All the Songs
Page 45
The Influence of the Who
Paul recognized that the medley was influenced by Keith West’s song “Excerpt from a Teenage Opera” (1967). But we can also assume that the Who’s mini-opera, “A Quick One While He’s Away” (on the Quick One album, 1966), and John’s song “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” also played a significant role.
On August 5, Paul found the solution for the transition between the two songs. As he had done for “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “Paul took a plastic bag containing a dozen loose strands of mono tape into Abbey Road.” The loops he chose sounded like “bells, birds, bubbles and crickets chirping.” These helped create an effective transition, creating the atmosphere for the Sun King’s entrance.6 On August 13, a number of stereo mixes were made. The twenty-third mix was selected. The following day, eleven attempts were made to cross-fade “You Never Give Me Your Money” with “Sun King” via Paul’s tape loops. The cross-fading was redone on August 21 to make the final.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
Small funny detail: toward 3:50, the Beatles begin to laugh.
Sun King
Lennon-McCartney / 2:26
1969
SONGWRITER
John
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, rhythm guitar
Paul: bass, piano, organ, backing vocal
George: guitar, backing vocal
Ringo: drums, maracas
RECORDED
Abbey Road: July 24–25, 1969 (Studio Two) / July 29, 1969 (Studio Three)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 35
MIXING
Abbey Road: July 30, 1969 (Studio Two) / August 14 and 21, 1969 (Studio Two)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald
Assistant Engineers: John Kurlander, Alan Parsons
Genesis
Although John Lennon most likely got the title “Sun King” from the British author Nancy Mitford’s 1966 biography of Louis XIV, he alleged in 1971 that the song came to him in a dream. On the musical level, the major influence for the piece came from the guitar-based instrumental “Albatross,” by Fleetwood Mac, released in January 1969. In 1987, George said, “At the time, ‘Albatross’ was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, ‘Let’s be Fleetwood Mac doing ‘Albatross,’ just to get going.’ It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac … but [that] was the point of origin.”1 In 1969, John said, “When we came to sing it, to make them different we started joking, saying ‘Cuando para mucho’ … Paul knew a few Spanish words from school, so we just strung any Spanish words that sounded vaguely like something. And of course we got ‘chicka ferdi’—that a Liverpool expression, it doesn’t mean anything, just like ‘ha ha ha.’”2 He added, “We could have had ‘paranoia,’ but we forgot all about it. We used to call ourselves Los Para Noias.”3
“Sun King” does not mean anything, with its strange lyrics in three languages! In 1980, in his interview with David Sheff, John said, “That’s a piece of garbage I had around.”4
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
George Harrison’s Leslie cabinet model 147RV was a present from Eric Clapton.
Production
“Sun King,” the working title of which was “Here Comes the Sun King” until July 29, took its final name that day to avoid confusion with George’s “Here Comes the Sun.” Two songs for the medley, “Sun King” and “Mean Mr. Mustard,” were recorded in a single session on July 24. This was a challenge. The instrumental arrangement is identical—John on rhythm guitar and guide vocal, Paul on bass, George on a second guitar fed through a Leslie speaker, and Ringo on drums. Both songs were John’s compositions—provocative, surreal, and humorous. The following day was devoted to overdubs of vocals, piano, and organ. The atmosphere was friendly; John and Paul sang together. Geoff Emerick recalled, “They disappeared behind the screens at one point for a puff on a joint, just the two of them, and when they came out they had a fit of giggles as they sang the pseudo-Spanish gibberish at the end of ‘Here Comes the Sun King’; in fact, they found it impossible to get through a take without dissolving into laughter.”5 On July 29, other vocals, organ, percussion, and piano were added. On the July 30, Paul was in the control room to listen to the sequence in the medley. Paul was not happy with the long organ note transition between “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Sun King.” It was only on August 5 that Paul found the solution, using tape loop sound effects to provide an atmospheric cross-fade link. On August 14, several remixes were made as well as a number of attempts to link “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Sun King.” The master was created on August 21.
Technical Details
George’s guitar, fed through a Leslie speaker, is particularly obvious in the introduction of “Sun King.” The spinning sound was used frequently in 1969. Geoff Emerick recalled that Ringo came up with the idea of “draping his tom-toms with heavy tea towels and playing them with timpani beaters in order to give John the ‘jungle drum’ sound he was after.”6
Mean Mr. Mustard
Lennon-McCartney / 1:07
1969
SONGWRITER
John
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, rhythm guitar, piano (?)
