from the event for which this soundtrack had its only presentation.
Beatles photo taken in January 1967.
"Penny Lane" had begun being recorded at the end of 1966 with piano by Paul, vocals by Paul, backed by John and other various instruments. In 1967 John added a piano part, George added guitar, more vocals by Paul, bass guitar by Paul, John on rhythm guitar, Ringo on drums, John on conga drums, more piano by John and George Martin, and then the session musicians came in.
January 9th, 1967 saw four flutes (Ray Swinfield, P. Goody, Manny Winters and Dennis Walton) two trumpets (Leon Calvert and Freddy Clayton), two piccolos and a flugelhorn.
On January 12th two more trumpets (Bert Courtley and Duncan Campbell), two oboes (Dick Morgan and Mike Winfield), two cor anglais (also Dick and Mike) and a double-bass (Frank Clarke) were added.
Then, finally on January 17th, after seeing him on television a few nights earlier, Paul recruited David Mason to play the B-flat piccolo trumpet. Mr. Mason had brought along with him nine trumpets to try before settling on which one to record with.
Also on this day three more mono mixes were made of "Penny Lane" until the one titled 'remix 11' was deemed best. This rare mix was sent to the USA for pressing of a new Beatles single. It would remain 'best' until new mixes were made on January 25th, but by that time some pressings of 'remix 11' had already been made in America for advance promotional/broadcast copies to be played on US radio. The 'corrected' mix would go out for general release everywhere, but this version of "Penny Lane" would become quite rare. Even when Capitol released a version of it in 1980, that would really be a brand new mix combining only seconds of the rare mix to the send of the standard stereo mix of "Penny Lane".
The US Promo mix of "Penny Lane" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 4. It apparently is a copy from an original record and not from any master tape.
*Listening to this track from the Super Deluxe Edition, and comparing it with the one I've uploaded, I can hear differences in both, so I don't know what to say about that!
*Above is some more information about the making of "A Day In the Life" from Steve Turner's "A Hard Day's Write".
19 January 1967 - Born on this day, the recording of "A Day In The Life". The working title at this time was "In The Life Of..." and on one track bongos, maracas, piano & guitar made up the basic rhythm with a heavily echoed vocal by John on another.
Take 1 of "A Day In The Life" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
Take 2 of "A Day In The Life" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
There were several takes and on take 4 John used the other two available tracks to add more vocals, all with 'heavy echo'.
Engineer Geoff Emerick recalls: "We'd send a feed from John's vocal mike into a mono tape machine and then tape the output - because they had separate record and replay heads - and then feed that back in again. Then we'd turn up the record level until it started to feed back on itself and give a twittery sort of vocal sound. John was hearing that echo in his cans [headphones] as he was singing. It wasn't put on after. He used his own echo as a rhythmic feel for many of the songs he sang, phrasing his voice around the echo in his cans."
There was no Paul vocal at this stage. To mark out the position on the tape, up to where Paul's contribution would wind up, Mal Evans counted out the bars numbering 1-24. At this point they knew something would fill those tracks later. His counting had echo added to it along with a piano up until where an alarm clock sounded, marking the end of this middle eight section. Then, after John's vocal returned near the end another round of Mal Evans's counting began again with piano building and building to a point where it finally stops.
20 January 1967 - More vocals from John are added to "A Day In the Life" along with Paul's bass and Ringo's drums. Also on this day, Paul adds his vocal as a guide to his contribution to the song. Here is a case where John had a beginning and an end but no middle, and Paul had a song with a middle but no beginning or end. The two came together like a jigsaw puzzle giving the impression they were intended as one, but it was just a happy coincidence.
Even Mal Evans's alarm clock (recorded earlier) just happens to go off before Paul's "Woke up, fell out of bed," lyric, and it seemed to fit so well it was kept on the final mix of the track.
On January 30th, a rough mono mix was made of this day's work and I've uploaded a copy of that (which is from an acetate and stored as a .wav file) which you can find at this link:
Take 1 of "A Day In The Life" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
Take 2 of "A Day In The Life" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
There were several takes and on take 4 John used the other two available tracks to add more vocals, all with 'heavy echo'.
Engineer Geoff Emerick recalls: "We'd send a feed from John's vocal mike into a mono tape machine and then tape the output - because they had separate record and replay heads - and then feed that back in again. Then we'd turn up the record level until it started to feed back on itself and give a twittery sort of vocal sound. John was hearing that echo in his cans [headphones] as he was singing. It wasn't put on after. He used his own echo as a rhythmic feel for many of the songs he sang, phrasing his voice around the echo in his cans."
There was no Paul vocal at this stage. To mark out the position on the tape, up to where Paul's contribution would wind up, Mal Evans counted out the bars numbering 1-24. At this point they knew something would fill those tracks later. His counting had echo added to it along with a piano up until where an alarm clock sounded, marking the end of this middle eight section. Then, after John's vocal returned near the end another round of Mal Evans's counting began again with piano building and building to a point where it finally stops.
20 January 1967 - More vocals from John are added to "A Day In the Life" along with Paul's bass and Ringo's drums. Also on this day, Paul adds his vocal as a guide to his contribution to the song. Here is a case where John had a beginning and an end but no middle, and Paul had a song with a middle but no beginning or end. The two came together like a jigsaw puzzle giving the impression they were intended as one, but it was just a happy coincidence.
Even Mal Evans's alarm clock (recorded earlier) just happens to go off before Paul's "Woke up, fell out of bed," lyric, and it seemed to fit so well it was kept on the final mix of the track.
On January 30th, a rough mono mix was made of this day's work and I've uploaded a copy of that (which is from an acetate and stored as a .wav file) which you can find at this link:
This first mono mix of "A Day In The Life" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 4.
Beatles recording in January 1967.
Paul and John with that alarm clock from "A Day In The Life" [January 1967]
When George Martin released "Penny Lane" as part of "The Beatles Anthology 2" LPs, he tried to show all the different variations of the song that existed on one brand new version which he put together from nine different recording dates. I think it was a cool idea, but when I listen to it, there is a lot on there which we are already familiar with, so to present something different to mark this date, I've uploaded what is called "Take 9" of "Penny Lane" which you can find via the link below.
It is in mono, which makes me believe it was actually one of the earlier remixes done of take 9 making its date of origin possibly as late as January 12, 1967. In either case, I like it because you can hear a different "Penny Lane", especially at the end of it which is covered up on "Anthology 2".
30-31 January 1967 - Director of TV pop shows in Sweden, Peter Goldmann was recommended to the Beatles by German friend Klaus Voormann to head their next project, filming 35mm color promotional films for their next single.
30-31 January 1967 - Promotional films for the Beatles' next single were produced by Tony Bramwell for Subafilms, one of two Beatles' film production companies.
30-31 January 1967 - Knole Park (20 miles south-east of London) was the first location selected to film the next promotional film for the Beatles' next single. The "Strawberry Fields Forever" portion was completed on these two days.
30-31 January 1967 - The "Strawberry Fields Forever" promotional color 35mm film was completed on these two days. (Knole Park, near Sevenoaks, Kent.)
There were nine takes of this opening track with drums, bass and two guitars (Paul and George). Only two takes were complete (takes one & nine).
Take 1 of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
Take 9 of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
The next day Paul's lead vocals and group backing vocals were recorded onto the two remaining tracks of take 9. All four tracks were then reduced to a mix called take 10 (vacating two tracks for future overdubs) and then a rough mix was made of that and put on an acetate disc for demonstration purposes. It's very cool, in my opinion, and listening to it gives you insights into what the track sounded like with only The Beatles playing (no session musicians or effects). I believe this is that mix which I've uploaded here:
Engineer Ken Townsend remembers: "I think direct injection was probably used on Beatles sessions for the first time anywhere in the world. We built our own transformer boxes (called DIT boxes) and plugged the guitars straight into the equipment."
