Production
The Beatles recorded and mixed “Hey Bulldog” in less than ten hours on February 11. They made no intermediate reduction and were satisfied with the four basic rhythm tracks. A very determined John led his friends into a supercharged session. Ten takes were needed to complete the rhythm track. John was at the Steinway B piano used previously for “Lady Madonna,” Paul played tambourine, George was on his Gibson SG Standard, and Ringo was on drums. Paul recorded on the second track one of his most inventive and effective bass lines, using his Rickenbacker 4001S. Meanwhile, George double-tracked his riff while Ringo played drums with a strong reverb in the middle eight. Then John recorded his lead vocal on a third track, accompanied by Paul’s backing vocals. At the coda, they performed all together a surrealistic passage consisting of barking, howling, and clowning. They were happy and inseparable friends for one of the last times—the following years would be less cheerful. On the last track, John double-tracked his vocal and George performed a sparkling solo, double-tracked as well. His amp was turned up very loud, with the encouragement of his friends. In the mix, the song is slightly sped up. The stereo mix was only made on October 29, 1968.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
“Hey Bulldog” is the final recording session where only the four Beatles were together in the studio. Afterwards, Yoko became a permanent fixture in their private circle.
It’s All Too Much
George Harrison / 6:23
1969
MUSICIANS
George: vocal, lead guitar, organ, hand claps, percussion
John: rhythm guitar, backing vocal, hand claps, percussion
Paul: bass, backing vocal, hand claps, percussion
Ringo: drums, hand claps, percussion
David Mason and 3 other unknown musicians: trumpets
Paul Harvey: bass clarinet
RECORDED
DeLane Lea Music Recording Studio: May 25 and 31, 1967 / June 2, 1967
NUMBER OF TAKES: 2
MIXING
DeLane Lea Music Recording Studio: October 12, 1967
Abbey Road: October 16–17, 1968 (Studio Two)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineers: Dave Siddle, Ken Scott
Assistant Engineers: Mike Weighell, Dave Harries
Genesis
George wrote “It’s All Too Much” to share his visions under the influence of LSD. Lyrics and music had little sense of direction. Said George, “I just wanted to write a rock ’n’ roll song about the whole psychedelic thing of the time.” Later, George reworked this song, to later affirm that only meditation, and not drugs, offered a real answer. “‘It’s All Too Much’ was written in a childlike manner from realizations that appeared during and after some LSD experiences and which were later confirmed in meditation.”1
The result is a bit chaotic: George seems to be seeking himself, but without any clear direction. In his text he alludes to the Merseys’ 1966 hit single “Sorrow,” With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue, while also referring to his own wife. At the end of the coda, one of the trumpeters performs a short segment from Jeremiah Clarke’s “Prince of Denmark March.” The entire piece is dominated by an enormous saturated guitar sound, certainly influenced by the Beatles’ idol, Jimi Hendrix.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
During the mixing of October 1968, sound engineers changed, for no apparent reason, the original take 2 to take 196.
Production
They began recording at De Lane Lea in London, which was used by Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin. The rhythm track of the working title “Too Much” was completed on May 25 in four takes with George on Hammond organ, Paul on bass, Ringo on drums, and John probably at the guitar. On May 31, they returned to De Lane Lea Studios, adding a series of overdubs with George as lead vocal, John and Paul’s backing vocals (which deviated a little in the coda with the chant Too much becoming Tuba then Cuba), hand claps, tambourine, cowbell, various percussion instruments, and certainly a lead guitar played by George, who added a lot of vibrato in the style of Hendrix. For the next session, on June 2, George Martin, back from vacation and resuming his function as producer, added four trumpets and a bass clarinet. David Mason, the trumpeter who performed on “Penny Lane” remembers that George did not really know what he wanted. Finally, several instruments, including a clarinet, colored the piece in the “Pepper” style. The final mixes were made over a year later at Abbey Road, on October 16–17, 1968, using ADT extensively on hand claps and vocals.
