Apart from the studio time used for writing and rehearsing the newest
song written for Pattie Harrison, George's song "Something" was
purposely put down on tape in the studio first happened on February 25th, 1969.
The future of The Beatles loomed somewhat uncertain at this
point. The tapes from the month-long
“Get Back / Let It Be” sessions laid in a stack waiting for someone to go
through and put in a releasable state, something that would be toiled over and
then shelved because they were deemed unsuitable for public consumption. Legal problems were mounting regarding their
Apple enterprise as well as managerial decisions. John's primary focus sat on promoting his and
Yoko Ono's artistic and demonstrative exploits, his attention to The Beatles largely
pushed way in the back of his mind.
In the meantime, George had a small backlog of songs which he felt
somewhat strongly about, possibly wondering if he even had a band to record
them. Therefore, on his 26th birthday,
February 25th, 1969, George brought producer Glyn Johns, who The Beatles had
been working with during the “Get Back” sessions, and engineer Ken Scott into
one of the EMI Studios to record demos for three of his recently written
compositions, no doubt as kind of a birthday present to himself. “George's material wasn't really paid all
that much attention to,” Glyn Johns relates in Rolling Stones' “The Beatles:
100 Greatest Songs” special edition, “to such an extent that he asked me to
stay behind...He was terribly nice as if he was imposing on me.”
These demos were somewhat elaborate recordings using the studio's
eight-track recording equipment, George laying down multiple guitar parts,
vocals, and even piano at times. The
first demo recorded on this day was “Old Brown Shoe,” which did get officially
recorded by The Beatles in April and ended up as the B-side to “The Ballad Of
John And Yoko.” The second demo of the
day was the pretty “All Things Must Pass,” which the group did indeed pass on
altogether, George recording it himself the following year for his first
official solo album.
The third demo recorded during this February session, however, was
the gorgeous “Something,” which was a very simple but effective version that
does very well in bringing out the beauty of the melody. This was the least elaborate of the demos he
recorded, just a simple electric guitar and lead vocal. During the bridge, George simply sings “doo,
doo, doo” to simulate the descending notes he wanted to appear there. And during the solo verse, George vocally ad
libs what some consider a lost verse which consists of the following
lyrics: “You know I love that woman of
mine / and I need her all of the time / you know I'm telling you / that woman,
that woman don't make me blue.” All of
the other lyrics have been written at this point and are in their proper place
on this demo. George, however, had not
worked out the dramatic conclusion of the song yet, this being figured out in
the studio in later months. This demo
ended with another verse played instrumentally with George adding in a final
“you know I believe and how” just before he concludes the song with his final
riff with a subtle raised chord as a nice touch. Beauty at its finest!
By mid-April, in the midst of business meetings and flared
tempers, John and Paul did return to the studio to record a brand-new
composition of John's that he was excited about titled “The Ballad Of John And
Yoko.” With this as a catalyst, George
thought to get the four of them together a couple days later, on April 16th,
1969, to officially start work on a couple of his demos from February. They entered EMI Studio Three at 7 pm to
start work on “Old Brown Shoe,” which was George's primary focus on this day. After some extensive work on this song,
George turned their attention once again to “Something.”
They recorded thirteen takes of “Something” on this day, these
consisting of George on guitar, George Martin on piano, Paul on bass and Ringo
on drums, yet no vocals at this point.
John was still present but did not contribute to the song as he had done
on “Old Brown Shoe” in the earlier portion of this session. All of the work they had done on
"Something" on this day was for naught, unfortunately, because none
of these takes were deemed worthy enough for overdubs, the session ending at
2:45 am the following morning after stereo mixes of “Old Brown Shoe” met
approval. George's beautiful ballad was
put on the back-burner once again for another two weeks or so.
The Beatles, however, were back on a roll. With the possible thought of recording new
songs to spruce up the yet-to-be-released “Get Back / Let It Be” album, they
started working on new material. This
being the case, George thought to try again with “Something,” starting from
scratch in EMI Studio Three on May 2nd, 1969, the session beginning around 7
pm.
Totally disregarding the thirteen takes of the song they attempted
two weeks prior, the takes of this remake of “Something” began at 'take one'
again, a total of 36 recorded takes occurred this time around. The instrumentation played on the official
rhythm track, also recorded on this day, has been debated by different sources,
but all the evidence, audio as well as documentation, suggests the
following: George on electric guitar,
Paul on bass, John on piano, Ringo on drums and Billy Preston on Hammond
organ. No vocals were present on the
recording as of yet.
The group took a two-hour break between 11 pm and 1 am, they
resuming the rhythm track takes until 'take 36' was decided upon as the
best. However, at the conclusion of this
take, as with at least some others of these takes, John led the group through
what Mark Lewisohn describes in his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” as “a
long, repetitious and somewhat rambling, piano-led four-note instrumental fade-out,”
which extends 'take 36' from 3:00 to 7:48.
This piano doodling from John eventually became the four-chord riff that
permeates his solo song “Remember” from his highly renowned 1970 album “Plastic
Ono Band.” This, as well as the somewhat
simplistic piano work, heard on
“Something,” reveals that it was indeed John on the piano during these rhythm
track takes and not Billy Preston as Mark Lewisohn suggests in his writings.
It is audibly obvious, also, that an actual Hammond organ played
with much finesse is heard on this rhythm track and not George on guitar “via a
Leslie speaker” as documented by Lewisohn.
George is indeed present, however, on lead guitar. In any event, the session finally completed
at 3:40 am the following morning, overdubs therefor left for another day.
Apparently, EMI Studios was not available the following week
because The Beatles booked their next few sessions at London's Olympic Sound
Studios. They arrived in Studio One at
these facilities on May 5th, 1969 at 7:30 for the sole purpose of recording
overdubs onto 'take 36' of “Something,” the master tape brought along with them
from EMI Studios. Although this session
is documented to have stretched from 7:30 pm to 4 am the following morning, not
very much was accomplished. Paul
improved on his bass track, and George did the same on his guitar track, which
“The Beatles Recording Sessions” book indicates as being played through a
Leslie speaker.
Although Geoff Emerick was not documented as having been an
engineer on this session, he gives a firsthand account of some of the
proceedings, indicating that he may very well have been present as he had been
three weeks earlier during the recording of “The Ballad Of John And Yoko.” In his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” he
recalls: “George was clearly still holding a grudge against Paul, and it seemed
that he got some degree of revenge during the recording of 'Something.' I couldn't help but notice that Harrison was
actually giving Paul direction on how to play the bass, telling him repeatedly
that he wanted the part greatly simplified.
It was a first in all my years of working with The Beatles: George had never dared tell Paul what to do;
he'd simply never asserted himself that way.”
In the “Beatles Anthology” book, Paul concurs. “I think George thought my bass-playing was a
little bit busy. Again, from my side, I
was trying to contribute the best I could, but maybe it was his turn to tell me
I was too busy. But that was fun; that
went off well.”
After one additional recording session the following day, which
began the recording of Paul's “You Never Give Me Your Money,” The Beatles began
a hiatus from the recording studio that lasted nearly two months, the exact
future of the group still up in the air.