Paul: bass, organ (?), backing vocal
George: guitar, backing vocal
Ringo: drums, maracas
RECORDED
Abbey Road: July 24–25, 1969 (Studio Two) / July 29, 1969 (Studio Three)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 35
MIXING
Abbey Road: July 30, 1969 (Studio Two) / August 14 and 21, 1969 (Studio Two)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald
Assistant Engineers: John Kurlander, Alan Parsons
Genesis
It was spring 1968, and the Beatles were just back from Rishikesh. They met at George’s home at Kinfauns to record demos of the songs intended for the White Album. Among these were “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam.” In 1980, John told a story to David Sheff: “I’d read somewhere in the newspaper about this mean guy who hid five-pound notes, not up his nose but somewhere else.” He added, “No, it had nothing to do with cocaine,”1 removing all doubt about his source of inspiration. Typical Lennon humor.
Mr. Mustard’s sister was originally his sister Shirley (see Anthology 3), but John changed the name to Pam to create a connection with the next song, the famous and eccentric “Polythene Pam.”
John described “Mean Mr. Mustard” “as a bit of crap that I wrote in India.”2 Paul judged it as “a nice fun song, typical of John.” And he added, “I do not know what he was talking about.” This comment proves that at the time the communication between them was not the best.
Production
“Mean Mr. Mustard” was taped right after “Sun King.” The composition originally was over three minutes in length with a clear final chord. For the medley, John shortened the song to 1:10, keeping the same ending. On July 30, Paul did not like the transition between “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Her Majesty.” He asked John Kurlander to permanently eliminate “Her Majesty.” Kurlander cut the track too short and deleted the last chord of “Mean Mr. Mustard.” Although the transition to the next song, “Polythene Pam,” was effective, the song nevertheless lacks the last chord. It can be heard in the introduction of “Her Majesty,” which was intended to follow “Mean Mr. Mustard.”
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
An amusing detail: Every time Paul’s vocal enters, the sound of the tambourine disappears from the recording. Possibly his voice and the tambourine were kept on the same track to save space. Or the use of a compressor-limiter reduced the sound of the tambourine in favor of the vocal. As soon as the vocal disappears, the tambourine comes back.
Technical Details
John sang a lead vocal treated with ADT during mixing. Paul played a fuzz pedal on the bass, which produced a distorted and distinctive
sound. As “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Sun King” were recorded as one continuous piece, Paul probably switched on his Tone Bender fuzzbox. The identical volume pedal was used in “Think for Yourself” on the Rubber Soul album.
Polythene Pam
Lennon-McCartney / 1:13
1969
SONGWRITER
John
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, guitar, piano (?)
Paul: bass, guitar, piano (?), backing vocal
George: lead guitar, backing vocal
Ringo: drums, percussion, tambourine
RECORDED
Abbey Road: July 25, 1969 (Studio Two) / July 28, 1969 (Studios Two and Three) / July 30, 1969 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 40
MIXING
Abbey Road: July 30, 1969 (Studio Two) / August 14, 1969 (Studio Two)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald
Assistant Engineers: John Kurlander, Alan Parsons
Genesis
The song referred to two encounters where polythene played an important role. The first was with a girl called Pat Hodgett, a diehard fan at the Cavern Club, who ate plastic and was nicknamed “Polythene Pat.” The second encounter took place on August 8, 1963, when the Beatles played at the auditorium of Candie Gardens in Guernsey, the Channel Islands. But there are different versions of this story. According to John, the Beatles met the poet Royston Ellis (England’s answer to Allen Ginsberg), in Liverpool in 1960 at a poetry reading at the university. At the time, he was working as a ferryboat engineer on the island for the summer. John claimed that Ellis proposed that John meet a girl dressed up in polyethylene. “He said, she dressed up in polythene, which she did. She didn’t wear jack boots and kilts, I just sort of elaborated. Perverted sex in a polythene bag. Just looking for something to write about.”2
Ellis, however, told Steve Turner in 1994, that he was with his girlfriend Stephanie and that they brought John to their apartment without any implied or perverse sex: “We’d read all these things about leather and we didn’t have any leather but I had my oilskins and we had some polythene bags from somewhere. We all dressed up in them and wore them in bed. John stayed the night with us in the same bed. I don’t think anything very exciting happened and we all wondered what the fun was in being ‘kinky.’”3 Paul’s recollection accords with John’s version. He remembered that “John went out to dinner with Royston and they ended up back at his apartment with a girl who dressed herself in polythene for John’s amusement, so it was a kinky scene. She became Polythene Pam. She was a real character.”4 When John recorded the song he “used a thick Liverpool accent, because it was supposed to be about a mythical Liverpool scrubber dressed up in her jackboots and kilt.”5
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
At 0:45 Paul overshot the note on one of his glissandos. He wanted to correct it, but all overruled him saying, “No, it’s great! Leave it in”1
