April 20th, 1966 signified the ninth of thirty-two recording
sessions that comprised the “Revolver” album. On that day, the group entered EMI Studio Two
at 2:30 in the afternoon to begin two new contenders for the album. “And Your
Bird Can Sing” was first, although these first two takes were fruitless
attempts that didn’t make the grade. The same can be said for the four takes of
the rhythm track for “Taxman” which came next, only two of which were complete
run-throughs. Captured on tape at the end of “take four” was much discussion
about the proposed structuring of the song. At 2:30 am the next morning, after
twelve hours of work with nothing on tape useable, they called it a night with
renewed enthusiasm for the session that would begin the following afternoon.
April 21st, 1966 was that next session, which also began at 2:30
pm in EMI Studio Two. This session lasted over ten hours, extending into the
following day once again. All of this time focused on “Taxman” which, because
it was a George Harrison song, was quite unusual. “George Martin always seemed
a bit concerned about both the quality of Harrison’s compositions and the
amount of time the band spent on them, which tended to make Harrison a bit
self-conscious,” stated engineer Geoff Emerick in his book “Here, There And
Everywhere.” Therefore, the amount of time spent on his song must have
delighted George, or so it would seem.
After much arrangement discussion and rehearsal, they delved into
recording the rhythm track, which consisted of George on electric rhythm
guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums (John appears to have sat out entirely
on the rhythm track). No vocals were recorded during the rhythm track except
for a simple “one, two, three, four” from Paul to count off the song. The song
included a complete ending at this point which comprises three strummed chords
and a cymbal crash. It took eleven takes of the rhythm track to get one that
was deemed suitable for overdubs, which then were performed on to “take
eleven.”
The overdubs consisted of George singing lead vocals and then
double-tracking them, George double-tracking his rhythm guitar playing, Ringo
on tambourine, and Paul and John singing backing vocals with substantial
chatter and the occasional whistle heard quietly in the final product.
Interestingly, during the third verse, Paul and John sing in falsetto harmony
the fast-moving line “Anybody gotta bit of money” three times in a row in
measures three and four and then repeat it again in verses seven and eight.
One additional overdub occurred on this day, the guitar solo.
Geoff Emerick explains: “There was a bit of tension on that session, though,
because George had a great deal of trouble playing the solo – in fact, he
couldn’t even do a proper job of it when we slowed the tape down to half speed.
After a couple of hours of watching him struggle, both Paul and George Martin
started becoming quite frustrated – this was, after all, a Harrison song and
therefore not something anyone was prepared to spend a whole lot of time on. So
George Martin went into the studio and, as diplomatically as possible,
announced that he wanted Paul to have a go at the solo instead. I could see
from the look on Harrison’s face that he didn’t like the idea one bit, but he
reluctantly agreed and then proceeded to disappear for a couple of hours. He
sometimes did that – had a bit of a sulk on his own, then eventually came
back.”
It is quite understandable that George would be upset ousted as
lead guitarist on his own song. However, his comments from 1987 show that he
accepted this defeat with grace. “I was pleased to have Paul play that bit on
‘Taxman.’ If you notice, he did like a little Indian bit on it for me.” This
reference referred to George’s recent infatuation with Indian music that
permeated his artistic output at that time. This also may suggest that George
was attempting to play a solo with that kind of flavor before Paul was asked to
take over, possibly even asking him to play it that way. Ian MacDonald, in his
book “Revolution In The Head,” describes Paul’s solo as “a savage seven-bar
affair that picks up the octave jump in the riff, adding a scintillating
pseudo-Indian descending passage en route.” Eyewitness Geoff Emerick agrees:
“Paul’s solo was stunning in its ferocity – his guitar playing had a fire and
energy that his younger bandmates rarely matched – and was accomplished in just
a take or two.”
This is not to say that George did not play any lead guitar on the
song. Verse two contains a couple of lead guitar accents, and verses three and
four contain lead guitar phrasings that possibly came from George. All of the
overdubbed lead guitar work, played by either George or Paul, was contained on
a designated track of the four-track tape that also contained Ringo’s
tambourine overdub.
With this complete at 12:50 am the following morning, they
adjourned for the evening. To hear precisely how the song sounded at this
point, listen to the version of the song as contained on the 1996 release
“Anthology 2,” the only difference being the comical count-off of the song that
was recorded at a later date (see below). Whether they thought the song was complete
at this point is not known. However, just under twelve hours later they would
be back in EMI Studio Two for more work on the song.
