Production
The basic track of the song was recorded in barely two takes on April 13. Paul grouped his colleagues around the piano and played “Paperback Writer” for them. It was obvious that this would be their next single. For the first take, John was on rhythm guitar (with vibrato), George on tambourines, Ringo on drums, and it was Paul and not George who played the superb intro riff on his Epiphone Casino (he confirmed this in 2005 to Guitar Player magazine).
The next day, the group redid the song. Paul recorded his bass, accompanied by George Martin on the “jangle box” piano, passed through a Leslie (the piano part was not kept). The Beatles always regretted having a more timid bass sound than American records. Paul asked Geoff Emerick to replicate the stronger bass sound that he heard on Motown recordings. With the help of Ken Townsend, Geoff Emerick decided to convert the famous White Elephant speaker to be used as a microphone. This created an enormous bass sound.
Paul, inspired by the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, then searched for an idea for the backing vocal. According to the Beatles Monthly: “… he rushed to the piano and began playing ‘Brother John.’” And you could actually hear the Beatles singing “Brother John” (in the vocals and with a British accent!), at 1:02 and at 1:20 (with a false start for one of the singers). After having tried and then rejected a Vox Continental organ part played by George Martin, the Beatles sang the lead vocal, as well as the backing vocals, which they doubled; George completed the song with guitar additions.
The mono mix followed the recording. Geoff Emerick added a fluttering echo at the end of each chorus by routing the vocals into a separate two-track machine and then connecting that machine’s output to its input.6 The stereo mix for the album A Collection of Beatles Oldies was only carried out after the single came out, on October 31. “Paperback Writer” was one of the heaviest songs by the Beatles: it influenced numerous musicians, including Humble Pie, which practically copied it in their song “Street Rats.”
Technical Details
To help deal with the enormous sound of Paul’s Rickenbacker 4001S in the recording, Tony Clark used a new machine, the ATOC (automatic transient overload control), which made it possible to have a greater tolerance for bass frequencies.
Rain
Lennon-McCartney / 2:17
1966
SONGWRITER
John
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, rhythm guitar
Paul: bass, rhythm guitar (?), backing vocal
George: rhythm guitar (?), backing vocal
Ringo: drums, tambourine
RECORDED
Abbey Road: April 14, 1966 (Studio Three) / April 16, 1966 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 8
MIXING
Abbey Road: April 16, 1966 (Studio Two) / December 2, 1969 (Studio Two)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Assistant Engineers: Richard Lush, Phil McDonald
Genesis
Although the concept had been mainly developed by John, Paul believed “Rain” was a joint creation. John said in 1969, “This was a song I wrote about people moaning about the weather all the time.”1 Half-mock-ingly, half-philosophically, he stated in the text, … when it rains and shines, it’s just a state of mind. For the first time, he became aware of his influence and the import of his ideas, and he was going to use them to fight for peace and love, with lyrics such as I can show you and Can you hear me? A simple B-side, “Rain” nevertheless was one of the Beatles’ first psychedelic songs. Its exceptional content and feel made it a must that prefigured Revolver. A revolution had begun …
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
The promotional clips for “Rain” and “Paperback Writer” were filmed on May 19 in an Abbey Road studio. Paul still had a broken tooth …
Production
“Rain” was recorded on April 14, right after “Paperback Writer.” Paul said, “On ‘Rain,’ I remember we couldn’t get a backing track and we decided to play it fast and slow it down.”2 What came of it was a much heavier, thicker sound, with more depth. In a 1984 interview, Ringo stated, “My favorite piece of me is what I did on ‘Rain.’ I think I just played amazing. I was into the snare and hi-hat. I think it was the first time I used this trick of starting a break by hitting the hi-hat first instead of going directly to a drum off the hi-hat… I think it’s the best out of all the records I’ve ever made. ‘Rain’ blows me away. It’s out of left field. I know me and I know my playing, and then there’s ‘Rain.’”3
According to the studio records, John and Paul were on guitar. Leaving the studio in the wee hours of the morning, John went home fairly “stoned” (according to him), with a tape of the day’s work. Dead tired, he decided to listen to the recording and accidentally threaded the tape backwards: he was stunned! On April 16, he returned to the studio exhilarated with his discovery. This blew everyone’s mind! John asked Martin to insert his vocal backwards. “OK,” said Martin, “we will do it at the end.” Paul recorded an excellent part on bass, using the same process as in “Paperback Writer,” and John then inserted his voice with the dragging and intimate tone that characterized his singing from then on. A reduction of all the tracks was carried out in order to gain space. Ringo added a tambourine part simultaneously with the backing vocals of the three other Beatles. Note that John sang the high notes. Martin finally inserted John’s backwards vocal in the coda (2:35). Except for the loops on “Tomorrow Never Knows,” it was the first recording to use backwards sounds. This was only the beginning … The mono mix was done soon afterwards using the process of artificial double tracking (ADT); curiously, the stereo mix was only finalized in 1969, on December 2, for its inclusion on the American compilation, Hey Jude (February 26, 1970).
Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane
(Double A-Side)
1967
SINGLE
RELEASED
Great Britain: February 17, 1967 / No. 2
United States: February 13, 1967 / No. 1 for 1 week on March 18, 1967 (“Penny Lane”)
Strawberry Fields Forever
Lennon-McCartney / 4:07
1967
SONGWRITER
John
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, rhythm guitar, Mellotron, percussion
Paul: bass, Mellotron, piano, lead guitar (?), percussion
George: swarmandal, maracas, percussion, lead guitar (?)
Ringo: drums, percussion
Mal Evans: tambourine
Neil Aspinall: percussion
Greg Bowen, Tony Fisher, Stanley Roderick, Derek Watkins: trumpets
John Hall, Norman Jones, Derek Simpson: cellos
RECORDED
Abbey Road : November 24 and 28–29, 1966 (Studio Two) / December 8–9, 15, and 21, 1966 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 26
MIXING
Abbey Road: November 28–29, 1966 (Studio Two) / December 9, 15, and 22, 1966 (Studio Two) / December 29, 1966 (Studio Three)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producers: George Martin, Dave Harries
Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Dave Harries
Assistant Engineer: Phil McDonald
Genesis
“Strawberry Fields Forever,” which summed up the essence of the Beatles’ art in four minutes, is probably the key song in their entire repertoire. The creative power of the group was at its peak and its musical vision had reached an unrivaled strength. This song incarnated the spirit of the sixties and prefigured their masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
After the concert in Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the last one they ever gave, the Beatles spread their wings toward other horizons. John left for Almería, in Spain, where he acted in Richard Lester’s movie, How I Won the War. While he was there, he took advantage of the long waits between each set to write “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Strawberry Field (singular) was the name of a Salvation Army
center near his aunt Mimi’s house in Liverpool, where he lived as a child. He said in 1980, “I don’t know. But I just took the name—it had nothing to do with the Salvation Army. As an image—Strawberry Fields Forever.”1 The lyrics, rather obscure and surrealistic, expressed the feeling he always had that he was different, on which he reminisced in his 1980 Playboy interview, “Nobody seems to understand where I’m coming from. I seem to see things in a different way from most people.”2 John had perceived reality in a distorted way that isolated him from his surroundings ever since he was a child. This live-wire sensitivity made him suffer throughout his life, but was also the inspiration for masterpieces such as “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Production
“Strawberry Fields Forever” was one of the Beatles’ most complicated and difficult recordings. It was recorded at the beginning of the sessions for the album that was to become Sgt. Pepper. The first time George Martin heard the song, John was singing with a soft and moving voice while accompanying himself on guitar. George Martin: “When John sang ‘Strawberry Fields’ for the first time, just with an acoustic guitar accompaniment, it was magic. It was absolutely lovely.”3 Geoff Emerick confirmed, “just a great, great song, that was apparent from the first time John sang it for all of us.”4 The first session took place on November 24. John played a new musical instrument, a Mellotron. It was a revolutionary instrument, the precursor of our current samplers, that made it possible to reproduce various sounds, such as brass, strings, and woodwinds. Paul got hold of it and chose a flute sound. John was singing and playing rhythm guitar, George played maracas, while Ringo played the drums, with the skins covered with rags to muffle the sound. A slide guitar part was actually played (by George?) using a guitar setting on the Mellotron by using a pitch wheel that slowed the tape, thereby lowering its pitch. Although the results were endearing, they redid the song on November 28. During this session, Paul found the famous intro on the Mellotron. At the end of the fourth take, the song began to take shape. The next day, they took time to do overdubs on piano, bass, and vocals. John’s vocal was treated with ADT. Despite a conclusive seventh take, John was not satisfied. At the end of the session, everyone went back home with an acetate to listen to. Before going on with the current version, John contacted Martin and told him he would like a “heavier” arrangement. Martin offered to write a score for trumpets and cellos. But before integrating these daring sound effects, the Beatles had to record a new rhythm track.
