On May 28th, 1968, The Beatles gathered at George's 'Kinfauns'
house in Esher, Surrey, to record demo versions of songs that they had recently
written in preparation for recording their next album. As was usually the case when starting any
recording project, John would go first.
He recorded a number of new songs in a row on that day onto George's
Ampex four-track machine, the first, "Cry Baby Cry," indicating he
was especially proud of this song at the time.
John confidently plays acoustic guitar and sings on this demo
recording and then goes to the effort of double-tracking his vocals. This is a solo performance by John alone with
just some extraneous Beatle voices heard in the background at times. All the correct lyrics and chords are in
place at this point, but there are some variations to the arrangement. For instance, there is no opening chorus as
in the finished version; the first verse bears the first thing heard. And for
the final chorus, John plays it once through in the usual 4/4 time signature
and then changes it to 3/4 waltz time to repeat the chorus three more times
while omitting the final measure. He
then starts to perform the chorus a fifth time but only makes it about halfway
through until it falls apart, apparently assuming it will have faded out by
that time when the song winds up officially recorded.
Two days later, on May 30th, 1968, The Beatles entered EMI Studios
to start recording what eventually became the “White Album.” It wasn't until July 15th, 1968, however,
that they brought “Cry Baby Cry” into EMI Studio Two for the first time. Between these two dates, however, tensions
mounted and tempers flared between the group members, resulting in a
far-from-friendly atmosphere.
Engineer Geoff Emerick, in the book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,”
explains the events of an early recording session on this day: “I lost interest in the 'White Album' because
they were really arguing amongst themselves and swearing at each other. The expletives were really flying. There was one instance just before I left
when they were doing 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' for the umpteenth time. Paul was re-recording the vocal again, and
George Martin made some remark about how he should be lilting onto the
half-beat or whatever and Paul, in no refined way, said something to the effect
of 'Well you come down and sing it.'”
In his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” Emerick continues the
story. “Somehow I saw the session
through to its ragged conclusion. Paul
seemed to calm down a bit, though little else got accomplished that night other
than a few run-throughs of John's new song 'Cry Baby Cry.' Distracted and
distressed, I couldn't give it my full attention, though: the only thought that kept going through my
head was, 'I wonder if I'll ever get to finish this song.'” This evening
session, which ran from 9 pm to 3 am the following morning, comprised the group
going through approximately 30 unnumbered takes of the song which were
committed to tape but amounted to nothing more than rehearsals.
Geoff Emerick did show up at EMI Studio Two at 4 pm the following
day, July 16th, 1968, but not to continue work on “Cry Baby Cry” as The Beatles
intended. “The next afternoon, I walked
dejectedly into the control room, where both Richard (Lush) and George Martin
were sitting quietly,” Geoff Emerick continues.
“None of The Beatles had arrived yet: they were late as usual. I took a deep breath, and at last, the words
came out. 'That's it, George,' I
announced. 'I've decided I can't take it
anymore. I'm leaving.'...'What are you
talking about?' he said. 'You can't
leave in the middle of an album.' 'I
can, George, and I am.'” Geoff was asked
by studio manager Alan Stagge to stay on until the end of the week so they
could find a replacement, but he insisted on leaving immediately.
John Lennon's reaction to this news on this day, according to
Emerick, was as follows: “Come on,
Geoff, you can't be serious about this...We need you, man, you can't just walk
out on us in the middle of an album. I
mean, everyone always says what a great record 'Pepper' was, even though I
think it's the biggest load of sh*t we've ever done...Anyway, it's nothing
you're doing wrong, you know – it's just working in this sh*thole of a place.”
Engineer Richard Lush explains how The Beatles felt about their home
studios: “They always had a bee in their
bonnet about EMI being very organized and 'establishment.' They thought that we were like that too, and
of course, George Martin was very suit and tie.” Explaining how the staff would
all wear white coats in a very stuffy atmosphere, engineer Martin Benge adds:
“They were never really at ease with all that.
I think they felt the place could be much more laid-back and relaxed and
much less formal, but that's the way Abbey Road was in those days.”
In any event, Geoff Emerick gave up his coveted role as chief
engineer for the greatest rock and roll band of all time. He did not work with the group again until
April 14th, 1969 for the recording of “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” and then
throughout the majority of the “Abbey Road” album.
On July 16th, 1968, however, with engineer Ken Scott filling in at
the last minute, The Beatles got to lay down ten official 'takes' of “Cry Baby
Cry,” the tenth one being deemed best.
