"The footnotes for my nineteenth book. This is my standard procedure for doing it. And while I compose it, I'm also reviewing it"-Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D
Recorded: March- August 1997 Released: 20 October, 1998 Producer: George Martin Compiler: George Martin Label: MCA
The Echo Label
Yesterday, 11 August, 2014, the world grieved as we lost one of the most iconic comedians and actors of our times, Robin Williams. To honor the legendary man and to keep this article related to The Beatles, for it is a Beatles website, I have done some research and was happy to come across George Martin's In My Life album, an album filled with other celebrities from Goldie Hawn's "A Hard Days Night" to Jim Carrey's version of "I Am The Walrus" with the opening track "Come Together" preformed by Bobby McFerrin and Robin Williams, himself.
The album was recorded from March 1997 to the following August with the following track listing;
"Come Together"- Vocals by Robin Williams and Bobby McFerrin
"A Hard Day's Night"- Vocals and keyboards by Goldie Hawn
"Ticket To Ride" - Vocals by Menians Cantoras de Petropolis
"Blackbird"- Vocals and keyboards by Bonnie Pink
The album was released on 20 October, 1998 and lasted forty-three minutes and fifty-eight seconds.
Mork
Now to remember Robin Williams.Born on the 21 July, 1951in Chicago, Illinois to former Model, Laura McLaurin, and senior executive of Ford Motor Company, Robert Williams, no one could of expected that this new baby boy would grow up to become the phenomenon and idol he did.
Williams would grow up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan where he attended Detroit Country Day school before the family had resided to Marin County in Californina where he picked up his studies at Redwood public High school. He was accepted and attended Claremont Men's College, now known as Claremont McKenna College, before he left after he was one of twenty who were offered a full scholarship to Julliard School, he was also one of two to be selected into the Advance Program held at Julliard that year, where his passion for entertainment soared.
Mrs. Doubtfire
Robin's first television performance was on the The Richard Pryor Show which lead to Garry Marshall casting William's as an alien by the name Mork in the 1978 episode of Happy Days, a move that would change his life and career. Mork had not only landed in the Cunningham's living room but to his own television show, Mork & Mindy, which ran for four years. Williams would go on to land some of the most iconic roles of all time, from his fun, comic classic roles in Jumanji , Mrs. Doubtfire, to portraying Teddy Roosevelt in the Night At The Museum trilogy; To his children film appearances as Genie from Disney's Aladdin, Happy Feet, Flubber and Hook; Even to the more serious side as an English teacher in Dead Poets Society, to many many other great films that generation from generation have all grown up with.
Unfortunately fame isn't everything and Robin Williams soon began to struggle with the pressure of an actor and comedian turning to cocaine and alcohol as a coping method. John Belushi, another great comedian, was a good friend of Robin's and had taken his own life after overdosing, during this time William's had just had his son, Zak, and describe the situation and his drug use as ;
"Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped too."
In 2003, twenty years after being sober, William's had found himself holding onto the bottle again. Three years later he became well aware of what was going on and checked himself into a rehabilitation center in Oregon and would declare in 2010 that he had already gone back to alcohol but found help and will do everything thing to never turn back to cocaine. In 2009 Williams had a successful heart surgery to replace his aoritc valve on 13, March.
Yesterday morning at 11:55 am (Pacific time) a 9-1-1 call was placed describing that a man had been found unconscious and not breathing. At 12:02 the man was identified as Robin Williams, dead to an appear suicide that's being investigated today, 12 August, 2014. Many people were deeply hurt about the loss of the legend, friend, husband, father... His wife, Susan Schneider spoke about her husbands death in the following;
"I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken."
Long time friends like Steve Martin and Eric Idle wrote via Twitter;
"I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul."- Steve Martin
"I can't believe my lovely friend is gone. My heart goes out to his wife and his beloved children. He brought us so much joy and laughter."- Eric Idle with follow up tweet, "I am sick with grief."
Today lets remember Robin Williams not for his flaws with alcohol and drugs but as we take one day to grieve lets remember all of the other days, years, decades, that he spent making us laugh and smile. With that said, thank you Robin Williams, you will be sorely missed.
The following video is McFerrin and William's version of The Abbey Road opener, "Come Together";
"Seize the day. Because, believe it or not, each and everyone of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold and die."- John Keating (Portrayed by Robin Williams), Dead Poets Society
"By the time we got to Let It Be we couldn't play the game anymore."- John Lennon, Anthology
Recorded: 4 February 1968- 1 April, 1970
Released: 8 May, 1970 (UK)
18 May, 1970 (US)
Producers: George Martin, Phil Spector
Engineers: Martin Benge, Peter Brown, Jeff Jarratt, Glyn Johns, Phil McDonald, Ken Scott
John Lennon: Vocals, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, organ
Paul McCartney: Vocals, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, electric piano, Hammond organ, maracas
George Harrison: Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, maracas, tambura
Ringo Starr: drums, percussion, svaramandal
Billy Preston: Hammond organ, electric piano
George Martin: Hammond Organ, shaker
Linda McCartney: backing vocals
The album also featured eighteen violins, fourteen chorus singers, four cellos, four violas, three trumpets, three trombones, two additional guitarist, a tenor saxophone, and a harp.
