LADY MADONNA, AND ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

The Beatles had planned a trip to India to continue their studies of Transcendental Meditation with the Maharishi, John, and George scheduled to leave on February 15th and Paul and Ringo February 19th. Figuring they would stay until late April, they scheduled some studio time at EMI to record a new single to be released in their absence, then record a new album later in the year.

With this in mind, they arrived in EMI Studio Three at 2:30 pm on February 3rd, 1968 for the first of two sessions on that day, the first order of business being recording Paul's new composition “Lady Madonna.” This first three-and-a-half-hour session was spent laying down a rhythm track for the song, the only musicians playing being Paul and Ringo. “Paul plays piano on it,” Ringo explained. “We said to George Martin, 'How did they do it on “Bad Penny Blues”? And he said, 'They used brushes.' So, we put an off-beat on it.” After rehearsals, Paul and Ringo laid down three takes of this rhythm track, both instruments recorded on the first track of the four-track tape. The first take was incomplete, the second making it through the song with some interesting jazzy syncopations on the piano, and the third full rendition being the best. At 6 pm, the session was over which allowed for an hour break before the second session began.

At 7 pm, they started their second session held in EMI Studio Three. Overdubs commenced for “Lady Madonna,” track two of the tape containing Paul on bass, Ringo on drums playing a more standard 4/4 beat with sticks, and both John and George simultaneously playing melody lines on “fuzzed” guitars through the same amplifier, something they'd done three years before on “Nowhere Man.”

Paul recorded lead vocals onto track four of the tape, this deliberately being overloaded to create an edgy quality, not unlike Fats Domino. Also on this track was John contributing some mouth noises in imitation of a tuba along with some handclaps. The group then all gathered around the microphone to perform more backing vocals onto track three. Along with a tambourine and some doodling on a mellotron, Ringo describes what they experimented vocally for this track: "There's a lovely sound on 'Lady Madonna,' that's like sort of muted trumpets, or a kazoo, or something. But, in actual fact, it's just John and Paul (and George as the recording suggests) sort of humming through their hands into a mike. It was purely by accident that we discovered that sound. We had just finished taping a bit of the record, and John and Paul started to hum into the mike with their hands cupped round their mouths. When we played back the piece of tape with this bit tagged on the end, it sounded great, so we decided to use it." Mark Lewisohn, in his book "The Beatles Recording Sessions" describes this overdub as John and George singing “scat backing vocals while munching Marmite flavored crisps,” the author adding that “the crunching was omitted from the remix.” The mock brass overdub would be perfected at a later time as an additional overdub. With all for tracks of the tape filled by 1:30 am the following morning, this second session was over and all left for the night.

The next day was used to record the song John wanted as their next single, namely his gorgeous “Across The Universe.” Then, on February 6th, 1968, two more recording sessions were booked with intentions of finishing “Lady Madonna” from a few days before. This time they were in EMI Studio One, which was quite large and used primarily for recording orchestras. The first session on this day rolled for recording George's lilting “The Inner Light,” Ringo being absent at this time because of him performing on the live BBC TV show “Cilla” starring Cilla Black, a television being brought into the studio for the other Beatles to watch in between recording sessions.

Undoubtedly inspired by their vocal simulation of brass instruments on their first session for "Lady Madonna," Paul decided that actual saxophonists should play for the song. Since there was a time crunch involved, there wasn't an opportunity for George Martin to write a score for them to play. Instead, Paul insisted on finding four accomplished brass musicians to be present in the studio for the second session that evening. Could that be arranged?

The book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” explains: “Laurie Gold, a session 'fixer' for EMI, often used by George Martin and The Beatles, was called into swift action.” Baritone sax player Harry Klein remembers: “They were in a real flap to find four musicians and called on Laurie to conjure some up for them. I was in the bath at about 6:30 in the evening when Laurie called and said, 'Are you working tonight?' 'No, I'm in the bath!' 'Well get over to EMI as quick as you can, and how can I find a tenor player?' I suggested he call Ronnie Scott, the chap who runs the London jazz club, and sure enough, when I got to Abbey Road, Ronnie was there, along with Bill Jackman and Bill Povey. Paul didn't recognize Ronnie Scott until we told him who he was." Paul, however, recalls that he personally invited Ronnie Scott to the session. In the "'White Album' 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition" book, he states: "I used to know Ronnie, and I'd meet him in Soho and go to his jazz club quite a lot. I said, 'We need a nice wild saw solo.' He came along to the session, play it great!”

