PRESS
VERSION
Love Album Track By Track notes
by George and Giles Martin
Track by track
BECAUSE
George
“An inspired offering from John when we recorded it for the Abbey Road
album. He had heard the opening of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” and then
evolved a pattern of arpeggios on his guitar that laid the foundation for
this song. Listening anew to this track, with the harmonies that only
John, Paul and George could provide, one realises what great vocalists
they were.”
Giles
“Dominic Champagne, the LOVE show director, had been listening to the
Anthology albums and loved the a cappella version of “Because” and asked
whether it could be in the show. The vocals are recorded three times with
John, Paul and George singing their respective parts at the same time. The
sound of their voices around one microphone is magical.”
GET BACK
George
“This track kicks off with a driving rock sound. Great drums, great
guitars,…. a great band!”
Giles
“I can’t listen to “Get Back” without mentally picturing the band
performing the song on the roof of the Apple offices in London’s Savile
Row. It made sense to open the show with this song and the drum solo from
“The End” works really well as an intro.”
GLASS ONION
George
“One of John’s off-the-wall efforts, he even recorded a mixture of sounds
like a window being smashed, a telephone bell and a BBC broadcast effect,
all of which were left unused (at the time). Instead I wrote a string
arrangement to give the song more colour. A song not often heard, but one
of my favourite strange tracks.”
Giles
“ “Glass Onion” has such a great groove. In the show we needed something
to get across the chaos of wartime Liverpool so the idea was to combine
snippets of instruments from other songs flying through the mix. On the
left hand side listen out for the “ Things We Said Today” guitar that
sounds like it’s always been part of the song!”
ELEANOR RIGBY
JULIA TRANSITION
George
“By the time we started to record this track, Paul had realised the
potential for using orchestral sounds and for the first time he wrote a
song that demanded nothing but strings. I booked a double string quartet -
four violins, two violas and two cellos, a sparse combination which when
recorded with close microphones gave us the stringent sound we needed. The
similarity to Bernard Hermann’s score for “Psycho” is apparent and quite
intentional.”
Giles
“Allan Rouse, who’s looked after the Beatles archive for years, had
developed a technique in which we could combine the first recording of
each four track with the ‘bounce-down’. This means that we could have more
than the original tracks to mix from.
I AM THE WALRUS
George
“When John played “I Am The Walrus” to me for the first time I thought it
sounded weird, but we laid down a track with the band the way he wanted
it, then he told me he wanted me to do a score for him without being too
specific. I thought long and hard about this and took a leap of faith by
booking an orchestra and sixteen voices to make swooping sounds, chants
and noises of laughter. When John heard what this choir were doing he fell
about laughing, it was so unexpected. It really is a quirky track, but
absolutely brilliant.”
Giles
“The guitar from “Julia” in the transition into “I am the Walrus” is so
beautiful and peaceful it seemed to act as a good counterpoint to the
madness within the main track. The song is timeless, and it still sounds
like nothing else out there today. There was certainly nothing we could
add to make it any more psychedelic so we decided to bring the band out a
bit more.”
I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
George
“At the turn of 1963/4 I was in Paris with the Beatles when Brian Epstein
rang me in my hotel at one in the morning, bursting with pride and
jubilation as he told me that at last we had our first No. 1 single in the
USA after “I Want To Hold Your Hand” had quickly reached the top of the
charts. It was a wonderful and significant moment. The Beatles had
arrived!”
Giles
“We were always under pressure to present the songs in a different way and
with the early material this was always more difficult as there’s no
separation between tracks. My dad came with an idea of using the three
track tapes from “Live at the Hollywood Bowl” and combining the
performances with the original masters. Surprisingly, both versions were
perfectly in tune with each other, so what you’re listening to here is
both the live and studio versions of the song edited together.”