April 22nd, 1966, was that day and at 2:30 pm they were ready to
finish it off, or so they thought. First on the agenda was for Ringo to overdub
a cowbell throughout most of the song (starting in the second verse) followed
by them eliminating the “Anybody got a bit of money” backing harmonies from the
day before, assessing that they were a bit cumbersome to the flow of the song.
They decided to replace these lines with “Ah, ah, Mr. Wilson” and “Ah, ah, Mr.
Heath,” which were references to Prime Minister Harold Wilson (leader of the
Labour Party) and Edward Heath (leader of the Conservative Party), both being
the largest parties in British politics and, therefore, viewed as responsible
for The Beatles tax issues. Wilson approved the honors list for The Beatles to
receive their MBE’s the previous year, and in return, he received the “honor”
of being immortalized in one of their songs. In fact, references to both of
their names mark the first living individuals recognized in a Beatles song
(apart from Ringo calling out for "George" to play a guitar solo in
both the songs "Boys" and "Honey Don't").
An interesting observation regarding the aforementioned vocal
overdub is that it was taped onto the lead guitar/tambourine track. This can
easily be discerned by the absence of the tambourine when these “Wilson/Heath”
vocals appear, whereby the tambourine is still present when the “bit of money”
harmonies were still in the song. (Check out “Anthology 2” to hear the
difference.) There are also very quiet
but audible clicks whenever this new vocal overdub was punched in.
Approximately five hours later, or at 7:30 pm, they now apparently
felt the song was complete and moved on to performing more overdubs to “Mark
I,” which was the working title to another classic “Revolver” track “Tomorrow
Never Knows.” This then brought the session to a close at 11:30 pm.
The first mix of “Taxman,” a mono mix, was created on April 27th,
1966 in the control room of EMI Studio Three by George Martin, Geoff Emerick,
and 2nd engineer Phil McDonald. Although this and two other newly recorded
songs were mixed on this day, all of them were re-done on a later date, deeming
the mixes performed on this day useless.
One final added touch was deemed necessary to complete “Taxman,”
this being recorded at the beginning of the May 16th, 1966 session at EMI
Studio Two which also began at 2:30 pm. By this time the decision stood ground
that this song would be the opening track of their next album. “I always
thought that George’s strongest song on ‘Revolver’ was ‘Taxman,’” relates Geoff
Emerick, “and George Martin must have agreed, since he decided to put it first
on the album – the all-important spot generally reserved for the best song,
since the idea is to try to capture the listener immediately.”
This being the case, a decision was made to make a special
introduction to the song, possibly as a slight mimic of the “one, two, three,
FAAA” introduction to their first British album “Please Please Me” (on the song
“I Saw Her Standing There”). It was a more tongue-in-cheek tribute, of course,
with what sounds like Paul mumbling “wunn, too, thray, four, wun, too” in a
very low tone. In the background, you hear a cough and stray guitar notes
amongst other strange noises. McCartney describes these as sounds that were on
the tape, Lennon adding that he “thought (the listeners) would like to hear
it.” This unusual introduction ends as we hear Paul’s original count-down to
the song from the rhythm track in the background.
At some point during this eleven-hour session, four mono mixes of
“Taxman” took place (mixes two through five), the fourth attempt deemed the
best at this point. These were made in the control room of EMI Studio Two by
the same EMI staff of George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and Phil McDonald. They
then performed a “tape copy” of “remix four,” but then at some point viewed
this as not acceptable either, more fine-tuning apparently being needed.
It wasn’t until over a month later, on June 21st, 1966, that both
the releasable mono and stereo mixes of “Taxman” surfaced. Much thought was
obviously needed to get the song into the desired condition to be the lead-off
track for their new masterpiece album. Therefore, with The Beatles present, the
EMI team of Martin, Emerick, and McDonald took to the work at hand in the
control room of EMI Studio Three with the musicians no doubt adding their
preferences.
One decision was to eliminate the small lead guitar accents in the
second verse, accomplished by omitting the lead guitar track in those two
places. However, the evidence of this is apparent because of the absence of the
tambourine playing during these strategic spots (listen again to “Anthology 2”
where the tambourine is present along with those small guitar passages).
The second decision was much more detailed and complicated to
perform. They decided that the conclusion could be spruced up, so thoughts went
to how happy everyone was with Paul’s guitar solo. “It was so good,” Geoff
Emerick relates, “that George Martin had me fly it in again during the song’s
fadeout.” Not only was that track "flown in," but that whole portion
of the song (rhythm track and cowbell overdub) was superimposed on top of
George’s last lead vocal word “me.”
