Recording and mixing "I Am The Walrus", "Flying"

About

On this day, The Beatles continued working on “I Am The Walrus” and “Flying“, two tracks for the soundtrack of their “Magical Mystery Tour” TV special. However, prior to their arrival, copies of the songs “Magical Mystery Tour” and “Flying” in their current state were created for the film producer, Denis O’Dell. This activity took place in the control room of Studio Two between 4 pm to 5:30 pm.

On September 5 and 6, 1967, The Beatles recorded the backing track for “I Am The Walrus“. This was captured in Take 17, with all instruments and John Lennon’s vocals available on three different tracks. Later on, September 27, a tape reduction of Take 17 was carried out to create room for orchestra and choir overdubs. Subsequently, Take 25 was created, and it had all instruments and John Lennon’s vocals from the backing track on track one, orchestra overdubs on track two, and choir on track three.

On this day, still between 4 pm and 5:30 pm, the engineering team went back to Take 17, which had a spare track, and dubbed the orchestral and choral overdubs from Take 25 onto it. From that point forward, all subsequent mixing was done from Take 17.

The Beatles arrived for the second session of the day, which began at 7 pm and ended at 3 am. During this time, four mono mixes of “I Am The Walrus” were produced from Take 17, and ADT (artificial double tracking) was applied to John’s vocals. These mixes were labelled RM 2 to RM 5, with RM2 being deemed the best and subject to some editing. Further work was done on mixing the track the following day.

Around 9 pm, The Beatles continued work on their incidental piece of music, “Flying,” which they had begun recording on September 8, 1967, under the working title “Aerial Tour Instrumental.” They added additional overdubs to Take 8.

John Lennon played the Mellotron on the flute setting, while George Harrison contributed acoustic guitar parts. Ringo Starr played maracas and Paul McCartney struck an object to create a wood block-type sound.

John and Ringo also prepared tape loops containing Mellotron, organ, and chimes to replace the previous “Dixie Trombone” ending. These loops were added in five separate overdubs, the first of which was played backwards and lasted from 1’24” to 2’48”. The second loop ran from 2’51” to 5’14”, the third from 5’25” to 6’09”, the fourth played backwards from 6’16” to 7’01”, and the final loop, also played backwards, lasted from 7’06” to 9’35”.

Although these additions completed the recording, they were ultimately edited out of the released versions of the song. However, they were used throughout the TV special. The final mix of the song fades before the first tape had ended.

At the end of the session, two mono mixes were created and numbered RM5 and RM6, respectively. RM6 was then edited down to 2:14 and was ultimately selected for the soundtrack release.

The stereo mix of the track was not made until November 7, 1967.

Last updated on April 10, 2023

Songs recorded

Staff

Musicians on "Flying"

Paul McCartney:

Percussion

Ringo Starr:

Tape loops, Maracas

John Lennon:

Mellotron, Tape loops

George Harrison:

Acoustic guitar

Production staff

George Martin:

Producer

Ken Scott:

Engineer

Richard Lush:

Second Engineer