SEXY SADIE AND ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

Although John abandoned his "Maharishi, what have you done" song in place of the title "Sexy Sadie" at the request of George Harrison in April of 1968, John still recorded a half sung, half spoken demo sometime in May of 1968 that recounted his disillusioned feelings about his trip to India.  This demo occurred in John's home studio at his Kenwood residence, Yoko adding a few vocal interjections.  This recording, available in bootlegs, has no resemblance to "Sexy Sadie" at all but has been viewed by many as a precursor to this "White Album" track because of its subject content.  In any event, it makes for an interesting listen.

John recorded an official demo version of “Sexy Sadie” with all lyrics in place on May 29th, 1968 at George Harrison's 'Kinfauns' home.  The Beatles met here to record onto George's Ampex four-track machine what songs they had recently written for consideration for their next album, this becoming the “White Album.”  This demo consists of John double-tracking himself on acoustic guitar and vocals with slight accompaniment on maracas and bongos (or the back of an acoustic guitar) by quite probably Paul and Ringo.  The lyrics were all in place, but the arrangement and structure needed to be fleshed out in the studio.

The first time John brought “Sexy Sadie” into EMI Studios happened on July 19th, 1968, the group entering Studio Two at about 7:30 pm for what became a rather impromptu session that lasted until 4 am the following morning.  The demonstration mentioned above of the crude “Maharishi” version of the song was captured on tape on this day, resulting in Paul suggesting “that perhaps it was better that the song was now more sympathetic,” as Mark Lewisohn states in the book “The Beatles Recording Sessions.”

With George Martin and the engineers in place, the majority of the day was spent jamming on various things that popped into The Beatles' minds, some of which made it onto a personal tape The Beatles wanted to be compiled of “interesting bits and pieces.” Mark Lewisohn was treated to (or subjected to) a listen to the entire contents of this day's activities on tape.  In his “Recording Sessions” book, he states that it included “more crude run-throughs of 'Sexy Sadie' with plenty of good-humored Lennon cusses, a new two-verse spur-of-the-moment Lennon song rather uncomplimentary to the memory of Brian Epstein and to his brother Clive, and then a near six-minute instrumental jam of George Gershwin's 'Summertime,' doubtless inspired by the 1958 rock version – albeit not an instrumental – by Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps.”

After this shenanigan was over, The Beatles ran through 21 proper takes of “Sexy Sadie,” although these recordings sounded more like a rehearsal than a strict attempt at recording the song.  The instrumentalists consisted of John on electric guitar and lead vocals, Paul on organ, George on acoustic guitar and Ringo on drums.  The first take began with John yelling up to the producer in the control room “See if we're all in tune, George!” and the last track ended with John stating, “I don't like the sound very much for a kick-off.  Does anybody?”  The tape stopped before an audible answer was heard, but apparently, all agreed they would begin fresh at a future time.

Evidence of what they recorded on this day appears on the “Anthology 3” album, take 6, which faded out early because “the coda had not been finalized,” as Mark Lewisohn states in the album's liner notes. In fact, the lengths of the song on the takes recorded on this day varied from 5:36 to 8 minutes, indicating they didn't quite know how to bring the song to a conclusion as of yet.  One indication of this was a suggestion by Yoko that was captured on tape during their listening to a playback of the days' recordings, saying that they could do the song better.  John answered, “Well, maybe I can.”

Five days later, on July 24th, 1968, they started from scratch on “Sexy Sadie.”  They entered EMI Studio Two at around 7 pm and recorded 23 more takes of the song, labeled 'takes 25 through 47' (skipping number 22 through 24 for some reason).  The instrumentation was the same as before, John on guitar and vocals, Paul on organ, George on guitar and Ringo on drums.  Evidence of them still struggling with the song is heard at the end of 'take 28' where John calls up to the control room, “Were any of them any good?”  “Take 47” was labeled best on this day, but by 2:30 am the following day after some unused sound effects were recorded, the session ended with nothing ever being officially released from this day's efforts.