DRIVE MY CAR/THE WORD/WHAT YOU’RE DOING
George
““Drive My Car” was the opening track of a great album - Rubber Soul – and
was recorded remarkably quickly - between 7 pm and midnight on an evening
in October 1965. Great rhythm that was just right for a dance sequence in
the show. “The Word”, recorded a couple of weeks later, had an almost
identical beat and was also completed in a few hours. “What You’re Doing”
was recorded a year earlier, with a similar driving rhythm. They
certainly worked hard and did not waste any time in those halcyon days.”
Giles
“The Beatles came up with some of pop music’s most iconic riffs, none more
so than “‘Drive My Car”. This era of Beatles music symbolises London at
the peak of the swinging sixties. “The Word” and “Taxman” have such great
grooves, we tried to blend as much of the band at their vibrant best in
this, the only medley on the album.”
GNIK NUS
George
“In the show we needed a sound to set the scene, a prelude to establish a
mood, and a never-heard-before chorale by the Beatles does just that. It
is pretty obvious where “Gnik Nus” came from, but I make no apologies,
because for me it is absolutely lovely and it works well in the
performance.”
Giles
“I had turned the cymbal backwards on “Sun King” for an effect for “Within
You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows” and I realised I’d turned the vocals
around as well. My dad heard what I’d done and loved it and said that it’s
exactly the sort of thing that John would have gone for.”
SOMETHING
BLUE JAY WAY (TRANSITION)
George
“A most beautiful song by George which made everyone realise that he could
write just as great a song as John or Paul, and it gave him enormous
confidence. The master track was completed in May with a keyboard line
from Billy Preston, and finally I added a string orchestra in mid August.
I was so pleased with the final result.”
Giles
““Something” is such a sensitive song that works really well as it is. We
moved the strings around for effect, leaving George’s great vocal
performance more upfront. “
BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE!/I WANT YOU (SHE’S SO HEAVY)/HELTER
SKELTER
George
“This has to be one of John’s most pictorial songs and we all had fun
making our recording sound like a real circus in the studio. My problem
was playing the ancient harmonium while John and Paul acted as producers.
They delighted in seeing me pedal away at that damned instrument for what
seemed like hours. The show demanded something a little different, with a
much darker mood. So although all the original sounds are still there, it
does become rather menacing towards the end.”
Giles
“The LOVE show director, had visions of a macabre Victorian circus for the
show. This made us approach “Kite” in a completely different way. “Blue
Jay Way” set the scene really well, and the sound effects from “Good
Morning” add to the general circus vibe. To create the sound of a circus
going wrong we edited in “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” at the end flying
in the mad organs and Paul’s vocal on “Helter Skelter” over the top.”
HELP!
George
““Help!” was originally written for the second Beatles film, and many
armchair psychiatrists have read into it a cry from John to get him out of
his prison of fame and success. It was to me a straightforward and good
composition, one that came together in the studio without too much fuss,
and it became the successful title song of their film.”
Giles
“This was recorded really quickly onto a four track, with the band playing
live onto one track. This recording has such a great natural Beatles sound
that it’s wonderful to just hear the power of their playing.”
BLACKBIRD/YESTERDAY
George
“We agonised over the inclusion of “Yesterday” in the show. It is such a
famous song, the icon of an era, had it been heard too much? The story of
the addition of the original string quartet is well known, however few
people know how limited the recording was technically, and so the case for
not including it was strong, but how could anyone ignore such a marvellous
work? We introduce it with some of Paul’s guitar work from “Blackbird” and
hearing it now, I know that it was right to include it. Its simplicity is
so direct; it tugs at the heartstrings.”
Giles
“I wasn’t sure how the more sensitive songs would sound in the theatre, I
was scared that some intimacy would be lost. While I was in Montreal,
Cirque let me go with sound designer Jonathan Deans to a new show they
were about to tour so I could play around with their PA. As soon as I
played “Yesterday” through the system all the workmen stopped and just
listened to the song. I guessed then that we would probably be OK!”
STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
George
“I will never forget the first time I heard “Strawberry Fields Forever”.
