THE INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS OF SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (REPRISE).

Track 12 – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise): Most reviewers fail to comment much on this track due to realizing that its only intended purpose was to quickly tie the album together, giving the illusion that the album was a ‘concept album’ of sorts. As an album, “Sgt. Pepper” doesn’t easily fall into the category of ‘rock opera’ or ‘concept album’ as does “Tommy,” “Quadrophenia” or the endless others that have graced the musical landscape over the years, successfully or otherwise. However, “Pepper” predates all of these and has played a notable role in paving the way for The Who and many others to feel compelled to take the intended idea to a far greater level.

Therefore, we can credit the inclusion of “Sgt. Pepper (Reprise)” as the glue that keeps the ‘concept’ illusion real for the listener, reminding us that tracks like “She’s Leaving Home,” “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!” and “Within You Without You,” and the rest, were all various acts taking the stage on this extraordinary show. And lest we forget the exuberant performance they displayed on the song. Credit where credit is surely due!

After over four months of being virtually locked up inside of EMI recording studios, The Beatles met up once again in the studio to start and finish their final song for the “Sgt. Pepper” album. This day was April 1st, 1967, this session beginning sometime after 7 pm and lasting until 6 am the following morning.

Geoff Emerick, in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” gives his first-hand account of the recording process on this day:  “The ‘live audience’ segue between the theme song and ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ had worked out so well that we now had to come up with something equally spectacular for the end of the album, just before ‘A Day In The Life,’ which would be the obvious closer. And so it was that a full month after the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ theme was initially recorded, the four Beatles returned to the studio to reprise their performance, but with several differences. The first was that, with the end of the album in sight, everyone was really energized…and in a hurry to get it done quickly. Paul, in fact, was scheduled to fly to the U.S. just two days later – a trip he had no intention of postponing because it would reunite him with his girlfriend, Jane Asher after several months apart.”

Regarding this trip to America, Mark Lewisohn, in his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” states that “Paul had planned to fly out to the USA on 3 April – staying until the 12th – and the master tape had been promised to EMI in between.”  It appears that EMI did not get the master tape within this time frame since the stereo mix of “Sgt. Pepper (reprise)” did not get done until April 20th, not to mention the recording of the “Inner Groove” which wasn’t recorded until April 21st, well after Paul returned from America. Also, noteworthy about this trip was Paul’s idea for a “Magical Mystery Tour” film which he conceived on the return flight.

Geoff Emerick continues: “The second difference was that, on such short notice, George Martin had been unable to book Studio Two.  Other EMI artists had been bumped for The Beatles so often that they were starting to resent it; whoever had been previously booked in had obviously refused to give up their time. As a result, we were forced to use the cavernous Studio One, which was probably the least conducive place in the Abbey Road complex to recording a high-energy rock song.”

“Finally, we all had to come in on a Saturday. As long and as crazy as the ‘Pepper’ sessions had been over the past four months, The Beatles had stuck rigidly to a weekdays-only schedule, usually working three to four nights a week. We’d all come to count on the weekends as a time to unwind and relax, and to get some distance from the intense work we were doing. But there was no choice in the matter, so we all trundled in on April Fool’s Day for what would turn out to be a momentous session.”

“The acoustics of Studio One were far too reverberant for a loud rock band, so I knew that I had to make some special arrangements in advance. First, I had Richard (Lush), and the maintenance engineer on duty gather up all the available tall screens and build a kind of hut, thus creating a smaller room within a room.  Then I asked Mal and Neil to set up the drums and amplifiers very near one another so that there would be minimal delay on the signal that would inevitably spill between the mics, and I arranged The Beatles themselves in a semicircle so they could all see one another.”

“It took a lot of effort to tame that room, but it was worth it – the sound we got that day was tight and ballsy. It didn’t exactly match the sound of the rest of the album, which was almost entirely recorded in Studio Two, but it wasn’t awash in reverb, either, which is what would have happened if I hadn’t screened off one small area for them to play in.  As it is, whatever reverb exists on the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ reprise is actually the sound of the huge room itself – there was no need to add any echo chamber when the tracks were mixed.”

“Everybody was really upbeat that day, and it shows. The vibe was fantastic, and the energy was even higher than in the first version. It was a great rhythm track, and I could feel the excitement building from the very first moment, even in Paul’s count-in, which had a tremendous energy of its own. The Beatles played the whole thing live, just two guitars, bass, and drums – the old-school lineup they had used for years – with just a single keyboard overdub.  Ringo was pounding the hell out of his drums – he was even stomping on the bass drum pedal harder than usual.  In fact, everyone was playing full-out.  Considering that they’d all been cloistered in the studio for so long, pouring their hearts and souls into the album, it really was incredible how good and tight their playing was.”

The instrumentation was the usual Paul on bass, Ringo on drums, John on electric rhythm guitar and George playing a surprisingly vibrant lead guitar part live despite his heart being “in India” during this time as he readily admits. No vocals were officially recorded during the rhythm track, only Paul’s guide vocals to keep them on track.  Nine takes of the rhythm track were recorded, the final one being deemed the best.

