In the studio
The Beatles began recording A Day In The Life on 19 January 1967, initially with the working title In The Life Of... Four takes were attempted of the rhythm track – bongos, maracas, piano and guitar. Onto the fourth take were added three vocal overdubs by John Lennon, along with high levels of tape echo.
There was so much echo on A Day In The Life. We'd send a feed from John's vocal mike into a mono tape machine and then tape the output – because they had separate record and replay heads- and then feed that back in again. Then we'd turn up the record level until it started to feed back on itself and give a twittery sort of vocal sound. John was hearing that echo in his cans as he was singing. It wasn't put on after. He used his own echo as a rhythmic feel for many of the songs he sang, phrasing his voice around the echo.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
On this first day Mal Evans counted out the bars in the instrumental sections, and sounded the alarm clock. Paul McCartney had yet to write the words for the middle passage, so it was left as an instrumental at this point.
The next day A Day In The Life, as it was now known, received more overdubs: another Lennon vocal, plus bass from McCartney and drums from Ringo Starr. McCartney also added a vocal for the middle section. This was re-recorded on 3 February, but can be heard on the Anthology 2 collection.
Along with McCartney's new vocals, 3 February also saw the re-recording of the drum and bass parts, all originally taped on 20 January. It was at this point that Starr's distinctive tom-tom fills were added.
We persuaded Ringo to play tom-toms. It's sensational. He normally didn't like to play lead drums, as it were, but we coached him through it. We said, 'Come on, you're fantastic, this will be really beautiful,' and indeed it was.
Anthology
10 February was the day the orchestra recorded the climactic instrumental passages. The day's recording was filmed, but the resulting footage remained unseen until a short passage appeared in the Anthology series.
The musicians wore evening dress, along with fancy dress items including red noses, bald wigs and novelty glasses. Erich Guenberg, leader of the violins, wore a gorilla paw on his bow hand. Friends of The Beatles, including Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Mike Nesmith and Donovan, were also present for what was intended as an event.
The song was finally completed on 22 February, when the final crashing piano chord was recorded. This took nine attempts to get right, and was overdubbed three times with more pianos and a harmonium played by George Martin.
Geoff Emerick was in charge of recording the instruments. To capture every last droplet of sound – including the rustling of paper and a squeaking chair – he used heavy compression and careful manipulation of the faders.
By the end the attenuation was enormous. You could have heard a pin drop.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
The BBC ban
I had this sequence that fitted, 'Woke up, fell out of bed', and we had to link them. This was the time of Tim Leary's 'Turn on, tune in, drop out' and we wrote, 'I'd love to turn you on.' John and I gave each other a knowing look: 'Uh-huh, it's a drug song. You know that, don't you?'
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
A week before the release of Sgt Pepper, the BBC's director of sound broadcasting, Frank Gillard, wrote to EMI head Sir Joseph Lockwood with the news that the corporation was banning A Day In The Life due to the refrain "I'd love to turn you on".
Gillard’s letter, dated 23 May 1967, read:
I never thought the day would come when we would have to put a ban on an EMI record, but sadly, that is what has happened over this track. We have listened to it over and over again with great care, and we cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that the words “I’d love to turn you on”, followed by that mounting montage of sound, could have a rather sinister meaning.The recording may have been made in innocence and good faith, but we must take account of the interpretation that many young people would inevitably put upon it. “Turned on” is a phrase which can be used in many different circumstances, but it is currently much in vogue in the jargon of the drug-addicts. We do not feel that we can take the responsibility of appearing to favour or encourage those unfortunate habits, and that is why we shall not be playing the recording in any of our programmes, Radio or Television.
I expect we shall meet with some embarrassment over this decision, which has already been noted by the Press. We will do our best not to appear to be criticising your people, but as you will realise, we do find ourselves in a very difficult position. I thought you would like to know why we have, most reluctantly, taken this decision.
The Beatles hit back at the decision, with Paul McCartney telling reporters: "The BBC have misinterpreted the song. It has nothing to do with drug taking. It’s only about a dream." John Lennon added: "The laugh is that Paul and I wrote this song from a headline in a newspaper. It’s about a crash and its victim. How can anyone read drugs into it is beyond me. Everyone seems to be falling overboard to see the word drug in the most innocent of phrases."
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?