On May 28th, 1968, The Beatles gathered at George's 'Kinfauns' home in Esher, Surrey, to tape demo recordings of songs they wanted to officially record for their next album, which became the "White Album." Having recently spent a few weeks in Rishikesh, India with the Maharishi, they had written a bumper crop of new songs and, with their first EMI recording session for this new album occurring on May 30th of that year, they wanted to premier these new songs to the rest of the group.
In particular, John had used his quiet time in India to write a plethora of songs, the majority of which ended up on the “White Album.” However, a few didn't and remained undeveloped for the time being, the only tangible evidence of these few having been committed to tape on George's Ampex four-track tape machine on this day. One of these was “Polythene Pam.”
This rough demo was performed by John alone on acoustic guitar and vocals, both double-tracked by the author to fill up all four tracks of the tape. The song's arrangement at this point consisted of the two verses that ended up on the released version, John then repeating both of these verses and then repeating the second verse yet another time. John alternated a line in the second verse between the reference to Pam being a candidate for “the News Of The World” with the lyric “Well, it's a little absurd, but she's a nice class of bird.” Interestingly, when double-tracking his vocals on the second verse's final repeat, he confused these lines and ended up completing the song in lyrical gibberish. Another noticeable difference is how John repeats the final line of each verse at the end, something he replaced in the final recording with a “She Loves You” reprise of “yeah, yeah, yeah.” This demo, however, ends with John prayerfully exclaiming, “Amen.”
Having been omitted from the lineup for the “White Album,” John resurrected the song's song in the rehearsals for their next project, which eventually became the “Let It Be” film and soundtrack album. John rehearsed “Polythene Pam” only once with The Beatles at this time, on January 24th, 1969, at Apple Studios in Savile Row, London, during their rehearsals for the song "Two Of Us." This was a very rough run-through of the two existing verses, with John apparently re-learning the song as he went along. Paul briefly joins in on vocals, while Ringo and George also chime in on their instruments. After the song dissolves, John makes the comment, “I'll give that to somebody...I'll give that to some Liverpool folk singer.” The group apparently didn't feel inclined to perfect the song for consideration for this project but shelved it for the indefinite future with the possibility of handing it off to another artist to record.
Then, sometime in May of 1969, Paul came up with the idea of stringing together leftover bits of songs that he and John had into one long montage to be used as a whole side of their final album. “I wanted to do something bigger, a kind of operatic moment,” Paul explained to Mark Lewisohn in the forward of his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions.” “There were a few people doing that. 'Teenage Opera' was one. We wanted to dabble, and I had a bit of fun making some of the songs fit together, with the key changes. That was nice; it worked out well.” Paul here refers to the popular Keith West 1968 release “Excerpt From A Teenage Opera,” this being cited as a key inspiration to what became the “Abbey Road” medley.
John contributed three unfinished ideas to this medley, the recently written “Sun King” and two unfinished pieces from the “White Album” era, namely “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam.” John explained at the time how his and Paul's contributions were arranged while constructing this montage: “George and Ringo, in fact, wrote bits of it and we did it, you know. Literally, in-between bits and breaks into it, Paul would say, 'We've got 12 bars here, let's fill it in.' And we'd fill it in on the spot.”
This arrangement idea was put in place by the band to link John's “Polythene Pam” with Paul's song “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” both songs being recorded as one. Other than the “Sgt. Pepper” classic “A Day In The Life,” this was the first time two distinct songs from John and Paul were spliced together and recorded together, arranged and put together by The Beatles as a whole on this occasion. This recording began on July 25th, 1969, in EMI Studio Two, starting at 2:30 pm.
This twelve-hour session began with overdubs being recorded onto another section of the montage, namely the “Sun King / Mean Mr. Mustard” medley, which had been started the day before, and John's “Come Together.” After this, starting at about 4:30 pm, the group took to spending the rest of this long session recording the rhythm track to the newly arranged medley of “Polythene Pam / She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” undoubtedly perfecting the linking section of these two songs in the process. The instrumentation was Paul on bass (track one), Ringo on drums (track two), John on acoustic 12-string guitar (track three), George on lead guitar (track four), and John's guide vocals (track six).
Of the 39 takes of the rhythm track recorded during this session, 'take 27' is included on various 50th Anniversary editions of "Abbey Road." Before this take begins, Paul instructs the others: "If you don't do so much to start off with, 'cause you blow it all, you know what I mean, you give away all your best bits. What are you doing at the beginning?" John inquires as to which Beatle he's talking to, as Paul vocalizes John's opening acoustic guitar strums. This prompts George and Ringo to demonstrate their parts, the drummer then continuing his tom-heavy drum playing. When Paul rallies them in for another take, John laughingly states that Ringo's drumming "sounds like Dave Clark." Then, before robustly counting off the next take, he refers to his heavy acoustic guitar intro by saying, "It's like being 'Tommy' in here!" The Who's classic rock opera "Tommy," featuring the somewhat similarly introduced "Pinball Wizard," had just been released a few weeks before this session and, therefore, was fresh on everyone's minds. 'Take 27' was performed well except for George's ad-lib guitar solo that concludes the song, this not being fully worked out as of yet. John flubs the lyrics in places, knowing that these would be improved upon later as an overdub. A total of 39 takes were needed to get it to everyone's satisfaction, 'take 39' being deemed the best, which included a very well-performed guitar solo from George. This session was complete by 10:30 pm.