This second session, also in EMI Studio One, began at 9 pm. Before the sax players arrived, a tape reduction of the previous “take 3” was done, which combined all of the vocal work of tracks three and four to track four only, leaving track three open for more overdubs, this reduction now referred to as "take 4.” Onto this, Paul recorded another lead vocal along with John and George singing tight “see how they run” backing vocals as well as the now-perfected mock brass singing. John and George performed handclaps as well, while Ringo added a tambourine and Paul put in another piano overdub. Engineer Geoff Emerick recalls: “We spent a lot of time getting the right piano sound for 'Lady Madonna.' We ended up using a cheaper type of microphone and heavy compression and limiting.” In his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” Emerick adds: “As usual, Paul was looking for a different kind of sound, so I took the same cheap microphone that we had used for John's lead vocal on 'I Am The Walrus' and positioned it way down in the sound holes, which yielded a muffled midrange tone.”

With these overdubs complete, the four-track tape was again full. Another tape reduction was then made to once again combine tracks three and four to track four, thus opening up track three for yet another overdub. Then entered the brass musicians. Harry Klein continues, “There was no written music, but we played around with a few riffs until Paul liked what he heard. And then we recorded it – 101 times! I remember there was a big pile of meditation books in the corner of the studio, like the back room of a publisher's office, and I also recall that they asked if we wanted a bite to eat. We were expecting a terrific meal, but a few minutes later someone returned with pie and chips!”

Tenor saxophonist Bill Povey remembers: “There was not only no prepared music for us to follow, but when Paul called out some chords at us our first reaction was to look at each other and say, 'Well, who plays what?'” Baritone saxophonist Bill Jackman adds: “Paul went through the song on the piano and we were each given a scrap of manuscript paper and a pencil to write out some notes. Had there been music we would have been in and out in about ten minutes. As it was, it took most of the evening, recording it in A-major pitch with the rhythm track playing in our headphones.”

At the end of this session, the engineering team of George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and Jerry Boys, undoubtedly with input from The Beatles, worked at creating a suitable mono mix of the song, two attempts occurred. However, neither of these mixes were deemed acceptable for release. This session, which completed the recording of “Lady Madonna,” ended at 2 am the following morning.

The true mono mix was made on February 15th, 1968 by George Martin, Geoff Emerick and 2nd engineer Martin Benge. Eight attempts were made, numbered 3 through 10, the last undoubtedly sounded the best. “During the mix we would heavily overdo the effects on the vocal and the piano too, making for a distinctive sound,” recalls Geoff Emerick.

The next time “Lady Madonna” would grace a recording studio was on September 5th, 1968, during the recording of George's “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” “Take 40” of this song developed into a couple of snatches of other songs, “Lady Madonna” is one of them, this being saved and added onto a “Beatles Chat” tape they were keeping for posterity.

Also, during the recorded sessions that became the “Let It Be” album, The Beatles touched on “Lady Madonna” three times. The first time was in Twickenham Film Studios on January 7th, 1969, and the other two were in Apple Studios on January 24th and 31st. The last of these three ran during the “Studio Performance” session that appeared in the “Let It Be” movie, “Lady Madonna” started as a simple jammed version that was actually mixed by engineer Glyn Johns on March 11th, 1969 and considered for release on the soundtrack album. In the end, it was deemed to be too rough of a recording to make the grade. However, it did include Paul altering the lyrics to "Lord and lady docker, in your private yacht / all the people wonder why you have such a lot."

