If Pepper required 334 studio hours, how long did The White Album take? Below is a chart documenting the known recording studio times for The White Album, as dictated in Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. This list does not include the recordings of "Hey Jude" that took place on 07.29-08.06 (which was released as a single, but not on The White Album); but it does include the recordings for songs that were originally considered for inclusion but ultimately left off the album for reasons other than it was released as a single (most notably "Not Guilty").
year.month.day start time - end time = # of hours that day 1968.05.30 2:30pm-2:40am = 12.17 hours 1968.05.31 2:30pm-midnight = 9.5 hours 1968.06.04 2:30pm-1:00am = 10.5 hours 1968.06.05 2:30pm-1:30am = 11 hours 1968.06.06 2:30pm-2:45am = 12.25 hours 1968.06.10 2:30pm-5:45pm = 3.25 hours 1968.06.11 6:30pm-12:15am, 7:00pm-10:15pm = 9 hours 1968.06.20 7:00pm-3:30am = 8.5 hours 1968.06.21 2:30pm-9:00pm, 10:00pm-3:30am = 12 hours 1968.06.25 2:00pm-8:00pm = 6 hours 1968.06.26 7:00pm-3:30am = 8.5 hours 1968.06.27 5:00pm-3:45am = 10.75 hours 1968.06.28 7:00pm-4:30am = 9.5 hours 1968.07.01 5:00pm-3:00am = 10 hours 1968.07.02 6:00pm-12:15am = 6.25 hours 1968.07.03 8:00pm-3:15am = 7.25 hours 1968.07.04 7:00pm-2:15am = 7.25 hours 1968.07.05 5:00pm-1:30am = 8.5 hours 1968.07.08 5:00pm-3:00am = 10 hours 1968.07.09 4:00pm-9:00pm, 10:00pm-3:30am = 10.5 hours 1968.07.10 7:00pm-1:30am = 6.5 hours 1968.07.11 4:00pm-7:00pm, 7:00pm-3:45am = 11.75 hours 1968.07.12 3:00pm-11:00pm, 12:00am-4:00am = 12 hours 1968.07.15 3:30pm-8:00pm, 9:00pm-3:00am = 10.5 hours 1968.07.16 4:00pm-9:00pm, 10:00pm-2:00am = 9 hours 1968.07.18 2:30pm-9:30pm = 7 hours 1968.07.19 7:30pm-4:00am = 8.5 hours 1968.07.22 7:00pm-1:40am = 6.67 hours 1968.07.23 7:00pm-2:30am = 7.5 hours 1968.07.24 7:00pm-2:30am = 7.5 hours 1968.07.25 7:00pm-3:15am = 8.25 hours 1968.08.07 8:45pm-5:30am = 8.75 hours 1968.08.08 6:40pm-6:30am = 11.83 hours 1968.08.09 7:30pm-2:00am = 6.5 hours 1968.08.12 7:00pm-4:15am = 9.25 hours 1968.08.13 7:00pm-5:30am = 10.5 hours 1968.08.14 7:00-4:30am = 9.5 hours 1968.08.15 7:00pm-3:00am = 8 hours 1968.08.16 7:00pm-5:00am = 10 hours 1968.08.20 5:00pm-5:30pm, 8:00pm-4:00am = 8.5 hours 1968.08.21 7:30pm-7:15am = 11.75 hours 1968.08.22 7:00pm-4:45am = 9.75 hours 1968.08.23 7:00pm-3:00am = 7 hours 1968.08.26 4:00pm-5:00pm = 1 hour 1968.08.27 4:30pm-5:00pm = 0.5 hours 1968.08.28 5:00pm-7:00am = 14 hours 1968.08.29 7:00pm-6:00am = 11 hours 1968.08.30 5:00pm-11:00pm = 6 hours 1968.09.03 7:00pm-3:30am = 7.5 hours 1968.09.05 7:00pm-3:45am = 7.75 hours 1968.09.06 7:00pm-2:00am = 7 hours 1968.09.09 7:00pm-2:30am = 7.5 hours 1968.09.10 7:00pm-3:00am = 8 hours 1968.09.11 7:00pm-3:30am = 8.5 hours 1968.09.12 8:30pm-1:30am = 5 hours 1968.09.13 8:00pm-1:45am = 5.75 hours 1968.09.16 7:00pm-3:00am = 8 hours 1968.09.17 7:00pm-5:00am = 10 hours 1968.09.18 5:00pm-4:30am = 11.5 hours 1968.09.19 7:15pm-5:30am = 10.25 hours 1968.09.20 7:00pm-11:00pm = 4 hours 1968.09.23 7:00pm-3:00am = 7 hours 1968.09.24 7:00pm-2:00am = 6 hours 1968.09.25 7:30pm-5:00am, 5:00am-6:15am = 10.75 hours 1968.09.26 7:00pm-1:30am = 6.5 hours 1968.10.01 unknown 1968.10.02 4:00pm-3:30am = 11.5 hours 1968.10.03 unknown 1968.10.04 4:00pm-4:30am = 12.5 hours 1968.10.05 