Fab Four Blog

On May 17, 1966, McCartney and John Lennon attended a private listening party for Pet Sounds held at London's Waldorf Hotel.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

This 12-hour session, which began at 2.30pm, was devoted entirely to overdubs and mixing for Paul McCartney's "Got To Get You Into My Life".

The Beatles had recorded the rhythm track on April 8, 1966. In the interim McCartney decided to add a brass section, made up of Eddie Thornton, Ian Hamer and Les Condon on trumpet, and Alan Branscombe and Peter Coe on tenor saxophone.The Beatles wanted a definite jazz feel. Paul and George Martin were in charge. There was nothing written down but Paul sat at the piano and showed up what he wanted and we played with the rhythm track in our headphones. I remember that we tried it a few times to get the feel right, and then John Lennon, who was in the control room, suddenly rushed out, stuck his thumb aloft and shouted, 'Got it!' George Harrison got a little bit involved too but Ringo playing draughts in the corner.

With the overdub complete, three reduction mixes were made to create more space on the four-track tape. Previously-recorded vocals were judged to be no longer needed, so they were omitted, leaving only bass guitar, drums and brass. McCartney then added new vocals, accompanied by tambourine and organ. The fourth track was filled with a second lead vocal and an electric guitar part.

At the end of the session two mono mixes were created. The song wasn't complete, however: George Harrison added a guitar solo onto the first vocal track on June 17th, necessitating more mono mixes afterwards.

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

A long day of overdubs, mixing and copying some of the best mixes up to date. "Taxman" received its final ingredient (the "One, two, three, four" into) and was then mixed into mono, and Paul overdubbed his lead vocal onto "For No One".

John Lennon and Paul McCartney spoke with Flip Magazine for an exclusive interview that was published in Flip's May 1966 issue. John discusses his opinions of other artists performing Lennon/McCartney songs, while Paul mentions his interest in writing a song about Penny Lane based on inspiration from a song by The Animals.

"If I thought I'd got to go through the rest of my life being pointed and stared at - I'd give up The Beatles now. It's only the thought that one day it will all come to an end and which keeps me going."

That was just one of the frank and controversial comments which came from John Lennon during an exclusive three and a half hour interview I had with him and Paul in the Beatles dressing room at the Birmingham studios prior to the screening of 'The Music Of Lennon and McCartney'.

An hour previously I had been just one of a horde of reporters milling around the press reception hall with a dozen assorted models attired in rubber suits, negligees and bunny outfits (They appear in Peter and Gordon's sequence in the show) before a scale model of the studio set.

Although Paul had not seen me for some months, he singled me out at the reception and courteously invited me back to a private luncheon with himself, Henry Mancini, John and producer Johnny Hamp. During the meal, John expressed some disappointment that certain artists were not able to appear on the show. "You can't expect people to come over at a moments notice but I would have liked big names like Ella, Peggy Lee and Keely Smith to have appeared on the show," said John. "I'm not knocked out with the way Keely Smith did our numbers on her LP but she would have been a great name for the show."

Later in the privacy of their dressing room with only road manager Malcolm Evans, John, Paul, and myself present there were some vigourous views revealed about just who can sing and play Beatle music and do it justice. "There are only about 100 people in the world who understand our music," said John. "George, Ringo, and a few friends around the world. Some of the artists who recorded our numbers have no idea how to interpret them. Keely Smith added nothing to our compositions but a couple trumpets. I loathed Matt Monro's version of 'Yesterday' and liked Marianne Faithfull's. I wanted Richard Anthony on this show but he was busy having car crashes in France or something. We dig the way Esther Phillips sang 'and I Love Him' and Henry's orchestration of 'If I Fell' and that's why they are here. When Paul and I write a song we try and take hold of something we believe in - a truth. We can never communicate 100 per cent of what we feel but if we can convey just a fraction we have achieved something. We try to give people a feeling--they don't have to understand the music if they can just feel the emotion. This is half the reason the fans don't understand but they experience what we are trying to tell them."

"Lack of feeling in an emotional sense is responsible for the way some singers do our songs. They don't understand and are too old to grasp the feeling. Beatles are really the only people who can play Beatle music."

Just what kind of music do the music makers themselves dig? Paul was soon off on what kind of music he likes.

"Dylan is a fantastic composer," said Paul. "At first I didn't understand. I used to lose his songs in the middle but then I realized it didn't matter. You can get hung up on just two words of a Dylan lyric. 'Jealous Monk' or 'magic swirling ship' are examples of the fantastic word combinations he uses. I could never write like that and I envy him. He is a poet."

