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Abbey RoadNO DEPOSIT
TOP CHOICE
To many people Abbey Road is one of the all time best albums ever made, especially Side Two with its Suite of songs that climaxes with, appropriately “The End”. For myself, when things are not right in my life, this is the album I listen to in order to lift my spirits. I recently heard the Remastered Stereo version of the album and was moved to tears by it. In my own words “Side Two is by far the best collection of Pop or Rock music songs to ever be created.” Before we get in to the creation of this album let’s set the scene in the studio. Following the disastrous and acrimonious Get Back sessions (they would later be released as the Let It Be LP) it was questionable if the Beatles would ever be able to record again together. But Paul called up both George Martin and Geoff Emerick and convinced them that they had sorted out their problems and there was going to be a vibe in the studio. And they wanted George Martin to really produce it the way he had in the past. According to Geoff Emerick:“The atmosphere during the making of Abbey Road was quite muted. Everyone seemed to be walking on eggshells, trying not to offend. For the most part, Paul was less officious and John less acerbic. Yoko was still there every day but by this time the Beatles were so used to her being around that she was like part of the furniture. Ringo was Ringo but perhaps the biggest change was in George, who was far more confident and self-assured than before. Both of his contributions “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” were melodic and well crafted, virtually on a par with the work of John and Paul, and he seemed to know it.” The first day I arrived George Martin greeted me with a look of deep concern. “John’s been in an accident, a car crash up in Scotland, with Yoko” (Julian and Kyoko were also in the car but were alright). They are both in the hospital and won’t be joining us for at least a week. The first week of recording Abbey Road was quite peaceful without John and Yoko. It was during the second session that Paul accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, recorded “Her Majesty”. Later that day the three Beatles recorded the backing track for “Golden Slumbers”/”Carry That Weight.” The two songs were joined together at that early stage because Paul had already come up with the idea of linking up several short snippets into a medley of songs. We’d been receiving daily reports on John and Yoko’s progress as they slowly recuperated at home, and early on the morning of July 9th 1969, George Martin got a call from Mal Evans saying that Mr. and Mrs. Lennon were at long last on their way into the recording studio. Everyone was concerned about John’s well being – it was a bad accident and he was lucky to be alive- but there was also an unspoken worry about how John and Yoko’s presence would affect the relatively good vibe of the sessions so far. Suddenly, without warning, John and Yoko materialized in the studio doorway, like two apparitions dressed in black. We all rushed over to see if he was alright. “Yes, I’m Ok” John reassured us softly “But I’m afraid Mother is still not too well, though” Even during the White Album sessions John had started referring to Yoko that way, which I always found a bit creepy. Yoko started to say something, but before she could get a word out, the door burst open and four men began wheeling in a large, heavy object. For a moment, I thought it was a piano coming in from one of the other studios, but it soon dawned on me that the object being delivered was, in fact a bed. Jaws dropping, we all watched as it was brought into the studio and positioned carefully by the stairs and then set up with sheets and pillows. Then without saying a word, Yoko climbed in and carefully arranged the covers around her. George Martin and I exchanged wary looks and out of the corner of my eye I could see that Paul, George and Ringo were as gobsmacked as we were. John turned to me and said “Can you put up a microphone here so we can hear her on the headphones?” For the next several weeks Yoko lived in that bed, her wardrobe consisting of flimsy nightgowns, accessorized with a regal tiara, carefully placed to hide the scar from the accident on her forehead. She spoke in a really tiny voice, and she always referred to the Beatles in a peculiar third-party way: “Beatles will do this, Beatles will do that,” never failing to leave off the “the.” That used to really irritate Paul. On one occasion, he’d even try correcting her: “Actually, it’s the Beatles, luv,” but she persistently ignored him. So, obviously despite the promises to George Martin that things would be like they were in the past, they were not. There was a constant stream of visitors to Yoko even while the other Beatles would be recording in another section of the studio. But Geoff Emerick felt that it mostly had to do with John’s attitude. He was grouchy and moody and flatly refused to participate in the making of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” which he dismissed as “just more of Paul’s granny music.” On his second day back Paul, George and Ringo were recording the backing vocals for the song when Paul walked over to his old friend and collaborator and invited him to join in. John simply said “No, I don’t think so.” A few minutes later he and Yoko went home. Abbey Road track-by-trackCome Together "Some weird things happened, though: Initially, Paul played the electric piano part, but John kind of looked over his shoulder and studied what he was playing. When it came time to record it, John played the electric piano instead of Paul. Paul might have been miffed, but I think he was more upset about not singing on the choruses - John did