Paul brought “You Never Give Me Your Money” into the recording studio for the first time on May 6th, 1969. This was at London's Olympic Sound Studios, undoubtedly because EMI Studios were unavailable, the sessions beginning at 3 pm. George Martin was recruited as producer of the session with Glyn Johns, who had been overseeing the January "Get Back" sessions, as engineer. Documentation shows the song being called "You Never Give Me Your Money - Part I" at this point, undoubtedly because of it already being considered as the opening segment of the proposed "song montage." In fact, this was the first recording session for the "Abbey Road" side two medley.
A total of 36 recorded takes of the song occurred on this day, a good amount of time taken by Paul to acquaint the other Beatles in the framework of all three music sections and work out the arrangement. The instrumentation of these takes consisted of Paul on guide vocal (track one) and piano (track two), Ringo's drums (track three), John on distorted electric guitar (track five), and George on "bassy guitar," as the Olympic tape box called it (track six). The lower-toned notes George played during the opening section of the song was indeed "bassy," his guitar work being developed as the takes progressed. "I'm playing a harmony of what you're doing," he informed Paul after 'take 17.'
Interestingly, Paul's piano was fed through a rotating Leslie speaker from the song's point where the lyrics "Oh, that magic feeling" occur. Glyn Johns was apparently in charge of enacting the speaker to run through to the song's end. Before beginning several of the takes recorded on this day, Paul had to remind Glyn, "Leslie off, please." The original idea of ending the song was abrupt, as evidenced in many early takes concluding just before where the "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven" vocals would eventually be added. As the evening progressed, however, a decision was made to mess about at the end of the takes, the band concluding that it would be faded out or edited off as a segue into the next medley piece.
The final take of the night, 'take 36,' is featured in various 50th Anniversary "Abbey Road" releases. Before the take begins, Paul, George, and John rehearse their parts while Paul states in the microphone, eventually adopting a low voice in imitation of a smarmy lounge singer, "OK, alright, you win, I'm in love with you...OK, you win, I'm in love with you, well alright, OK-yay." He then clears his throat, sings the song's title in a falsetto voice, and then mumbles in a low voice "Walnetto sandwich" in imitation of an Arte Johnson character, "Tyrone F. Horneigh" from the then-popular television show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In."
After Paul humorously sings, "You never give me your coffee," he rallies his bandmates together by rattling off, "OK, come on lads, here it is boys, here it is, come on boys." He tests out his piano to see that the Leslie effect is still on, which prompts George to yell out "Leslie off" off microphone and encourages Paul to also instruct Glyn Johns "Leslie off, please." Paul then indicates the need to get the perfect take accomplished by saying, "It's exactly half-past two, and it's '36' and here we go!" After George Martin repeats "36" and a short pause ensues, the final complete take begins. This excellent complete take concluded with some extended jamming, which was faded off on the mix included on the above mentioned "Abbey Road" releases.
In the end, however, 'take 30' was decided to be the keeper. This take also included extended jamming, which eventually brought the song into double-time on the drums. John played a standard 12-bar rhythm on electric guitar before it finally ground to a halt, evidenced in bootleg recordings. This, of course, would be faded out in the mixing stage, which meant that they had to come up with another way of bringing in the next feature of the medley. This would be worked out later. A quick stereo mix of the song as it was so far was created at the end of the session by producer George Martin and engineers Glyn Johns and Steve Vaughan. Without a doubt, this stereo mix was taken away by Paul to decide what was next needed to complete this section of the medley. By 4 am the following morning, The Beatles retired for the night.
Contrary to what John excitedly revealed to New Musical Express in early May about their working quickly to release their new album by mid-1969, a change in plans occurred. On May 15th, Paul informed BBC Radio in an interview: "We've got nothing on for the next month, and we've had a lot on for the past couple of months, as you might have heard from a couple of newspapers, it's been high finance. But it seems to be going OK now, so I'm just taking a break to get away from it all." During the break, John and Yoko staged a Bed-In for Peace in Montreal, Canada, George produced the Billy Preston album "That's The Way God Planned It," and Paul and Ringo both took time out for vacations. However, they did book extensive sessions at EMI Studios throughout most of July and August to reconvene recording a newly imagined album released later in the year. They all just needed a break to clear their heads.