"I like some of the things the Animals try to do like the song Eric Burdon wrote about places in Newcastle on the flip of one of their hits. I still want to write a song about the places in Liverpool where I was brought up. Places like The Docker's Umbrella which is a long tunnel through which the dockers go to work on Merseyside, and Penny Lane near my old home."

"The one thing I can't understand is the protest songs like 'Eve of Destruction' that was absolute rubbish. Dylan's 'Masters of War' or 'God On Our Side' are OK because they say things in an original manner but P.F Sloan is too much."

John is very conscious of the Beatles musical progression and he explained to me how he would sit down in his house at Weybridge, put all their LPs in chronological order on his stereo gram and study the improving pattern of sound.

"I can hear that we've progressed from this," he used his hand to indicate a level, "To this" and raised it again. "But do y'know I never get to hear them all the way through. Someone always turns up and there I am sitting like an idiot in the front room listening to my own music. I'm too embarassed to leave it on."

At this stage of the interview, things become enlivened by the appearence of our top DJ Jimmy Savilla (who just happened to be around) who sat down on a chair opposite. Jim, who has blonde shoulder length hair, was wearing blue denims embossed with an enormous silver buckle and white leather boots. An imposing sight!

"Something's wrong with you," smiled John. "You're not smoking." Jimmy explained that George had recently complained about his self-made smog in the Beatles dressing room.

"That was George," declared John, and Jim promptly lit up an enormous cigar and disappeared behind his smoke screen. Recording manager George Martin entered upon the scene and for some reason that escapes me began in true life confessions manner to tell us about his Uncle who was a crook.

"I had an uncle who looked after sheep," said Paul. "He was a shepherd's crook." This pun was greeted with a short but reverent silence which was finally broken by Malcolm who declared piously, "Dat's very funny (significant pause)...boss!"

The inevitable subject of Elvis Presley was brought up by Jimmy who is his most ardent fan, and declared on a trip to Moscow recently the 10 by 8 glossies which he took with him of Elvis were like gold dust over there.

"We saw enough of him on our last trip to realize that he is anything but stupid," declared John. "I asked him if he had any new ideas for his films and he and Colonel Tom explained that the only time that they had departed from the 'kinda cowboy meets cowgirl theme' that they lost money. There's only one thing wrong with Elvis," said John. "He's a bit square that's all."

I tackled John about the subject of the Liverpool Cavern Club which was in danger of being closed down. It was this club where the Beatles blasted off from to International fame.

"Someone came up to me the other day and asked what I had done to save the club that made us," retorted John. "I replied that we made the club - the club did not make us." John later revealed that he is working on his next book. "I just sit down in the morning and work right through the day without a stop," said John. "Food just appears in front of me and I eat it - time means nothing to me while I'm working."

"Someone sent a copy of my book "Spainiard in the Works" back to me the other day. They complained I used bad language in the book. I returned the book to the agents with instructions to re-sell it.

We've often heard from reporters what they thought about The Beatles, but I'd never seen written what the Beatles thought about reporters. I asked John for his views.

"You can spot the good ones even in a crowded reception hall," said John. "You'll be saying something which no one else is writing down but just one or two reporters. I've seen enough journalists to recognize those who know what we're all about."

"Better tell him he's in' or you'll hurt his feelings," added Paul nodding at me.

"He wouldn't be here if he wasn't," retorted John.

Other subjects covered during the course of the afternoon comprised of Marxism, Royality, Hairdressers, Eastern Philosophy, Cars, Clothes and why John was wearing a T-Shirt labelled 'Lord John'.

The question of the musical which J and P want to write arose as I was about to leave. Paul commented sadly upon the scheme.

"I think we are resigned to the fact that this can not come about until The Beatles are disbanded. Then and only then will we have time to work on compositions."

When will The Beatles retire as a group? It could be next week because with this group the unexpected is always to be expected.

Source: Original magazine issue (Flip)

The Beatles are not at the studio today, and will be back later in the week.

The Beatles in-between recording at EMI Studios in London

Studio Three, EMI Studios, London

By making Help! a seven-song Beatles album and reducing Rubber Soul to 12 songs (two of those refugees from the British Help! LP) Capitol Records had, by 1966, almost enough material to compile a new album of songs unissued in the US to that time. There were eight available, three more would be ideal, so an application was made for three of the new Revolver recordings to be sent across for release a few months earlier than planned. The answer was positive and mono mixes and edits made this day of "Doctor Robert", "I'm Only Sleeping" and "And Your Bird Can Sing", were done for just a purpose.