During this two-month hiatus, all decided that The Beatles would
record one final album which would include the few newer songs they had been
working on since February. These songs
would not be included on any “Get Back / Let It Be” album, after all, those
January sessions needed more oomph before release at a future time. Starting on July 1st, 1969, The Beatles would
concentrate on creating one final masterpiece album, later titled“Abbey Road.”
The Beatles then began working in earnest completing the songs
they recently started to record as well as introducing new compositions. George even introduced a brand-new song to
the group entitled “Here Comes The Sun” which they began work on even before
they returned their attention to “Something.”
On July 11th, 1969, the group did turn their attention back on to
“Something,” the group entering EMI Studio Two at around 2:30 pm on that
day. After some slight work on Paul's
song “Maxwell's Silver Hammer,” George recorded his first lead vocal onto “Something.” Next, producer George Martin and engineers
Phil McDonald and John Kurlander created four rough stereo remixes of the song
as it stood at that moment. A reduction
mix was then made which turned 'take 36' into 'take 37.' After a little more work on Paul's “You Never
Give Me Your Money,” they called it a day at around midnight.
A noteworthy point here is that "Something" still
contained 2:32 of the “rambling” piano-led fade-out of the song, the complete
track lasting a total of 5:32 after the reduction mix was made. This would seem to indicate that they were
considering leaving in a sizable portion of this aimless noodling at the end of
the song, fading it out after a while.
Luckily for us, a decision was made to cut it off entirely at a later stage
in the recording process.
Attention went to “Something” yet again during the second
recording session held on July 16th, 1969, in EMI Studio Three. This session began at 7 pm with full
attention on George's song; he improved his lead vocal while Paul added backing
vocals and the two of them along with Ringo provided handclaps. Interestingly, these overdubs were recorded
onto 'take 36,' which totally disregarded the 'take 37' reduction mix made on
July 11th.
Geoff Emerick was present on this day as well, recounting the
following: “George was once again very
nervous when it came time to do the vocal.
No matter what we did to create a vibe – turning the lights down low,
lighting incense – he just couldn't get comfortable. It was a difficult song to sing, but in the
end, he did a magnificent job...It was
interesting: George never seemed to get
cold feet doing backing vocals, but whenever he had to do a lead vocal, he'd
lose his confidence.”
All eight tracks of the tape were definitely filled now, which
meant that another tape reduction was needed.
George Martin, Phil McDonald, and young engineer Alan Parsons created
this reduction mix with two attempts.
George Harrison was indeed present when the reduction mixes were made;
his voice is heard on the tape reminding Phil McDonald that the latter mix
should be numbered 'take 39.'
With the deadline for completion of the “Abbey Road” album
looming, George was concerned as to whether his two songs on the album were
acceptable for inclusion on the album or not.
With this in mind, he ducked into the control room of EMI Studio Three
on August 4th, 1969 at around 7:15 pm, just after the vocal harmony work on
John's “Because” had been completed, to have engineers Phil McDonald and Alan
Parsons make rough stereo mixes of both “Here Comes The Sun” and “Something.”
These mixes revealed to George that more work was required for both songs, an
acetate of “Something” being made to give George Martin for him to write an
orchestral score for the song. At 8:45
pm, he possibly popped back into EMI Studio Two to give George Martin this
acetate disc, that session ending at 9 pm.
A week-and-a-half later, on August 15th, 1969, George Martin had
the orchestral score ready for, not only “Something,” but for three other
“Abbey Road” songs that required an orchestra.
“So far, every instrument on 'Abbey Road' had been played by one of the
four Beatles,” Geoff Emerick relates, not realizing that Billy Preston did
appear on some earlier tracks, including "Something," that he wasn't
present for. "That was fine with
John, but not with Paul or George Harrison, both of whom wanted orchestral
instruments added to a few of their songs.
Accordingly, George Martin wrote some arrangements and booked London's
top players for a single marathon session.” Because the deadline for finishing
the album was close, and in order to save money, one day was set aside to
record the orchestral arrangements for all four of these songs, these being
“Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight,” “The End,” “Something” and “Here Comes
The Sun.” The day chosen was August
15th, 1969.
“Unfortunately,” Geoff Emerick continues, “EMI had still not
installed an eight-track tape recorder or large-scale console into the Studio
One control room, so we were forced to set up a complicated system of audio
tie-lines and closed-circuit television that allowed the musicians to be seated
in the larger Studio One while we recorded them in the control room of Studio
Two.” Engineer Phil McDonald, in the
book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” explains how primitively these studios
were linked together for similar situations prior to this one, where “the
linking was subject to the vagaries of voice:
'All right, Bert? Are you ready?'”
Technician Alan Brown also recalls the events of this day. “It was a mammoth session. We had a large number of lines linking the
studios, and we were all walking around the building with walkie-talkies trying
to communicate with each other...It cost a lot of money: all the musicians have to be paid, fed and
watered; I screw every pound note out of it whenever I play the record!”
The orchestra was recorded in two sessions on this day, the
afternoon session being used to record Paul's two compositions and, after an
hour-and-a-half break, the evening session for recording both of George's songs,
“Something” being the first to be tackled starting at 7 pm. “A lot of time and effort went into
'Something,' which was very unusual for a Harrison song,” Geoff Emerick
remembers, “but everyone seemed aware of just how good a song it was, even
though nobody went out of his way to say so.
That's just the way The Beatles were: compliments were few and far
between – you could always tell more about the way they were thinking by the
expressions on their faces.”
While Paul was the only Beatle in attendance for this afternoon
session, George was the only group member present for the evening session when
his songs were attended to. Geoff Emerick continues: “Phil McDonald, however,
was there with me for the entire day – working in two studios at once really complicated
things, and we needed the extra pair of hands.
George Martin did the conducting while each Beatle essentially produced
his own session. Thankfully, there were
no major technical mishaps, and everything worked smoothly.”
“The only hitch came when George Harrison announced that he wanted
to redo the guitar solo on 'Something.'
We were perfectly willing to accommodate him, but the problem was that
there was only one track available, and we needed to use that for the
orchestra. The only solution was for him
to play it live, right along with the orchestra, so we could record them
simultaneously on the same track. I was
enormously impressed when he nonchalantly said, 'Okay, let's do that' – it took
a lot of nerve and self-confidence to be willing to put himself under that kind
of pressure. George had to play the solo
correctly all the way through, without punch-ins, because the sound coming from
his guitar amp would leak onto the other mics, and he wouldn't get a lot of
whacks at it, because it was costing quite a lot to have that orchestra
there. But he managed to play the
intricate solo with ease, and by the end of the long night both his songs were
completed and ready to be mixed.”
Mark Lewisohn, in “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” gives even more
detail as to George Harrison's role on this day. “For 'Something,' George Harrison shuttled
back and forth between studio one, where he shared the conductor's podium with
George Martin for a time, and studio two, where he oversaw the sound recording,
virtually as 'producer,' and where – on the floor of (studio one) – he taped a
new and memorable lead guitar solo for the song's middle eighth – actually,
barely different from the song's previous best guitar track.” After this elaborate overdub onto 'take 39'
of “Something” was complete, they accomplished the same for “Here Comes The
Sun” and ended the session by 1:15 am the following morning.