The above quote from Geoff Emerick, however, contains what appears to be mistake concerning the “keyboard overdub.” Upon listening to “take five” of the nine takes as included on the album “Anthology 2,” we can hear five instruments clearly:  two electric guitars, bass, drums and a Hammond organ (identified as Hammond in Andy Babiuk’s book “Beatles Gear”). This take is described as a live performance and, since there was at least one obvious flaw in George’s lead guitar playing on this take, it appears that they wouldn’t have overdubbed a Hammond organ part on top of a take that was unusable. Therefore, the Hammond organ part could not have been an overdub. The identity of the musician who played the organ on this live performance is in question. It seems most likely that it was George Martin, who was accustomed to providing keyboard work on Beatles recordings throughout their career, including various other tracks on the “Sgt. Pepper” album.

However, overdubs that were recorded onto “take nine” included Ringo playing tambourine and maracas. The book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” also stipulates the overdub of “all four Beatles chanting out the quick-paced vocals,” apparently Ringo included!

The “Sgt. Pepper” album is known for its extravagant layering of sounds, which usually called for repeated use of “bounce downs” to open up more tracks for overdubs, them of course still using only a four-track machine at this point.  Mark Lewisohn points out, however, that this was “the only song on the LP not to be ‘bumped’/reduced on the four-track machine. It was a straightforward rock recording; there was no time for niceties and frills.”

“There were all sorts of nice little touches on that song,” Emerick continues.  “The more you listen to it, the more you hear.  I always enjoyed Lennon’s playful ‘good-bye-ee,’ ad-libbed right at the beginning, and, in the last chorus, where it sounds like Paul is off mic, that’s just leakage from his guide vocal track onto the drum overhead mic. It was just something I could never get rid of, so we ended up not worrying about it, kind of like Mal’s (Evans) count during the twenty-four-bar buildup in ‘A Day In The Life.’”  The vocal leakage Geoff Emerick is mentioning, which is during the final “hearts…club…band” section of the song, is heard very prominently on the mono mix but apparently, he did find a way to mask most of it on the stereo mix.

Emerick concludes, “With time pressure on, the entire song was completed – overdubs, mix, and all – in a single long session. The album release date was drawing near, and in between takes, the band was going through contact sheets for the album cover and reviewing design ideas for the gateway sleeve and giveaways they were planning on including.” It took nine tries to create the mono mix at the end of this session, which was created by George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and Richard Lush. The ninth mix was viewed as the best and was used on the album, them overdubbing audience sounds and cheering throughout the song in the process. Note that audience cheering comes in abruptly as if they turned on the tape machine instead of fading it into a sound more realistic. Also, just before the guitars kick in at the beginning, we hear a burst of laughter from the audience as we did midway through the original “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” theme. A good amount of ADT (“artificial double tracking”) was also applied to this mono mix.

The stereo mix of the song, the last stereo mix made for the album, was made on April 20th, 1967 in the control room of EMI Studio Three by the same team of Martin, Emerick, and Lush. Ten attempts were made, the last being the one used on the album.  The perfect matching of the clucking hen that concluded the song “Good Morning Good Morning” and the first George Harrison guitar note of “Sgt. Pepper (Reprise)” was undoubtedly discovered and manipulated on this day.  (See the review of “Good Morning Good Morning” for details.)  Noticeably different audience effects were superimposed on this mix, only subdued audience noise being heard at the beginning (not cheering as on the mono mix) and is faded in gradually to sound much more realistic. Also, no burst of laughter is heard during the intro of the song this time around. Surprisingly, most everything is centered in this stereo mix, except for Ringo’s maraca and tambourine overdubs which are placed entirely in the left channel. Very little ADT (if any) was used in the making of this stereo mix.

Another mono mix was made sometime in late 1995 by George Martin and Geoff Emerick, this being the above mentioned “take five” of the rhythm track, with Paul’s guide vocal still intact, as included on “Anthology 2.”

Also, sometime between 2004 and 2006, George Martin and his son Giles Martin reconvened at Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Studios) to create yet another full stereo mix of the song for the soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil production of “Love.” With the brass from “Hey Jude” still lingering in the air from the previous track on the album, this new “Sgt. Pepper (Reprise)” mix is virtually audience free except for a tiny bit of applause tacked onto the last seconds of the song. They also worked at entirely removing Paul’s vocals from the rhythm track, but a small amount still surfaced. This mix made it onto the resulting “Love” album in 2006.

Paul also made new recordings of the song during various live performances, the first being part of a medley of the “Pepper” theme song and the “Reprise” as heard on both the double “Tripping The Live Fantastic” album and “Tripping The Live Fantastic: Highlights!” single disc. A new recording of the song, which was paired with the song “The End,” was included on both the albums “Back In The U.S.” and “Back In The World.” A further live recording of the “Pepper/End” medley was included on the album “Good Evening New York City.”

Be sure to join me tomorrow for a thorough account in creating ‘A Day In The Life’.

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