Twickenham Studios
Although the group started a quick recording in February 1968 it wasn't till early January 1969 that The Beatles had found themselves back in the studio to record their twelfth and (arguably) last album, Let It Be. The group however weren't recording in their usual home away from home at Abbey Road nor did they work completely with their usual producer, George Martin. Instead the group had set up at a familiar studio where they used during 1964 and 1965 while filming A Hard Days Night and Help!, Twickenham Film Studios, London with producer Phil Spector.
"They were going through a revolutionary period at that time, and were trying to think of something new - and they wanted a new engineer. They have Geoff Emerick, so Glyn Johns came in. I guess basically they wanted a new producer, but they never actually said that to me. So i was still there."- George Martin, Anthology
Ever since 29 August, 1966 when The Beatles played their last concert, Paul had always wanted The Beatles to do something else, especially after the death of their manager, Brian Epstein in 1967. Paul had pushed the group into making their third film, Magical Mystery Tour, right after Epstein had passed away to keep the band together and occupied. During 1969, McCartney, along with the other Beatles began to film their last film, a documentary, filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and his crew, who had previously helped The Beatles with their promotional films for "Paperback Writer/Rain" and once again with "Hey Jude/Revolution". By filming themselves recording the album it was the best Paul could do to get close to a concert like sound , but wasn't the best for the group itself as it was soon became a very hostile environment.
"What can we do if we can't think of any sort of gimmick? Well, the worst that we have is a documentary of us making an LP, if we don't get into a show. All the things we do, the whole point of it is communication. And putting it on TV is communication, and we've got a chance to smile at people, like "All You Need Is Love". So that's my incentive for doing it."- John Lennon, 1969
Although John was quoted saying it was a chance for them to smile at the people he was quoted the following year saying" making Let It Be was hell followed by,
"It was the most miserable session on earth."
Ringo at Twickenham
Maybe it was the environment that made the recording and filming so red, long-time Beatles roadie and friend, Neil Aspinall recalls;
"Twickenham was very cold in January, and a strange place to be making an album. It was like half recording and half filming. It didn't really feel right. Nobody was that comfortable out there."- Anthology
or maybe it was in the filming itself;
"And so he (Paul) has these ideas that we'll rehearse and then make the album. And of course we're lazy fuckers and we've been playing for twenty years, for fuck's sake , we're grown men, we're not going to sit around rehearsing. I'm not, anyway. And we couldn't get into it. And we put down a few tracks and nobody was in it at all. It was a dreadful, dreadful feeling in Twickenham Studio, and being filmed all the time. I Just wanted them to go away, and we'd be there, eight in the morning. You couldn't make music at eight in the morning or ten or whenever it was, in a strange place with people filming you and coloured lights."- John Lennon,1970
George made a point in saying that The Beatles never had privacy anyways and now they were being followed around smushing their faces against the camera lens in the one place where they were never bothered before, a recording studio. Going into this environment was especially odd for George who had just spent the last few months in Woodstock hanging out with Bob Dylan, The Band, and Jackie Lomax.
"But I can remember feeling quite optimistic about it. I thought, 'OK, it's the new Year and we have a new approach to recording.' I think the first couple of days were OK, but it was soon quite apparent that it was just the same as it had been when we were last in the studio, and it was going to be painful again."- George Harrison, Anthology
George Harrison
It had got the feelings every since The Beatles stopped touring and the passing of Brian that Paul had been taking over the group. George had felt that Paul wouldn't listen to anyone's ideas, John thought Paul was running the show, telling when everyone should arrive, what they would record, when they would do this and that, even the idea of having them be constantly filmed, and Ringo had the feelings that instead of the early Beatles being "I've just written this song- give me what you can" it became "I wrote this song and I want it this way." George Martin see's half of Paul's side and half of the others whereas Paul had just been trying to keep the group together by doing activities but John and George especially could careless about it. George with his well known quote, "I'll play what you like or I won't play at all." and John with his constant being with Yoko Ono, showing up late together at the studio or not showing up at all.
"It's easy for someone like me, who likes to get stuff done, to come on too strong. I get excited and I get too keen about something , and talk too fast - 'Oh, we could do that and we'd be there on Monday morning - Twickenham - we'll do it - it's great...' And then it got a bit difficult. I would say, 'It would be great if we could film The Beatles working. It would be fabulous.' and they'd be like, 'Well, are you sure you want to do it that way?' It was getting very lukewarm reception- and I didn't quite realise how I was."- Paul McCartney, Anthology
Early in the recording sessions on 10 January, George Harrison had got up and left the band after getting into an argument with Paul, leaving for what seemed for good. During his absence it was suggested by John Lennon that they should get Eric Clapton to fill in for him, after all they had worked with Clapton before during their previous album, The White Album, but their plan for Eric never fell through as they waited for the return of George. While at Twickenham recording what Ringo recalls, "Jamming violently" and Yoko Ono wailing her strain vocals throughout the tapes, George had found himself at home with his guitar and wrote "Wah Wah" which would be released on George's second solo LP, All Things Must Pass in 1970. The following video is George Harrison's "Wah Wah";
"I was called to a meeting out in Elstead in Surrey, at Ringo's house that he bought from Peter Sellers. It was decided that it would be better if we got back together and finished the record. Twickenham Studios were very cold and not a nice atmosphere, so we decided to abandon that and go to Savile Row into the recording studio."- George Harrison, Anthology
On 15 January, George's break from the band was put to a rest after that meeting where he suggested that the band record in the basement of Apple where a recording studio was being built at Savile Row. They started recording at Apple on 21 January, 1969 till the 31 January.