Since there is an overlapping of sounds from the finished master
and the repeat of the guitar solo section of the song, not only were two mixes
necessary to be made to edit together, but it needed to overlap in some way. It
is suggested that a recording of the guitar solo section of the song was made
and then strategically synced up with a mix of the body of the song that ends
abruptly after the one-beat of the measure where George sings the word “me.”
When listening to the isolated vocal track of the song, this is precisely where
his vocal track cuts off – midway through the syllable.
With this procedure in mind, two mono mixes of the song were made
and then melded together to form what was released internationally as the mono
version of the song. (They identified these mixes as five and six when in
actuality they were six and seven.) All of the instrument tracks are quite
prominent in this mix with the overdubbed cowbell first appearing in the second
verse after the lyric “five percent appear too small.” They then faded down the
guitar solo mix just in time so that George’s lead vocals would not appear
again.
Then, on this same day, they repeated the same procedure for the
internationally released stereo mix, creating two mixes (one for the body of
the song and one for a repeat of the guitar solo section) and then melded them
together. The instruments are a little more subdued than in the mono mix which
gives slightly more emphasis on the vocals while the cowbell doesn’t appear
until towards the end of the second verse after the lyric “’cause I’m the
taxman.” (The cowbell first appears in this mix with an audible “swoosh” sound
that most likely occurred when that track was faded up, the engineers
forgetting to fade it up earlier.) The rhythm track is entirely on the left
channel, the instrumental overdubs on the right channel and all of the vocals
panned to the middle (with the exception of the “Wilson/Heath” overdub which is
only on the right channel due to it being recorded onto the lead
guitar overdub track). Once again the ending guitar solo portion
of the song is faded strategically just before George would have started
singing again.
A live recording of the song took place between December 1st and
17th, 1991, during George Harrison’s brief tour of Japan, this recording
appearing on his 1992 album “Live In Japan.”
Song Structure and Style
George appears to have dipped into John’s arsenal by adding an
extra measure here and there for effect in “Taxman” as was Lennon’s habit (see
the verses of “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” for example, not to mention
his erratic measure/half-measure additions in the later Beatles catalog). The
structure of “Taxman” itself seems to have been written-by-feel instead of
following a prescribed pattern, resulting in a ‘verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse
(solo)/ verse/ verse/ conclusion’ structure (or aabaaac).
After the overdubbed/edited demented-sounding count-in for the
song, a brief two-measure introduction of vamping begins procedures,
introducing the bare-bones rhythm section of rhythm guitar/bass/ drums that
we’ll hear throughout the song uninterrupted. George plays a double-tracked
staccato rhythm guitar pattern on the syncopated two- and four-beats of the
measures while Ringo plays a stark R&B groove on just the bass drum and
snare. The most notable element is Paul’s bass guitar figure which acts as a
lead guitar riff of sorts for the entire song. This zig-zagging line is only
one measure long unlike the usual two-measure guitar riff they’re prone to use
(see “Day Tripper” and the recently recorded “Paperback Writer” as prime
examples) and repeats without much letup throughout the song’s duration.
The first verse, like the majority of the verses, is an unusual
thirteen measures long, elongated by a final measure to add a little breathing
space at the end, although it could have worked well without it. The verses
hint at a 12-bar blues pattern with an added measure at the end, the final five
measures working as a refrain of sorts, this being where the key phrase of the
song appears (not unlike “Can’t Buy Me Love” or “You Can’t Do That”).
George’s double-tracked lead vocals appear just prior to the
downbeat of the first measure, the third and seventh measures feature a break
in the tightly woven rhythmic groove with a double accent on the one- and
two-beat. This is delivered by Ringo crashing his cymbals and George and Paul
playing alarming D major/minor accents as if to interject the word “taxman”
repeatedly throughout the verse even before we actually hear it sung.
Afterwards, the rhythm section naturally falls right back into the R&B
groove without missing a beat.
They stay on the D chord throughout the first eight measures while
the eighth measure allows Ringo to pound away on his kit ferociously to
introduce us to the final five measures of the verse, thus revealing who is
addressing us, namely, “the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman.” This is where the
chords change, and three-part harmony is introduced with John and Paul joining
in on the final four words. As the chords change, Paul’s bass riff alters to
continue the same pattern while Ringo plays out the rest of the verse hitting
his ride cymbal with his right hand, letting it sizzle to silence in the
thirteenth measure.
