Beatles : the "original" version of the Abbey Road medley with Her majesty

[JF]

at my work, one of our activities is to publish articles on this site dedicated to culture :

http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/


one of my collegues (named also JF), fan of the beatles (among many other artists), wrote an article about a french book which anlalyses every Beatles' songs, one by one in chronological order :

http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/les-beatles-la-totale-les-fab-four-chanson-par-chanson-en-650-pages-144077
(note that the pic he chose, is one with George in the front, his fav beatle, like me)



I read some pages, and learned something about the song her majesty, something I didn't know, maybe some of you already knew this :

in the first recording, the song was included in the b side medley, between Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam.
Indeed,  at the beginning of Her majesty, you can clearly hear the end chord of Mean Mr Mustard, and the starting chord of Polythene Pam is the ending chord of Her Majesty (that's why the song ends abruptly)
I never paid any attention to this before.

For some reasons, Paul asked the sound engineer (I beleiev Geoff Emerick, but not sure) to cut Her majesty, and to delete it.

But the rule at EMI studios was to not delete any recording (specially Beatles' recordings), and to keep everything.

So the sound engineer cut the track, and as it was another rule at EMI studios, added a 20s blank tape at the start ("amorce" in french, can't find the english word) and put it on a shelf.

The album version was mixed with the edit : Polythene Pam pasted just after Mean Mr Mustard.

But another engineer came and found the tape of Her majesty and believed that it had to been added to the master.
So he added it at the end of the mix, after the end, but with the 20s "amorce" tape

Then the beatles came in studio to listen to the final mix, and discovered the surprise :  her majesty after the end, with 20s blank.

Paul found that it was a nice surprise and decided to keep it on the final mix, but without note it on the sleeve.

That's why the vinyl version of Abbey road doesn't mention her majesty. the song is known as the first hidden track in rock history.

My colleague didn't hear it during decades, because at the end of the end, he used to stop his vynil platine, so he never knew the song until the late 80ies when the CD was released with the booklet including the track name ! (he had the same thing with the track at the end of sergent pepper, the one for dogs, with ultra-sounds)


anyway, the main thing is that when I read this, I had to hear how it would have sounded. I listened to my CD and tried to swap between tracks...and indeed I heard the chords thing, but to really hear it, I made a little edit on Nero wave editor, and wooww !! it REALLY sounds nice ! I would have prefer this version, and the album ending on the end, as it was supposed to be. so symbolic for the last track of the last beatles' record.

By searching on YT today, I found that, of course, other people had the same idea and did it.

So, for those interested, I wanted share it with you :

 


 

[Jules]

Nice story. Actually I thought that it was very weird to end the wonderful medley that ends the real last Beatles records with "Her Majesty", butits a interesting story!

[Justme]

Thanks for the info. Gonna listen to it in the evening.

[Tally]

Fascinating stuff!

The medley is absolutely sublime. I too have thought about the appropriateness of Her Majesty showing up after it all, but hey, it's the Beatles! They were always full of surprises.

[twm]

I would guess that "amorce" would be "leader tape" in English. It is a section of blank tape - non-magnetic, so that it cannot be used for recording. See here:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leader%20tape

As well as separating sections of recorded material, marking the beginnings (and sometimes ends) of recordings, bits of leader tape were also used to protect the ends of recordings both from deterioration (as recording tape could be physically fragile) and also from the fingers of engineers and others when that piece of tape was threaded on to a playback machine. Sometimes, you will find reference to a recording tape being "leadered" - that is, when a piece of leader tape is attached to the beginning of a section of magnetic recording tape.

That was an interesting story, by the way. I don't think I've heard the story before but, if I have, I had forgotten it, so thanks for repeating it here.

I hope I haven't mentioned this before but, a couple of weeks ago, mrs twm and I attended the official launch of Mark Lewisohn's new book on The Beatles (actually, Volume One of three books). The event took place at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (the former Liverpool Institute school that Paul and George attended) which is adjacent to Liverpool art college (that John attended at the same time). And we also got a chance to tour the latter building, which is about to be renovated, just before the launch. Earlier in the day, we took the minibus tour out to John and Paul's childhood homes, which turned out to be much more interesting than I had anticipated.  A really enjoyable day.

In other threads, I have mentioned perfomers that I have seen live in the past. On this occasion, I can advise that mrs twm saw The Beatles live and still has the concert programme book somewhere. We did, however, attend several performances by The Scaffold, one of whose members was Mike (Paul's brother). At one of these concerts,  Paul was there with Jane Asher and her parents. They were close enough that, even though they entered in the darkness after the start of the performance, mrs twm spotted them straightaway. In the interval, the four of them stood together in the lobby chatting but nobody wanted to be so "uncool" as to stand close to them. There was this distinct space all around them - a "cordon sanitaire", as we Brits and the French say.

[Fletch]

The story (I believe) was first recounted in Lewishams first big Beatles book - the complete recording sessions! I have an old beaten up copy.
The story goes, 2nd Engineer John kurlander finished some remixes and cross fades and Paul heard the medley for the first time on 30July1969, according to Kurlander he said, "I don't like Her Majesty, throw it away."
John says he cut it out but accidentally left in the last note as it was only a rough mix anyway. John asked what he should do with it and Paul replied again, "Throw it away."