Two Side A’s for a Single!
In early 1967, Brian Epstein urged George Martin to produce a new single. Having on hand the two greatest songs of the group, Martin suggested a double A-side with two songs meant for the Sgt. Pepper album: “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane.” Unfortunately, the single only reached second place in the British charts, behind “Release Me” by Engelbert Humperdinck. It was a slap in the face for the Beatles, but also a big relief: from then on, they would be under less pressure. Martin regretted his whole life not including the songs on Sgt. Pepper and suggesting two side A’s instead: “One of the biggest mistakes I ever made.”
On December 8, George Martin and Geoff Emerick—who were invited to the premiere of the Cliff Richard film Finders Keepers—missed the beginning of the session. Dave Harries, the future collaborator with Martin at AIR Studios in London, replaced them until their return, around 11:00 P.M. The Beatles came up with a heavy and hypnotic rhythm track: backwards cymbals (made by playing a cymbal recording in reverse), kettledrums, bongos, tambourines, maracas. Everyone participated in the recording, including Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall. John, who usually ran out of patience, felt totally serene. The next day, after other reductions, Ringo added percussion and other drum parts, George added an Indian touch with a swarmandal, a small Indian harp, and Paul played lead guitar. John then sat down at the Mellotron to insert hypnotic flute sounds on the coda, and the pinched strings of a piano completed the arrangements (starting at 3:00). George Martin could finally write his score: four trumpets and three cellos were recorded on December 15. After another reduction mix, take 25 becoming take 26, John did a superb recording of his lead vocal and with his very peculiar sense of humor, slipped in at the end of the piece the famous cranberry sauce, two small words that at first seemed harmless but later launched the most fanciful rumors about the so-called death of Paul, some people hearing, I buried Paul!
Finally, on December 21, there was a new recording of John’s vocal and Paul on piano. But John had a surprise for the whole team. He phoned George Martin and said, “I like the beginning of the first one, and I like the end of the second one. Why don’t we just join them together?” Flabbergasted, Martin replied, “Well, there are only two things against it. One is that they’re in different keys; the other is that they’re in different tempos.” “Yeah, but you can do something about it, I know. You can fix it, George.”5 Not wanting to let John down, Martin and Emerick decided to try something radical on December 22, after doing the mono mix for the song. The two versions were only a semitone different, and the tempos were fairly close. Speeding up the remix of the first version gradually (take 7) and slowing down the remix of the second (take 26) made the editing successful. The exact splicing point was at 0:59 at the beginning of the word going. John was finally satisfied with the results. For the mix, they used a fade-out/fade-in effect (around 3:00) that they used again on “Helter Skelter.” The stereo mix was done on December 29. “Strawberry Fields Forever” was a masterpiece by the Beatles. Sure, it was John’s song, but the results were due to the whole team’s work.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
Paul’s bass was only present up to the seventh take. Beyond that point (after 0:59), there is no bass.
