All the Songs
Page 23
Assistant Engineer: Phil McDonald
Genesis
George, who from this point on made a lot of money, realized that taxes took a large portion of his income. At that time, income tax in Great Britain was exorbitant: over 90 percent. John also responded the same way in a 1969 interview: “‘Taxman’ was an anti-establishment tax song, where we said, ‘If you walk the street, they’ll tax your feet.’” George admitted that “Taxman” was no doubt the most autobiographical song of his Beatles period. John helped him write it. Said John: “He came to me because he couldn’t go to Paul, because Paul wouldn’t have helped him at that period. I didn’t want to do it. I thought, Oh, no, don’t tell me I have to work on George’s stuff. It’s enough doing my own and Paul’s. But because I loved him and I didn’t want to hurt him. [I] said OK.”1 In the choruses, George alluded to Mr. Wilson and Mr. Heath. These allusions referred to Harold Wilson, the Labor prime minister, and Edward Heath, the leader of the Conservative Party. They had the dubious honor of being the first public figures to be mentioned on a record by the Fab Four.
Production
On April 21, the Beatles who had dropped the first two takes of the night, redid everything all over again. The basic track was recorded with George on rhythm guitar, Paul on bass, and Ringo on drums. The bass/ drums duet was especially well done, and the eleventh take was the best. George then doubled his vocal with the backing vocals of John and Paul, who repeated, Anybody got a bit of money? (also doubled). At the same time, Ringo added tambourines. George was now looking for a guitar solo. Geoff Emerick remembered waiting for it for many hours. Paul said later, “George let me try the solo, because I had an idea.… As I showed him what I wanted, he said to me, ‘Well, all you have to do is play it.’”2 In 1987, George admitted in an interview, “I was pleased to have Paul play that bit on ‘Taxman.’ If you notice, he did a little Indian bit on it for me.” But Emerick claimed that George did not take well to Paul’s intrusion and even left the room while they recorded the solo. One thing was for sure: Paul performed an absolutely brilliant solo on his Casino Epiphone. The next day, the Beatles replaced Anybody got a bit of money? with Ah, ah! Mr. Wilson/Mr. Heath. Finally, Ringo added a cowbell. The intro with the countdown was edited at the beginning of the tape on May 16. The definitive mono and stereo mixes go back to June 16. Emerick was in charge of duplicating Paul’s solo and adding it to the end of the song. “Taxman” was a great song opening for Revolver.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
Some people claim that the “Taxman” solo was the same one as in “Tomorrow Never Knows,” but edited backwards. This is simply not true: if you listen to this solo in reverse you will see.
Eleanor Rigby
Lennon-McCartney / 2:04
1966
SONGWRITER
Paul
MUSICIANS
Paul: vocal
John: backing vocal
George: backing vocal
Tony Gilbert: 1st violin
Sidney Sax, John Sharpe, Jürgen Hess: 2nd violins
Stephen Shingles, John Underwood: violas
Derek Simpson, Norman Jones: cellos
RECORDED
Abbey Road: April 28, 1966 (Studio Two) / April 29, 1966 (Studio Three) / June 6, 1966 (Studio Three)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 15
MIXING
Abbey Road: April 29, 1966 (Studio Three) / June 22, 1966 (Studio Three)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Assistant Engineers: Phil McDonald, Jerry Boys
RELEASED AS A SINGLE
“Eleanor Rigby” / “Yellow Submarine”
Great Britain: August 5, 1966 / No. 1 on August 11, 1966
United States: August 8, 1966 / No. 11 on September 10, 1966
Genesis
“Eleanor Rigby,” a song written by Paul on the Asher family piano, was built around a chord in E minor. The first lyrics occurred spontaneously to Paul: … picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been. Although he had the main idea, he struggled to find a name that would sound real for the person in the song. He thought of Ola Na Tungee, of Daisy Hawkins, but finally used the first name of the actress Eleanor Bron, who played the role of the priestess in Help! and the name of a shop called Rigby & Evens Ltd. near the Bristol Theater, where his fiancée was in a show. This would be Eleanor Rigby! Once this problem was solved, he hurried to John’s place to finish the song. John was with Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall when Paul burst in and exclaimed, “Hey, you guys, finish up the lyrics.”1 John mentioned this episode in 1980: “I was insulted and hurt that Paul had just thrown it out in the air. He actually meant he wanted me to do it, and of course there isn’t a line of theirs in the song because I finally went off to a room with Paul and we finished the song. But that’s how … That’s the