The second verse is identical in structure to the first except for
a couple of added elements, the first being a tambourine which is accented
three times per measure (which is absent during the third and seventh measures
because of the deletion of some lead guitar stabs during the mixing stage). The
second new element is a cowbell which first appears in the third measure in the
mono mix and the ninth measure in the stereo mix.
The solitary nine-measure bridge of the song appears next which
alters the rhythm instrumentation somewhat, Paul bouncing up and down his bass
neck in an impressive manner while the rhythm guitar chords change from D to C
in the fourth and eighth measures. John and Paul harmonize the first half of
four rapid-fire lyric lines and repeat the last word while George finishes the
thought by himself. Example: John and Paul sing “If you drive a car” and then
repeat and extend the word “car” as a backdrop while George finishes the line
“I’ll tax the street.” The final line in this pattern shows John and Paul
elongating the word “walk” for two full measures, the ninth and final measure
of the verse climaxing with snare accents from Ringo, violent tambourine
shaking and stimulating rhythm guitar chords.
This all leads to the climactic solo section of the song which
begins with a three-part harmony exclamation “TAXMAN” which then ushers in the
blistering distorted lead guitar work of Paul McCartney. The Indian-inspired
solo is played above what is actually another verse with the rhythm section
playing their usual “taxman” accents in the third and seventh measures. After
the usual eighth measure drum fill, the final five measures repeat the
refrain-like end of the verse with full vocals. The habit of playing a solo
during the first portion of a verse and then finishing the verse with vocals is
something that they used sporadically in their catalog, being heard in “A Hard
Day’s Night” and even as early as “From Me To You.” Interestingly, the full
rhythmic tambourine shaking from the ninth measure of the bridge continues
throughout this entire solo/verse, even after the vocals enter in the final
five measures. A quiet whistle, appearing on the background vocal track, is
heard in the final measure of this section of the song.
The fourth verse then begins, which slows the tambourine down to
three accents a measure once again until the final four measures where it once
again turns to its rhythmic shaking. Two more distinctive elements are
introduced in this verse, the first being a repeating guitar riff which
partially mimics the bass line heard underneath it. This guitar line cuts out,
however, when the second element shows up, this being harmonized falsetto
vocals from John and Paul in the third and fourth measures. The first two
syllables of their vocal line (“ah, ah”) fit perfectly on top of the accents of
the third measure from the rhythm track with their final syllables (“Mr.
Wilson”) descending afterward. This exact pattern is repeated in the seventh
and eighth measures with the lyrics “ah, ah, Mr. Heath” while Ringo comes in
with his usual drum fill. The final two measures of this verse show the lead
guitar riff alters by extending the final note higher than heard previously.
Yet another verse then follows this with the same arrangement but
with more subtle differences. The background harmony vocals simply repeat the
word “taxman” on top of the accents in the third and seventh measures,
extending the notes into the following measures respectfully. The lead guitar
continues playing throughout all of the measures this time around and adds
vibrato to the final note in the sixth and seventh measures. This is the only
verse which is actually twelve measures long, one measure being chopped off at
the end and replaced with a two-measure conclusion in the unexpected key of F.
The vocal line heard here (“and you’re working for no one but me”) acts as a
deceleration to signal the end of the song.
This, of course, would have been the end of the song if it weren’t
for the splicing/editing work done to repeat the amazing guitar solo section of
the song heard earlier, which then fades off before the listeners are clued
into this being the same actual performance they heard earlier in the song.
George is obviously the primary focus of the song with his
sinister-like vocals and syncopated rhythm guitar chops, both done with the
appropriateness of the occasion. The mantra-style melody lines he wrote into
the song are also primarily syncopated as is his habit (see his recent
compositions “Think For Yourself” and “If I Needed Someone” as prime examples).
John may have sat out instrumentally on this song, but his
presence is definitely felt through his prominence in the background harmony
work. Ringo shows his stuff with a tight percussion arrangement, most likely
eliminating the use of a ride cymbal for most of the song per suggestion from
either Paul or George Martin. Nonetheless, his attention to detail with drum
fills and accents, as well as tambourine and cowbell, shows his as being an
important role in pulling off the arrangement.
Being ever the “workaholic,” as Geoff Emerick called him, Paul was
the busiest and most prominent musician on “Taxman.” His extraordinary bass
work played on his Rickenbacker bass for more tonal punch, permeates the track
with his distinctively busy style. His sizzling lead guitar solo defies
description, and his harmony work is as precise as ever.