Once they reconvened on July 1, 1969, the first thing on the agenda was continuing work on the medley, “You Never Give Me Your Money,” being the only song of the combination they had worked on thus far. With John hospitalized at the time because of a recent automobile accident in Scotland, it appears that it was Paul alone that arrived at EMI Studio Two on this day to add new lead vocals onto track one of 'take 30' of the song, recording over his guide vocals in the process. With this accomplished to Paul's satisfaction, the session ended at around 7:30 pm.
The Beatles blocked out studio time in EMI Studios for nearly every day of July and August of 1969 for serious work on their final album, which eventually would be titled “Abbey Road.” With many other songs being started within the following nine days, including more songs for the long medley, work resumed on “You Never Give Me Your Money” on July 11th, 1969. The Beatles arrived in EMI Studio Two at 2:30 pm on this day and, after working on “Maxwell's Silver Hammer” and “Something,” Paul added a bass guitar overdub onto track seven of “You Never Give Me Your Money.” This session concluded at midnight.
After the weekend, The Beatles resumed work on the song in EMI Studio Three on July 15th, 1969, the session beginning at 2:30 pm. By 6 pm, Paul double-tracked his vocals in certain areas of the song and also played tubular bells (heard during the "fireman" references in "Penny Lane"), which were designated on the recording sheet as "Studio Chimes Used." These chimes were played to augment John's guitar arpeggios during the instrumental section that closes the song, all of this recorded onto track four of the tape. It may also be on this day that George double-tracked his extensive lead guitar passage in the elaborate segue between the "Out Of College" and "One Sweet Dream" sections of the song. From 6 to 11 pm, George Martin and engineers Phil McDonald and Alan Parsons worked at creating yet another stereo mix of the song, as it was so far, for Paul to review. Six attempts at this mix being made, only three of them making their way to the end of the song. The session then ended at around 11 pm.
The song was then set aside for two weeks and focused on various other “Abbey Road” tracks, including the medley's remaining segments. Then, on July 30th, 1969, it was decided to do a trial run at piecing together all of the medley songs into one cohesive unit. Some songs in the medley weren't completely finished - no vocals had been recorded yet for the song “The End,” for example - but they wanted to experiment on how it could be accomplished.
The Beatles entered the control room of EMI Studio Two at 2 pm on this day, the first order of business being the first song in this medley, namely “You Never Give Me Your Money.” First on the agenda was making a tape reduction of the song, six attempts being made thereof (takes 37 through 42), 'take 40' being deemed best. After this was complete at 3:30 pm, they moved over to EMI Studio Three to record some of the medley songs' needed elements. Onto track eight of what was then called 'take 40' of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” backing vocals were overdubbed by John, Paul, and George in various parts of the song, including the "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven..." harmonies during its conclusion, accentuated by Ringo with a tambourine at the end of each vocal phrase. After overdubs were also recorded onto other medley songs, they moved back into the control room of EMI Studio Two at 10:30 pm to actually try to assemble the medley.
Before this could be done, preliminary stereo mixes of all the songs designated as part of the medley needed to be created. These stereo mixes were created by George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, and John Kurlander. With all this accomplished, the editing, crossfading, and tape compilation took place. Photographic evidence shows Paul working the faders on the control panel, indicating that he played an intricate part in editing this medley together.
Engineer Geoff Emerick, in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” relates the events of this evening: “The medley was now nearly complete, and it was decided to do a test edit to see how all the various components fit together. That session was a long one – for the first time since the 'White Album' days, we worked late into the night – but everyone was really upbeat and quite pleased with the results. There was only one little bit of contention, and it had to do with the cross-fade between 'You Never Give Me Your Money' and '...Sun King.' John didn't like the idea that there was such a long gap between the two songs, but Paul felt strongly that the mood needed to be set for the listener before 'Sun King' started. In the end, Paul got his way – John merely shrugged his shoulders and feigned disinterest. At first, a single held organ note was used for the crossfade.”
This trial run at editing together all of the segments of the medley, as accomplished on July 30th, 1969, is included in various 50th Anniversary editions of "Abbey Road" under the title "The Long One (Trial Edit & Mix - 30 July 1969)." Interesting differences heard on this mix of "You Never Give Me Your Money," taken directly from 'take 40,' include the presence of Paul's Leslie piano in the latter half of the song, which was panned down in the released version, and backing harmonies from John, Paul, and George during the "Out Of College" segment. The song fades down somewhat earlier than we're used to hearing. We hear the organ chord (not a "single held organ note" as Geoff Emerick stated) used as a segue between the songs, this being an E major organ chord to transition from A major of the first song to E major of "Sun King." Everyone was pleased with how the trial edit came out, except the inclusion of "Her Majesty," which was omitted when the final edit was created. This brought the session to a close at 2:30 am the following morning.
