In the studio
Although The Beatles business problems needed attention daily, and tempers within the group could be fractious, when they came together in the studio the bond between them was as strong as ever. A year after Abbey Road's release, at a time when the former Beatles were bitterly divided, John Lennon acknowledged how they understood one another as musicians.
In spite of all the things... the Beatles really could play music together when they weren't uptight. And if I get a thing going, Ringo knows where to go. Like that. We've played together so long that it fits. That's the only thing I sometimes miss is, is being able to just sort of blink or make a certain noise and I know they'll all know where we're going on an ad lib thing.
Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner
The Beatles began 1969 with rehearsals and recording in Twickenham Film Studios and the basement of Apple's office building. After the Let It Be sessions ended they also did some recording at Trident and Olympic studios in London, but from May 1969 onwards worked exclusively at Abbey Road.
During the album things got a bit more positive and, although it had some overdubs, we got to play the whole medley. We put them in order, played the backing track and recorded it all in one take, going from one arrangement to the next. We did actually perform more like musicians again.
Likewise with the vocal tracks: we had to rehearse a lot of harmonies and learn all the back-up parts. Some songs are good with just one voice and then harmonies coming in at different places and sometimes three-part work. It's just embellishment, really, and I suppose we made up parts where we thought it fitted because we were all trying to be singers then.
Anthology
While the album was recorded after the January 1969 sessions for Let It Be, there was no clear date for the beginning of the Abbey Road project. The songs were begun while work continued on Let It Be, and recording for Abbey Road only properly began in April 1969.
The Beatles performed early versions of 12 of the Abbey Road songs during the Let It Be sessions in January 1969. The only songs not to have been performed in any form were Come Together, Here Comes The Sun, Because, You Never Give Me Your Money, The End and Her Majesty.
Others had been written well before 1969. Demo recordings of Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam were made at George Harrison's house in May 1968, following The Beatles' return from studying Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India.
My contribution [to the medley] is Polythene Pam, Sun King and Mean Mr Mustard. We juggled them about until it made vague sense. In Mean Mr Mustard, I said 'his sister Pam' – originally it was 'his sister Shirley' in the lyric. I changed it to 'Pam' to make it sound like it had something to do with it. They are only finished bits of crap that I wrote in India.
Anthology
The first Abbey Road song to be properly recorded in the studio, as opposed to rehearsals at Twickenham or Apple, was John Lennon's I Want You (She's So Heavy). Work on the song began on 22 February 1969 at Trident Studios in London, although at this time it was unclear whether the song would be an album track or appear on a single.
As the sessions progressed, they also cut non-album tracks The Ballad Of John And Yoko and Old Brown Shoe, readied the Get Back/Don't Let Me Down single, and oversaw the editing and mixing of the Let It Be tapes. Of the Abbey Road songs, The Beatles also worked on Something, Oh! Darling, Octopus's Garden and You Never Give Me Your Money, before taking the month of June 1969 off for holidays.
Let It Be was such an unhappy record, even though there are some great songs on it, that I really believed that was the end of The Beatles, and I assumed that I would never work with them again. I thought, 'What a shame to end like this.' So I was quite surprised when Paul rang me up and said, 'We're going to make another record – would you like to produce it?'
My immediate answer was: 'Only if you let me produce it the way we used to.' He said, 'We will, we want to.' – 'John included?' – 'Yes, honestly.' So I said, 'Well, if you really want to, let's do it. Let's get together again.' It was a very happy record. I guess it was happy because everybody thought it was going to be the last.
Anthology
When The Beatles regrouped in July they worked swiftly to complete the record. Studio Two at EMI Studios was block-booked between 2.30pm and 10pm from 1 July to 29 August, with the group committed to making the recordings worthwhile.
John Lennon missed the first of these sessions, having injured himself in a car crash in Scotland on 1 July. He never intended to attend the first session of the month, but the crash and his subsequent hospitalisation and recuperation meant The Beatles worked without him until 9 July.
Yoko Ono suffered worse injuries in the crash than Lennon, and was pregnant at the time. Keen to keep a close eye on her wellbeing, he arranged for Harrods to deliver a double bed to the studio, and had a microphone suspended above it for her to add her thoughts during the sessions that followed.
