Recording "Not Guilty", "Mother Nature's Son"

On this day, The Beatles continued their work on George Harrison’s “Not Guilty“ and began Paul McCartney’s “Mother Nature’s Son.”

Over the previous two days, The Beatles had worked on “Not Guilty.” They produced four reduction mixes of Take 97 the day before. On this day, they created a fifth reduction mix, Take 102, and commenced overdubbing. George Harrison recorded a second lead guitar part, while Ringo Starr contributed an additional drum track.

George would complete a final overdub on August 12, before “Not Guilty” was shelved.

George asked us to put his guitar amplifier at one end of one of the echo chambers, with a microphone at the other end to pick up the output. He sat playing the guitar in the studio control room with a line plugged through to the chamber.

Brian Gibson – Studio engineer – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

The session began at 7:30 pm and was due to end at 10 pm. However, Paul McCartney stayed after the rest of the band had left and began the recording of “Mother Nature’s Son.“

Mountain streams, fields of grass, swaying daisies. A lazy song sung beneath the sun. In fact it was sung by Paul in the middle of the night beneath the artificial moonlight of EMI studio lamps! Almost folksy simplicity about this little number. It was done at a sort of after-session session when the rest of the fellows had gone home. Paul just sat in the box, sang and played his acoustic guitar. At three o’clock in the morning.

Mal Evans – From the Beatles Monthly Book, N°64, November 1968

Usually we would finish by 5 or 6 in the morning, but on this particular session we were finished by midnight, so both Ken and I were looking forward to getting home early. Suddenly Paul walked in completely out of the blue, since we weren’t expecting him. We had packed things up pretty much, as the floor was clear of mics. He asked if we’d mind if he could put down a track. What are you going to do? It was Paul McCartney. He promised it wouldn’t take long.

He sat down with an acoustic guitar and started singing, and before we knew what happened it was 7 or 8 in the morning. How are you going to walk away from a song like that? It was just so magical and spellbinding. It was really neat just the three of us working together, as opposed to the band, which had its own kind of atmosphere. It was a very intimate working relationship.

John Smith – Second Engineer – From “Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust“, 2012

Paul performed on the acoustic guitar and provided lead vocals. A total of twenty-five takes were recorded, with Take 2 being the first complete one. It was included in the release of “Anthology 3” in 1996.

Its lyrics inspired by the text of a lecture heard in Spring in India, the basic track of Mother’s Nature Son was recorded one summer’s evening in London a few months later. The White Album master was Take 26, a reduction of the “best” take (24) with overdubbed drums, timpani, brass and a second acoustic guitar passage, the brass players being the only musicians apart from Paul McCartney to play on the recording of his new song. En route to the master the composer taped a succession of strictly solo pieces, seeking out the right sound and feel – this Anthology selection is Take 2, the opening strand of conversation emphasising well the willingness, common to all Beatles, to seize upon a new sound or effect, whether discovered accidentally or otherwise.

From the liner notes of “Anthology 3”

Take 15 was included in the re-release of the White Album for its 50th anniversary in 2018, featuring Paul’s experimentation with various vocal inflections. The take concludes with a recorded dialogue between Paul and George Martin in the control room:

Paul: What’s been happening so far, Mr. Martin?

George: You’ve done one or two nice ones, um, you’ve done a lot of others where you’ve fucked up, you know.

Paul: Is there no one listening up there, by any slight chance?

George: Yeah, we’re listening all the time! (George realizing there is a communication problem). Sorry, I’m, I’m pushing the wrong button.

Paul: Oh. What’s happening?

George: I thought we’d run into…a couple of nice ones, um.

Paul: Have you remembered which is which?

George: When you think you’re absolutely a breakdown, then breakdown.

Paul: Right, yeah, ok.

George: It’s sometimes worth it.

Paul: Yeah right, ok.

At the end of take 24, the last take recorded, Paul remained indecisive between take 23 and take 24, and declared:

I’ll listen to ’em both or I’ll listen to one. Somewhere in there, there’s something!

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles” Super Deluxe edition book (2018)

The decision was finally made that take 24 was the best. Overdubs were added to it on August 20. The session concluded at 2 am.

Session activities

1. Not Guilty

   Written by George Harrison

   Tape copying • Tape reduction take 99 into take 102

2. Not Guilty

   Written by George Harrison

   Recording • SI onto take 102

3. Mother Nature's Son

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 1

4. Mother Nature's Son

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 2

   AlbumOfficially released on Anthology 3

5. Mother Nature's Son

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 3

6. Mother Nature's Son

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 4

7. Mother Nature's Son

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 5

8. Mother Nature's Son

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 6

9. Mother Nature's Son

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 7

10. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 8

11. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 9

12. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 10

13. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 11

14. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 12

15. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 13

16. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 14

17. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 15

    AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)

18. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 16

19. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 17

20. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 18

21. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 19

22. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 20

23. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 21

24. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 22

25. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 23

26. Mother Nature's Son

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 24

Staff

Musicians on "Mother Nature's Son"

Musicians on "Not Guilty"

Production staff

Going further

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