Friday, October 10, 2014

"Help!" Outtakes

On April 13 1965, The Beatles entered EMI Studio2 to begin working on their latest movie title track "Help!". We have a lot of the various takes used during the recording process. I have included some of them at the bottom of the post via "Youtube".
The first take 1 breaks down and has all four Beatles playing on the song with John on acoustic, George on electric, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums.
Take 2 has Paul fiddling on bass before the song starts and then they get through half the first verse before stopping. The guitars fiddle a bit and another take is attempted. This time they get through the first verse, chorus, second verse and chorus, third verse and chorus and end. Take 3 ends at the second verse when John changes his chords a little early. Take 4 makes it through the entire song without George on electric due to the fact that he has problems trying to fit in the chorus arpeggios and it is suggested that he fit them in as an overdub (which he eventually does). Take 5 is also good although it is realized that the acoustic is starting to go out of tune. Take 6 stops less than a minute into the attempt. The guitar is tuned and The Beatles resume with take 7. Unfortunately, his guitar keeps going slightly out of tune and take 8 is stopped as well. Take 9 would become the basic track for overdubs. Both vocals (double tracked) and George's guitar are overdubbed to take 9. Tambourine is added to the vocal tracks as well.
There are various mixes available and a different vocal is heard for the mono mixes on the single and LP (in the UK). Three mono mixes include the production mix including tambourine and the original vocals in the introduction of the song, the second mix is the film mix whereby the intro is double tracked. The third is single tracked in the intro and no tambourine which is the single mix. The stereo mix has single track-original vocals and tambourine.
The entire session can be found on various bootlegs including "Turn Me On Dead Man" (CD), "The Beatles At Abby Road" (LP), "Ultra Rare Trax, Volume 3 and 4"(LP), "Hold Me Tight" (CD), "Unsurpassed Masters, Volume 6"(CD", etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wUTQ4W3V7Y

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