Possibly being imitated by Mick and Keith in their composition
“Sympathy For The Devil” a little later, George portrays himself as the evil
"puppet master" who is telling his story about the control he has
over his subjects. “Let me tell you how it will be,” he explains with a
dogmatic extended finger, threatening his subjects not to complain about the
meager five percent he’s allowing them to keep from their hard-earned wages.
“Be thankful I don’t take it all,” he sneers.
He’ll get you at every turn, whether you’re “cold,” or you want to
“drive,” “walk” or even “sit,” he’ll impose an exorbitant tax on you to satisfy
these needs. Questions about his wanting so much of the wage earners money
results in them ‘paying some more’ to him. The established practice of placing
pennies on the eyes of corpses are not even to be trusted. “My advice for those
who die,” he slyly asserts, “declare the pennies on your eyes.” Because after
all, “I’m the taxman… and you’re working for no one but me,” he concludes.
Next Song – Eleanor Rigby:
The recording history of “Eleanor Rigby” begins with the
various demo recordings Paul personally made at his recording studio in
Marylebone. American novelist William Burroughs, as explained in “Many Years
From Now,” was “one of the people who heard the song in all its different
stages.” “I saw him there many times,” Burroughs recalls, “He’d just come in
and work on his ‘Eleanor Rigby’…so I saw the song taking shape…I could see he
knew what he was doing.”
Before proper recording of the song began at EMI Studios, however,
a decision needed to be made as to its arrangement. As related by engineer
Geoff Emerick in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” the song was personally
debuted to George Martin by Paul at an undisclosed date in the studio. “After
hearing Paul play this beautiful song on acoustic guitar,” Emerick begins,
“George Martin felt that the only necessary accompaniment was that of a double
string quartet: four violins, two violas, and two cellos. Paul wasn’t
immediately enamored of the concept – he was afraid of it sounding too cloying,
too “Mancini” – but George eventually talked him into it, assuring him he would
write a string arrangement that would be suitable. 'Okay, but I want the
strings to sound really biting,' Paul warned as he signed off on the idea.”
To throw another monkey wrench into the story, both John and Paul
are on record as saying that it was Paul’s original concept to use strings on
the song. “The violin backing was Paul’s idea,” John insists, “Jane Asher had
turned him on to Vivaldi, and it was very good. The violins were straight out
of Vivaldi. I can’t take any credit for that, at all.” Paul humbly states: “I thought of the
backing, but it was George Martin who finished it off. I just go bash, bash on
the piano. He knows what I mean.”
At any rate, shortly after Martin was introduced to the song, he
and Paul convened at Martin’s home to work out the arrangement, similar to what
they had done with the previous years’ “Yesterday.” “Paul came round to my flat
one day, and he played the piano, and I played the piano,” Martin remembers,
“and I took a note of his music…I was very much inspired by Bernard Herrmann,
in particular, a score he did for the Truffaut film ‘Fahrenheit 451.’ That
really impressed me, especially the strident string writing. When Paul told me
he wanted the strings in ‘Eleanor Rigby’ to be doing a rhythm, it was
Herrmann’s score, which was a particular influence.”
With the arrangement decided and a George Martin-written score
completed, April 28th, 1966 was the date chosen to record the instrumentation
of the song. The eight classical musicians that made up the “octet,” along with
Paul, John and the EMI production team of Martin, Emerick and Phil McDonald,
entered EMI Studio Two at 5 pm for what only took a little less than three
hours to perfect. Paul and John stayed up in the control room while George
Martin conducted the musicians in the studio.
Following Paul’s instructions to have the strings sound “biting,”
Emerick “took note of what he said and began thinking how to accomplish
that…String quartets were traditionally recorded with just one or two
microphones, placed high, several feet up in the air so that the sound of the
bows scraping couldn’t be heard. But with Paul’s directive in mind, I decided
to close-mic the instruments, which was a new concept. The musicians were
horrified! One of them gave me a look of disdain, rolled his eyes to the
ceiling, and said under his breath, ‘You can’t do that, you know.’ His words
shook my confidence and made me start to second-guess myself. But I carried on
regardless, determined to at least hear what it sounded like.”
"We did one take with the mics fairly close, then on the next
take I decided to get extreme and move the mics in really close – perhaps just
an inch or so away from each instrument. It was a fine line: I didn’t want to
make the musicians so uncomfortable that they couldn’t give their best
performance, but my job was to achieve what Paul wanted. That was the sound he
liked, and so that was the miking we used, despite the string players’
unhappiness. To some degree, I could understand why they were so upset: they
were scared of playing a bum note, and being under a microscope like that meant
that any discrepancy in their playing was going to be magnified. Also, the
technical limitations at the time were such that we couldn’t easily drop-in, so
they had to play the whole song correctly from beginning to end every time.”