"The days were long, and it could get boring, and Twickenham just wasn't really conducive to any great atmosphere. It was just a big barn. Then we moved to the new studios in the basement of Apple to carry on.
The facilities at Apple were great. It was so comfortable, and it was ours, like home. It was great to go to, and when we weren't working we could sit round the fire, which we'd had put in because we wanted it really cosy."- Ringo Starr, Anthology
Billy Preston and Paul McCartney
During the time of Get Back, the working title of Let It Be, The Beatles had been working with Glyn Jones but his work hadn't worked well with The Beatles and the group went back to find their old friend, George Martin who had brought his EMI studio equipment to Apple Studios after studio builder and John Lennon's little follower, Magic Alex, claimed that Apple Studios were going to be better than EMI studios but had forgotten to even add holes in the wall in between the control room and the studio itself. After coming to Apple Studios with their original producer, things seemed to die down a bit. On one appearance, The Beatles last recording together for the album, George Harrison had brought in Billy Preston, an old acquaintance from The Beatles early Hamburg days in 1962, after George and Eric Clapton saw him open for Ray Charles at the Festival Hall.
"Billy came down and I said, 'Remember Billy? Here he is - he can play the piano.' He got on the electric piano, and straight away there was 1005 improvement in the vibe in the room. Having this fifth person was just enough to cut the ice that we'd created among ourselves. Billy didn't know all the politics and the games that had been going on, so his innocence he got stuck in and gave an extra little kick to the band. Everybody was happier to have somebody else playing and it made what we were doing more enjoyable. We all played better and that was a great session. It was more or less just as it is on the record."- George Harrison, Anthology
"Billy was brilliant - a little whizz-kid. We'd always got on very well with him. He showed up in London and we all said, 'Oh Bill! Great - let's have him play on a few things.' So he started sitting in on the sessions, because he was an old mate really."- Paul McCartney, Anthology
The following video is from the Let It Be sessions "Get Back" featuring Billy Preston:
By clicking the track-name above you will be brought to a Youtube page of the album version of the tracks, by clicking on the track-name as you read below you will be brought to a Youtube page on the Let It Be film version or Let It Be sessions.
McCartney had originally wrote the song for his wife, Linda but as The Beatles began to break-up the song had took a new meaning towards him and John who sing the song together.
Part of The Beatles rooftop concert line-up. The song was originally called "Con a Lowry" but when singing didn't flow as Lennon had wanted and the lyrics had been changed to "Dig A Pony".
"'Across The Universe' was first recorded at the end of the 'White' album. I couldn't get it on because we'd done so much material. It wasn't a very good recording. By the end of the double album we were really sick of recording. It was a shame because I liked the song.
I was lying next to my first wife in bed and I was thinking. It started off as a negative song and she must have been going on and on about something. She'd gone to sleep and I kept hearing, 'Words are flowing out like endless streams...' I was a bit irritated and I went downstairs and it turned into a sort of cosmic song rather than, 'Why are you always mouthing off at me?'
But nobody was interest in doing it originally; everyone was sickened. The tune was good, but subliminally people don't want to work with it sometimes. I was so disappointed that it never went out as The Beatles. I gave it to The Wildlife Fund of Great Britain and it went out.
And then I tried to do it again when were were making Let It Be, but anybody who saw the film saw what reaction I got with it when I tried to do it. Finally Phil Spector took the tape, and did a damn good job with it and made a fairly reasonable sound out of it, and then we released it again.
The words were purely inspirational and were given to me - except for maybe one or two where I had resolved a line or something like that. I don't own it; It came through like that."- John Lennon, 1971 and 1980
A "Heavy waltz" style as George called it with the 3/4 time signature.
George and Ringo
"I Me Mine is the 'ego' problem. There are two 'I''s: the little 'i'
when people say 'I am this' and the big 'I'; i.e. OM the complete whole,
universal consciousness that is void of duality and ego. There is
nothing that isn't part of the complete whole. When the little 'i'
merges into the big 'I' then you are really smiling!
So there is the little ego -- The little 'i' -- which is like a drop of the ocean. Swami Vivekananda says 'Each soul is potentially divine, the goal is to manifest the divinty'. We have to realise that we are of the little 'i' by the drop becoming merged into the big 'I' (the ocean).
I suppose having LSD was like somebody catapulting me out into space. The LSD experience was the biggest experience that I'd had up until that time. The mind goes so fast and so far, and I had flashes, realisations, where I would work out the whole Universe and then get back to the starting point and think 'Shit -- I'm back to where I started' because relativity goes round and round . It actually left me confused for a while, and after one dose of acid I felt I was stuck in this thing, which later I realised is called 'relativity'. So, the big 'I' I'm talking about is the absolute, whereas we're in the relative where everything is good-bad, yes-no, up-down, black-white. That's why they called it the heaven and hell drug! But life is heaven and hell, we see it as, or make it into hell or heaven: there's no heaven and hell beyond relativity.