The stereo mix for “Something” was done on August 19th, 1969 in
the control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin and engineers Geoff
Emerick, Phil McDonald, and Alan Parsons.
Ten attempts occurred at this stereo mix; undoubtedly the tenth attempt
reigned the keeper. With the addition of
the orchestral arrangement, out went any trace of the rambling instrumental jam
from the rhythm track that they apparently intended to end the song with up to
this point, the recording staff omitting it from every one of these stereo
mixes.
Two live versions of the song were also recorded and released
during George's solo career. On August
1st, 1971, George and his band of celebrities (including Ringo) recorded a live
version of “Something” during his groundbreaking “Concert For Bangladesh” at
Madison Square Garden in New York City, this being released on the 1971
triple-album of the same name. Then,
sometime between December 1st and 17th, 1991, George and his new group
(including Eric Clapton) recorded another live version of the song during his
brief Japanese tour, the result appearing on his 1992 album “Live In Japan.”
George Martin and Geoff Emerick created a mix of the original demo
that George Harrison made on February 25th, 1969 for inclusion on the 1996
Beatles compilation album “Anthology 3.”
Then, sometime between 2004 and 2006, George Martin and his son Giles
Martin returned to the master tape of “Something” to create a mash-up version
for inclusion in the Cirque du Soleil production of “Love,” this being released
on the companion album of the same name.
This unique version was titled “Something (with 'Blue Jay Way' transition)"
and also features elements of “Hey Bulldog,” “Nowhere Man” and, rumor has it,
their 1967 sound experiment “Carnival Of Light."
Paul recorded three versions of his rendition of George's
"Something," the first of these live performances being sometime
between April 1st, 2002 and May 18th, 2002, this appearing on his albums
"Back In The U.S." and "Back In The World," the second
being on November 29th, 2002 at London's Royal Albert Hall which appears on the
album "Concert For George," the third being sometime between July
17th and 21st, 2009 at Citi Field in New York City which appears on the album
"Good Evening New York City."
Song Structure and Style
Beautifully written songs don't need to be complicated in
structure. This is definitely the case with
"Something," its format consisting of 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse
(instrumental)/ verse' (or aabaa) with a simple introduction and a couple extra
concluding measures added on at the end.
After a triplet-like drum fill from Ringo, the identifiable one-measure
riff of the song, which is usually heard at the end of each verse, is used as
the introduction to the song. This
follows the pattern set by George Martin early in The Beatles career where he
would suggest starting off the song with the most identifiable segment, such as
with “She Loves You” and “Can't Buy Me Love,” instead of just plunging
head-first into the first verse as presented by the composers.
This quick but suitable introduction consists of George on both
lead and rhythm guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums playing accents on the
three main beats of the riff, an overdubbed cymbal swell being heard at the end
which crescendos at the downbeat of the first verse that follows. This is a delicate touch in an arrangement
that suits the song very nicely, probably a George Martin suggestion recorded
during the orchestral performance.
The first verse then appears, which is nine measures long with the
final measure consisting of a repeat of the introductory riff. George sings single-tracked throughout the
verse except for the seventh and eighth measures on the lines “I don't want to
leave her now / you know I believe and how,” which is double-tracked. George's rhythm guitar and Paul's melodic
bass line propel the verse while Billy Preston's organ works as a suitable pad
to fill out the sound. John's piano,
which was heard so prominently in the rhythm track, is panned completely out of
the picture here, apparently deemed unnecessary for the arrangement.
Ringo plods along simply and appropriately on drums, adding a
sixteenth-note drum fill in the second measure and delicate accents on the
snare and cymbal in the ninth measure.
Another slight cymbal swell can be quietly detected that crescendos on
the downbeat of the ninth measure.
George kicks in with some lead guitar in the seventh through ninth
measures, climaxing with the iconic guitar riff in the final measure. Billy
Preston comes to the fore in the seventh and eighth measures with eighth-note
chord stabs and then playing the guitar riff with George in the ninth measure,
this transcending into the second verse that follows. The orchestra subtly appears for the first
time in measures seven through nine, playing lushly but quietly as a backdrop
as it moves into a more prominent role for the second verse.
Verse two is similar in the number of measures and in arrangement,
but with the orchestra being more to the fore.
Ringo does contribute an additional drum fill at the very end of measure
six, this one being in triplet form again.
The most notable difference in this verse, however, is the final note of
the iconic guitar riff in the ninth measure that changes the last chord
dramatically to A major instead of the usual C major. This acts as a climactic transition to the
high energy bridge that follows. The
ninth measure of this verse highlights Paul's less-than-subtle “lead bass”
playing to get us to the bridge, a swirling organ sound from Billy at the very
end taking us there as well.
The bridge is a standard eight measures in length. George's lead
vocals are double-tracked throughout, Paul providing a higher harmony to help
elevate the emotional impact of the bridge.
Ringo plays an alternating hi-hat and tom triplet beat in measures one,
two and three, and then five, six and seven.
In both measures four and eight, Ringo plays accents along with the rest
of the instrumentation which descends the scale per George's vocal instruction
in his demo, measure four in the key of A major and measure eight going back to
the home key of C major. The strings get
quite lush for effect throughout the bridge, as does Billy's organ. George's rhythm guitar carries things along
and, for the first time in the song, John's piano helps to fill the elaborate
sound landscape, especially heard in the final measure as the song settles back
into the home key.
The instrumental verse is next which, of course, features George's
fluid guitar solo which was played simultaneously with the lush string backdrop
that is heard with it. The rhythm
instruments, namely the guitar, organ, and piano, are more in the background to
allow George's solo to shine, Paul's bass work slightly competing for attention
but low enough in the mix so as not to distract. Ringo rides on the cymbal throughout this
verse, performing fills in measures two and four, the latter one as an
impressive fast roll on the toms. As the
guitar solo evolves into the guitar riff in the ninth measure, Bill's organ
chops swell into a dramatic conclusion of this section of the song.
The final verse is then heard, which is twelve measures long to
include the stellar conclusion. The
instrumentation is identical to the second verse with its backdrop of
orchestra; the most noticeable difference lifts Paul's effective higher vocal
harmony throughout the first six measures. During the buildup of measures seven and
eight, we hear an early lead guitar flourish in measure eight which resulted in
George accidentally missing the first two notes of his iconic guitar riff in
measure nine. Not to worry, though,
because the orchestral score and Billy's organ hits these notes for him.
As a conclusion to the song, this riff takes us back up
momentarily to A major as we heard at the end of verse two, but after a
noteworthy high descending guitar flourish from George, we hear the riff played
again with great volume and a feeling of finality, this time satisfactorily
landing in the home key of C major with a final crashing cymbal and pulled
guitar chord from George to ring out with the orchestra. Simply breathtaking!
With full participation from all four Beatles as well as George
Martin, George Harrison's beautiful ballad had won the well-deserved attention
that the song deserved. George's
masterful lead guitar work shone brilliantly alongside his producer's
unobtrusive but lush backdrop of strings.