'Take one,' as heard on the 1996 release “Anthology 3,” shows how the
arrangement was well worked out already on this day, the only noticeable
difference being a quick acoustic guitar introduction from John. The instrumentation consisted of John on
acoustic guitar and guide vocal, Paul on bass, George on organ and Ringo on
drums. With all the tracks filled on the
four-track tape, two attempts at a tape reduction were made to open up more
tracks for overdubbing which resulted in 'take 12' being the keeper. This first
recording session of the day ended at 9 pm, an hour break followed.
They all reconvened at 10 pm for a three-hour overdub session that
lasted until 2 am. The only overdubs recorded at this time were George Martin
on harmonium and John on piano.
There was no recording session for the next day due to The Beatles
attending the world premiere of the animated movie “Yellow Submarine.” However, the day after, July 18th, 1968, they
were back in EMI Studio Two at 2:30 pm to fill up the remaining tracks of “Cry
Baby Cry” with overdubs. John Lennon recorded
a new lead vocal (the guide vocal on the rhythm track for the first chorus),
Paul recorded backing vocals, George added occasional lead guitar lines, George
Martin added a new harmonium overdub, Ringo played tambourine, and all chimed
in with various 'tea-party' sound effects during the verse that detailed how
“The Dutchess of Kirkcaldy” arrives “late for tea.” At 9:30 pm, this session, and the song were
complete.
But not really! As
mentioned above, a small snippet of a tune unofficially titled by many “Can You
Take Me Back” was recorded on September 16th, 1968, in EMI Studio Two sometime
between 7 pm and midnight. The Beatles
(minus George) were in the process of recording Paul's song “I Will” when Paul
broke into an unrehearsed off-the-cuff song that contained the repeated lyric
“Can you take me back where I came from.”
This “song” was designated as 'take 19' and lasted 2:21, then copied
onto one of two “odds and ends” tapes they were keeping for posterity. The instrumentation consisted of Paul on
acoustic guitar and vocal, John on maracas and Ringo on bongos. We'll see how this converges with “Cry Baby
Cry” a little later.
The following day, September 17th, 1968, attention focused on the
original recording of “Cry Baby Cry” from July 18th, but for a different
reason. EMI Studios had finally
incorporated capabilities for eight-track recording, which proved a major
upgrade from four-track The Beatles had been using since late 1963. The thought surfaced that “Cry Baby Cry”
could use more overdubs, so a tape copy was made to facilitate eight-track
recording on the song. Sometime near 5
am during this late night session (which would in actuality be September 18th)
this tape copy occurred. However, in the end, most decided that “Cry Baby Cry”
sounded good enough the way it was and no additional overdubs were made, making
this tape copy useless.
Both the stereo and mono mixes of the song were done on October
15th, 1968 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin and engineers
Ken Scott and John Smith. John's acoustic guitar was flanged on both the stereo
and mono mixes on this day as well. It
took five tries to get a suitable stereo mix, the fifth attempt undoubtedly
being the best which panned the vocals predominantly to the left channel during
the choruses and centered in the mix during the verses. Only one remix was needed to get a suitable
mono mix on this day.
On the next day, October 16th, 1968, John and Paul met at EMI
Studios with George Martin, Ken Scott and John Smith for the long process of
putting together the running order of the album. This took place in the control rooms of
Studios One, Two and Three as well as Rooms 41 and 42, this procedure taking a
full 24 hours, from 5 pm until 5 pm the following day (October 17th), making
this the longest session The Beatles ever had.
"I remember arriving at the studios on Thursday, 17 October 1968, 9
pm, to find The Beatles still there," engineer Alan Brown recalls. "They had been there all night,
finalizing the master tapes for what we now call the 'White Album' and banding
it up (putting the songs in order and editing the master). They were all over the place, Room 41, the
front listening room, - anywhere - almost every room they could get. It was a frantic last-minute job."
It was on this day that a 28-second portion of the "Can You
Take Me Back" song snippet recorded September 16th, 1968 found its place
onto the end of "Cry Baby Cry" for both the stereo and mono
mixes. They apparently felt that a
direct segue from "Cry Baby Cry" into "Revolution 9"
wouldn't work well on its own, so this insertion was implemented to create a
suitably 'creepy' link-piece between the two tracks.
Sometime in 1996, George Martin returned to the master tape of
“Cry Baby Cry” to create a releasable version of 'take one' of the song for
inclusion on the compilation album “Anthology 3.” George also returned to these tapes with his
son Giles Martin sometime between 2004 and 2006 to use elements of “Cry Baby
Cry” in two tracks from the highly acclaimed album “Love.” George Martin's harmonium, as well as other
elements, appear on the track “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! / I Want You
(She's So Heavy) / Helter Skelter” and the “Can You Take Me Back” segment was
used on the track “Come Together / Dear Prudence – Cry Baby Cry (Transition)”
The structure for the main section of "Cry Baby Cry"
consists of only two elements repeated back and forth, namely 'chorus/ verse/
chorus/ verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ chorus/ chorus' (or
ababababaaa). No instrumental or solo
section was deemed necessary by John who decided just to keep his imaginary
story-line going nonstop.
