Saturday, November 25, 2017

"Old Brown Shoe/Something" Sessions

On April 16 1969, The Beatles entered Studio 3 at EMI in London in order to record some George Harrison compositions. After listening to a recorded demo of "Old Brown Shoe", four takes of the song with Ringo on Drums, Paul on piano, George on guitar and vocals and John on guitar were completed. Overdubs included John and Paul on backing vocals, Paul adding his bass with George doubling some of the lines with Paul on his guitar. Lastly, George re-did his lead vocals.
The next attempt was laying a basic track for "Something" with George on guitar, George Martin on piano, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums. It took 13 takes - but the song would be returned to in May of that year. At the end of the session, there was an attempt to mix "Old Brown Shoe" for stereo.
Two days later on April 18 1969, George Harrison with Chris Thomas as producer returned to Studio 3 at EMI in order to add the guitar solo in the middle of the song played by George as well as having George add an organ to the song, effectively erasing John's earlier guitar track. The song would be mixed into stereo after 19 attempts and would be originally released as the B-side to the commercial Apple single "The Ballad Of John and Yoko".
"Old Brown Shoe" would later be available on various Apple/EMI compilation LPs including "The Beatles Again", "The Beatles 1967-1970", "Past Masters Vol. 1 and 2", etc. The song remains available in stereo only and was never mixed in mono. Any claimed mono mixes are simply a stereo "fold down".

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