6:00pm-1:00am = 7 hours 1968.10.07 2:30pm-7:00am = 16.5 hours 1968.10.08 4:00pm-8:00am = 16 hours 1968.10.09 7:00pm-5:30am = 10.5 hours 1968.10.10 7:00pm-7:15am = 12.25 hours 1968.10.11 3:00pm-6:00pm, 6:00pm-12:00am = 9 hours 1968.10.12 7:00pm-5:45am = 10.75 hours 1968.10.13 7:00pm-6:00am = 11 hours 1968.10.14 7:00pm-7:30am = 12.5 hours 1968.10.15 6:00pm-8:00pm = 2 hours 1968.10.16-17 5:00pm-5:00pm = 24 hours 1968.10.18 noon-1:00pm = 1 hour Total: 709.17 hours (32,550 minutes) So how does this compare with Pepper? Well, it depends on how you look at it. In terms of total studio time, The White Album took almost more than twice as long to make (709.17 hours vs. 333.75 hours). But, given that The White Album is a double album where Pepper is not, that makes sense. In terms of number of days, The White Album took 81 days' work in the studio over 141 calendar days; Pepper took 50 days' work in the studio over 137 calendar days. And taking number of tracks into consideration, The White Album averages less time per track (23.64 hours) than Pepper (25.67 hours). CITATIONS Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970. Harmony Books, a division of Crown Publishers, New York, NY, 1988.
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Many books purport that Sgt. Pepper took "700 hours of studio time to produce" (Simonelli page 107; see also Julien page 5, Sawyers page 81, Wald page 242, Ingham page uncertain, Sandford page 130, Tomson page 259, Emerick page 190). This figure likely originated with George Martin's book With a Little Help From My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper in which he wrote, "According to Geoff Emerick's calculation, we spent no fewer than 700 hours, or twenty-nine complete days, of our lives working on it in the studio" (page 167). Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, however, paints a very different picture. Not including the recordings of "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "Penny Lane", which were originally intended to be on the album but were ultimately left off, here's a catalog of exactly how many hours were spent in the studio creating Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
year.month.day start time - end time = # of hours that day 1966.12.06 6:45pm-1:50am = 7.08 hours 1966.12.08 2:30pm-5:30pm = 3 hours 1966.12.20 7:00pm-1:00am = 6 hours 1966.12.21 7:00pm-10:00pm = 3 hours 1967.01.19 7:30pm-2:30am = 7 hours 1967.01.20 7:00pm-1:10am = 6.17 hours 1967.01.30 7:00pm-8:30pm = 1.5 hours 1967.02.01 7:00pm-2:30am = 7 hours 1967.02.02 7:00pm-1:45am = 6.75 hours 1967.02.03 7:00pm-1:15am = 6.25 hours 1967.02.08 7:00pm-2:15am = 7.25 hours 1967.02.09 unknown 1967.02.10 8:00pm-1:00am = 5 hours 1967.02.13 7:00pm-3:30am = 8.5 hours 1967.02.14 7:00pm-12:30am = 5.5 hours 1967.02.16 7:00pm-1:45am = 6.75 hours 1967.02.17 7:00pm-3:00am = 8 hours 1967.02.20 7:00pm-2:15am = 7.25 hours 1967.02.21 7:00pm-12:45am = 5.75 hours 1967.02.22 7:00pm-3:45am = 8.75 hours 1967.02.23 7:00pm-3:45am = 8.75 hours 1967.02.24 7:00pm-1:15am = 6.25 hours 1967.02.28 7:00pm-3:00am = 8 hours 1967.03.01 7:00pm-2:15am = 7.25 hours 1967.03.02 7:00pm-3:30am = 8.5 hours 1967.03.03 7:00pm-1230am = 5.5 hours 1967.03.06 7:00pm-12:30am = 5.5 hours 1967.03.07 7:00pm-2:30am = 7.5 hours 