Beatles' Let It Be (33 1/3) Read online

  Chapter One

  Take A Sad Song and Make It Better

  “These are the moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory, like wonderful creatures, unique of their kind, dredged up from the floors of some unexplored ocean.”—Lawrence Durrell

  The seeds that would eventually result in the Let It Be album were actually planted during the making of The White Album in the summer of 1968. The project didn’t start as a specific idea or a grand plan; rather, it began with the recording of a film clip for a song. That song was “Hey Jude,” which was scheduled to be the group’s next single and was not part of The White Album.

  As has been thoroughly documented, Paul began writing the song in his Aston Martin on his way to John Lennon’s Weybridge home to visit John’s five-year-old son Julian, sometime in June of 1968. John and his wife Cynthia were getting divorced and Paul was thinking of how hard it was going to be for the little boy to have his parents split up. What began as “Hey Julian” turned into “Hey Jules” (or Jools) and eventually became “Hey Jude,” in part because it sounded better and also as a result of Paul’s recalling the name of the character Jud from the Broadway show Oklahoma. The lyrics “Take a sad song and make it better,” were Paul’s encouraging words for young Julian. While Paul was beginning to formulate the song in his head during the hour-long drive (he often thought of ideas while driving), he probably had no inclination he was creating what would go on to be one of the group’s greatest songs.

  John actually helped Paul finish the song on July 26 at Paul’s house on Cavendish Ave. in St. John’s Wood. While Paul was running through the bare-bones structure of the song for John and came to the line “The movement you need is on your shoulder,” he explained to John that he would fix that bit later. John quickly told him he would not and in fact said it was the best line in the song. I heard Paul tell this story at a small roundtable of journalists in support of his 1989 Flowers in the Dirt album and tour. His pride in relating the insight of his old writing partner was obvious.

  The group began recording the song on July 29 at about 8:30 in the evening and continued until nearly four in the morning at Studio Two at Abbey Road, running through six takes with balance engineer Ken Scott and tape operator John Henry Smith. The next evening they returned to Studio Two at around 7:30. Producer George Martin joined Scott and Smith for the session. After another 17 takes of the song, a tape reduction was made of takes 23, 24, and 25, and a stereo mix was taken from take 25. Martin took that mix with him at the end of the evening and came up with an orchestral score. During the evening’s recording and the rehearsals of the song, the Beatles were being filmed as part of a documentary film entitled Music! produced by the National Music Council of Great Britain. The few minutes of the sessions that were actually used in the film are primarily from take nine, and since George Harrison’s guitar work was nearly absent from the song, he is actually seen in the control room with Scott.

  Ken Scott remembered the sessions for “Hey Jude” well: “On the first day they were running through it and learning it—trying to sort out the arrangement. The second day they got it very close. The film crew interfered with them getting the right take.” Scott recalled the film crew saying that they wouldn’t intrude and that: “You won’t even know we’re here,” which, according to Scott, couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

  On the next day, the Beatles did something they hadn’t done since August of 1967: they ventured outside of Abbey Road to record at another studio. The group’s first recording session outside of Abbey Road took place at Regent Sound Studio, on Tottenham Court Road in London, on February 9, 1967. The August 1967 session had taken place at Chappell Recording Studios on Maddox Street in Mayfair, west London. The occasion was to record “Your Mother Should Know.” On the last day of July 1968, however, something would happen at a studio that would figure prominently not only in Beatles recording history, but in the history of Apple Records and of pop music in general.

  On July 31, the Beatles entered Trident Studios at 17 St. Anne’s Court in London. St. Anne’s Court, a convenient shortcut from Wardour Street to Dean Street in Soho, was actually a secluded alleyway. The studio, which was founded by Norman Sheffield and his younger brother Barry, had just opened that April. One of the first independent studios in London, Trident boasted an eight-track tape machine. While Abbey Road actually had a new 3M eight-track machine, it had yet to be tested and installed. The Beatles, always on the lookout for ways to expand the possibilities of recording, had booked the studio specifically because of its more advanced equipment.

  Trident had many unique characteristics that no doubt contributed to the special sound of tracks recorded there. The main studio was an oblong room with a high ceiling. Two features of the studio were highly unusual: the control room was perched one floor above the studio and the room that housed the tape machines was actually in another part of the building, out of sight of the studio and the control room. One feature of the studio that would become part of many rock classics was the sound of its piano. In addition to Paul playing “Hey Jude” on it, Elton John later used it for “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” and Queen used it for “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

  Malcolm Toft, one of the first engineers to be hired at Trident, said the piano was a Bechstein Concert Grand and described it as “certainly a bit special.” Toft, who worked not only on “Hey Jude,” but on Mary Hopkin’s Apple debut Postcard and James Taylor’s self-tiled Apple debut, recalled what impressed him about the piano:

  It wasn’t that the piano had any obvious qualities, but it just sounded fabulous with a couple of Neumann U67 mics over the sound board when it was recorded. I think the piano was originally bought as a “poor” second to a Steinway, which probably would have been the first choice. It transpired, however, that this particular piano had a recording quality that was second to none. When the studio finally closed in 1991, the piano was sold in the studio auction without anyone knowing the provenance; and I believe it was sold for around £5,000! Unfortunately, I have no idea where it is now—probably with a hire company doing the rounds in concert halls!