Yesterday....And Today was issued by Capitol on Monday, June 20th, but these three songs were later mixed again for the British Revolver LP, causing some slight differences between the two sets.

The Beatles taking a break in-between recording at EMI Studios in London

The Beatles taking a break in-between recording at EMI Studios in London.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

Ten piano/drum takes of another superbly crafted Paul McCartney ballad, "For No One", formed the basis of this night session, Paul overdubbed a clavichord track and Ringo added cymbals, maracas, hi-hat and tambourine onto take ten. There was no role for either John or George in the recording of "For No One'.

Paul added his lead vocal as an overdub on May 16th and the song's fine French horn solo was taped three days after that.

In between recordings at EMI Studios in London.

A previously unreleased letter that George Harrison wrote to Atlanta DJ Paul Drew in May of 1966 reveals that the Beatles seriously contemplated recording at Stax in Memphis with producer Jim Stewart before the plan was derailed by financial issues. "We would all like it a lot," Harrison wrote by hand, "but too many people get insane with money ideas at the mention of the word 'Beatles,' and so it fell through!"

Word of the proposed Stax sessions has circulated before, but it was always said they pulled out due to security issues. It was also never known they contemplated working with Jim Stewart as opposed to George Martin, the only producer they'd ever worked with until the end of their career three years later. 

The letter, which was postmarked May 7th, 1966, was written when the Beatles were in the early stages of recording Revolver. "The album we are making now should be out around October," Harrison wrote. "But I hear Capitol will make an intermediate album with unused tracks from Rubber Soul, a few old singles and about two or three of the new tracks we have just cut…Well I am off to the studio any minute, as soon as John and Ringo arrive." That "intermediate" album would eventually be released as Yesterday and Today.

"The general assessment is that Capitol did pretty much whatever they wanted with Beatles records," Gold says. "To see that George had a very specific understanding of what Yesterday and Today was going to be before it came out was kind of a revelation too. It surprised me."

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

Recording for I'm Only Sleeping concluded on this day, with the addition of vocals by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

The day began with the creation of two reduction mixes, the second of which was preferred, to combine the previous day's backwards guitar solos onto one track of the four-track tape.

Onto track four Lennon double-tracked his lead vocals in places (the main lead part had been added on April 29, 1966), while McCartney and Harrison simultaneously performed harmonies.

I'm Only Sleeping was mixed in mono on 12 May and 6 June, and in stereo on 20 May and 21 June.

Studio Three, EMI Studios, London

A 9:30 PM to 3:00 AM session in Studio Three of Abbey Road. Typically, when The Beatles decided to record a backwards guitar solo onto Take 11 of I'm Only Sleeping, they chose to do it the hard way. They figured out a pleasing sequence of notes and played them in reverse so that the solo would sound backwards, but still have the same melodic sound of a forwards-running tape. George Harrison spent this whole session recording not only one backwards guitar solo overdub, but another backwards solo to have the two superimposed on top of each other.

The Beatles are given permission to perform in Japan.

Pattie posing at a press conference at the London Waldorf Hotel to launch the new blanket, Nightlong Bliss, by Morphy Richards.

Playhouse Theatre, London

The Beatles gave two sets of interviews for BBC radio programs on this day, at the Playhouse Theatre in London.

The first was for the 400th edition of Saturday Club. The Beatles discussed their work so far on the as-yet-untitled Revolver, along with the forthcoming US tour and their lower public profile in 1966. The interviewer was Brian Matthew.

Afterwards Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr remained behind to be interviewed again by Matthew for Pop Profile, a show for the BBC Transcription Service to be syndicated overseas. John Lennon and George Harrison had made a similar appearance on November 30, 1965.

The pair were interviewed separately. Starr's was recorded from 5pm, and McCartney's from 5.30pm, both lasting 15 minutes but later edited down to eight. The interviews were posted to participating stations worldwide later in May 1966 on 7" vinyl discs.

The 400th edition of Saturday Club, meanwhile, was broadcast from 10am-midday on 4 June on the BBC Light Programme service.

Empire Pool, Wembley

A fourth and final appearance at the New Musical Express Annual Pool-Winner's All Star Concert, this time the 1965-66 version, performed before an audience of 10,000 during this Sunday afternoon. It was also the Beatles' last live concert in Britain, a short set in which they delivered "I Feel Fine", "Nowhere Man", "Day Tripper", "If I Needed Someone" and "I'm Down".