John began by giving me my usual private performance, standing in front of
me, strumming his acoustic guitar and singing those incredible opening
lines. I was absolutely captivated, such different material, almost too
tender to be recorded. The song went through a few changes, and we
recorded it more than once, eventually combining two completely different
versions, in different keys and different tempos. I love the song to this
day, but John told me many years later that he was never really satisfied
with it and I felt that in its recording I had let him down. I hope he has
forgiven me.”
Giles
“The LOVE show director, had wanted us to demonstrate the Beatles
experimentation and creativity in the studio. Yoko had brought in some
early demos of John singing “Strawberry Fields Forever” so in the spirit
of the original we decided to combine the very early takes with the final
version. I went on holiday and my poor father spent hours with a vari-speed
tape machine putting all the takes in the key of B. I came back and spent
about six weeks combing the various tracks to make one long new version of
the song. And at the end, with those fantastic drums, we just decided to
have a bit of fun…”
WITHIN YOU WITHOUT YOU/TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS
George
“Paul was always on the lookout for new sounds and experimenting at home
with a Brenell recorder, he discovered that he could record on a constant
loop of tape until it was literally saturated with sound. I selected a
number of these tapes and used them, sometimes at a different speed and
pitch, in a new song John had written. We started with a terrific rhythm
track recorded in only three takes, with a constant tamboura drone and
that marvellous and hypnotic drum beat from Ringo, “Tomorrow Never Knows”,
was born.
Later, while Sgt. Pepper was under way, George came up with an interesting
and distinctive song, “Within You Without You”, heavily influenced by his
love of all things Indian. Working with George on this recording was
fascinating. His sense of complicated rhythms and tonalities earned my
respect, and the song was issued as the first track on the second side of
Sgt. Pepper. Giles suggested that we combine these two tracks together in
such a brilliant way.”
Giles
“This was one of the first things I tried when we were making the initial
demos for the show. I was really quite scared about offending all who were
involved and at one stage we weren’t even going to play it anyone. The
fact that it was accepted showed how open-minded everyone was in the
approach to the music we were creating.”
LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS
George
“This song has the most extraordinary lyrics, with John doing his utmost
to build a psychedelic vision rivalling creations by Lewis Carroll and
Salvador Dali. It all began with his son Julian coming home from school
with a picture of his classmate, Lucy. She was kind of floating in
mid-air with little stars that he had drawn around her. Such innocence!
The song came together quickly, and the opening bars are simple, but
magic.”
Giles
“As soon as the LOVE show director, showed me his ideas on creating a
starry sky by using LED effects I set out on trying to introduce the song
by having shimmering stars appear individually with sound. By slicing the
original keyboard and using vari-speed we managed to get the effect I was
looking for.”
OCTOPUS’S GARDEN
George
“I am glad we were able to use Ringo’s “Octopus’s Garden” in the show. In
many ways it’s timeless, a children’s song, easy on the ear and perfect
for the LOVE show director’s imaginative undersea scene, with an
unexpected beginning.”
Giles
“I thought it would be great to start the song with Ringo on his own. I
first tried to combine his vocal with the end strings from “Glass Onion”
and it sounded creepy. Then I tried the strings from “Goodnight” – they
had always interested me because they’re in stereo. My dad came in and
pointed out if I had doubled up the strings and played the verse twice the
vocal would work better, and as usual he was right, and Ringo sounds
great.”
LADY MADONNA
George
“Considering that Paul only played guitar when I first knew him, his piano
work with that rolling boogie piano driving this along like a powerhouse
had become startlingly good. In the backing we tried using Kazoos, but the
old comb and paper did just as good a job.”
Giles
“I wanted to get the riff from “Hey Bulldog” in the show somewhere and it
works great as a middle section to “Lady Madonna”. It took a while to get
the track to sit right, Billy Preston’s organ solo from “I Want You (She’s
So Heavy)” provides the glue between the two and Eric Clapton’s guitar
solo from “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” replaces the sax solo.”
