Paul brought his conclusion idea for the long medley into the recording studio on July 23rd, 1969. Three weeks had passed since the band started on "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weigh," the conclusion of this track received an open ending to be built upon later. So finally, Paul brought The Beatles into EMI Studio Three on this day to start recording what the previous track would flow directly into place.
This session is documented to have begun at 2:30 pm; however, the first thing recorded on this day was the final lead vocal attempt by Paul for his song “Oh! Darling,” for which only he may have been present. Then, after an overdub recorded for John's song “Come Together” accomplished, attention was turned to what was called “Ending.”
“A good deal of rehearsal time must have preceded the rolling of tapes during this session,” explains historian Mark Lewisohn, who enjoyed the privilege of listening to all seven takes of the rhythm track recorded on this day. In his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” he continues: “After John Lennon counted the group in, right from take one this was a tight recording, picking up with some lead guitar notes and paving the way for Ringo's one and only drum solo on a Beatles song. The group had seven attempts at the song and, interestingly, the style of the drum solo changed with each. The final edition, take seven, was a highly effective one, the solo lasting almost 16 seconds.”
“Solos have never interested me,” Ringo stated in the book “Beatles Anthology.” He continues: “That drum solo is still the only one I've done...I was opposed to it: 'I don't want to do no bloody solo!' George Martin convinced me. As I was playing it, he counted it because we needed a time. It was the most ridiculous thing. I was going, 'Dum, dum – one, two, three, four...' and I had to come off at that strange place because it was thirteen bars long. Anyway, I did it, and it's out of the way. I'm pleased now that we've got one down.”
Engineer Geoff Emerick, in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” relates the experience of witnessing Ringo talked into doing this solo. “'You know how much I hate solos,' Ringo kept saying, same as he did when we were working on 'A Day In The Life.' 'Well, just do a token solo then,' Paul said half-jokingly. Ringo looked to Lennon and Harrison for support, but, for once, they were siding with Paul. Eventually, Ringo capitulated and performed the only drum solo – if you discount his little fills at the end of the 1963 B-side 'Thank You Girl' – ever to appear on a Beatles record.”
Geoff Emerick continues: “Even after extensive coaching from Paul, Ringo still wasn't sure what he was going to play, and I could see that he wasn't the least bit confident that he could pull it off, either. We had to do a lot of takes, and each take was quite different. The final solo he played was actually considerably longer than what eventually made it onto the album – with input from Paul and George Martin, I edited it down significantly, using only the best bits.”
But there was a particular inspiration that Ringo had for this drum solo. Ron Bushy, drummer for the rock band Iron Butterfly, explains in Andy Babiuk's book “Beatles Gear”: “We played London back in '71, and Ringo and Paul came to see us. Ringo sent up his man backstage and invited me out to a private club called Tramps. We had dinner and drinks and were up all night shooting the sh*t. He told me then that he kind of copped my solo (on "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida") for their song 'The End' on 'Abbey Road.' And I just thought that was cool. It was the biggest compliment that I could ever get.”
Geoff Emerick then explains the recording process used for Ringo's solo. “One of the benefits of working in eight-track was that we were able to record Ringo's solo in stereo, spread over two tracks, allowing the listener to hear different tom-toms and cymbals in each speaker. That was very unusual for a Beatles song: drums were almost always recorded in mono, even after we made the move to eight-track. The new mixing console also provided many more inputs than the old one, so I was able to put a dozen or so mics on Ringo's kit, as opposed to the three or four that I had used previously.”
Emerick continues: “Having more mics gave me finer control over shaping the sound, though it also provided the potential for more technical problems (such as signals canceling each other out), so I had to be extremely careful about mic positioning and creating the proper balance. I would often wander into the studio and literally put my ear in different places, listening to the difference in sound if I were a quarter inch versus a full inch away from the drumskin, or the way the tonality of a cymbal changed if you listened to the edge of it instead of the top. For me, that was always the key to mic positioning: doing lots of listening out in the studio.” Documentation shows that a total of twelve microphones sat around Ringo's drum kit during the recording of this solo.