The next day, July 31st, 1969, saw The Beatles continue work on “You Never Give Me Your Money.” They entered EMI Studio Two at 2:30 pm, with Paul having definite ideas for additional overdubs for the song. After Paul heard 'take 40' of the song, which was the most recent mix made the day before during the experimental medley editing session, he deemed the reduction mix that was done on that day unnecessarily. This meant that the backing vocal overdubs done after that reduction mix would need to be re-recorded or eliminated altogether. The overdubs he now wanted to perform on this day would be recorded onto the original edited 'take 30.'
Onto track seven of 'take 30,' Paul re-recorded his bass part on top of his previous attempt from July 15th, figuring he could do a better job. With this done, Paul also felt the song needed more piano work, not being entirely happy with the effect of his piano being run through a Leslie speaker in the second half of the original rhythm track. Instead, starting from the "Out Of College" segment of the song, he recorded what was documented as "jangle piano," which Paul played on piano at half-speed to give a "honky-tonk" effect when played at the correct speed. The backing harmonies of John, Paul, and George were also re-recorded during the opening segment of the song as well as during the conclusion of the "Out Of College" segment after the final lyric, "know where to go." With all of this complete, they focused on adding more overdubs to the “Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight” portion of the medley, which then brought the session to a conclusion at 1:15 am the following morning.
Still, the dilemma of how to segue “You Never Give Me Your Money” into “Sun King” weighed on Paul's mind. Then, he came up with a solution. Mark Lewisohn, in his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” relates: “Paul McCartney, in particular, would still spend spare time in the sound equipment room of his St. John's Wood house, making tape loops (with his Brennell tape machine). On this day, 5 August 1969, Paul took a plastic bag containing a dozen loose strands of mono tape into (EMI Studios), where – together with the production staff – he spent the afternoon in the studio three control room transferring the best of these onto professional four-track tape. The effects – sounding like bells, birds, bubbles, and crickets chirping – allowed for a perfect crossfade in the medley.” Geoff Emerick concurs: “Paul arrived with a plastic bag of tape loops (just as he had done when we worked on 'Tomorrow Never Knows' years before), and we used several of them.”
On August 5th, 1969, in EMI Studio Three's control room, composite sound effects tape was assembled between 2:30 and 6:30 pm. The tape box documentation shows that Paul's loops were recorded onto a four-track machine, consisting of all the loops recorded together were on track one, sped-up backward electric guitars on track two, moans and various voices on track three, and voices, bells, and crickets from an EMI sound effects tape on track four. Five 'takes' of compiling these sound effects were made, a 1:23 section of 'take five' (between 6:28 and 7:51) and deemed suitable as a segue between the two songs. However, it appears that the bells and crickets were the only effects making the grade for the finished record.
Then, with the overdubs mentioned above onto 'take 30' of the song accomplished, more attempts at creating a stereo mix were made on August 13th, 1969, in the control room of EMI Studio Two between 2:30 and 9:15 pm. It was decided, however, that this final stereo mix would be an edit of 'take 30' of the original master tape with the ending of the 'take 40' tape reduction made on July 30th, including the "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven" harmony phrases. George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, and Alan Parsons made eight attempts at this edit and stereo mix, numbered 20 through 27, working hard to mix out certain awkward lead guitar runs in the final moments of the song played by George Harrison on the original rhythm track, as well as a couple unneeded vocalizations from Paul and the first occurrence of the "one, two, three, four, five" harmony phrase, now deemed undesirable. The edit occurs directly after Paul's vocalization "came true today, yes it did" and just before he ad-libbed "ah, ah, ah..." line. In the end, 'remix 23' was considered the best.
On August 14th, 1969, the following day saw the same engineering staff, with The Beatles input no doubt, remixing, crossfading, and editing the now finished songs for the medley. This twelve-hour session occurred in the EMI Studio Two control room from 2:30 pm to 2:30 am the following morning. Eleven attempts were made at crossfading “You Never Give Me Your Money” with “Sun King” utilizing Paul's sound effects tape. They thought they had achieved the perfect crossfade by the end of the session.