Paul's bass contribution weaves a counter-melody of sorts that works
nicely to fill in the lyrical gaps while also putting in his usual talents as
harmony vocalist. Ringo worked hard to
play what would fit in perfectly within the arrangement, performing in top
form. John's piano also works nicely in
the bridge and, while not particularly essential to the arrangement, shows him
cooperative on a “Harrisong” this time around unlike past times where he just
feigned interest. Billy Preston also put
in an appropriate gospel-tinged element to the recording which did become an
essential ingredient in the mix.
Although a recorded hand-clapping overdub is documented to have taken
place, it apparently sounded inappropriate for the arrangement and either
removed or recorded over.
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The earliest recording of anything considered as "Come
Together" occurred on June 2nd, 1969, as a demo that John recorded at the
request of Timothy Leary for his California gubernatorial campaign for 1970. This recording played on
alternative radio stations in California in 1969 and in no way resembles the
finished song as we know it, while John himself demonstrated vocally during a
1970 interview.
John first introduced “Come Together” into EMI Studio Three on July
21st, 1969 as a contribution for “Abbey Road.”
The session began at 2:30 pm, “Come Together” being the first new song
John brought in for The Beatles to record since April's “The Ballad Of John And
Yoko.” In fact, Mark Lewisohn notes, in
his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” that John “had kept a low profile
during recent Beatles recording sessions,” even passing on opportunities to
contribute to the sessions at all.
But on this day, he was up and raring to go. “John was in a pretty good mood that day,”
Geoff Emerick relates in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” this being
Geoff's first official day back in EMI Studios after being asked by Paul to
help engineer the group's last album. He
continues: “He seemed to come to life when we were working on one of his own
songs, rather than one of Paul's or George's.
True, all three of them exhibited a lack of patience if it wasn't their
song – there was always a definite drop-off in interest whenever any one of
them was working on another Beatle's composition – but John was consistently
the most flagrant offender.”
Upon entering the session on this day, according to Geoff Emerick,
John exclaimed, “Okay, lads, I'm ready.
Time to let yer hair down and do some rock 'n' roll.” Geoff continues: “It was nearly three weeks
into July, and two weeks after the prodigal son had returned to the studio when
we finally heard those words from a fully recovered John Lennon.” What Geoff was referring to was a car
accident that John had three weeks earlier, on July 1st, during a holiday in
Golspie, north Scotland, with Yoko, her daughter, Kyoko and his son
Julian. With John driving, their car
“careered into the ditch by the side of the road...at the tongue area of
Sutherland,” according to a news report.
John ended up in the hospital and received seventeen stitches while
Yoko, being pregnant, was being monitored more closely.
“'Come Together' was one of the last ones to be recorded,” stated
George Harrison back in 1969. “John was
in an accident, so he was off for a period of time. Then when we got back, which was only a week
or so before we finished the album, we did this one. I think he wrote it only a month or so ago,
so it's very new. It's sort of a
twelve-bar type of tune.”
“He was about to run The Beatles through a new song,” Emerick
continues, “the second of his to be recorded for 'Abbey Road' (they'd done some
work on 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' before the summer sessions had commenced)
– and we all waited with bated breath to see what he'd come up with. 'Come Together' may not have been a
masterpiece, but it was a catchy hooky tune, and even though it clearly owed a
lot to Chuck Berry, its abstract, somewhat risqué lyric had that distinctive
Lennon stamp. The first time he played
it for us, chugging away on his acoustic guitar, it was a lot faster than the
final version that made it to the album.”
John himself explained in 1969: “'Come Together' changed at a
session. We said, 'Let's slow it
down. Let's do this to it, let's do that
to it,' and it ends up; however it comes out.
I just said, 'Look, I've got no arrangement for you, but you know how I
want it.' I think that's partly because
we've played together a long time. So I
said, 'Give me something funky,' and set up a beat, maybe, and they all just
join in.”
Paul explained it somewhat differently in his book “Many Years
From Now.” “He originally brought it
over as a very perky little song, and I pointed out to him that it was very
similar to Chuck Berry's 'You Can't Catch Me.'
John acknowledged it was rather close to it so I said, 'Well, anything
you can do to get away from that.' I
suggested that we tried it swampy – 'swampy' was the word I used – so we did,
we took it right down. I laid that bass
line down which very much makes the mood.
It's actually a bass line that people now use very often in rap
records. If it's not a sample, they use
that riff. But that was my contribution
to that.” Geoff Emerick concurs. “It was Paul who suggested it be done at a
slower tempo, with a 'swampy' kind of sound, and Lennon went along with it
uncomplainingly; he always took well to constructive criticism.”
Even though John's head was back in the game on this day, the
session wasn't as focused as one would think.
“Despite Lennon's improved frame of mind,” Emerick continues, “there
were clearly still underlying tensions and old wounds that hadn't healed. The band kept breaking into long, pointless
jam sessions, as they had done frequently during the 'White Album' sessions,
and I could see that John was treating Paul in an off-hand manner.”
Nonetheless, throughout rehearsals and jam sessions, John led The
Beatles through eight 'takes' of “Come Together” on this day, recorded on a
four-track machine. Author Mark
Lewisohn, who had the privilege of hearing all of these takes in preparation
for his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” writes: “Take one was a
magnificent version, marked by a supreme Lennon vocal free of the massive tape
echo which was applied later. Freed too
from the restrictions of a guitar, John was able to sing while simultaneously
clapping his hands (again, later applied with tape echo) immediately after each
time he sang the line 'Shoot me!' There
was only one guitar on the tape at this stage, and that was George's, Paul
played bass, and Ringo played drums.
John tapped a tambourine part-way through, too. It was a memorable recording.” Ringo's drums were covered with towels to
dampen the sound.
Take one, as described above, can be heard in its entirety on the
1996 released “Anthology 3” album.
John's very energetic vocal stands out, all of the lyrics being in place
right from the first take, the exception entered when he flubbed the lyrics in
the final verse, which prompted Ringo to go into a triplet beat for the final
refrain, knowing this take went sour.
Regarding the above mentioned vocal effect, John explained the
following in a 1969 interview: “It's me going “Shooo...(clapping hands twice)
on tape echo...It's not compressed; it's just, I was sort of going
(demonstrates again) through me hands like that.” Geoff Emerick explains further. “On the finished record you can really only
hear the word 'shoot.' The bass guitar
note falls where the 'me' is.”
While Mark Lewisohn's “Recording Sessions” book stipulates 'take
six' as being the keeper, he corrects himself in the liner notes for “Anthology
3” by saying it was instead 'take eight' that was deemed best. The Beatles session ended at 9:30 pm,
although the engineering staff took the four-track tape over to the control
room of Studio Two to make a tape copy of 'take eight' onto an eight-track
machine for further recording, this copy becoming 'take nine.” This only took a half hour to accomplish;
everyone involved vacating the building by 10 pm.