“Even without peering through the control room glass, I could hear
the sound of the eight musicians sliding their chairs back before every take,
so I had to keep going down there and moving the mics back in closer after
every take: it was comic, really. Finally, George Martin told them pointedly to
stop moving off mic.”
Fourteen takes of the song were recorded, there being a familiar
request from Paul instituted between takes one and two. According to Mark
Lewisohn’s detailed account in “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” Paul
apparently took advantage of the talkback system between the control room and
the studio floor to ask the musicians to play without vibrato as he formerly
insisted for “Yesterday.” Lewisohn writes: “Once again the question of vibrato
was raised, and it led to an amusing incident. Between takes one and two,
George Martin asked the players if they could play without vibrato. They tried
two quick versions, one with, one without – not classified as takes – and at
the end, George called up to Paul McCartney, ‘Can you hear the difference?’ –
‘Er…not much!’ Ironically, the musicians could, and they favored playing
without, which must have pleased Paul.”
Fourteen full takes (with no overdubs or edits) were needed to get
the final result, take fourteen being deemed best. All four tracks of the tape
were filled with the string musicians, two per track, which then were mixed
down at the close of the session onto another four-track tape to allow room for
the vocal overdubs which were done at the next recording session.
One of the viola players, Stephen Shingles, comments about that
session: “I got about five pounds (the standard Musicians’ Union session fee
was nine pounds) and it made billions of pounds. And like idiots, we gave them
all our ideas for free.” Being that they were going strictly off of George
Martin’s pre-written score, it can easily be assumed that their “ideas” had to
be minimal.
Geoff Emerick concludes: “In the end, the players did a good job,
though they clearly were annoyed, so much so that they declined an invitation
to listen to the playback. We didn’t really care what they thought, anyway – we
were pleased that we had come up with another new sound, which was really a
combination of Paul’s vision and mine.” By 7:50 that evening, the session
concluded for the day.
At 5 pm the next evening, April 29th, 1966, another session took
place at EMI Studios, this time in Studio Three, to add the vocals to “Eleanor
Rigby.” Paul’s lead vocals were added to a separate track with ADT (“artificial
double tracking”) being applied to his voice for the choruses. John and George
also added harmony vocals during the intro and bridge of the song (“aah, look
at all the lonely people”) and the song was considered complete by 1 am the
next morning. Three mono mixes of the song were then produced by Martin,
Emerick, and McDonald, although neither of these was ever used.
The reason they were never used was that, on June 6th, 1966, an
idea to include an additional vocal passage in the conclusion of the song was
recorded, making the previous mono mixes unusable. After assorted tape copying
and mono mixing of recently recorded “Revolver” tracks were completed, Paul
stuck around EMI Studio Three so that, at midnight, he could have a go at
adding two vocal lines (“aah, look at all the lonely people”) to be
superimposed on top of his previously recorded vocals in the conclusion of the
song. By 1:30 the next morning, this was complete, and so was “Eleanor Rigby.”
Both the released mono and stereo mixes of the song were performed
during the final mixing session for the “Revolver” album on June 22nd, 1966.
This was done in the control room of EMI Studio Three by Martin, Emerick and
2nd engineer Jerry Boys. The lead vocals in the mono mix are somewhat louder
than the stereo. The stereo mix has the double string quartet centered while
Paul’s lead vocals are entirely in the right channel when they are
single-tracked with the ADT track of his lead vocals centered in the mix during
the choruses. A blatant error with the ADT occurs at the beginning of the first
verse where the first two syllables of the word “Eleanor” are centered before
they turn the ADT track down for the rest of the verse. The background
harmonies and Paul’s final vocal overdub in the conclusion are all heard
entirely in the left channel.
An instrumental stereo mix of the song was made in 1995 by George
Martin and Geoff Emerick for inclusion on the “Anthology 2” album; they're
remixing the strings for a good stereo presence.
An entirely new stereo mix of the song was made in 1999 for its
inclusion on the release “Yellow Submarine Songtrack.” This mix was performed
in Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Studios) by the team of Peter Cobbin, Paul
Hicks, Mirek Stiles, and Allan Rouse. The string section was divided into the
violins on the left channel and the violas and cellos on the right channel. All
of the vocals were centered in the mix.