In johns words,
"I'd been told never to throw anything away, so after he left I picked it up off the floor put about 20 seconds of red leader tape before it and stuck it onto the end of the edit tape.... even though I'd written on the box that HM was unwanted (Malcom Davies) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence... but when Paul got the lacquer he liked hearing Her Majesty tacked on the end."

Highly recommended book.

[JF]

many thanks twm and Flecth for your informations/precisions 

yes leader tape is the english word, I could'nt find it on translation.

Flecth, you explained the story very well, far better than me 
(hard for me to remember exactly what I read last week, and trying to explain it in my non-native language...)

it seems that the french book "les beatles la totale" is a translation of Lewisohn's complete recordings sessions ?

I couldn't find any "official" relation between the 2 books :

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lewisohn#Ouvrages_sur_les_Beatles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Beatles_Recording_Sessions
http://livre.fnac.com/a6211809/Jean-Michel-Guesdon-Les-Beatles-la-totale

but as it seems that many books like this one were written, so...

[vgonis]

Thanks JF for bringing it to my attention! Never heard this story before! The accidents in a studio actually shape the product and in a way culture itself. Since Sg.Pepper was issued before Abbey road, the  first hidden track must be the dog whistle even though inaudiable to human ears and only for  dogs in England since only the UK edition has it.

[JF]

since only the UK edition has it.

I dodn't know this.

I have the french CD edition and it features the "loop" at the end, long after the final chord of Day in the life. I believe that the "ultrasounds" are mixed into this sound, no ?

do you mean that only the UK LP edition featured this "track" ?

Or am I mistaken and are the "ultrasounds" a different "track"  from this loop ?

[ds1984]

since only the UK edition has it.

I dodn't know this.

I have the french CD edition and it features the "loop" at the end, long after the final chord of Day in the life. I believe that the "ultrasounds" are mixed into this sound, no ?

do you mean that only the UK LP edition featured this "track" ?

Or am I mistaken and are the "ultrasounds" a different "track"  from this loop ?

The UK edition refer to the original 1967 LP.

And it has to be checked because Australian pressing were dupe of the UK motherstamp so actually it is possible that some non UK pressing did also have this feature.  Fact is that the original US Sgt Pepper LP has not although being the [edit] first [edit] Beatles US album released with the same tracklist as the UK one.

Later UK reedition of the lp did also omit this short track at the end and it was put back at the time of the cd release.

[vgonis]

Spot on ds1984!

[Fletch]

The CD replication of the 'loop' is just plain silly imo. The loop was designed to annoy people who's record player arms didn't lift off from the end groove - which was common back then, instead of the auto return arms of all record players now.
Having a cd loop that fades out is just stupid. I don't like it's 'pretend' nature.

Incidentally, Sergeant Pepper should be listened to in mono, it's far superior to the lame stereo mixes and remasters. If you can't get a mono LP (which would be rare these days in good condition) then I recommend the Mono remasters from a few years back on cd.
The Beatles in stereo only makes sense from 1968 onwards. Yet the majority have never heard these classic records how they were originally mixed and MEANT to sound.

[JF]

I like the loop at th CD end
typically John' humor, nonsense, etc..

Of course you are right, it makes more sense on a LP, but on the other hand, I thinks it's a good thing to hear on a CD what was on the LP.

Some years ago, as a joke, a french band (I think Noir Desir but not sure) included a noise miming the turn to the B side in the middle of CD tracks, to remember that during vynil days, you had to take a pause between the 2 sides.

About stereo /mono, I believe that Beatles with George Martin experimented a lot with stereo during 66-68 era. The first that comes to mind is when i'm 64 mixed in a very strange way : the bass in the center, Paul on a channel, and other intsruments on the other channel. Strange, but I think it was part of the experimentation "flavour" of Sgt Pepper

As for a  day in the life, I like it a lot in stereo. If you use headphones, you will hear that all instruments/voice are changing channels between the start and the end of the song. I find that it adds to the "mystery" of the song, but maybe is it because I don't understand all lyrics 


and (a little bit) off topic : during years I never understood how play the rhtyhm part of Revolution. On the orignial mix I heard only one rhythm guitar.
But when listening to "Love", I finally understood : ther are 2 rhyhtm guitars, but they were mixe on the same channel.
so even after 68, the beatles stereo mix weren't always "good ideas" I may say

[yontwocrows]

Great story, thanks

[ds1984]

The stereo vs mono debate.

Remember that until the White album session they did record on a 4 track machine so doing stereo recording with such equipment was just plain nonsense.

Stereo was a marketing thing and stereo playback machine then had nothing to do with later 70's Hi-Fi evolution.
Remember that Beatles record was intended primarily for UK market. US was another thing.
So Beatles recording were intended in mono and the stereo mix were made afterwards. PPM was even released in stereo over one month after the mono.
When the first portable stereo machine did appear with loudspeaker being separated only by a few inch, combined with the fact that only four tracks were available to work from, George Martin did decide that getting voices on one side and instrument on the other one would give the better possible stereo separation.
The change has come during the recording of the White album when Abbey Road studio did feature 8 tracks machines thus allowing to mix with stereo in mind. But the White Album remains basically a mono minded recording (although released only in stereo in some countries, like the US).

Please note that for the 2009 remasters, the mono and the stereo mix were not treated the same : the mono one had no limiting/clipping applied while the stereo had. So the stereo may sound louder than its mono counterpart.