Ballad Of John And Yoko And Its Incredible Recording Process Revealed

“John and Yoko came round to see me,” Paul recalls about April 14th, 1969, “and John said, 'I've got this song about me and Yoko, and I'm hot to record it. I'd like to ring up the studio, get some time and we could do it right now. You could play bass, and you could play drums,' because he knew I could just about do them.”

Once the two of them finished off the writing of the song, they drove over to EMI Studio Three, where they had booked 2:30 to 10 pm, to record this newly completed composition. George Martin happened to be available, as were engineers John Kurlander and Geoff Emerick, the latter having not worked with The Beatles since his quitting his relationship with them in disgust during the sessions for the “White Album.”

“I received a phone call from Peter Brown,” Emerick relates in his book “Here There And Everywhere,” “telling me in breathless tones that John had just written a new song and would be coming into Abbey Road...Would I be willing to do the session? I asked Peter rather tentatively if John was 'OK' these days. He understood exactly what I was getting at; as the Beatles' designated minder, he had seen plenty of Lennon at his worst. 'Yes, he's fine,' Peter assured me. 'He's in really good spirits at the moment, and he's really up about the new song. And he specifically asked me if I could get you to engineer it.' How could I possibly say no to that?”

Tensions were quite high in recent months between John and Paul due to their trying to decide who they wanted to hire to manage the affairs of the band; John, George, and Ringo wanted to employ Allen Klein while Paul favored the law firm of Eastman and Eastman, who was run by his new in-laws. However, John's enthusiasm for this last-minute project rubbed off on Paul, the two of them now determined to tackle this undertaking on a day they had nothing better to do anyway. They may as well make it a productive day off!

“The booked session started in mid-afternoon,” Emerick continues, “and to my amazement, a chipper John actually rolled up spot on time, with Paul following just a few minutes later. It was officially supposed to be a Beatles session, but they were the only two band members to turn up that day, Paul taking the drummer's chair, playing Ringo's kit with confidence and ease. The two Beatles seemed remarkably relaxed, despite the horror stories I had heard about the rows and bad feelings engendered by the 'Let It Be' sessions. On this one day, they reverted to being two old school chums, all the nastiness of recent months swept under the rug and replaced by the sheer joy of making music together.”

“It was a great session, one of those magic times when everything went right, and nothing went wrong...A new eight-track machine had been installed in the control room just recently, and we put it to good use that day. The eight-track recorder allowed for lots of overdubs, so John played all the guitars – lead and rhythm – while Paul handled bass, piano, percussion, and drums; they made for a great two-man band. That was one of the first times I put microphones both on top of and under the snare drum, which imparted a larger-than-life crack to the sound, the perfect complement to John's aggressive vocal.”

The “sequence of events – for reference,” as John Kurlander called it, was preserved in detail by the engineer on the recording sheet. The rhythm track consisted of John on acoustic guitar (track two), Paul on drums (track three), and John's lead vocal (track four). The control room treated John's vocal track with a bit of slap-back echo reminiscent of Gene Vincent's “Be Bop A Lula,” an effect that John would use quite regularly during his solo career.

They recorded eleven takes of the rhythm track, only takes one, seven, ten, and eleven made it to the end of the song, the others broke down early. Most of the aborted takes flubbed at the same spot, Paul mistakenly playing an extra snare drum fill before the vocal line “made a lightning trip to Vienna.” 'Take two' ended early because of John breaking a guitar string, a usual event for him in the studio through the years. After this occurred, John called out to assistant Mal Evans, “Mal!...Un string avec caput, Mal,” signaling him to appropriate a replacement in due haste. 'Take three' ended early because of Paul speeding up on the drums, the tempo-perfect Ringo not being present as usual. “It got a bit faster, Ringo,” John instructs, prompting Paul to chuckle and reply, “OK, George!” These fun-natured exchanges, representative of how much they were enjoying this session, were captured on various 50th Anniversary editions of “Abbey Road.”