HERE COMES THE SUN
THE INNER LIGHT (TRANSITION)
George
“A brilliant composition with an unusual metre relying heavily on George’s
great guitar work, very different to “The Inner Light”, which was
basically recorded in Bombay during the time that George was recording
music for his “Wonderwall” film and album. George had used a host of
Indian virtuoso players with weird and wonderful instruments I did not
even know existed. Once back in England he added his voice and we
overdubbed vocals with John and Paul.”
Giles
“It’s strange that although George brought a huge Indian influence to the
sound of The Beatles, some of his most famous songs have no Indian
instruments on them. The tabla and delrouba from “Within You Without You”
made a perfect introduction to George’s guitar and we used the chorus
vocals from the song to set the scene. “Here Comes the Sun” is a great
song about enlightenment; it made complete sense then to finish with “The
Inner Light”.”
COME TOGETHER/DEAR PRUDENCE
CRY BABY CRY (TRANSITION)
George
““Come Together” is such a simple song but it stands out because of the
sheer brilliance of the performers. Paul’s bass riff makes a fantastic
foundation for Ringo’s imaginative drumming, and John’s vocal with heavy
tape echo has a marvellous effect when he claps his hands and hisses into
the microphone. George’s guitar is equally distinctive, and altogether I
believe this is one of the Beatles’ greatest tracks. Combined with “Dear
Prudence” is Paul’s vocal piece from the end of “Cry Baby Cry” that
creates a very reflective mood.”
Giles
“This for me is the Beatles playing live at their economical and
inspirational best. There’s nothing that can be added to the song as all
the parts are so well constructed and yet the song is so sparse. ‘Dear
Prudence’ was used to end the song without fading it and I loved the way
the vocals and Ringo’s mad drumming add a climax to the end of “Come
Together”. Dominic Champagne, the shows director, had wanted something
disturbing to bring in “Revolution” and I thought this ending sounded from
another world. The strings from “Eleanor Rigby” and the climax from “A Day
In The Life” provided an edge that isn’t on the original.”
REVOLUTION
George
“Hard rock recordings do not come much stronger than this one. The
distortion of the guitars led to many complaints from the more
conservative of listeners at the time and it did in fact give quite a few
technical problems when it came to cutting the masters for the vinyl
single of the day. Like many of John’s songs its message is very clear
and, for its time, pretty revolutionary!”
Giles
“The guitar sound on “Revolution” rips your head off, even today it
defines the word ‘distortion’, it’s amazing to think that it was recorded
nearly forty years ago.”
BACK IN THE U.S.S.R.
George
“Miraculously recorded and mixed in two days at a time of tension among
the Beatles when a frustrated Ringo had temporarily walked out. Paul,
George and John tried to work without him and started to record “Back In
The U.S.S.R.”, with Paul playing drums. Ringo returned to find they had in
fact managed a track without him, but they were so delighted he was back
that they showered him with flowers. Nevertheless it is one of the very
few tracks without Ringo’s terrific drumming.”
Giles
“Like “Revolution” this bursts out from the multi-track tapes with such
energy that there’s nothing much that we could do with it either.”
WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS
George
“Most people remember the heavy version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
but an earlier version, almost a demo, was recorded at Abbey Road and
discarded until we issued the Anthology albums. I was asked to write a
string score to make that early take sound more like an issued master. I
was aware of such a responsibility, but thankfully Olivia and everyone
approved of the result. “Yesterday” was the first score I had written for
a Beatle song way back in 1965 and this score forty one years later is the
last. It wraps up an incredible period of my life with those four amazing
men who changed the world.”
Giles
“The LOVE show director and Olivia had decided that take one, an acoustic
version, of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” should be used for the show
and asked what we could do with it. The vocal performance on the take is
so tender, so the only thing I could think of was for my dad to do a
string arrangement. I was surprised to find that he was apprehensive about
doing it, there’s no one in the world better at this kind of thing, and
even after all this time he still arranges with the same vitality and
empathy that has made his work legendary.”
