The Beatles of 1969
(Continuing the story from "The Beatles 'Get Back'")
14 June 1969 - John & Yoko conduct a prerecorded appearance for "The David Frost Show" at the InterTel Studios at Stonebridge House in Wembley, London. The interview would be shown on a syndicated edition of the show in the USA on July 10, 1969.
It appears the video for this show still exists (and the above snapshots help support that idea) but it has since been removed from available websites such as YouTube because of copyright claims. I did secure the audio from their appearance and you can download a copy of that via the link supplied here:
ca. 23-26 June 1969: Even with a 'wrap party' behind it, along with a cruise across the Atlantic to celebrate the shooting of "The Magic Christian" the movie still wasn't finished. There was a sequence yet to be filmed where a vat full of "slaughterhouse ordure" was intermixed with hundreds of bank notes with a huge paddle and the public is invited to take a plunge-in to extract what money they can. It was a scene which was originally intended to be filmed on Wall Street in New York but the American backers of the film refused to allow it. They didn't like the sequence at all but when Peter Sellers, who felt strongly that it needed to be filmed, offered to put up his own money to pay for it did Commonwealth United agree to back it. Final shooting at Twickenham also took place around this time.
The following photos are from various stages of the filming.
23-26 June 1969: Also around this time, John & Yoko go on holiday touring by car the Scottish Highlands with John's son, Julian and Yoko's daughter Kyoko. John had spent family holidays there as a boy, where he would stay at his Aunt Mater's home with her husband Bert in Durness, Sutherland.
John was never the best driver, having only passed his driving test 4 years earlier, but he managed to get the four headed North and stopping at the first point on their journey staying in the Corbett Arms Hotel in Tywyn, a seaside resort on Cardigan Bay, Wales.
Their next planned stop was to be Liverpool where Yoko could meet some of John's family. It was at this time he decided the Mini he was driving was too small for the four of them so he phoned his assistant Les Anthony who drove up to Liverpool with an Austin Maxi to exchange with John's Mini.
While in Liverpool, John did visit his Aunt Nanny and her husband Charles Cadwaller in Rock Ferry on the Wirral.
While in Liverpool, the four visited Holmrook Special School at the end of Beaconsfield Rd., very near Strawberry Field. Unfortunately there is little information about this visit so it is unclear exactly why all the kids are wearing these caps and what the banners mean.
29 June 1969 - John, Yoko, Julian & Kyoko finally arrive in Scotland and enjoy their holiday there.
1 July 1969 - Unfortunately, John's driving luck ran out on this day when he crashed his British Leyland Austin Maxi car, injuring himself and his passengers, near Durness in the Scottish Highlands.
As the story goes, the roads were narrow, the weather was poor and John panicked as a car approached him from the opposite direction and he lost control driving the party into a ditch. He, Yoko and Kyoko sustained cuts on their faces, Yoko also suffering a back injury. At Golspie's Lawson Memorial Hospital, John had to receive 17 facial stitches, Yoko 14 on her forehead and Kyoko 4 stitches. Julian may have been in shock but otherwise he was the only person to escape unhurt. John's Aunt Mater in Durness came and took Julian away before his mother Cynthia could take him back to London the following day.
It has been said John had taken Julian on this excursion without Cynthia's permission, and when she came to the hospital demanding an explanation from John, he sadly refused to see her.
The crash would affect not only John's return to The Beatles, but would have further repercussions with Yoko as she was pregnant at the time.
It's always been to me a bit 'fuzzy' to precisely know where "Get Back" ends and "Abbey Road" begins, but by this date, serious effort was finally being made to record another Beatles' LP. To begin with, The Beatles block-booked the time-slot of 2:30-10pm for Studio Two at EMI Studios for every weekday beginning July 1 -- August 29th, 1969.
Also, George Martin was recruited by Paul McCartney to once more produce them without interference. As George recalls, "...I never thought that we would get back together again. So I was very surprised when Paul rang me up and said, 'We want to make another record. Will you produce it for us, really produce it?' I said, 'Yes, if I am really allowed to produce it. If I have to go back and accept a lot of instruction which I don't like I won't do it.'
"It was really good, even though the boys tended to do their own items, sometimes in different studios at the same time and I had to be dashing from one place to another."
So, although this next LP may have had a wobbly start, with sporadic sessions in different studios, by today things would begin to come together with the Fab Four once more resembling a cohesive unit.
It began, this July 1st with Paul entering the studio alone to overdub a lead vocal on "You Never Give Me Your Money", the recording which The Four had first begun in Olympic Sound Studios on May 6th and completed in 36 takes, take 30 having been chosen as 'best'.
Here's some more information about "You Never Give Me Your Money" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
2 July 1969 - With Paul living so close to EMI Studios, he could easily stroll the 5 minutes it took to get to a session many times allowing him to be the first in attendance for that day. Here, again, he was early and took the opportunity to put down on tape his short little ditty, "Her Majesty".
You may recall this song was caught on tape in January during the "Get Back" sessions and it ran at that time for a little over a minute as Paul repeated the lyrics. Today in it's non-repetitive form it came in at only 23 seconds. In 3 takes he had it, one being incomplete.
When George and Ringo arrived the three of them recorded a new Paul song "Golden Slumbers". Some of the lyrics and the title come from the 16th-century prose of British playwright Thomas Dekker. Paul had come across a book of children's nursery rhymes which included the words set to music. Not being able to read the chord sequence Paul made up his own melody.
The three Beatles made 15 takes of the basic rhythm track for "Golden Slumbers" with Paul on piano and guide vocal, George on bass and Ringo on drums. (The song "Carry That Weight" was actually the second half of "Golden Slumbers" so it was a part of the recording from the beginning. After a while "Golden Slumbers" would become known as "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight".)
On July 3rd, takes 13 & 15 were edited together and that take was re-numbered itself take 13 where Paul overdubbed rhythm guitar, George on lead guitar, two lead vocals by Paul and then Paul, George and Ringo's vocals were added chanting the "Carry That Weight" vocals. A reduction take 17 was made and on July 4th more overdubbing.
You can upload a copy of "Golden Slumbers" [Take 15] along with "Her Majesty" (which includes 'the final chord') via this link: "Golden Slumbers Plus"You may recall this song was caught on tape in January during the "Get Back" sessions and it ran at that time for a little over a minute as Paul repeated the lyrics. Today in it's non-repetitive form it came in at only 23 seconds. In 3 takes he had it, one being incomplete.
When George and Ringo arrived the three of them recorded a new Paul song "Golden Slumbers". Some of the lyrics and the title come from the 16th-century prose of British playwright Thomas Dekker. Paul had come across a book of children's nursery rhymes which included the words set to music. Not being able to read the chord sequence Paul made up his own melody.
The three Beatles made 15 takes of the basic rhythm track for "Golden Slumbers" with Paul on piano and guide vocal, George on bass and Ringo on drums. (The song "Carry That Weight" was actually the second half of "Golden Slumbers" so it was a part of the recording from the beginning. After a while "Golden Slumbers" would become known as "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight".)
On July 3rd, takes 13 & 15 were edited together and that take was re-numbered itself take 13 where Paul overdubbed rhythm guitar, George on lead guitar, two lead vocals by Paul and then Paul, George and Ringo's vocals were added chanting the "Carry That Weight" vocals. A reduction take 17 was made and on July 4th more overdubbing.
Here's some more information about "Her Majesty" and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
4-7 July 1969: John's peace anthem, "Give Peace A Chance" is released as a single first in the UK on the 4th of July and then on the 7th in the USA. Although John's song (yet John has said Yoko worked with him on it) he gave co-credit to Paul McCartney, still honoring the unwritten agreement in which the two would share songwriting credit regardless of who's song it was. The record was backed with Yoko's "Remember Love" on the 'b' side.