John Lennon really was intrigued by the idea of DI (direct injection).
Geoff Emerick remembers: "John came up to the control room one day and asked if we could possibly inject his voice directly into the console (...as well, to which...) George Martin replied, 'Yes, if you go and have an operation. It means sticking a jackplug into your neck!'"
5 February 1967: This was from the earlier shoot for "Penny Lane" around Angel Lane in Stratford. The Beatles never actually made it to Penny Lane, but the camera crew did, shooting footage of the local landmarks.
A clip of the film would be shown on Juke Box Jury, on the 11th of February. Both "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" would make their premiere on Top of the Pops, February 16, 1967.
Both "Penny Lane" & "Strawberry Fields Forever" would debut in America on ABC's The Hollywood Palace, February 25, 1967.
8 February 1967: Eight takes were done on this day for "Good Morning Good Morning", four of them complete, of the basic rhythm track. John would add his vocals, along with (Paul's presumably) bass guitar on the 16th and after a few reduction mixes, the song would be put aside for some time until it was completed for the new LP.
*See above for more information about "Good Morning Good Morning".
Take 1 of "Good Morning Good Morning" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2. It is only about 1 minute and breaks down.
Take 8 of "Good Morning Good Morning" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2. (It is essentially the same as the version on "The Beatles Anthology".)
9 February 1967: For the first time, The Beatles record for EMI outside Abbey Road Studios. "We couldn't get in to Abbey Road that night," remembers George Martin. So they instead set up shop at the independently owned Regent Sound Studio for 3 takes of Paul's "Fixing a Hole". (Photo above is unrelated, as far as I know.)
Since George Martin was no longer an EMI staffer, he could freely travel with the Beatles to any recording location. None of the other regular EMI employees could, however, so Adrian Ibbetson, chief engineer at Regent, filled in for Geoff Emerick.
George Martin: "But Regent Sound was a pretty awful little studio, very cramped and boxy."
9 February 1967: After a series of rehearsals, the Beatles did 3 takes (two complete) of "Fixing a Hole" including vocals, which was unusual during these days as they were used to taping the rhythm track first and then would commence with overdubbing afterwards.
Most distinctively today was the use of a harpsichord. Neil Aspinall would write in "The Beatles Book" that Paul was the musician playing it, but Mark Lewisohn notes in his book "The Beatles Chronicle" that listening to the session tape proves that both the harpsichord and bass were played at the same time throwing "a question mark over Paul's exact role, especially as the bass playing is typical McCartney ca. 1967".
Mark goes on to note that George's unquestionable lead guitar plays "an unusually long solo in the middle eight...for a Beatles song."
Take 1 (or Take 2, depending whom you get your information from) of "Fixing A Hole" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 3.
Take 3 of "Fixing A Hole" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 3.
*Please check out below for more interesting information about where "Fixing a Hole" came from in Paul's mind.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Such a huge day in Beatles' history. Perhaps, because "A Day In The Life" is still so familiar today after 50 years, it may be difficult to re-capture all of the magic on this historic date, but I will make the attempt.
It was decided that using an orchestral build-up (from a low note to the highest each respective instrument could play) would be the best way of filling the 24 bar gap that still remained from the recording of "A Day In The Life" which had begun on January 19th. (Photo is of Paul conducting that orchestra build up.)
To get re-aquainted with where we left off, and in case you missed it before, I have uploaded a rough mono mix that was done on January 30th of "A Day In The Life" as it stood at that time.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Because they were now dealing with classical musicians, even though they wouldn't be playing music in the traditional sense, George Martin still had to write music for them to play. (Photo of Paul conducting that orchestra build up.)
George Martin remembers: "At the very beginning I put into the musical score the lowest note each instrument could play, ending with an E-major chord. And at the beginning of each of the 24 bars I put a note showing roughly where they should be at that point. Then I had to instruct them. 'We're going to start very very quietly and end up very very loud. We're to start very low in pitch and end up very high. You've got to make your own way up there, and slide-y as possible so that the clarinets slurp, trombones gliss, violins slide without fingering any notes. And whatever you do, don't listen to the fellow next to you because I don't want you to be doing the same thing.' Of course they all looked at me as though I was mad..."
The musicians were all classically trained so none of this made sense to them.
The next version of "A Day In The Life" I have is Track 1 of the original 4 track recording from this day, February 10, 1967. Track 1 is mainly the vocal tracks of John & Paul. It's noticeable difference from the mono mix made in January (which was previously uploaded) is the new Paul vocal which was added on February 3 (along with John). You can find that track here for downloading:
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - It is said that 'perhaps 90 musicians would be used to perform this task.' They wound up with 40 musicians, but they would also be recorded 4 times to fill the 4 available tracks so, in effect, they wound up with the equivalent of 160 musicians(!)
To put a human face on this event, here are the 40 who contributed to this amazing recording session:
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - George Martin and Paul McCartney conducted the orchestra (photo unrelated) and Geoff Emerick (the engineer) had to get the sounds down on tape 'in the correct manner'.
Geoff Emerick remembers: "It was only by careful fader manipulation that I was able to get the crescendo of the orchestra at the right time. I was gradually bringing it up, my technique being slightly psychological in that I'd bring it up to a point and then slightly fade it back in level without the listener being able to discern this was happening, and then I'd have about 4 dB's in hand at the end. It wouldn't have worked if I'd just shoved the level up to start with."
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Not only would this day produce one heck of a 'recording session' it proved to be an actual event.
George Martin recalls: "The Beatles asked me, and the musicians, to wear full evening dress, which we did. I left the studio at one point and came back to find one of the musicians, David McCallum, wearing a red clown's nose and Erich Gruenberg, leader of the violins, wearing a gorilla's paw on his bow hand. Everyone was wearing funny hats and carnival novelties. I just fell about laughing!"
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Engineer Peter Vince recalls: "Only the Beatles could have assembled a studio full of musicians, many from the Royal Philharmonic or the London Symphony orchestras, all wearing funny hats, red noses, balloons on their bows and putting up with headphones clipped around their Stradivari violins acting as microphones."
Violinist Sidney Sax: "I remember that they stuck balloons onto the ends of the two bassoons. They went up and down as the instruments were played and they filled with air!"
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - The reason for the musicians' formal attire along with the party atmosphere is that this session was also being filmed for a television special about the making of their new album. The special itself, unfortunately, never happened, and I believe this evening was the extent of it.
Although the footage taken made for quite a nice little film by itself, it could never be shown in any case because the BBC banned the song, thinking it was related to drugs.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Getting back to the orchestra and to the unique way it was recorded for this song, as mentioned earlier there were a total of 40 musicians used. All 40 musicians were recorded 4 separate times to fill 4 tracks of a tape. All of this was mixed down to one, which is what can be found at the end of the link provided below.
Remember, except for a beginning, the track is silent until the 1:23 mark where you can hear some of the rhythm track in the background before the musicians come in at the 1:42 mark.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - In order for the musicians to keep time with the music, George Martin asked technician Ken Townsend if it were possible to link two 4-track tape machines together, knowing it hadn't been done before. This way, the Beatles' rhythm track would be heard on one machine and the orchestral track would be recorded on the second machine using the 4 available tracks to record them again and again.
Ken Townsend remembers: "So I went away and came up with a method whereby we fed a 50 cycle tone from the track of one machine, then raised its voltage to drive the capstan motor of the second, thus running the two in sync. Like all these things, the ideas either work first time or not at all. This one worked first time. The only problem arose sometime later when George and I were doing a mix with two different machines. One of them was sluggish in starting up and we couldn't get the damn things into sync. George got quite annoyed with me actually."
George Martin recalls it slightly differently: "The synchronisation was rather a hit-and-miss affair and the orchestra is slightly out of time in places, but it doesn't matter."