The first chorus begins immediately on the downbeat, John's vocal
and flanged acoustic guitar appearing simultaneously with George Martin's
harmonium making its first appearance in the fourth through seventh
measure. This first chorus is only seven
measures long, one measure shorter than most of the choruses in the song. John omits the final lyric “so cry baby cry”
as heard in the other choruses to allow for the missing measure.
The first verse then appears which is eleven measures long, this
actually consisting of two sections that are six measures each, the last
measure of the second section lopped off as extraneous because of the second
chorus that follows. The first two
measures only contain John on vocal and acoustic guitar, this changing in the
third verse as Ringo first arrives in the song with snare drum tapping. The fourth measure brings in Paul on bass,
playing a throbbing rhythm which begins quietly and then swells in volume until
it descends again and disappears by the end of the sixth measure. John's piano overdub appears first in the
fifth measure and then continues throughout the rest of the verse, playing
descending bass notes in measures seven through ten and then a silly fumbling
figure after the lyric mentions the Queen “playing piano.” Paul's bass repeats the throbbing rhythm
during the tenth and eleventh measures.
The second chorus is next, which is now a full eight measures in
length. John's vocals are now treated
with a good amount of ADT (“Artificial Double Tracking”) to give it a fuller
sound. John plays piano throughout this
chorus while Ringo plods heavily with a snare and kick drum beat as well as a
tambourine overdub. John is still on
acoustic guitar while Paul kicks in on bass, Ringo adding a nice drum fill in
the final measure.
The second verse, which is also eleven measures long as all the
rest are, has full instrumentation this time around. This consists of John on piano and vocals (no
acoustic guitar this time), Paul on bass playing a more regular pattern, George
on organ focusing on the higher keys and Ringo playing a rhythmic drum beat
with interesting hi-hat accents. Ringo
performs a drum fill in the fourth measure and then a cymbal crash midway
through the fifth measure to create a climactic moment, reprising this in the
tenth and eleventh measures.
This is followed by another chorus which is nearly identical to
the previous one instrumentally. Noticeable
differences are Paul's backing vocals in the seventh and eighth measures on the
words “cry baby cry” and Ringo not performing a drum fill in the final measure
this time around.
The third verse is next which is a little more subdued in volume
to allow for the 'tea party' sound effects the group recorded to coincide with
the “Dutchess” arriving “late for tea,” these effects heard mostly in measures
one through four. The instrumentation is
similar to the previous verse but with certain differences, one being the
omission of George's organ which he replaces with two lead guitar passages in
measures five and six and then measure eleven.
This is followed by yet another chorus, Paul now beginning his harmony
in the fifth measure with the lyric “she's old enough to know better.” John here begins to add a noticeable vibrato
to his voice, detected mostly in the word “sigh-igh-igh-igh,” such as heard in
The Bee Gees' song “Words” which was a recent British Top Ten hit at that
time. Ringo once again decides not to
perform a drum fill in the final measure.
The fourth and final verse is also mostly subdued, Ringo only
hitting the ride cymbal on half notes during measures one through three and
then eighth notes in measures seven through nine, he performed his usual drum
fills and cymbal crashes in the usual places from the previous two verses. While Ringo is on the ride cymbal, the only
other instrumentation is Paul's bass and John's descending bass piano notes.
Interestingly, John performs a thumb roll on the piano during Ringo's drum fill
in the tenth measure, adding to the swell in volume at that point.
Next comes a three-times repeated chorus, the first two being
seven measures long and the third being the standard eight measures in
length. The instrumentation here is John
on vocals (still singing with vibrato) acoustic guitar and piano, Paul on bass
and harmony vocals and Ringo on drums and tambourine. Interestingly, Ringo performs a drum fill at
the end of where the eighth measure would be in the first two of these
choruses, giving the illusion of there being eight measures when in fact it's
in the first measure of the next chorus where he performs these drum
fills. The third chorus ends suddenly on
the eighth measure with all instruments ringing out on a minor chord, followed
by a bum note by John on piano.
This is then followed by an eighteen-measure rambling “can you
take me back” verse which consists of Paul on acoustic guitar playing a quarter
note pattern and vocals, John on maracas played on the quarter-note beats and
Ringo on bongos playing on the half-note beats.
This section works nicely here, especially because the beat
coincidentally is the same as the body of the song we just heard. It also creates a creepy atmosphere that
leads perfectly into the cacophony of sound that follows it on the album.
Stop by my blog next week and discover the intricate details
showcased upon “REVOLUTION 9.”
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