1967.03.09 7:00pm-3:30am = 8.5 hours 1967.03.10 7:00pm-4:00am = 9 hours 1967.03.13 7:00pm-2:30am = 7.5 hours 1967.03.15 7:00pm-1:30am = 6.5 hours 1967.03.17 7:00pm-12:45am = 5.75 hours 1967.03.20 7:00pm-3:30am = 8.5 hours 1967.03.21 7:00pm-2:45am = 7.75 hours 1967.03.22 7:00pm-2:15am = 7.25 hours 1967.03.23 7:00pm-3:45am = 8.75 hours 1967.03.28 7:00pm-4:45am = 9.75 hours 1967.03.29 7:00pm-5:45am = 10.75 hours 1967.03.30 11:00pm-7:30am = 8.5 hours 1967.03.31 7:00pm-3:00am = 8 hours 1967.04.01 7:00pm-6:00am = 11 hours 1967.04.03 7:00pm-3:00am = 8 hours 1967.04.04 7:00pm-12:45am = 5.75 hours 1967.04.06 7:00pm-1:00am = 6 hours 1967.04.07 7:00pm-1:00am = 6 hours 1967.04.17 7:00pm-10:30pm = 3.5 hours 1967.04.19 7:00pm-12:30am = 5.5 hours 1967.04.20 5:00pm=-6:15pm = 1.25 hours 1967.04.21 7:00pm-1:30am = 6.5 hours This totals 333.75 hours (20,025 minutes). Even accounting for the lack of documentation on February 9, this number is well short of the mythical 700 hours. Even so, 333.75 hours divided by 13 tracks = 25.67 hours of studio time per track - no doubt a greater number than any previously recorded album, Beatles or otherwise. CITATIONS Emerick, Geoff and Howard Massey. Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. Gotham Books, published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York, NY, 2006. Ingham, Chris. The Rough Guide to The Beatles. Penguin Books Ltd, New York, NY, 2006. Julien, Oliver, ed. Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago Today. Ashgate Publishing Limited. Hampshire, UK, 2008. Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970. Harmony Books, a division of Crown Publishers, New York, NY, 1988. Sandford, Christopher. McCartney. Carroll & Graff Publishers, New York, NY, 2006. Sawyers, June Skinner, ed. Read the Beatles: Classic and New Writings on the Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter. Penguin Books, New York, NY, 2006. Simonelli, David. Working Class Heroes: Rock Music and British Society in the 1960s and 1970s. Lexington Books, 2012. Tomson, Elizabeth and David Gutman, ed. The Lennon Companion: Twenty-Five Years of Comment. Sidgwick & Jackson, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd., London, 2002. Wald, Elijah. How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll: An Alternate History of American Popular Music. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2009. This coming August, I will be visiting Indiana for a 5-part lecture series in Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and Anderson. Details may be found in the flyer below. ![]()
Although I've listened to LOVE many times, it was only relatively recently that I listened and really appreciated how ingenious it is! The simultaneous combination of different Beatles songs is very clever, indeed. I often play tracks from Beatles albums as background music as preludes to my Beatles programs, and LOVE strikes me as a perfect candidate for such preludes. However, many of the tracks segue without pause, making it difficult to know when to stop. This blog, then, will be an observation of LOVE, paying particular attention to the macro-scale structure, timings, and 'conclusivity' of each collage on the album, with the intent of using this information to help fashion effective preludes.