kind of insensitivity he would have, which upset me in later years.”2 John claimed to have practically written all the lyrics except for the first couplet. Paul disagreed. Pete Shotton,3 a friend of John’s, also challenged this version of the story in his book, which was published in 1983, and even claimed he was the source of the name of Father McKenzie as well as the final idea for the song. He also maintained that Ringo wrote the sentence: Darning his socks in the night. As for George, he also said he helped compose the text. Fortunately, it was the only song, along with “In My Life,” about which John and Paul contradicted each other. For those who love anecdotes, there are tombstones in the Woolton cemetery, in Liverpool, bearing the name of Eleanor Rigby, and with the name of McKenzie. A funny coincidence …
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
George Martin claimed that the soundtrack of the François Truffaut movie Fahrenheit 451 was the reference used to write the score of “Eleanor Rigby.” However, at the time that he recorded his double string quartet, the movie had not yet been released (it appeared on September 16, 1966 in Great Britain). No doubt, he meant the soundtrack of Hitchcock’s Psycho (released August 4, 1960 in Great Britain).
Production
Paul accompanied himself on guitar the first time he sang “Eleanor Rigby” to George Martin. According to Geoff Emerick, Martin immediately suggested they use a doubled string quartet. Paul agreed after first being reluctant, but insisted on the same conditions as for “Yesterday”: no vibrato and he wanted chords with “bite.” Martin based his arrangement on Bernard Herrmann’s score for the movie Psycho. On April 28, the day of the recording, eight musicians were present, including Tony Gilbert and Sidney Sax who had already played on “Yesterday.” It took them fourteen takes to record a version that was satisfactory, as John and Paul watched in the control room. One of the musicians, Stephen Shingles, was rather bitter about the session: “I got about £5 [$7.50 U.S.]…, and it made billions of pounds.”4 The results were superb: George Martin had every reason to be satisfied. The next day, Paul recorded his lead vocal, with John and George on the backing vocals. The tape recorder was slowed down slightly, so that the song sounded higher in pitch at normal speed. Three mixes were carried out. But on June 6, Paul decided to sing his lead part over again and delete the percussion. Martin proposed a second vocal line for the last chorus: Paul loved it. “Eleanor Rigby” was mixed in mono and stereo on June 6, the anniversary of the Beatles’ first audition in 1962.
Technical Details
Geoff Emerick innovated by placing his mics close to the instruments in order to achieve the bite that Paul wanted. But the musicians were furious, because for them such a close recording was an abomination. Between each take, they kept backing their chairs away from the microphones, which forced Emerick to move them closer!
I’m Only Sleeping
Lennon-McCartney / 2:58
1966
SONGWRITER
John
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, acoustic guitar
Paul: bass, backing vocal
George: lead guitar, backing vocal
Ringo: drums
Abbey Road: April 27 and 29, 1966 (Studio Three) / May 5, 1966 (Studio Three) / May 6, 1966 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 13
MIXING
Abbey Road: May 6, 1966 (Studio Two) / May 12, 1966 (Studio Three) / May 20, 1966 (Studio One) / June 6, 1966 (Studio Three)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Assistant Engineers: Phil McDonald, Jerry Boys
Genesis
“I’m Only Sleeping” was one of the first really experimental songs by John, with a dragging and lethargic voice, an intimate quality, a dreamy atmosphere, surrealistic-sounding words … The culmination of this style was the extraordinary “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Sleep is a recurrent theme for him: he wrote “I’m So Tired” on the White Album and protested against war with Yoko by means of the bed-in in 1969. Paul came often to wake him in the early afternoon for a work session, which gave him the idea for the song: That’s me dreaming my life away,1 he said, and Paul found this sentence cute: I’m not being lazy, I’m only sleeping, I’m yawning, I’m meditating, I’m having a lay-in.2 This superb song by John was written and arranged in one session with Paul’s help. It is funny that the Kinks produced “Sunny Afternoon” on June 3 in Great Britain, with a relatively similar theme.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
There were a few glitches here: at 0:39, Paul played off-key on bass; at 0:57, the beginning of the backing vocals seem to have been deleted; at 2:01 someone yawned (Paul?); with the rhythm track slowed down, the sound is deeper than in reality.