Ringo also explains the difference heard in the sound of his drums on this song as well as the rest of the “Abbey Road” album: “Just a personal thing of mine: the drum sound on the record was the result of having new calf-heads. There's a lot of tom-tom work on that record. I got the new heads on the drum, and I naturally used them a lot – they were so great. The magic of real records is that they showed tom-toms were so good. I don't believe that magic is there now because there's so much more manipulation.”
The complete instrumentation on the rhythm tracks recorded on this day was Paul on his Rickenbacker bass, George on his Fender Telecaster, John on his Epiphone Casino, and Ringo on drums. As detailed above, the length of 'take seven,' which was deemed best, was only one minute and 20 seconds in length, with a heavy abrupt ending. The recording session ended at 11:30 pm, followed by the group and the engineering staff filing into the control room of EMI Studio Two to listen to a playback for another hour.
An interesting event happened while they were in the control room at this time, witnessed by Geoff Emerick. “When the four Beatles trooped upstairs to listen to some playbacks, Yoko stayed behind, stretched out languorously in the bed, wearing the usual flimsy nightgown and tiara. (John arranged for a bed to be brought into the recording studio for Yoko to recuperate from their recent automobile accident in Scotland.) As we were listening, I noticed that something down in the studio had caught George Harrison's attention. After a moment or two, he began staring bug-eyed out the control room window. Curious, I looked over his shoulder. Yoko had gotten out of bed and was slowly padding across the studio floor, finally coming to a stop at Harrison's Leslie cabinet, which had a packet of McVitie's Digestive Biscuits on top. Idly, she began opening the packet and delicately removed a single biscuit. Just as the morsel reached her mouth, Harrison could contain himself no longer.”
“'THAT B*TCH!!!' Everyone looked aghast, but we all knew exactly who he was talking about. 'She's just taken one of my biscuits!' Harrison explained. He wasn't the least bit sheepish, either. As far as he was concerned, those biscuits were his property, and no one was allowed to go near them. Lennon began shouting back at him, but there was little he could say to defend his wife (who, oblivious, was happily munching away in the studio) because he shared exactly the same attitude toward food.”
“Actually, I think the argument was not so much about the biscuits, but about the bed, which they had all come to deeply resent. What Harrison was really saying was 'If Yoko is well enough to get out of bed and steal one of my biscuits, she doesn't need to be in the bloody bed in the first place.' It almost didn't matter what the argument was about. By this stage, whenever the four of them were together, it was like a tinderbox, and anything could set them off...even something as dumb as a digestive biscuit.”
In any event, according to Bruce Spizer's book “The Beatles On Apple Records,” a decision was made after that control room listening session to add an extension to “take seven” of the song. This extension, which comprised Paul on piano, John and George on their electric guitars and Ringo on drums, extended the song to the conclusion as we know it, bringing it to just under two minutes in length. This concluded the recording session for this day, at an undisclosed time in the early hours of the following day.
Since the final section of the song was an edit piece, this could explain what was brought up by Ian MacDonald in his book “Revolution In The Head.” He states that, as this section of the song begins, “McCartney's piano enters slightly flat, whereupon the remainder of the song is fractionally below concert pitch.” Since the piano laid dormant in the first part of the song, the guitars were probably not tuned to the piano. Therefore, the pitch of the original recording may have been off slightly from the final segment, which appears to have gained inclusion as an afterthought.
Since all of the segments of the long “Abbey Road” medley had at least some partially recorded bits, The Beatles decided a week later, on July 30th, 1969, to string all of these segments together to see if they fit together properly. After a couple other recording sessions earlier in the day, they met in the control room of EMI Studio Two at 10:30 pm to make a dry-run at piecing together the medley. The first act of business, however, was to create stereo mixes of all of the tracks individually, one attempt occurred on each segment by producer George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, and John Kurlander.
Once accomplished, they edited, cross-faded and compiled the medley, the track so far entitled “Ending” that ran just under two minutes in length and without any vocals. There were a few adjustments proposed, such as omitting Paul's track “Her Majesty,” which they included just after “Mean Mr. Mustard.” “Her Majesty” had instead, rested on the album many seconds after “The End” ended. This session, by the way, concluded at 2:30 am the following morning.