Sometime between 2004 and 2006, George Martin and son Giles Martin
created yet another stereo mix of “Eleanor Rigby” (with a transition from the
song “Julia”) for the Cirque du Soleil soundtrack entitled “Love.” This mix
combined the instrumental version with vocals for an extended presentation of
the song.
In 2015, Giles Martin once again turned his attention to the
master tapes for "Eleanor Rigby" at Abbey Road Studios to create,
along with Sam Okell, an even more vibrant stereo mix of the song for inclusion
in the re-released 2015 version of the compilation album "Beatles 1."
Also to be mentioned is a new recording of the song by Paul
McCartney in 1983 for inclusion on his soundtrack album “Give My Regards To
Broad Street.” This recording quickly segues into a similarly titled
instrumental “Eleanor’s Dream.”
On February 8th, 1990, a live version of “Eleanor Rigby” was
recorded by Paul which was included on his “Tripping The Live Fantastic” and
“Tripping The Live Fantastic: Highlights!” albums. Also, sometime in April or
May of 2002, he recorded another live version of the song that was included on
his “Back In The US” album. Then, in July of 2009, a further live rendition of
the song was recorded at Citi Field in New York City for inclusion on his “Good
Evening New York City” album.
Song Structure and Style
Without warning, Beatles fans (and popular music fans alike) were
treated to a side-step into Classical music within the two-minute format of AM
pop radio in 1966. Classical music buffs may shudder at my insinuation that
“Eleanor Rigby” fits into that genre by any stretch of the imagination, but we
can at least view it as a fusion with the popular music form of that era.
Funnily enough, the majority of Beatles enthusiasts of that decade (as well as
ours) accept the song as impressively entertaining and not too “high brow” for
their taste.
The songs’ structure consists of a ‘intro/ verse/ verse/ chorus/
verse/ verse/ chorus/ bridge (intro)/ verse/ verse/ chorus (outro)’ format (or
abbcbbcabbc). Beginning proceedings with the bridge (thereby making it an intro
to the song) is something that had been done before in their catalog, such as
in “Can’t Buy Me Love,” which suggests a possible credit to George Martin for
this arrangement element since it was his suggestion on this earlier song.
The listener is startled by the downbeat of the very first measure
of the song with its three-part harmony lyric “aaah, look at all the lonely
people” (which suspiciously sounds like “lovely people” to a lot of ears) on
top of the pulsing quarter notes of the octet of string musicians. The held out
sighing melody line of the cellos, and saw-like jumping eighth notes of the
violins make for an impressive but busy eight-measure introduction to the song.
The first five-measure verse then begins with Paul singing
single-tracked, introducing us to the first character in this sad tale. His
melody line repeatedly syncopates in triplet form (“in a church / where a wed /
ding has been”) above strident chorded quarter note chops by the full octet of
musicians for the first entire verse, with the exception of the cellos raising
the melody briefly in the fourth measure. Paul’s British pronunciation of
“been” becomes a perfect rhyme with “dream” as it had the previous year with “I’ve
Just Seen A Face.” Curiously, the transition back to the home key of E minor
appears midway through the fifth measure.
The second five-measure verse appears immediately thereafter with
Paul repeating the exact same melody line. This time, however, the arrangement
intensifies with the violins doubling their chorded chops to eighth notes above
the cellos quarter notes. The violas play the raising melody line of the fourth
measure this time around instead of the cellos.
The eight-measure chorus is then heard to interject the overall
commentary of the setting, namely “all the lonely people, where do they all
come from…where do they all belong.” Paul’s vocals are now treated with
artificial double-tracking to accentuate the song’s message. The violins go back
to playing quarter notes while the violas play a twice-repeated four-note
descending passage above a single note bass note being held by the violas. A
single violin (no doubt Tony Gilbert as first violinist) repeats Paul’s final
melody line of the song (“where do they all belong”) in the final measure which
actually extends into the first measure of the following verse.
The next two verses follow the same pattern as the first pair but
with instrumental accentuations. As Paul introduces “Father Mackenzie” to the
story, the cellists interject a low eighth-note run in the fourth measure that
tapers off in the fifth. These cellists repeat this same line in the fourth
verse but are preceded by a detailed passage by the violas that appear through
all five measures. All the while the staccato eighth notes are played by the
violins and whoever else is not playing the above passages at that time.