Production
The Beatles set up the ideal atmosphere to record “I’m Only Sleeping”: they started recording at 11:30 P.M. on April 27. On the CD Anthology 2 you could hear the group rehearsing the song with a rather unusual instrument, a vibraphone (which they decided not to use). After eleven takes, the rhythm track was recorded. John was on acoustic guitar, Paul was on bass, and Ringo on drums. On April 29, John recorded his voice by overdubbing it. The rhythm track was slowed down and the lead voice was sped up. The results were a deeper rhythm section and a higher vocal (each varying by two semitones). On May 5, George decided to add a guitar solo. While he was practicing, the tape was accidentally read backwards. Paul exclaimed, “My God, that is fantastic! Can we do that for real?”3 George decided to record a solo played specifically so that it would be read backwards. There are two ways of recording backwards instruments—one easy, one difficult. The Beatles chose the latter alternative. In fact, they made it doubly difficult: George wanted to record it in two guitar parts, one ordinary, one a fuzz guitar superimposed on top of one another.4 After a long session lasting nearly six hours, they recorded the solo. The next day, John, Paul, and George added their splendid backing vocals. Two other overdubs meant the number of takes was up to thirteen. A first mono mix was carried out on May 6 and another one on May 12 for Yesterday and Today. The final mono and stereo mixes were done on May 20 and June 6. One last detail: the final mix was also sped up; the Beatles loved varispeed, an effect created by changing the speed of the tape deck.
Love You To
George Harrison / 2:58
1966
MUSICIANS
George: vocal, sitar, guitars
Paul: bass, backing vocal (?)
Ringo: tambourine
Anil Bhagwat: tabla
Other Indian musicians (uncredited): sitar, tambura
RECORDED
Abbey Road: April 11, 1966 (Studio Two) / April 13, 1966 (Studio Three)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 7
MIXING
Abbey Road: April 11, 1966 (Studio Two) / April 13, 1966 (Studio Three) / May 16, 1966 (Studio Two) / June 21, 1966 (Studio Three)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Assistant Engineers: Phil McDonald, Richard Lush
Genesis
Geoff Emerick first used the name of “Granny Smith” as the working title of “Love You To” as an allusion to his favorite apples. This was the first time the Beatles inserted an Indian-flavored composition on a record. After discovering Ravi Shankar, George was enchanted. Paul said in 1966, “He met Ravi [Shankar] and said, ‘I was knocked out by him!’—Just as a person. He’s an incredible fellow. He’s one of the greatest.”1 After trying the sitar on “Norwegian Wood,” George got immersed in Indian music. “I wrote ‘Love You To’ on the sitar, because the sitar sounded so nice, … and that was the first time we used a tabla player.”2 Then he recruited Indian musicians, including tabla player Anil Bhagwat.
George’s lyrics were based on Buddhist teachings about the relationship of people to their surroundings. Quite aware that he had to live in the material world, he began a spiritual quest that lasted until his final days. George could be proud because “Taxman” opened the album Revolver and “Love You To” came in fourth place. This was a sign that John and Paul were starting to recognize his creativity. But it was not until the last album that he was considered an equal.