Production
Just as “Sun King” and “Mean Mr. Mustard” were recorded as one continuous piece, so were “Polythene Pam” and “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window.” The first recording session was on July 25 and a total of thirty-nine takes were necessary. John provided rhythm guitar and guide vocal, Paul was on bass and provided another guide vocal, George was on guitar solo, and Ringo was on drums. John was very unhappy with Ringo’s drumming. Geoff Emerick described “John commenting acidly at one point that it ‘sounded like Dave Clark,’”6 drummer of the group Dave Clark Five also known as The DC5. The DC5 was the second English pop rock group of the British Invasion and had knocked “I Want to Hold Your Hand” off the top of the UK singles charts in January 1964 with their single “Glad All Over.” Annoyed by Ringo’s inability to come up with a suitable part, he finally said, “Sod it, let’s just put one down anyway.”7 Ringo, desperate, spent a good deal of time reworking his part with Paul. He joined John when he finally felt ready. Exhausted, John lost his temper, “I’m not playing this bloody song again, Ring. If you want to redo the drums, go ahead and overdub them.”8
With the help of Geoff Emerick, Ringo did just that. He recorded the new part using his previous drum track as a guide. On July 28, new guitar over-dubs, percussion, and acoustic and electric pianos were added, as well as a new vocal. July 30 was devoted to overdubs of vocals, percussion, and guitars. Then after some finishing touches, they listened to the tape for the first time to check the transitions in the medley. Both songs passed the test. Finally, August 14 was the date of the final stereo mix: “Polythene Pam” and “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” were completed and integrated into the medley.
Technical Details
Mark Lewisohn reported in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions that John would have played a twelve-string acoustic guitar in the intro to “Polythene Pam.” It is probably true, but it is difficult to distinguish among the series of overdubs of acoustic and electric guitars.
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
Lennon-McCartney / 1:59
1969
SONGWRITER
Paul
MUSICIANS
Paul: vocal, bass, guitar, piano (?)
John: guitar, backing vocal, piano (?)
George: lead guitar, backing vocal
Ringo: drums, percussion, tambourine
RECORDED
Apple Studio: January 22, 1969
Abbey Road: July 25, 1969 (Studio Two) / July 28, 1969 (Studios Two and Three) / July 30, 1969 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 40
MIXING
Abbey Road: July 30, 1969 (Studio Two) / August 14, 1969 (Studio Two)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, Glyn Johns (Apple)
Assistant Engineers: John Kurlander, Alan Parsons
Genesis
“She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” was released as part of the medley, and is its only “classical” song, including an introduction, verses, and choruses. Paul’s inspiration came on May 11, 1968, when he and John were in New York to officially launch Apple Corp. There are two stories about the source of the words. According to the first, the song was about the “Apple Scruffs,” the Beatles’ most extreme fans. Living near Abbey Road Studios, Paul was often their target. One of the fans, Diane Ashley, entered Paul’s house, along with other girls, using a ladder in the garden to reach an open bathroom window. Margo Bird, a former “Apple Scruff” herself, confirmed this version. Margo had the honor of taking Martha, Paul’s English Sheepdog, for a walk, before she was hired by the promotion department at Apple. Some items were stolen by Diane and her friends, including a photo to which Paul was particularly attached. Margo found it and returned it.
In a 2006 documentary, Mike Pinder, the former Moody Blues’ keyboard player, offered another version. He told Paul that a groupie had entered the house of Ray Thomas, a vocalist and flutist with the Moody Blues, through an open bathroom window. When Paul heard about the incident, he began strumming on his guitar and improvising She came in through the bathroom window. Paul said that the end of the song, And so I quit the police department, came to him on October 31, 1968, in a taxi going to the airport in New York, when he saw the driver’s medallion with his name, Eugene Quits, along with New York Police Department.1 Paul had just spent two weeks with Linda and her daughter Heather in New York City.
In 1969 George said he thought it was a very good song with good lyrics, “but it’s really hard to explain what it’s about,” he added. John thought perhaps it was about Linda, whom Paul had just met, “Maybe she’s the one that came in the window.”2
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
At 0:48 there is a “goof” by an acoustic guitar—a note that falls clearly offbeat. Whose fault?
Production
The Beatles first worked on this song, which originally had the title “Bathroom Window,” in the chaotic
Apple studios on January 22, 1969 with Billy Preston, who played electric piano. Although the song was recorded, the day was more like a rehearsal session. The version was slower than the one on Abbey Road. Moreover, at this stage, the song was not yet intended for the medley because the idea of a medley only came up later in Paul’s mind. On July 25 at Abbey Road Studios, the Beatles began working on Paul’s composition, along with “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard,” and “Polythene Pam.” George Martin was in charge of production.