The next day, July 22nd, 1969, after Paul attempted a lead vocal
for the previously recorded “Oh! Darling,” The Beatles took to adding overdubs
onto the newly copied eight-track tape recorded rhythm track of “Come Together”
in EMI Studio Three, the session beginning sometime after 2:30 pm. When the original four-track tape was copied
over onto eight-track, they must have isolated John's lead vocal onto its own
track so as to be re-recorded later, which is one of the things done on this
day.
Other overdubs to the song on this session were electric piano,
rhythm guitar, and maracas, the latter undoubtedly performed by Ringo. “Paul came up with the electric piano lick,”
Emerick relates, “that pretty well defines 'Come Together.' John even made a point of playing the piano
line, once he'd looked over Paul's shoulder and learned the part. That would have never happened in the old
days: both men knew that Paul was the
better piano player, and he normally would be manning the keyboards even if
they were recording a Lennon song...Finally, in some frustration, (Paul)
blurted out, 'What do you want me to do on this track, John?' John's reply was a diffident 'Don't worry;
I'll do the overdubs on this.'” With
this said, it appears that the rhythm guitar part overdubbed on this day was
John as well.
Emerick continues: “Paul looked a bit hurt, then angry. For a moment I thought there was going to be
an explosion. Instead, he contained
himself, shrugged his shoulders, and simply walked out of the studio – one of
the few times he ever left a session early.
Paul had to have felt humiliated, but rather than having a fight or an
argument about it; he chose to just get up and leave, without any
dramatics. The next day, he returned,
and nothing further was ever said about it.”
As it was, this session ended at 9:30 pm with yet more work to be done
on the song.
“Come Together” was touched on again the following day, July 23rd,
1969, The Beatles entering EMI Studio Three sometime after 2:30 pm. After yet another attempt by Paul at nailing
down a lead vocal for “Oh! Darling,” more vocal overdub work was added to “Come
Together,” possibly John double-tracking parts of the lead vocal. The group then began work on “The End,” which
took up most of the session on this day, ending at 11:30 pm.
July 25th, 1969, was the next day that attention reshifted to
“Come Together,” a 12-hour session beginning at 2:30 pm in EMI Studio Two. After the group performed overdubs for the
“Sun King / Mean Mr. Mustard” section of the “Abbey Road” medley, the
“Recording Sessions” book indicates that “vocal harmonies” were recorded for
“Come Together” on this day. But who
provided the harmonies?
“John not only sang the lead but also did all the backing vocals
on 'Come Together' by himself,” Geoff Emerick states. “He didn't ask either, Paul or George, to
join in, and neither of them volunteered.
Harrison didn't seem to care one way or the other, but I could see that
it was getting to Paul.”
In a 1970 interview with the “Evening Standard,” Paul appears to
concur with Geoff Emerick. “I would love
The Beatles to be on top of their form and to be as productive as they
were. But things have changed. They're all individuals. Even on 'Abbey Road' we don't do harmonies
like we used to. I think it's sad. On 'Come Together' I would have liked to sing
harmony with John and I think he would have liked me to but I was too
embarrassed to ask him, and I don't work to the best of my abilities in that
situation.”
All that said, when listening to the isolated backing vocal track
as recorded on this day, made available through the Beatles edition of the game
“Rock Band,” the voice you hear is unmistakably Paul's. It could be that what both Geoff Emerick and
Paul were referring to was how it was very commonplace for John and Paul to
perform their harmony vocal parts simultaneously, even as late as on “Hey
Bulldog” which there is video footage of from the previous year. But this apparently was not the case in
recording "Come Together," Paul's harmonies being added as an overdub
later. In any event, the proof is in the
released recording.
According to Paul's book "Many Years From Now," Barry
Miles relates that, during the recording of "Come Together,"
"Paul recorded a lot of heavy breathing on the end, but it was buried so
deep in the mix as to be inaudible."
It was probably during Paul's harmony vocal overdub on this day that
this heavy recorded breathing took place as well.
After Paul provided this vocal work for “Come Together” on this
day, the group began work on the “Polythene Pam / She Came In Through The
Bathroom Window” section of the “Abbey Road” medley, the session then ending at
2:30 am the following morning.
More work on "Come Together" commenced on July 29th,
1969, in EMI Studio Three, the session stipulated to have begun at the usual
2:30 pm. The first order of business on
this day was to add some harmonized lead guitar work in the instrumental
section of the song, both parts presumably played by George because of the
similarity of the melody lines used in the song's conclusion, which is known to
have been played by George. With this
accomplished, more attention was given to the “Sun King / Mean Mr. Mustard”
medley section before they ended the session at 10:45 pm.
The finishing touches to “Come Together” finalized on July 30th,
1969, in EMI Studio Three, the session beginning at 3:30 pm. George's ending lead guitar passages occurred
on this day, this followed by extensive work onto what became the side-two
medley of “Abbey Road.” This session
ended at 10:30 pm, which immediately morphed into a stereo mixing and editing
session in the control room of EMI Studio Two, which finally concluded at 2:30
am the following morning.
The Beatles were all very happy with the finished product. "Great record," Paul stated in the
"Beatles Anthology" book.
"It's one of the nicest sounds we've got, actually," George
said in 1969, adding, "Nice drumming from Ringo. And it's sort of up-tempo. I suppose you'd call it a rocker. Rocker-beat-a-boogie." John was especially happy with how it came
out, as he expressed in his 1980 Playboy interview: "It's a funky record. It's one of my favorite Beatle tracks or one
of my favorite Lennon tracks, I'd say.
It's funky, it's bluesy, and I'm singing it pretty well. I like the sound of the record. You can dance to it. I'd buy it!"
The stereo mix for “Come Together” reworked on August 7th, 1969,
in the control room of EMI Studio Two, by George Martin and engineers Geoff
Emerick, Phil McDonald, and John Kurlander.
It took three-and-a-half hours to create this stereo mix; ten attempts
took place. In the end, they decided
that the very first attempt at this mix was the best, no mono mix arose since
mono albums had phased out of existence by 1969.
On August 30th, 1972, a live recorded rendition of “Come Together”
by John Lennon and the band Elephant's Memory during a performance at New York
City's Madison Square Garden. This interesting
version of the song, played in E minor instead of D minor like the Beatles
recording, was afterward included on the album “Live In New York City,”
released February 10th, 1986.
Then, sometime in 1996, George Martin and Geoff Emerick returned
to the original “take one” of the song as The Beatles recorded on July 21st,
1969 to create a mix for the compilation album “Anthology 3.”
George Martin then returned to the finished master tape sometime
between 2004 and 2006 and, along with his son Giles Martin, created a new mix
of the song for inclusion in the Cirque du Soleil show and album “Love.” This track, titled “Come Together/Dear
Prudence,” comprises a vibrant new stereo mix of “Come Together” with elements of
both “Dear Prudence” and “Cry Baby Cry” at the end of the track, which makes
for interesting listening.
Giles Martin then returned once again to the master tapes of the
song, along with engineer Sam Okell, in Abbey Road Studios sometime in 2015 to
create a new stereo mix for inclusion on the newly remixed “Beatles 1”
compilation album.
Song Structure and Style
The format chosen for "Come Together" consists of the
following: 'riff/ verse/ riff/ verse/
refrain/ riff/ verse/ refrain/ riff/ verse (instrumental)/ verse/ refrain/
riff/ conclusion' (or ababcabcabbcad).
