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Friday, July 4, 1969

Recording "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight"

For The Beatles

Last updated on December 23, 2021


Master session

Location

  • Recording studio: EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road

Timeline

AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Abbey Road" LP

Some of the songs from this session also appear on:

On July 1, 1969, John Lennon was on holiday in Scotland and got involved in a car accident along with his wife Yoko, his son Julian, and Yoko’s daughter, Kyoko. He was hospitalised and stayed at this hospital till July 6. He would rejoin The Beatles’ sessions on July 9, missing five days of work.


On this day, the three other Beatles continued the work on “Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight“ done on July 2 and July 3.

When they arrived at the studio at 2:45 pm, the production team was listening to BBC Radio 2’s live broadcast of the tennis match between Great Britain’s Ann Jones vs USA’s Billie Jean King (the final match of the Wimbledon Ladies’ tennis championship).

We were sitting there listening to the final before the Beatles came in. We had it coming through the mixing console. Then they came in and we thought, ‘Oh, blimey, that’s it,’ especially when they pulled faces and went ‘Uggghhh.’ But they said we could carry on listening for a while and then, a few minutes later, one of them asked how Ann Jones was getting on, so we put it through on the studio speakers so that they could listen, too!

Dave Harris, technical engineer ​– From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn

When the tennis match was over, The Beatles added some undocumented overdubs onto take 17. This was a short session, ending at 5:30 pm.

Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight” was then shelved for about a month, and further work would resume on July 30, 1969.


Session activities

  1. Golden Slumbers

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • SI onto take 17

  2. Carry That Weight

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • SI onto take 17


Staff

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!

Buy on Amazon

If we modestly consider the Paul McCartney Project to be the premier online resource for all things Paul McCartney, it is undeniable that The Beatles Bible stands as the definitive online site dedicated to the Beatles. While there is some overlap in content between the two sites, they differ significantly in their approach.

Read more on The Beatles Bible

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