BLUE JAY WAY: MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR’S TRACK 4 – UNFOLDING ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

Just over a month after George had finished his latest composition, the group entered EMI Studio Two on September 6th, 1967, to lay down the rhythm track titled “Blue Jay Way.”  Having arrived sometime after 7 pm as the documents stipulate, they first continued work on John’s “I Am The Walrus,” which started the day before. Then, at approximately midnight, work began on George’s song.

Geoff Emerick, in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” recalls the session. “Earlier that evening, we had also laid down the rhythm track for a new Harrison song called ‘Blue Jay Way.’  It was, to my way of thinking, a bit of a dirge, and, frankly, I was a bit relieved when previous commitments kept me from completing the song the next night…Perhaps the main problem was that George had written and played it on organ, and he really only knew a few chords – he was even less of a keyboardist than John was.”

Opinions aside, after a good amount of rehearsal, only one take needed to capture the rhythm track, this consisting of George on organ, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums (John apparently sat this one out). By around 2 am the following morning, they let the song rest until their next session later that evening, Paul then stepped over to the piano to lay down a quick demo of “The Fool On The Hill.”  The session ended near 3 am.

That evening, September 7th, 1967, was earmarked entirely to adding overdubs to “Blue Jay Way,” the session once again documented as starting at 7 pm.  The only overdubs recorded on this day were lead and background vocals but, with Peter Vince substituting for Geoff Emerick as engineer, the song transformed from a “dirge” to something quite extravagant.

The results of this day reads as written from the book “The Beatles Recording Sessions.”  “’Blue Jay Way’ was to George Harrison what – in recording terms – ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ or ‘I Am The Walrus’ were to John Lennon, in that it seized upon all the studio trickery and technical advancements of 1966 and 1967 and captured them in one song.  ‘Blue Jay Way’ – as it ended up on disc – could not have been the same without Ken Townsend’s ADT (“artificial double tracking”) and associated ‘flanging’ effect…Just like John’s two songs, ‘Blue Jay Way’ makes fascinating listening for anyone interested in what could be achieved in a 1967 recording studio…The song manages to capture the feel of the fog very well, with its…extensive use of ADT – at its very widest use – to create a phasing effect of almost two voices.”

Before they started on this day, however, a tape reduction needed to be made of the rhythm track to open up more tracks for overdubbing.  Afterward, which took ‘take one’ to ‘take two,’ George recorded his lead vocals with extensive ADT applied.  Another tape reduction needed to open up more tracks, so this brought the recording to ‘take three,’ upon which they recorded the backing vocals of George, John and Paul, also treated to extensive ADT “flanging.”  No wonder that, after all of this work, substitute engineer Peter Vince described the song to the returning Geoff Emerick saying, “Oh, it wasn’t that bad.”  By 3:15 am the following morning, they finished for the day.

Possibly considering the song to be complete, a mono mix (remix one) was created on September 16th, 1967 in the control room of EMI Studio Three by George Martin and engineers Ken Scott and Jeff Jarratt.  A tape copy of this mono mix, along with a tape copy of “I Am The Walrus,” reached Gavrik Losey, who was the assistant to Denis O’Dell, the film producer of “Magical Mystery Tour.”  Although “Blue Jay Way” was not complete as we have come to know it, this tape copy was used in the making of a good portion of the film sequence of the song, taped between September 19th and 24th at the in Kent, where George lip-synced to the tape while sitting cross-legged on the pavement playing a keyboard drawn with chalk on the ground.

A further recording session for “Blue Jay Way” was deemed necessary, this being October 6th, 1967 in EMI Studio Two, beginning as usual at the documented 7 pm.  The primary focus of this session was the overdub of a cello, the musicians’ name being lost with the passing of time, Mark Lewisohn’s book “The Complete Beatles Chronicle” stipulated that this unknown musician earned 27 pounds for the session.  Being that no lead guitar (nor any guitar) is heard on the song, this extensive cello part takes the role of lead instrument in the song, which was also treated to a significant amount of ADT in places.  Also recorded on this day was a tambourine part, undoubtedly played by Ringo.  By midnight the session ended.  And, since a cello was now present on the finished recording, The Beatles took to adding some filmed sequences in the "Blue Jay Way" segment of the "Magical Mystery Tour" movie that featured the group taking turns playing a white cello.

A new attempt at creating an official mono mix of the song was done in EMI Studio Three on October 12th, 1967, by engineers Ken Scott and Richard Lush with, surprisingly, John Lennon credited as producer.  Eight attempts were made, numbered 2 through 9, with parts of mixes 6 and 9 being edited together to create one complete mono mix.  While a lot of work to create this mono mix plowed ahead, it ended up being improved upon later.

Both the released stereo and mono mixes of “Blue Jay Way” finalized on November 7th, 1967.  First, the stereo mix was attempted in the control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin, Ken Scott and Peter Mew.  Two attempts were made, the second deemed best for the time being, then edited in some undisclosed way.  In a later session that same day, a different engineering team consisting of Geoff Emerick and Graham Kirkby met with George Martin in EMI Studio One to create the mono mix of the song.  They worked extensively on this, attempting (remixes 20 through 28), remix 27 considered as the best.

George Martin then thought to have another go at creating a stereo mix, but this time with a new idea.  The idea was to play a recording of the song backwards simultaneous to the making of the stereo mix, panning in the backward tape to fill in what he considered had empty gaps in the song.  They gave this idea three attempts (remixes 10 through 12) before deciding remix 12 sounded the best.  With this new backwards idea in place, they thought to use this new stereo mix for the mono version as well, but knowing they wouldn’t be able to create it exactly the same way with another attempt at a mono mix, the idea was abandoned. However, mono remix 27 won the released version even though without any backward recording present.

Both the mono mix (remix 27) and stereo mix (remix 12) underwent some editing work on this day, this possibly involving the oscillating and highly reverberated organ swirling sounds at the end of both mixes, the stereo mix differing somewhat from the mono mix.  Also, tape copies were made of both the edited mono and stereo mixes to give to Voyle Gilmore of Capitol Records, who happened to be present on this day and ready, to hand carry them back to the US.  The stereo landscape of the released version consists of the rhythm track in the left channel, lead vocals, cello and tambourine in the right channel, and the background vocals and backward recordings centered in the mix.

The drone in the key of C which maintains throughout “Blue Jay Way,” as already mentioned, indicate the influence of Indian music even without the use of Indian instrumentation.  The structure, however, is much more Western, consisting of a ‘verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ refrain/ refrain/ refrain’ (or abababbbb) format.  Noteworthy indeed is the 4x repeat of the refrain at the end, although they all differ from each other to various degrees.  A simple but dramatic introduction precedes the song and a repeating conclusion ends it, but no solo is included.

The introduction begins very quietly with George on the organ, starting with the single note drone in C which continues throughout the song, followed by a lower octave C as the volume begins to rise.  Then George premiers the melody line of the refrain on the organ, followed by the first appearance of the cello with a swooping note to end the 23-second introduction which has no established meter whatsoever.

George then begins singing the pick-up line “There’s a fog upon L.A.” to bring us into the first eight-measure verse.  The only added instrumentation for this first verse is Paul’s bass and Ringo plodding out the quarter notes of the straight 4/4-time signature on his toms and kick drum.  This, of course, is spookily accented by the backwards snippets of the already finished song being faded in and out of the mix in-between George’s vocal lines (stereo version only).  It appears that a chord change occurs with the rising notes of the line “we’ll be over soon they said,” but the drone in C labors on as the backdrop, indicating that we haven’t changed the chord at all.  George plays the entire melody line on the organ during the rhythm track, which acted as a guide for himself when he added the vocals later as an overdub.  The plodding drums and bass continue until the seventh measure where Ringo crashes his cymbal on the downbeat on George’s line “now they’ve lost themselves instead.”  The last two measures are actually just taken up with the C drone in anticipation of the first refrain that follows.