The Ballad of John and Yoko / Old Brown Shoe
1969
SINGLE
RELEASED
Great Britain: May 30, 1969 / No. 1 for 3 weeks beginning on June 11, 1969
United States: June 4, 1969 / No. 8 on June 14, 1969
The Ballad Of John And Yoko
Lennon-McCartney / 2:58
1969
SONGWRITER
John
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, guitar, percussion
Paul: drums, backing vocal, bass, piano, maracas
RECORDED
Abbey Road: April 14, 1969 (Studio Three)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 11
MIXING
Abbey Road: April 14, 1969 (Studio Three)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Assistant Engineer: John Kurlander
Genesis
In 1969, John called this song a “Johnny B. Paperback Writer.” In 1980, he talked about the song as a journalistic chronicle, a folk song, “Well, guess who wrote that? I wrote that in Paris on our honeymoon. It’s a piece of journalism. It’s a folk song. That’s why I called it ‘The Ballad of …’” 1 It is about events surrounding John’s marriage to Yoko. “We wanted to get married on a cross-channel ferry. That was the romantic part: when we went to Southampton and then we couldn’t get on because she wasn’t English and she couldn’t get the day visa to go across.”2
On March 16, four days after Paul and Linda’s wedding, John and Yoko took off for Paris with the intention of getting married. However, after some complications, they were unable to. “They were in Paris and we were calling Peter Brown, and said, ‘We want to get married. Where can we go?’”3 Peter Brown, former right-hand man of Brian Epstein, manager of Apple Corp., and a close friend of the Lennon clan, found the solution to their problem by proposing that they get married in Gibraltar. On March 20, 1969, John married Yoko Ono in the British Consulate in Gibraltar. Peter Brown was one of the witnesses, and he was immortalized in the verse, Peter Brown called to say, “You can make it okay. You can get married in Gibraltar, near Spain.”
The newlyweds stayed a little more than an hour in Gibraltar, just enough time for the ceremony, before returning to Paris, where, a few days later, they dined with Salvador Dalí. On March 25 they flew to Amsterdam, where they held a seven-day bed-in for peace at the Hilton Hotel, room 902. They returned to London on April 1.
As soon as the song was written, John brought it to Paul’s house. Paul, discovering the lyrics and references to Christ, panicked. He said, “Jesus Christ, you’re kidding, aren’t you? Someone really is going to get upset about it,”4 remembering the hostile reactions in the United States in 1966 to John’s famous statement, “We’re more popular than Jesus.” John insisted. Despite his reservations, Paul helped John finish the final verse, and they went straight to Abbey Road to record it. Paul: “John was in an impatient mood so I was happy to help. It’s quite a good song; it has always surprised me how with just the two of us on it, it ended up sounding like the Beatles.”5
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
At 2:50, Peter Brown arrived at the studio and we can hear John welcoming him with “Hey! Peter!” Judge for yourself.
Production
John wanted the song out as soon as possible. The working title was “The Ballad of John and Yoko (They’re Gonna Cr
ucify Me).” At the beginning of April, Peter Brown told Geoff Emerick that John had composed a new song and asked Emerick to help John record the song. Without waiting for the other Beatles to return, Emerick reserved Studio Three on April 14 for the recording session of “The Ballad of John and Yoko.” George and Ringo were away, George recording chants with Radha Krishna monks and Ringo filming a new Peter Sellers movie, The Magic Christian, directed by Joseph McGrath.