So Suddenly, I looked around and everything I could see was relative to my ego-- you know, like 'that's my piece of paper' and 'that's my flannel', or 'give it to me' or 'I am'. It drove me crackers; I hated everything about my ego-- it was a flash of everything false and impermanent which I disliked. But later, I learned from it: to realise that there is somebody else in here apart from old blabbermouth (that's what I felt like - I had seen or heard or done anything to my life, and yet I hadn't stopped talking). Who am 'I' became the order of the day.
Anyway that's what came out of it: I Me Mine. The truth within us has to be realised: when you realise that everything else that you see is and can answer the question 'who am i'?.
Allen Klein thought it was an Italian song-- you know, Cara Mia Mine but it's about the ego: the eternal problem..."- George Harrison,I Me Mine
The song was coined from a common phrase being used 'Dig It'. The original track name was "Can You Dig It" which can be heard at the end of the Let It Be film version and at the beginning of "Two of Us" studio version when John can be heard saying "That was 'Can You Dig It' by Georgie Wood, and now we'd like to do 'Hark The Angels Come'."
Although many people think that the song is a religious message with Mother Mary, in fact the song is about Mother Mary, but not Jesus Christ mother but Paul's own mother, Mary McCartney (read about her here), who passed away from breast cancer when Paul was only fourteen years old. Struggling with the album and the time of The Beatles fights he was becoming a bit paranoid, going to bed with a lot on his mind he had a dream of his mother coming to him and simply speaking words of wisdom, "Let It Be".
The track is said to be the last song that Paul and John had wrote together. It consists of Paul's "I've Got A Feeling" and John's "Everybody Had a Hard Year" in which they had decided to mix them together to create the final piece.
Although the song appears on The Beatles last album it was written by John at home in 1959. Yes, that's before the group released their first album, Please Please Me in 1963 and even three years before Ringo had joined the group. The song could be heard as far back as the early Cavern Club days. The following video is an early version of the song performed at the Cavern Club
"I just sat down at my piano in Scotland, started playing and came up with that song, imagining it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles. I have always found inspiration in the calm beauty of Scotland and again it proved the place where I found Inspiration."- Paul McCartney
The song being about the tension between the group and Paul following the B842, a road that runs through the east coast of Kintyre towards his High Park in Campbeltwon (read about the home here).
The song being about Britain's anti-immigrant laws and telling everyone to Get Back to their own countries.
The track featured Billy Preston,
"Billy Preston was a great help and a very good keyboard guy, and his work on 'Get Back' alone justified him being there. He was an amiable fellow too, very nice and emollient. He helped to lubricate the friction that had been there."- George Martin, Anthology
Mixing;
Let It Be recordings ended on 31 January, 1969 at Apple Studios with a total of about twenty-nine hours of tape that was given to The Beatles new engineer, Glyn Johns, who took the lengthy tapes on 10 March, 1969 in London at Olympic Sound Studios after John and Paul had met with him at EMI Studios where The Beatles themselves have done little work on them with what was the original track-list to Get Back, as it was still called during this time being;
One After 909
Rocker
Save The Last Dance For Me
Don't Let Me Down
Dig A Pony
I've Got A Feeling
Get Back
For You Blue
Teddy Boy
Two Of Us
Maggie Mae
Dig It
Let It Be
The Long and Winding Road
Get Back (reprise)
Glyn Johns
Glyn Johns produced two different versions of the album. The first version was rejected by the group in late 1969 which allowed The Beatles to head back to the studios (a complete year after the initial recordings) on the 3 and 4 January, 1970 were they recorded new versions of two tracks, "I Me Mine"- which just featured Paul, George, and Ringo while John was on vacation in Denmark. The second sessions was working on overdubbing "Let It Be" on 4 January which became The Beatles last recording sessions together.
Johns' second version of the album started on 5 January, 1970 when the track-listing changed to;
One After 909
Rocker
Save The Last Dance For Me
Don't Let Me Down
Dig A Pony
I've Got A Feeling
Get Back
Let It Be
For You Blue
Two Of Us
Maggie Mae
Dig It
The Long and Winding Road
I Me Mine
Across The Universe
Get Back (reprise)
Just like the first version of the LP, The Beatles rejecting Johns work again;
"I originally put together an album of rehearsals, with chat and jokes
and bits of general conversation in between the tracks, which was the
way I wanted Let It Be to be – breakdowns, false starts. Really the idea
was that at the time, they were viewed as being the be-all-and-end-all,
sort of up on a pedestal, beyond touch, just Gods, completely Gods, and
what I witnessed going on at these rehearsals was that, in fact, they
were hysterically funny, but very ordinary people in many ways, and they
were capable of playing as a band, which everybody was beginning to
wonder about at that point, because they hadn’t done so for some time –
everything had been prepared in advance, everything had been overdubbed
and everything, and they proved in that rehearsal that they could still
sing and play at the same time, and they could make records without all
those weird and wonderful sounds on them.