This refrain is actually nine measures in length and shows Ringo switching over to a swing beat on the drums, utilizing a ride cymbal and commanding snare drum.  Paul continues his single note drone on bass until the fifth measure where he follows George’s raising vocal line.  George once again plays the entire vocal melody line on the organ during the rhythm track.  The drums and bass guitar stop once again after eight measures are completed to allow the drone to fill the ninth measure (and some residual backwards cymbals on the stereo mix).  This refrain concludes with George’s pick-up line “Well it only goes to…” while Ringo plays a simple drum fill to usher in the second verse that follows, which brings us back to straight 4/4-time once again.

The second verse is identical in instrumentation to the first, although Ringo gets more adventurous on the drums, adding three drum fills strategically within the first six measures.  After the cymbal crash that begins the seventh measure, we now can discern the reappearance of the cello playing a very Eastern-flavored sliding passage with the organ drone in the background.  Ringo then plays two triplets on his snare drum to reintroduce the swing beat of the second refrain that comes next.

The second refrain adds some key elements to differentiate it from the first.  The cello plays various alternate melody lines and appears to be lead instrument in the song, while background vocals surface for the first time singing “don’t be long” in two different configurations.  When most of the instruments drop out in the eighth and ninth measures, the cello plays a descending melody line that keeps the time signature going until George begins his next lyrical verse, “now it’s past my bed I know” while Ringo plays a drum fill to again bring us back once to straight 4/4-time for another verse.  And we can’t forget to mention the menacing backwards sounds at the end of this refrain in the stereo mix.

The third verse adds yet more elements to the previous verses, one of them being four harmonized passages that repeat the ending words of George’s four phrases, namely “know,” “go,” “day” and “way.”  The cello also plays chopping quarter note accents throughout this verse to add to the bottom end of the sound.  We also now hear the first arrival of an overdubbed tambourine playing accents on the two- and four- beat of every measure.  As the final vocal phrase, the only sign of the title of the song, rings out in the seventh measure, this stopping the beat as the previous verses have, Ringo goes into a drum break that ushers in the refrain that follows.  However, he appears to have forgotten that the refrains are supposed to be in a swing beat, continuing in a straight 4/4-rhythm for the remainder of the song.  Or maybe it was intentional, who knows.  In any event the backwards recording of the finished song eerily continues in the stereo mix to freak us out a little more.

We next go into a four-times-repeated refrain, all of which differ from the earlier refrains in more ways than the switch in rhythm style and added tambourine.

Refrain One:  The first of these refrains contains all of the elements and instrumentation of the second refrain, but is now only eight measures long instead of nine, the ninth measure being dropped because there is no stopping of the drums and bass to usher in another verse.  However, the sixth measure is in 2/4, George coming in a little early on his final line “for I may be asleep.”

Refrain Two:  The second of these four refrains have the background vocals dropping their usual pattern in favor of harmonizing with George’s lead vocals on the lines “please don’t you be very long” and then “please don’t be long.”  This refrain is only seven measures in length, the fifth measure being in 6/4, followed by the cello playing a staccato-like descending passage in replacement of George omitting his last vocal line “or I may be asleep” this time around.

Refrain Three:  The third of these refrains, while still being seven measures long with the fifth measure in 6/4, has the background vocals harmonizing with George’s lead vocals in all three melodic phrases, still dropping the final phrase this time as well.  The second measure in this refrain contains a rather blurred-note passage on the cello on top of Ringo’s syncopated drum fill, one that we’re yet to hear again.  The cello also fills the sixth and seventh measure with the same staccato-like descending passage as in the previous refrain, although it is played an octave lower.

Refrain Four:  The fourth and final refrain in this set is actually only five measures long and has the background vocals harmonizing with the lead vocals on all three phrases once again.  Ringo now plays repeated sporadic drum fills throughout this refrain as if he might have lost his bearings somewhat.  The fifth measure is also in 6/4 which then ends the refrain.

Now we go into a twelve-measure conclusion of the song (all measures in 4/4-time) which appears to meander aimlessly but ends solidly on the downbeat.  The phrase “don’t be long” is repeated seven times during this conclusion in various configurations but harmonized perfectly.  (The phrase “don’t be long,” incidentally, is repeated 29 times in the song.)  A unique element heard in this conclusion is the tambourine accents in conjunction with the swift “don’t be long, don’t be long” harmonies in the fifth and sixth measure.  The above mentioned blurred-note passage on the cello is now repeated in both the sixth and eleventh measure of the conclusion.  After the final downbeat, the twelfth measure consists of a highly reverberated organ swell from what sounds like a vari-speeded tape (a possible edit job).

It appears that the complicated nature of the final refrains and conclusion were a result of the group and George Martin adding overdubs to the somewhat vision-less ending the Beatles performed on the rhythm track. This opinion can be made because of the unorthodox positioning of Ringo’s drum fills in the final 90 seconds of the song.  With no vocals being performed on the rhythm track, they may have “lost their way,” so to speak, but with some ingenuity, they made it work.

George may not have been the best keyboardist, admitted Geoff Emerick, but he played competently enough to drive the song throughout.  His droll vocals, treated with layered effects as they were, worked well to create the sleepiness of the subject matter.  Ringo put in a tremendous effort on drums, throwing in fills according to feel as well as changing rhythm where necessary (or most of the time).  Paul didn’t need to put in a stellar performance on bass this time around because the Indian drone was all that was needed.  However, he and John did their usual good job on harmonies.  And 'three cheers' to the unnamed lead cellist.  Who was that masked man?

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FLYING: MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR’S TRACK 3 – UNFOLDING ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

On September 8th, 1967, The Beatles entered EMI Studio Three at approximately 7 pm to record “Aerial Tour Instrumental,” the working title of “Flying” (which was sometimes misspelled ‘Ariel Tour Instrumental’ on some of the documentation). Six takes of a basic rhythm track took shape. They consisted of Paul on bass, George on guitar with a prominent tremolo effect, John on organ and Ringo on drums.

In his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” engineer Geoff Emerick describes this day’s events: “I wrapped up my pre-vacation Beatles work with one last long session, during which they recorded the instrumental song entitled ‘Flying.’  It was really nothing more than a twelve-bar blues born out of one of their late-night jams.”  By saying this, Geoff insinuates that the song may have been inspired by one of their unproductive jam/recording sessions the group sometimes made the engineering staff sit through during this period, such as the one that occurred on May 9th, 1967. Although his recollections of this session are quite interesting and even humorous, there is no real evidence to suggest a direct link between the session and the result of “Flying.”  It may have been wishful thinking on his part to assume that those “seven hours in a stoned haze” resulted in something useful.

As for the September 8th session, ‘Take six’ won as the rhythm track. Interestingly, this take was followed immediately by thirty seconds of a fast-paced traditional Jazz-style recording featuring saxophone reportedly recorded directly from one of the tapes within John's Mellotron (as was done the following year with the guitar introduction to "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill"). This was all recorded onto track one of the four-track tape. The other three tracks of the tape were then filled with doodling on the Mellotron, one per track, recorded backward. Since this extended the song to 9:36, they had to have fast forwarded the tape over seven minutes and then took to recording these random Mellotron sounds until the rhythm track appeared on track one. A very interesting adventure in the ‘avant-garde’ craze of the times!