But they were not entirely satisfied. On August 21st, 1969, in the control room of EMI Studio Two, one final attempt was made of creating the perfect crossfade between the two songs with Paul's sound effects tape. The session began at 2:30 pm, and, low and behold, they finally got it to everyone's satisfaction, including Paul and George Martin. The finished Abbey Road album master occurred the day before, so this new stereo mix was inserted into the finished master, along with a new remix of the song “The End,” which was also made on this day. By midnight, this session was complete.
Sometime in 2019, George Martin's son Giles Martin, along with Sam Okell, returned to the master tapes of "You Never Give Me Your Money" to create a new stereo mix for inclusion in the multiple editions of the "Abbey Road" album to commemorate its 50th Anniversary. Subtle differences here include George Harrison's awkward guitar phrases in the song's conclusion not being faded down in the mix, and the bells and crickets in the final moments of the track sounding clearer, revealing that they are indeed tape loops. While they were at it, the engineering team also created stereo mixes of 'take 36' of the original rhythm track from May 6th, 1969, and the trial edit of the entire medley as originally compiled on July 30th that year.
A further recording of “You Never Give Me Your Money” as a medley with another “Abbey Road” song, “Carry That Weight” (a couple of segments of the first song being heard in the second song on the original album, incidentally) was made during Paul's “Driving USA” tour of Spring 2002. Paul on piano was an entirely solo performance with no accompaniment from his band, made sometime between April 1st and May 18th of 2002. This recording was included on both the American release “Back In The US” and the album “Back In The World” released in various other countries.
This live version consists of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” and then segues into the latter half of “Carry That Weight” that contains the same melody as the former song before reprising the first verse of “You Never Give Me Your Money” to conclude this rendition nicely. Interestingly, Paul never took the time to learn the second lyric line from the second section of the song, instead of singing, “And this is the bit where I don't know the words, but I don't think I'm even going to bother to try and learn them before the end of the tour.”
Song Structure and Style
Because of his composite song's intended rambling nature, going from one section to another in succession, “You Never Give Me Your Money” is similar only to John's “Happiness Is A Warm Gun,” which also meanders in the same way. Apart from the first section comprising a thrice-repeated eight-measure melody line and some repeated melodic phrases in the second section, the song invariably just moves along randomly, as with a conversation with a friend that keeps changing subjects.
The song begins with the first installment, considered the main thrust of the music, given that the entire piece is named after the first words heard in this section. Paul plays a delicate eight-measure introduction on piano, George interjecting some melodic "bassy" guitar lines in measures four, seven, and eight. The same eight measures are then repeated with Paul singing lead vocals, which are single-tracked until the words “funny paper,” these vocals then being double-tracked for the remainder of this section of the song. George's guitar phrases are much more intricate in the eighth measure this time around, its last note being heard on top of Paul's lower bass note that comes in on the downbeat of the measure that follows it.
This section is then repeated again with different lyrics and some added elements. First off, John and George come in with delicate harmonies, which are heard throughout these eight measures. Ringo is also heard lightly tapping cymbals while George's guitar and Paul's bass continue to be heard throughout. However, this eighth measure deviates with Ringo adding a drum fill to Paul's piano and bass work. This measure creates an appropriate segue into the "Out Of College" section of the song.
This section can also be broken down into three smaller sections. The first, which is eight measures long, features two repeats of a four-measure passage and melody line beginning with the lyric “out of college, money spent.” The instrumentation consists of Paul playing two pianos (a simple pattern from the rhythm track and then a "jangle piano" overdub). Paul adds an impressive overdubbed walking bass part, John and George both play rhythm guitar from the original rhythm track, and Ringo plays drums. Paul sings in his single-tracked Fats Domino style vocal throughout this section, not unlike what he displayed on “Lady Madonna.” Ringo plays an upbeat 4/4 swing beat with open hi-hat accents on the two- and four-beat, plus a drum fill in both measures four and eight.
The second part of the "Out Of College" section, which starts with the lyric “but, oh that magic feeling,” is fourteen measures long. Ringo keeps the same time signature, but shifts to a much more steady 4/4 rock feel for this section, tapping along nicely on the ride cymbal. This section actually consists of five repeats of a three-chord pattern, the final chord being cut off because of it transitioning into the first chord of the third part of the "Out Of College" section...You might want to write this down. Lol.