Nearly a week later, on August 5th, 1969, The Beatles gave more attention to what all still referred to as “Ending.” They entered EMI Studio Two at 6:30 pm and, after adding a Moog Synthesizer overdub to John's track “Because,” they began vocal overdubs to “Ending” at approximately 9 pm. Paul sang spirited lead vocals (“Oh yeah, all right...etc.) in the opening section of the song, then double-tracked them, followed by John, George and himself harmonizing “love you” repeatedly in the long middle section of the track. Paul then added his famous “And in the end...” line in the final section of the track and then double-tracked it. This was complete by 10:45 pm that evening, which ended the session.
Two days later, on August 7th, 1969, they added some additional overdubs to the song, one of which was very important. Geoff Emerick relates: “There were quite a few empty bars to fill after Ringo's drum solo – Paul had left them bare in a spirit of 'we'll think of something eventually,' just as we had done with the middle section of 'A Day In The Life' – and there was a long discussion about what to add on top to flesh it out. 'Well, a guitar solo is the obvious thing,' said George Harrison. 'Yes, but this time you should let me play it,' said John jokingly. He loved playing lead guitar – he'd often mess about doing lead parts during rehearsals – but he knew that he didn't have the finesse of either George or Paul, so he rarely did so on record. Everyone laughed, including John, but we could see that he was at least half-serious.”
“'I know!' he said mischievously, unwilling to let it go. 'Why don't we all play the solo? We can take turns and trade licks.' Long guitar solos with dueling lead guitarists were becoming the vogue at the time, so it was a suggestion that clearly had merit. George (Martin) looked dubious, but Paul not only embraced the idea but upped the ante further still: 'Better yet,' he said, 'why don't all three of us play it live?' Lennon loved the idea – for the first time in weeks I saw a real gleam in his eye. It didn't take long for John's enthusiasm to rub off on George Harrison, who finally got into the spirit of things.”
It should be noted at this point that, since Mark Lewisohn documents in “The Beatles Recording Sessions” that the song at one point reached a length of 2:41, it appears logical that it was this guitar solo section that extended the song. Therefore, the backing track may have undergone an edit job on this day to allow for a good amount of extra guitar solo time for the three Beatles guitarists, possibly editing segments of the previous rhythm track takes onto 'take seven' to create an extended rhythm 'take.' This, however, is speculation and has not been documented.
Emerick continues: “Mal (Evans) was immediately sent out into the studio to set up the guitar amps, while the three Beatles stayed in the control room, listening to the backing track and thinking about what they were going to play. Paul announced that he wanted to take the first solo, and since it was his song, the others deferred. Ever competitive, John said that he had a great idea for an ending, so he was going to go last. As always, poor George Harrison was overshadowed by his two bandmates and got the middle spot by default. Yoko, as usual, was sitting by John's side in the control room while they were having this discussion, but as Lennon got up to walk out into the studio, he turned to her and said gently, 'Wait here, luv; I won't be a minute.'”
“She looked a little shocked and hurt, but she did as John asked, sitting quietly by the control room window for the remainder of the session. It was almost as if he knew that she would put a damper on things and spoil the atmosphere if she were in the studio with them. Something inside told John that to get this to work, he needed to be doing it with just Paul and George, that it would be better for Yoko not to be by his side this one time. Maybe that was the reason, or perhaps it was because on some subconscious level they had decided to suspend their egos for the sake of the music, but for the hour or so that it took them to play those solos, all the bad blood, all the fighting, all the crap that had gone down between the three former friends was forgotten. John, Paul, and George looked like they had gone back in time, like they were kids again, playing together for the sheer enjoyment of it. More than anything, they reminded me of gunslingers, with their guitars strapped on, looks of steely-eyed resolve, determined to outdo one another. Yet there was no animosity, no tension at all – you could tell that they were simply having fun.”
“While they were practicing, I took great care to craft a different, distinctive sound for each Beatle, so it would be apparent to the listener that it was three individuals playing and not just one person taking an extended solo. They were each playing a different model guitar through a different type of amplifier, so it wasn't all that difficult to achieve. I had Mal line the three amps up in a row – there was no need for a great deal of separation because they were all going to be recorded on a single track. Because there was little overlap between each two-bar solo, I knew that I could balance the levels afterward simply by moving one fader.”