The group were on a bill which also included The Spencer Davis Group, The Fortunes, Herman's Hermits, Roy Orbison, The Overlanders, The Alan Price Set, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, The Rolling Stones, The Seekers, The Small Faces, Sounds Incorporated, Dusty Springfield, Crispian St Peters, The Walker Brothers, The Who, The Yardbirds and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. The comperes were Peter Murray and Jimmy Savile.

Although ABC TV was filming the concert, Brian Epstein failed to reach an agreement over terms, so the cameras were turned off while The Beatles performed. The group were, however, filmed receiving their poll awards.

APRIL 30, 1966 KRLA BEAT MAGAZINE

Studio Three, EMI Studios, London

Vocal overdubbing onto "Eleanor Rigby" was the main task today in this 5:00pm to 1:00am session, after which the recording was considered complete and mixed into mono. (A further overdub on June 6th rendered this mix redundant, though, and a new one was made on June 22nd for inclusion on the LP)

Following this work, John added his lead vocal onto the previously recorded "I'm Only Sleeping", the first of three overdub sessions for the song.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

The first session for Paul McCartney's most famous and best-loved songs, Elanor Rigby, took place on this day, with the recording of the string octet backing.

The session was a short one, beginning at 5pm and finishing at 7.50pm. A string octet had been booked, featuring four violins (played by Tony Gilbert, Sidney Sax, John Sharpe and Jurgen Hess), two violas (Stephen Shingles and John Underwood), and two cellos (Derek Simpson and Norman Jones).

The performers were each given a standard Musicians' Union fee of £9 for their work, and performed a score written by George Martin. Two brief rehearsals took place, with and without vibrato, and the musicians opted to play without.

Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney were present at the studio, but remained in the control room of Studio Two. George Martin was on the studio floor conducting the musicians.

The strings were recorded with a close microphone technique, giving them a timbre different from anything that had previously been heard.

Fourteen takes of the strings backing were recorded, the last of which was the best. The instruments were recorded two per track, and a reduction mix - numbered take 15 - was made at the end of the session to free up three further tracks.

A new mix of the instrumental backing was made in 1995 for the Anthology 2 collection, presenting the strings in full stereo for the first time.

The picture below is from the graveyard next to the church where Paul and John met. However, Paul said in later interviews that the line in the song had nothing to do with the grave that he could remember, but maybe subconciously he did.

Studio Three, EMI Studios, London

The Beatles were not only attending mix sessions, but also to make presence felt is clear from this day's studio documentation. One mix of "Taxman", one of "And Your Bird Can Sing" and nine of "Tomorrow Never Knows" was produced between 6:00 and 11:30 pm, yet none was used for the finished album.

Between 11:30 and 3:00 am, the Beatles started work on a new song, John's dreamy "I'm Only Sleeping", taping 11 takes of a mostly acoustic basic track. Overdubs were added on April 29th and May 5th and 6th.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

Booked for 2:30-5:30 and 7:00-10:00 pm, the Beatles got thoroughly stuck into this day's re-make of John's "And Your Bird Can Sing", working uninterrupted from 2:30 pm until 2:45 the following morning. They recorded 11 more takes of the song's rhythm track and overdubbed onto what they considered to have been the "best" of these, take ten.

(An interesting blend of lead guitar vamping and Paul's bass guitar notes ended the song, and the best version of this section came in take six, so future mixes combined the two elements.)

Two rough mono mixes of "Got To Get You Into My Life", without echo or the Beatles' attendance, were made this day at EMI, 10:00-11:00 am, for the purpose of cutting acetates.

Nothing much going on today

Another day off recording at the studio

The Beatles decided to take a break today. After all, it's the weekend.

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

A

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

George's wonderfully sardonic "Taxman" was virtually completed during a 2:30 pm-12:50 am session, in which the Beatles recorded 11 takes of the rhythm track and then set about overdubbing onto the last of these.

By the end, the song lacked only the final session's spoken count-in, the "Mister Wilson, Mister Health" regrain which extended the fame of Britain's two most prominent politicians right around the world, a cowbell and the distinctive guitar solo outro. (This solo was in fact a copy of the middle-eight piece, edited onto the end of the the song during the final mono and stero mix on June, 21st).

Studio Two, EMI Studios, London

Two new songs were begun in this 2:30pm to 2:30 am session, although both would be re-made for record release. The lion's share of the 12 hours was devoted to John's "And Your Bird Can Sing", taping two takes and then, considering it complete, producing mono mixes of the "best", take two. However, a re-make was recorded on April 26th.

Four rehearsal rhythm track takes of George's "Taxman" were taped towards the end of the session but recording started fresh the next day.