Collage #1: Track 01-07, 17:02 01. "Because" (with some "A Day in the Life") 02. "Get Back" (with bits of "A Hard Day's Night", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)", "The End", and "A Day in the Life") 03. "Glass Onion" (with bits of "Hello Goodbye", "Magical Mystery Tour", and "Penny Lane") 04. "Eleanor Rigby"/"Julia" 05. "I Am the Walrus" 06. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" 07. "Drive My Car"/"The Word"/"What You're Doing" (with bits from "Taxman", and "Savoy Truffle") Conclusion: fade out (inconclusive) Collage #2: Tracks 08-10, 7:48 08. "Gnik Nus" 09. "Something"/"Blue Jay Way" (with bits from "Nowhere Man") 10. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite"/"I Want You (She's So Heavy") Conclusion: abrupt cut on "I Want You", followed by wind sound effects Single Song #1: Track 11, 2:18 11. "Help!" Conclusion: exactly like the original Collage #3: Track 12, 2:31 12. "Blackbird"/"Yesterday" Conclusion: exactly like the original Collage #4: Tracks 13-17, 13. "Strawberry Fields Forever" (with bits of "Piggies", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "In My Life", "Hello Goodbye") 14. "Within You Without You"/"Tomorrow Never Knows" 15. "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" (with bits of "Good Night") 16. "Octopus's Garden" (with bits of "Good Night", "Sun King", "Lovely Rita", "Helter Skelter", and "Yellow Submarine") 17. "Lady Madonna" (with bits from "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?", "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Hey Bulldog", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)") Conclusion: reasonably conclusive Collage #5: Track 18, 4:18 18. "Here Comes the Sun"/"The Inner Light" (with bits from "Oh! Darling", and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)") Conclusion: semi-conclusive Collage #6: Track 19, 4:45 19. "Come Together"/"Dear Prudence"/"Cry Baby Cry" Conclusion: semi-conclusive Collage #7: Tracks 20-21, 4:09 20. "Revolution" 21. "Back in the USSR" Conclusion: jet sound effects fade out Collage #8: Tracks 22-23, 8:55 22. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (edit the very end and this could stand alone) 23. "A Day in the Life" Conclusion: very conclusive piano chord Collage #9: Tracks 24-25, 5:22 24. "Hey Jude" 25. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" Conclusion: semi-conclusive Collage #10: Track 26, 3:38 26. "All You Need is Love" (with bits of "Good Night") Conclusion: quote from "Good Night" Long before Phil Spector ever added orchestral overdubs to McCartney's ballad "The Long and Winding Road", the composer himself apparently intended to do so.
Sulpy #26.91P; A/B Road: January 26, Disc 6, Track 3 MARTIN: Paul's thinking of adding strings anyway. HARRISON: Paul, are you going to have strings? Don't know. … It would be nice with some brass, just doing the sustaining chords. PAUL: Yeah. … We were planning to that it anyway, for a couple of numbers, just have a bit of brass and a bit of strings. Realizing how much Billy Preston's presence has helped the Beatles, John, Paul, and George discussed inviting him to join the Beatles, and George even suggests asking Bob Dylan to join. Paul adamantly refuses both.