The engineering team then took to making a tape reduction to open up more tracks for overdubs, two attempts being made, ‘take 8’ now considered the best. Onto this, John overdubbed playing the melodic Mellotron part in the second verse, this part being written by Paul as stated above. “It’s played on the Mellotron, on a trombone setting,” Paul recounts in “Many Years From Now.”

Also overdubbed on this day were the “vocals” as heard in the third verse, which really only amount to “la-la-la-la-la” in imitation of John’s Mellotron part in the second verse. “Ringo’s voice was the most prominent one on the chanting,” Geoff Emerick explains, “and that was done deliberately because Paul wanted a different kind of vocal texture, one that wasn’t so obviously ‘Beatlish.’”

According to Geoff Emerick, George also overdubbed the pretty guitar parts heard throughout the song on this day. “George Harrison’s guitar had a distinctive sound, too, because I used a DI (direct injection) box instead of miking his amp. The end result was a mellow, jazzy tone that we felt perfectly complemented the tasty part he was playing.”

The overall consensus apparently was that the song was complete on this day. Geoff Emerick explains, “I simply lifted out a few minutes of the best bits, they added a number of overdubs, and the song was complete. From the outset it was always meant to be just incidental music for the film, so nobody wanted to spend a lot of time on it.”  This being the case, four mono mixes were made of ‘take 8’ at the end of this session by producer George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and 2nd engineer, then they ended the session at 2:45 am the following morning.

The song must have still been considered finished as of September 28th, 1967, since a tape copy of the fourth mono mix was made at an early recording session on this day to give to the film producer of their “Magical Mystery Tour” movie then in progress. Later that day, however, during the second recording session of this day, more overdubs were recorded that deemed the previous mono mix unusable. This session began at the usual 7 pm (or thereabouts) and began with mono mixing and editing of the song “I Am The Walrus,” attention then went to “Aerial Tour Instrumental” (as it was still referred to) at about 9 pm.

More overdubs were considered as needed to bring the song to its finished state. John added another Mellotron part, George added another guitar piece, and Ringo added maracas. The backwards organ sounds were then viewed as not enough for the final seven minutes of the song, so John and Ringo added even more to the ‘avant-garde’ landscape by adding various tape loops (backwards and forwards) as well as percussion sounds, which extended the song even further to 11:52. Among the tape loops were orchestral recordings, harmonized flutes, and what sounds like a guitar strum looped over and over. Although this practice was used to good effect as a backdrop of sound in 1966’s “Tomorrow Never Knows,” the results of this session are more of a precursor to 1968’s “Revolution 9.”  Five takes of these tape loops and effects were taped on this day, the fifth obviously being deemed the best.

With this complete, the engineering team of George Martin, Ken Scott and Richard Lush worked at getting the perfect mono mix of “Aerial Tour Instrumental.”  They made two attempts at this mono mix, numbered 5 and 6, the sixth mix being considered the best. Undoubtedly with The Beatles gone for the day, a decision was made to edit out most of the tape loops and effects John and Ringo had worked so hard on that day in order to reduce the song from its very lengthy condition to a more palatable 2:14 for record release. In the process, they also edited out the 30 seconds of jazz music at the end of their rhythm track recording. They did leave in about 52 seconds of the backwards Mellotron overdubs from September 8th, these overlapping the last four measures of The Beatles’ rhythm track. However, some of the discarded backward Mellotron sounds did find a place in the “Magical Mystery Tour” film in strategic places. This ended the session on this day at about 3 am the following morning.

The stereo mix of the song was made on November 7th, 1967 in the control room of EMI Studio Two by George Martin, Ken Scott, and 2nd engineer Peter Mew. Now finally entitled “Flying,” the song only needed one attempt at a stereo mix from the same ‘take 8,” this then needing editing to bring the song down to 2:16 (which was two seconds longer than the mono mix resulting in a little more backwards Mellotron sounds at the end). The jazz recording was also taken out during this editing process. The stereo landscape has the original rhythm track and the scant remaining backwards tapes from John and Ringo at the end of the song in the left channel while the added guitar passages from George, John’s Mellotron and Ringo’s maracas are in the right channel. The chanting “la-la-la”s are panned mostly in the right channel while the backward Mellotron sounds are dispersed between both channels. Unlike the mono mix, these backward Mellotron sounds aren't audible on the stereo mix until the rhythm track comes to an end.

The bulk of this full-Beatles-credited composition (listed alphabetically on the British release as “Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, Starkey”) consists mainly of a twelve-bar blues pattern repeated three times. Therefore, the structure comprises a ‘verse/ verse/ verse’ (or aaa) format for the first 90 seconds, followed by 45 seconds of overdubbed backward Mellotron effects of no fixed musical structure.

The first verse begins directly on the downbeat with bass, drums and tremolo-laden electric guitar from the rhythm track for the first five measures. Ringo plays a simple plodding 4/4 beat while Paul bounces around a little on the bass to accentuate George’s simple rhythm guitar playing. The sixth measure reveals a George Harrison overdubbed guitar passage which extends throughout the seventh measure and then disappears for the eighth measure. A new melodic guitar passage then appears in the ninth measure to extend to the end of the verse while Ringo ends the verse with a slight anticipatory snare drum accent to segue the song into the second verse that follows.

Two new elements appear on top of the existing instrumentation for the second verse, these both being played by John. The organ he played on the rhythm track comes in for the first time on the downbeat, as does his overdubbed melody line as played on Mellotron. This continues throughout the rest of this verse with the final addition being an identical repeat of George’s guitar overdubbed passage as heard in the first verse during the ninth through twelfth measures, this final measure including a subtle but appropriate drum fill from Ringo.

The third verse includes all of the same instrumentation as the previous one except for the Mellotron, which is now gone for the remainder of the 12-bar blues section of the song. In its absence is a four-man Beatle chorus (with Ringo in first chair) singing in unison the same melody line the Mellotron played in the second verse. Ringo thinks to include a simple drum fill in both the sixth and ninth measures this time around while the singers switch to harmony “aaah”s in the ninth through twelfth measures. In the ninth measure, we begin to hear the ending of the backwards recorded Mellotron noodling for the first time (I say "ending" because they were recorded backwards…remember?), which is much more discernible on the mono mix. Apart from the backward Mellotron swirling that comprises the rest of the song and then fades away, we hear a bit of what sounds like the only evidence of John and Ringo’s backward overdubs in the background from 1:44 to 1:52 of the finished recording.

Paul, being the catalyst of this song, plays impressive bass guitar, sings in the ‘Beatle chorus’ and possibly swirls away on the Mellotron haphazardly for seven minutes or so. John undoubtedly also contributed to the backward Mellotron overdub as well as playing both organ and Mellotron in the twelve-bar blues section of the song, not to mention a hearty vocal contribution. George put in some very nice guitar passages that add some elegant touches to the song as well as sung in the chorus, while Ringo’s drums and maracas positioned phenomenal balance to the tempo. Let us not forget Ringo’s lead vocals as well!

Please feel free to leave any comments or corrections and share these articles plus the blog's website with your friends, especially Beatles’ fans. You and they might also enjoy knowing more about my Love Songs CD and my novel, BEATLEMANIAC. Just click on the “My Shop” tab near the top of this page for full details.