These editions also contained the entire 'take seven,' which reveals that John originally began the song alone on acoustic guitar before Paul joined in just before the vocals of the first verse. We also witness John vocalizing the concluding guitar figure that he would overdub later, reminiscent of "The Honeymoon Song," a selection by Marino Marini and his Quartet from 1959 that The Beatles used to perform regularly in their early years, their own rendition included on the 1994 release "Live At The BBC." It only makes sense that John would insist on this reference since the subject matter of "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" included their own honeymoon. Since five attempts of the rhythm track broke down prior to 'take seven,' this complete rendition ends with a triumphant cry from Lennon: “Yeeeeah, We'll have it, we'll have it!”, followed by Paul privately celebrating the occasion with some additional drum work. John then states, “it was worth it for that, 'cause you came out before it; that's alright.” Paul then replies, “Ah, I think we'll listen to it.”

After takes eight and nine breaks down, 'take ten' made it through to the end of the song. Even though John thought it was acceptable, Paul voiced the opinion, “I thought the others were better.” John then asked the engineering team, “What'd you think in there?” before they did one further take in an attempt to raise the key to G major. After realizing it sounded better in E major, they decided to return to 'take ten' for overdubbing purposes. Onto 'take ten,' Paul overdubbed bass (track one), John added electric guitar (track five), John doubled his electric guitar while Paul added piano (track six), Paul provided backing vocals (track seven), and John thumped the back of his guitar while Paul played maracas (track eight).

“The whole record was completed in just a few hours, from start to finish, including the mix – just like the good old days,” Geoff Emerick recalls. John and Paul entered the control room of EMI Studio Three just after the overdubs were complete to assist the engineering team in creating the stereo mix of the song, only two hours needed to get the perfect mix. From 9 to 11 pm, they created five mixes, and the fifth deemed best for what became the first-ever stereo Beatles single in the UK (“Get Back” was issued as a stereo single in the US). “The luxury of eight tracks allowed us to do a detailed stereo mix, and as icing on the cake, the record ended up being mastered by Malcolm (Davies) at Apple (Studios),” Emerick continues. No mono mix ranked necessary, which was also a first for Beatles recordings.

On the tape box that contained these mixes, the phrase “Another winner from 'ERNIE'” was written. As Kevin Howlett explains in the liner notes for the 50th Anniversary release of “Abbey Road,” “This was a familiar phrase in the UK at the time. The Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment generated a selection of prize-winning Premium Bonds that had been purchased as part of a national savings scheme." "I enjoyed working with John and Yoko on 'The Ballad Of John And Yoko,'" stated George Martin. "It was just the two of them with Paul. When you think about it, in a funny kind of way, it was the beginning of their own label and their own way of recording."

Sometime in 2019, George Martin's son Giles Martin, along with engineer Sam Okell, returned to these master tapes to create a stereo mix of the complete 'take seven' of “The Ballad Of John And Yoko.” Because they recorded the song during the months that resulted in the “Abbey Road” album, this outtake appeared in various releases in celebration of the LP's 50th Anniversary, complete with interesting banter between early takes as described above.

Song Structure and Style

The structure of the song parses out to 'verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ verse/ chorus/ bridge/ verse/ chorus/ verse chorus' (or abababcabab). A brief introduction and conclusion is also included, while no solo or instrumental section was deemed necessary.

After a simple two-measure introduction, which comprises John on acoustic guitar and Paul on drums and overdubbed bass, the first eight-measure verse begins. John's lead vocals start on the downbeat of measure one, while his slight lead guitar riffs and echoed riffs appear in the second and fourth measure, both of these guitar overdubs pan to opposite channels in the stereo landscape. Next, the song moves directly into the first eight-measure chorus with the same instrumentation. John plays four lead guitar riffs, in measures one, three, five, and seven, respectively, in a descending scale that harmonize with each other, both overdubs still panned to opposite channels. The seventh and eighth measures feature the first appearance of Paul's piano overdub playing simple E major triads while the eighth measure has the final note of John's lower lead guitar riff pulled up the fretboard at the end.