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Recording the orchestra was made using the "unique ambiophonics system of the massive Abbey Road Studio One, whereby 100 loudspeakers, fitted symmetrically to all four walls, artificially tailor the acoustics by feeding signals delayed at different intervals, the resulting sound being 'ambiophony'".
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - A remarkable evening summed up best by George Martin: "When we'd finished doing the orchestral bit one part of me said 'We're being a bit self-indulgent here'. The other part of me said 'It's bloody marvelous!'"
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - This track is just of (presumably Paul's) bass guitar & Ringo's drums. It's wonderful because, as with the other individual tracks, it's a revelation hearing the sounds isolated like this. I think this is maybe my favorite track of the four from "A Day In The Life"
As with Paul's vocals, the bass guitar & drums were re-recorded on February 3rd. From Mark Lewisohn's "The Beatles Complete Chronicles": Ringo taped his contribution on tomtoms, giving the song a distinctive percussion sound.
"That was entirely his own idea," says George Martin. "Ringo had a tremendous feel for a song and he always helped us hit the right tempo first time. He was rock solid and this made the recording of all the Beatles' songs so much easier."
It is true that on only a handful of occasions during all of the several hundred session tapes and thousand of recording hours can Ringo be heard to have made a mistake or wavered in his beat. His work was remarkably consistent--and excellent--from 1962 right through to 1970.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Other friends invited to be at the filming of today's session for "A Day In The Life" include Mick Jagger & Marianne Faithfull.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - At the end of the day, after the orchestra had left, the cameras were switched off, the party atmosphere may have died down, there was still that lingering question about how exactly to end this song! 40 musicians x 4 tracks was still not enough and it needed a coda.
"Eight beats, remember" said Paul, leading a gathering of Beatles and 'various friends' around the studio microphone singing a long 'hummmmmmmm'. There were quite a few attempts. Take 8, 9 & 10 fell apart into laughter, but take 11 was good and 3 more 'overdubs' were recorded filling all 4 tracks effectively bring "A Day In The Life" to a close... finally....that is until February 22nd when this idea was tossed for that famous piano crash.
You can hear those 'hums' by downloading this short .wav file from here:
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Wrapping this story up, you can listen to the entire song (instruments only, without the orchestra & vocals) along with the 'hum' ending by downloading the file from this link here:
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - You can also hear the entire song (instruments and orchestra, but no vocals) along with the 'hum' ending from this link:
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Finally, I offer all 4 tracks of "A Day In The Life" un-mixed, with vocals, instruments and orchestra, and the 'hum' ending from this link:
13 February 1967: George's contribution to the new LP, "It's Only A Northern Song" is begun on this day. There were 9 takes, all rhythm tracks, 4 were complete and take 3 was considered 'best'. Vocals would be added the next day and work would continue on this track through to April, but in the end it would be left off of the album and not released until January 1969 on the "Yellow Submarine" LP.
George himself in his book, "I Me Mine", had little to say about this track, only that: "Northern Song was a joke relating to Liverpool, the Holy City in the North of England. In addition, the song was copyrighted Northern Songs Ltd., which I don't own, so, 'It really doesn't matter what chords I play...as it's only a Northern Song.'"
13 (USA), 17(UK) February 1967: Finally, the long awaited single "Strawberry Fields Forever" & "Penny Lane" is released. I'm not certain if the artwork was exact for both countries, but I believe it was the first time in the UK that photographs were used as a sleeve design.
This was famously their first single not to make it to #1 in the UK since the beginning, this time 'only' getting to #2. In the States, however, "Penny Lane" made it to #1 for a week, I believe.
17, 20 February 1967 - Recording "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!", begun on the 17th, with the rhythm track perfected in 7 takes. A vocal was laid down but then there were two reduction mixes after which a new vocal was added to the second. Already a circus atmosphere was being created, but John wanted to 'smell the sawdust on the floor'.
George Martin had tried the harmonium for hours working to get the right effect. He then decided to try a calliope (a steam organ) and after several days of searching was only able to find automatic models (played by punched cards) and no hand operated models.
On the 20th, they settled with using old calliope tapes found at EMI. At first they tried chopping them up and reassembling them randomly but that wasn't enough to make a difference, so they had to actually work on it, purposely switching bits of tape, turning some backwards and finally creating the tape effect they desired. In the end 19 separate pieces were needed for the completed tape which was then mixed onto the track March 29.
Take 4 of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
Take 7 of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
22 February 1967 - The hums that had been recorded for the end of "A Day in the Life" on the 10th, although 'along the right lines' were 'not powerful enough' it was decided. So for today John, Paul, Ringo & Mal Evans, sharing 3 pianos attempted in nine takes to simultaneously hit E major. Take 7 was the longest at 59 seconds. Take 9 was considered 'best'.
The handful of takes to produce the final chord from "A Day In The Life" have been made available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
22 February 1967 - Also on this day (photo unrelated) an experimental tape was made with the title "Anything" aka "Drum Track (1)" take 1.
It ran 22 minutes 10 seconds mainly of Ringo's drum beat, tambourine and congas. We don't know what it was meant for. It wasn't ever used, nor was it remixed.
23-24 February 1967: "Lovely Rita" was begun on these days with 8 rhythm backing track takes, #8 being best to which Paul's vocal track was added onto the next day.
28 February 1967 - The Beatles spend the evening from 7pm - 3am in the morning rehearsing "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds".
By now they could use 'unlimited' amounts of time at EMI before they would even begin recording. Indeed, nothing was taped on this day but staff member Peter Vince remembers: "...you couldn't just clear off because they might by trying something out...and they'd want to come up and listen to the thing before carrying on. So you couldn't just disappear or nod off, you had to be around all the time. The nights were so long when you had nothing to do. ...what people don't realise is the boredom factor. ...more than half (the) time all the engineers were doing was sitting around waiting for them to get their ideas together."
George Martin recalls: "No one ever said to me, 'You're spending too much money' or 'You're taking too long over it'. I can only presume that EMI realised it was onto a good thing."
1-3 March 1967 - Actual recording on "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" begins (photo unrelated). The first seven takes concentrated on the rhythm track with Paul on Hammond, being taped with a 'special organ-stop' for its distinctive opening sound. Take seven introduced the tamboura.
On March 2, the song was 'finished' with the backing vocals. Note: This track was the 'most varispeeded song on the LP.' Take seven was 'reduced' to take eight at 49 cycles per second. Vocals were taped at 45 cycles & 48-1/2 cycles, Paul's bass and George's fuzzed lead guitar were recorded at normal speed.
The track was mixed to mono eleven times before take 11 was marked 'best' but even that was tossed on the next day, March 3, when four more mixes were done with #4 being marked 'best'.
Take 1 of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
Take 5 of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
Mono Mix #11 of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 4.
3 March 1967 - A brass overdub for the lead track of the new LP "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was recorded by musicians James W. Buck, Neil Sanders, Tony Randall and John Burden on French horns.
6 March 1967 - Paul thinks it would be a good idea to capture sound of a band warming up as a prelude to the new LP and so they dug through some of the taping session that was made of the orchestral overdub for "A Day In The Life" and found a few seconds they could use.
More sound effects were found in the 'Abbey Road archive collection of sound effects locked away in a rickety green cabinet in an old storeroom....(curated by) balance engineer Stuart Eltham (who recalls) "The collection began in about 1956 when Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine and others used to make records... We started to keep bits and pieces."'
Extracts from "Volume 28: Audience Applause and Atmosphere, Royal Albert Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall" were used along with applause and laughter takend from a tape from the Fortune Theatre, London live rcording of the 1961 comedy revue 'Beyond the Fringe' along with audience screaming from the Beatles in concert at the Hollywood Bowl(!)
On March 7, 1967, a TV special called "So Far Out It's Straight Down" was aired by Granada in the North of England only which was as documentary on the current 'underground' movement that was happening and being felt in London.