“Incredibly, after just a brief period of rehearsal, they nailed it in a single take. When it was over, there was no backslapping or hugging – The Beatles rarely expressed themselves physically like that – but there were lots of broad grins. It was a heartwarming moment – and of the rare times, I could say that in recent months – and I made a point of congratulating each of them when they came into the control room to have a listen. I was so blown away by Harrison's playing in particular that I made a point of saying 'That was really brilliant' as he walked through the door. George looked a bit surprised, but he gave me a nod and a gracious thank-you. It was one of the few times when I felt like I had connected on a personal level with him.”
“I guess there's also the possibility that, as they were performing the solo, they realized they might never get to play together again; perhaps they were viewing that moment as a poignant farewell. It was the first time in a long time that the three of them were actually playing together in the studio; for most of the 'Abbey Road' sessions, it was just one or two of them, plus, sometimes, Ringo...For me, that session was undoubtedly the high point of the summer of 1969, and listening to those guitar solos still never fails to bring a smile to my face. If the good feelings engendered by that one day had only been present throughout the entire project, there's no telling how great 'Abbey Road' might have been.”
As can be heard on the track included on the “Anthology 3” compilation album, there was some doodling and practicing on their guitars before the actual solo part came up, some of it heard during Ringo's drum solo section. Ringo also added a tambourine part during his drum solo, this undoubtedly recorded during this same guitar solo session. Also, “The Beatles Recording Sessions” book mentions that “vocals” were also recorded on this day, these possibly being the harmonies on the final lyric “the love you take / is equal to the love” sung by John, Paul, and George. This session was complete by midnight.
The next day, August 8th, 1969, was also used for recording overdubs for “Ending,” among other things. At 2:30 pm, sometime after their famous front cover photo session walking across “Abbey Road,” they met in EMI Studio Two to, first of all, add additional bass and drum parts to the closing section of the song, played by Paul and Ringo respectively. They also gave attention to John's song “I Want You (She's So Heavy)” before ending the session at 9 pm, Paul also popping into EMI Studio Three to perform some overdubs on “Oh! Darling” in the process.
Next came the task of recording strings onto the song, this occurring on August 15th, 1969, at 2:30 pm in EMI Studio One and Two. “It was a mammoth session,” recalls engineer Alan Brown, concerning them recording the orchestral musicians in the larger Studio One while linking the performance to the eight-track recording equipment in Studio Two. “We had a large number of lines linking the studios,” Brown remembers, “and we were all walking around the building with walkie-talkies trying to communicate with each other. The orchestral overdub for 'The End' was the most elaborate I have ever heard: a 30-piece playing for not too many seconds, and mixed about 40 dBs down. It cost a lot of money: all the musicians have to be paid, fed and watered.”
Geoff Emerick recalls: The day was broken up into two parts: an afternoon session, overdubbing parts onto the 'Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight' and 'The End' sections of the medley; and an evening session, when we'd be adding orchestra to George Harrison's 'Here Comes The Sun' and 'Something.' Following the pattern that had been established for much of the album, the only Beatles at the afternoon session was Paul, and the only one at the evening session was George Harrison. 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.”
Paul's afternoon session was complete by 5:30 pm, the names of the 30 classically-trained instrumentalists stand lost. Interestingly, a section of the orchestra's performance that occurs during the final moments of the guitar solo section was panned out of the final mix. The existence of this section by the orchestra is, however, heard on the “Anthology 3” mix of the song.
On August 18th, 1969, as the album’s final touches prepared for release, Paul added one final overdub to “Ending.” Paul entered EMI Studio Two around 2:30 pm on this day to record a quick four-second extension to his simple piano introduction to his final “and in the end...” lyric. He also oversaw stereo mixes of the song, six attempts took place by George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, and Alan Parsons, as well as for “Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight.” “Ending” was presumably 2:41 at this point, so this didn't end up as the released version. This session ended at 10:30 pm.