  The area that surrounded the studio became a popular gathering place not just for the many musicians who recorded there, but also for many Londoners. Practically next door to Trident was the Ship on Wardour Street, which was a popular watering hole where musicians would grab a pint and swap stories and musical tips. Malcolm Toft fondly remembered the Ship: “All the musicians went there on almost any night. It was a great place to go for a band on a break to have a pint of beer, a packet of crisps or a sandwich.”

  On July 31, George Martin continued production work on “Hey Jude,” this time with Barry Sheffield and Malcolm Toft engineering. The marathon session at Trident began just after lunch, at 2 p.m., and went on until 4 a.m. The group almost completely abandoned the work they had done on the song at Abbey Road up to that point. Although they were at Trident for nearly 14 hours, they actually did only four complete takes of the song, and some overdubbing was done on take one. Notably, George Harrison’s electric guitar was only faintly heard on the song. Harrison had suggested that he would play an “answer” chord to the chorus, but Paul was against it.

  The same team that was present the day before, with the addition of George Martin’s assistant Chris Thomas looking on, reassembled at Trident at 5 p.m. The Beatles finished the song at around 8 p.m. Paul simply overdubbed his bass and recorded a new vocal; and then, at 8 p.m., an orchestra arrived. It would appear that the Beatles knew exactly what they wanted at Trident for “Hey Jude,” as the studio and orchestra had been booked well in advance. However, according to Ken Scott, that may not have been the case. “There was a chance they would finish [“Hey Jude”] at Abbey Road, and do another song at Trident,” Scott recalled.

  The members of the 36-piece orchestra crammed themselves into Trident’s moderate-sized studio and, along with supplying the tasteful and subtl
e orchestral backing, helped out with handclaps and the famous “nah, nah, nah nah”s. Their work was finished by 11 p.m. The Beatles continued fiddling with the track until 3 a.m., when they were satisfied with how it sounded.

  On Friday, August 2, and on Tuesday August 6, George Martin, Barry Sheffield, and Malcolm Toft made various mixes of the song. Further work commenced on the following day, August 7, this time back at Studio Two at Abbey Road with Martin, Scott, and Smith. Nearly 50 takes of a new George Harrison song, “Not Guilty,” were also done that day. On August 8, Scott listened back to the recordings of “Hey Jude” made at Trident and it became clear that there was a problem. He thought that the recordings lacked “highend.” After they were played back for George Martin and the Beatles, everyone agreed work needed to be done to add equalization (EQ) to give the recordings the proper high-end sound. Scott explained why EQ needed to be added: “Trident’s speakers [Lockwood Tannoys] had too much high-end, so you didn’t put too much on tape, which sounded dull when played back on Abbey Road’s speakers [Altec-Lansings].” Fixing the track “took a long time,” according to Scott. The song was finally mastered and George Martin walked out the door with the final results.

  On August 8 and 9, the group continued work on “Not Guilty.” On the 9th they resumed working on tracks that would be part of The White Album. “Hey Jude,” backed with “Revolution,” was released on August 26. John had actually lobbied for “Revolution” to be the A-side, but the other three outvoted him. Although it officially bore the Parlophone name and number in England, the single was the first release from the Beatles’ new company, Apple. (It was released on the Apple label in America.) Just like The White Album—the group’s debut album on Apple, which did bear the Apple logo—and all the Beatles’ other releases, “Hey Jude” was still an EMI-owned product.

  Clocking in at 7 minutes and 11 seconds, “Hey Jude” became the group’s longest single. By comparison, the previous May, Richard Harris had hit the top of the charts with “MacArthur Park,” which clocked in at 7:20. Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone,” which hit the charts in August of 1965, was perhaps the first pop song to hit big and to break the three-minute length barrier. It lasted for just over six minutes.

  One point of interest in “Hey Jude” happens at 2:59 into the song. Upon close listening, one can hear a very frustrated Paul McCartney say, “Fuckin’ hell.” He said it because he rushed too quickly to the next lyric while he was doing a vocal take of the song. Knowing that the vocal had been good up to that point, he was angry with himself. Through various mixes the expletive continued to get more and more buried, but because the vocal was so good, it was never completely removed. The group, the producers, the engineers, and everyone else left it in as yet another private little joke among the Beatles and their inner circle.

  Any concerns Paul McCartney might have had about the song’s length were quickly forgotten as the song shot to No. 1 by September 14 and stayed there for nine weeks. By the end of the year, total worldwide sales of the single reached five million copies.

  The Beatles had gone to Trident because of its eighttrack tape machine and also to break away somewhat from recording at Abbey Road. It has been suggested that Paul had already worked at Trident with Mary Hopkin and that George Harrison had already worked there with Jackie Lomax. Various chronological sources do not back up the claim that Lomax recorded at Trident prior to the “Hey Jude” sessions. Liner notes for the reissue of Postcard by Mary Hopkin state that the recording of the album was begun at Trident in July.