A DAY IN THE LIFE
George
“John as usual, took his inspiration from odd sources, in this case
newspaper cuttings, but he needed a middle section and asked Paul if he
had anything. Paul had something, but it wasn’t a fit. Realising that
such different tempos and styles needed to be separated, Paul suggested a
24 bar section between them which could be filled in later. I had no clue
what it would be filled with, until they told me they wanted a symphony
orchestra.
I think Paul came up with the idea of a great ascending crescendo, but I
needed to do some orchestral organisation if it was to be effective. We
all know the result. It was terrific, awe-inspiring and mind boggling to
all who heard it for the first time, although some thought it to be
subversive and even the dear old BBC banned the track on the grounds that
it promoted drug use.”
Giles
“Even before we approached this I knew there was nothing we could add to
it. It really is a masterpiece. Then Allan Rouse, our project co-ordinator
at Abbey Road Studios, brought the early orchestral takes up from the
vault. This meant that we could make the crescendo and the last piano
chord at the end even bigger.”
HEY JUDE
George
“The Beatles in their time wrote and recorded quite a few anthems and “Hey
Jude” is a supreme example. I remember having a little rebellion in the
orchestra I had booked for the overdub. After the musicians had finished
playing their parts I asked them to sing along with the chant and to clap
as we did. Cheeky, I know, but not everyone was amused. One violinist
remonstrated quite forcibly, saying he was not employed as a session
singer and left. I asked if anyone else wanted to join him and bless
them, they all stayed and received overtime pay as a result.”
Giles
“The biggest challenge we faced with “Hey Jude” was finding a way of
ending it. I’d found a great bass line that Paul played at the end of the
song and put it in the middle, but the ending is so well known that it
took quite some time to find the perfect match….”
SGT PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
(REPRISE)
George
““Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” is a rousing and upbeat
shorter version of the original song specifically designed to wrap up the
imaginary performance of the Sgt. Pepper album. It is ideal for a link
into the final song. Our original recording was a quick affair, taped from
seven in the evening of April Fool’s Day 1967 right through to six the
following morning.”
Giles
“…..and it was sheer luck that “Sgt. Pepper Reprise” was in the right key
so we could link the two together.”
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
George
“The Sgt. Pepper album was released in June 1967 to world acclaim, and in
no time we were all given an incredible task. The Beatles were selected to
represent Great Britain in a world wide television hook-up that was to be
broadcast live. It happened very quickly, and the week of the event was
for me one I will never forget. John’s “All You Need Is Love” was an
inspiration and I had the normal job of arranging and producing it. One
week before the show my father was taken to hospital. I visited him every
day, and he seemed to be recovering well, so much so that I rang my sister
who was in Italy and told her not to break up her holiday. But early on
Tuesday morning I walked in to the hospital as usual with a bunch of
flowers and I was stopped by the
Ward Sister who drew me aside and told me my father had died just before
dawn.
I was shattered, devastated. Perhaps the work on “All You Need Is Love”
was my lifeline. I pitch forked myself into all the things I had to do,
which was a mercy for me. When it came to the actual television
transmission we had TV cameras focussing on us in the control room as well
as the studio. With seconds to go before being on air I had a panic call
from the TV director in his BBC van outside saying he had lost contact
with his crew in the studio and could I relay his instructions?
I laughed aloud at the real unimportance of it all. If you are going to
fall flat on your face you might as well do it in front of 200 million
people! It was the end of an era and it has now become the end of our
show. We have come full circle.”
Giles
“I spent a long time looking for The Beatles signing off and saying
goodbye for the very end of the show. But it just so happened that at the
end of most of their gigs and radio shows they would either say a polite
‘thanks’ or bow and go straight off. So what you hear over the final
chords of “Goodnight” is taken from a Christmas record recorded in 1965.”
© 2006 Apple Corps Ltd
Any inquires about this press release,
please contact
Sara Israel (Special Ops Media) Tel: 212.219.0600
Published at the Ottawa Beatles Site,
November 22, 2006. Used with permission.