The second verse/chorus pair appears next, which is essentially the same as the first pair. John's second lead guitar phrase in the fourth measure of the verse lasts slighly longer; this delays his echo riff in the opposite channel until the fifth measure. Traces of Paul's piano enters in measure eight of the verse and measure four of the chorus, as well as a full return of the triad E major chords in measure eight of the chorus. All the while, Paul plays a strict 4/4 drum pattern on closed hi-hats with no drum fills insight.

The third verse/chorus set is also essentially the same, John's second lead guitar riff being doubled in measure four of the verse, pushing the single echoing lead guitar riff to measure five once again. The eighth measure of this chorus features Paul haphazardly hitting nonsense stabs on the piano in a descending arrangement. He also puts in his first snare drum fill, a segue into the bridge that follows.

The bridge runs eight measures in length and in 4/4 time like the rest of the song, except measure eight, which is in 6/4 time. The extra two beats contained in this eighth measure is to accommodate a 'Beatles break' that corresponds to John's lyrical instruction for us to “THINK,” which falls on the three-and-a-half beat of the measure. After a short break, Paul counts the song back in with three snare drum beats, ushering in the next verse/chorus set. Other noticeable features of this bridge reveal the piano chording throughout as well as Paul's harmony vocals in measures five through eight.

The fourth verse/chorus pair introduces Paul's maracas and John's acoustic guitar thumping overdub throughout. During the verse, Paul provides harmony only on words that end phrases, these being “bag,” “said,” “head,” and “drag,” and during the chorus, he harmonizes in measures four through eight. John alters his lead guitar riffs substantially this time around, even performing a harmonized ascending guitar phrase in the third measure of the chorus. Paul becomes more confident on the drums at this point, adding simple drum fills in measures four and eight, while the piano chording doesn't come in until the eighth measure of the chorus this time around.

The fifth and final verse/chorus set is next, the final chorus runs twelve measures long this time to accommodate a repeat of the last phrase “the way things are going / they're going to crucify me.” All instrumentation is in full force during this climactic finale, Paul's piano plays throughout the tune’s last leg. Paul sings harmony all through the verse and chorus, except for his timid omission of the word “Christ,” which John emphasizes enthusiastically. John's lead guitar work becomes even more expressive, including multiple stabs in measures five and six of the verse as well as another harmonized ascending figure in measure three of the chorus. Paul also delivers simple drum fills in measures eight and twelve of the chorus. As a highlight, the final measure includes the beginning of John's harmonized “Honeymoon Song”-like guitar riff.

The four-measure conclusion to the song primarily features the triplet-like guitar run John started in the final measure of the last chorus, his vocalization of this riff from the rhythm track even emerges, while the rest of the instrumentation plays at full bore. Everyone comes to a final halt on the downbeat of the fourth measure, all cymbals and guitars ringing until Paul's last drum and hi-hat beat declare the final word.

"The story came out about that only Paul and I were on the record, but I wouldn't have bothered publicizing that," John explained in 1969. "It doesn't mean anything. It just sort of happened that there were only us two there. George was looking for a house somewhere, and Ringo, who was on the film set, said he couldn't come that night. Because of that, it was a choice of either mixing or doing a new one, and you always go for doing a new one instead of fiddling about with an old one. So that's what we did, and it worked out well."

Were the other two band members upset about not being on the latest Beatles release? "That was OK," Ringo declared. "'Why Don't We Do It In The Road' was just Paul and me, and it went out as a Beatle track too. There's good drums on 'The Ballad Of John And Yoko.'" George reasoned: "I didn't mind not being on the record, because it was none of my business. If it had been 'The Ballad Of John, George And Yoko,' then I would have been on it."

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