The other elements of this section consist of the following: John repeats a simple electric guitar arpeggio that alters between the three chords in measures one through six, and then incorporates a more elaborate rendition of the same riffs in measures seven through fourteen. Paul plays simple piano from the rhythm track and plays a simple overdubbed bass part in the background. George takes center stage with an impressive lead guitar part that winds throughout the three-chord pattern's final three repeats. John, Paul, and George provide “aah” harmonies in measures seven through fourteen, Paul's awkward extended “whoooohhhhhh” after his final “nowhere to go” line in measure six being faded down in the mixing stage to be replaced by the aforementioned three-part harmonies.
The third part of the "Out Of College" section is an elaborate seven-measure segue that takes us from the key of C, where the song currently is, back to the key of A, where the music began. The song's primary focal point is George's lead guitar work from the rhythm track, which was double-tracked at a later session. During this section, John's rhythm guitar disappears, as does any trace of the original piano with the Leslie effect. Ringo's drums and Paul's bass propel the song through various elaborate chord changes and accents. Simultaneously, the lead guitar keeps ascending to greater and greater heights until it lands firmly at his highest register on the downbeat of the third section of the song, referred to as "One Sweet Dream."
This final section of the song is, including the extended fade, thirty-six measures long. Ringo immediately reverts back to his 4/4 swing-style beat with open hi-hat accents on the two- and four-beats. John comes back in with rhythm chords on guitar while George fills in open gaps between lyrics with melodic phrases as he is known to do. Paul sings lead in measures one through fifteen while his bass overdub is heard throughout. A change in atmosphere momentarily occurs in measures five and six, John playing open chord strums during the lyrics “soon we'll be away from here / step on the gas and wipe that tear away,” Paul adding a quick bass flourish high up on the neck at the end of measure five. Also of interest is measure eight, between the lyric “one sweet dream / came true,” which is the only measure of the song in 2/4 time instead of 4/4.
This is followed by the remainder of the "One Sweet Dream" section. The long, slow-faded ad-lib that follows along with John and George's guitar arpeggios played concurrently for the first three transitions between three descending chords. Ringo continues his mostly closed hi-hat beat while providing drum fills in measures ten and twelve. The next six measures witness Paul repeating the phrase “came true / today” three times, while George breaks away from John's arpeggios to play lead guitar after the lyric “yes it did” is heard, which occurs just before the edit of 'take 30' and 'take 40' occurs. Just after the edit, Paul exclaims "ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,” which originally followed another awkward “whoooh” but was removed from the finished recording.
George begins to put in some off-the-cuff guitar leads as of measure fifteen while John, Paul, and George's “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven” harmonies, along with Ringo's final accented tambourine beats, begin in measure seventeen of this section. Some of the more cumbersome lead guitar lines from George were faded down in the mix. However, they can still be detected because they were recorded during the original rhythm track and were picked up by other open mikes (these were heard more prominently in the 2019 mix). The harmonies are faded up and down in volume along the way as well. This undoubtedly attempted to hide the remnants of some of George's unsavory guitar fills.
Ringo begins crashing cymbals by measure nineteen and then flamboyantly flailing away on drums from measure twenty-three on. Paul's overdubbed tubular bells appear throughout these final measures as an accentuation of John's guitar arpeggios, these becoming part of the landscape as the song winds down. The final element, Paul's assembled sound-effects tape, first appears in measure twenty-nine and is the only thing remaining to be heard as the closing thirty-sixth measure fades away to silence.
Paul played the most prominent role on the song, as was usual in the latter half of the Beatles career when it was his song being worked on. Two piano parts, a bass part, two lead vocal parts, backing harmonies, tubular bells, and prepared sound effects were all contributed by Paul and played to perfection. John contributed his guitar parts in a very cooperative fashion, his winding guitar passages being important elements to specific sections of the song. George put in suitable lead guitar parts, some very well-hearsed, and others not-so-much, but all become intrinsic components to the finished product. Ringo put in an impressive performance on drums throughout, perceptively comprehending the intricate structure while allowing his hair down during the song's final moments. John, Paul, and George also provided appropriate backing harmonies to add some tasteful decoration to the proceedings.
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