That became an obsession with me, and I got the bit between my teeth
about it, and one night, I mixed a bunch of stuff that they didn’t even
know I’d recorded half the time – I just whacked the recorder on for a
lot of stuff that they did, and gave them an acetate the following
morning of what I’d done, as a rough idea of what an album could be
like, released as it was…
They came back and said they didn’t like it, or each individual bloke
came in and said he didn’t like it, and that was the end of that. A
period of time went by and I went to America to work with Steve Miller,
and when I came back, I got a call from John and Paul asking me to meet
them at EMI, which I duly did. They pointed to a big pile of tapes in
the corner, and said, ‘Remember that idea you had about putting together
an album?’ and I said, ‘Yes’. They said, ‘Well, there are the tapes –
go and do it’. So I was absolutely petrified – you can imagine. I was
actually being asked to put together a Beatle album on my own. So I did –
I went off and locked myself away for a week or so and pieced an album
together out of these rehearsed tapes, which they then all liked, really
liked. This was some months after the thing had actually been recorded,
and we’d actually started work on Abbey Road about the same time."-Glyn Johns, The Recording Producers
Phil Spector
Phil Spector stepped into the picture on 23 March, 1970 when the LP was now officially called, Let It Be., after becoming friendly with Beatles manager Allen Klein and his dream to work with the Fab Four. Spector was put on the album by John and George without Paul or even Beatles producer, George Martin knowing about it .
"He really can play a control board. He just plays it. He can really make any sound you like within seconds. His knowledge is incredible. I learnt a lot from him. Phil leaves you to present him with a picture you think you want, and then he'll take the best shot of it with his camera sort of thing. You present him with the stage set and he'll make sure you get a good picture out of it, a good sound. You get what you're making. The usual trouble is t&R man. He likes the same old kind of rock crap that I like."- John Lennon, 1970
After working "like a pig", Phil's mixing was over on 2 April, 1970 and the album was finished. During this time The Beatles had stopped working with each other with a lot of tension being tossed around. After Spector had shown the group his version of the album with hard work on 1 April adding orchestra to John's "Across The Universe" and without Paul knowing, and orchestra and choir to Paul's 'The Long and Winding Road", which raged Paul;
"To me, it was really because Let It Be was the bare record that Glyn Johns had mixed - with no over dubs on it, no orchestras, no nothing. It was very, very simple. It was just a band, very live sounding - in a room or on a roof - and I really liked that. Maybe it was a bit tough to take. Maybe it wasn't that commercial, but anyway these were the kind of things that were starting to go wrong."- Paul McCartney, Anthology
In 1970 Paul spoke out again about the Orchestra and choir added to his song;
"The album was finished a year ago, but a few months ago American record producer Phil Spector was called in by John Lennon to tidy up some of the tracks. But a few weeks ago, I was sent a re-mixed version of my song 'The Long and Winding Road', with harps, horns, an orchestra and women's choir added. No one had asked me what I thought. I couldn't believe it. I would never have female voices on a Beatles record. The record came with a note from Allen Klein saying he thought the changes were necessary. I don't blame Phil Spector for doing it but it just goes to show that it's no good me sitting here thinking I'm in control because obviously I'm not. Anyway I've sent Klein a letter asking for some of the things to be altered, but I haven't received an answer yet."- Paul McCartney, April 1970
But what did the others think of Spector's work? George Martin wasn't a fan of it, although he was a fan of Phil Spector's previous work. He thought that Spector had taken the album and had done everything he could do with it to change it around instead of the bare and Beatles original take on it,
"It was always understood that the album would be like nothing the Beatles had done before. It would be honest, no overdubbing, no editing, truly live.... almost amateurish. When John brought in Phil Spector he contradicted everything he had said before. When I heard the final sounds I was shaken. they were so uncharacteristic of the clean sounds the Beatles had always used. At the time Spector was John's buddy, mate and pal... I was astonished because I knew Paul would never have agreed to it. In fact I contacted him and he said nobody was more surprised than he was"-George Martin, Rolling Stone
George Martin even went on to say that Phil had taken the record to make it sound like an LP sung by someone else. Ringo and John loved Phil's work on the album and everything he did with it. While Glyn Johns hated the album saying he can't even listen to it. What does Phil say about it?
"Paul had no problem picking up the Academy Award for the Let It Be movie soundtrack, nor did he have any problem in using my arrangement of the string and horn and choir parts when he performed during 25 years of touring on his own. If Paul wants to get into a pissing contest about it, he's got me mixed up with someone who gives a shit."- Phil Spector
Album Cover
Original cover- Note the album title "Get Back"
The original cover was suppose to be a mock at the groups first album, Please Please Me, taken on a stair case at the EMI offices by Angus McBean. As the time for the album to be released was drawing closer the group had decided just to have the four portraits of themselves from the recording sessions become the cover, separating each of them with thick black bars. On the back cover read;
"This is a new phase BEATLES album...
Essential to the content of the film, LET IT BE was that they performed live for many of the tracks; in comes the warmth and the freshness of a live performance; as reproduced for disc by Phil Spector."