John had said during this period that he felt more welcome in the USA than in Britain, but the record did make it to #2 in the UK while 'only' reaching #14 in the States. Still the song became the counterculture anthem for the anti-Vietnam war movement and was sung by half a million demonstrators in Washington DC during a Vietnam Moratorium March on November 15, 1969.
The record was credited to an imaginary band called The Plastic Ono Band. This allowed John to perform with whomever he liked and when he liked. In a way, it would be the answer to all of the Beatles' future question as to what band they would create next and be in as soloists . Although Paul would try to actually create a new band, Wings, the ever changing lineup assured that he never would actually create a permanent followup to The Beatles. I think the closest he came to that was with the mid-1970s lineup of Wings.
John himself probably came closest to creating his next band when he spent a considerable amount of time with the already established Elephants Memory in the early 1970s.
George Harrison would always be just George Harrison and 'Friends' except for his fun stint much later on with The Traveling Wilburys.
Ringo solved the problem by creating his All Starr Band, which consisted of whomever he could phone up and get to join him when he was ready to play.
There was a 16mm color promotional clip of the bed-in recording 'session' that was distributed by Apple to TV stations in Britain. It was twice shown (in monochrome) on Britain's Top Of The Pops on July 10th and the 24th.
That clip was included in the "John Lennon Video Collection" (as originally made, in color) released to home video audiences in 1992. In 2003 a new collection was released as "Lennon Legend" on DVD, however, the clip of "Give Peace A Chance" was heavily edited and altered to include 'protest footage of the era; John & Yoko at the National Peace Rally of NYC, 1972; and Liverpool, London & NYC vigils for John in 1980'.
I've uploaded the original promotional film clip which comes from the Laserdisc source, so it's the best quality you can get of this original clip, and unless you have the Laserdisc and the player, you won't find this copy elsewhere...as far as I can tell.
That clip was included in the "John Lennon Video Collection" (as originally made, in color) released to home video audiences in 1992. In 2003 a new collection was released as "Lennon Legend" on DVD, however, the clip of "Give Peace A Chance" was heavily edited and altered to include 'protest footage of the era; John & Yoko at the National Peace Rally of NYC, 1972; and Liverpool, London & NYC vigils for John in 1980'.
I've uploaded the original promotional film clip which comes from the Laserdisc source, so it's the best quality you can get of this original clip, and unless you have the Laserdisc and the player, you won't find this copy elsewhere...as far as I can tell.
7 July 1969 - George Harrison Triumphs! Today he offers, and Paul & Ringo help him record, his "Here Comes The Sun", the second track by him which will grace the next LP which would become as good as any Lennon/McCartney addition. With this and George's other song, "Something", some may argue he contributed the best of all the recorded music for this next Beatles outing.
Inspired by a break from business and the coming of Spring, this tune's basic track was completed in 13 takes with Paul on bass, George on acoustic guitar and guide vocal and Ringo on drums.
When one take broke down, George is heard to say, "One of me best beginnings, that!" At the end of take four, Ringo (who had turned age 29 on this day) called up to the control room to say, "Turn me down a little bit, if you don't mind", meaning to reduce the drum sound in his headphones.
The next day on the 8th, George would record a proper lead vocal and George and Paul would harmonize perfect backing vocals manually double-tracking them. The eight track tape was then given two reduction mixdowns and a rough mono mix of 'take 15' was made for George to take home.
Here's some more information about "Here Comes The Sun" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
"Here Comes The Sun" in George's own words.
From "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
9 July 1969 - The four brothers were now back together and working together, creating magic for one more glorious time in history. John Lennon would return today after recovering from his car crash in Scotland.
Engineer Phil McDonald recalls: We were all waiting for him and Yoko to arrive. Paul, George, Ringo downstairs and us upstairs. They didn't know what state he would be in. There was a definite 'vibe'..."
Mr. McDonald would go on to infer there was actual fear in the air. I kind of find that difficult to believe, however, I'm certain everyone was wondering and in anticipation as to how John was doing.
Yoko had been injured more severely than John, and she was pregnant again. Because of this, it was arranged to have her brought in by ambulance and placed next to John in the studio complete with her own bed. As strange as this may sound, I can imagine after all that had happened including Yoko's previous miscarriage and the car crash, I can't say that I blame them for handling it this way. I'm certain John wouldn't leave Yoko's side now, especially for any Beatles' session. The two of them had to be accepted as is. Some did and some people did not.
Martin Benge remembers: "We were setting up the microphones for the session and this huge double-bed arrived. An ambulance brought Yoko in and she was lowered down onto the bed, we set-up a microphone over her in case she wanted to participate and then we all carried on as before! We were saying, 'Now we've seen it all, folks!'"
Ron Richards: "I popped into one of the later sessions in number three [the bed was wheeled around between studios two and three, depending on where John was working] and there was Yoko in this blooming double-bed. I couldn't believe it! John was sitting at an organ, playing, and I went up to him and said, 'What the bloody hell is all this?' and he was very touchy about it, so I kept quiet and walked out."
Phil McDonald concludes: "When he did come in it was a relief and they got together fairly well. John was a powerful figure, especially with Yoko -- a double strength."
Note: These photos of John are most likely taken from a late April session with The Beatles. I don't believe I came across anything that was actually from July 9, 1969.
The track which The Beatles would tackle today was once more, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" which you recall was attempted during the "Get Back" Sessions.
John may have complained later that he didn't enjoy this particular session as much as the others but Geoff Emerick contends, "It's a question of having patience. Paul had it and John didn't. John was always a bit fidgety and restless, wanting to get on, 'yeah, that's good enough, a couple of takes, yeah, that's fine' but Paul could hear certain refinements in his head which John couldn't."
There were a lot of takes made of the basic track for "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" on this day numbered 1-5 & 11-21. (There were no takes numbered 6-10.)
Take 5 of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" from this day was released on "The Beatles Anthology 3" in 1996.
On July 10th, overdubbing was performed on the track with Paul on piano, George Martin on Hammond organ, Ringo on anvil, George on guitar (via a Leslie speaker) and Paul, George & Ringo providing backup vocals to Paul's lead vocal.
The anvil "...was a proper blacksmith's anvil brought in to the studio for Ringo to hit," recalls Geoff Emerick. "They had it rented from a theatrical agency."
More overdubbing of a further guitar and vocal occurred on July 11th.
Here's some more information about "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
I've uploaded a copy of Take 21 of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" via this link:
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" [Take 21]
I've uploaded a copy of Take 21 of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" via this link:
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" [Take 21]
Also, on the 11th of July, George's "Something" finally received its lead vocal by George and it was shortened from almost 8 minutes down to 5-1/2 minutes, including 3 minutes of the main song and 2-1/2 minutes of the instrumental coda.
Here's some more information about "Something" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
When George added his vocals to the track "Something" that bumped it up to take 37. You can hear that take via the provided link here: "Something" [Take 37 with instrumental coda]
"You Never Give Me Your Money" received a bass guitar track as well on the 11th. On the 15th it received more vocals and chimes and six rough stereo remixes were made.
On July 16th, "Here Comes The Sun" received handclaps and a harmonium added with a lead vocal by George, Paul on backing vocals and George, Paul and Ringo adding handclapping.
17 July 1969 - Back to two tracks The Beatles first began for this LP in April, Paul's "Oh! Darling" and Ringo's "Octopus's Garden". For "Oh! Darling" it was perfecting that lead vocal which became an obsession for Paul.