John was apparently the hardest to please at this session, as related by engineer Geoff Emerick in his book “Here, There And Everywhere.” “Things weren't quite so pleasant,” Emerick recalls, adding: “John was unhappy with Ringo's drumming, commenting acidly at one point that it 'sounded like Dave Clark (of The Dave Clark Five),' which was clearly not meant as a compliment. He was so impatient at Ringo's inability to come up with a suitable part that he finally said, 'Sod it, let's just put one down anyway.' But Ringo was upset that John was unhappy with his drumming, and he spent a good deal of time working on it with Paul even after the backing track was done. Finally, he said to John, 'Why don't we just re-record the backing track? I think I've got a part you'll like now,' but Lennon waved him off. 'I'm not playing the bloody song again, Ring. If you want to redo the drums, go ahead and overdub them.'”
“That night, Ringo did just that. Fortunately, we were working in eight-track, so I was able to record the new drum track without erasing the old one. It took many hours to do, but Ringo eventually pulled it off, managing to play the new drum part from start to finish without losing the beat...and those were the days before we had click tracks, so his only reference was the original drum track, which we fed to him through headphones.”
These drums and other overdubs for the song were recorded between 10:30 pm, and 2:30 am the following morning. The additional overdubs consisted of John's lead vocals and Paul re-recording his bass part. Emerick continues: “Paul overdubbed his bass on 'Polythene Pam,' and at one point, he overshot the note on one of his glissandos. Instinctively, he said, 'Oops, let me drop that in and fix it,' but we all spontaneously overruled him, saying, 'No, it's great! Leave it in' – even George Martin got into the spirit of things. When someone made a mistake like that, and the others liked it, we'd often actually make it louder when we'd mix the song to accentuate it. Sometimes we'd even double-track the mistake with different instruments so it would be even more obvious. It was all about playing a joke on the fans, giving them a treat, something to talk about. That's what we did on 'Polythene Pam': Paul's overshoot actually became a feature.”
Finally, at 2:30 am, the session was complete. “For all of the kerfuffle, they were fun tracks to record,” Geoff Emerick relates. “The ensemble playing was superb. Sitting up in the Studio Two control room, I commented to George Martin that it sounded like old-style Beatles, like the four of them playing together as a band circa 1963. 'You're right,' George said sardonically. 'You'd never guess that the four of them actually can't stand each other.'”
On July 28th, 1969, their next session in EMI Studio Three focused exclusively on adding more overdubs onto “Polythene Pam / She Came In Through The Bathroom Window.” This session also began at 2:30 pm and resulted in various overdubs to “Polythene Pam,” such as tambourine, maracas, and cowbell from Ringo, electric guitar from George playing the descending single-string notes that segue the first song into the second song, and both acoustic and electric piano from Paul. However, this piano work is shallow in the mix and isn't detected in the finished product. John also re-recorded his lead vocals, this time in a noticeable Scouse accent that continues as an ad-lib during George's concluding guitar solo. "Fab," he states, "Isn't that great? It's real good, that, real good, listen to that Mal," referring to assistant Mal Evans, who was present at the session. Then, as the segue into "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" progresses, John shouts, "Oh, look out!" The tail end of this vocalization ended up making it onto the finished recording.
This recording session was complete at 8 pm, but they still felt more was needed to get this section of the medley to a completed state. Therefore, between 8 and 8:30 pm, the engineering staff made a reduction mix to open up more tracks for additional overdubs which would be performed later. This reduction mix took 'take 39' to 'take 40.'
The Beatles added their final overdubs to “Polythene Pam” on July 30th, 1969, in EMI Studio Three, this session beginning at 3:30 pm. After they concentrated on performing overdubs onto “Come Together,” John, Paul, and George added their background vocals to “Polythene Pam” at this time along with, as documentation shows, more percussion and guitar. However, these later overdubs may be concerning the “Bathroom Window” section of this composite recording. With this complete, they added overdubs to other segments of the long medley before this session was done at 10:30 pm.
Nevertheless, everyone immediately moved into EMI Studio Two's control room this evening to put together a preliminary edit for how the long medley would sound in its finished state. The first order of business would be to create workable stereo mixes for all of the medley songs to be spliced together, handled by George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, and John Kurlander. Still, these were all rough preliminary mixes, which would be improved upon when the medley components' actual assembling were officially crafted.