You may have noticed that a stereo mix of the song lacked before the song was released in early 1968. This was because there was no intention of “Lady Madonna” appearing on an album at that time, singles only printed mono copies then. This was soon to change, of course, but as of 1968, stereo singles basically didn't exist. However, because of a September 1969 deal that new Beatles manager Allen Klein had struck with Capitol Records in America for a higher royalty rate, a new U.S. album was being arranged which strung together Beatles singles that hadn't been released on an album yet. Now a need surfaced for a stereo mix of “Lady Madonna” for inclusion on what became the “Hey Jude” album (also known as “The Beatles Again”),

Only made only one attempt at creating this stereo mix, which was done in the control room of EMI Studio Two on December 2nd, 1969 by the engineering team of George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, and Richard Lush. One noticeable difference between the stereo and mono mix is the final fading piano chord from Paul which cuts off slightly sooner on the stereo version.

Sometime between May and June of 1976, Paul and his band Wings recorded a version of the song during their “Wings Over The World” tour, the result appearing on their live album "Wings Over America." Also, sometime in 1993, Paul and his band recorded “Lady Madonna” during his “New World Tour,” this recording contained a spot on his “Paul Is Live” album of that year.

George Martin and Geoff Emerick returned to the song sometime in 1995 to prepare a new mix for inclusion on the interesting compilation album “Anthology 2.” This version featured mostly the stripped-down rhythm track from Paul and Ringo with Paul's lead vocals, adding in selected overdubs sporadically, such as the sax solo and the mock vocal brass from John, Paul, and George. An interesting ad-lib saxophone line, originally intended for the conclusion of the song, was included here as well.

Then, between April 1st and May 18th, 2002, yet another live version of “Lady Madonna” was recorded by Paul and his band for inclusion on both his “Back In The US” and “Back In The World” live albums.

George Martin gave “Lady Madonna” yet another overhaul sometime between 2004 and 2006, this time with his son Giles Martin, for inclusion on the album “Love” as a companion piece to the Cirque du Soliel production of the same name. They interspersed elements of “Why Don't We Do It In The Road?,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “I Want You (She's So Heavy)” and “Hey Bulldog” into this interesting mashup. Paul was quite happy with this new mix because of one certain element. "You can finally hear the sax player Ronnie Scott...He came along to the session, played it great but, of course, in the mix we buried it. After he heard it on the radio, he said, 'What did you do to my solo?' So on 'Love,' at the end of 'Lady Madonna,' you finally hear Ronnie!"

A recording of Paul performing the song at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, California took place on June 27th, 2007, and was included on the 2019 released album "Amoeba Gig."

Sometime in 2015, Giles Martin once again returned to "Lady Madonna" to create a new mix of the song for inclusion on a newly released version of "Beatles 1."

Paul recorded yet another live version of the song at Citi Field in New York City sometime between July 17th and 21st, 2009, for inclusion on his “Good Evening New York City” album

Sometime in 2018, Giles Martin gave yet more attention to "Lady Madonna" for inclusion on the "'White Album' 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe" box set. Two new mixes followed, the first being the unreleased 'take two' of Paul and Ringo playing the rhythm track. The second mix was of an extract of the original 'track three,' complete with their goofing around, their crunching of Marmite crisps, and their mellotron doodling.

Song Structure and Style.

While "Lady Madonna" is quite typically made up of verses and bridges, just like the majority of the rest of the Beatles catalog, the sheer amount of them staggers the mind. It parses out to 'verse (instrumental)/ verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ verse (instrumental)/ bridge (primarily instrumental)/ verse/ verse (instrumental)/ bridge/ verse' (or aaabaabaaba) with a unique conclusion thrown in as well. And all of this in just over two minutes!

The first instrumental verse is four measures long, the same length of all but the last verse as we'll see later. This first verse acts as the introduction to the song, this consisting of only the rhythm track of Paul on piano and Ringo on brushed snare.

Then begins the second verse, the first vocal verse, which adds in Paul's lead vocals, Ringo's second drum track (with his kick drum mixed rather high) and Paul's bass guitar overdub. This is followed by the third verse with the exact same instrumentation.