Engineer Alan Parsons remembers: "Perhaps my main memory of the Abbey Road sessions is of Paul coming into studio three at two o'clock or 2:30 each afternoon, on his own, to do the vocal on 'Oh! Darling'. That was a feature of the Abbey Road sessions. You very rarely saw all four Beatles together. It was either John or Paul or George working on their various things, perhaps only getting together to hear something back.
"But Paul came in several days running to do the lead vocal on 'Oh! Darling'. He'd come in, sing it and say, 'No, that's not it, I'll try again tomorrow.' He only tried it once per day. I suppose he wanted to capture a certain rawness which could only be done once before the voice changed.
"I remember him saying, 'Five years ago I could have done this in a flash,' referring, I suppose, to the days of 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Kansas City'".
John Kurlander concurs: "I think Paul wanted this 'first thing in the morning' quality, or maybe it was 'last thing at night'. Whatever it was, he came in early each day, an hour before anybody else, to do his piece, always replacing the previous one until he got the one he liked."
Today, Paul would add his vocal onto take 16, but all future work took place on take 26.
When the rest arrived, it was Paul and George who added backing vocals to Ringo's "Octopus's Garden" with Paul adding piano along with additional sound effects.
Paul and George would sing in a very high pitch with engineer Phil McDonald using limiters and compressors to produce a gargling vocal sound, "matching the song's lyric about being 'under the sea'.
As with "Yellow Submarine" they blew bubbles into a glass of water "miked very closely to capture all the little bubbles and sounds".
The next day on the 18th, Paul would again attempt a lead vocal on "Oh! Darling" and Ringo would add percussion to "Octopus's Garden". Seven mono mixes were made of "Octopus's Garden" and five stereo mixes, all from take 32.
Engineer Alan Parsons remembers: "Perhaps my main memory of the Abbey Road sessions is of Paul coming into studio three at two o'clock or 2:30 each afternoon, on his own, to do the vocal on 'Oh! Darling'. That was a feature of the Abbey Road sessions. You very rarely saw all four Beatles together. It was either John or Paul or George working on their various things, perhaps only getting together to hear something back.
"But Paul came in several days running to do the lead vocal on 'Oh! Darling'. He'd come in, sing it and say, 'No, that's not it, I'll try again tomorrow.' He only tried it once per day. I suppose he wanted to capture a certain rawness which could only be done once before the voice changed.
"I remember him saying, 'Five years ago I could have done this in a flash,' referring, I suppose, to the days of 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Kansas City'".
John Kurlander concurs: "I think Paul wanted this 'first thing in the morning' quality, or maybe it was 'last thing at night'. Whatever it was, he came in early each day, an hour before anybody else, to do his piece, always replacing the previous one until he got the one he liked."
Today, Paul would add his vocal onto take 16, but all future work took place on take 26.
When the rest arrived, it was Paul and George who added backing vocals to Ringo's "Octopus's Garden" with Paul adding piano along with additional sound effects.
Paul and George would sing in a very high pitch with engineer Phil McDonald using limiters and compressors to produce a gargling vocal sound, "matching the song's lyric about being 'under the sea'.
As with "Yellow Submarine" they blew bubbles into a glass of water "miked very closely to capture all the little bubbles and sounds".
The next day on the 18th, Paul would again attempt a lead vocal on "Oh! Darling" and Ringo would add percussion to "Octopus's Garden". Seven mono mixes were made of "Octopus's Garden" and five stereo mixes, all from take 32.
All future work for Paul's vocal would take place on take 26 of "Oh! Darling". I've uploaded a copy of that here: "Oh! Darling" [take 26]
You can also hear a track which contains vocals only of "Octopus's Garden" via this link:
"Octopus's Garden" [vocals only]
23 July 1969 - Paul, George & Ringo had essentially begun these latest sessions with Paul's "Golden Slumbers" at the beginning of the month. The 'middle' section would cause "Golden Slumbers" to later be re-named "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight" yet the track was still 'open ended'. John would assist the other three in creating the ending, at this point simply called "Ending" which would be structured such that it would blend in perfectly with the original track, and at the same time provide what would become the last song on the final Beatles LP. Indeed "Ending" would eventually be re-named and known as "The End".
Mark Lewisohn believes The Four must have spent a considerable amount of rehearsal time with this 'coda' because all recorded takes 1-7 were 'tight', with John counting the group in and lead guitar notes taking us through to Ringo's one and only drum solo on a Beatles record. With each of the seven takes, Ringo's drum solo would change. It was the seventh, lasting almost 16 seconds, which was chosen as 'best' with another major breakthrough in Beatles' recorded history. This time, Ringo's drums were recorded in stereo for what I believe was the first time, occupying two of the available eight tracks. Up to this point, drums only occupied one track on a Beatles' record.
Ringo has always said that he never believed in solo drumming, and during the overdubbing process two lead guitars and a tambourine were later added to be alongside his drumming, but were later omitted during the final remix to leave his solo exactly so....a true solo.
At this stage the track was barely 80 seconds long! With the later addition of a more lengthy lead guitar solo, additional drums, an orchestra, a piano track and vocals the duration of the track would stretch out to over 2-1/2 minutes, then with tight editing, the best mix brought it back down to just over 2 minutes.
Also, on this day Paul would put down his final attempt and the one that was selected as best, of his vocal for "Oh! Darling".
24 July 1969 - Although John Lennon can be heard on the session tapes in the background, it is Paul alone who performs on his demo of "Come And Get It" which he made on this day for the group Badfinger to record. Usually demos such as this would be recorded privately but this day Paul used the studio to perform the song in one take, singing and playing piano, and then afterwards overdubbing a double-tracked vocal with maracas, then drums and then bass guitar. Paul would later produce the Badfinger version of the tune on August 2nd. "Come And Get It" would become the main theme for Ringo's film "The Magic Christian" and so Badfinger got to make the soundtrack LP for the film and the song itself was released as a single reaching number four on the British chart.
Later, John would record his "Sun King" and "Mean Mr. Mustard" both which were not edited together but recorded as one. John provided a guide vocal for the basic track which had bass, drums, electric and rhythm guitars. 35 takes were done of "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard". More vocals, piano and organ were overdubbed the next day.
One thing to note, at this first stage the working title of John's track was "Here Comes The Sun King" which although it is said it had nothing to do with George's "Here Comes The Sun", I personally am reminded of it when I hear the opening of "Sun King".
Things also went into a jam session with John singing a complete version of "Ain't She Sweet" and then (with Gene Vincent firmly in mind) followed that with "Who Slapped John?" and "Be-Bop-A-Lula".
As with "Come And Get It", "Ain't She Sweet" was included on "The Beatles Anthology 3" in 1996.
25 July 1969 - Once more two Beatles' tunes were recorded together as one. This time, however, it was John's "Polythene Pam" and Paul's "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window". Just like "Sun King" and "Mean Mr. Mustard", these were songs that had been played during the "Get Back" sessions but not perfected. This was the first time John and Paul would record a song each, in succession, as one piece (unless you want to look at "A Day In The Life" in which Paul added a contribution to John's song.)
The basic track of both songs had John on acoustic guitar, Paul on bass, George on lead guitar and Ringo on drums. There were 39 takes but in the end, late into the session, the drum track, lead vocal and bass guitar were taped again as overdubs.
They would continue on the 28th of July with numerous overdubs for "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" including another lead vocal, acoustic and electric guitars, tambourine, 'bits of percussion', electric piano and an 'ordinary' piano.
Also more vocal harmonies were added to "Come Together" on the 25th of July and a guitar overdub was added on the 29th along with a new vocal, piano, organ and percussion also on the 29th for "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard".