After these rough mixes were created, the engineering team, with input from The Beatles, edited and compiled all segments into one long preliminary medley for the first time. Interestingly, Paul's slight acoustic guitar piece “Her Majesty” was included between “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam” at this point. Upon listening to the completed medley on this day, Paul decided to scrap “Her Majesty,” asking it to be physically cut out of this assembled tape and to then splice together the end of “Mean Mr. Mustard” to the beginning of “Polythene Pam.” This more natural segue became the medley's official running order at this point, although the true stereo mix of this medley as we know it wasn't assembled as of yet. By 2:30 am the following morning, this recording/editing/compilation session was complete for the day.
The true stereo mix used on the released recording occurred on August 14th, 1969, in EMI Studio Two's control room, at 2:30 pm. The engineering team of George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, and Alan Parsons made 13 attempts at creating this stereo mix, the final one, called 'take 32,' being deemed the best. Stereo mixes of other “Abbey Road” tracks immediately followed, as well as a John Lennon interview with radio personality Kenny Everett, after which the editing of the newly created stereo mixes of “Sun King / Mean Mr. Mustard / Polythene Pam / She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” were joined together seamlessly as heard on the finished album. By 2:30 am the following morning, this session was complete, which brought “Polythene Pam” to its finished state as heard on the released “Abbey Road.”
Sometime in 1996, George Martin and Geoff Emerick were given the original demo of “Polythene Pam” as recorded at George Harrison's 'Kinfauns' home on May 28th, 1968. From this, they created a clear mix for inclusion on the compilation album “Anthology 3,” which allows die-hard Beatles fans to examine the song's evolution from original conception to completed state. This demo was also included on various 50th Anniversary editions of the "White Album," with a new stereo mix created by George Martin's son Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell sometime in 2018.
Giles Martin and Sam Okell also returned to the master tape of "Polythene Pam" sometime in 2019 to create a new stereo mix of the song for inclusion in various 50th Anniversary releases of "Abbey Road." While they were at it, they also created a stereo mix of 'take 27' of the song as recorded on July 25th, 1969, complete with Beatles chat before the take began, and also the trial edit and mix from July 30th, 1969 of the entire "Abbey Road" medley, complete with John's entire Scouce-accented vocalizations at the conclusion of "Polythene Pam."
Song Structure and Style
This small but effective segment of the "Abbey Road" medley consists of two verses and an instrumental section, described as 'verse/ verse/ instrumental' (or aab).
The first verse is fourteen measures long; these measures include the distinctive four-measure riff consisting primarily of John's three stabbing acoustic guitar chords repeated twice. Directly following both sets of acoustic guitar chords, George slides up and down the neck to play a quick electric guitar figure that consists of a chord played four times in rapid succession while Ringo pounds out these four beats on his toms. Paul also accentuates these notes on bass while letting the note ring out in the fourth measure.
The remaining ten measures comprise the verse's actual guts with John's lead vocals immediately kicking in, and Ringo, avoiding all cymbals, pounds out the full beat on his toms and kick drum with snare drum accents only in measures six, eight, twelve, and fourteen. George slides up and down his guitar's neck, filling in the slight gaps left between John's vocal lines in measures six and eight, and then repeating his rapid-fire chords from the opening riff in measures twelve and fourteen. Paul keeps a low profile on the bass but slides appropriately up and down the neck, following George's pattern. Backing harmonies from John, Paul, and George swirl around in the background starting in the seventh measure and continue throughout the verse, harmonizing appropriately in the thirteenth and fourteenth measure with John's “yeah, yeah, yeah” lead vocal line.
This moves directly into the second fourteen-measure verse, which is an exact duplication of the instrumental arrangement as heard in the first verse. One interesting element to look for here is George's guitar mistake in the eighth measure, where he doesn't quite slide up to correct guitar frets as in all the other occurrences in the song.
Next comes the final section of the song, which is the twenty-two measure instrumental section. The first four measures are identical to both verses' opening measures, consisting of the identifiable riff for the song. The arrangement is the same as before, but with some noticeable differences. One is a subdued voice on the downbeat of the first measure saying “yeah,” undoubtedly an accidental repeat of the “yeah, yeah, yeah” phrase just heard in the final measures of the second verse that proceeds it. Another point of interest is the bass guitar flub from Paul mentioned above, accentuated in the mixing stage by increasing volume. We also hear percussion accents in measures two and four, Ringo's tambourine, maracas, and cowbell kicking in for the first time in the song.
This instrumental section's remaining eighteen measures consist mostly of the three-chord pattern set by John's acoustic guitar riff repeatedly played while the verses' full instrumentation takes hold. After John exclaims an indecipherable vocal phrase from his lead vocal track, Ringo's percussion section permeates the song's remainder. At the same time, George provides a tasty guitar solo treated with what sounds like a slap-back echo effect. His solo starts in measure six and continues to finish off the song in measure twenty-two. Ringo plods along on drums as heard in the verses while Paul lays down an appropriately energetic bassline, his keyboard overdubs buried in the mix. While John's lead vocal track enters back into the mix, undoubtedly recorded onto the same track as Paul's soon-to-be-heard lead vocal, the song's energetic momentum continues on into the following tune, “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” recorded in tandem with this track.
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