The Esher recordings

About

In February – March 1968, The Beatles stayed in Rishikesh, India, to take part in a Transcendental Meditation (TM) training course at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. During that time, they wrote around 40 new compositions. In late May, they met for one day at Kinfauns, property of George Harrison, to record 26 of those new songs in demo form. Most of those songs would be properly recorded for their next album, “The Beatles”, which recording started on May 30, 1968.

We are going in with clear heads and hoping for the best. We had hoped this time to do a lot of rehearsing before we reached the studios rather than rehearse actually on the instruments but, as it happens, all we got was one day.

Paul McCartney, 1968

From Wikipedia:

Kinfauns was a large 1950s deluxe bungalow in Esher in the English county of Surrey, on the Claremont Estate. From 1964 to 1970 it was the home of George Harrison, lead guitarist of the Beatles. It was where many of the demo recordings for the band’s 1968 self-titled double album (also known as the “White Album”) were made. The bungalow has since been demolished, and another house built in its place.

Beatles gatherings

Kinfauns was probably the home the Beatles gathered at most, as it was only a short drive from the homes of John Lennon (Kenwood) and Ringo Starr (Sunny Heights), both in St George’s Hill. It was where Harrison, Lennon and their wives retreated during their first LSD experience in 1965, and in May 1968 it was where many of the demo recordings for the White Album were made, on Harrison’s Ampex four-track tape recorder. These demos have been released on various bootleg albums; seven of them appear on the Beatles’ Anthology 3 compilation album, and 27 appear on The Beatles (album) (the ‘White Album’) 50th Anniversary Edition as the Esher Demos CD.

Harrison was the first Beatle to own or use a Moog synthesizer, and he recorded “Under the Mersey Wall” with his Moog at Kinfauns. The track filled one side of his Electronic Sound album, released in May 1969.

Kinfauns was where police arrested Boyd and Harrison in March 1969, for hashish possession, as Lennon and Yoko Ono had been months earlier while staying at Starr’s flat at Montagu Square in London. Both couples insisted the drugs found had been planted on the premises.

Last updated on June 26, 2021

Songs recorded

The Beatles Bible

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.

Have a look at https://www.beatlesbible.com/1968/05/24/demo-recordings-for-the-white-album/