  When the group decided to film promotional clips for “Hey Jude” and “Revolution,” it chose Michael Lindsay-Hogg as director and returned to the familiar confines of Twickenham Film Studios. Twickenham had been the site of parts of the films A Hard Day’s Night and Help! Also, earlier in the decade the group had filmed clips there for “I Feel Fine,” “Ticket to Ride,” “Help!,” “Day Tripper,” and “We Can Work It Out.”

  Michael Lindsay-Hogg had directed the clips for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.” The son of actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lindsay-Hogg was an American living in England (as was Richard Lester, who directed A Hard Day’s Night and Help!). He first met the Beatles when he was working on the British pop-music show Ready, Steady, Go!

  Although the clip for “Hey Jude” was filmed using the backing track, with only Paul’s vocal live, a careful listen reveals traces of the other Beatles’ vocals. It was technically the first time since the group’s last official concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, on August 29, 1966, that the Beatles would be performing in front of a live audience. It was film producer Denis O’Dell’s idea to have the group “perform” at Twickenham with a small invited audience. O’Dell recalled thinking, “If I could only get these guys together with an audience, to do it would be wonderful.”

  O’Dell was a producer on A Hard Day’s Night, Magical Mystery Tour, Richard Lester’s How I Won The War— which starred John Lennon—and later, although not credited, on Let It Be. He also served as the producer of The Magic Christian, which starred Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr and which began filming in February 1969, also at Twickenham.

  The studio audience, picked up by bus and taken to the filming, was recruited by the Beatles’ personal assistant Mal Evans from a group of fans hanging around Abbey Road Studios. Leaflets distributed by students brought more people in, and some invited guests also attended.

  The Beatles ran through three complete takes of the song for the film cameras. The clip that was eventually used included the first half from take one, presumably the second take, and the last half of what was most likely the third take. It was also O’Dell’s idea to have the audience crowd around the group as the song moved toward its joyous climax; the few who were lucky enough to climb onto Ringo’s drum riser were at times teetering on the edge of falling. The sense that things were somewhat out of control and that the wall between the group and its audience was crumbling, as had occurred at a previous live concert, matched the joyously optimistic mood of the song. The group arrived in the early afternoon and, according to O’Dell, the filming didn’t end until nearly 4 a.m.

  One would think that the filming might have drained the Beatles and might even have reminded them of why they had stopped performing live in the first place. Actually, it had just the opposite effect. O’Dell recalled the group sitting around in those near-dawn hours having scotch-and-cokes. While he thought the idea of getting them to perform in a somewhat live situation would make for an interesting promotional clip, he had no idea what the group would say to him as the sun began to rise over London. O’Dell remarked, “Collectively they said, ‘Denis this was a great evening. Now we must talk about doing a big show together.’” O’Dell recalled that in particular John Lennon was the most interested in the idea.

  Michael Lindsay-Hogg concurs that it was the filming of the “Hey Jude” clip that was the catalyst for Let It Be. “They were jamming and having a good time and having a better time than they thought they were going to have. So they sort of thought maybe there is some way they can do something again in some sort of performance way.”

  While it has generally been thought that the Beatles began the “Get Back” sessions as a way to “get back” to their roots and to erase the fractured mood of the sessions for The White Album, it’s not entirely true. It was mostly down to the good feelings from the semilive performance for the filming of the “Hey Jude” clip.

  It was at this point that the idea for the Beatles to do a live concert, which would be filmed for a television special, was first considered. The band would begin filming rehearsals for the proposed concert back at Twickenham.

  Chapter Two

  Everybody Had A Hard Year

  The Beatles entered 1969 in a period of flux and they would see major changes in their lives—both personal and professional—in the months ahead.

  George Harrison and his wife Pattie, whom he married in January 1966, were living in a bungalow called K
infauns on the Claremont Estate in Esher, Surrey. Harrison had bought the bungalow in February 1965. Paul was still living in the house he purchased in March of 1965, on Cavendish Avenue in St. John’s Wood, which was just a brisk five-minute walk from Abbey Road Studios.

  During the previous October and November, Paul, together with Linda Eastman and her daughter Heather, had spent considerable time in Scotland. In 1966, Paul had purchased High Park Farm, an old run down farmhouse in Campbeltown, and nearly 200 acres of land, just across the channel from Ireland, at the southernmost point of the eastern coast of Scotland. In 1971, he added 400 acres to his land. The rural retreat was perched high atop a mountain, near a small loch, with the only landmark a nearby mound of stones, probably erected as a memorial centuries ago. The house overlooked Machrihanish Bay, which was located several miles to the west. Some fourteen miles to the south were the rocky cliffs of the Mull of Kintyre, which Paul would immortalize years later in one of the biggest number one songs in British music history. The small, three-room house was in dire need of repair; it was furnished with an electric stove and makeshift furniture, cobbled together by Paul from an old mattress and empty potato boxes. As the harsh winds of winter first began to blow in, the house finally became a home.