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Here we enter what is probably the most confusing and turbulent part of the Beatles’ long recording career. These sessions were plagued by petty arguments and differences and in contrast to the quality of work that had undergone at Abbey Road Studios, these sessions were very poorly organised and the end result was initially very unsatisfactory. At the end of 1968, just after the brilliant white album had been released, it was evident that the Beatles were beginning to go their separate ways. Lennon and Harrison had both released solo albums(something which would have seemed impossible a year earlier), albeit discreetly which incidentally were not very widely acclaimed, particularly Lennon and Ono’s "Two Virgins" LP. With ideas running out rapidly, and sensing that this was to be one of their last projects together, they decided that their next and possibly final album should be made very simply and have a basic concept. The idea was to write an album, rehearse it in the studio and then record it totally live at a concert. The tapes from the concert would, have as little editing and production work as possible. Then, the four of them decided, following along the same lines as the original idea, to make a film documentary and an album, but film the process of making the album, including all the rehearsals and then finally, the live concert right at the end. This may have seemed like a very good idea, but unfortunately, due to poor management, the whole plan nearly fell apart. On January 2nd 1969, the four Beatles began rehearsing at Twickenham Film Studios in South West London. With them they brought their producer George Martin, various EMI engineers and a film crew which was in the command of the newly appointed director Michael Lindsey-Hogg. These sessions were only filmed and not recorded by EMI. They recorded about three hundred songs during January. They were at Twickenham for two weeks. There was a huge variety of songs which were recorded. One of the aims of the project was to help them return to their songwriting "roots" by recording old rock and roll numbers which had influenced them in the early days. However, unfortunately, these songs were not quality cover versions of the originals. Some only run through one line of the song and then breaks down into conversation or another song(many were recorded in medleys) or sometimes an impromptu jam. Eventually, George Harrison left the sessions on 10th January, but was persuaded back. After further rehearsing, all four felt that Twickenham was not a suitable place for them and they decided to go back into a real recording studio again. But which one? The Beatles had recently bought No.3 Saville Row, London. This was a large Georgian house which had apparently cost the group £500,000. It was to be the Apple Headquarters and had a large basement which was at the time of purchase, only being used as a projection room. The Beatles thought that it would be convenient if there could be a recording studio there, one of their own and so they would no longer have to use Abbey Road. The only place suitable for a recording studio was the basement. The task of converting it into a studio was handed over to "Magic Alex" Mardas, a friend of the group who was head of Apple Electronics. He made numerous promises about building them the most advanced studio in the world with even a electronic force field so that Ringo would not have to have those white screens in front of him to stop the noise from his drums being picked up on the other microphones. Not unexpectedly, he did not succeed and eventually his "brilliant" equipment was sold for £5 in a junk shop in Edgeware. He had not even bothered to install an intercom between the control room and the studio. By now everyone was extremely frustrated. The basement had not been designed for this type of use and it also had a very annoying buzzing sound as that was where the central heating for the whole building was controlled. However, recording did go ahead , but portable equipment from Abbey Road had to be brought down. Recording commenced on 22nd January and a great deal of work was done in the next few days. George Martin was still producing, but another engineer, who in reality co-produced alongside George Martin, was Glynn Johns. During these sessions, the Beatles invited another musician to play with them. His name was Billy Preston and he was at first a friend of George's, but soon became friends everyone. He was a distinguished keyboard player who had first met the Beatles when they were playing with Hamburg and he was playing with Little Richard's band. An example of his supreme talent can be found on the song "Get Back" where he plays brilliantly. He was in fact the first person actually considered part of the group in the recording studio, although he joined knowing that it was strictly on temporary basis.He played with them for these sessions and for a few at Abbey Road(he can be heard on some songs on the Abbey Road album). He also played with John and George on some of their solo albums. Recently he was a member of Ringo's All Starr Band. In the next few days, all the songs for the Let It Be album had been recorded along with countless other rock and roll oldies, some of these were even Beatles oldies such as Please Please Me and You Can’t Do That. As I said before, the Beatles did not always record the songs entirely and they were sometimes very poor quality. Apart from the songs on Let It Be and on Anthology 3, none of the hundreds of songs recorded have ever been released and very few people have heard them. They are of course nearly all available on bootlegs, but if one is looking for a specific song, these are sometimes very hard to