Recording "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight"

Friday, July 4, 1969 • For The Beatles

Part of


"Abbey Road" sessions

Feb 22 - Aug 25, 1969 • Songs recorded during this session appear on Abbey Road

Album Songs recorded during this session officially appear on the Abbey Road LP.
Studio:
EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road

Some songs from this session appear on:


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About

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.

Last updated on December 23, 2021

Songs recorded


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

George Martin:
Producer
Phil McDonald:
Engineer
Chris Blair:
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!

Shop on Amazon


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.

Read more on The Beatles Bible

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