Join me soon for the Unfolding Process of "BLUE JAY WAY."

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR’S TRACK 2 : FOOL ON THE HILL – UNFOLDING ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

Today, I have the makings of track 2, Fool On The Hill. So, once again, imagine you’re that fly on the wall and relish today’s intricate, step-by-step revealing’s.

On Paul’s return flight from America on April 11th, 1967, the trip in which he came up with the original concept of a film project called “Magical Mystery Tour,” he had the foresight to include this yet-to-be-completed song. His original notes for the project, drawn out like a pie chart, shows the second piece of the “pie” with the words, “Coach people meet each other / (Song, Fool On The Hill?).”  And although John Lennon apparently wasn’t involved in writing the song, Paul had all the missing “la-la-ing” lyrics figured out himself by the time he recorded a demo of the song on September 6th, 1967, only a word or two had altered by the time it officially got recorded.

The first recording session that featured the song was, as mentioned above, the demo Paul made on September 6th, 1967. This session began at 7 pm (or thereabouts) in EMI Studio Two, the first and most important point of business on this day being extensive work on John’s excellent song “I AM THE WALRUS,” which began life the day before. Also begun on this day was George’s contribution to the “Magical Mystery Tour” project, “Blue Jay Way.”  By about 2 am the next morning, apparently, after the other Beatles left for the night, Paul wanted to get something down on tape in regard to his five-and-a-half-month-old composition “The Fool On The Hill.”

Engineer Geoff Emerick, in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” remembers details regarding the demo recorded on this day: “During the second night that we were working on ‘I Am The Walrus,’ Paul asked me to stay late so I could record him doing a simple piano/vocal demo of a new song he had written. When he finished, he asked me what I thought, and I gave him a thumbs-up through the control room window. ‘That sounds like the start of a really good song,’ I said. ‘What’s it called?’  ‘It’s my newest one for the film – it’s called “The Fool On The Hill,”’ McCartney replied proudly. I turned to Ken (Scott), who was assisting. ‘Just my luck,’ I told him. ‘Paul brings in a beautiful song like that, and you’ll get to make the record of it, not me.’…Knowing that The Beatles were still hard at work at Abbey Road, I didn’t really want to go on vacation, but the EMI brass insisted that I had to take the time off because it had been scheduled so far in advance. George Martin also encouraged me to go, because he knew how burned out I was.”