30 July 1969 - A busy day working on a lot of Beatles' tracks for the new LP. The beginning of it started at 2pm and included overdubbing of guitars onto "Come Together"; vocals, percussion and guitar onto "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window"; vocals onto a new reduction mix of "You Never Give Me Your Money"; and vocals onto "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight". All of that work took the group to around 10:30pm.
It was now time to see if there were any problems with the idea of stringing together many of the tracks to form what at this time was being called "The Long One/Huge Melody". In order to do so rough stereo mixes were made of nine songs which would encompass Side 2 of this next LP. Most of the songs were not even finished yet, but were far enough along to get an understanding of how things would fit together. "The End", for example, did not have any vocals added to it yet.
Once the nine songs were given their rough stereo mixes, editing and crossfading began in this order: "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard", "Her Majesty", "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window", "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "The End". (All of this work took the session until 2:30am.)
Once it had all come together everything appeared to be a success, with one exception.
John Kurlander remembers: "We did all the remixes and crossfades to overlap the songs, Paul was there, and we heard it together for the first time. He said, 'I don't like 'Her Majesty', throw it away. So I cut it out--but I accidentally left in the last note. He said, 'It's only a rough mix, it doesn't matter', in other words, don't bother about making a clean edit because it's only a rough mix. I said to Paul, 'What shall I do with it?'. 'Throw it away', he replied.
"I'd been told never to throw anything away, so after he left I picked it up off the floor, put about 20 seconds of red leader tape before it and stuck it onto the end of the edit tape. The next day, down at Apple, Malcolm Davies cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence [Mal Evans had taken the tape to Apple on July 31st and returned it to EMI on the same day] and, even though I'd written on the box that 'Her Majesty' was unwanted, he too thought, 'Well, mustn't throw anything away, I'll put it on at the end.'
"I'm only assuming this, but when Paul got that lacquer he must have liked hearing 'Her Majesty' tacked on the end. The Beatles always picked up on accidental things. It came as a nice little surprise there at the end, and he didn't mind. We never remixed 'Her Majesty' again, that was the mix which ended up on the finished LP."
So at this stage, that explains why the final note was cut off of "Her Majesty" and why the track is preceded with 'a crashing electric guitar chord' which was actually the end note of the rough mix of "Mean Mr. Mustard".
Dave Harries recalls: "They cut it all again for the final mix but they did it in much the same way because I believe that you can take 'Her Majesty', edit it back in and will almost fit."
That is precisely what someone has done to the sound from an acetate of the original rough mix of "The Long One/Huge Melody". Although the source is from what sounds like in places a pretty beat up acetate, it is still intact enough for the listener to get a glimpse of what The Beatles heard in the making of this test assembly.
It also points out one problem crossfade from "You Never Give Me Your Money" to "Sun King". At this time they used an organ note to assist in the crossfade, but a better solution would be used later.
You can download a copy of "Huge Melody" parts 1 & 2 via the provide link:
"Huge Melody"
On July 31st, Paul decided to discard his vocals from the reduction mix of "You Never Give Me Your Money" and instead went back to the previous take 30 and added bass and piano tracks. Drums, timpani and a vocal were added to "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight". Both Ringo and Paul attempted to achieve the right timpani sound. It is unclear who's version was used in the final overdub.
1 August 1969 - Today, for me, the purest of Beatles magic was created in the form of John's song, "Because". I find in it his true love for the group which he began and there could not have been a more fitting send-off or tribute to who The Beatles were than with this recording.
Truly one of the most beautiful Beatles experiences, "Because" harkened back to the three-part harmonies of early Beatles records, such as "This Boy" and "Yes It Is" but on an even higher level. As Mark Lewisohn said, it was pure Lennon, with a dash of Ludwig Van Beethoven. It's been said that Yoko had been playing Beethoven's piano sonata in C Sharp minor, opus 27 number two "The Moonlight Sonata" when John, listening in and in an 'inspirational mood, reversed the chords, added some simple but eloquent lyrics and the song was written.
Today 23 takes were made of the basic track with take 16 chosen as 'best'. On it were George Martin playing a Baldwin spinet electric harpsichord, John on electric guitar, Paul adding bass. Ringo was also there 'gently tapping out a beat on the hi-hat, but for the musicians' headphones only'.
George Martin recalls: "Ringo was our drum machine. Having done the backing track, John, Paul and George sang the song in harmony. Then we overlaid it twice more (this was done on the 4th of August) making nine-part harmony altogether, three voices recorded three times. I was literally telling them what notes to sing."
Although George Harrison may have not actually played an instrument on the track, he contributed what I've heard him say he enjoyed the most, his vocal contribution along side his other two brothers, making it one of his favorite memories of working with The Beatles. (Although they may not have known it at the time, but this marked the final time that all four Beatles would begin recording a song together.)
After George had finished helping make "Because" on August 4th, he then ran on over to Studio Three where he produced with Phil McDonald and Alan Parsons, rough stereo mixes of "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun" which revealed the need for more overdubbing. For example, an acetate of "Something" was given to George Martin so he could arrange an orchestral score.
I've uploaded a copy of just the vocals only from "Because" which is almost identical to the release from The Beatles Anthology 3 except that track is missing the very beginning. You can find my copy via this link: "Because" (vocals only)
Then there was George's Moog synthesizer, for which he'd purchased and made his own experimental LP "Electronic Sound" earlier in the year. Now it would be relocated from his home to EMI and with the help of Mike Vickers (Manfred Mann's instrumentalist, the person who also conducted the orchestra for "All You Need Is Love") the massive bank of wires and large two-tiered keyboard machine would be put to good use.
John Kurlander recalls: "The Moog was set up in Room 43 and the sound was fed from there by a mono cable to whichever control room we were in. All four Beatles - but particularly George - expressed great interest in it, trying out different things."
Alan Parsons adds: "Everybody was fascinated by it. We were all crowding around to have a look. Paul used the Moog for the solo in 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' but the notes were not from the keyboard. He did that with a continuous ribbon-slide thing, just moving his finger up and down on an endless ribbon. It's very difficult to find the right notes, rather like a violin, but Paul picked it up straight away. He can pick up anything musical in a couple of days."
Nick Webb also remembers: "I think The Beatles used the Moog with great subtlety. Others in a similar situation would probably have gone completely over the top with it. It's there, on the record, but not obtrusively. Perhaps they weren't sure it was going to catch on!"
"Because" became the first track to receive Moog overdubs, played by George and recorded twice filling the last two available track. (So George did play an 'instrument' on "Because"!)
Then the group added vocals to "The End" for the first time.
On August 6th, George would overdub guitar onto his "Here Comes The Sun" and Paul added his Moog parts to his "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and then would oversee 10 stereo remixes of it numbered 14-16 (but there was no remix 19, 20 or 21).
On August 7th stereo remixing would commence in studio two on "Come Together" with the first one being deemed 'best'. Vocals and electric guitars were added to "The End" in studio three.
Tony Clark says of these days: "I got involved in the last three weeks of "Abbey Road". They kept two studios running and I would be asked to sit in studio two or three - usually three - just to be there, at The Beatles' beck and call, whenever someone wanted to come in and do an overdub. At this stage of the album I don't think I saw the four of them together."
Of those famous electric guitar solos added to "The End", Geoff Emerick tells the story the best: "The idea for guitar solos was very spontaneous and everybody said, 'Yes! Definitely' - well, except for George, who was a little apprehensive at first. But he saw how excited John and Paul were so he went along with it. Truthfully, I think they rather liked the idea of playing together, not really trying to outdo one another per se, but engaging in some real musical bonding.