Abbey Road was The Beatles' first album to be recorded exclusively using 8-track technology. The greater flexibility in the studio allowed them to experiment with arrangements and instrumentation, although the group mostly recorded with their customary restraint.
We never got past eight-track. All of The Beatles' work was on two-track, four-track or eight-track. Sgt Pepper was four-track. By Abbey Road we had got to eight-track, and we thought it was too many! We thought it was too big a luxury.
Anthology
Related articles:
- Mixing, editing: I Want You (She's So Heavy)
- Radio: Side By Side
- Abbey Road to offer studio time to wealthy hotel guests
- Recording: Can't Buy Me Love, You Can't Do That, And I Love Her, I Should Have Known Better
- Recording: Please Mister Postman, It Won't Be Long
Didnt Mal Evans play the Anvil... not Ringo?
Mal Evans played the anvil during rehearsals at Twickenham, as seen in the Let It Be film. In the studio some months later, when they were making Abbey Road, it was Ringo.
Actually, it seems that it was Mal. This quote from Geoff Emerick in a track-by-track walkthrough, interviewed by Joe Bosso, Thu 10 Sep 2009:
"For the hammer bits, we actually had to rent a proper blacksmith's anvil. The thing weighed a ton, as did the hammer used to strike it. Ringo tried but he just couldn't hoist the hammer in a way that allowed him to hit the anvil with the correct timing, so Mal Evans [one of The Beatles' roadies], who was a large man, he wound up doing it."
Just a curious fact when the picture was shot (8/8/1969), these were the Beatles' ages (in order from left to right in the picture):
a) George - 26 (02/25/1943)
b) Paul - 27 (06/18/1942)
c) Ringo - 29 (07/07/1940)
d) John - 28 (10/09/1940)
Regards.
Oscar.
Thanks Oscar. Useful to have a reminder that Paul was 27, not 28.
"28 IF" became part of the 'Paul is dead' conspiracy, in relation to the number plate of the VW Beetle car behind the group. As in, McCartney would have been 28 IF he was still alive. Incidentally, the other part of the number plate, LMW, was taken to mean 'Linda McCartney weeps'. Crazy stuff!
Don't forget the attire, Paul is barefoot, (people are buried barefoot), John is in all white as an angel, George is a grave digger and Ringo is a preacher.
very intentional
Nonsense.
Funny is that "Red Hot Chilli Peppers" have same named album. Don't know why?
The RHCP's Abbey Road E.P. is a tribute to The Beatles' album, and the cover features a similarly posed picture of the group (naked except for socks).
See http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wnj9kett7q7q
Back when they had LP's, I always liked the back cover shot of the girl in the blue mini-dress walking by Abbey Road. So 1969.
I wonder if the model was one of the Beatle women of the era?
It wasnt a model who posed for the back of the album. the photographer, Iain McMillan, wanted the back just to be the road sign, however the girl in the blue dress walked in the shot and had no idea what was going on.. in the end they liked how the shot came out because it was interesting.. so there you have it
I just listened to the "Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab" issue of Abbey Road recently. Sounds just like the studio tapes! I haven't listened to the new remaster yet. Probably can't get any better.
I used to know this but now I can't remember: Did original copies of the album leave "Her Majesty" uncredited on the back cover? Anyone? Thanks!
Yes "Her Majesty" is uncredited on the back cover of my original Abbey Road LP!
BUT
"Her Majesty" is credited on the B-side record label!
Go figure.
Yes, I still own one. Bought it in the early '80s.
Yes, Her Majesty was left off from the back of the album on the first pressings.
My favorite song on the album is "Sun King". I like everything about it from the arrangement to the way it is performed. If you want to go to school, you get three albums: Revolver, the White Album and Abbey Road.
Another interesting fact the beatles are walking away from abbey road studios which could mark the end of their recording career
It's too bad that the technology took so long to catch up with them. They could have done some incredible things.
I listen to this album all the time. My favorites are the shorter songs.