The session finally ended at 3 am after completing this demo, later, released for all to hear in 1996 on the compilation album “Anthology 2.”  As work continued on other Beatles songs, as well as filming for the movie, they didn’t actually begin work on “The Fool On The Hill” until nearly three weeks later.
That day was September 25th, 1967, The Beatles entering EMI Studio Two around 7 pm to begin proper recording of “The Fool On The Hill.”  Three recorded takes of a rhythm track, which were numbered 1 through 3 (ignoring that Paul’s demo of three weeks ago was documented as ‘take one’) and featured piano (Paul) and acoustic guitar (John). No vocals were recorded during these takes of the rhythm track, 'take three' deemed as the best and ready for overdubs. Paul’s two-measure piano introduction, as heard repeated twice at the beginning of his demo version, was still in place at this time, and the length of the song was 3:50 at this point.
With open tracks still available on the four-track tape, an interesting overdub took place. "We were very friendly at the time with The Beatles," says Ray Thomas of The Moody Blues in a 2015 interview with Stephen Schnee. "Anyway, Mike (Pinder, also of The Moody Blues) and I went into Abbey Road," Thomas continues, "and we played on 'I Am The Walrus' and 'Fool On The Hill.'  And it was my idea to put all those harmonicas on. There were George and John, me and Mike around the microphone. Paul was in the control room at the desk, and we put these harmonicas down."
With all four tracks of the tape now full, a tape reduction was made to open up more tracks for more overdubbing, this reduction bringing the current ‘best’ to ‘take four.’  Onto this, they added three overdubs this day, one being Paul on recorder, then Ringo on drums, and finally Paul’s first attempt at lead vocals. Although the lyrics were basically written by this time, Paul still hadn’t settled on what the actual phrasing would be. One example is the line “The man with the empty mind is talking perfectly loud,” which he sang during this overdub. After these overdubs were complete, a preliminary mono mix was put together by George Martin, the engineers, and Richard Lush, for acetate cutting purposes only. By 3 am the following morning, the session finally ended. “The Fool On The Hill,” as it was heard up to this point, was also included on “Anthology 2.”
Later that day, September 26th, 1967, the group reconvened in EMI Studio Two for more work on the song, but this time without either Geoff Emerick or George Martin in the control room. As the book “The Beatles Recording Sessions” relates: “Ken Scott took charge of the studio control room for this session – even though it was only his second day as Beatles balance engineer. He was, understandably, a little flustered, as Richard Lush recalls. ‘He was so nervous that it was just unbelievable. He was saying “What lights do I use?” and “What do I do?”  I really felt for him that day. The Beatles always put a bit of pressure on their engineers; they expected you to be there doing your job, but there wasn’t a lot of thanks.”
The session once again began sometime after 7 pm, the first point of business was making another tape reduction to open up, even more, tracks for overdubbing. This brought the current ‘best’ to ‘take 5,’ onto which included a variety of overdubs that actually replaced some of the instruments taped the previous day. These included piano (Paul), acoustic guitar (presumably Paul), drums (Ringo) and another acoustic guitar (presumably George playing the phrases in the lyrical gaps in the second verse). As you can tell from comparing ‘take 4’ from the previous day with the released version of the song, these new overdubs gave the song a complete overhaul, prompting Mark Lewisohn’s comment, “It was almost a ‘re-make.’”  But in actuality, it really wasn’t. The result of these overdubs, however, did extend the song from 3:50 to 4:25.
Once again, a tape reduction had to be made to clear up more space, this now becoming ‘take 6.’  Onto this, Ringo added an overdub of both finger cymbals and maracas, Paul added a bass guitar for the first time, and he also took another stab at lead vocals, wiping out the previous days attempt in the process. After his vocal faded to a close, the session felt complete showing 4:15 am the next morning.
The Beatles were back at work later that day, September 27th, 1967, for two recording sessions. The first, from 2:30 to 5:30 pm, concentrated solely on John’s masterpiece “I Am The Walrus,” while the second session, in EMI Studio Two starting approximately at 7 pm, continued work on “Walrus” for around seven hours, attention eventually turning back to “The Fool On The Hill” around 2:30 am the next morning. This simple overdub consisted of Paul double-tracking his vocals during strategic parts of the song. Thinking it was complete, the returning George Martin, along with Ken Scott and Richard Lush, gave it a quick mono mix (mix 2) to end the session by 3:30 am that morning.
Just over three weeks later, however, this mono mix was deemed unusable because it was decided to add one final overdub to satisfy “The Fool On The Hill.”  This final overdub occured on October 20th, 1967 in EMI Studio Three, the session once again documented to have started at 7 pm. The recorder part played by Paul on September 25th was apparently felt to be inadequate, so it was decided to be enhanced by three flutists, their session logged in between 8 and 11 pm on this day. With this overdub complete, attention then turned to a viola overdub to the already started “Hello Goodbye,” which took the session to 3:45 am the next morning. Although no Beatle played anything during this session, they were all there. “One of them was sitting on the floor in what looked like a pajama suit, drawing with crayons on a piece of paper,” said Ken Essex, session viola player that evening.
The released mono mix of “The Fool On The Hill” ran its course on October 20th, 1967 in the control room of EMI Studio Three by the team of George Martin, Ken Scott and 2nd engineer Phil McDonald. Three attempts were made from ‘take 6’, remixes 10 through 12, with ‘remix 12’ deemed as the best. The song still lingered 4:25 in length at this point and they desired to reduce it to around three minutes. Instead of just fading it down, it seemed necessary to make an edit at some point in the recording. Although no source stipulates just where the edit is, it’s logical to assume that it occurs right around the 2:40 point of the song where a “flock of seagulls” sound effect appears to camouflage the edit. The sound effect was undoubtedly taken from the same EMI vaults that most other Beatles sound effects came from, these probably added to the mono mix on this day. The length of the song now rested at three minutes exactly.
On November 1st, 1967, the stereo mix of “The Fool On The Hill” was created by the team of George Martin, the returning Geoff Emerick and 2nd engineer Graham Kirkby. Five attempts took place, the fifth being the best. The same edit and “flock of seagulls” sound effect was then interjected onto the stereo mix, this being the mix released to the world and most known to this day. The stereo landscape consists of the piano, acoustic guitars, finger cymbals and scant drums in the left channel, the harmonicas, flutes and recorder in the right channel, and the vocals centered in the mix. They even took pains to pan the “seagulls” from the left channel to the right near the end of the song. Interestingly, Paul's vocals in the final ten seconds of the song were kept up a little higher in volume on the stereo mix, the mono mix bringing it down quite low in comparison.
On November 7th, 1967, a tape copy of the mono mix of “The Fool On The Hill” was made, as well as the rest of the “Magical Mystery Tour” songs, in the control room of EMI Studio One by the same team of Martin, Emerick, and Kirkby. These mixes were duly dispatched to Voyle Gilmore to hand carry them back to Capitol Records for release in the U.S.
Sometime in 1995, George Martin and Geoff Emerick returned to Abbey Road Studios (EMI Studios) to create two new mixes of “The Fool On The Hill,” a mono mix of Paul’s demo and a stereo mix of the song as it sat on September 25th, 1967. Both versions graced the 1996 released “Anthology 2” compilation album.
One other mix of the song occurred sometime between 2004 and 2006 by George Martin and his son Giles, in conjunction with the Cirque de Soleil production of “Love,” which enjoyed tremendous success at The Mirage in Las Vegas. This new mix combines elements of various other Beatles tracks, such as brass and vocals from “Mother Nature’s Son,” piano from “Dear Prudence,” bass from “Because,” drums from “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and even tamboura from the George Martin track “Sea Of Holes” from the original “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack album.
On January 13th, 1990, Paul recorded his first live version of the song found on his “Tripping The Live Fantastic” album. Then, sometime between April 1st and May 18th of 2002, he made another live recording of it found on both his albums “Back In The U.S.” and “Back In The World.”
While the listener may be distracted by the gentle elegance of the instrumentation on this song, upon examination, we see that the structure actually only consists of repeated verses and refrains in alternation.  We end up with a ‘verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ verse (instrumental)/ refrain/ verse (instrumental)/ refrain’ (or abababab) with a quick introduction and a faded conclusion which actually is the beginning of yet another instrumental verse.  This is not to say that it was a lazily composed piece.  On the contrary, it borrows from the common format used in folk music of that time and well before, as witnessed extensively in the works of Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan.
Having edited out the first of two measures originally intended for the beginning of the song, the introduction ends up consisting of only one measure of ringing quarter notes in D major.  The song continues to alternate between major in the verses to minor in the refrains, also reflected in the introduction.  But because the first measure was dropped, we don’t experience the minor flavor of the song until the refrain appears for the first time.
Concerning the major/minor alternation in this song, this texturing has occurred in The Beatles catalog before, such as in “Things We Said Today.”  This time around, however, we begin the song in a major key, as if to depict this unnamed man as serene and content despite the disparaging attitude of others who notice him.  When the refrain comes around, we then switch to a minor key, denoting his undeniable loneliness as he “sees the sun going down.”  The earlier song, as what is much more common in alternating minor/major music, begins minor and switches to major later in the song.  This is just one more feature that makes “The Fool On The Hill” a unique composition.
This single-measure introduction consists of only Paul’s piano playing quarter-note chords with the only accompaniment being his overdubbed recorder and flutes.  This is followed by the seven-measure first verse, which brings in his single-tracked lead vocal and simple flute phrases during the first four measures.  John and George’s harmonica chording subtly appears in the fifth through seventh measures, this being the only instrumentation used in the song so far.
The first five-measure refrain then suddenly appears in mid-phrase as the vocals become double-tracked and the key changes to minor.  The title of the song appears for the first time as an introduction to the refrain as does Ringo with a scant maraca sound keeping the beat and finger cymbals accenting twice per measure.  The recorder and flutes play slow passages to accompany Paul’s vocal melody line as the bass appears quietly in the background.  Ringo breaks his 4/4 pattern on maracas in the fourth measure with a violent shaking crescendo to usher in the switch back to a major key in the final measure.  The harmonicas disappear during the refrain until the final measure where they reappear to add an unusual texture to the arrangement.  The recorder and flutes play a simple but engaging melody line in this final measure as an acoustic guitar finally appears in the distance.  Paul’s piano, of course, continues throughout the refrain as it does as a constant timekeeper for the entire song.
The second verse is also seven measures long and reverts back to single-tracked vocals along with the general instrumentation of the first verse but with various differences.  Simple acoustic guitar phrases are heard in the second half of the first three measures, while the flutes play melodic lines a little more complex than in the first verse.  In measures five through seven, the harmonicas reappear, and the flutes harmonize at a higher register.  The repeat of the refrain is identical to the first in arrangement and instrumentation except for the more detailed flute arrangement, especially the melodic run in the fifth and final measure.
Next comes the first instrumental verse, which is actually half instrumental and half vocal, not unlike what The Beatles have done in the past in “From Me To You” and “A Hard Day’s Night,” among others.  Paul’s recorder plays a prominent role here, recreating the sung melody line of the previous verses for the first four measures, the rhythm of these measures being propelled nicely by the piano, light drums and heavy puffs on the harmonicas.  The flutes also kick in to accentuate Paul’s melody line with a pretty counter-melody.  The rhythmic floor then drops out for measures five through seven as we return to the exact instrumentation of the previous verse, vocals and all.
The third refrain then appears, which creates the most ominous feel heard yet in the song with the almost spooky tone of the overdubbed flutes in a sometimes pulsing pattern.  This gives way to another optimistic switch to the major key in the fifth measure as if we’ve just made our way through the dark forest and into a sunny clearing.  To celebrate, Paul exuberantly interjects his “Oh, oh, oh…round, round, round…” vocal gymnastics on top of his recorder melody line in the next instrumental verse that follows, the verse mimicking the arrangement of the previous one with the addition of acoustic guitar embellishments.  He even ends his recorder part with a pied piper-like finger trill as if he’s bounding through a meadow in springtime!
The second half of this verse brings his vocals back in but this time sung with an alternate higher-pitched melody line, while the flutes reveal yet another melody line to differentiate it from all of the previous verses.  Paul’s words “they don’t like him” usher in the final dark-sounding refrain which shows a somewhat more simplified flute pattern this time, while Paul alters his sung melody line a little as well, this being the only refrain not double-tracked on the recording.  Another obvious difference in this refrain is the “seagull sound effect” heard in the fifth measure which replaces the missing flute pattern of the previous refrains.
This refrain ends with what sounds like two takes of Paul’s recorder part overlapping each other to introduce the song’s conclusion, this conclusion actually being the first four measures of yet another instrumental verse which then disappears when faded down.  We need to remember that, since the actual complete take of the song extended to 4:25, this conclusion was actually recorded as yet another full verse that was edited onto the end of the previous refrain, the original recording also including two more verses and refrains before the song came to a natural conclusion.  Thanks be to George Martin, undoubtedly, for reducing the length to a more palatable three minutes, thereby omitting what would have been a little too much redundancy and/or self-indulgence.
This conclusion includes a little more celebratory “ohhhhh, round, round, round” vocals from Paul.  The instrumental arrangement is the same here as the previous instrumental verses, the acoustic guitar being heard a little more prominently this time around.  Paul even makes sure the fade-out lasted long enough to include his fancy finger-work recorder trill, this becoming the song’s final word.
The instrumental arrangement of “The Fool On The Hill,” while including all four Beatles in prominent roles, deviates quite radically from their usual two guitars, bass and drums format, which makes the song stand out very noticeably.  Paul’s vocal work, while periodically double-tracked, is performed throughout without any harmony, accentuating the isolated feeling of the subject matter.  His piano, bass and recorder playing create the perfect light and airy atmosphere, and John and George’s dominant harmonica work create an element of inventiveness within the arrangement.  The acoustic guitar work deals only in accents without the cloying strumming of the first takes of the song, which would have muddied the arrangement.  Ringo may have been reduced to percussion instruments and light drum work, but they were done masterfully as usual.
Following the “someone like Maharishi” description Paul gives of this “fool on the hill,” we see some obvious similarities.  This guru-like individual sits “perfectly still” “alone on a hill” taking in and fully acknowledging nature around him, such as “the sun going down” and “the world spinning ‘round.”  The elevated consciousness he has achieved, him recognizing his oneness with everything around him, gives him great wisdom that can be imparted to any with an open mind that approaches him.
Unfortunately, “nobody wants to know him,” thinking him to be “just a fool.”  And even though his eager explanations of the meaning of life results in him being perceived as “a man with a thousand voices talking perfectly loud,” relatively “nobody ever hears him or the sound he appears to make.”  The public at large, engaged in their conventional everyday life, “can tell what he wants to do,” that is, impart knowledge that they are too narrow-minded to consider.  Therefore, “nobody ever hears him.”  This content sage “never shows his feelings” so as to hide his sadness or insecurities.  The final verse, however, reveals his mutual distaste for those who deride him, saying “he knows that they’re the fools.”  The sentiments of the song, therefore, appear to insinuate that we need to consider all aspects of people and life before we pass judgment.