find and also very expensive. The problem was that these sessions were so disorganised, not even take numbers were noted. However, Anthology 3 has some good songs, but still I do not understand why some of the others could not be released. As for the film, cameramen had continued to film the sessions and were now preparing for the big concert finale. But there was still no agreement as to where it should be. Possible venues which had been suggested were, The Roundhouse in London, The Coliseum in Rome or possible an amphitheatre in Greece. All of these were very costly options and because the Beatles were rapidly losing to impetus that kept them going, it was decided to go up on the roof of their building in London! The Apple staff were only told of their intentions about two days in advance, so not suprisingly, they were very worried about preparing the rooftop for the gig. At about lunchtime on 30th January, the Beatles and Billy Preston began making their way up to the roof. This was an informal, unauthorised gig, so it is not surprising that many people objected to it, especially as it was also in the heart of London; in Saville Row of all places! A makeshift stage had been set up on the roof. As it was a cold mid January afternoon, the Beatles were wearing thick coats and scarves. Ringo even wore Maureen’s red Mac. A crowd of people lucky enough on get ringside seats had gathered on the roof. The film crew were ready and away they went. The concert was recorded, by the way. The concert kicked into action with "Dig A Pony." Then came "Don’t Let Me Down." This was recorded twice and is in my opinion, the most beautiful song they ever recorded. Then came the Let It Be rocker, "I’ve got A Feeling". After that the brilliant "One After 909". After that was another take of "I’ve Got A Feeling". After that, the Beatles, just for fun played the national anthem, "God Save The Queen". Unfortunately, however, the tape was being changed during that song, so only a few seconds of it are available. The concert could be heard as far away as Piccadilly Circus and a huge crowd had gathered by now. The concert ended abruptly when someone phoned the police complaining that the noise was disrupting the business community. Little did they know they were stopping the Beatles last ever gig. So, the Beatles, decided to play one last son-"Get Back". They decided on this because it was to be their next single. It sounded brilliant. It can be found on Anthology 3. After they had finished, John Lennon famously said, "I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we’ve passed the audition!". So, that was the end of the Saville Row sessions. Recording was abandoned for two weeks until February 14th, when session work for Abbey Road commenced at EMI. As for the songs form Saville Row, Glynn Johns was instructed to prepare the Get Back album. He did this and it was ready for release in about June 1969. This album, which is available on bootleg today, was rather different for Let It Be in that it had an instrumental called "Rocker" on it, the full 12 minute version of Dig It(only 50 seconds can be heard on Let It Be. Most of the other songs from Let It Be were on, except "Across The Universe," "Maggie Mae" and of course, "The Long And Winding Road" did not have the massive overdubs by Phil Spector. The original can be found on Anthol. 3 or of course on bootleg. The tracks could not be agreed apon, so it became the subject of many squabbles. The release date came and went. The tapes remained, gathering dust on the shelf. During the summer of 1969, Abbey Road was recorded in proper Beatles fashion at EMI and was released in October as a huge success. As for the Get Back album, Paul McCartney was now no longer involved with the management of the group, due to the intervention of Allen Klein by the other three as their new manager. So, in January 1970, it was decided to "resurrect" the tapes. Klein brought in legendary producer Phil Spector to sort things out. The last session with the Beatles was on 4th January 1970, where only one song was recorded for the new album, George Harrison’s "I Me Mine" Phil Spector completely went against the original principals of Let It Be. He Added massive overdubs to certain songs or altered then slightly. However, I must stress he did not ruin the quality at all.The album name was changed from "Get Back" to "Let It Be". It was finally released on May 8th 1970. It was an instant hit and still holds the record for the largest advance order of an album by record shops across the world. Finally, what of the Let It Be film? It was edited and also released in May to accompany the album. Although it received a much cooler response. None of the Beatles showed up at the premieres in London or Liverpool, so it lead to rumours that they were breaking up, which of course was true. It was a rather moody film at times, although, the music is brilliant and there are some very happy moments; particularly the rooftop concert. The film is currently unobtainable and is the only Beatles film which cannot be purchased on videocassette. Magical Mystery Tour was re-released last August after being unavailable for four years. It is due to be re-released though within the next twelve months and apparently George Martin has remastered the soundtrack and it is ready for release! The reason it was not released sooner I would imagine, is because it would clash with the Anthology series. So, that’s how the Beatles story ended, I’m afraid. Yes it was a sad ending, but really the four of them were just too talented to stay together. They wanted to be their own boss. Still all the arguments were patched up long ago and I suppose they will always be the best of friends for ever.
Written By Edward Sinclair 18/4/97