his own backing vocals. "Ringo used the famous tea towels on his drums on Come Together, a terrific effect. Loud drums would have destroyed the song's spooky mood." Paul: He originally brought it over to me as a very perky little song and I pointed out to him that it was very similar to Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me”. John acknowledged it was rather close to it so I said ‘Well anything you can do to get away from it.” I suggested that we try it swampy- ‘swampy’ was the word I sued- so we did, we took it right down. I laid down the bass line that people now use very often in rap songs. It’s not sample they use, they use that riff. But that was my contribution to it. I would have liked to have sung harmony with John and I think he would have like me to but I was too embarrassed to ask him and I don’t work to the best of my abilities in that situation. Something No matter what we did to create a vibe- turning the lights down low, lighting incense- he just could not get comfortable. It was a difficult song to sing, but in the end he did a magnificent job. George really hit a personal best as a guitarist, as well. He played a guitar solo, but a few days later he decided he wanted to redo it. By that point we only had one track left and that was for orchestral overdubs. George cut a new solo live with the orchestra. It was a gamble, but he did it in one take, and it was beautiful." Maxwell's Silver Hammer "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. "The other thing was the Moog synthesizer solos in the middle and end, which sound almost like a Theremin. The Moog was a fascinating new instrument for everybody - George, in particular, loved working with it - but Paul played these solos. He tinkered around until he got a really incredible, spacey sound that worked quite well." Paul: Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life. I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer. I don’t know why it was silver, it just sounded better than Maxwell’s hammer. It was needed for scanning. We still use that expression when something unexpected happens. John: That’s Paul’s. I hate it. Cuz all I remember is the track- he made us to it a hundred million times. He did everything to make it a single and it never was and it never could’ve been, but he put guitar licks on it and he had somebody hitting iron pieces and we spent more money on that song than any of them in the while album. Oh! Darling "Artists are artists - you never know what drives them to do what they do, but you can't deny the end result, which is one of his most powerful vocals. He cut the final take standing up, I believe. It's something John could have probably knocked out in a couple of passes, but Paul had to work himself up for it." And from Geoff’s book: Paul got into the habit of coming in early every afternoon, before the others arrived, to have a go at singing the lead vocal to “Oh Darling”. Not only did he have me record it with 50’s style tape echo, he even monitored the backing track over the speakers instead of headphones because he wanted to feel as though he were singing to a live audience. Every Day we’d be treated to a hell of a performance as Paul put his all into singing the song all the way through once and only once, nearly ripping his vocal chords to shreds in the process. George Martin would frequently announce triumphantly, “That’s it, that’s the one”, but Paul would overrule him saying, “No, it’s not there yet: let’s try it again tomorrow.” Over many days I never sensed any real frustration from Paul, even though he was having trouble getting it the way he wanted. He knew he would get it eventually. There was another factor (for Paul recording this before anyone else arrived), and that was pride. Paul’s ego prevented him from ever giving John a stab at the singing the lead despite the fact that the song was probably better suited to John vocal style. Paul was determined to give a Lennon performance all by himself. Paul: I mainly remember wanting to get the vocal right, wanting to get it good, and I ended up trying each morning as I came to the recording session. I tried it with a hand mike, and I tried it with a standing mike, I tried it every which way, and finally got the vocal I was reasonably happy with. It’s a bit of a belter, and if it comes off a little bit lukewarm, then you’ve missed the whole point. It was unusual for me, I would normally try all the goes at a vocal inn one day. John Lennon: “Oh Darling’ was a great one of Paul’s that he didn’t sing too well. I always thought that I could’ve done it better- it was more my style than his. He wrote it, so what the hell, he’s going to sing it. If he’s had any sense, he should have let me sing it (laughs) Octopus's Garden "There's this fun bit where you hear bubbles, as if you're underwater. Ringo tried blowing bubbles into a glass of water which we miked very close. In the end, I recorded his vocals, fed them into in a compressor and triggered them with this pulse-like tone that created a wobbly, 'bubbly' sort of sound." I Want You (She's So Heavy) "It goes from hard rock to almost jazzy, bossa nova. Of course, there's the famous ride-out, the riff being repeated many times. George put some very intense Moog sounds down and Ringo played with a wind machine - the whole thing grew louder and louder till it got close to a breaking point. Here Comes The Sun "Ringo's tom fills really make the song, but funnily enough, he hated doing them because he could never remember what he did one take to the next. I think that's why his fills are so spectacular - he felt that he would never reproduce them, so he'd better get 'em right. "We added some orchestration to it, but nothing that overwhelmed. I think George was starting to like the idea of 