Studio One, Morgan Studios, London
Producer: Paul McCartney
Engineer: Robin Black
Paul McCartney recorded overdubs for two McCartney tracks on 18 February 1970, and recorded a brand new track.
He began by completing ‘Junk’ and ‘Singalong Junk’, which had been taped at his Cavendish Avenue home on 17 January.
He had recorded three takes of the song. Take one, which became ‘Singalong Junk’, received additional electric guitar, bass drum, cymbal, and Mellotron set to the strings loop. Take two, ‘Junk’, was given new drums, toy xylophone, and harmony vocals.
Before their lunch break, McCartney told studio engineer Robin Black about a documentary on the Kreen-Akrore tribe he had seen the previous night, and said he planned to record an experimental piece inspired by them, ‘Kreen-Akrore’. Together, the two men began changing the studio to fit the mood, which included building a fire on the hardwood floor.
There was a film on TV about the Kreen-Akrore Indians living in the Brazilian jungle, their lives, and how the white man is trying to change their way of life to his, so the next day, after lunch, I did some drumming. The idea behind it was to get the feeling of their hunt. So later piano, guitar and organ were added to the first section.The second had a few tracks of voices (Linda and I) and the end had overdubbed breathing, going into organ, and two lead guitars in harmony.
Done at Morgan. Engineer, Robin Black.
The end of the first section has Linda and I doing animal noises (speeded up) and an arrow sound (done live with bow and arrow – the bow broke), then animals stampeding across a guitar case.
There are two drum tracks.
We built a fire in the studio but didn’t use it (but used the sound of the twigs breaking).
McCartney began by recording a drum part, which he double-tracked. He then added two electric guitar parts, plus organ, piano, and bass guitar.
Effects were needed, so McCartney drummed his fingers on a guitar case to give the impression of an animal stampede. Tribal chanting and sped up animal noises were then added by him and Linda McCartney.
The final touch required a trip to Whiteley’s department store in Bayswater, London. McCartney returned with a bow, arrows, and a target. Black used several Neumann U67 microphones to capture the sound of the arrow’s flight, which took several takes to capture satisfactorily.