Excerpt from Sulpy #24.08; A/B Road: January 14, Disc 1, Track 9 JOHN: I'd just like him [Preston] in our band, actually. That's how I'd like it. I'd like a fifth Beatle. PAUL: I just don't because it's bad enough with four. With five on display, it's creating havoc. I dig him, he's an incredibly musician, but none of that. JOHN: If he's around, then I'd use him. ... GEORGE: If I asked Dylan to join then Beatles, then he would as well and we'd get them all in it. PAUL: Yeah, but for that – that's the point: you don't need to join the Beatles. JOHN: We'd call it “The Beatles & Co.”, that could be our band. It'd be great wouldn't it? “Beatles & Co.” and the “Co.” is the band! GEORGE: It's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. … PAUL: We can still have him. It's like you can have everything. You don't need to sign him up. You don't need to own him. George Harrison, of course, eventually did rejoin the Beatles, and the day after Harrison returned, Billy Preston joined in, as well. The addition of an outsider immediately improved the atmosphere and working relations. This can be most easily heard through comparing their musical production before and after, but it can also be seen through their words, as the following transcript illustrates.
Excerpt from Sulpy #22.48; A/B Road: January 22, Disc 3, Track 3 [The band rehearses “Don't Let Me Down”, Preston solos after Lennon's invite] JOHN: It's great – I say “take it” and he takes it! You're giving us a lift, Bill! GEORGE: We've been doing this for days, you know. PAUL: Weeks. JOHN: Just choking. The next recording session after George Harrison quit the band took place on 13 January 1969. In an effort to not be disturbed, John Lennon stayed at home and repeated attempts to phone him resulted in busy signals, implying he deliberately took the phone off the hook so that he couldn't be reached. Consequently, the studio chatter recorded that morning is remarkably candid discussion between Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman (Paul's girlfriend), Michael Lindsay-Hogg (the film's director), and Neil Aspinal (the Beatles' roadie), about the absent John Lennon and his omnipresent companion, Yoko Ono.
Excerpts from A/B Road January 13, Disc 2, Tracks 4 and 6 PAUL: Yoko's very much to do with it from John's angle. And there's only two answers: One is to fight it and fight her and try and get the Beatles back to four people without Yoko, and ask her to sit down at the board meetings. The other thing is to just realize she's there and he's not going to split with her just for our sakes. But then it's not even so much of an obstacle as long as we're not trying to surmount it. While we're still trying to get over it, it's an obstacle. But it isn't really. It's not that bad. They want to stay together, those two. So it's alright, let the young lovers stay together. MICHAEL: Can't operate under these conditions. There'll be no work coming out. PAUL: It's like we're striking because work conditions aren't right. But it's not that bad. MICHAEL: But he knows that, doesn't he? PAUL: John knows that, sure. MICHAEL: Does he talk about it at all? PAUL: We've done a lot of Beatles now, and we've got a lot out of Beatles. I think John's saying now, obviously, if it came to a push between Yoko and the Beatles, it's Yoko. ... NEIL: Whenever John talks these days it's like Yoko is talking through him. PAUL & LINDA: Yeah. NEIL: Or he shuts up and lets her do it for him. And that's become a thing for him – not ever talking to him like I'm talking to you right now. … When you're talking to John, you always (these days, anyway) tend to think that you're talking to Yoko more than you're talking to John. PAUL: That's why I say writing a song with him is a bit embarrassing. ... PAUL: They're under that thing – they just want to be near each other. I just think it's silly of me or anyone to try and say to them, “no you can't”. Okay, they're going overboard about it, but John always does. And Yoko probably always does. So that's their scene. You can't go saying, “Don't go overboard about this thing. Be sensible about it and don't bring her to meetings.” It's his decision. It's none of our business to interfere in that. Even when it comes into our business, you still can't really say much except “Look, I don't like it, John”. Then he can say, “Screw you”, or “I like it”, or “well, I won't do it”. That's the only way, is to tell John about it. MICHAEL: Have you done that already? PAUL: I told him I didn't like writing songs with him and Yoko. MICHAEL: Were you writing together much more before she came around, or had you cooled it then, before her? PAUL: We've cooled it because [of] not playing together. Ever since we didn't play together. MICHAEL: On stage you mean. PAUL: Yes, because we lived together when we played together. We were in the same hotel, up at the same time every morning, doing this all day. And it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you're this close all day, something grows. And then when you're not this close all day physically, something goes. ... PAUL: Neither of us compromise. If I can start to compromise, then maybe they'll bend a little for me. MICHAEL: Yeah, but if her around so much has caused a lot of trouble, then you're compromising already. You've made a lot of compromise. PAUL: I think it's because we've thought that the only alternative would be for John to say, “Okay, well, see you then”. And we'd not want that to happen. These excerpts are all taken from 10 January 1969, following George Harrison's quitting the band.