Three more attempts at stereo mixing “Ending” occurred on August 19th, 1969 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by the same engineering team. These attempts were mistakenly numbered remixes 1-3, not counting the six attempts made the previous day. After this was complete, the engineering team edited together the “Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight” section to what they viewed as the final stereo mix of “Ending.” After concentrating on both of George Harrison's compositions for the album, the session was complete by 4 am the following morning.
The Beatles and the engineering staff all presumed this mix of “Ending” was ready for release, and therefore, on the next day, they all met to sequence and strung the songs together in preparation for the release of the album. Interestingly, “Ending,” as “The End” was called throughout its entire recording process, was still 2:41 in length even at this point.
Then, on August 21st, 1969, engineer Phil McDonald was recruited to do some work on “Ending” in Room 4 of EMI Studios between 1 and 2 pm. The album was thought to be complete by everyone, but the orchestra overdub for “Ending” needed help on the edit. Therefore, during this hour-long session, Phil McDonald tape copies and edited the orchestra on the song and then reinserted it into the running order for the finished album. Then, later that same day in the control room of EMI Studio Two, the previous engineering team took to creating yet another stereo mix of the song while it was still 2:41 in length. This mixing session, which also concentrated on yet other last-minute refinements to “Abbey Road” songs, stretched from 2:30 pm to 12 midnight.
Finally, on August 25th, 1969, the final decision was made to edit out some of the guitar solo section of “Ending.” The same engineering team made a straight edit in the control room of EMI Studio Two, this session starting at 2:30 pm and ending at 8 pm. “Ending” was now 37 seconds shorter, reducing it to 2:04 as we've come to know it. The intro to “Maxwell's Silver Hammer” was also edited off on this day, these being the final touches to the “Abbey Road” album as we've come to know it.
Sometime in 1996, George Martin and Geoff Emerick returned to “The End” to remix a section of the song for inclusion on the compilation album “Anthology 3.” Starting from Ringo's drum solo, they think to include the extraneous lead guitar practicing, mostly by John, that muddies up the proceedings, as well as Ringo's tambourine overdub during this part. The guitar solos are more prominent in the mix, and the orchestra swells at the end of the guitar solo section can finally be heard. After the heavy orchestra finale plays, the listener gets treated to the final chord of “A Day In The Life” played backward and then forward for a fitting conclusion to the complete “Anthology” package.
Then, sometime between 2004 and 2006, George Martin and his son Giles Martin used the drum and guitar solo sections of “The End” in the mashup of “Get Back” for the very interesting compilation album “Beatles Love.”
Not to be forgotten are the live renditions of “The End” that have been recorded by Paul and his band. First off, we have the “Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End” medley that he recorded in Toronto, Canada on December 7th, 1989 as contained on his albums “Tripping The Live Fantastic” and “Tripping The Live Fantastic: Highlights!” Then came the “Sgt. Pepper (reprise) / The End” medley recorded in April or May 2002 as included on his albums “Back In The U.S.” and “Back In The World Live.” And then his “Sgt. Pepper (reprise) / The End” medley recorded in July 2009 at Citi Field in New York City as contained on the album “Good Evening New York City.”
Song Structure and Style
Being that "The End" is a make-shift track intended as a conclusion to the long "Abbey Road" medley, it doesn't have a concise repeating structure as most Beatles songs do. However, for the sake of completeness, its structure amounts to 'intro one/ intro two/ solo/ conclusion' (or aabc).
The first intro is six measures long and actually begins on what would be the 'four beat' of the previous measure if there was one. Actually, to the listener, this track begins on the anticipated 'three beats' of the fourth measure of the conclusion to the previous track “Carry That Weight.” This abrupt edit gives the illusion of both recorded songs joined as one, credit given to George Martin and the engineering staff in pulling this off seamlessly, as well as Paul's meticulous planning.