Those words started a row between Lennon and McCartney as Paul said that the statement was "nothing further from the truth" that it wasn't a new phase, it was the last phase of The Beatles, while John saying it was adding a parody from The Beatles first album in the last album with the writing style of Tony Barrow which appeared on early Beatle works, then by pointing fun at McCartney and his new band, Wings (read about Wings history here and Wings touring here), album Wild Life.
Release
The album isn't like any other album when it comes to the release. The album may of been the last Beatles album released but was the second to last album recorded as their Abbey RoadLP was recorded during the mixing and hassle of the Let It Be project.
"In May 1970 Let It be came out as the last album, thought Abbey Road was, of course, the last to be recorded. It goes to show how quirky the world is- that the next to last album comes out as the last album, and the last album came out before it. But we split up after Abbey Road and weren't really thinking about splitting up on the one before. It's all very strange."- Ringo Starr, Anthology
On April 10, 1970 Paul McCartney had announced that he had left The Beatles and newspapers printed the story that The Beatles have broken up. Despite The Beatles split about a month after the announcement The Beatles "The Long and Winding Road"/"For You Blue" were released as singles in the US as Allen Klein tried to make the most money off of The Beatles as he can having sold 1.2 million copies in the first two days of it being on sale with "The Long and Winding Road" becoming The Beatles final number one single.
On 8 May, 1970 the UK release of Let It Be which up til the following November was released as a box set containing a 168-paged book containing the script of the album film, calling the book Get Back. Ten days later on 18 May, the album was released in the US with 3,700,000 orders in advance, becoming the highest orders placed for any album in history in US history.
Before reading the following it maybe to your benefit to read about The BeatlesLet It Be.
"I think before the Abbey Road sessions it was like we should put down
the boxing gloves and try and just get it together and really make a
very special album."-Paul McCartney
Recorded: 22 February- 20 August, 1969
EMI Studios, Olympic Studios, and Trident Studios Released: 26 September, 1969 (UK) 01 October, 1969 (US) Producers: George Martin, Chris Thomas, Glyn Johns Engineers: Tony Clark, Geoff Emerick, Jeff Jarratt, Glyn Johns, Phil McDonald, Barry Sheffield John Lennon: Vocals, guitar, piano, electric piano, Moog, maracas, Hammond organ, white noise generator, tambourine, handclaps Paul McCartney: Vocals, bass, guitar, piano, electric piano, Hammond organ, wind chimes, handclaps, tape loops, Moog George Harrison: Vocals, guitar, bass, harmonium, Moog, handclaps Ringo Starr: Vocals, drums, congas, maracas, bongos, cowbell, timpani, anvil, handclaps, effect, tambourine George Martin: Lowrey organ, Hammond organ, electric harpsichord Billy Preston: Hammond organ
The Beatles twelfth studio album recorded but eleventh studio album released was named Abbey Road. Starting in February 1968 with on and off recordings up till April 1970 The Beatles had been working on Let It Be. During Let It Be recordings the environment was hostile, John Lennon even saying that making the album was hell, check out John Lennon's Let It Be interview with Howard Smith here. With Let It Be already recorded The Beatles came together once more to record Abbey Road. Note; Even though Let It Be was recorded before Abbey Road the album would be released about five months later in May 1970.
Back in the studio, 1969
Prior to Abbey Road The Beatles had been working at Tickenham Studios with producer Phil Spector, leaving their longtime producer George Martin. With Abbey Road the boys turned back to old friend George Martin.
"I was quite surprised when Paul rang me up and said, 'We're going to
make another record, would you like to produce it?' and my immediate
answer was, 'Only if you let me produce it the way we used to.' and he
said, 'We do want to do that' and I said, 'John included?' and he said, 'Yes, honestly.'"- George Martin
"I think it was in a way the feeling that it might be our last, so let's
just show 'em what we can do, let's show each other what we can do, and
let's try and have a good time doing it."- Paul McCartney
"It was a funky record- It's one of my favourite Beatle tracks (or one of my favourite Lennon tracks, lets say that). It's funky, it's bluesy, and I'm singing it pretty well. I like the sound of the record."- John Lennon, 1980
John Lennon
In 1969, Timothy Leary, who also influenced The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows from their Revolver album with his book of Death, had to stop his LSD experiments due to government laws. Leary would use LSD on himself as well as others to prove that the drug had positive effects once the government began to banned the drug Timothy ran as governor of the state of California with a campaign slogan, "Come Together, Join The Party"
"''Come Together' was an expression that Tim Leary had come up with for his attempt at being president or whatever, and he asked me to write him a campaign song. I tried and I tried but I couldn't come up with one. But I came up with 'Come Together', which would have been no good to him- you couldn't have a campaign song like that."- John Lennon, 1980
John was later sued for using the line "Here Comes old flat-top" from Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me".
"George's 'Something' was out of left field."- Paul McCartney, Anthology
Arguably George's greatest work, "Something" was written about his wife at the time, model Patti Boyd.
