Mixing "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End", "Something", recording and mixing "Here Comes The Sun"

The previous day, “The End” had received its latest overdub, and six attempts at creating a stereo mix had been made, labelled Remix Stereo 1 to 6.

This new session began at 2 pm with three additional mixing attempts, numbered 1 to 3 (disregarding the numbering from the previous day). Remix Stereo 3 was considered the best at this stage, although 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 and crossfade between “Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight” (Remix Stereo 2) and “The End” (Remix Stereo 3).

The rest of the session, which continued until 4 am, was spent finalizing George Harrison’s two contributions to the album: “Something” and “Here Comes The Sun.”

Ten attempts were made to create a stereo mix of “Something” from Take 39, labelled Remix Stereo 1 to 10 (even though RS1 to RS4 had already been created during a session on July 11). With the addition of the orchestral arrangement, the original instrumental coda intended to close the song was removed. Remix Stereo 10 was deemed the best and was released on “Abbey Road.”

When work shifted to “Here Comes The Sun,” George decided to add one final overdub using the Moog synthesizer he had brought to EMI Studios earlier in August. Two synthesizer parts were recorded, with one of them replacing the woodwind parts recorded on August 15.

Only one attempt was needed to create the final stereo mix of “Here Comes The Sun,” using ADT (Artificial Double Tracking) and frequency control. Remix Stereo 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

Session activities

1. The End

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 7

2. The End

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 2 from take 7

3. The End

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 3 from take 7

4. Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End

   Editing • Stereo mixing - crossfade/edit for master

5. Something

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 39

6. Something

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 2 from take 39

7. Something

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 3 from take 39

8. Something

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 4 from take 39

9. Something

   Written by George Harrison

   Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 5 from take 39

10. Something

    Written by George Harrison

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 6 from take 39

11. Something

    Written by George Harrison

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 7 from take 39

12. Something

    Written by George Harrison

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 8 from take 39

13. Something

    Written by George Harrison

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 9 from take 39

14. Something

    Written by George Harrison

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 10 from take 39

    AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road

15. Here Comes The Sun

    Written by George Harrison

    Recording • SI onto take 15

16. Here Comes The Sun

    Written by George Harrison

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 15

    AlbumOfficially released on Abbey Road

Staff

Musicians on "Here Comes The Sun"

Production staff

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!

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The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 5: Let It Be through Abbey Road (1969 - 1970)

The fifth and final book of this critically acclaimed series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 5: Let It Be through Abbey Road (1969 - 1970)" follows The Beatles as they "get back to where they once belonged...". Not once, but twice. With "Let It Be", they attempted to recapture the spontaneity of their early years and recordings, while "Abbey Road" was a different kind of return - to the complexity, finish and polish that they had applied to their work beginning with "Revolver" and through to "The Beatles".

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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.

Buy on Amazon