George said, “‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’ was none of my business. If it had been the “The Ballad of John and George and Yoko,” then I would have been on it.”5 Similarly, Ringo was not offended to have been replaced by Paul, “We had no problems with that. There’s good drums on ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko.’”6 In John’s opinion, even though George and Ringo were absent, the record was still a Beatles record and not something separate: “It’s the Beatles’ next single, simple as that.”7
The recording session took place in an atmosphere of camaraderie and good feeling between John and Paul, as in the good old days before the extreme tensions and chaotic sessions of Get Back. They perfected a basic track in eleven takes with Paul on drums, as with “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and “Dear Prudence,” and John simultaneously on acoustic guitar and lead vocal. On the second track there is some German mixed with English. John explained to Mal Evans, “a string is kaput, damn!” Then, just before take 4, John says to the drumming Paul, “Go a bit faster, Ringo!” and Paul replies to the guitar-wielding John, “OK, George!”
Take 10 was the best basic track. John overdubbed two lead guitars and accented the beat by strumming his acoustic guitar. Paul provided bass, a piano part, backing vocals, and maracas, and John added percussion by playing on the back of his acoustic guitar. The recording session was completed in less than six hours. The song was mixed for stereo very quickly and, because of the new eight-track technology used during the recording, became the Beatles’ first stereo single in Great Britain and consequently their first release not to be mixed in mono. George Martin confessed that he enjoyed working with John and Yoko. They were in their positive period. With this song, Martin said that John truly divorced himself from the Beatles; “It was a kind of thin end of the wedge, as far as they were concerned. John had already mentally left the group anyway, and I think that was just the beginning of it all.”8
Old Brown Shoe
George Harrison / 3:16
1969
MUSICIANS
George: vocal, electric guitar, Hammond organ, bass (?)
John: electric guitar, backing vocal, Hammond organ
Paul: bass (?), backing vocal, piano
Ringo: drums
RECORDED
Abbey Road: February 25, 1969 (Studio unknown) / April 16 and 18, 1969 (Studio Three)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 4
MIXING
Abbey Road: April 16 and 18, 1969 (Studio Three)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producers: George Martin, Chris Thomas
Sound Engineers: Ken Scott, Phil McDonald, Jeff Jarratt
Assistant Engineers: Ken Scott, Richard Lush, John Kurlander
Genesis
In his book I Me Mine, published in 1980, George said that his inspiration for “Old Brown Shoe” came from a chord sequence on the piano, “which I don’t really play, and then began writing ideas for the words from various opposites … Again, it’s the duality of things—yes no, up down, left right, right wrong …”1 George’s song followed the model of McCartney’s “Hello Goodbye.” The title “Old Brown Shoe” does not have much to do with the lyrics, except that George found the allusion interesting.
Production
Between February 7 and 15, George was hospitalized for a problem with his wisdom teeth. Ten days later, February 25 to be exact, was his twenty-sixth birthday. To celebrate he went to the studio to record solo demos of three of his latest compositions—“Old Brown Shoe,” “Something,” and “All Things Must Pass.” Each had a different fate. Assisted by Ken Scott in the control room, he recorded the basic rhythm track for each song—guitar and piano. Then he recorded the vocals. Those demos were sufficiently developed for the other Beatles to learn their parts later on. On April 16, more than a month and a half after George made these demos, the Beatles worked on “Old Brown Shoe.” In two hours, a new demo was made, but it was immediately deleted and four new takes recorded. Each Beatle mastered his part perfectly. George was on lead vocal and had a shared guitar part with John, Paul was at the Challen “jangle box” (a kind of honky-tonk piano), and Ringo was on drums. The fourth take was the best. Paul added a bass line, doubled in certain parts by George’s guitar, giving it a dynamic and powerful sound. Then came the backing vocals sung by Paul and John. George then retaped his lead vocal. This last take was recorded and the stereo and mono mixes made. However, two days later on April 18, George was apparently dissatisfied with the results, so Lennon’s guitar part was deleted in favor of a Hammond organ part played by George as well as a guitar solo played through a Leslie speaker. George overdubbed his vocal. George delivered another one of his subtle and creative solos.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
“Old Brown Shoe” is the only title published by Sing Song Music, a company George created in June 1969 to publish his own songs. It was managed by Apple. Later, George renamed it Harrisongs.