George Harrison
"Something was written on the piano while we were making the White album. I had a break while Paul was doing some overdubbing so I went into an empty studio and began to write. That's really all there is to it, except the middle took some time to sort out! It didn't go on the White album because we'd already finished all the tracks. I gave it to Joe Cocker a year before I did it.
It's probably got a range of five notes which fits most singers' needs best. This I suppose is my most successful song with over one hundred and fifty cover versions. My favourite version is the one by James Brown - that was excellent. When I wrote it, in my mind I heard Ray Charles singing it , and he did do it some years later. I like Smokey Robinson's version too."- George Harrison,I Me Mine
"It was beautiful. George was blossoming as a songwriter. With 'Something' and 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' - are you kidding me? Two of the finest love songs ever written, and they're really on a par with what John and Paul or anyone else of that time wrote. They're beautiful songs. It's interesting that George was coming to the fore and we were just breaking up."- Ringo Starr, Anthology
'Something' would be the first single The Beatles would release with a Harrison track. John, Paul and George Martin state that in the beginning "George was never treated on the same level as having the same quality of songwriting." (George Martin), that The Beatles songwriting consisted of Lennon- McCartney with a few exceptions in fact Frank Sinatra admitted that 'Something' was his favorite Lennon-McCartney song and later when George would meet Michael Jackson at the BBC Michael questioned George on the song saying, 'Oh, you wrote that? I thought it was a Lennon/McCartney'.
"Some of my songs are based on personal experience, but my style is to veil it. A lot of them are made up, like 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' which is the kind of song I like to write. It's just a silly story about all these people I'd never meet. it's just like writing a play: you don't have to show the people, you just make them up.
I remember George once saying to me, 'I couldn't write songs like that.' He writes more personal experience, John's style was to show the naked truth. I f I was a painter, I'd probably mask things a little bit more than some people.
The song epitomizes the downfalls of life. Just when everything is going smoothly - Bang! Bang! - down comes Maxwell's silver hammer and ruins everything."- Paul McCartney, Anthology
John is not featured on the track due to him being ill and hospitalized after an accident with his new wife, Yoko Ono. The track took about three days to record and John later said that the the band spent more money on that one song than any other track on the album.
McCartney spent a lot of dedication when recording the track. In fact for a week he would be the first one in the studio just to sing by himself to make sure his voice wasn't too clean
"I wanted it to sound as though I'd be performing it on stage all week."- Anthology
John however thought that the song was more of his style and that he should of recorded it.
In 1968 while on a boating trip with his family Ringo was offered an octopus lunch by the boats captain, which Ringo denied. Instead of engaging in an octopus lunch, Starr and the captain engaged on a conversation about the creatures where the captain explained that octopuses search the sea floor collecting objects for their gardens, hence the name.
"A reviewer wrote of She’s So Heavy: ‘He seems to have lost his talent
for lyrics, it’s so simple and boring.’ She’s So Heavy was about Yoko.
When it gets down to it, like she said, when you’re drowning you don’t
say ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight
to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream. And in She’s So Heavy I just sang ‘I want you, I want you so bad, she’s so heavy, I want you,’ like that."-John Lennon, Rolling Stone 1970
The song took about a six month span, from February- August 1969 to record. The track featured John, Paul, and George experimenting on a new instrument, the Moog.
"Here Comes The Sun was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be business men, all this signing accounts, and 'sign this' and 'sign that'. Anyway it seems as if winter in England goes on forever; by the time spring comes you really deserve it.. So one day. I decided - I'm going to sag off' Apple, and I went of to Eric's (Clapton) house: I was walking in his garden, The relief of not having to go and see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I was walking around the garden with one of Eric's acoustic guitars and wrote Here Comes The Sun."-George Harrison, I Me Mine
The following video is from Living In The Material World documentary of Ringo Starr talking about his drumming on the track and Eric Clapton about watching "Here Comes The Sun" unfold;
"Yoko was playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano. She was
classically trained. I said, ‘Can you play those chords backward?’ and
wrote Because around them. The lyrics speak for themselves; they’re
clear. No bullshit. No imagery, no obscure references."- John Lennon, All We Are Saying
In 1969 George Harrison would said that the track maybe his favorite on the album,
"The lyrics are so simple. The harmony was pretty difficult to sing. We
had to really learn it. But I think that’s one of the tunes that will
impress most people. It’s really good."
The first song that starts of what is known as the Abbey Road medley.
"'Funny paper'- that's what we get. We get bits of paper saying how much is earned and what this and that is, but we never actually get it in pounds, shillings, and pence. We've all got a big house and a car and an office, but to actually get the money we've earned seems impossible."- George Harrison, 1969
"This was me directly lambasting Allen Klein’s
attitude to us: no money, just funny paper, all promises and it never
works out. It’s basically a song about no faith in the person, that
found its way into the medley on Abbey Road. John saw the humour in it. "- Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now
The soft song is sung with lines of spanish words Paul vaguely knew from his school days. The group wanted to add "Para noia" (they used to call themselves Los Para Noias) but had forgotten about it.
"That’s me, writing
a piece of garbage. I’d read somewhere in the newspaper about this mean
guy who hid five-pound notes, not up his nose but somewhere else. No,
it had nothing to do with cocaine."- John Lennon, All We Are Saying
The song was written in 1968 while The Beatles were in India and was what Lennon hoped to be the last track on the White Album but wasn't recorded until the Abbey Road sessions.