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Join me tomorrow for the Unfolding Process of "FLYING."

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (SONG) – UNFOLDING ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

To commemorate Magical Mystery Tour and its 50th Anniversary, prepare yourself for a wild time inside the Abbey Road Studio and read all about the incredible recording process that captured the Beatles follow up pressing after PEPPER, Summer’s most inventive, imaginative, and trend-setting LP of all time. My personal blog shares with you the tedious drudgery during those days of grueling trial and error that achieved this second 1967 masterpiece released in late November, just in time for Christmas gift-giving. Today, I have the makings of track 1, the title song. So, imagine you’re that fly on the wall and relish the intricate, step-by-step revealing’s.

When Paul returned to Britain on April 12th, 1967, with his “Magical Mystery Tour” idea firmly in mind, he and the Beatles concentrated on the immediate task at hand, which meant finish the mono and stereo mixes for the soon-to-be-released “Sgt. Pepper” album. He took this time also to introduce the new project to his band for their approval. “We thought that we had better do it,” John Lennon remembers, adding: “we had the feeling that we owed it to the public to do these things.”  Therefore, nearly two weeks after Paul returned from America, and after “Sgt. Pepper” was completely ready for release, they began work on the theme song for “Magical Mystery Tour.”

This day was April 25th, 1967, the group assembling this time in EMI Studio Three. Hunter Davies, the group’s official biographer who was present on this day, wrote about the details of this session in his book “The Beatles.”  He writes: “When the Beatles arrived at the EMI studios at seven thirty-one evening to record ‘Magical Mystery Tour,’ all they had was the title and a few bars of the music…Paul played the opening bars of ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ on the piano, showing the others how it would go. He gestured a lot with his hands and shouted ‘Flash, Flash,’ saying it would be like a commercial.”  Engineer Geoff Emerick, also there for this session, relates other details of the events of this day in his book “Here, There And Everywhere.”  “Everyone was quite up for that session…There was a long period of rehearsal punctuated by a discussion about the various scenes they wanted to shoot for the film.”

Hunter Davies goes to great pains to describe the general atmosphere in the studio on that day, relating details and events as they happened, right down to their clothes. “John was wearing an orange cardigan, purple velvet trousers, and a sporran. He opened the sporran and took out some pot, which he lit, then passed around. They all had a drag. Someone shouted that Anthony, John’s chauffeur, wanted him on the phone.”

Detailing the rehearsal for the song, Davies explains: “They leaned around the piano while Paul was playing, going over and over the opening. Paul told Mal to write down the order of how they would do the song. In a very slow schoolboy hand, Mal wrote down the title and got ready for Paul’s instructions. Paul said ‘Trumpets,’ yes, they’d have some trumpets at the beginning, a sort of fanfare, to go with ‘Roll Up, Roll Up, for the Magical Mystery Tour.’  Mal had better write that line down as well, as it was the only line they had. Paul told Mal to write down DAE, the first three chords of the song. Mal sucked his pencil, waiting for more of Paul’s inspired words, but nothing came.”

According to Mark Lewisohn’s book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” the first thing actually recorded wasn’t even the group playing anything. “Although the final content of the song may have been in a state of flux,” Lewisohn relates, “one thing was clear:  coach noises were required, and this meant another raid on the Abbey Road sound effects collection. ‘Volume 36:  Traffic Noise Stereo’ satisfied requirements, especially since the sounds of the cars and lorries it contained ranged across a stereo image, passing from left to right or right to left. ‘I did that leaning over a bridge on the M1 motorway,’ recalls Stuart Eltham. ‘It was a quiet day, a Sunday because that was the only way one could capture the sound of individual vehicles. On any other day, all I would have had was a mass of traffic noise.’”  Concerning these recordings, which were found by 2nd engineer Richard Lush, Geoff Emerick explains that he made them “into a loop, complete with the sounds of buses whizzing by in glorious stereo, panning from right to left.”  These loops were put into the song later during the mixing stage of the song.

Hunter Davies continues the events of the day: “The instruments were then set up, and they got ready to record the backing…John came back and asked Mal if he’d gotten in touch with Terry (Doran) yet. Mal said he couldn’t get through to him. John said it was his job to get through. Just keep on until he did. It took a couple of hours to work out the first backing track and get it recorded.”  Mark Lewisohn deciphers this as “a basic rhythm track of two guitars, piano and drums. Three takes were made, the third being ‘best’ and this was then subjected to five reduction mixes, down to one track of a new tape, the final edition – take eight – being market ‘best basic.’”  Since Geoff Emerick gives the detail of “Paul thumping away on the piano” during these takes, that leaves acoustic guitar by John, electric guitar by George and the drums obviously played by Ringo.