Production
On April 11, George recorded the basic track: he sang while accompanying himself on his Gibson J-160 E with Paul on backing vocal. A first sitar was added and then a fuzz guitar (probably the Tone Bender with the loud pedal), a bass, and, finally, a tabla played by Anil Bhagwat, the only identified Indian musician on the song and the first musician, along with Alan Civil (see “For No One”), to have his name mentioned on a Beatles album cover. The next day, after having performed a tape reduction to free up some tracks, George added another voice, Paul added harmony (which was not kept) and Ringo added tambourines. The mono mix was done on May 16 and the stereo on June 21.
Technical Details
In order to record the tabla, Emerick used a similar technique to what he did with drums and brass: he mic’d the instrument as close as possible and strongly compressed the signal. The result was a very dynamic sound. This was against the strict regulations of EMI.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
Although John said in those days that he found Indian music fantastic, he didn’t participate in “Love You To.”
Here, There And Everywhere
Lennon-McCartney / 2:23
1966
SONGWRITER
Paul
MUSICIANS
Paul: vocal, bass, rhythm guitar (?), finger-snaps
John: backing vocal, finger-snaps
George: lead guitar, backing vocal, finger-snaps
Ringo: drums, finger-snaps
RECORDED
Abbey Road: June 14, 16, and 17, 1966 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 14
MIXING
Abbey Road: June 17 and 21, 1966 (Studio Three)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Assistant Engineer: Phil McDonald
Genesis
In the midst of this plethora of effects—of inverted tapes, sound effects, and processing of all kinds—there appeared this sublime song of Paul’s, stripped of all artifice and delicately simple. “Here, There and Everywhere” was one of his most beautiful compositions and remained one of his favorites as well as one of John’s. As he arrived at Kenwood, John’s residence, on a nice June day for a session of work with John, the master of the house was still sleeping. Paul sat down by the pool with his guitar. “I started strumming in E, and soon had a few chords, and I think by the time he’d woken up, I had pretty much written the song.”1 Even though Paul talked about an 80/20 collaboration, John, full of admiration, stated in 1980 that the song was entirely written by Paul, before adding, “I think …” It was a very structured song, with each line beginning with one of the words of the title. The first line began with Here, the second one with There, and the last one with Everywhere. Some people believed that they tried to reproduce the mood of the gentle songs that John’s mother Julia used to listen to, such as “
Wedding Bells (Are Breaking up that Old Gang of Mine),” popularized by Gene Vincent in 1956. If that is the case, “Here, There and Everywhere” works very well. But the song clearly owes its origins to the great album Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, which had a major influence on Paul. During a visit in London in May 1966, Bruce Johnston, the bass player for this American group, met John and Paul through Keith Moon (from The Who), to whom he gave a copy of their album. Paul was stunned by the musical level he discovered, especially the beauty of the backing vocals.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
The finger-snapping sounded too fast, just like Paul’s voice (starting at 1:56). Besides, there is one beat missing at 1:59.
Production
The Beatles spent a lot of time on Paul’s new song: it was recorded over a period of three days—June 14, 16, and 17. On June 14, four takes were required to lay down the rhythm track. Paul was on rhythm guitar, George was on lead guitar, and Ringo on drums. Paul recorded a first voice, and then was joined by the sumptuous vocal parts of John and George, the harmonies arranged with the help of George Martin. But the next day, during a nearly nine-hour session, they really built the song. After the thirteenth take, Paul, John, and George sang new backing vocals that were overdubbed, and Paul recorded his bass part on a track set aside for him. Cymbals, a second lead guitar and finger-snapping were then added. When Paul finally added his vocal, he was inspired by Marianne Faithfull for the interpretation, and tried to copy the singer’s tone (in “As Tears Go By”). The tape recorder was therefore slowed down so that, at normal speed, it gained half a tone. On June 17, he doubled his vocal. On that day, George added guitar chords with his volume pedal at the end of the song. The final mono and stereo mixes were done on June 21.