"Yoko was about to go into the studio with John - this was commonplace by now - and he actually told her, 'No, not now. Let me just do this. It'll just take a minute.' That surprised me a bit. Maybe he felt like he was returning to his roots with the boys - who knows?
"The order was Paul first, then George, then John, and they went back and forth. They ran down their ideas a few times and before you knew it, they were ready to go. Their amps were lined up together and we recorded their parts on one track.
"You could really see the joy in their faces as they played; it was like they were teenagers again. One take was all we needed. The musical telepathy between them was mind-boggling."
Note that the space for the solos was originally lasting for 22 bars, but was extended to 28 bars due to a prior edit, according to "The Beatles Bible".
EMI tape operator, Chris Blair recalls: "Every morning - except for that one - I parked my car by the studio. The guy with the VW, he lived in the block of flats next door, always parked there too. Because of the LP sleeve he had his number plates taken time and time again. I just wonder what my old Morris Minor would be worth now had I parked it there that morning..."
According to Mark Lewisohn, the Volkswagen shown above with the license plate, LMW 28IF, sold at Sotheby's in 1986 for £2,300.
The Cover did not take too long to shoot that morning, but the recording studio wasn't booked until 2:30, so in order to use up that time Paul took John to his house on Cavendish Avenue, George went with Mal Evans to the London Zoo in nearby Regent's Park and Ringo went shopping.
That afternoon Ringo did more overdubbing of drums and Paul on bass for "The End" and then Paul went into studio three to record an overdub lead guitar and tambourine onto "Oh! Darling" while John added Moog synthesizer sounds and effects in studio two to his "I Want You". (This provided that 'white noise' sound for the track.) Ringo also added drums. This was done to the original February 23rd master recording that was recorded at Trident Studios. The released version was a combination of that recording and a reduction mixdown of the same that was made on April 18th.
On August 11th, John, Paul and George would create harmony vocals for what would now be called "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Here they repeated the one line "she's so heavy" onto tracks four and seven of the April 18th reduction mixdown of the track. Here is where John Lennon, once more, could not make up his mind which version of the song he wanted to release. He wouldn't come to a decision until August 20th, so for the time being the harmony vocals would be added to both versions.
Also on this day overdubbed vocal harmonies were added to "Oh! Darling" and then George added more guitars to "Here Comes The Sun".
14 August 1969 - Today, finalization of the medley for Side 2 of "Abbey Road" is begun with stereo remixes of "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" which were then edited together to become one continuous piece of music.
There were eleven attempts at crossfading "You Never Give Me Your Money" into "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard" utilizing Paul's August 5th tape loop sound effects, and a master was made, but eventually on August 21st, it would be re-made again.
An edit piece was remixed in stereo for "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" which was cut into the previous 'best' remix 34.
Kenny Everett also visited the studio today as well and interviewed John Lennon in Studio two. Some of it was recorded on studio equipment which Mr. Everett took away with him when he left.
The interview was broadcast in two parts by BBC Radio 1 on the "Everett Is Here" show, Saturday September 20th and the 27th from 10am-12Noon.
15 August 1969 - A day of orchestral overdubs for The Beatles' new LP! These were done for "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "The End", "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun".
For the first time on a Beatles session, closed-circuit television was used to link Studio one, where George Martin was conducting the recruited musicians, with Studio two where Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and Alan Parsons were monitoring the sound and vision of Mr. Martin's work.
George Harrison took so much interest in his "Something" he was basically the acting producer, going back and forth in-between studios, sharing the conductor's podium with George Martin, overseeing the sound recording, and even taping a new lead guitar solo for the song's middle eight, which, according to Mark Lewisohn was actually 'barely different from the song's previous best guitar track.'
Unfortunately, this time Mr. Lewisohn was unable to find any records of who actually played in the orchestra on this date, but for "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight" and "The End" there were: 12 violins, four violas, four cellos, one string bass, four horns, three trumpets, one trombone and one bass trombone.
For "Something": 12 violins, four violas, four cellos and one string bass.
For "Here Comes The Sun": four violas, four cellos, one string bass, two clarinets, two alto flutes, two flutes and two piccolos.
Alan Brown recalls: "It was a mammoth session. We had a large number of lines linking the studios and we were all walking around the building with walkie-talkies trying to communicate with each other. The orchestral overdub for "The End" was the most elaborate I have ever heard; a 30-piece playing for not too many seconds - and mixed about 40 dBs down. It cost a lot of money. All the musicians had to be paid, fed and watered. I screw every pound note out of it whenever I play the record!"
By the way, the total cost for the musicians was £697.10.
More stereo mixing would take place on August 18th and then on August 19th, George's two songs would be completed with "Here Comes The Sun" receiving a Moog synthesizer overdub onto take 15, supplied by George himself, and "Something" being mixed for stereo.
"Here Comes The Sun" would receive its one and only mix but for "Something" it was a second set of stereo remixes since numbers 1-4 had been made on July 11th. This time the 'instrumental jam' which had been left onto the original ending of the recording was finally and completely eliminated.
20 August 1969 - The first Beatles track to be recorded, which would wind up on their next LP "Abbey Road", was John's "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", simply "I Want You" originally. It was begun in February of that year and yet it wasn't until this day that it would be completed. As 'simple' as the lyrics may have been, the actual track became one of the most complex of all Beatles recordings.
To recap, originally there were 35 takes at Trident studios in February with The Beatles and Billy Preston, the 'best' at that time being an edit of take 9, 20 & 32. John & George would overdub guitars on April 18th. More overdubbing would follow on the 20th, but then in August, John & Ringo added an overdub back onto the original Trident tape and that overdub was copied onto another original Trident tape, leaving now two tapes which were closely identical, but not totally.
On this day they remixed both versions and then edited the two together. The break would occur after the line, "She's so..." at the 4:37 mark. The total length of the tape was just over 8 minutes, but the cut-off that occurs on the released version takes place at 7:44, with no fadeout, just a simple 'full volume slash' to silence, 'the inference being that it could have gone on forever.'
Alan Parsons recalls the exact thought behind this: "We were putting the final touches to that side of the LP and we were listening to the mix. John said, 'There! Cut the tape there'. Geoff [Emerick] cut the tape and that was it. End of side one!"
As Mark Lewisohn points out, John wanted to keep the portion of his recording which had the synthesizer sound that was taped on August 8th. It appears as 'white noise' at around the 5:10 mark.
Mr. Lewisohn explains: "Extraneous tape noise is the bane of a recording producer or engineer's life, to be kept at a low level, or out, at all times; and here was John Lennon deliberately introducing white noise onto a Beatles recording. It was to cause EMI engineers great concern in 1987 when they were digitally re-mastering "Abbey Road" for release on compact disc. On record the noise was tolerable but with the increased dynamic range of CD it posed a real problem."
Today also marked the final time The Beatles were all together inside a recording studio. The last piece of work they did as a unit was to compile and band the final master for the entire "Abbey Road" LP. Two things they did which differed from the final release: First, the two sides were reversed. That is, the medley was actually Side A and the LP finished with the 'slashed guitar chord" of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Also, "Octopus's Garden" was placed before "Oh! Darling".
Besides these differences, work was still not complete. On August 21st, the final and best attempt at crossfading "You Never Give Me Your Money" onto "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard" took place and a new remix of "The End" was completed with the inserted orchestral overdubbing.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was edited by seven seconds on the 25th of August, and so was "The End" edited down by 36 seconds. Although more sound effects were created for "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" on this day they were not used.
At the end of this day, a safety copy of the master was made for "Abbey Road" and the both copies were taken away by Geoff Emerick so Malcolm Davies could cut the disc at Apple. This became the first British Beatles LP to be cut outside of EMI and by someone else other than Harry Moss.