Hunter Davies continues: “After it was done, Paul went up to see George Martin in the control room. Paul had the track played back to him, again and again. Below, in the studio, while Paul got the technicians to do things upstairs, George got a set of crayons out of his sheepskin painted waistcoat jacket and started to draw a picture. Ringo stared into space, smoking, looking very unhappy, which is his natural expression when he’s not talking. John was at the piano, sometimes playing quietly, other times jumping up, pretending to be a spastic, or thumping out loud corny tunes. No one was watching him. He smiled fiendishly to himself through his spectacles, like a Japanese gnome. Neil was reading a pile of occult weeklies, which they’d all been thumbing through earlier in the evening. Mal had disappeared.”

At 3:45 am the next morning, the session was complete for the day, although the song wasn’t anywhere near complete in form or arrangement. More tinkering ideas would come later that evening.

On April 26th, 1967, the next session began in EMI Studio Three sometime after 7 pm. Having reduced the previous days’ rhythm track down to “track one” of a new tape, three new overdubs would be recorded on this day to fill up the remaining three tracks of this tape.

Hunter Davies was apparently present also on this day as he relates mundane details, which includes something quite different that John passed around to the others this time around. “Mal (Evans) appeared carrying a big brown paper bag full of socks, all in bright self-colors. He passed the bag to John first. He grabbed it in great delight. He chose several pairs of orange terry-toweling socks, then passed the bag around for the others to have a dip. The night before he had said, just in passing, ‘Socks, Mal.’”

Paul also had instructed Mal to bring something to this session, although this actually pertained to the work at hand. Davies relates: “After the socks had been handed out, Paul asked Mal if he’d managed to get any real mystery-tour posters. Mal said he had been round the bus stations all day looking for them. But he couldn’t find any. They had hoped that some real posters would have given them some ideas for the words of the song. Instead, they all tried again to think of some good words apart from ‘Roll up, roll up,’ which was still all they had. As they shouted out ideas, Mal wrote them all down. ‘Reservation,’ ‘Invitation,’ ‘Trip of a lifetime,’ ‘Satisfaction guaranteed.’  But they soon got fed up. They decided they would just sing any words that came into their heads, just to see what happened. So, they did.”

These “backing vocal shouts…with much-added echo,” as Mark Lewisohn describes them, were recorded onto ‘track four’ of this new tape. Also, since "they all" began to "shout out ideas" for sloganistic words to use during this session, both Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall could very well have contributed an idea and therefore may possibly be considered collaborative composers to the song. Or not.

“When they’d finished that,” Davies continues, “Paul decided that on the next track he would add a bit of bass to the backing. He put on the headphones, so he could hear what they’d done so far, and strapped on his bass guitar.”  McCartney recorded onto ‘track two’ of the new tape. “After that, he said they should add even more instruments. All of them, Paul, Ringo, John, George, Neil, and Mal, then picked up any old instruments that were lying around – maracas, bells, tambourines. They put on headphones and banged and played them to the music.”  The combined result recorded onto ‘track three’ of the new tape.

Throughout this day, according to Geoff Emerick, the group took to formulating some details regarding the television film that would go along with the song they were recording. “Paul showed up with a casting book that he had gotten from a film agency, and everyone gathered around, excitedly picking the actors they wanted for the character roles…Everyone had great fun going through the book, shouting out as they flipped through the pages, ‘Look at him!  Look at her!’  They were particularly amused by the photos of the fat lady who ended up playing Ringo’s Aunt Jessie: ‘She’s four times the size of you, Ring!’ Lennon chortled with glee.”

Since all four tracks of this tape were now full, another reduction mix was made at the end of this session to free up more tracks for the trumpets Paul wanted, as well as the lead vocals and anything else they deemed necessary, which brought the finished recording up to ‘take nine.’  At 2 am the next morning, this second session for “Magical Mystery Tour” was complete.

They returned to the song once again later that evening, April 27th, 1967, to add more overdubs. Once again getting to EMI Studio Three sometime after 7 pm, they concentrated on filling the two remaining tracks of the even newer tape with vocals. Paul recorded his lead vocals on one of the open tracks and John, and George recorded backing vocals onto the other open track. “All that ‘Roll up, roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour’ bit was taped very slow,” Richard Lush remembers, “so that it played back very fast. They really wanted those voices to sound different.”

The first mono mix of the song was also made on this day, although it only was intended for acetate discs to give to the group to hear how it sounded so far. George Martin, Geoff Emerick and Richard Lush took four attempts at getting this mono mix in the control room of EMI Studio Three, the fourth attempt being marked ‘best.’  The session was then complete by 12:45 am the following morning.

Six days later, on May 3rd, 1967, the trumpet overdub Paul wanted for the song was recorded, four brass musicians had arrived for the evening including David Mason, who three-and-a-half months earlier recorded the amazing piccolo trumpet solo for Paul’s “Penny Lane.”  The session was held once again in EMI Studio Three, the session beginning sometime after 7 pm.

Geoff Emerick was surprisingly not available for this session, being contracted to record a live performance of Adge Cutler & The Wurzels which was scheduled for release in conjunction with a recent British #1 hit they’d had called “Drink Up Thy Zider.”  “Incredibly,” Emerick relates, “they took me off a session booked by the biggest artists in the world so that I could get on a train and record a band in a tiny pub hundreds of miles away.”  In Geoff’s absence, engineer Malcolm Addey filled in, even though he was known to chatter endlessly and disrupt proceedings, irritating both George Martin and George Harrison to no limits.

Either because of the time crunch, or just not bothering, no score was arranged beforehand for the brass musicians. Malcolm Addey remembers: “Paul McCartney was humming to the musicians the notes that he wanted, trying for a long time to get his thoughts across to them. In the end, we had to send the trumpet players off for tea while Paul and George (Martin) worked things out on the studio three piano.”  Philip Jones, who recalls his session musician friend Gary (Elgar) Howarth’s account, quotes him as saying he “got so fed up with them not knowing what they wanted that he wrote something out for them himself. It was his idea they used.”

Undoubtedly because of Paul’s inability to convey what he wanted on the song, the session went overtime from the contracted 10 pm to 12:15 am the following morning. “Malcolm had done a creditable job of recording the brass,” Geoff Emerick admits, “with the tape slowed down so that it would sound extra toppy when played back at normal speed…the brass was note-perfect, with not a fluff to be heard, despite the intricacy of the part.”

Later that evening, May 4th, 1967, the engineering staff of Martin, Emerick and Lush assembled in the control room of EMI Studio Three to create what was thought to be the finished mono mix for the song “Magical Mystery Tour.”  They made seven attempts at the mono mix (numbered 1 through 7, ignoring the four numbered mono mixes made on April 27th), the seventh mix viewed as the ‘best.’  Geoff Emerick recalls the results of the mix made on this day: “During the mix, Richard added a lot of wobbly echo to the ‘roll up’ backing vocals, and the piano signal was fed through a Leslie, making it quite a production. All in all, more than four days squandered time spent on the track, and the care that went into it really shows.”  However, since a little more work was eventually deemed necessary to get the song to its’ finished state, the mono mixes made on this day could not be used.

The master tape of the song “Magical Mystery Tour” then sat on the shelf for nearly five months before there was a need to do anything else with it. On September 28th, 1967, a tape copy of what was considered the ‘best’ mono mix, created on May 4th, was made for the film producer. This tape copy took shape by George Martin and engineers Ken Scott and Richard Lush in the control room of EMI Studio Two. Since this undoubtedly was used in the released television film, it must have contained the different introductory “roll up, roll up” shouting at the song’s beginning as heard in the film.

