Sunday, January 11, 2015

"Day Tripper" Outtakes

"Day Tripper" was recorded by The Beatles on October 16 1965 from mid afternoon into the evening until midnight. There are three takes of the song; all of which are available.
The recording is quite economical in the sense that it has the two guitars, bass and drums line up and the overdubs in include lead and backing vocals along with tambourine by Ringo. Pretty straightforward stuff. "Day Tripper" would not end up on the "Rubber Soul" LP but would be part of the future single released less than two months later.
The first take is purely instrumental without vocals. The take goes as far as the middle section and then breaks down.
The second attempt at the song makes it only as far as the first verse where someone (maybe John) switches from the E to the A too early and the process stops again. Finally, the third take is the one kept and the one where the overdubs were added.
There are also two distinct stereo mixes for the song. The first mix was done for the US (who released the tune on the "Yesterday...and Today" LP) and it features a guitar starting on one channel with the other coming in on the next. The second mix was completed for the UK (who released the tune on the "A Collection of Beatles Oldies...But Goldies"/ "Past Masters" and " 1962-1966" LPs) and it features both guitars starting at the same time. Also , there seems to be a bit more reverb on the vocals for the UK mix. Anyway, the mono/ single mix is the best and last a few seconds longer than either of the stereo mixes mentioned above.
There is also a major glitch in the last verse after the build up of vocals. The guitar drops out for a half bar during the verse. This was fixed when the compilation disc "1" was released by taking a piece of the music from earlier in the song and editing it in. The stereo mix used on this disc is the same as the UK mix.
All three takes can be heard on the bootleg vinyl version of "Ultra Rare Trax: Volume 3 and 4". I've included a youtube version that contains takes 2 and 3 (with no fade out).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljH19g019MQ


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