"Octopus's Garden" [vocals only]
21 July 1969 - It's been said that John Lennon kept a low profile since his return to The Beatles on the 9th of July. I've come to wonder if he really hadn't even been in the studio again after that date as there seems to be no documentation of him doing anything since that time. Thus far, it appears he's not even on "Golden Slumbers" or George's "Here Comes The Sun" and many of the tracks only contain contributions from him prior to these renewed sessions.
On this day, however, it was time for a brand-new John Lennon recording to be made, "Come Together", which began with a basic track recorded in eight takes on a four-track machine. John maintained lead vocal with his hands free to add clapping simultaneously and then adding tambourine part-way through. He was followed by George on guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums. John's vocals were continually followed by the line, "Shoot me!".
Geoff Emerick recalls: "On the finished record you can really only hear the word 'shoot'. The bass guitar note falls where the 'me' is."
Mr. Emerick had been lured back into the Beatles' fold (after quitting late the previous year) by Paul McCartney and was now working again as their balance engineer. He, apparently, was now running Apple Studios, making him the first freelance engineer to work inside EMI Studios.
On the 22nd a new lead vocal, electric piano, rhythm guitar and maraca would be overdubbed onto "Come Together".
Linda sharing Yoko's bed while at EMI (with whom appears to be Mal Evans on the left.)
Yoko snaps a photo from her bed.
Here's some more information about "Come Together" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
Take 1 of "Come Together" was released on "The Beatles Anthology 3" in 1996.
23 July 1969 - Paul, George & Ringo had essentially begun these latest sessions with Paul's "Golden Slumbers" at the beginning of the month. The 'middle' section would cause "Golden Slumbers" to later be re-named "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight" yet the track was still 'open ended'. John would assist the other three in creating the ending, at this point simply called "Ending" which would be structured such that it would blend in perfectly with the original track, and at the same time provide what would become the last song on the final Beatles LP. Indeed "Ending" would eventually be re-named and known as "The End".
Mark Lewisohn believes The Four must have spent a considerable amount of rehearsal time with this 'coda' because all recorded takes 1-7 were 'tight', with John counting the group in and lead guitar notes taking us through to Ringo's one and only drum solo on a Beatles record. With each of the seven takes, Ringo's drum solo would change. It was the seventh, lasting almost 16 seconds, which was chosen as 'best' with another major breakthrough in Beatles' recorded history. This time, Ringo's drums were recorded in stereo for what I believe was the first time, occupying two of the available eight tracks. Up to this point, drums only occupied one track on a Beatles' record.
Ringo has always said that he never believed in solo drumming, and during the overdubbing process two lead guitars and a tambourine were later added to be alongside his drumming, but were later omitted during the final remix to leave his solo exactly so....a true solo.
At this stage the track was barely 80 seconds long! With the later addition of a more lengthy lead guitar solo, additional drums, an orchestra, a piano track and vocals the duration of the track would stretch out to over 2-1/2 minutes, then with tight editing, the best mix brought it back down to just over 2 minutes.
Also, on this day Paul would put down his final attempt and the one that was selected as best, of his vocal for "Oh! Darling".
The Beatles as various times entering and/or leaving EMI and/or Apple Studios.
Here's some more information about "The End" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
Later, John would record his "Sun King" and "Mean Mr. Mustard" both which were not edited together but recorded as one. John provided a guide vocal for the basic track which had bass, drums, electric and rhythm guitars. 35 takes were done of "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard". More vocals, piano and organ were overdubbed the next day.
One thing to note, at this first stage the working title of John's track was "Here Comes The Sun King" which although it is said it had nothing to do with George's "Here Comes The Sun", I personally am reminded of it when I hear the opening of "Sun King".
Things also went into a jam session with John singing a complete version of "Ain't She Sweet" and then (with Gene Vincent firmly in mind) followed that with "Who Slapped John?" and "Be-Bop-A-Lula".
As with "Come And Get It", "Ain't She Sweet" was included on "The Beatles Anthology 3" in 1996.
Here's some more information about "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
25 July 1969 - Once more two Beatles' tunes were recorded together as one. This time, however, it was John's "Polythene Pam" and Paul's "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window". Just like "Sun King" and "Mean Mr. Mustard", these were songs that had been played during the "Get Back" sessions but not perfected. This was the first time John and Paul would record a song each, in succession, as one piece (unless you want to look at "A Day In The Life" in which Paul added a contribution to John's song.)
The basic track of both songs had John on acoustic guitar, Paul on bass, George on lead guitar and Ringo on drums. There were 39 takes but in the end, late into the session, the drum track, lead vocal and bass guitar were taped again as overdubs.
They would continue on the 28th of July with numerous overdubs for "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" including another lead vocal, acoustic and electric guitars, tambourine, 'bits of percussion', electric piano and an 'ordinary' piano.
Also more vocal harmonies were added to "Come Together" on the 25th of July and a guitar overdub was added on the 29th along with a new vocal, piano, organ and percussion also on the 29th for "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard".
Here's some more information about John's "Polythene Pam" and Paul's "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
It was now time to see if there were any problems with the idea of stringing together many of the tracks to form what at this time was being called "The Long One/Huge Melody". In order to do so rough stereo mixes were made of nine songs which would encompass Side 2 of this next LP. Most of the songs were not even finished yet, but were far enough along to get an understanding of how things would fit together. "The End", for example, did not have any vocals added to it yet.
Once the nine songs were given their rough stereo mixes, editing and crossfading began in this order: "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard", "Her Majesty", "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window", "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight", "The End". (All of this work took the session until 2:30am.)
Once it had all come together everything appeared to be a success, with one exception.
John Kurlander remembers: "We did all the remixes and crossfades to overlap the songs, Paul was there, and we heard it together for the first time. He said, 'I don't like 'Her Majesty', throw it away. So I cut it out--but I accidentally left in the last note. He said, 'It's only a rough mix, it doesn't matter', in other words, don't bother about making a clean edit because it's only a rough mix. I said to Paul, 'What shall I do with it?'. 'Throw it away', he replied.
"I'd been told never to throw anything away, so after he left I picked it up off the floor, put about 20 seconds of red leader tape before it and stuck it onto the end of the edit tape. The next day, down at Apple, Malcolm Davies cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence [Mal Evans had taken the tape to Apple on July 31st and returned it to EMI on the same day] and, even though I'd written on the box that 'Her Majesty' was unwanted, he too thought, 'Well, mustn't throw anything away, I'll put it on at the end.'
"I'm only assuming this, but when Paul got that lacquer he must have liked hearing 'Her Majesty' tacked on the end. The Beatles always picked up on accidental things. It came as a nice little surprise there at the end, and he didn't mind. We never remixed 'Her Majesty' again, that was the mix which ended up on the finished LP."
So at this stage, that explains why the final note was cut off of "Her Majesty" and why the track is preceded with 'a crashing electric guitar chord' which was actually the end note of the rough mix of "Mean Mr. Mustard".
Dave Harries recalls: "They cut it all again for the final mix but they did it in much the same way because I believe that you can take 'Her Majesty', edit it back in and will almost fit."
That is precisely what someone has done to the sound from an acetate of the original rough mix of "The Long One/Huge Melody". Although the source is from what sounds like in places a pretty beat up acetate, it is still intact enough for the listener to get a glimpse of what The Beatles heard in the making of this test assembly.
It also points out one problem crossfade from "You Never Give Me Your Money" to "Sun King". At this time they used an organ note to assist in the crossfade, but a better solution would be used later.