Paul had been interviewed back on January 18, 1967 by Jo Durden-Smith who conceived and produced the half-hour film for the late night show Scene Special.
The best copy I've been able to find online so far can be found at this link: http://www.veoh.com/watch/e131373mjxfzjta
February-March 1967 - I'd mentioned earlier about the making of the opening recording for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" but now, I'd like to provide for you the ability to listen to the "break-down" that I have of each individual track that makes up that song.
I think you may be interested in hearing them so, for downloading purposes, I zipped up all 4 tracks in the mp3 format at this link for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band":
February-March 1967 - The actual 'break-down' of each of the 4 tracks that make up "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" goes as follows.
Track 1 is of just the audience effects, that were put down last for the song, on March 6, 1967.
Track 2 is of just the Beatles' instruments playing which goes back to the beginning of February 1967.
Track 3 is Paul's lead vocal and the Beatles' backing vocals which also were recorded at the beginning of February 1967.
Track 4 is of the horns, and after they were put down, George Harrison's 'stinging' and 'much distorted' lead solo guitar work. This was all recorded on March 3, 1967.
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" track Part 2. The description:
For this zip file, I've included six mp3s which contain several combinations of the 4 tracks used for the song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
The first file is of all 4 tracks that make up the song, no mixing, so you can hear everything.
The second has all of the instruments ONLY, no vocals.
The third is of all the Instruments & vocals but no audience effects.
There is also a very short file which has just the 'atmosphere' that leads into the song.
Finally to round things out, I have the American Bandstand kids' reaction to the new Beatles single, "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" which was recorded March 11, 1967
Also there is a special short interview that John & Paul gave to the radio show "Top of the Pops", which was recorded March 20, 1967.
9 March 1967 - "Getting Better" was next in line to begin recording this day with 7 takes and an accepted reduction mix (out of 5 tries) and more overdubs completed on March 10. Vocals were added on March 21st and completed on the 23rd.
John Lennon: Wife Beater?
Regarding John's contribution to "Getting Better", and the lyrics: "I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved."
It's gone around, and even supported to some degree by John Lennon himself, that he was a violent person and suggesting that he would on occasion beat his own wife.
This is something I've never heard before, especially from Yoko Ono, whom I don't believe would have stood for it and if it had happened we would have known about it, I believe.
There was an incident, however, with Cynthia (who eventually became John's first wife) and you can listen to her describe it for yourself via the above link, and the aftermath which followed.
It is in no way to minimize this idea that John was "violent", but to put it into more of an honest perspective. The incident in question happened in the very early stages of John & Cynthia's relationship, when they were still both teenagers well before their marriage and birth of Julian Lennon.
There would be a further outburst from John in the future (i.e. beating up Bob Wooler in 1963), but none ever again that I was ever aware of involving women. Infidelity, unfortunately yes, but not violence. I'd rather like to believe the rumors, again which were supported in some ways by John himself, were more pointed towards his absolute humiliation over the truth that he was not a person 100% filled with peace and love (and who is?). I'd see that as a more honest opinion of himself rather than a derogatory one.
15 March 1967 - George begins recording "Within You Without You" which, at this time as was with many of George's compositions, did not have a name yet. He was going all out with the Indian influence. Today's basic track lasted 6:25 with session men on tabla, swordmandel, dilruba and a tamboura.
You can now hear George working with the Indian musicians to create "Within You Without You" which is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
Take 1 of "Within You Without You" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
15 March 1967 - Although session musicians would assist George Harrison in recording "Within You Without You", he and Neil Aspinall did add more tamboura onto it. Other than themselves, there were no other Beatles participating at any time. This was George's baby.
Geoff Emerick recalled, "The tabla had never been recorded ...that closely, with the texture and the lovely low resonances."
Peter Blake, who would be instrumental behind the cover of the new LP rememebers: "George was there with some Indian musicians and they had a carpet on the floor and there was incense burning. George was very sweet--he's always been very kind and sweet--and he got up and welcomed us in and offered us tea. We just sat and watched for a couple of hours. It was a fascinating, historical time."
17 March 1967 - "She's Leaving Home" is begun on this day in 6 takes. Impatient Paul McCartney wanted George Martin to help him arrange a score for this new ballad, but George was unavailable with commitments to other clients. The person who did write the score for "She's Leaving Home" was Mike Leander, also like George now, a freelance producer and arranger.
George Martin had his first (that I know of) huge letdown by a Beatle. "He was so damned impatient and I was up to my eyes with other work and I just couldn't cope. ...he was surprised that I was upset," George remembers.
Nonetheless, George Martin produced today's session conducting the 10 musicians needed to complete the track. The musicians were Erich Gruenberg (leader), Derek Jacobs, Trevor Williams and Jose Luis Garcia (violins); John Underwood and Stephen Shingles (violas); Dennis Vigay and Alan Dalziel (cellos); Gordon Pearce (double-bass) and Sheila Bromberg (harp).
George Martin agrees, "Mike Leander did a good job."
Paul's lead vocal and John's backing vocals were added on the 20th of March. No Beatles played any instruments.
My 2nd link is for the vocals to "She's Leaving Home". Paul & John recorded lead and backing vocals twice and each accepted version can be found here along with both tracks together. Also included is a version that contains all 4 tracks (instruments & vocals) without any mixing or editing.
30 March 1967 - Peter Blake (right hand side of photo #1) looks proudly on as his day with the Beatles proves successful. From the photo shoot for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". (Michael Cooper, photographer, is on the left hand side of each photo.)
30 March 1967 - Photo: Putting together the 'stage' for the "Sgt. Pepper" photo shoot.
29 March 1967: The LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" itself was never really made proper. It is still being referred to as "the first 'concept' album". The truth is, it came out of an idea Paul had where The Beatles could become something else besides Beatles and be free of constraints or perceptions of what it is to be Beatles (which really never held them back in the first place anyway.)
The LP, once completed, would be an entity in itself that could now go out 'on tour' in their place and they themselves in real life could stay home. (Note the opening audience effects mimicking a 'live' album effect.) It may have been labeled a 'concept album', but as I mentioned, that never really quite came about.
Besides the opening track and the one that would follow made today, "With A Little Help From My Friends", the LP is really just The Beatles being themselves after all, and expressing where they were 'at' during this time in their lives and careers.
With the addition of a reprise to the title track and segue into "A Day In The Life", that's about as conceptual as "Sgt. Pepper" would really get. Add that all of the tracks would be pressed on vinyl together with as little silence possible in-between them and the illusion is complete. (I believe one idea was to replicate the look of an old 78rpm record.)
Take 1 of "With A Little Help From My Friends" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
When it came to create a Ringo song, his "With A Little Help From My Friends" would begin with what sounded like the ending of the opening track of the LP.
Concerning that, my upload here is in two parts. The first part has all 4 individual tracks made for "With A Little Help From My Friends" which you can download from this link:
30 March 1967 - Photo: Putting together the 'stage' for the "Sgt. Pepper" photo shoot. Photographer, Michael Cooper, is standing behind the drum and this is at Michael Cooper Studios.
29 March 1967 - Today "With A Little Help From My Friends" was put together, not only to have a track for Ringo, which was a tradition on any Beatles' LP, but to follow the opening title track on the new LP.
10 takes were completed with a Hammond organ piece played by George Martin, Paul on piano, George on lead guitar, Ringo on drums and John on cowbell. Ringo's vocals were then added.
30 March 1967 - Photo: The crew gets together for a pre-Beatles' photo shoot. The only people I can identify here are concept artist, Peter Blake, just behind and to the left of the drum and on the extreme end l-to-r are the photographer, Michael Cooper & Beatles roadie, Mal Evans.
30 March 1967 - After the photo shoot on this day, The Beatles went back into the studio to finish up "With A Little Help From My Friends" by adding more guitar, tambourine and bass guitar, along with backing vocals by John and Paul to Ringo's lead vocal. Then more guitar work from George.