Penny Lane
Lennon-McCartney / 2:57
1967
SONGWRITER
Paul
MUSICIANS
Paul: vocal, bass, keyboards
John: rhythm guitar, backing vocal, harmonium (?), piano, hand claps, congas
George: backing vocal, percussion (?)
Ringo: drums, tambourine, tubular bell, percussion
George Martin: piano, hand claps
David Mason: piccolo trumpet
P. Goody, Ray Swinfield, Dennis Walton, Manny Winters: flutes, piccolos
Leon Calvert, Duncan Campbell, Freddy Clayton, Bert Courtley: trumpets, flugelhorns
Dick Morgan, Mike Winfield: oboes, English horns
Frank Clarke: double bass
RECORDED
Abbey Road: December 29–30, 1966 (Studio Two) / January 4–6 and 9, 1966 (Studio Two) / January 10 and 12, 1966 (Studio Three) / January 17, 1967 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 9
MIXING
Abbey Road: December 29–30, 1966 (Studio Two) / January 9, 1966 (Studio Two) / January 12, 1967 (Studio Three) / January 17, 1967 (Studio Two) / January 25, 1967 (Studio One)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Assistant Engineer: Phil McDonald
Genesis
“Penny Lane” was Paul’s reply to John’s “Strawberry Fields Forever.” These two songs, recalling childhood memories, constituted a form of perfection in the art of pop songs. Penny Lane is a Liverpool neighborhood, a street and a bus station through which Paul used to travel in order to get to John’s house. “I lived in Penny Lane on a street called Newcastle Road. So I was the only Beatle that lived in Penny Lane,”1 John explained in 1980. Later on, he left the neighborhood and moved to Woolton … Finally, it was Paul who dedicated a song to it. He had been thinking about the topic since 1965 and he used it when he was searching for ideas for the next album. He wrote it in his new Victorian residence on Cavendish Avenue, in a neighborhood called St. John’s Wood.
As John had listed the places where he grew up in his original lyrics to “In My Life,” Paul thought of the characters on Penny Lane, whether they were fictitious or real. For example, the barb
er Bioletti really existed, the fire station was nearby, there was a bank on the corner—even though the character of the banker was imaginary—and poppies were sold every year at the time of Remembrance Day (November 11). “Blue suburban skies …”, Paul uses a poetic and fairly psychedelic vision to describe this neighborhood, which was basically quite ordinary.
John helped Paul write the third couplet. Both of them had fun slipping in dirty jokes: four of fish and finger pie. Paul explained it in 1967: “Most people wouldn’t hear it, but ‘finger pie’ is just a nice little joke for the Liverpool lads who like a bit of smut.”2
Production
The first session took place on December 29. Paul wanted a very clean sound, being influenced by American productions, such as Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys and, especially, “God Only Knows,” a song he still considers one of the most beautiful ever written. Alone at the piano, it took him six takes to find the basic track, to which he then added a second piano, put through a Vox amplifier with vibrato and reverb, a honky tonk piano (the famous “Mrs. Mills” that was recorded at half-speed). Ringo played the tambourines. Finally, a harmonium, again fed through a Vox guitar amplifier, and percussion completed the sound. On the next day, Paul recorded his lead vocal, with John on harmony, and the tape recorder was slightly slowed down for recording, raising his pitch when played back at normal speed.
On January 4, 1967, after a failed attempt by George and John, on lead guitar and piano, respectively, Paul tried a new vocal that he replaced the very next day. On January 6, he recorded on his Rickenbacker 4001S a magnificent bass line, which was the backbone of the song. John accompanied him on rhythm guitar and congas. Ringo was on drums. The whole song was highly compressed by Geoff Emerick and recorded with a slower-than-normal tape speed. On the seventh take, John and George Martin were on piano and hand claps. Finally, George Harrison, John, and Paul provided backing vocals.
All the Songs Page 26