The music
At 5'03", A Day In The Life was longer than anything The Beatles had previously released. John Lennon's vocal were smothered in tape echo, his lines 'answered' by Starr with a series of intuitive drum fills.
I only have one rule and that is to play with the singer. If the singer's singing, you don't really have to do anything, just hold it together. If you listen to my playing, I try to become an instrument; play the mood of the song. For example, 'Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire,' – boom ba bom. I try to show that; the disenchanting mood. The drum fills are part of it.
While recording A Day In The Life, The Beatles knew that something would fill the sections after the "I'd love to turn you on" lines. They had their assistant Mal Evans count out 24 bars, with Lennon's piano notes climbing with each number.
To mark the beginning of the middle eight an alarm clock was sounded; although intended to be temporary, it worked well with Paul McCartney's middle section, and so was kept in the final version.
I said, 'We'll take 24 bars, we'll count it, we'll just do our song, and we'll leave 24 bare. You could actually hear Mal counting it out, with more and more echo because we thought it was kinda freaky.
McCartney also had the idea of filling the gaps with an orchestral build up. Forty musicians were employed at a total cost of £367 10s, and the passages were recorded four times via two synced tape machines – the first time such a feat had been achieved in a British studio.
George Martin and McCartney conducted the orchestral glissando, with Martin supplying some basic instructions to the musicians, many of whom were from the Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras.
At the very beginning I put into the musical score the lowest note each instrument could play, ending with an E major chord. And at the beginning of each of the 24 bars I put a note showing roughly where they should be at that point. Then I had to instruct them. 'We're going to start very very quietly and end up very very loud. We're to start very low in pitch and end up very high. You've got to make your own way up there, as slidey as possible so that the clarinets slurp, trombones gliss, violins slide without fingering any notes. And whatever you do, don't listen to the fellow next to you because I don't want you to be doing the same thing.' Of course they all looked at me as though I was mad...
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
McCartney explained how the musicians' personalities came out in their playing.
It was interesting because I saw the orchestra's characters. The strings were like sheep – they all looked at each other: 'Are you going up? I am!' and they'd all go up together, the leader would take them all up. The trumpeters were much wilder. The jazz guys, they liked the brief. The musicians with the more conventional instruments would behave more conventionally.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
At the end of the orchestral recording, the musicians broke into spontaneous applause. After they had left the studio, The Beatles and a number of friends attempted to record an ending for A Day In The Life. Initially this was to be a hummed vocal chord, taking 11 attempts to get right.
Twelve days later it was replaced by the famous crashing piano chord. Lennon, McCartney, Starr and Mal Evans shared three pianos and simultaneously played an E major chord. They needed to hit the keys at exactly the same time, and take nine was the best, lasting 53 seconds.
My Aunt gave me a copy of Sgt Pepper when I was 7 and I got to know it inside out during my formative years as a gifted air guitarist. I was always fascinated how the album ended with this song, it was so jarring. Like the ending of the Planet of the Apes (1968). A few years later I was a paperboy and delivered the news of Lennon’s assassination. For several days I listened to this song and stared at his picture on the cover, and read over the lyrics in disbelief.
Awesome album/song, like EVERY album/song The Beatles wrote. RIP John and George !!
George plays guitar, at least on the first take. You can clearly hear John Lennon say, “my maracas” in the Anthology version. Geoff Emerick is known to overlook George’s contribution to the Beatles’ songs.
Geoff Emerick says in an interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5caf6mAACA that it is John who siings the “Ahhhhhhhh, ahhhhh, ah-ah-ahhhhhh;…” melody that links the middle section back to the last verse, but it is obvious to me when I listen to it that it is Paul´s voice.
Giles Martin says the basic track reveals John sings the main melody and Paul does a falsetto harmony. So they are both on it.
PLEASE give me a direct Giles Martin-quote and a source of that, James, because that would surprise me a LOT.
It would also cost GM a LOT of credibility, but I don’t expect it to be true, anyway.
James, I found a long interview with Giles Martin and he says it’s PAUL doing the “aaaahs” (Sorry, this is the German version):
“Pauls Main-Vocal-Spur ist stereo, weil wir ihr mit dem Waves S1 Stereo Imaging Plug-in etwas Spannweite gegeben haben, daher klingt sie anders als Johns Lead-Stimme. Wir haben auch zwei kleine Stückchen abgespalten, um die Möglichkeit zu haben, sie links und rechts zu pannen. Seine vierte Vocal-Spur ist die ›Aaah‹-Sektion, und darunter ist eine ›Aaah‹-Delay-Aux-Spur.«
Source: https://www.soundandrecording.de/stories/neu-gemischt-beatles-meisterwerk-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band/
I used to think that was Paul too but although this section of the song hasn’t been discussed much it really is Johns handiwork. Albeit with some distortion.
sounds like john to me
per: Thanks for that video. I just WISH someone had played Geoff the actual record right there – so instead of repeating his (fabricated) story from the book he’d heard Paul singing! That would have made him scratch his head! 😉
Everyone believing that Geoff – God bless him, great man! – actually did remember all these little details about the sessions told in “his” book should check that infamous interview of his from several decades earlier where he remembered less than Jon Snow! http://www.angelfire.com/planet/beatlesrecording/GeoffEmerick1979.html?fbclid=IwAR2TxcY_vxHAfoV8CrJr8j_TxDo9ay9MBwQuSuX5Vwf1vtE0ruMBr6kOVP4
I could actually hear the dog whistle, the 15 kilocycle tone after the E chord on piano faded out, when I was younger.
I could too, very clearly, and always wondered why people referred to it as only audible to dogs (and other animals). Now I’m 41, and my hearing’s not as sharp, and I can’t hear it unless I crank up the volume (plus my tinnitus gives me a constant high-pitched ringing anyway!).
A whistling dog, that´s quite someting.
The “Ahhhhhhhh, ahhhhh, ah-ah-ahhhhhh;…” it is John. I wasn’t there, but it sounds like him. No doubt about it.
Finally the drumming sound of Ringo is maybe the most incredible thing on this track !
When I was in college, during the school year from ’72 to ’73 my two roommates and I would play Sgt. Peppers every day at 4:30. It never got old (and hasn’t yet!) There were, of course, endless discussions about ADITL (including some of the PID variety.) And, as was mentioned above, about why ADITL ended the album instead of the SPLHCB reprise. Why didn’t SPLHCB and the reprise bookend the album?, etc. Of course, with no internet and none of the books having been written yet there were a lot of “facts” that later proved wrong. Although I do remember one friend who knew somebody that was associated with Abbey Road studio who told him the bit about how John was referring to a$$holes with the line “holes to fill the Albert Hall.” Anyway, thank you to everyone for the links, book mentions, and tidbits to listen for.
I’ve just learned about this gem of a historical document — the response by the chief executive of the Royal Albert Hall to the allegation that their venue was afflicted with 4,000 holes!
That was an April Fools post, but nicely done by the RAH. Check the publication date.
Ah well… and as a professional historian, I shouldn’t have been so gullible! A masterful hoax, though, one I imagine John would have enjoyed. (Although — and this should have been the tip-off — his own response would surely have reached greater heights of wit and hilarity!)
Geoge did nothing more than shake maracas? Seriously?