You can download a copy of "Huge Melody" parts 1 & 2 via the provide link:
"Huge Melody"
On July 31st, Paul decided to discard his vocals from the reduction mix of "You Never Give Me Your Money" and instead went back to the previous take 30 and added bass and piano tracks. Drums, timpani and a vocal were added to "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight". Both Ringo and Paul attempted to achieve the right timpani sound. It is unclear who's version was used in the final overdub.
*Note: Only these last four photos are actually taken from July 31, 1969. All others in this group are from different recording dates.
1 August 1969 - Today, for me, the purest of Beatles magic was created in the form of John's song, "Because". I find in it his true love for the group which he began and there could not have been a more fitting send-off or tribute to who The Beatles were than with this recording.
Truly one of the most beautiful Beatles experiences, "Because" harkened back to the three-part harmonies of early Beatles records, such as "This Boy" and "Yes It Is" but on an even higher level. As Mark Lewisohn said, it was pure Lennon, with a dash of Ludwig Van Beethoven. It's been said that Yoko had been playing Beethoven's piano sonata in C Sharp minor, opus 27 number two "The Moonlight Sonata" when John, listening in and in an 'inspirational mood, reversed the chords, added some simple but eloquent lyrics and the song was written.
Today 23 takes were made of the basic track with take 16 chosen as 'best'. On it were George Martin playing a Baldwin spinet electric harpsichord, John on electric guitar, Paul adding bass. Ringo was also there 'gently tapping out a beat on the hi-hat, but for the musicians' headphones only'.
George Martin recalls: "Ringo was our drum machine. Having done the backing track, John, Paul and George sang the song in harmony. Then we overlaid it twice more (this was done on the 4th of August) making nine-part harmony altogether, three voices recorded three times. I was literally telling them what notes to sing."
Although George Harrison may have not actually played an instrument on the track, he contributed what I've heard him say he enjoyed the most, his vocal contribution along side his other two brothers, making it one of his favorite memories of working with The Beatles. (Although they may not have known it at the time, but this marked the final time that all four Beatles would begin recording a song together.)
After George had finished helping make "Because" on August 4th, he then ran on over to Studio Three where he produced with Phil McDonald and Alan Parsons, rough stereo mixes of "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun" which revealed the need for more overdubbing. For example, an acetate of "Something" was given to George Martin so he could arrange an orchestral score.
*Note: These photos are from earlier "Abbey Road" sessions, prior to August 1969.
Here's some more information about John's "Because" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
I've uploaded a copy of just the vocals only from "Because" which is almost identical to the release from The Beatles Anthology 3 except that track is missing the very beginning. You can find my copy via this link: "Because" (vocals only)
5 August 1969 - Tape loops and experimental sounds were certainly not a thing of the past for The Beatles. Paul, for example, still would experiment at home with his Brennell tape machine making effects tapes and on this day he brought in a plastic bag full of mono tape bits he'd created into Abbey Road studio three. With the production staff, he spent the afternoon copying the best of these onto four-track tape including sounds of birds, bubbles, crickets chirping, bell sounds, etc.. It was from these he would construct the crossfade he wanted on August 14th for the "Huge Medley" at the point between "You Never Give Me Your Money" and "Sun King".
Mark Lewisohn points out that Paul also had a tape loop he wanted for George's "Here Comes The Sun" but in the end it wasn't used.
Then there was George's Moog synthesizer, for which he'd purchased and made his own experimental LP "Electronic Sound" earlier in the year. Now it would be relocated from his home to EMI and with the help of Mike Vickers (Manfred Mann's instrumentalist, the person who also conducted the orchestra for "All You Need Is Love") the massive bank of wires and large two-tiered keyboard machine would be put to good use.
John Kurlander recalls: "The Moog was set up in Room 43 and the sound was fed from there by a mono cable to whichever control room we were in. All four Beatles - but particularly George - expressed great interest in it, trying out different things."
Alan Parsons adds: "Everybody was fascinated by it. We were all crowding around to have a look. Paul used the Moog for the solo in 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' but the notes were not from the keyboard. He did that with a continuous ribbon-slide thing, just moving his finger up and down on an endless ribbon. It's very difficult to find the right notes, rather like a violin, but Paul picked it up straight away. He can pick up anything musical in a couple of days."
Nick Webb also remembers: "I think The Beatles used the Moog with great subtlety. Others in a similar situation would probably have gone completely over the top with it. It's there, on the record, but not obtrusively. Perhaps they weren't sure it was going to catch on!"
"Because" became the first track to receive Moog overdubs, played by George and recorded twice filling the last two available track. (So George did play an 'instrument' on "Because"!)
Then the group added vocals to "The End" for the first time.
Inside Room 43 where George's Moog synthesizer was installed to become another instrument in the making of The Beatles' "Abbey Road".
On August 6th, George would overdub guitar onto his "Here Comes The Sun" and Paul added his Moog parts to his "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and then would oversee 10 stereo remixes of it numbered 14-16 (but there was no remix 19, 20 or 21).
On August 7th stereo remixing would commence in studio two on "Come Together" with the first one being deemed 'best'. Vocals and electric guitars were added to "The End" in studio three.
Tony Clark says of these days: "I got involved in the last three weeks of "Abbey Road". They kept two studios running and I would be asked to sit in studio two or three - usually three - just to be there, at The Beatles' beck and call, whenever someone wanted to come in and do an overdub. At this stage of the album I don't think I saw the four of them together."
Of those famous electric guitar solos added to "The End", Geoff Emerick tells the story the best: "The idea for guitar solos was very spontaneous and everybody said, 'Yes! Definitely' - well, except for George, who was a little apprehensive at first. But he saw how excited John and Paul were so he went along with it. Truthfully, I think they rather liked the idea of playing together, not really trying to outdo one another per se, but engaging in some real musical bonding.
"Yoko was about to go into the studio with John - this was commonplace by now - and he actually told her, 'No, not now. Let me just do this. It'll just take a minute.' That surprised me a bit. Maybe he felt like he was returning to his roots with the boys - who knows?
"The order was Paul first, then George, then John, and they went back and forth. They ran down their ideas a few times and before you knew it, they were ready to go. Their amps were lined up together and we recorded their parts on one track.
"You could really see the joy in their faces as they played; it was like they were teenagers again. One take was all we needed. The musical telepathy between them was mind-boggling."
Note that the space for the solos was originally lasting for 22 bars, but was extended to 28 bars due to a prior edit, according to "The Beatles Bible".
8 August 1969 - At 10am this day The Beatles appeared at EMI Studios with photographer Iain Macmillan to take six primary shots of the group using the pedestrian crossing just outside Abbey Road to make the cover for their next LP, which would be known as "Abbey Road".
This cover photo would become, along with The Beatles' own "Sgt Pepper" cover, the most imitated and famous of all rock music sleeves.
EMI tape operator, Chris Blair recalls: "Every morning - except for that one - I parked my car by the studio. The guy with the VW, he lived in the block of flats next door, always parked there too. Because of the LP sleeve he had his number plates taken time and time again. I just wonder what my old Morris Minor would be worth now had I parked it there that morning..."
According to Mark Lewisohn, the Volkswagen shown above with the license plate, LMW 28IF, sold at Sotheby's in 1986 for £2,300.
This is a copy of the original sketch which Paul McCartney had made with his idea of the cover for "Abbey Road".
That afternoon Ringo did more overdubbing of drums and Paul on bass for "The End" and then Paul went into studio three to record an overdub lead guitar and tambourine onto "Oh! Darling" while John added Moog synthesizer sounds and effects in studio two to his "I Want You". (This provided that 'white noise' sound for the track.) Ringo also added drums. This was done to the original February 23rd master recording that was recorded at Trident Studios. The released version was a combination of that recording and a reduction mixdown of the same that was made on April 18th.