“Sexy Sadie” was then put on the back-burner for about three weeks with attention given to various other songs, the most noteworthy being “Hey Jude.”  Then, on August 13th, 1968, they returned their attention to the song, recording a re-remake from scratch.  The group entered EMI Studio Two at around 7 pm and, starting off at a rounded-off number “take 100,” they recorded eight more attempts of the rhythm track, the final “take 107” most considered the best.  The instrumentation consisted of John on acoustic guitar and vocals, George on electric guitar through a rotating Leslie speaker, Paul on piano through an echo effect, and Ringo on drums.  With all four tracks of the tape filled, a reduction mix was needed to open up more tracks for overdubs; four attempts were made (labeled 'takes 108 through 111').  The group then took to recording yet another Lennon composition entitled “Yer Blues” until 5:30 am the following morning when they called it for the night.

An extensively long recording session on August 21st, 1968 (nearly 12 hours long) brought “Sexy Sadie” to its final releasable state.  The session began at 7:30 pm in EMI Studio Two while awaiting George Harrison's return from his visit to Greece on this day. The reduction mixes done at the previous session were deemed unusable for some reason, so another tape reduction of “take 107” was done, this becoming “take 112.”  Onto this, engineers recorded another John Lennon lead vocal and an organ part from Paul.  All four tracks filled again, so, three more attempts at a reduction mix occurred (numbered 113 through 115) which allowed Paul to overdub his bass guitar for the first time as well as a tambourine from Ringo.  Once again, the four tracks reached capacity, which required two more attempts at a reduction mix (numbered 116 and 117) to allow space for George to double-track his lead guitar for the song's conclusion and for John and Paul to overdub some backing vocals, treated with a phasing effect. The song was now finally complete, the session ending with the official mono mix by George Martin and engineers Ken Scott and John Smith.  Five attempts took place at creating this mono mix, 'remix 5' lasted 39 seconds longer than what was eventually released on the “White Album” because of the inclusion of an instrumental bridge during the close of the song someone edited out on the released mono mix.  A tape copy of this longer mix was made on August 23rd, 1968 which was taken away by Mal Evans and given to Ringo who thereby gave it to his friend Peter Sellers, this extended version eventually surfaced on bootleg albums.  

The stereo mix of the song, with the instrumental bridge edited out, was made in the control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin and engineers Ken Scott and John Smith.  Subtle differences in the stereo mix are found in the song's introduction; an extra tapping sound appears as well as Paul's bass, which was faded down in the mono mix.

The Beatles touched on "Sexy Sadie" on January 29th, 1969 during their recording sessions at Apple Studios on Savile Row in London for what became the "Let It Be" album and film.  Of course, this session never saw an official release.

While there was no unaccompanied recording of the song by any of The Beatles, an interesting fact is that Ringo mentions the song's title in two of his solo recordings (“Devil Woman” from his 1973 album “Ringo” and “Drumming Is My Madness” from his 1981 album “Stop And Smell The Roses”) and George in one of his solo songs (“Simply Shady” from the 1974 album “Dark Horse”).

The structure for "Sexy Sadie" is somewhat typical for The Beatles and follows a 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ verse/ bridge' (or aabaab) with a simple introduction and faded instrumental conclusion.  One thing here that isn't typical is the omission of a concluding verse, although the conclusion actually consists of three instrumental renditions of the verse with little snippets of lyrics from the first and fourth verse thrown in by John.

The introduction is three measures long and is a near replication of what is heard as measures three through five in each of the verses.  Paul's piano is the primary focus here, being augmented by some clicks and a couple tambourine hits from Ringo's overdub, as well as Ringo's introductory drum fill in the third measure which brings us nicely into the first verse.

This verse, as well as all the others, are seven measures long and begins with John on single-tracked lead vocals and quiet rhythm guitar, Paul's piano being the lead instrument along with his overdubbed bass guitar thumping out an impressive (mostly) eighth-note melody line, and Ringo's hi-hat-based simple 4/4 drum beat.  George's guitar is present as well, but is discernible only periodically, such as at the end of the second measure.  Ringo puts forth a drum fill at the end of the third and seventh measures which both consist of a hi-hat splash followed by a simple fill on mostly the snare drum.  John's vocals become double-tracked in the fifth measure for the line “you've made a fool of everyone,” which ushers in John and Paul's backing vocals for the sixth and seventh measures, their melody line consisting of descending eighth-note “wah-wah”s.  John's vocals then return to single tracked for the final portion of the verse, this time being “oh, what have you done.”