'bigness' at that point, something he obviously carried over when he made All Things Must Pass with Phil Spector." Because "It was an amazing recording, and probably the first bit of real camaraderie between the boys. I think they liked putting down their instruments and just singing together for a change. John, Paul and George sat in a semi-circle to do the harmonies and Ringo sat off to the side to lend moral support." "We recorded the vocals multiple times until we finally had it right, but the funny thing was, each take was brilliant. They sang flawlessly. So what you have is nine-part harmony: three Beatles' voices times three. They made up their own choir." According to John in his 1981 Playboy Interview: “I was lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on the piano. Suddenly I said, “Can you play those chords backwards?” She did, and I wrote “Because” around them. The song sounds like Moonlight Sonata too. The lyrics are clear, no bullshit, no imagery, no obscure references.” The mini-suite: You Never Give Me Your Money, Sun King, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam, She Came In Through The Backroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End "Each track could have stood on its own, and I suppose Sun King does sound like it's a complete song in its own right. A concept started to come from Paul to tie the songs together, which helped to make the numbers seamless and unified. "The same thing held true for Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight: everybody was firmly on board with unifying the songs - well, except for John, who had to be talked into it. He didn't want to do another 'concept album' like Sgt Pepper. "And then, of course, we get to the famous parts of The End, the drum solo and the three-way guitar solos. The thing that always amused me was how much persuasion it took to get Ringo to play that solo. Usually, you have to try to talk drummers out of doing solos! He didn't want to do it, but everybody said, 'No, no, it'll be fantastic!' So he gave in - and turned in a bloody marvelous performance! "It took a while to get right, and I think Paul helped with some ideas, but it's fantastic. I always want to hear more - that's how good it is. It's so musical, it's not just a drummer going off. "The idea for guitar solos was very spontaneous and everybody said, 'Yes! Definitely' - well, except for George, who was a little apprehensive at first. But he saw how excited John and Paul were so he went along with it. Truthfully, I think they rather liked the idea of playing together, not really trying to outdo one another per se, but engaging in some real musical bonding. "Yoko was about to go into the studio with John - this was commonplace by now - and he actually told her, 'No, not now. Let me just do this. It'll just take a minute.' That surprised me a bit. Maybe he felt like he was returning to his roots with the boys - who knows? "The order was Paul first, then George, then John, and they went back and forth. They ran down their ideas a few times and before you knew it, they were ready to go. Their amps were lined up together and we recorded their parts on one track." "You could really see the joy in their faces as they played; it was like they were teenagers again. One take was all we needed. The musical telepathy between them was mind-boggling." John: You Never Give Me You Money is Paul’s, well that’s not a song you know. Abbey Road was really unfinished songs all stuck together. Everybody praises the album so much, but none of the songs had anything to do with each other, no thread at all, only the fact that we stuck them together. John: She Came in Through the Bathroom Window was Paul’s song. He wrote it when we were in New York announcing Apple, and we first met Linda. Maybe she’s the one that came in the window. I don’t know: somebody came in the window. John: Mean Mr. Mustard is me writing a piece of garbage. I’d read somewhere in the newspaper about this guy who hid five-pound notes, not up his nose but somewhere lse. No, it nothing to do with Cocaine. John: Polythene Pam was me remembering a little event with a woman in Jersey, and a man who was England’s answer to Allen Ginsburg, who gave us our first exposure- this is so long- you can’t deal with all this. You see everything triggers amazing memories. I met him when we were on tour and he took me back to his apartment and I had a girl and he had one he wanted me to meet. He said she dressed up in polythene, which she did. She didn’t wear jack boots or kilts, I just sort of elaborated. Perverted sex in a polythene bag. Just looking for something to write about. John: Golden Slumber, apparently Paul wrote that from a poem that he found in a book, some 18th century book where he just changed the words here and there. Paul: I wrote Golden Slumbers after seeing the sheet music to Thomas Dekker’s lullaby. I liked the words so much, I thought it was really restful, a very beautiful lullaby, but I couldn’t read the melody, not being able to read music. So I just took the words and write my own music. I didn’t know at the time it was 400 years old. I remember trying to get a very strong vocal on it, because it was such a gentle theme, so I worked on the strength of the vocal on it, and ended up being quite pleased. Paul: Carry That Weight was about the Atmosphere at Apple. It was heavy. In this heaviness there was no place to be. It was serious, paranoid heaviness and it was just uncomfortable. Her Majesty "It was never supposed to go on at all. But after the acetates were made, Paul heard it and liked it, so it stayed. Quite an odd way to end a record of this nature, but as always, The Beatles made strange things work." Beatles In The Studio:
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