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- Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the Magical Mystery Tour (Mono) Official album.
- Studio:
- EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Timeline
More from year 1967
Some songs from this session appear on:
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From Anthology 2 liner notes:
Three weeks before he recorded it for disc release on Magical Mystery Tour, Paul taped a piano/vocal demo of his latest song. Taking as long to achieve as it sounds – less than three minutes – he sat at the studio piano, playing and singing live. The result is far from the sound of the final master (indeed Paul hadn’t yet fleshed out a full lyric) but it has a charm of its own and a nicely sent-up ending.
In date order the next track was George’s “BLUE JAY WAY”, started on September 6. All the way through you hear two Harrison voices — he recorded the second one on top of the first to get the “duet” effect. Later he recorded the vocal backing with Paul. A technical process called “phasing” was used on the vocal sound and on George’s Hammond Organ playing to create that fascinating “swirling” effect. The only additional instrument heard here is a single cello but there are studio-built technical effects used on the very end of the record.
Mal Evans – From the Beatles Monthly Book, N°54, January 1968
Around the same time (first week of September) John got busy on “I AM THE WALRUS”. As you can imagine this one took a lot of time and The Beatles kept coming back to it right the way through September. The opening features Master Mellotroneer John. Then you hear 8 violins and 4 cellos making all the string music for which producer George Martin did the score. John’s singing is double-tracked which means you hear his voice twice-over all through the song. The other instruments are three horns — plus “radio voices” which keep butting in at odd moments. And, of course, there’s a full-scale choir on the track. Six boys and six girls belonging to the Michael Sammes Singers. You hear the boys singing “Oompah, oompah, stick it up your jumpah!” and the girls do that “Everybody’s got one” bit. Dunno who says “Sit down, father, rest you!” but it sounds very pleasant there at the end doesn’t it!
Mal Evans – From the Beatles Monthly Book, N°54, January 1968
Last updated on September 13, 2021
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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