YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW: MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR’S TRACK 5 – UNFOLDING ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

After a two month break from recording, the Beatles disappointedly scheduled two more sessions at a studio they had never utilized before, Chappell Recording Studios in Central London. Engineer John Timperley, who worked on these sessions, explains: “Abbey Road kept busy and booked other artists on those two nights, but George Martin had been using our studio for quite a few of his other artists, and I had worked with him at Olympic and at IBC in the pre-Beatles days when Abbey Road was booked-up.” Also, Paul attended a session at these studios during the group’s two-month break, on July 20th, to contribute piano and adlib vocal sounds to The Chris Barber Band’s rendition of McCartney’s instrumental “Catcall” (formerly known as “Catswalk”). This recent familiarity with the studios possibly had something to do with The Beatles booking August 22nd and 23rd for starting Paul’s new composition “Your Mother Should Know.”

The time that the first session on August 22nd, 1967 began is unknown but, if old habits die hard, their usual 7 pm starting time is the probability. After some rehearsal, they ran through eight takes of the rhythm track on this day; the eighth scored ‘best.’  The instrumentation on these takes consisted of Paul on piano, Ringo on drums and someone (probably George) on rhythm guitar. At the end of ‘take 8,’ Paul played a simple rising four-note piano phrase which was then edited off of the finished product (but can be heard on bootlegs). It appears that John sat out on this session or was not present this day. No vocals were recorded at all at this point. It’s interesting to note here that Chappell’s standard practice was to record at a 30 ips tape speed, which is twice the 15 ips used at EMI Studios and thereby presented some transfer problems a little later on.

The following day, August 23rd, 1967, saw them once again using Chappell Studios, this being the final session visited by The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein before his death four days later (August 27th, 1967) of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills mixed with alcohol. “He came in to hear the playbacks looking extremely down and in a bad mood,” remembered John Timperley who was also engineering this session. “He just stood at the back of the room listening, not saying much.”

Probably starting at the usual 7 pm or so, the first point of business created a proper tape reduction of yesterday’s ‘take 8’ of the rhythm track to free up room on the four-track tape for overdubs. This brought the master of the song to ‘take 9,’ which vocal overdubs were then performed. Paul recorded his lead vocals plus answering “oooh”s whenever the title of the song was sung. Paul then double-tracked these vocals, intermittently harmonizing with himself on the “oooh”s. The next job was to record the background harmony vocals, these sung by Paul, John, and George. These background vocals include the intricate “oooh” harmonies that begin the song as well as the “your mother should…know” lyric lines sung at strategic spots in the song which all but covered up the “oooh” vocals Paul had just completed singing during his lead vocal tracks. The one exception to the harmony lyrics was “ye-ah,” which ends the song. This completed the session for the day.

Although much work had formed on “Your Mother Should Know” by this point, shortly thereafter it was decided that the previous sessions didn’t do the song justice and Paul wanted to start over from scratch. Therefore, over three weeks later, on September 16th, 1967, The Beatles entered EMI Studio Three at 7 pm (or thereabouts) to start again. Starting at number ‘take 20,’ they recorded eleven takes (20 through 30) of a new rhythm track with somewhat different instrumentation and arrangement. Paul sang a guide vocal while he played a harmonium, John played a “jangle piano,” George on bongos and Ringo on drums featuring a military-style snare beat at times. ‘Take 27,” which is featured on the “Anthology 2” compilation album, begins with Paul mockingly addressing producer George Martin with the words, “Do you want us to do it again, George?....okay.…with ciggy in mouth!” This take was temporarily marked as ‘best,’ and the session concluded at 3:45 am the following morning after some mono mixes, and tape copying of previously recorded “Magical Mystery Tour” songs were completed.

A week-and-a-half later, Paul decided that the original attempt of “Your Mother Should Know” recorded at Chappell Studios could be salvaged by adding some overdubs. Therefore, on September 29th, 1967, the group entered EMI Studio Two at around 7 pm to finish up the song, as well as create the landmark mono mix of “I AM THE WALRUS” complete with a radio transmission of Shakespear’s “The Tragedy Of King Lear” faded in and out. After this extensive mix was edited, at probably around 1 am the following morning, the original recording of “Your Mother Should Know” took their attention.

After three attempts at a tape reduction to free up more tracks (these documented as ‘takes 50 to 52’ for some exaggerated reason), the third tape reduction (‘take 52’) was ready for overdubs. Paul performed his bass part, John overdubbed an organ part mimicking Paul’s piano work from the rhythm track during the instrumental sections of the song, and Ringo added tambourine at various places in the song. What sounds like a tamboura drone in the final seconds of the song was most likely played by George at this overdub session (if it is a tamboura we hear …it’s not officially documented by any credible sources). With these overdubs performed, the song marked complete.

The first mono mix of the song finalized at the end of the session by George Martin along with engineers Ken Scott and, this mix numbered ‘take 20’ even though it was the first mix made of the song. The mix occurred with the machine running at 60 ½ cycles per second undoubtedly to compensate for the song recorded at a different ips at Chappell Studios a month prior. This was for naught, however, since the released mono mix took place at a later date. At any rate, the session for this day ended the following morning at 5 am.

October 2nd, 1967 became the day the released mono mix was made, in the control room of EMI Studio Two by the same recording staff. Five attempts entered into the board  (remixes 21 – 25), ‘remix 25’ won as ‘best.’  One noticeable feature of this mono mix is the ‘phasing’ which is dramatically present in the final verse.