30 March 1967 - More from the Sgt Pepper photo shoot. This is kind of nice as you can see more of the 'stage'.
My next focus comes mainly from March 28-29, 1967 and it is the assembly made by engineer Geoff Emerick of the animal effects for "Good Morning Good Morning". He claims, "John said to me during one of the breaks that he wanted to have the sounds of animals escaping and that each successive animal should be capable of frightening or devouring its predecessor. So those were not just random effects, there was actually a lot of thought put into all that."
I find it interesting to listen to and along with that added an apparent special mix of "Good Morning Good Morning" made for the RockBand video game, which seems to favor an actual ending to the song. Also, I like to mention that the Beatles' opening band for many of their concerts, Sounds Incorporated, were hired to play along on this track as well.
1 April 1967 - To further the impression that this next album would represent itself as a whole 'concept', a reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was completed on this day. Not quite a minute and a half long, it took 11 hours to complete with 9 rhythm track takes, each with a Paul guide vocal.
This was the only song on the LP that wasn't 'bumped' or 'reduced' for more overdubbing purposes, it was a 'straightforward rock recording'. Take 9 was remixed in mono with 9 versions made, the 9th being 'best'.
Geoff Emerick remembers: "There's a nice quality about it. We recorded the Beatles in the huge Abbey Road number one studio which was quite hard because of the acoustics of the place. It's difficult to capture the tightness of the rhythm section in there."
3 April 1967 - The last song completed for the LP, "Within You Without You", had George Martin conducting 8 violinists & 3 cellists to a score he wrote for George's music. Each take went directly onto track #3 of the 4 track tape wiping out the previous take and this was done until a suitable performance was obtained.
The eight violinists were Alan Loveday, Julien Gaillard, Paul Scherman, Ralph Elman, David Wolfsthal, Jack Rothstein and Jack Green all lead by Erich Gruenberg. The three cellists were Reginald Kilbey, Allen Ford and Peter Beavan.
George then added his lead vocal, more sitar and a little acoustic guitar. It was George's idea to add some laughter at the end of the track.
8 February 1967: Eight takes were done on this day for "Good Morning Good Morning", four of them complete, of the basic rhythm track. John would add his vocals, along with (Paul's presumably) bass guitar on the 16th and after a few reduction mixes, the song would be put aside for some time until it was completed for the new LP.
*See above for more information about "Good Morning Good Morning".
Take 1 of "Good Morning Good Morning" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2. It is only about 1 minute and breaks down.
Take 8 of "Good Morning Good Morning" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2. (It is essentially the same as the version on "The Beatles Anthology".)
Since George Martin was no longer an EMI staffer, he could freely travel with the Beatles to any recording location. None of the other regular EMI employees could, however, so Adrian Ibbetson, chief engineer at Regent, filled in for Geoff Emerick.
George Martin: "But Regent Sound was a pretty awful little studio, very cramped and boxy."
Most distinctively today was the use of a harpsichord. Neil Aspinall would write in "The Beatles Book" that Paul was the musician playing it, but Mark Lewisohn notes in his book "The Beatles Chronicle" that listening to the session tape proves that both the harpsichord and bass were played at the same time throwing "a question mark over Paul's exact role, especially as the bass playing is typical McCartney ca. 1967".
Mark goes on to note that George's unquestionable lead guitar plays "an unusually long solo in the middle eight...for a Beatles song."
Take 1 (or Take 2, depending whom you get your information from) of "Fixing A Hole" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 3.
Take 3 of "Fixing A Hole" is now available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 3.
*Please check out below for more interesting information about where "Fixing a Hole" came from in Paul's mind.
Paul & John, shown with Mal Evans
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Such a huge day in Beatles' history. Perhaps, because "A Day In The Life" is still so familiar today after 50 years, it may be difficult to re-capture all of the magic on this historic date, but I will make the attempt.
It was decided that using an orchestral build-up (from a low note to the highest each respective instrument could play) would be the best way of filling the 24 bar gap that still remained from the recording of "A Day In The Life" which had begun on January 19th. (Photo is of Paul conducting that orchestra build up.)
To get re-aquainted with where we left off, and in case you missed it before, I have uploaded a rough mono mix that was done on January 30th of "A Day In The Life" as it stood at that time.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Because they were now dealing with classical musicians, even though they wouldn't be playing music in the traditional sense, George Martin still had to write music for them to play. (Photo of Paul conducting that orchestra build up.)
George Martin remembers: "At the very beginning I put into the musical score the lowest note each instrument could play, ending with an E-major chord. And at the beginning of each of the 24 bars I put a note showing roughly where they should be at that point. Then I had to instruct them. 'We're going to start very very quietly and end up very very loud. We're to start very low in pitch and end up very high. You've got to make your own way up there, and slide-y as possible so that the clarinets slurp, trombones gliss, violins slide without fingering any notes. And whatever you do, don't listen to the fellow next to you because I don't want you to be doing the same thing.' Of course they all looked at me as though I was mad..."
The musicians were all classically trained so none of this made sense to them.
The next version of "A Day In The Life" I have is Track 1 of the original 4 track recording from this day, February 10, 1967. Track 1 is mainly the vocal tracks of John & Paul. It's noticeable difference from the mono mix made in January (which was previously uploaded) is the new Paul vocal which was added on February 3 (along with John). You can find that track here for downloading:
Note: I've since bundled tracks 1-4 together with this one link.
Another photo of Paul 'conducting' the orchestra which filled in the gaps of "A Day In The Life".
To put a human face on this event, here are the 40 who contributed to this amazing recording session:
Violin: Erich Gruenberg (leader), Granville Jones, Bill Monro, Jurgen Hess, Hans Geiger, D. Bradley, Lionel Bentley, David McCallum, Donald Weekes, Henry Datyner, Sidney Sax, Ernest Scott.
Viola: John Underwood, Gwynne Edwards, Bernard Davis, John Meek.
Cello: Francisco Gabarro, Dennis Vigay, Alan Dalziel, Alex Nifosi.
Double-bass: Cyril MacArther, Gordon Pearce.
Harp: John Marson.
Oboe: Roger Lord.
Flute: Clifford Seville, David Sandeman.
Trumpet: David Mason, Monty Montgomery, Harold Jackson.
Trombone: Raymond Brown, Raymond Premru, T. Moore.
Tuba: Michael Barnes.
Clarinett: Basil Tschaikov, Jack Brymer.
Bassoon: N. Fawcett, Alfred Waters.
Horn: Alan Civil, Neil Sanders.
Percussion (including timpani): Tristan Fry.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - George Martin and Paul McCartney conducted the orchestra (photo unrelated) and Geoff Emerick (the engineer) had to get the sounds down on tape 'in the correct manner'.
Geoff Emerick remembers: "It was only by careful fader manipulation that I was able to get the crescendo of the orchestra at the right time. I was gradually bringing it up, my technique being slightly psychological in that I'd bring it up to a point and then slightly fade it back in level without the listener being able to discern this was happening, and then I'd have about 4 dB's in hand at the end. It wouldn't have worked if I'd just shoved the level up to start with."
Track 2 of "A Day In The Life" appears to be mainly of piano, guitar & maracas and at the end you can hear John's double-tracked vocal.
Note: I've since bundled tracks 1-4 together with this one link.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Not only would this day produce one heck of a 'recording session' it proved to be an actual event.
George Martin recalls: "The Beatles asked me, and the musicians, to wear full evening dress, which we did. I left the studio at one point and came back to find one of the musicians, David McCallum, wearing a red clown's nose and Erich Gruenberg, leader of the violins, wearing a gorilla's paw on his bow hand. Everyone was wearing funny hats and carnival novelties. I just fell about laughing!"
Violinist Sidney Sax: "I remember that they stuck balloons onto the ends of the two bassoons. They went up and down as the instruments were played and they filled with air!"