John keeps to a steady 4/4-time signature throughout the entire song,
something unusual for him in these later Beatle years, this being an indication
that Paul and the others had more than the usual influence on a Lennon
composition this time around.
The distinctive eight measure riff begins with John's word “shoot”
sung through clapped hands and treated to tape echo, this appearing directly on
the downbeat of the first measure as well as the third, fifth and seventh. This section of the song is actually a
four-times repeated two-measure musical piece from the three instruments played
on the rhythm track, these being Paul's deep bass line, George's electric
guitar passage and Ringo's drums. As for
the drums, Ringo accents the first two quarter-beats with kick drum and cymbal,
followed by four beats on slightly closed hi-hats played in triplet form, and
then the second measure is filled with triplet beats on his toms, heard as
thuds because of the towels that cover these drums. All of these bass-heavy elements create a
very “swampy” effect indeed!
The first verse appears next, which is sixteen measures long as
all of the verses of the song are. The
same three rhythm track instruments are the only ones heard throughout this
verse, George plodding through electric rhythm guitar chords, his instrument
adjusted to have a suitable bassy tone, Paul on bass continuing the riff he
invented for the opening section of the song, and Ringo keeping strictly to the
kick drum and toms while not straying from the quarter-beats. This continues for the first twelve measures,
adjusting accordingly for the chord change at measure nine. Then, on measure thirteen, the guitar and bass
drop out entirely while Ringo crashes a cymbal and plays a simple pattern on
kick drum alone. All the while, John's
distinctive single-tracked lead vocal cuts through like a razor, tape-echo to
the fore. Directly following John's
final words “do what he please,” we hear a faint voice that seems to say
“yeah,” possibly Paul's voice bled over from the rhythm track, and then a
guitar neck squeak as George places his left hand in position for the second
riff that directly follows this.
The second riff and verse that follows are identical in
instrumentation and playing from those previous with one exception. Paul has now overdubbed harmony vocals in the
verse on the lines “toe jam football,” “monkey finger” and “Coca-Cola.” As a side note, The Beatles didn't think
twice about using the brand-name “Coca-Cola” in the lyrics of a hit song,
unlike The Kinks the following year who altered the lyrics to their
international hit “Lola” from “Coca-Cola” to “cherry cola” for the single
version to avoid any problems.
The first refrain then follows which is four measures long, as the
rest of them are. John's vocals are now
double-tracked while Paul adds harmony on the lyric “come together,” this line
mostly preceding the downbeat of the refrain.
Ringo now plays half beats, hitting the snare for the first time in the
song on the third beat of the first three measures, Paul's booming bass guitar
notes making the snare drum spring rattle because of both the drums and bass
being recorded at the same time during the rhythm track, the snare microphone
possibly being turned up in the mix at this point.
An overdubbed rhythm guitar, added on top of George's guitar from
the rhythm track, gives the refrain a heavier edge than the rest of the song so
far, making it stand out more prominently.
Everything cuts out on the downbeat of the fourth measure, creating a
trademark “Beatles break” that they have been incorporating into their
arrangements as far back as their first-ever EMI recording session with “Love
Me Do.” After John's isolated
double-tracked line “over me,” the group goes into yet another eight-measure
riff, the only noticeable difference from the previous riffs being Paul
altering his bass pattern in the final measure.
This is followed by another verse and refrain, both of which are
instrumentally and arrangement-wise a virtual repeat of the second verse and
refrain that we just heard. The only
noticeable difference is that John's final phrase in the refrain, “over me,” is
single-tracked this time instead of double-tracked. This is then followed by another riff section
which is only four measures in length this time and ends quite
differently. As a transition to the
instrumental section that follows, Ringo puts in a drum fill, and John shouts
“Right!”
Next comes a simple but stellar twenty-measure instrumental verse
which somewhat mimics the structure of the previous verses as well as the riff
section at the end. Ringo plays a
straightforward 4/4 rock beat while, for the first time in the song, riding on
a cymbal throughout, also adding in drum fills in measures eight, twelve and
sixteen. Two rhythm guitars appear here,
one from the rhythm track and one overdubbed, while Paul thumps away on bass
and John plays electric piano. Paul's
heavy breaths accentuate the two- and four-beats of each of the first eight
measures while John vocalizes “come” in the eighth measure as well.
As the chord changes for the ninth measure, the electric piano
condenses to simple chords played sporadically while two simple harmonized lead
guitar overdubs bring us through the next eight measures. Also evident here, is John repeating the word
“come” at a lower volume in measures nine, twelve, fourteen and sixteen. Then, as the last harmonized guitar phrase
fades away in measure seventeen, the drums disappear to reveal doodling by
rhythm guitar, electric piano, and bass for measures seventeen through
twenty. The last sound to be deciphered
appears to be the up-and-down squeaking of a guitar neck, undoubtedly one of
the harmonized guitar overdubs that just finished playing, finding an ending
note on the downbeat of the final verse that follows.
This final verse is another virtual repeat instrumentally from the
previous two, John deciding to double-track his final line this time around,
the lyric being “got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see.” He continues the double-tracked vocals
throughout the identical refrain that follows, one last riff section coming
directly afterward. This eight-measure
riff section is unique in that it features a volume-swelled guitar overdub that
occurs in the latter half of each of the four-times repeated phrases that make
up this section. Ringo puts in another
drum fill in the eighth measure while John exclaims “Ahhh!” to usher in the
song's concluding section.
A forty-seven-measure conclusion then appears, three guitars,
electric piano, bass and drums bringing the song home while John vocalizes the
song's title and the word “yeah” repeatedly for effect. George plays subtle but effective lead guitar
lines throughout, alternating the same melodic phrase repeatedly while bending
the final note of each phrase in imitation of many of the great blues
guitarists he's come to know. Ringo
rides on the cymbal and puts in various drum fills as he had done in the
instrumental verse while Paul bounces around on bass and John vamps on electric
piano. And so, a masterfully mature
Beatles song fades off into the sunset.
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George Martin is inarguably the most successful music producer of
all-time. If there’s anyone who can legitimately lay claim to the mantle of “Fifth”
Beatle, it’s George Martin. Martin’s unparalleled production expertise coupled
with his profound talents as a musician, arranger and conductor helped catapult
The Fab Four to unprecedented waves of worldwide success.
Born in London in 1926, Martin has been an integral force in the
musical scene for almost fifty years. Classically trained at The Guildhall
School of Music, Martin parlayed his education with a job as assistant to Oscar
Preuss, EMI Parlophone record chief. After Preuss retired in 1955, Martin was
elevated to head of Parlophone where he worked with such disparate acts as
Peter Sellers, Shirley Bassey, Stan Getz, Sir Malcom Sargent and Sophia Loren.
Prior to his involvement with The Beatles, Martin had a rich and
diverse career, working in the fields of classical, comedy, jazz and light pop.
His exemplary work with the legendary British comedy troupe “The Goons” further
cemented Martin’s reputation–especially impressing John Lennon in particular.
