Tuesday, August 13, 1968
Recording "Sexy Sadie", "Yer Blues"
For The Beatles
Last updated on October 26, 2024
Tuesday, August 13, 1968
For The Beatles
Last updated on October 26, 2024
"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
Session Aug 12, 1968 • Recording and mixing "Not Guilty"
Session Aug 12, 1968 • Session with Drew And Dy
Session Aug 13, 1968 • Recording "Sexy Sadie", "Yer Blues"
Session Aug 14, 1968 • Recording and mixing "Yer Blues", recording and mixing "What's The New Mary Jane"
Article Mid-August 1968 • Paul McCartney invites Linda Eastman to London
AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "The Beatles (Mono)" LP
On this day, The Beatles undertook a second remake of “Sexy Sadie” (the first version was recorded on July 19, 1968, and the first remake on July 24.) They completed eight takes, numbered from take 100, featuring John Lennon on electric guitar and guide vocals, Paul McCartney on piano with an echo effect, George Harrison on tambourine, and Ringo Starr on drums.
Take 107 was deemed the best. Subsequently, four reduction mixes were created, numbered 108 to 111. At that time, take 111 was deemed the best, but on August 21, a new reduction mix was created and overdubs were added.
This is another of John’s bluesy story ballads and he backs himself on Gibson acoustic guitar. George plays Gibson electric and the pianist is Paul. Sexy Sadie (“the latest and the greatest of them all”) made a fool of everyone.
Mal Evans – From the Beatles Monthly Book, N°64, November 1968
Following their work on “Sexy Sadie,” The Beatles began recording another composition by John Lennon, “Yer Blues,” opting to do so in Room 2A, next to the control room of EMI Studios’ Studio Two.
George [Harrison] had this idea that he wanted to do it in the control room with the speakers blasting, so that he got more of an on-stage feel…I remember that John Lennon came in at one point and I turned to him and said, ‘Bloody hell, the way you lot are carrying on you’ll be wanting to record everything in the room next door!’ The room next door was tiny, where the four-track tape machines were once kept, and it had no proper studio walls or acoustic set-up of any kind. Lennon replied, ‘That’s a great idea; let’s try it on the next number!’ The next number was ‘Yer Blues’ and we literally had to set it all up – them and the instruments – in this minute room. That’s how they recorded ‘Yer Blues,’ and it worked out great!
Ken Scott – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988
We had to fit all four of them in that tiny room and they literally couldn’t move. They had to find a position with their guitars and not move, or they would hit someone in the face or in the guitar. And that’s where we cut the track. So input came in a lot of different ways, and they were always up to trying anything new.
Ken Scott – from Interview: Ken Scott, Part 1: Recording with The Beatles & Inside the Studio – Premier Guitar, February 25, 2010
This is one of the things that makes you play great, when you’re packed together. We knew that in the Beatles. We always used to record in Abbey Road, Studio 2. But for “Yer Blues,” we were talking about this tightness, this packed-in-a-tin thing. So we got in a little cupboard – a closet that had microphone leads and things, with a drum kit, amps turned to the walls, one mic for John. We did “Yer Blues” live and it was really good.
Paul McCartney – from Paul McCartney Looks Back: The Rolling Stone Interview, August 2016
And “Yer Blues” on the White Album, you can’t top it. It was the four of us. That is what I’m saying: it was really because the four of us were in a box, a room about eight by eight, with no separation. It was this group that was together; it was like grunge rock of the Sixties, really – grunge blues.
Ringo Starr – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000
People that heard us in Liverpool and Hamburg, and on the early dates before we turned into just a mass scream, that’s how we played – heavy rock. But when it was put down on the early records, there was never enough bass in it, the guitar solo never came through, because we didn’t know about recording then. We sounded more like us on [the White Album]. We rid ourselves of the self-consciousness bit, so we were doing what we were doing earlier on, but with a better knowledge of the technique of recording. Quite a few of the tracks are just straight takes of us playing.
John Lennon in 1968 – From “The Beatles” Super Deluxe edition book (2018)
Fourteen takes were recorded, featuring John Lennon and George Harrison on electric guitars, Paul McCartney on bass, and Ringo Starr on drums. John also sang a guide vocal, which was not intended for recording but was incidentally picked up by other microphones in the small room. Paul joined in on certain parts, such as “Girl, you know the reason why.”
Take 5 was included in the 50th-anniversary re-release of the White Album in 2018.
Between takes 8 and 9, Paul took a break, during which the other three Beatles engaged in an instrumental jam.
At the end of the recording process, they were satisfied with takes 6 and 14. John and George recorded new guitar solos as overdubs on Take 6.
Two reductions of Take 6, labeled as takes 15 and 16, were then made, along with a reduction of Take 14, designated as Take 17. Takes 16 and 17 were then edited together, with Take 16 ending at 3:17 and spliced with the initial 0:41 of Take 17.
For the first time on a Beatles recording, the original four-track tape was itself edited (editing was usually done only at the two-track quarter-inch tape stage), bringing the beginning of take 17 onto the end of take 16. On the finished record the edit is quite clear: it occurs at 3’17” into the song and runs through to the fade-out.
From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988
The session began at 7 pm and ended at 5:30 am. Additional work on “Yer Blues” was done the following day.
A young American band, The Aerovons, while visiting London, managed to sneak into this Beatles’ session and observed the recording of “Yer Blues.” Their leader, Tom Harman, remembers:
I heard this horrendous, loud guitar, and I look over to my right and crammed into this tiny room were all four Beatles doing takes of ‘Yer Blues.’ I remember someone from the control room said something, and John said, ‘That’s okay as long as you’ve got the vocals,’ and everyone laughed.
Tom Hartman – From After 55 Years, the Aerovons Are Finally the Next Big Thing (riverfronttimes.com), April 18, 2024
Did you get to see the Fab Four play at Abbey Road?
We saw them singing “Old Brown Shoe” and I stood outside Studio 3 while John and Paul recorded “Ballad of John & Yoko.” I heard them working on “Sexy Sadie” on one of the earlier trips there, and I actually got to see them all recording “Yer Blues,” from just about 3 feet away, out in the hallway looking through the glass into the little room where they did that. Pretty stunning.
Tom Hartman – From The Strange Brew, 2011
Recording • Take 100
Recording • Take 101
Recording • Take 102
Recording • Take 103
Recording • Take 104
Recording • Take 105
Recording • Take 106
Recording • Take 107
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 107 into take 108
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 107 into take 109
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 107 into take 110
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 107 into take 111
Recording • Take 1
Recording • Take 2
Recording • Take 3
Recording • Take 4
Recording • Take 5
AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)
Recording • Take 6
Recording • Take 7
Recording • Take 8
Recording • Take 9
Recording • Take 10
Recording • Take 11
Recording • Take 12
Recording • Take 13
Recording • Take 14
Recording • SI onto Take 6
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 6 into take 15
Tape copying • Tape reduction take 6 into take 16
Tape copying • Tape reduction extract of take 14 into take 17
Editing • Editing of take 16 and take 17
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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