"John had a bit called 'Polythene Pam' which was based on a girl he'd met a long time ago through the poet Royston Ellis, a friend of ours from Liverpool. We'd re-met him down South when we got out on tour, somewhere like Shrewsbury- he just showed up at the gig John had gone out to dinner with him and back to his flat afterwards, and there was a girl there who apparently had polythene around her. He came back with all these tales about a girl who dressed in polythene. 'Shit! There was this chick and it was great..." and we though, "Oh, wow!" Eventually he wrote the song."- Paul McCartney
The song was inspired by a true experience when an Apple Scruff, Jessica Samuels, through a brick through McCartney's bathroom window while he was out and would raid his house.
"We were bored, he was out and so we decided to pay him a visit. We
found a ladder in his garden and stuck it up at the bathroom window
which he'd left slightly open. I was the one who climbed up and got in."- Jessica Samuels
"I had a couple of bits and pieces that weren't finished. They were songs that needed maybe a middle, or a second verse or an end. I was playing piano in Liverpool in my dad's house, and my step-sister Ruth's piano book was up on the stand. I was flicking through it, and I came to 'Golden Slumbers'. I can't read music and I couldn't remember the old tune, so I just started playing my own tune to it. I liked the words so I kept them, and it fitted with another bit of song I had."- Paul McCartney, Anthology
"I’m generally quite upbeat but at certain times things get to me so much
that I just can’t be upbeat any more and that was one of the times. We
were taking so much acid and doing so much drugs and all this Klein
shit was going on and getting crazier and crazier and crazier. Carry
that weight a long time: like for ever! That’s what I meant."- Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now
It was during this time that The Beatles were struggling with management and their own business which lead to many songs being written about their experiences.
"In 'The End' there were three guitar solos where John, George, and I took a line each, which was something we'd never done before. And we finally persuaded Ringo to play a drum solo, which he'd never wanted to do. And it climaxed with, 'And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make....'"-Paul McCartney, Anthology
Ringo Starr, 1969
"Solos have never interested me. That drum solo is still the only one I've done. There's the guitar section where the three of them take in the solos, and then they thought, 'We'll have a drum solo as well.' I was opposed it: 'I don't want to do no bloody solo!' George Martin convinced me. As i was playing it, hunted it because we needed a time. It was the most ridiculous thing."- Ringo Starr, Anthology
In 1980 John Lennon the line "And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make." as "A very cosmic, philosophical line"
"It was quite funny because it’s basically monarchist, with a mildly
disrespectful tone, but it’s very tongue in cheek. It’s almost like a
love song to the Queen. "- Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now
The song is the shortest Beatles tune lasting twenty-three seconds.
The Cover
Paul's sketch of Abbey Road
Friday morning on 8 August, 1969 an officer stood by the road outside of EMI Studios located on Abbey Road haulting traffic as Iain Macmillan had ten minutes to snap six photos, one in which became one of the most iconic album covers of all time. The Beatles wore suits off all different colours; George in all Jean, Paul in Navy, Ringo in Black, and John dressed in white. Besides the shots taken by Macmillian, Paul's wife, Linda, had taken various pictures before their crossing, one including the boys sitting on the steps of EMI Studios, another of an old lady who questioned the boys on what they were doing where Ringo and Paul had reacted. After the photo shoot it was up to Paul to pick the final picture where he choose the iconic picture we all know today.
The cover also played a major part in The Paul Is Dead Rumor, to read about the rumor click here.
Charts
On release in the UK on the 26 September, 1969 Abbey Road had peaked number one staying there for seventeen more weeks but remained in charts for sixty-four weeks. In the US the album reached number one for eleven weeks and continued to stay in charts for seventy-two more weeks.
Photo taken by Linda McCartney
Albums Facts;
In "Mean Mr. Mustard" his sister, Pam's, name was originally Sally. Her name was changed due to John wanting to incorporate "Polythene Pam" into it.
"Her Majesty" was not listen on the back of the original album with the rest of the tracks. This lead to the first hidden tracks on rock albums
The original name for the album was Everest
Photo by Linda McCartney
"While we were in the studio, our engineer Geoff Emerick always used to smoke cigarettes called Everest, so the album was going to be called Everest. We never really liked that, but we couldn't think of anything else to call it. Then one day I said, 'I've got it!' - I don't know how I thought of it - 'Abbey Road!' It's the studio we're in, which is fabulous; and it sounds a bit like a monastery'"- Paul McCartney, Anthology
"It was a very very happy album. Everybody worked frightfully well and that's why I'm very fond of it."- George Martin
"I think it shows on the record when we were excited: the track's exciting and it all comes together. It doesn't matter what we go through as individuals on the bullshit level; when it gets to the music you can see that it's really cool, and we had all put in one thousand per cent"- Ringo Starr, Anthology
"I didn't know at the time that it was the last Beatle record that we wouldn't make, but it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line. I can't honestly say what I felt after the record was finished."-George Harrison, Anthology
"I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken."