But the course of George Martin’s life inexorably changed–as it
did for four lads from Liverpool–on June 6, 1962. This was the fateful date
Martin first met the Beatles at a recording audition for Parlophone Records
held at London’s Abbey Road Studios. Impressed more with the group’s cheeky
charm and charisma than their as yet latent musical talents, (George Harrison
even criticized the producer’s tie!), Martin signed the group to Parlophone, in
the process making one of the smartest A&R moves in recording history.
RCM: Tell us about your musical beginnings at Guildhall School of
Music and how that background influenced your later work.
George Martin: Well, I was very similar to both John and Paul in a
way where I wasn’t taught music to begin with. I just grew up feeling music and
naturally making music. I can’t remember a time where I wasn’t making music on
the piano. I was running a band by the time I was fifteen.
RCM: What was the name of the band?
GM: (Laughs) Very corny but I thought it was fantastic. The first
one was a four piece and then it became a five piece. When it was a four piece,
I called it The Four Tune Tellers (laughs). And then it became George Martin
And The Four Tune Tellers. Very clever. And I had T T’s on the stands in front.
We made quite a little bit of money as well. And then the war intervened and by
the time I was seventeen I was in the Fleet Air Arm which is part of the Royal
Navy. We flew off carriers and we were fliers in the Navy. That was the tail
end of the war.
I was four years in the service, I was twenty-one when I came out.
Having managed to evade Japan, I was all right. And I had no career. A
professor of music who befriended me, he’s received from me during the war
various compositions that I’d painfully put together. I went to see him and
said, ‘you must take up music’. I said, “How can I, I’m not educated, I’ve
never had any training?” He said, “Well get taught. I’ll arrange it for you.”
He arranged an audition for me to play some of my work to the
principal of the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama which is a college in
London. And he said ‘we’ll take you on as a composition student.’ And I got a
government grant for three years to study. I started composition, conducting
and orchestration and I took up the oboe. I took up the oboe so I could make a
living playing some instrument.
You can’t make a living playing the piano. I just played piano
naturally, I wasn’t taught. I didn’t take piano as a subject because I didn’t
see any future in it, I didn’t rate myself as being a great pianist. I could
never see myself making a living at it. I wanted to be a film writer. So that’s
what happened. I was trained and I came out and I would work playing the oboe
in different orchestras in the evenings and sometimes afternoons in the park,
that kind of thing. I was a jobbing oboe player.
RCM: Do you still play?
GM: No (laughs). I don’t think I could now. I took a job during
the day to make some extra money, that was in the music department at the BBC.
Then out of the blue I got a letter from someone asking me to go for an
interview at a place called Abbey Road.
So I cycled along there and the guy said, “I’m looking for someone to
help me make some classical recordings and I gather you can do this.” Because I
was a woodwind player and educated by now, I got the job of producing the classical
baroque recordings of the Parlophone label. And I got hooked.
Gradually this guy who was running the label gave me more and more
work to do. I started doing jazz records, orchestral, pop of the period, it
wasn’t rock. Over a period of five years I worked as his assistant gradually
doing more and more. By the time the five years was up I was virtually doing
everything. And five years later in 1955, he retired, he was sixty-five years
old and he left.
I thought somebody was going to be brought in over me because I
was in my twenties still. But to my astonishment I was given the job of running
the label. I was the youngest person ever to be given that job.
RCM: Prior to your work with The Beatles, you worked in many
different musical idioms. How did that impact your production skills? It seemed
you were very willing to be experimental in your work with The Beatles.
GM: Oh absolutely. But I always was experimental even before The
Beatles came along. One of the record I made was an electronic record called
Ray Cathode which was collaborating with the BBC radiophonics people. I made a
lot of what I call ‘sound pictures’ with actors and comedians because it was
fun to do. I’m a person who gets bored quite easily and I don’t like doing the
same thing over and over again. Once I was running the label I didn’t earn much
money but I did have freedom to do what I wanted to do.
RCM: Discuss your approach toward string arrangements. Your work
on Beatles songs like Strawberry Fields Forever, Eleanor Rigby and Glass Onion
is extraordinary.
GM: The writing of the parts is me and the requirements is them.
It varied between John and Paul. Paul was generally quite articulate with what
he wanted. Mostly we would sit down at the piano together and play it through
and work out how it would sound. Paul still doesn’t know how to orchestrate but
he knew what he wanted and would give me ideas and I would say ‘you can’t do
that or you can do this’. We’d talk about it, talk it through.
John would never take that kind of attention. John was less
articulate and much more full of imagery. He would have ideas which were
difficult to express.
It was quite difficult for me to interpret. One of the problems
was getting inside his brain and find what he really wanted. Quite often he
would say, ‘you know me, you know what I want’. In the case of I Am The Walrus,
when I first heard that he just stood in front of me with a guitar and sang it
through. But it was weird. I said to him, ‘What the hell am I going to do with
this, John?” And he said, “I’d like for you to do a score and use some brass
and some strings and some weird noises. You know the kind of thing I want.” But
I didn’t but I mean I just went away and did that.
RCM: Didn’t you hire the Mike Sammes singers for that?
GM: Yes, that was a surprise for him. he didn’t know that. I
thought well, let’s do this because it adds to it. I had a group of singers
called The Michael Sammes Singers who were pretty corny people. They were very
good at reading what you wrote. If you wrote something, they could pretty much
sing it instantaneously. They were very good. In the score you’ve got the
directions for them where they have to shout or all the glisses, the up and
downs and the ha ha ha’s and hee hee hee’s and so on. And when we ran it
through and John heard it, he fell about laughing and thought it was so funny.
So that’s why Walrus was such an important song to put on the album.
RCM: What orchestral arrangement that you did for The Beatles of
which you’re most proud? Strawberry Fields Forever is a wild score.
GM: The Beatles wanted something unusual. Although at the core of
it is orchestration that I liked to do. I liked to have clean orchestration.
I’ve got various theories about orchestration. I don’t think the human brain
can take it too many notes at once. For example, when you’re listening to a
fugue of Bach or someone and you hear the first statement and the second one
joins it, you can catch hold of that all right and then the third one comes in
and it starts to get more complicated. Any more than that and it then it
becomes a jumble of sound. You can’t really sort out what is what.
RCM: Tell us about the time you tried to turn John Lennon onto a
piece of classical music.
GM: He went back to my flat one night. We had dinner and were
rapping away. We were talking about different kinds of music. I wanted to play
him one of my favorite pieces of classical music. It was the Daphnis and Chloe
Suite Number Two by Ravel which is a gorgeous piece of music. It last about
nine minutes and he sat through it patiently.
I mean it’s one of the best examples of orchestration you can get
because it’s a swelling of sound that is just breathtaking. And he listened
very patiently and said, “Yeah, it’s great. The trouble is by the time you get
to the end of the tune you can’t remember what the beginning’s like”. And I
realized it was too stretched out for him to appreciate in one go.
He couldn’t assimilate it. He was so used to little soundbites. A
lot of people are nowadays. It’s the curse of advertising and television that
we are now tuned to little jingles that we can connect and recognize right
away. And we can’t listen to anything longer than that so consequently the way
people write sometimes is to connect together a lot of little jingles, which is
maybe not the best way of doing things.