Only problem with todays technology like cd's in general are the last songs are supposed to be medley yet they are cut song by song for easy tracking on cd so you get some annoying sudden blank killing the medley vibe. In order to bring back the medley feel to those tunes just like in records and cassette tape is simply stick them together using a nice audio software and boom! their continuous again just the way i like it.
That only happens to me if I play it in my computer rather than CD player. (And the cool thing about the computer is that I can resequence the tracks to restore "Her Majesty" to its original and rightful place in between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam"!)
The greatest album ever recorded, composed, conceptualized, performed and produced! Every track is a jewel. Even the Ringo track is a masterpiece (probably due to Harrison's imput) but a masterpiece none-the-less. The second side suite or medley, whatever you wanna call it, is the single most inspiring entity in rock history that there is! It's like a Beethoven symphony with each movement by a different composer. When it slides from "Polythene Pam' into "She Came in through the Bathroom Window" and kicks back into "You Never Give Me Your Money" during "Carry That Weight" it makes me wish I was a Beatle just so I could claim that level of genius! I've read that "I Want You (she's so heavy)" was written by Lennon to align himself with the new emerging heavy/progressive bands like Led Zeppelin. If that's true than he did it right! I dare say that it surpassed anything ever done by any "heavy" band including the great Led Zeppelin. Although I do think that it's Paul's bass playing that makes the song along with Billy Preston's playing. Indeed, Paul's bass playing overpowers almost every track...in a good way! I've also read tat Paul was primarily responsible for the second side of segued tracks. Well, thank you Paul! John always said that he hated that second side of half finished tracks thrown together, maybe a little jealousy on his part?
During the Beatles' later years, Ringo and George seemed to be developing their own musical partnership. George obviously assisted in writing Ringo's Octupus' Garden (even though he did not take a songwriting credit). Then, a year or so later, Harrison helped Ringo record one of his greatest songs "It Don't Come Easy." Then in 1973, George played a big role in Ringo's self-titled solo album with the 2 former Beatles co-writing the #1 smash "Photograph" - a song as good as any they (or Lennon-McCartney)had released since the breakup. Perhaps had they remained Beatles, the Harrison-Starkey songwriting team would have evolved to counter the vaunted Lennon-McCartney songwriting machine.
The reason why I Want You is so great is John's intensity. Obsession and soul.
That is what makes the song.
All the great bass and piano playing don't mean a thing if a song isn't great to begin with.
Without John's four tracks on the second side, especially Because, the segue wouldn't be the same.
"Another interesting fact the beatles are walking away from abbey road studios which could mark the end of their recording career"
Begining with I want you, all the way through to the end of the album, is unbelievably awesome. Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Octopus's Garden however both pretty much blow. And Oh Darlin should have been sung by Lennon (even though McCartney wrote it).
Octopus's Garden has awesome Harrison guitar and cool piano and backing vocals. Maxwell's Silver Hammer has goofy sounding but very cool lyrics and cool use of the moog. It is this kind of variation that makes the Beatles so great. Yeah, those songs pretty much "blow" (my mind).
It interesting that John often said how he hated the segue of songs on side two - also there is this sense that he and Paul were not working together by this point - yet look at this interview quote:
"Paul and I are now working on a kind of song montage that we might do as one piece on one side. We've got two weeks to finish the whole thing so we're really working at it."
You can read the whole Lennon quote at http://beatlesinterviews.org/db1969.0503.beatles.html
it's really interesting because John's tone is so normal.
That's a really interesting interview - I'd not seen it before. It's great to see John being so enthusiastic about The Beatles' projects, and so sad that it all fell apart just a few months later.
According to the Rolling Stone article from late 2009 on the group breakup he originally enthusiastic about the medley but he soon soured on the idea
It's been great reading the discography notes here- very informative!
Just a note about "Her Majesty" not being performed/rehearsed until the Abbey Road sessions: if you're talking strictly the TRACKING sessions at Saville Row, that's true... But it actually was shown to the boys by Paul during rehearsals at Twickenham in January '69.
(I just looked up the dates on A/B Road, and it appears it was played 1/9, and twice on 1/24.)
Good point, although the 24 January session was at Apple, not Twickenham, so it was performed at both places. I'll update the article on Her Majesty.