Next comes the first bridge which, like all of them, is eight measures long. While the rhythm track of piano and brushed snare continue as before, Ringo's second drum part is reduced primarily to hi-hat accents on the two- and four-beat of the first six measures. Paul's single-tracked vocal continues as does his bass part, but it all abruptly changes for the seventh and eighth measures. Paul plays half-note chords on the piano and adds to these with bass guitar notes while Ringo accents these beats with brushed cymbal beats. The primary focus, however, is the three-part harmony of John, Paul, and George that augment Paul's lead vocal passage “See how they run.” Ringo then finishes off this first bridge with a simple brushed snare flam.

Then comes verse number four which contains all of the elements of the last two verses but adds John and George's simultaneous lead guitar lines, this becoming a very effective counter-melody to Paul's main vocal melody line. Verse five follows directly afterward while Paul jumps into falsetto for the final word of his last line from the previous verse (“feed the re-eeeeeeeest”). The four saxophonists appear in this fifth verse as well, playing along with John and George on the exact counter-melody that they had played on the previous verse. Also predominant is the handclapping which occurs on the two- and four-beats of each measure.

The second bridge then follows, the rhythm track of piano and brushed snare, as well as the bass guitar and hi-hat accent, overdubs still in place as in the previous bridge. However, John, Paul and George's cupped-handed brass overdub is present in the first six measures, along with Ringo's slightly heard tambourine in the background. Ronnie Scott steals focus here though with his saxophone solo in these first six measures. The final two measures of this bridge follow the pattern set from the first with the four-part harmony “See how they run” while Ringo ends it all with a slightly longer brushed snare fill. Interestingly, John and George begin their dual lead guitar counter-melody line for the next verse a little early with a smartly played introductory riff that actually occurs in the eighth measure of this second bridge.

What occurs next is a pairing of verses six and seven, these being a virtual repeat instrumentally of verses four and five, right down to the saxophones and handclaps. The only difference here is the different lyrics, Paul going into falsetto on the final line “music playing in your he-eeeeead.”

Then comes the third bridge which is somewhat a combination of the first two bridges in that the cupped-handed brass is heard here but with another lead vocal from Paul on top. The rhythm track elements repeat here as in the other bridges, as well as Paul's bass and Ringo's hi-hat accents. One curious occurrence is in the second measure where there appears to be a vocal faux pas from Paul. After the line “Tuesday afternoon is never-ending” there is what sounds like an audible accentuated “g” sound as if he was humorously ending the sentence with a vocal exclamation point. (I always thought it was a scratch on my old 45, but it's clear as day on the CD.) The “See how they run” harmonies are once again in place, Ringo crashing the cymbal with emphasis this time around on the downbeat of the seventh measure. John and George's introductory riff is once again in place at the end of this bridge.

Then comes the eighth and final verse, this one being five measures long instead of four. The fourth measure this time around is actually in 6/4 time instead of 4/4, the measure beginning with the lyric “make ends meet.” Instrumental differences here include the saxophones mimicking the lead guitar counter-melody line at the same time that Paul sings his melody line, which is a lyrical repeat (for emphasis) of the first line of the entire song. Paul jumps into falsetto here as well on the line “make ends me-eeeeet” while John and George mimic Paul's piano riff on their guitars and the saxophones hold out a high note to end their involvement in the song. This verse comes to a halt on an anticipated third beat of the fifth measure, Ringo ending this extended verse with a brushed snare fill to usher in the brief conclusion that follows.

This brief conclusion is actually just a repeat of the final two measures of the previous verse, the only instrumentalists being Paul and Ringo as in the introduction. Paul, this time, is on both piano and bass while both of Ringo's drum tracks are in place, him supplying a hearty crash on the same anticipated three-beat as in the fifth measure of the final verse while Paul's piano rings out.

A lot has been documented about the discord among The Beatles during their later 1968 recording sessions. As of February, as witnessed here, all four of them seemed extremely cooperative and willing to put forward a good performance, undoubtedly in high spirits in anticipation of their impending trip to India to raise all of their consciousnesses.

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