On August 11th, John, Paul and George would create harmony vocals for what would now be called "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Here they repeated the one line "she's so heavy" onto tracks four and seven of the April 18th reduction mixdown of the track. Here is where John Lennon, once more, could not make up his mind which version of the song he wanted to release. He wouldn't come to a decision until August 20th, so for the time being the harmony vocals would be added to both versions.
Also on this day overdubbed vocal harmonies were added to "Oh! Darling" and then George added more guitars to "Here Comes The Sun".
Here's some more information about John's "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" from "A Hard Day's Write" written by Steve Turner.
14 August 1969 - Today, finalization of the medley for Side 2 of "Abbey Road" is begun with stereo remixes of "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" which were then edited together to become one continuous piece of music.
There were eleven attempts at crossfading "You Never Give Me Your Money" into "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard" utilizing Paul's August 5th tape loop sound effects, and a master was made, but eventually on August 21st, it would be re-made again.
An edit piece was remixed in stereo for "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" which was cut into the previous 'best' remix 34.
Kenny Everett also visited the studio today as well and interviewed John Lennon in Studio two. Some of it was recorded on studio equipment which Mr. Everett took away with him when he left.
The interview was broadcast in two parts by BBC Radio 1 on the "Everett Is Here" show, Saturday September 20th and the 27th from 10am-12Noon.
For the first time on a Beatles session, closed-circuit television was used to link Studio one, where George Martin was conducting the recruited musicians, with Studio two where Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and Alan Parsons were monitoring the sound and vision of Mr. Martin's work.
George Harrison took so much interest in his "Something" he was basically the acting producer, going back and forth in-between studios, sharing the conductor's podium with George Martin, overseeing the sound recording, and even taping a new lead guitar solo for the song's middle eight, which, according to Mark Lewisohn was actually 'barely different from the song's previous best guitar track.'
Unfortunately, this time Mr. Lewisohn was unable to find any records of who actually played in the orchestra on this date, but for "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight" and "The End" there were: 12 violins, four violas, four cellos, one string bass, four horns, three trumpets, one trombone and one bass trombone.
For "Something": 12 violins, four violas, four cellos and one string bass.
For "Here Comes The Sun": four violas, four cellos, one string bass, two clarinets, two alto flutes, two flutes and two piccolos.
Alan Brown recalls: "It was a mammoth session. We had a large number of lines linking the studios and we were all walking around the building with walkie-talkies trying to communicate with each other. The orchestral overdub for "The End" was the most elaborate I have ever heard; a 30-piece playing for not too many seconds - and mixed about 40 dBs down. It cost a lot of money. All the musicians had to be paid, fed and watered. I screw every pound note out of it whenever I play the record!"
By the way, the total cost for the musicians was £697.10.
More stereo mixing would take place on August 18th and then on August 19th, George's two songs would be completed with "Here Comes The Sun" receiving a Moog synthesizer overdub onto take 15, supplied by George himself, and "Something" being mixed for stereo.
"Here Comes The Sun" would receive its one and only mix but for "Something" it was a second set of stereo remixes since numbers 1-4 had been made on July 11th. This time the 'instrumental jam' which had been left onto the original ending of the recording was finally and completely eliminated.
You can hear the orchestra and Moog synthesizer overdubs for George's "Here Comes The Sun" by downloading a copy stored via the provided link:
To recap, originally there were 35 takes at Trident studios in February with The Beatles and Billy Preston, the 'best' at that time being an edit of take 9, 20 & 32. John & George would overdub guitars on April 18th. More overdubbing would follow on the 20th, but then in August, John & Ringo added an overdub back onto the original Trident tape and that overdub was copied onto another original Trident tape, leaving now two tapes which were closely identical, but not totally.
On this day they remixed both versions and then edited the two together. The break would occur after the line, "She's so..." at the 4:37 mark. The total length of the tape was just over 8 minutes, but the cut-off that occurs on the released version takes place at 7:44, with no fadeout, just a simple 'full volume slash' to silence, 'the inference being that it could have gone on forever.'
Alan Parsons recalls the exact thought behind this: "We were putting the final touches to that side of the LP and we were listening to the mix. John said, 'There! Cut the tape there'. Geoff [Emerick] cut the tape and that was it. End of side one!"
As Mark Lewisohn points out, John wanted to keep the portion of his recording which had the synthesizer sound that was taped on August 8th. It appears as 'white noise' at around the 5:10 mark.
Mr. Lewisohn explains: "Extraneous tape noise is the bane of a recording producer or engineer's life, to be kept at a low level, or out, at all times; and here was John Lennon deliberately introducing white noise onto a Beatles recording. It was to cause EMI engineers great concern in 1987 when they were digitally re-mastering "Abbey Road" for release on compact disc. On record the noise was tolerable but with the increased dynamic range of CD it posed a real problem."
Today also marked the final time The Beatles were all together inside a recording studio. The last piece of work they did as a unit was to compile and band the final master for the entire "Abbey Road" LP. Two things they did which differed from the final release: First, the two sides were reversed. That is, the medley was actually Side A and the LP finished with the 'slashed guitar chord" of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Also, "Octopus's Garden" was placed before "Oh! Darling".
Besides these differences, work was still not complete. On August 21st, the final and best attempt at crossfading "You Never Give Me Your Money" onto "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard" took place and a new remix of "The End" was completed with the inserted orchestral overdubbing.
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was edited by seven seconds on the 25th of August, and so was "The End" edited down by 36 seconds. Although more sound effects were created for "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" on this day they were not used.
At the end of this day, a safety copy of the master was made for "Abbey Road" and the both copies were taken away by Geoff Emerick so Malcolm Davies could cut the disc at Apple. This became the first British Beatles LP to be cut outside of EMI and by someone else other than Harry Moss.
"It was just a photo session. I wasn't thinking, 'OK, this is the last photo session." - Ringo Starr
22 August 1969 - With all four Beatles gathering at John & Yoko's home on the grounds of Tittenhurst Park to produce more product together, little did anyone really understand that it would be for the last time. Hereafter, if the four of them happened to be together, it would be for business purposes only. Today, however, it was to make photos of the group, and it took place a couple of days after what would now be known as their final recording session together.
Photographers Ethan Russell and Monte Fresco were on hand, as was Mal Evans to preserve the 'event' on film. Linda McCartney was also there with her 16mm camera, "That turned out to be the last film taken," as Paul would later say. Derek Taylor was also in attendance, as was Paul's sheepdog, Martha.
As John & Yoko awaited patiently in front of the main house, the others arrived and then the four of them walked down the main garden path "past the stature of Diana, goddess of the hunt" according to The Beatles Bible. That website seems to understand the order of events. At least it all seems logical to me, so I've borrowed that from them and present it here with as many photos from that day as I could put together. Some are so tiny, but that's the best I could come with. Some of them are pretty good. I tried my best to present it all as good as I could get it.
They walked into 'an overgrown cricket patch with high grass' and stood in a row while being filmed and photographed.
John & Yoko led two donkeys from the nearby stables to the group's location and The Beatles posed with the animals.
Underneath the cypress tree near that statue of Diana.
In front of the two weeping blue atlas cedar trees.
In front of the low wall.
In front of Assembly Hall
On the balcony.
In front of another Assembly Hall doorway.
On the pathway.
Inside John's new home.
The southern balcony.
Note: It is unfortunate that I can not finish this post at this time. With those famous words, however, I temporarily leave you with a promise: "I shall return!"
I'll keep my accounts open and hopefully will continue to be in touch with people after I launch into orbit. One day I shall land again and pick up where I left off. Until then, and then always.....
Peace & Love!
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