The stereo mix developed on November 6th, 1967 in the control room of EMI Studio Three by George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and Ken Scott. Two attempts were made, the second being deemed the ‘best’ which readied the song for release. No phasing was heard in the final verse as was heard on the mono mix. The stereo landscape consists of the rhythm track and the bass guitar-centered in the mix while the organ and tambourine are found only in the right channel. They got very adventurous with the vocals, however, having all lead and background vocals in the left channel for the first and second verse, then panned to the right channel for the third verse, then panned back to the left channel for the phrase “sing it again” just before the final verse, and finally centered in the mix for the final “da, da, da, da” verse. Very tricky indeed!

A tape copy of the mono mix was then made by the same engineering staff in the control room of EMI Studio Two on November 7th, 1967 then given to Voyle Gilmore of Capitol Records for U.S. release.

The layout of “Your Mother Should Know” is actually quite simple, containing what amounts to a repeat of the same verse a few times with an instrumental interlude (we’ll call it a “bridge”) thrown in a couple of times. This appears as ‘verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ bridge/ verse’ (or aababa) with no need of an actual solo segment. But, expectantly for The Beatles, there are many variations thrown in to keep the song interesting.

First off, each verse differs in length, as we’ll discuss below. Secondly, the chord pattern found in each element of the song, verses, and bridges, displays a movement from a minor key at the beginning to a major key at the end, from A minor to C major in each instance. Add to these some subtle musical layering techniques here and there; the song leaves the impression that the listener has just heard another hummable well-written Beatles classic when upon examination, he’s basically just heard the same lyrics repeated four times. While both “Love Me Do” and “Do You Want To Know A Secret?” employ the same technique, at least these two songs had a lyrical bridge that added to the story a little. However, there’s more musically and structurally to “Your Mother Should Know” than meets the eye.

We start off the song with two measures of vamping by Paul on piano from the rhythm track, added to by his clever bass descending flourishes (the first of which is the first thing heard on the song) and oscillating backing vocals, all performed as overdubs. This slight minor-key introduction, only two measures long, is all they needed to set the stage.

The first verse comes next, which is eleven measures in length. On top of the piano vamping and bass work is Paul’s double-tracked lead vocals, making the first seven measures of the verse performed entirely by Paul. The eighth measure, however, brings in George on guitar and the background harmonies of John, Paul and George (John to the fore in falsetto) singing a staggered “your mother should…kno-ow.” The eleventh measure brings in Ringo on drums playing a typical swing-style beat using hi-hats while Paul invites himself (and the rest of us) to “sing it again.”

The second verse is identical to the first in most respects. The differences are that Ringo plays drums throughout the entire verse this time (notice his open hi-hat “swish” in the third measure) and Paul alters his bass pattern somewhat, abandoning his descending flourishes as heard in the introduction and opening measures of the first verse, now playing along with Ringo to complete the rhythm section of the song. The eleventh measure is dropped this time around, making this a ten-measure verse. Since an instrumental bridge is next heard, there is no need to invite us to “sing it again,” therefore no need for an eleventh measure. This facilitates the need for the background vocals to slide down the last word “know” as a transition to the bridge that follows.

This bridge is seven measures in length, the instrumentation lessened by the dropping off of Ringo’s drums and the guitar in order to highlight Paul’s sullen piano chords along with the addition of John on organ mimicking his piano part. The first measure works out to be in 6/4 time while the remaining measures return to the usual 4/4 pattern heard throughout the verses. A simple tambourine appears in the second through fifth measure of this bridge, played only on the three-beat of each of these measures and then disappears for a while. The drums and guitar reappear in the fifth measure to bring the mood back up for the remainder of the bridge and into the next verse.

The verse that follows is fourteen measures long this time, beginning with a slight change in lyrics. In order to bring us out of the dirge-like bridge we just heard, Paul appropriately sings “lift up your hearts and sing me a song.” The instrumentation in this third verse is identical to the first two with one curious addition. The third and fourth measure feature some taps on Ringo’s ride cymbal. Since these cymbal taps are centered in the mix like the drums were, and since we know that Ringo only has two arms and he’s using them both on the hi-hat and snare drum at this time, this was either performed as an undocumented overdub or someone went over to the drum set while Ringo was performing the rhythm track and tapped out a few beats on the cymbal. I suspect John doing this because it appears he sat out the rhythm track otherwise. And he was such a goofball anyway…it sounds like something he would do!

The third verse is longer because of a repeat of measures seven through ten, accentuating the title of the song a couple more times, then segues into another bridge which is identical to the first in all respects except for the final measure including Paul’s final invitation to “sing it again.”

This fourth and final verse extends to eighteen measures in length due to them repeating measures seven through ten twice this time, hammering in the key phrase of the song six times at the end instead of the usual two times. Paul alters the lyrics once again, “da-da”ing the words in the first four measures. John's organ continues out of the bridge this time and finishes out the song. The instrumentation ends on the downbeat of the eighteenth measure while the vocal harmonies add a distinctive Beatles-like “yea-ah” which becomes the finishing touch to the song. Also heard in the final seconds is a sound that can be interpreted as a droning tamboura, although it could just be the result of phasing as used extensively in the mono mix.

Paul is ‘center-stage’ once again, playing proficient piano and bass as well as singing appropriate to the occasion. John puts in a suitable organ contribution as well as putting in a campy performance on background harmonies. George’s guitar (if it is him) is almost indiscernible on the track, but his vocal harmonies are well done. Ringo’s drum work was perfunctory here, but that was all that was needed to suit the occasion.

The lyrics are simple enough for anyone to understand, Paul wanting us to either “sing” or “get up and dance” to a song that “your mother should know.” Interestingly, this song had to be “a hit before your mother was born,” but was one that she “should know” anyway. The listeners Paul is singing to better pick a very big hit, one that their mothers would have become familiar with even if it was before their time. Of course, there are many generations today who are very familiar with the Beatles catalog even though they were all hits before they were born, so this isn’t so far-fetched after all!

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