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - The reason for the musicians' formal attire along with the party atmosphere is that this session was also being filmed for a television special about the making of their new album. The special itself, unfortunately, never happened, and I believe this evening was the extent of it.
Although the footage taken made for quite a nice little film by itself, it could never be shown in any case because the BBC banned the song, thinking it was related to drugs.
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Getting back to the orchestra and to the unique way it was recorded for this song, as mentioned earlier there were a total of 40 musicians used. All 40 musicians were recorded 4 separate times to fill 4 tracks of a tape. All of this was mixed down to one, which is what can be found at the end of the link provided below.
Remember, except for a beginning, the track is silent until the 1:23 mark where you can hear some of the rhythm track in the background before the musicians come in at the 1:42 mark.
Note: I've since bundled tracks 1-4 together with this one link.
The second build up of the Orchestra has been made now available in stereo with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
Ken Townsend remembers: "So I went away and came up with a method whereby we fed a 50 cycle tone from the track of one machine, then raised its voltage to drive the capstan motor of the second, thus running the two in sync. Like all these things, the ideas either work first time or not at all. This one worked first time. The only problem arose sometime later when George and I were doing a mix with two different machines. One of them was sluggish in starting up and we couldn't get the damn things into sync. George got quite annoyed with me actually."
George Martin recalls it slightly differently: "The synchronisation was rather a hit-and-miss affair and the orchestra is slightly out of time in places, but it doesn't matter."
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - Recording the orchestra was made using the "unique ambiophonics system of the massive Abbey Road Studio One, whereby 100 loudspeakers, fitted symmetrically to all four walls, artificially tailor the acoustics by feeding signals delayed at different intervals, the resulting sound being 'ambiophony'".
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - A remarkable evening summed up best by George Martin: "When we'd finished doing the orchestral bit one part of me said 'We're being a bit self-indulgent here'. The other part of me said 'It's bloody marvelous!'"
10 February 1967 - "A Day In The Life" - This track is just of (presumably Paul's) bass guitar & Ringo's drums. It's wonderful because, as with the other individual tracks, it's a revelation hearing the sounds isolated like this. I think this is maybe my favorite track of the four from "A Day In The Life"
As with Paul's vocals, the bass guitar & drums were re-recorded on February 3rd. From Mark Lewisohn's "The Beatles Complete Chronicles": Ringo taped his contribution on tomtoms, giving the song a distinctive percussion sound.
"That was entirely his own idea," says George Martin. "Ringo had a tremendous feel for a song and he always helped us hit the right tempo first time. He was rock solid and this made the recording of all the Beatles' songs so much easier."
It is true that on only a handful of occasions during all of the several hundred session tapes and thousand of recording hours can Ringo be heard to have made a mistake or wavered in his beat. His work was remarkably consistent--and excellent--from 1962 right through to 1970.
Note: I've since bundled tracks 1-4 together with this one link.
Donovan
Mike Nesmith
George Martin
Keith Richards
Pattie Boyd Harrison
"Eight beats, remember" said Paul, leading a gathering of Beatles and 'various friends' around the studio microphone singing a long 'hummmmmmmm'. There were quite a few attempts. Take 8, 9 & 10 fell apart into laughter, but take 11 was good and 3 more 'overdubs' were recorded filling all 4 tracks effectively bring "A Day In The Life" to a close... finally....that is until February 22nd when this idea was tossed for that famous piano crash.
You can hear those 'hums' by downloading this short .wav file from here:
Note: I bundled this with the next two links into one download.
Note: I bundled this with the previous and next link into one download.
Note: I bundled this with the previous two links into one download.
For the best source in which to find and view, in high definition, the films made for "A Day In The Life", "Strawberry Fields Forever" & "Penny Lane", you can seek out the Blu-Ray disc version of The Beatles "1+" which was released at the end of 2015.
13 February 1967: George's contribution to the new LP, "It's Only A Northern Song" is begun on this day. There were 9 takes, all rhythm tracks, 4 were complete and take 3 was considered 'best'. Vocals would be added the next day and work would continue on this track through to April, but in the end it would be left off of the album and not released until January 1969 on the "Yellow Submarine" LP.
George himself in his book, "I Me Mine", had little to say about this track, only that: "Northern Song was a joke relating to Liverpool, the Holy City in the North of England. In addition, the song was copyrighted Northern Songs Ltd., which I don't own, so, 'It really doesn't matter what chords I play...as it's only a Northern Song.'"
*13 February 1967: Here is a little more information about George Harrison's tune: "It's Only A Northern Song", recorded on this date.
13 (USA), 17(UK) February 1967: Finally, the long awaited single "Strawberry Fields Forever" & "Penny Lane" is released. I'm not certain if the artwork was exact for both countries, but I believe it was the first time in the UK that photographs were used as a sleeve design.
This was famously their first single not to make it to #1 in the UK since the beginning, this time 'only' getting to #2. In the States, however, "Penny Lane" made it to #1 for a week, I believe.
*Note: This letter, which was reproduced in the book which came with the 50th Anniversary Edition of "Sgt. Pepper" in 2017 may help explain the extra work put into the single's sleeve design.
Here's another photo from the session used to produce the cover of the single "Strawberry Fields Forever" & "Penny Lane". (February 1967)
17, 20 February 1967 - Recording "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!", begun on the 17th, with the rhythm track perfected in 7 takes. A vocal was laid down but then there were two reduction mixes after which a new vocal was added to the second. Already a circus atmosphere was being created, but John wanted to 'smell the sawdust on the floor'.
George Martin had tried the harmonium for hours working to get the right effect. He then decided to try a calliope (a steam organ) and after several days of searching was only able to find automatic models (played by punched cards) and no hand operated models.
On the 20th, they settled with using old calliope tapes found at EMI. At first they tried chopping them up and reassembling them randomly but that wasn't enough to make a difference, so they had to actually work on it, purposely switching bits of tape, turning some backwards and finally creating the tape effect they desired. In the end 19 separate pieces were needed for the completed tape which was then mixed onto the track March 29.
Take 4 of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
Take 7 of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
*Here's the story behind the songwriting for "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!", the recording being worked on this day, February 20th, 1967. I do believe this is fascinating reading.
22 February 1967 - The hums that had been recorded for the end of "A Day in the Life" on the 10th, although 'along the right lines' were 'not powerful enough' it was decided. So for today John, Paul, Ringo & Mal Evans, sharing 3 pianos attempted in nine takes to simultaneously hit E major. Take 7 was the longest at 59 seconds. Take 9 was considered 'best'.
The handful of takes to produce the final chord from "A Day In The Life" have been made available with the new "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition on Disc 2.
22 February 1967 - David Crosby visits the studio on this evening.
22 February 1967 - Also on this day (photo unrelated) an experimental tape was made with the title "Anything" aka "Drum Track (1)" take 1.
It ran 22 minutes 10 seconds mainly of Ringo's drum beat, tambourine and congas. We don't know what it was meant for. It wasn't ever used, nor was it remixed.
There are conflicting accounts of the actual history behind "Lovely Rita", but we know it was about a 'meter maid' (photo #1) and, in particular, Paul does seem to have been given a ticket by one named Meta Davies (photo #2), it's just whether or not that occurred before or after the song was already written.
*Included above here is more information about the origin of this track.
Julian Lennon's "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". [1967]
28 February 1967 - The Beatles spend the evening from 7pm - 3am in the morning rehearsing "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds".
By now they could use 'unlimited' amounts of time at EMI before they would even begin recording. Indeed, nothing was taped on this day but staff member Peter Vince remembers: "...you couldn't just clear off because they might by trying something out...and they'd want to come up and listen to the thing before carrying on. So you couldn't just disappear or nod off, you had to be around all the time. The nights were so long when you had nothing to do. ...what people don't realise is the boredom factor. ...more than half (the) time all the engineers were doing was sitting around waiting for them to get their ideas together."