Right from the beginning of this intro, we hear George and John's electric guitars, along with Paul's bass and Ringo's drums, playing vibrantly on selected quarter beats with two sets of rising notes. Ringo focuses on toms for the first two measures, crashing the cymbals when his bandmates play the quarter beats. He then, for the third and fourth measure, switches to a regular 4/4 drum beat pattern while riding on the cymbal, the third measure beginning on an anticipated beat. George, John, and Paul then play a harmonized rising figure on their guitars and bass until it falls downward and settles on an anticipated downbeat for the fifth measure. The guitars all fall away at this point, Ringo filling out measures five and six with a quick but suitable drum solo that focuses on his toms.
The second intro then begins, which repeats the exact pattern we just heard instrumentally. The only difference here is that Paul's double-tracked vocals now appear, screaming the lyrics, “Oh yeah, all right / Are you gonna be in my dreams / tonight?” This time, instead of playing just a two measure drum solo as in the previous intro, Ringo plays an impressive eight measure solo which continues to focus on the toms but with a pulsing kick drum beat that pounds out a steady eighth-note beat throughout. Together with the first four measures of guitars and vocals, this solo combines to make this second intro twelve measures long.
This moves into the solo section of the track, which totals 28 measures in length. All 28 measures contain the rhythm track of George and John playing two sets of dissonant chords on their guitars repeatedly while Paul and Ringo plod away on their instruments with a steady rhythm backdrop. Ringo starts off riding on closed hi-hats with a strategic open hi-hat accent pattern for the first four measures but then quickly abandons this to simply leaving the hi-hats open for the rest of this section, increasing the sizzling cymbals' intensity as the measures proceed. Starting at measure five, Paul, John, and George add their backing vocals repeating “love you / love you,” these repeating throughout the full amount of measures from this point forward.
Then, starting with measure eleven, Paul, George and John, in that order, play guitar solo segments that juxtapose and compliment each other. Each soloist plays three two-measure solos; Paul's takes off in measures 11 / 12, 17 / 18 and 23 / 24, George's in measures 13 / 14, 19 / 20 and 25 / 26, and John's in measures 15 / 16, 21 / 22 and 27 / 28.
After John's triplet-like final guitar solo segment, everybody stops on a dime for the 'conclusion' section of the track, which is a total of sixteen measures in length. All that remains after the smoke clears from the solo section is Paul's piano which is simply playing a high repeated triad on the sixteenth-note beats. The third measure adds Paul's final vocal line “And in the end...,” which is followed by a single piano note on the downbeat of the fourth measure and the addition of a quick echoed guitar phrase. As the piano chords begin to change in measure five, Paul and newly arriving backing vocalists sing “the love you take” while a similar piano note and guitar phrase add class in measure six.
The entire song is in 4/4 time with the exception of measure seven of the conclusion, which is in 6/8 time. The descending harmonized phrase drives this measure “is equal to the” while the added single piano notes now descend with the melody line. Measure eight now ends the staccato piano triads which are replaced by flowing piano chords, and lush orchestration as the harmonized word “love” is heard. As the orchestral score plays its descending chords, Paul sings the final lyric “you make” as Ringo's drums kick in again with a simple drum fill as a segue to the remaining four measures of the conclusion. These measures include the swelling orchestral score, bass, a tasty guitar line, harmonized “aah” vocals, and a simple drum beat played at half speed to what ran in the rest of the song. Ringo adds drum fills in measures fourteen and fifteen as the final ringing orchestral chord of measure sixteen brings the “Abbey Road” medley to an impressive conclusion.
“The End” may have been Paul's brainchild, but all four Beatles showed themselves enthusiastic in cooperation to make a good track. With a sense of pride, when interviewed in 1969, the usually-complaining John Lennon even exclaimed: “There's a nice little bit I played; they had it on the back of 'Abbey Road.' Paul gave us each a piece. There is a little break where Paul plays, George plays, and I play...One of those where it stops, where it suddenly goes 'Boom, boom, boom' on the drums, and then we all take it in turns to play. I'm the third one on that. I have a definitive style of playing. I've always had. They call George the invisible singer. Well, I'm the invisible guitarist!” And with Ringo's intricate drum work and George's incredible guitar solo interjections, all four band members shine like never before to make what became a final vibrant performance one the last recorded Beatles album.
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magnificent work! keep it up and let's keep the flame burning for our fave band - The Beatles!
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