I have had it up to here waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered

ok one concrete thing: amazing drumming all over this record and the remix really brings it out

finally listened to all these and damn this is otm. ppl who diss Ringo are insane, I would kill to have a drummer that heavy and fluid.

totally.

Thirded. It’s almost as if they are repeating something they heard somebody say and haven’t actually bothered to listen to the records.

Never trust a drummer who disses Ringo

I heard a great story from a friend - maybe this is common knowledge? - about the writing of "Ob-la di, ob-la-da." John was apparently totally smacked out when Paul presented the song to him. Paul was struggling with how it should begin, and supposedly John roused himself over to the piano and goes "why don't you just start it like this?" and did the little introduction bit before slumping into a haze again.

I've heard that story though not with the smack bit..

I just read past those sessions in the Complete Beatles Recording Sessions book, and it doesn’t mention it (not surprising in a book with an intro by McCartney). But I think it did say that multiple studio staff remember the ob-la-first sessions as the starting point of bickering, beginning of the end, etc.

They first recorded a version of it with the three of them playing acoustic guitars. That version had session player overdubs and everything.

The Lennon on piano version was the second attempt.

July 8, 1968, ob-la-di, ob-la-da, takes 1-12, studio 2, 5pm-3am

Richard Lush: "after about four or five nights doing 'ob-la-di, ob-la-da', john lennon came to the session really stoned, totally out of it on something or other, and he said 'Alright, we're gonna do 'ob-la-di, ob-la-da'. he went straight to the piano and smashed the keys with an almighty amount of volume, twice the speed of how they'd done it before, and said 'this is IT! come ON!" he was really aggravated. that was the version they ended up using."

as regretful as it may seem now, the beatles' split in 1970 was acrimonious, and many observers attribute the break-up to having started during sessions for The Beatles. to a man, the staff working with the group inside Abbey Road confirm this. the sessions were becoming tangibly tense and fraught, and tempers were being lost more easily and more frequently than ever before. it should be stressed that not all sessions were conducted in this atmosphere, but certainly a good many were. and they would continue in this way until the end of the group."

sorry, that's unclear: the part i just quoted was takes 1-12 of the remake - as tim mentioned, they started with session players on previous days, and then ditched those before starting the remake.

Was Nicky Hopkins one of the session men?

I don't think so; I believe the only Beatles session Hopkins played on was "Revolution" (the single/b-side version).

The best version of Revolution is the TV performance

Great version yeah, although i always thought they were miming to a backing track on that but maybe singing live. Maybe it's all live though i dunno.

Like the "Hey Jude" from the same show, they're singing live, but miming playing.

Yeah, but the extra vocals add just that special somethin imo

I agree, the "shoobeedoobee" etc. is a great addition, and Paul really goes for it with his "alright!"s near the end.

The « shoobeedooha » are on the album version too but yeah that « live » version is fantastic, dirty, loud, exciting and indeed Paul is awesome on it. One of their greatest moments imo.

Proving it was possible to shoot a great performance of the band at Twickenham !

Now I’m wondering if there’s a mix of that version that includes Paul and George’s backing vocals.

(a studio mix, I mean)

is I Want You/She's So Heavy a Zeppelin pastiche (Dazed and Confused, How Many More Times etc.)?

always wondered about/suspected something like that

hum. interesting. I always thought it was influenced by Santana and like Deep Purple.
But LZ would make sense too.

They absolutely succeeded at recording a long song

Ha, exactly

it's not just that it's long - the riff at the end is sort of an ascending inversion of the descending Dazed and Confused riff, and has the same general tempo/rhythm.

Dazed and Confused also flirts with tedium

haha yeah it is uh not my favorite Zep tune

I'm not sure how aware the Beatles would have been of Santana during the AR sessions, as Santana really wasn't known much outside of California until Woodstock and the release of their first album in August '69, which was when--after several months of work--the finishing touches were being put on "I Want You".

The verse part does have a bit of a Black Magic Woman groove, would they have been listening to early Fleetwood Mac?

John Paul Jones and Page were such insider London studio dudes I'm sure the Beatles would have known them

They surely knew The Yardbirds

They were definitely listening to Fleetwood Mac--"Sun King" was a particular nod to "Albatross".

who is playing organ on this I Want You/She's So Heavy outtake anyway? Is that Preston? cuz that playing is p wild.

Yep, Billy's on that and on "Something." Weirdly, he's not credited on the sleeve.

I mean, they co-credited him on a single -- the only non-Beatle to get that treatment -- but didn't list him in the thank-yous on Abbey Road...?

https://youtu.be/L1zQDMizcKw

Thanks for confirming that was Preston, was wondering the same thing this morning. That outtake version is so killer with the organ.

There's a story that has George asking Bonham why Zep never did ballads, and Page is said to have written Rain Song is response, with the opening a nod to "Something"

That outtake version is so killer with the organ.

it's definitely the most striking/interesting of the outtakes, a no-brainer to make it the opener

organ playing also reminded me of JPJ tbh. It's definitely not the way Paul, John or George played organ.

John Lennon on Led Zeppelin

Q: “Do you think in terms of feelings? Do you think of music, popular music, in terms of emotional reaction as opposed to saying something…”
JOHN: “I think in any of those terms. You know, I just think it’s either something I like or don’t like or it’s heavy or it’s light. I like heavy music, I call it rock. I like Zeppelin, I’ve only heard a couple you know, they’re okay.

Lennon said this about them :
“I don’t really know much of what they’re about. But one thing’s for sure, Jimmy Page is a bloody good guitarist”.

it's definitely the most striking/interesting of the outtakes, a no-brainer to make it the opener

I've only got the 2xCD version, where it lands closer to the middle, but still definitely my favorite of the outtakes I've heard.

I thought it was the of the outtakes in the tracklisting? idk

I'm not sure how aware the Beatles would have been of Santana during the AR sessions, as Santana really wasn't known much outside of California until Woodstock and the release of their first album in August '69, which was when--after several months of work--the finishing touches were being put on "I Want You".

Ah yeah, thanks, I had never compared the dates. So "I Want You" is definitely not inspired by Santana then !

I've had it up to here with Peter Jackson's film being put back a year.

But not the Let It Be anniversary set, apparently.

Considering how often the Get Back project was delayed in 1969, I suppose it's only fitting the film is as well.