- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the Abbey Road LP.
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Timeline
More from year 1969
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The previous day, six attempts at creating a stereo mix of “The End” had been done. This new day started, at 2 pm, with three additional attempts, numbered 1 to 3. Remix 3 was deemed the best at this stage, but further adjustments to the mix would be made on August 21 and August 25 (the very last two days of work on “Abbey Road“).
The engineering team then created the edit / cross-fade of “Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight” into Remix 3 of “The End“.
The rest of the session, which ended at 4 am, was spent on finalizing George Harrison’s two songs for the new album, “Something” and “Here Comes The Sun“.
Ten attempts at creating the stereo mix of “Something” were made, remix 10 being deemed the best. With the addition of the orchestra arrangement, the instrumental coda intended to end the song disappeared. Remix 10 was released on “Abbey Road“.
When switching to “Here Comes The Sun“, George decided he wanted one last overdub to be made, using the Moog synthesizer he brought to EMI Studios early August.
Only one attempt at creating the stereo mix of “Here Comes The Sun” was then needed. This remix 1 was released on “Abbey Road“.
The Moog playing on ‘Here Comes The Sun’ is not at all gimmicky. It is tuneful and restrained. Recorded on track four of the tape, the synthesizer eased most of the woodwind arrangement that was already there. When ‘Here Comes The Sun’ was mixed, the Moog parts were ‘wobbled’ slightly by sticking some editing tape on the capstan of the tape machine used to create tape delay echo. During mixing, the eight-track tape was played back at slightly faster than normal speed. In doing so, the key was raised by roughly a quarter-tone.
From “Abbey Road” Super Deluxe edition book (2019)
Onto the tape box from this night was written the handwritten instruction: “Don’t use guitars for solo from 6 + 7”. This referred to an unused guitar solo, which was unheard by the general public until 2011.
One of the bonus items on the DVD/Blu-ray release of Martin Scorsese’s 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living In The Material World was a studio scene featuring Dhani Harrison, George Martin and Giles Martin listening to the Here Comes The Sun multi-track tapes. The tapes revealed the guitar solo, which was likely to have been recorded by Harrison on 6 August 1969.
From beatlesbible.com
Last updated on December 28, 2021
Songs recorded
4.
Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End
Editing • Stereo mixing - crossfade/edit for master
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Written by George Harrison
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 10 from take 39
Album Officially released on Abbey Road
15.
16.
Written by George Harrison
Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 15
Album Officially released on Abbey Road
Staff
Musicians on "Here Comes The Sun"
- George Harrison:
- Moog synthesizer
Production staff
- George Martin:
- Producer
- Geoff Emerick:
- Engineer
- Phil McDonald:
- Engineer
- Alan Parsons:
- Second engineer
Going further
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions • Mark Lewisohn
The definitive guide for every Beatles recording sessions from 1962 to 1970.
We owe a lot to Mark Lewisohn for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details - the number of takes for each song, who contributed what, a description of the context and how each session went, various photographies... And an introductory interview with Paul McCartney!
Solid State: The Story of "Abbey Road" and the End of the Beatles
Acclaimed Beatles historian Kenneth Womack offers the most definitive account yet of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road. In February 1969, the Beatles began working on what became their final album together. Abbey Road introduced a number of new techniques and technologies to the Beatles' sound, and included "Come Together," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun," which all emerged as classics.
If we like to think, in all modesty, that the Paul McCartney Project is the best online ressource for everything Paul McCartney, The Beatles Bible is for sure the definitive online site focused on the Beatles. There are obviously some overlap in terms of content between the two sites, but also some major differences in terms of approach.
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