Excerpt from Suply #10.74; A/B Road: January 10, Disc 4, Track 6 JOHN: I think if George doesn't come back by Monday or Tuesday, we ask Eric Clapton to play in it [the Beatles]. ... Eric would be pleased to join. He left Cream because they're all - RINGO: All soloists. JOHN: All soloists. But we're not in our group – all he's got to do is play guitar. The point is, if George leaves, do we want to carry on the Beatles? I do. … [But if not] I'd just get another band, another group, you know, and carry on. Excerpt from Suply #10.74; A/B Road: January 10, Disc 4, Track 6 MICHAEL: Maybe for the show, you could just say George was sick. JOHN: No, I mean, if he leaves, he leaves. … MICHAEL: But what's the consensus? Do you want to go on with the show and the work? JOHN: Yeah. If he doesn't come back by Tuesday, we get Clapton. … JOHN: We should just go on, though, as if nothing's happening. MICHAEL: I think we should go away. Excerpt following Suply #10.83; A/B Road: January 10, Disc 4, Track 14 MICHAEL: It's looking like rehearsal's over. Would I be right in feeling that? RINGO: I feel that. PAUL: Yup. [sings] I've gotta feeling... JOHN: I think your general attitude is right. MICHAEL: I gotta feeling, too, that that's it. Well, are we meeting again on Monday? JOHN: Yeah. MICHAEL: Just as chickens? JOHN: I'll have Eric [Clapton], Jimmy [Page], and Tommy (?) [to replace George]. PAUL: [to Maureen] A7, D7, G7. Get them off over the weekend and you're in [the band]. George Harrison's quitting the Beatles on 10 January 1969 was the culmination of the several previous days' worth of tension in the recording studio, and the several previous years' worth of Lennon and McCartney 'looking down on' George as someone significantly younger and less musically talented. These excerpts help to illustrate how George was not taken seriously by either Lennon or McCartney.
Excerpt from Suply #3.125-3.126; A/B Road: January 3, Disc 4, Track 1 GEORGE: “All things must pass away.” All out. Back in. “All things must pass. All things must pass away.” JOHN: [mock sermon] In the beginning was the word. The word was God.... [singing] I think I'll pass away. Excerpt from Suply #3.130; A/B Road: January 3, Disc 4, Track 6 GEORGE: [to Paul] It should be where if you write a song I feels as though I wrote it. You know, in order to be involved in it as much. That was the good thing about the last album [The White Album] – it's the only album so far I've tried to get involved in. Excerpt from Suply #6.04; A/B Road: January 6, Disc 1, Track 9 GEORGE: I wrote a gospel song over the weekend. JOHN: According to Saint who? GEORGE: According to the Lord. “Hear Me Lord”. Excerpt from Sulpy #8.01; A/B Road: January 8, Disc 1, Track 1 GEORGE: [to Ringo] “I Me Mine” it's called. Should I sing it to you? I don't care if you don't want it. I don't give a fuck. It can go in the musical. It's a heavy waltz. [sings] Excerpt from Suply #10.49; A/B Road: January 10, Disc 3, Track 2 JOHN: [plays the intro to Chuck Berry's “I'm Talking About You”] GEORGE: I'm leaving the band now. JOHN: When? GEORGE: Now. |
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