Recording "Here Comes The Sun", recording and mixing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

About

On this day, overdubs were added onto George Harrison’s “Here Comes The Sun” and Paul McCartney’s “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer“, in two concurrent sessions.

I got involved in the last three weeks of Abbey Road. They kept two studios running and I would be asked to sit in the studio two or three – usually three – just to be there, at the Beatles’ beck and call, whenever someone wanted to come in and do an overdub. At this stage of the album, I don’t think I saw the four of them together.

Tony Clark​ – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn

From 2:30 pm to 11 pm, George was in Studio Three, to add guitar overdubs onto take 15 of “Here Comes The Sun“. More guitar overdubs would be added to it, on August 11.

Meanwhile, Paul was in Room 43, where George’s Moog synthesizer had been installed early August, to work on “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer“. The signal of the Moog was fed into the control room of Studio Two, where the engineering team recorded the overdubs.

Paul used the Moog for the solo in ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,’ but the notes were not from the keyboard. He did that with a continuous ribbon-slide thing, just moving his finger up and down on an endless ribbon. It’s very difficult to find the right notes, rather like a violin, but Paul picked it up straight away. He can pick up anything musical in a couple of days.

Alan Parsons, engineer – From “Solid State” by Kenneth Womack

I suppose we were still influenced by real sounds and we were still trying to get sounds that were like instruments we knew more than synthetic sounds, but nevertheless, there was a floaty mystical thing about the sound on ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.’

George Martin, producer – From “The Producer Series”, Part 2, interview by Ralph Denver, February 1985 – Quoted in “Solid State” by Kenneth Womack

Several reduction mixes of take 21 were made (named takes 22 to 27) before three Moog overdubs were added onto tracks four, five and six of take 27.

From 11 pm to 1 am, ten attempts at creating a stereo mix of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” were made – they were numbered 14 to 26, as there were no mix 19, 20 or 21. Remix number 18 was considered to be the best but some further attempts would be done on August 12, 1969.

Last updated on December 27, 2021

Songs recorded

Staff

Musicians on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

Paul McCartney:

Moog synthesizer

Musicians on "Here Comes The Sun"

George Harrison:

Guitar

Production staff

George Martin:

Producer

Tony Clark:

Engineer

Phil McDonald:

Engineer

John Kurlander:

Second engineer

Alan Parsons:

Second engineer