Then, on November 6th, 1967, a stereo mix was attempted in the control room of EMI Studio Two by Martin, Emerick, and Scott. While making four attempts on this day, the group noticed that something additional was needed to get the song to a releasable state (probably the “roll up, roll up” introductory shouting which concludes with the words “hurry, hurry!” that continue with the harmony vocals that follow). Therefore, these four attempts at a stereo mix sat unusable, as was the ‘best’ mono mix from May 4th.

The next day, November 7th, 1967, was when both the released mono and stereo mixes were created for the song “Magical Mystery Tour.”  Martin, Emerick and 2nd engineer Graham Kirkby, along with the Beatles, assembled in the control room of EMI Studio Two to create the majority of the mono and stereo mixes of the songs for the film.

The first to be tackled was the stereo mix with Paul inserting a new vocal line (probably the new “roll up, roll up” introductory shouting) which was recorded as an overdub on this day as well. Two attempts at this stereo mix were made, numbered 5 and 6, the sixth being the one used on the finished record. Directly after this was complete, the mono mix incorporated the same new McCartney vocal overdub as the stereo mix had. Three attempts of the mono mix, numbered 8 through 10, proved the tenth being the ‘keeper.’  After this, tape copies of both the stereo and mono mixes were made “for Capitol Records, its representative Voyle Gilmore hand-carrying them back to the USA,” as quoted in the book “The Beatles Recording Sessions.”

The stereo mix has the rhythm track on the left channel and the brass section on the right channel, while the bass guitar and all of the vocals spot centered in the mix. And, of course, the bus sounds are made sure to be panning from channel to channel to give the desired effect.

As many Beatles fans may notice, another difference between the film version and record version of the song is John Lennon’s recitation during the instrumental section of the song which begins “When a man buys a ticket for a Magical Mystery Tour…”  No indication points as to this recorded narration taking place inside EMI Studios, so most assumed that it was added to the film soundtrack and not an actual element of the recorded song. Unlike the intended spoken word introduction to “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” as proposed to be included in the film “Yellow Submarine.” 

Sometime between March 22nd and June 15th, 1993, Paul and his band recorded a live rendition of the song as included on his “Paul Is Live” album of that year.

The song “Magical Mystery Tour” may be somewhat deficient in words, but structurally and arrangement-wise, it has much to offer. The format consists of ‘verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ bridge/ verse/ refrain/ refrain’ (or ababcabb) with an introduction and conclusion thrown in as well.

The introduction is six measures long, the first two measures in a slow 4/4 beat with crashing cymbals and slashing open hi-hats while a trumpet fanfare blasts to get our attention. The three-chord pattern heard in these opening measures, played by the trumpets along with the piano, bass, and guitars, is actually a precursor of the last three chords of the first refrain with the lyrics “coming to take you away” sung in harmony in the foreground. The beat then switches into double-time for the remaining four measures of the introduction and, as all of the instruments fade away into the background, the ‘carnival barker’ calls out “Roll up, roll up for the magical mystery tour. Step right this way!” with only the drums heard to keep the rhythm going.

The first sixteen-measure verse then begins with the guitars and piano only pounding out the chord changes when they occur as harmony vocals sing out the catchphrase of the song, namely, “Roll uuuuuuup!  Roll up for the mystery tour!” which is repeated four times in this verse. The first two repeats, which comprise the first eight measures, are identical except for the drum fill in the eighth measure to segue into the second half of the verse. This second half, or measures nine through sixteen, have various additional elements added, such as the guitars and piano are now playing the chord pattern continuously instead of just on the chord changes. The bass guitar is heard in these measures for the first time, as is John’s lower octave singing “that’s an invitation…to make a reservation.”

The first refrain is then heard, which is only six measures long and features the re-emergence of the trumpets which are playing in eighth note harmony in the first three measures and impressively stepping it up to sixteenth notes in the fourth measure. Paul reaches way up in his vocal range to announce “The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away” while the guitars, piano, and bass are only playing on the chord changes once again. The tempo of the refrain reverts back to the slow 4/4 beat of the introduction throughout, complete with crashing cymbals. Harmony vocals kick in during the fifth and sixth measures singing “coming to take you away” while the instrumentation is a complete repeat of the first two measures of the introduction.

The second verse then begins which is also sixteen measures long and is basically a full repeat of the first verse except for a few minor differences. First noticed is a simple drum fill by Ringo in the fourth measure, then we have the first appearance of the “coach noises” sound effect in the sixth and seventh measures, which pan from the left to the right channel. Paul makes the vocal interjections this time around, singing “They’ve got everything you need…Satisfaction guaranteed.” Also, on the three-beat of measures nine through sixteen, the trumpets punctuate the arrangement with staccato blasts. An identical repeat of the refrain then follows.

We then sidestep into a subdued, mostly-instrumental bridge which is ten measures long. The beat is still in the 4/4 beat of the refrain that proceeded it, but Ringo shuffles and staggers rhythmically for measures one through seven. The chord pattern takes a left turn here as if indicating a change in key while the piano and bass take more prominence in the arrangement. The trumpets play a somewhat Tijuana Brass-like sequence twice during these same measures while harmony vocals sing “mystery trip” in the third and fourth measures, these being the only vocals heard in the bridge. Suddenly, in the eighth measure, a syncopated accent from the drums and rhythm instruments introduce a stair-step segue back into the main key of the song during the ninth and tenth measures with the trumpets accenting the way.

Then we arrive back in the home key with another verse, this also being sixteen measures long but with many variations. The first noticeable is the reduction in tempo from the other verses which acts to highlight the impending excitement that awaits us in this “mystery tour.” The vocals in the first four measures are different as well, being “Aaaaah…The Magical Mystery Tour,” followed by two hits on a cowbell at the end of the fourth measure. While the instrumentation is the same as the other verses, the “coach” effect is heard once again in the sixth and seventh measures, once again moving from left to right. Paul repeats John’s interjected lyrics from the first verse this time in the second half of this verse, deliberately rolling the “r” in the word “rrrreservation.” A tambourine appears prominently in the arrangement for measures nine through sixteen while the trumpets are also heard staggering their notes in the tenth, twelfth, fourteenth and sixteenth measures.

To add even more variance to the arrangement, the two refrains that follow change the time signature from 4/4 to 3/4, but with the trumpets playing simple quarter notes in 4/4 time. The rhythm instruments all pound only on the chord changes while Ringo crashes his cymbals on every downbeat of both refrains. There is a slight difference in the lyrics of the last refrain; the tour is now “dying” to take you away, not just “coming” to do it. Each refrain is the usual six measures long, while the second refrain segues perfectly into the song’s conclusion with the added phrase “take you today!”

As the last blast of the trumpets extend into the third measure of this conclusion, we now enter into a lounge-like mystery setting that highlights Paul’s noodling piano work, his bass overdub, Ringo’s smattering of drums and various percussion shaking from the boys and their roadies. As the music fades away, the mood is now set:  What mysteries or adventures await?  Come – let’s find out!

Paul runs the show here but, with John’s vocals to the fore in the harmony work, it comes across as a gallant team effort. Paul’s piano and bass work are both structured and meandering where needed. The excited atmosphere is brought forward perfectly by his vocal work, as is done by John and George in their harmonies. Both John and George take a rhythm guitar role on this song instrumentally while Ringo’s drums do a great part in keeping the song alive, crashing cymbals and all. And a hearty round of applause is well deserved for the trumpeters and roadie percussionists!

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