Verse two is similar in most respects, the continuation of the background vocal “wah-wah”s from the first verse into the second measure of this verse identifies one difference.  Ringo performs similar drum fills in the third and seventh measures but adds an additional one in the fifth measure which doesn't include the hi-hat splash as the others have.  It appears that the only double-tracking of John's vocals in this verse is on the word “see” in the sixth measure while the background vocals repeat their performance from the first verse but as “see, see, see” this time around.

The first bridge is heard next, which is five measures long.  Ringo's beat throughout the bridge in focused on the snare and kick drum only without any use of cymbals whatsoever.  George plays a fragrant winding lead guitar passage throughout the chord changes of this bridge.  The overdubbed background vocals play a somewhat big role in this section of the song, slowly holding out the syllables of “se – xy – sad – ie” throughout the first two measures and then, in the fifth measure, quickly singing “Sexy Sadie – she's the greatest,” mimicking John's lead vocals at that point. Double-tracking is evident in most of John's lead vocals during the bridge, but Paul's piano work is pushed more in the background revealing his Hammond organ chords instead as a backdrop to the proceedings.

Next comes the third verse, which begins with the background vocals returning to “wah-wah”s into the second measure.  Ringo keeps up the snare and kick drum pattern for the first measure of this verse which then results in him performing a drum fill at the end of this first measure to go back to his hi-hat drum pattern from the previous verses, he then adding another drum fill in the fifth measure.  Paul puts in a frilly piano accent at the end of the second measure while John's lead vocals go in-and-out of double-tracking throughout the verse, most notable on the final line “oh, how did you know.”  The background vocals kick back in with “wah-wah”s in the sixth and seventh measures as in the first verse.

The fourth verse is also similar in many respects, Ringo performing fills in the third, fifth and seventh measures again as he did in the second verse.  Paul's frilly piano accent is heard again in the second measure but more prominently this time.  The background “wah-wah”s proceed in the usual places, measures one, two, six and seven, while John's vocal double-tracking still lingers periodically as on the phrase “big you are” in the second measure.  This goes directly into the second bridge which is virtually a repeat of the first bridge except for the different lyrics.

This moves into the song's conclusion which, as stated above, is an instrumental version of the verse repeated three times.  (An instrumental bridge was also recorded here but edited out during mixing, as discussed above.)  The first measure of the first instrumental verse features the background vocalists quickly singing “Sexy Sadie, she's the latest and the greatest of them all” as John had just sung at the end of the second bridge.  Ringo then comes out of the bridge in the same way as he did from the first bridge, drum fill and all.  After a falsetto “Woooo” from John in the second measure, George begins an iconic double-tracked winding guitar figure that nicely permeates the song until it finally fades away.  The tambourine finally makes a reappearance in the song in the fifth measure of this conclusion and continues then throughout the rest of the recording.

In the fifth and sixth measures of the first instrumental verse, John reprises the line he sang in that spot in the first verse, namely “you made a fool of everyone,” followed by an almost whispered “Sexy Sadie” in the seventh measure.  He repeats the process in the next instrumental verse, singing what he sang in the fourth verse, “however big you think you are.”  Other notable features of this conclusion include Ringo adding an interesting added hi-hat beat at the end of many measures as well as various drum fills until the song concludes.  Paul noodles around on the piano throughout this conclusion as well as plays chords on his overdubbed Hammond organ, thereby revealing Paul playing two keyboards simultaneously as well as bass guitar during this section of the song.

After around thirty-five hours of studio time, all four Beatles became well acquainted with the song and put in a well-seasoned performance among all the “clowning around” that transpired during these sessions, as Ian MacDonald called it in his book “Revolution In The Head.”  Lyrically, it is interesting, as well as unfortunate, that John continues his usual misogynist view of women, even though the song isn't really about a woman at all. Other Lennon compositions, such as “Run For Your Life,” “You Can't Do That,” “Norwegian Wood” and “Girl” display his negative attitude toward the fairer sex at that time, and this is continued here with phrases like “however big you think you are...you'll get yours yet” and the sarcastic “she's the latest and the greatest of them all.” Fortunately, Yoko brought out much more of his feminist side in his solo career, such as in “Woman Is The Nigger Of The World.”

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