George Martin recalls: "No one ever said to me, 'You're spending too much money' or 'You're taking too long over it'. I can only presume that EMI realised it was onto a good thing."
On March 2, the song was 'finished' with the backing vocals. Note: This track was the 'most varispeeded song on the LP.' Take seven was 'reduced' to take eight at 49 cycles per second. Vocals were taped at 45 cycles & 48-1/2 cycles, Paul's bass and George's fuzzed lead guitar were recorded at normal speed.
The track was mixed to mono eleven times before take 11 was marked 'best' but even that was tossed on the next day, March 3, when four more mixes were done with #4 being marked 'best'.
Take 1 of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
Take 5 of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
Mono Mix #11 of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 4.
*Some more information on the story behind "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". This was written before the death of Lucy at the age of 46 from lupus.
3 March 1967 - A brass overdub for the lead track of the new LP "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was recorded by musicians James W. Buck, Neil Sanders, Tony Randall and John Burden on French horns.
6 March 1967 - Paul thinks it would be a good idea to capture sound of a band warming up as a prelude to the new LP and so they dug through some of the taping session that was made of the orchestral overdub for "A Day In The Life" and found a few seconds they could use.
More sound effects were found in the 'Abbey Road archive collection of sound effects locked away in a rickety green cabinet in an old storeroom....(curated by) balance engineer Stuart Eltham (who recalls) "The collection began in about 1956 when Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine and others used to make records... We started to keep bits and pieces."'
Extracts from "Volume 28: Audience Applause and Atmosphere, Royal Albert Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall" were used along with applause and laughter takend from a tape from the Fortune Theatre, London live rcording of the 1961 comedy revue 'Beyond the Fringe' along with audience screaming from the Beatles in concert at the Hollywood Bowl(!)
(Photo is an unrelated event with Paul reportedly jamming with members of Jefferson Airplane)
On March 7, 1967, a TV special called "So Far Out It's Straight Down" was aired by Granada in the North of England only which was as documentary on the current 'underground' movement that was happening and being felt in London.
Paul had been interviewed back on January 18, 1967 by Jo Durden-Smith who conceived and produced the half-hour film for the late night show Scene Special.
The best copy I've been able to find online so far can be found at this link: http://www.veoh.com/watch/e131373mjxfzjta
During all of this time, there is not much to report on what's going on with The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein. It is very gratifying, therefore, to uncover a lengthy interview that was done with Brian by old faithful 'fifth' Beatle, Murray the K.
I don't know much about it except that it apparently happened sometime in March of 1967 and you can hear it via the YouTube link which follows. It's very insightful to where Brian and the group are at this time in their careers.
I think you may be interested in hearing them so, for downloading purposes, I zipped up all 4 tracks in the mp3 format at this link for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band":
February-March 1967 - The actual 'break-down' of each of the 4 tracks that make up "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" goes as follows.
Track 1 is of just the audience effects, that were put down last for the song, on March 6, 1967.
Track 2 is of just the Beatles' instruments playing which goes back to the beginning of February 1967.
Track 3 is Paul's lead vocal and the Beatles' backing vocals which also were recorded at the beginning of February 1967.
Track 4 is of the horns, and after they were put down, George Harrison's 'stinging' and 'much distorted' lead solo guitar work. This was all recorded on March 3, 1967.
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" track Part 2.
I've uploaded more combinations of this first track that opens the upcoming LP.
I really enjoyed them and this is the link to them (6 files), compressed in a zip file of mp3 files:
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" track Part 2. The description:
For this zip file, I've included six mp3s which contain several combinations of the 4 tracks used for the song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
The first file is of all 4 tracks that make up the song, no mixing, so you can hear everything.
The second has all of the instruments ONLY, no vocals.
The third is of all the Instruments & vocals but no audience effects.
There is also a very short file which has just the 'atmosphere' that leads into the song.
Finally to round things out, I have the American Bandstand kids' reaction to the new Beatles single, "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" which was recorded March 11, 1967
Also there is a special short interview that John & Paul gave to the radio show "Top of the Pops", which was recorded March 20, 1967.
9 March 1967 - "Getting Better" was next in line to begin recording this day with 7 takes and an accepted reduction mix (out of 5 tries) and more overdubs completed on March 10. Vocals were added on March 21st and completed on the 23rd.
Actually the vocals were completely re-recorded on the 23rd as the 21st was that infamous day that John suddenly took ill from the LSD he was taking. George Martin innocently brought him to and left him on the roof to 'get some air'. When they realized where he was, much to Paul & George's horror, they 'rescued' him, still high on the drug, 30 feet up with no railings or barriers to keep him from falling.
Take 1 of "Getting Better" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
Take 12 of "Getting Better" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.Take 1 of "Getting Better" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
9 March 1967 - *Here is some more information concerning "Getting Better", the recording of it begun on this day by The Beatles.
Listen to what Cynthia Lennon has to say about John's "violence". https://soundcloud.com/johnstoskopf/john-lennon-wife-beater
Regarding John's contribution to "Getting Better", and the lyrics: "I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved."
It's gone around, and even supported to some degree by John Lennon himself, that he was a violent person and suggesting that he would on occasion beat his own wife.
This is something I've never heard before, especially from Yoko Ono, whom I don't believe would have stood for it and if it had happened we would have known about it, I believe.
There was an incident, however, with Cynthia (who eventually became John's first wife) and you can listen to her describe it for yourself via the above link, and the aftermath which followed.
It is in no way to minimize this idea that John was "violent", but to put it into more of an honest perspective. The incident in question happened in the very early stages of John & Cynthia's relationship, when they were still both teenagers well before their marriage and birth of Julian Lennon.
There would be a further outburst from John in the future (i.e. beating up Bob Wooler in 1963), but none ever again that I was ever aware of involving women. Infidelity, unfortunately yes, but not violence. I'd rather like to believe the rumors, again which were supported in some ways by John himself, were more pointed towards his absolute humiliation over the truth that he was not a person 100% filled with peace and love (and who is?). I'd see that as a more honest opinion of himself rather than a derogatory one.
You can now hear George working with the Indian musicians to create "Within You Without You" which is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
Take 1 of "Within You Without You" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
15 March 1967 - Although session musicians would assist George Harrison in recording "Within You Without You", he and Neil Aspinall did add more tamboura onto it. Other than themselves, there were no other Beatles participating at any time. This was George's baby.
Geoff Emerick recalled, "The tabla had never been recorded ...that closely, with the texture and the lovely low resonances."
Peter Blake, who would be instrumental behind the cover of the new LP rememebers: "George was there with some Indian musicians and they had a carpet on the floor and there was incense burning. George was very sweet--he's always been very kind and sweet--and he got up and welcomed us in and offered us tea. We just sat and watched for a couple of hours. It was a fascinating, historical time."
15 March 1967 - *Here's more information about the history behind George Harrison's "Within You Without You", begun on this day.
George Harrison discusses "Within You Without You"
17 March 1967 - "She's Leaving Home" is begun on this day in 6 takes. Impatient Paul McCartney wanted George Martin to help him arrange a score for this new ballad, but George was unavailable with commitments to other clients. The person who did write the score for "She's Leaving Home" was Mike Leander, also like George now, a freelance producer and arranger.
George Martin had his first (that I know of) huge letdown by a Beatle. "He was so damned impatient and I was up to my eyes with other work and I just couldn't cope. ...he was surprised that I was upset," George remembers.
Nonetheless, George Martin produced today's session conducting the 10 musicians needed to complete the track. The musicians were Erich Gruenberg (leader), Derek Jacobs, Trevor Williams and Jose Luis Garcia (violins); John Underwood and Stephen Shingles (violas); Dennis Vigay and Alan Dalziel (cellos); Gordon Pearce (double-bass) and Sheila Bromberg (harp).
George Martin agrees, "Mike Leander did a good job."
