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It’s the return of Jerry Hammack – creator of the Beatles Recording Reference Manual series. Volume 3, covering the end of 1966 (“Strawberry Fields Forever”) through the whole of Sgt. Pepper (plus Magical Mystery Tour) has just been published. Producer Ben Rowling and I discuss the high level of studio innovation that typified the post-touring era, and though we didn’t get to Magical Mystery Tour in this conversation (part two to come), we did discuss elements of their work habits through the White Album, Let It Be and Abbey Road. (Plus, Jerry tips his hand as to what’s next…)
Check out Jerry’s work here
What a stunning version of Strawberry Fields! – maybe they should have given this song a Stravinsky styled orchestral arrangement (like an ‘anti-Yesterday’). I can’t help but feel that “Strawberry Fields” and “Watching the Wheels” are thematically linked (similar chord progressions in bits too).
Glad you’re back, Robert.
Actually, I want to hold your hand and Strawberry fields have similar chord progressions.
Actually Steve, I can’t see this myself. IWTHYH is G-D-Em-B7 to start and Strawberry Fields was written as A-Em-F#7-D-F#7-D-A. Verse begins in E and so on.
Great episode. So much detailed info on Recording studios and recording sessions
Robert,
I was listening to Pete Holmes’s podcast, You Made it Weird, when that week’s guest, Fred Armisen, mentioned that he regularly listened to SATB. I thought it was a cool convergence of two worlds and thought I’d comment, hoping you might find it just as interesting. Perhaps he’d like to make a quick appearance and share his Beatles experience! Not sure how you’d go about organizing such a thing, but hey, I am sure if you could reach him, it’d be a win-win for both parties. Anyway, thought you’d find that tidbit interesting.
Fantastic discussion!! I love hearing from the experts about the Beatles and their work from a new angle. …What is the name of the very last track (electronic music) you played on this episode? Am I crazy, or were bits of it played during the closing credits of the Joker’s Wild TV game show in the U.S. wayyyy back in the 1970’s?
Hi MLG,
That was a piece called Baroque Hoedown by Jean-Jacques Perrey, from 1967. The reason I used this is that I thought some Beatle fans would recognize it from its use (by Kenny Everett) in the 1968 Beatles Christmas Message. It is also very commonly heard by visitors to Disney World, where it’s used in the Electrical Parade.
I’m not sure about Joker’s Wild though…
Absolutely, I do recognize it from the Xmas message, too! After some searching I found that you can just hear a few notes at 17:43 and 21:29 on this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNX2Qrn6Pbg
The Joker’s Wild theme was The Savers, not Baroque Hoedown, but both were done by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley, and the tunes do sound similar. I just read the latter song was what Disneyworld used for their Main Street Electrical parade (I knew it sounded familiar).
I read it in Robert’s comment obviously!
Great cast! Nice working with Jezza on some corrections and amendments to the current volumes which will be incorporated into reprints.