RCM: For a long time when asked about unreleased Beatles material
you would state that it was all ‘rubbish’ and there was nothing worth issuing.
Working on Anthology 1, 2, & 3 disproved that.
GM: I was convinced that there was nothing in the vaults that people
hadn’t heard that was worthwhile. But I was thinking like singles. Is there a
great song that people hadn’t heard? No, there’s not a great song that people
hadn’t heard, there’s little bits of rubbish. But what did emerge is I was
given a brief by EMI who asked me to put together stuff that would reflect the
visual Anthology that wouldn’t be a soundtrack, but like an accompaniment or a
companion.
I thought the only way to do that is to see what there is. And I
started listening, I found that there were different versions of songs that
people would be interested in. The more I listened, the more I was convinced
that people would want to have an analysis of what’s gone. In order, admittedly
to give me more material, I would then put in things like Eleanor Rigby without
the voices to show you the construction of it. Conversely, Because without the
accompaniment to show you the beauty of the voices, that kind of thing. And I
thought, okay, I’m spinning things out a bit here, but I think it’s valid.
RCM: The alternate take of Eight Days A Week is wonderful, almost
as good as the released version.
GM: That’s right. Yeah, people are interested in that kind of
thing.
http://youtu.be/2c8WrFGp-Hg
RCM: The unreleased George Harrison song You Know What To Do was
quite a treat. You listen to that an then something like I Need You and Savoy
Truffle and George kind of blossomed all at once.
GM: He did blossom, didn’t he? To begin with, most of the songs he
did were rubbish.
RCM: What was the first song George wrote where your ears perked
up and you thought he’s gotten much better as a writer? I like I Need You.
GM: (Sings chorus of I Need You) Nice little song. I remember the
song I hated most of all, Only A Northern Song. Taxman wasn’t bad, typical
George bitching about the world. Really, the one that I thought was better than
any of those was Here Comes The Sun. I mean, that was the first time he showed
real cleverness in a song. From Here Comes The Sun onward everything he did was
pretty good.
RCM: On Anthology you showed not only the musical side of the band
but the zany side like on And Your Bird Can Sing where John and Paul are
cracking up doing the vocal.
GM: Isn’t that super? (laughs) They were stoned out of their minds
of course but it was also very funny. When I played it to Paul after I
discovered it, I’d forgotten about it. We actually fell around laughing
listening to it too. We had marvelous times. We had such fun in the studio. I
have such happy memories. John was very funny. John would do impersonations and
send ups of people, sometimes quite cruel, but always very, very funny.
RCM: Whose idea was it to edit takes together on Anthology Two
like A Day In The Life?
GM: Oh you mean to remake? It was the only way I could put the
whole thing together as a song. And for that reason it was valid. It obviously
wasn’t the way it was originally recorded, but then all I was doing was putting
things together, I wasn’t distorting anything. If you’d done just the fragments
it would have been a little bit boring.
RCM: In the 70’s, John vacillated between loving and hating his
days with The Beatles.
GM: John went through some very bad times like the Let It Be
sessions. Later on he got pretty into drugs. During his time with May Pang, he
admits it was a year and a half lost weekend.
RCM: Hypothetically, if John were still alive would he have gotten
involve with Anthology and recorded with Paul, George and Ringo?
GM: I think he would have taken part in it. I think he would have
been very active in putting it together ‘cause John actually was an obsessive
collector anyway. He would keep almost anything. I think he would have done.
John actually regained himself at the end which was lovely. It was just too
tragic having got back to himself that he was killed.
RCM: When you met up with John in the 70’s he would tell you if he
had the chance he would re-record every Beatles song. Could you understand
where he was coming from?
GM: It’s a funny thing,
John said this to me originally when we were spending an evening
together and it shook me to the core when we were talking about old things and
he said, ‘I’d love to do everything
again.’ To me that was just a horror. And I said, “John, you can’t really mean
it. Even Strawberry Fields? And he said, “Especially Strawberry Fields!” I
thought, oh shit, all the effort that went into that. We worked very hard on
that trying to capture something that was nebulous.
RCM: But I realized that John was a dreamer. In John’s mind
everything was so beautiful and much better than it was in real life.
GM: He was never a person of nuts and bolts. The bitter truth is
music is nuts and bolts, you’ve got to bring it down to horse hair going over a
bit of wood, people blowing into brass tubes. You’ve got to get down to
practicalities.
RCM: How about you, George, is there one Beatles song you wish you
could re-do?
GM: Would I like to do something again? No, I wouldn’t want to do
anything again. I’m not a person to look back although having said that on this
album I’m doing that. But I’m not trying to do anything better than what we
did.
I don’t honestly think I could do anything better than what we
did. I think what we did was right.
It becomes solidified with time, you can’t imagine any other way
of doing it. You get surprised if you hear someone doing something that works.
When Joe Cocker came out with With A Little Help From My Friends, I thought
that was great but that wouldn’t have worked with Ringo. So the answer is I’d
rather leave it to history, thanks.
RCM: When Paul, George and Ringo recorded the two new Beatles
songs, Free As A Bird and Real Love, did they ask you to be involved?
GM: I kind of told them I wasn’t too happy with putting them
together with the dead John. I’ve got nothing wrong with dead John but the idea
of having dead John with live Paul and Ringo and George to form a group, it
didn’t appeal to me too much. In the same way that I think it’s okay to find an
old record of Nat King Cole’s and bring it back to life and issue it, but to
have him singing with his daughter is another thing. So I don’t know, I’m not
fussy about it but it didn’t appeal to me very much. I think I might have done
it if they asked me, but they didn’t.
RCM: Did you enjoy Jeff Lynne’s production of Free As A Bird and
Real Love?
GM: I thought what they did was terrific; it was very very good
indeed. I don’t think I would have done it like that if I had produced it.
http://youtu.be/DsUTQCFcquo
RCM: What would you have done differently?
GM: Well, you see the way they did it you must remember the
material they had to deal with was very difficult. It was a cassette that John
had placed on top of his piano, played and sang. The piano was louder than the
voice, and the voice wasn’t very clear and the rhythm was all over the place.
So they tried to separate the voice and the piano, not very successfully.
Then they tried to put it into a rigid time beat so they could
overdub easily other instruments. So they stretched it and compressed it until
it got to a regular waltz and then they were done. The result was, in order to
conceal the bad bits, they had to plaster it fairly heavily, so what you ended
up with was quite a thick homogeneous sound that hardly stops. There’s not much
dynamic in it.
The way I would have tackled it if I had the opportunity would
have been the reverse of that. I would have looked at the song as a song and
got The Beatles together and say ‘what can we do with this song?’ bearing in
mind we have got John around as well somewhere. I would have actually have
started to record a song and I would have dropped John into it.
I wouldn’t have made John the basis of it. So where possible I
would have used instruments probably and we would then try and get his voice
more separate and use him for the occasional voice so it would become a true
partnership of voices. Whether that would be practical or not I don’t know,
this is just theoretically the way I would tackle it.
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