Monday, April 17, 2017

The "Get Back/Let It Be" Project January 3 1969

As the day began at Twickenham Film Studios in London, The Beatles continued work on their new project with Paul beginning the morning playing some piano improvisations until the others arrived. The main focus of the morning once everything got started was John's "Don't Let Me Down" and Paul's "I've Got A Feeling" and a bit of work going through "Two of Us" as well before a break.
In the afternoon, most of the focus for the band was running through the George composition "All Things Must Pass" which would not feature on a Beatles' LP but was obviously the title track recorded for George's solo album almost two years later. A new Paul composition "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was also begun with Paul teaching the band the chords for the new song.
Some of Paul's improve on the piano and some of Paul showing the chords to the band for "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" can be seen in the "Let It Be" film.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

The "Get Back/Let It Be" Project January 02 1969

The month of January 1969 was put aside for a new Beatles project. The plan was to record an upcoming live show and to film the rehearsals leading up to this show. In the meantime, it seems that new songs had been written and the rehearsals eventually led up to songs for a new LP.
The venue for filming consisted of a hangar at Twickenham Film Studios in London, England. The start of the project was January 02 1969 and the filming was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and the sound would be engineered by Glyn Johns although George Martin would be present certain times during the month to review the audio.
Visual footage from this first day can be seen in the (still unreleased) "Let It Be" movie where there is a scene of Mal Evans setting up the equipment. The song that were worked on include "Two Of Us", "Don't Let Me Down" and "I've Got a Feeling".

Saturday, April 1, 2017

The "Is This What You Want" Sessions

In mid October to the end of the year 1968, George Harrison participated in the recording sessions for the Jackie Lomax LP "Is this What You Want" for Apple records. George, Jackie and Mal Evans traveled to Los Angeles to work at Sound Records in L.A. to produce the sessions. We have George on guitar as well as some of the "wrecking crew" recording personnel such as Larry Knechtel on keys and Hal Blaine on drums with Joe Osborne on bass. Three tunes containing the aforementioned line up included "Take My Word", the title track and "Speak To Me". Orchestral strings were added at the end of that month.
Fast forward to December 1968 and we see some of the session continue with the musicians consisting of Eric Clapton, George and Ringo producing the song "You've Got Me Thinking" as well as the addition of horns for various tunes from the LP.
Also in mid December 1968, John and Yoko are filmed sitting on a bench at Coventry Cathedral dressed all in black with John strumming his acoustic guitar and singing his latest composition "Everybody Had A Hard Year" which of course would develop into the addition to Paul's "I've Got A Feeling" for the Get Back/Let It Be sessions the following month.