“Old Brown Shoe” was finally finished. The song was mixed in stereo following the recording session. There is some debate over whether Harrison played bass. According to the recording sheets and the sound of the bass, Paul may have doubled George’s guitar. In an interview for Creem magazine published in December 1987, George affirmed that he played bass for the piece saying “that was me going nuts.” He added: “I’m doing exactly what I do on the guitar.”2 If this is the case, he certainly played the six-string Fender bass.
Technical Detail
To obtain a distinctive sound and to give a natural echo to his voice, George turned toward one of the corners of Studio Three and sang into the wall.3
Abbey Road:
A Leap into Eternity
1969
Come Together
Something
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
Oh! Darling
Octopus’s Garden
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
Here Comes the Sun
Because
You Never Give Me Your Money
Sun King
Mean Mr. Mustard
Polythene Pam
She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Her Majesty
ALBUM
RELEASED
Great Britain: September 26, 1969 / No. 1 on May 23, 1970, for 3 weeks
United States: October 1, 1969 / No. 1 for 11 weeks
Although Let It Be is the final original album released by the Beatles, Abbey Road is the final album they recorded. It was a triumph. Thanks to an expert advertising campaign by Allen Klein, the Beatles new manager, more than five million copies of Abbey Road were sold worldwide during the first year, nearly two million more than Sgt. Pepper. We can well understand why the managers at EMI decided to change the name of their studio to Abbey Road Studios! Since then the façade of the studio has been resurfaced innumerable times to erase the daily graffiti of fans from all over the world. The building, located at 3 Abbey Road in the heart of St. John’s Wood, was registered as a historical monument on February 23, 2010.
The recording of Get Back, later known as Let It Be, started at the beginning of January 1969 and quickly turned into a nightmare. The bulk of the album was recorded at Twickenham Film Studios while the Beatles were being filmed for a planned documentary on the making of the album. George Martin’s involvement is unclear. The documentation shows that Paul was in charge of most of the production. Tension, animosity, and fatigue led to a disaster. The results of the working session were unimpressive, despite the superb performan
ce of the Beatles on the roof of Apple on January 30. The recording was set aside.
Paul was not deterred by failure. In early April, he re-motivated the team. George Martin wrote, “I was quite surprised when Paul rang me up and said, ‘We’re going to make another record—would you like to produce it?’ My immediate answer was: ‘Only if you let me produce it the way we used to.’ He said, ‘We will, we want to.’—‘John included?’—‘Yes, honestly.’ So I said, ‘Well, if you really want to, let’s do it. Let’s get together again.’”1 Geoff Emerick, who had quit after the tense and frustrating sessions for the White Album, agreed, at Paul’s request, to be the sound engineer.
All knew, consciously or not, that the journey was at an end. All the Beatles were in top form for recording, composition, interpretation, instrumental parts, and backing vocals. Yet they rarely played together in the same studio. They avoided each other most of the time. John was even voluntarily absent for titles such as “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” The first week of the Abbey Road session, John could not attend the sessions in the studio because he had been in a car accident on July 1 in Scotland, along with Yoko and their respective children, Julian and Kyoko. He returned on July 9, but Yoko, more seriously injured and also pregnant, was ordered to stay in bed. John, wanting to keep an eye on her, had a bed delivered to the studio and suspended a microphone above it so that Yoko could comment on the recording sessions. The atmosphere became extremely tense. On the musical side, the Beatles delivered the best of their art, even if the old camaraderie and solidarity were gone. George Martin tried to lead them to a production in the style of Sgt. Pepper. He encouraged them to “think in symphonic terms.” Paul thought this was a great idea, but John was a rock ’n’ roller. As a result, side 1 leaned toward rock while side 2 was more symphonic. In 1970 John commented, “I liked the A side. I never liked that sort of pop opera on the other side. I think it’s junk. It was just bits of song thrown together.”2
All the Songs Page 41