Paul's lead vocal and John's backing vocals were added on the 20th of March. No Beatles played any instruments.
*Here's some more history behind the making of the Beatles' track, "She's Leaving Home", begun on March 17, 1967.
There are two links I've created regarding "She's Leaving Home". The first link is to a .zip file that contains all of the instruments that were recorded on two tracks. You get each track plus the full stereo version here:
My 2nd link is for the vocals to "She's Leaving Home". Paul & John recorded lead and backing vocals twice and each accepted version can be found here along with both tracks together. Also included is a version that contains all 4 tracks (instruments & vocals) without any mixing or editing.
30 March 1967 - Today is the day! That Famous Foto Session.
(Notice Hitler is still being displayed at this time to the left of the drum.)
30 March 1967 - The gathering before shooting the cover for the upcoming LP. (At Michael Cooper Studios.)
30 March 1967 - On set to take photos for the upcoming LP.
Malcolm Evans, George Harrison (background), Neil Aspinall (back turned), Paul McCartney & photographer Michael Cooper on the extreme right.
What a lucky kid! Once more continuing that theme or idea of the Beatles being children friendly. I believe this is the son of the photographer, Michael Cooper. (Throughout The Beatles' career, there always seems to be a lot of incidences where they are captured on film and photographs with children. Just an observation of mine.)
30 March 1967 - Peter Blake (right hand side of photo #1) looks proudly on as his day with the Beatles proves successful. From the photo shoot for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". (Michael Cooper, photographer, is on the left hand side of each photo.)
Another photo with Peter Blake & assistant.
What catches the eye in this small photo is the alternate drum head.
30 March 1967 - Photo: Putting together the 'stage' for the "Sgt. Pepper" photo shoot.
29 March 1967: The LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" itself was never really made proper. It is still being referred to as "the first 'concept' album". The truth is, it came out of an idea Paul had where The Beatles could become something else besides Beatles and be free of constraints or perceptions of what it is to be Beatles (which really never held them back in the first place anyway.)
The LP, once completed, would be an entity in itself that could now go out 'on tour' in their place and they themselves in real life could stay home. (Note the opening audience effects mimicking a 'live' album effect.) It may have been labeled a 'concept album', but as I mentioned, that never really quite came about.
Besides the opening track and the one that would follow made today, "With A Little Help From My Friends", the LP is really just The Beatles being themselves after all, and expressing where they were 'at' during this time in their lives and careers.
With the addition of a reprise to the title track and segue into "A Day In The Life", that's about as conceptual as "Sgt. Pepper" would really get. Add that all of the tracks would be pressed on vinyl together with as little silence possible in-between them and the illusion is complete. (I believe one idea was to replicate the look of an old 78rpm record.)
Take 1 of "With A Little Help From My Friends" is now available on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 2017 - 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, Disc 3.
When it came to create a Ringo song, his "With A Little Help From My Friends" would begin with what sounded like the ending of the opening track of the LP.
Concerning that, my upload here is in two parts. The first part has all 4 individual tracks made for "With A Little Help From My Friends" which you can download from this link:
This includes a track with just the bass guitar & percussion, a track with just instruments, Ringo's lead vocal with backing, John & Paul backing vocals and George's guitar.
*Here's a little more information about "With A Little Help From My Friends"
29 March 1967 - Today "With A Little Help From My Friends" was put together, not only to have a track for Ringo, which was a tradition on any Beatles' LP, but to follow the opening title track on the new LP.
10 takes were completed with a Hammond organ piece played by George Martin, Paul on piano, George on lead guitar, Ringo on drums and John on cowbell. Ringo's vocals were then added.
30 March 1967 - After the photo shoot on this day, The Beatles went back into the studio to finish up "With A Little Help From My Friends" by adding more guitar, tambourine and bass guitar, along with backing vocals by John and Paul to Ringo's lead vocal. Then more guitar work from George.
30 March 1967 - More from the Sgt Pepper photo shoot. This is kind of nice as you can see more of the 'stage'.
My next focus comes mainly from March 28-29, 1967 and it is the assembly made by engineer Geoff Emerick of the animal effects for "Good Morning Good Morning". He claims, "John said to me during one of the breaks that he wanted to have the sounds of animals escaping and that each successive animal should be capable of frightening or devouring its predecessor. So those were not just random effects, there was actually a lot of thought put into all that."
I find it interesting to listen to and along with that added an apparent special mix of "Good Morning Good Morning" made for the RockBand video game, which seems to favor an actual ending to the song. Also, I like to mention that the Beatles' opening band for many of their concerts, Sounds Incorporated, were hired to play along on this track as well.
30 March 1967 - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" photo shoot. I suppose guitars are too close to being "Beatles"?
1 April 1967 - To further the impression that this next album would represent itself as a whole 'concept', a reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was completed on this day. Not quite a minute and a half long, it took 11 hours to complete with 9 rhythm track takes, each with a Paul guide vocal.
This was the only song on the LP that wasn't 'bumped' or 'reduced' for more overdubbing purposes, it was a 'straightforward rock recording'. Take 9 was remixed in mono with 9 versions made, the 9th being 'best'.
Geoff Emerick remembers: "There's a nice quality about it. We recorded the Beatles in the huge Abbey Road number one studio which was quite hard because of the acoustics of the place. It's difficult to capture the tightness of the rhythm section in there."
*Here's some more information about the making of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
The eight violinists were Alan Loveday, Julien Gaillard, Paul Scherman, Ralph Elman, David Wolfsthal, Jack Rothstein and Jack Green all lead by Erich Gruenberg. The three cellists were Reginald Kilbey, Allen Ford and Peter Beavan.
George then added his lead vocal, more sitar and a little acoustic guitar. It was George's idea to add some laughter at the end of the track.
The two Georges. Unfortunately a tiny photo, but I love it and think it's a rarity to see just the two of them together.
A couple of pages from the Mark Lewisohn book "The Beatles: Recording Sessions" [1988]
April 1967 - Much of the rest of the month of April was preoccupied with putting the finishing touches on the LP. I believe a lot of the original mono mixing of the tracks was done as they were being recorded, and with The Beatles' involvement. Stereo mixing was still considered an 'after thought' as Mono was still the predominant format of choice for the consumer, in the UK at least, at that time.
Even though it was dropped from consideration for this LP, George's "Only A Northern Song" was revisited and completed with some bass guitar, trumpet and glockenspiel added on April 20, 1967.
April 21, 1967 - Ending "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with 'that tremendous, crashing piano chord" was not enough. The silence of the concentric run-out groove needed to be filled. For those who did not have an automatic pickup on their phonograph player, the noise that The Beatles were to add would play continuously without end.
First some nonsense gibberish was added on each track of a two track tape. Geoff Emerick insists, there was no hidden meaning to this gibberish.
Geoff Emerick recalls: "We chopped up the tape, put it back together, played it backwards and threw it in." (Edited copies were inserted into the mono and stereo masters of the LP.) "It took Harry Moss (the LP cutter) about eight attempts to get it right because the slightest incorrect placing of a stylus at the very beginning of the LP side can put the concentric groove out. We had to enquire if putting musical content in the run-out groove would tear the metal when the records are stamped out at the factory."
The run-out groove wasn't enough, the 'spiral' of the run-out groove just before the concentric 'nonsense' needed to be filled and John Lennon suggested something for dogs only to hear. To accommodate this, a high-pitch whistle of 15 kilocycles was added at the cutting stage of the disc.
"The Beatles' Endless Summer of Love" will be followed up with a 2nd part to be posted May 25, 2017. I'm going to do something I haven't done before and make it a 'living' post for which I will continue to update through to the early part of next year.
"The Beatles' Endless Summer of Love" [Part 2] will pick up where we left off here and follow The Beatles from April 1967 to February of 1968.
*Taken from the book "A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song" by Steve Turner
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