"The Beatles" (aka the White Album) sessions
May 30 - Oct 18, 1968 • Songs recorded during this session appear on The Beatles (Mono)
Recording studio: EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Article Sep 19, 1968 • "Revolution" promo film is broadcast on Top Of The Pops
Session Sep 19, 1968 • Recording "Piggies"
Session Sep 20, 1968 • Recording "Piggies"
Session Sep 23, 1968 • Recording "Happiness Is A Warm Gun"
Article Sept 24, 25 or 26 - Oct 20, 1968 • Linda Eastman visits Paul McCartney in London
AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "The Beatles (Mono)" LP
The previous day, The Beatles recorded the basic track for “Piggies,” written by George Harrison. On this day, between 7 pm and 11 pm, they added overdubs. With George Martin away on holiday for most of September 1968, Chris Thomas produced this session.
Take 11 was initially recorded on a four-track tape. The day’s first task involved transferring it onto an eight-track tape to allow space for overdubs, resulting in Take 12.
George Harrison recorded his lead vocals and those were double-tracked using ADT (Automatic Double Tracking). For the song’s bridge, George wanted a vocal effect akin to singing while pinching his nose. Technical engineer Ken Townsend ingeniously fulfilled this request:
We fed the microphone signal through a very sharp echo chamber filter, an RS106, so that it chopped off everything above and below the 3.5 kilohertz level, creating a very narrow band of sound.
Ken Townsend – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988
George and Paul McCartney contributed backing vocals, with John Lennon singing the melody two octaves lower.
George also recorded pig snorting sounds, which were ultimately not used in the final mix.
John isolated himself in the control room at one point to produce a sound effect of pigs snorting and grunting. He used a tape from the Abbey Road sound effects library titled “Animals and Bees (volume 35)” for this purpose.
It’s from an old EMI 78rpm record and The Beatles may have used a combination of that and their own voices. That always works well – the new voices hide the 78rpm scratchiness, the original record hides the fact that some of the sounds are man-made.
Stuart Eltham – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988
This sound effect was incorporated during the mixing process on October 11, and a string arrangement was added on October 10.
Written by George Harrison
Tape copying • Tape copying of take 11 into take 12
Written by George Harrison
Recording • SI onto take 12
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!
The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969)
The fourth book of this critically acclaimed series, "The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969)" captures The Beatles as they take the lessons of Sgt. Pepper forward with an ambitious double-album that is equally innovative and progressive. From the first take to the final remix, discover the making of the greatest recordings of all time. Through extensive, fully-documented research, these books fill an important gap left by all other Beatles books published to date and provide a unique view into the recordings of the world's most successful pop music act.
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.
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