Saturday, June 16, 2018

Mixing "Across The Universe" For A Charity Album

Back in February 1968, a new single was required by the Beatles before they left for India. One of the songs considered but rejected was John Lennon's "Across The Universe". In the end, John agreed to donate the song for a charity album for the World Wildlife Fund.
Fast forward to January 1969 during the "Get Back/Let It Be" session and an acetate was played to the band to remind them of the song. At this point, the song was in mono and the mix from February 08 1968 was used for the acetate. You can also hear an attempt at the song by the band from January 1969 in the "Let It Be" film.
Fast forward (again) to March 1969 and Apple is thinking of releasing an EP of songs from the film "Yellow Submarine" and including "Across The Universe" as a bonus track. Again, the song was not used.
Finally, the acetate version of "Across The Universe" was used by George Martin on October 02 1969 in order to mix the song in stereo for the UK charity album entitled "No One's Gonna Change Our World" which would be released on December 12 1969. The song was sped up a half tone and animal/bird noises were added to the very beginning and near the end. Acoustic guitar/vocal in the middle surrounded by tamboura and backing vocals on one side and more acoustic, piano, maracas, etc. on the other side of the stereo spectrum.
You can find this version of the song on the UK only charity album as well as the UK version of "Rarities" and the US version of "Rarities" where it made it's first appearance (all of the above on vinyl). You can hear this version on "Past Masters Volume One and Two" (LP) and "Past masters Volume Two" (CD). A fold down mono version can be heard on the "Beatles in Mono" disc.



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