Recording: Apple Scruffs by George Harrison

Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producers: George Harrison, Phil Spector
Engineers: Phil McDonald, John Barrett

Saturday 25 July 1970 was the 22nd recording session for George Harrison’s third solo album All Things Must Pass.

This was the first session since 3 July. Harrison had left London to see his mother Louise, who was suffering from ill health and died on 7 July.

The subsequent recording dates were mainly for overdubbing, the full band sessions having ended. However, on this first day Harrison recorded one new song, ‘Apple Scruffs’. It was a solo performance, with all parts recorded, edited and mixed in a single session.

Harrison recorded eighteen takes of the song, although only eight (takes 2, 7, and 13-18) were complete. The master version was an edit of take 18 which lengthened the song by repeating the chorus.

I was sitting on a stool that had a metal foot bar on it and so the engineer put a microphone on that, so that’s like the click track is just this banging on that and I had the harmonica track and so that was all done live.

Prior to take 16 a microphone was set up to record Mal Evans tapping his foot, to save Harrison having to do so. Take 18 was chosen as the best, after which Harrison played the song for the fans waiting outside the studio.

There was always a little knot of them. They weren’t fashion model types, they were just little girls – just kids. He always took time to have a word with them, and I seem to remember him going out with tea for them sometimes when it was cold. I was impressed with how caring he was about these girls. I’ve been around a lot of other folks who have quite a different way of dealing with people, let’s put it that way.

This marked the completion of all the backing tracks for All Things Must Pass, except for ‘It’s Johnny’s Birthday’ which was recorded on 7 October 1970.