The chorus is then repeated with the exact configuration as heard
the first time with the exception of the single violin playing an ascending
passage just after the lyrics “where do they all come from.” While vibrato is
decided against in this performance, the final note of this passage requires
it. A repeat of the intro is then heard as the bridge of the song, the instrumentalists’
performances identical to a tee, right down to the differing staggered cellist
lines of the third and seventh measures. This is the last we will hear of the
three-part harmonies of Paul, John, and George.
The fifth verse, while melodically structured the same, shows
quite a bit of strategic instrumental differences. While the cellos play a
see-saw eighth note pattern for all five measures, the violins hold out a high
note throughout all five measures. Meanwhile, the violas play a jarring melodic
eighth-note melody that starts midway through the second measure on the
syncopated word “church.” The sixth verse is also dramatically different, with
both the violins and violas playing the staccato quarter notes with the cellos
mimicking Paul’s melody line on the words “wiping the dirt from his hands as he
walks from the grave” while then slowly descending downward in the final
measure. All in all, this dramatic change in arrangement perfectly suits the
poignant mood of the lyrics.
The final repeat of the chorus is quite similar arrangement-wise
to the first chorus except for two obvious additions. No doubt because of the
absence of the ascending violin line heard in the second chorus, the decision
was made for Paul to overdub a solo vocal reprise of the “aah, look at all the
lonely people” melody line of the intro/bridge to superimpose two
characteristic elements of the song and distinguish the conclusion for a big
final impression. Additionally, the single violin melody line of the eighth
measure is confined to quarter notes and joined in harmony by the rest of the
octet to round off the arrangement for a suitable ending.
Paul’s vocal performance is stunning in its simplicity while
"spot on" in pitch. His delivery conveys the despair of his story
perfectly. John and George’s harmonies, while not intrinsically important,
nonetheless are performed well and add a “Beatle-ness” to the song. (And shame
on you, John, for singing “lovely people” instead of “lonely,” if that is what
you did…that would be something he would do.
:-) )
The arrangement scored by George Martin was designed for a string
quartet and was doubled for the eight musicians in the double-string quartet,
two instrumentalists playing the same part. This is the pattern used throughout
with the exception of the solo violin lines mentioned above. So instrumental
and intricate was this arrangement that one asserts (dare I say) that George
Martin should have gotten a songwriting credit. “Lennon/McCartney” definitely
doesn’t cut it in this case – maybe “McCartney / Martin / Lennon / Starkey /
Shotton.” Don’t shoot me…it’s just a thought.
As was his soon-to-be-established habit, Paul took to introducing
characters and painting a vivid picture (arguably his most vivid) of their
story. First off, though, he expresses his observance of “all the lonely
people,” then beginning with his first example of a lonely person, “Eleanor
Rigby.” She is seen picking up “the rice in a church where a wedding has been.”
He then gives the first of six four-syllable dour opinions of the situation
found in the song, which are all found in the final measure of the verses. This
one is “lives in a dream.”
Her loneliness is then depicted in the second verse by her waiting
“at the window, wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door,” possibly
inferring to the make-up she regularly applies. The final dour opinion this
time, since she lives alone and has few if any acquaintances, is “who is it
for?”
After reiterating his sad observance of “all the lonely people,
where do they all come from…where do they all belong,” he then introduces a
seemingly unrelated person named “Father Mackenzie,” who then purposelessly
writes “the words of a sermon that no one will hear,” possibly reflecting the
decline in religious values that John Lennon referred to with his “we’re bigger
than Jesus” statement that same year. The dour statement “no one comes near” is
followed by a lonely depiction of him “darning his socks in the night when
there’s nobody there,” volunteered celibacy discounting a wife to perform this
task for him. But, as the next dour statement asserts, “what does he care?”
Then the two characters intermingle but tragically. Eleanor “died
in the church and was buried along with her name,” probably referring to her
name dying along with her, not being in the memory of family or friends. This
opinion is substantiated by the following dour statement from Paul, “nobody
came.” The lonely priest was the one who performed the eulogy and is depicted
as “wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave.” The final dour
statement, “no one was saved,” could also be in connection with the lessened
spiritual values of that time period.
George Harrison may have pricked our conscious to help those in
Bangladesh, and John Lennon may have promoted the use of creative affirmations
to bring about an imagined world of “living life in peace,” but first it was
Paul, as expressed in his final thought in “Eleanor Rigby,” namely, “all the
lonely people, where do they all belong,” that tugged at our heart in a way
that created in us a desire to give attention to the depressed souls that
surround us right in our own community. That seems to me like a good place to
start.
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