Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles by Kenneth Womack

Author:Kenneth Womack [Womack, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: art, popular culture, Biography & Autobiography, music, history, Europe, Great Britain, General, History & Criticism, Recording & Reproduction, Genres & Styles, Rock
ISBN: 9781501746857
Google: ktIWwwEACAAJ
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2019-11-15T23:49:00.023812+00:00

Several months later, Lennon revisited “Mean Mr. Mustard” yet again. Seizing the opportunity to contribute to the huge medley, Lennon proposed that his unfinished songs be captured as a single track. In so doing, they would not only serve the purposes of the musical suite but also share in the unfolding character studies that the medley was beginning to accrue. As with “Golden Slumbers” and “Carry That Weight,” Lennon’s plan called for “Sun King” and “Mean Mr. Mustard” to be recorded without interruption. By this point, Lennon had slated “Polythene Pam,” yet another unfinished composition, for inclusion in the huge medley. To accommodate this song, he deftly altered the lyrics of “Mean Mr. Mustard” to establish a sense of narrative coherence. As he later remarked, “In ‘Mean Mr. Mustard,’ I said ‘his sister Pam’—originally it was ‘his sister Shirley’ in the lyric. I changed it to Pam to make it sound like it had something to do with it.”5

Work commenced on “Sun King” and “Mean Mr. Mustard” during a seven-hour session in Studio 2 on Thursday, July 24. With Martin up in the booth with his production team—which now included the regular trio of Emerick, McDonald, and Kurlander—the Beatles performed the song pair as a single recording. As Emerick later observed, “there is a slight gap between the two songs,” so they could have easily captured each song as an individual recording, but at Lennon’s direction they opted to render them as a single work. “Knowing in advance that they would be sequenced in that order, John made the decision to play through both of them in one go, which made it a little more of a challenge to the band’s musicianship.”6

As was typical, the Beatles began the session by establishing a basic track that included Lennon’s guide vocal and rhythm guitar, Harrison’s lead guitar, McCartney’s bass, and Starr’s drums. At one point, the convivial session broke into a jam session, albeit a far more precise and well-played version than the frequent fits and stops during the Get Back days, when they often suspended their work on new compositions in favor of rock and roll oldies. For the moment, they seemed to have regained the fervor and attack of “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care,” their Elvis Presley jam during the White Album sessions. On this day, they erupted into a trio of Gene Vincent tunes, including “Be-Bop-a-Lula,” “Who Slapped John?” and “Ain’t She Sweet,” a throwback from the Beatles’ Hamburg days. They likely hadn’t performed the latter tune since June 1961, when they recorded it as “The Beat Brothers,” Tony “The Teacher” Sheridan’s backing band, which was produced by German orchestra leader Bert Kaempfert at Friedrich-Ebert-Halle studio and featured Lennon on vocals, along with McCartney, Harrison, and Pete Best on drums. In the July 1969 version, Lennon performed “Ain’t She Sweet” with a perceptibly gravelly voice and took comical liberties with the lyrics (he may have simply forgotten them), at one point singing “I ask you very hydro-follicky.”

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