Recording the Beatles - The Mystery of the MONO HELP!
Recording the Beatles - The Mystery of the MONO HELP!
*We draw again from "Recording the Beatles," Kehow & Ryan, Curvebender Press, 2006
Beatles folklore is littered with interesting trivia and unsolved "Mysteries." One of the more enduring mysteries was the discrepancy between the Stereo version of HELP! and the Mono mix of the same song. The mono mix (heard in the HELP! movie and on the mono LP and single) contains completely different vocals from the stereo version. Why? There is even a slight change in the actual lyrics; on the mono version, John Lennon sings "And now these days . . ." rather than the stereo version where he sings, "But now these days . . ." The mono version also lacks the tamborine.
Add to all of this, EMI documentation showing the Beatles did 12 takes of HELP! with the vocals heard on the 12th and final take as the vocals used on the finished stereo product. However, the mysterious mono tracks were recorded sometime after this session at EMI, the ONLY session ever documented to have ocurred at Abbey Road for the vocal reductions for this song. So therein lies the mystery: when and why did the Beatles record a new and separate monophonic version of a vocal track after they had essentially completed the song?
Recent photographic evidence that has come to light now seems to have answered this long standing Beatle mystery. Working for The Observer Sunday newspaper, photographer Michael Peto was granted unusually broad access to the Fabs during the filming of HELP! in and around London. One of the locations he shot pictures of them was at a relatively unknown studio called C.T.S. located in London itself. C.T.S. specialized in post-sync work for film and TV and as such it was quite possible for the Beatles to have been there to "touch-up", that is to say, lip-sync in clearer, better dialogue parts for their ongoing movie. The oddity in these newly discovered pictures is the presence of George Martin. The re-recording of film dialogue would not have required Martin's presence in the post-sync studio. The fact that he was there at all strongly indicates that the Beatles were re-doing a vocal track on a song. Literally nothing else would have predicated his appearance at C.T.S. Add to that, the pictures clearly show John, Paul and George gathered around two microphones singing, not talking. Lennon was on a Neumann U49 and Paul & George were gathered around another Neumann u49 set to "a figure of eight" recording protocol. This was the exact same set up the band used at Abbey Road with the same microphones.
Most important however, is that the authors thought to enlarge one of the pictures; the one with John Lennon holding a lyric sheet up in plain view towards the camera. By reversing the negative, the lyric sheet's words are revealed: the words to HELP!
This now explains why there was no record of the band re-recording HELP! at Abbey Road after their initial 12 takes; they did the re-recording elsewhere, C.T.S. to be exact. The question that remains is why? One theory is that the band wanted to get rid of the tambourine s0und. Since the tambourine had been bounced down to the final vocal track and couldn't be removed, a whole new vocal track would have been required. But why bother with the tambourine anyway? It didn't really hurt the song. A better explanation is that the band simply wanted a better vocal track and took the opportunity provided by the C.T.S. studio to do it. (*Opinion: make no mistake, the Beatles and George Martin were perfectionists and wanted every record going out to sound as grand as possible. HELP! was certainly no exception and this, in mid 1965 at the very height of Beatlemania.)
Norman Smith, their 1st engineer had noticed some wobbling on the double tracking of John's voice. When recording the new vocal, John double tracked it perfectly (this before ADT had been invented). The real reason for all this bother may never be definitively known, but clearly the group and George Martin preferred the new mono version to the stereo mix.
Still, when mixing down the final stereo and mono mixes for the vocals, George Martin felt the vocals needed more gusto and some minor clean up. Listening carefully to the song's introduction, Martine detected within the intial backing cry of HELP! that kicks off the song, a sour note courtesy of George Harrison. To fix that, the new mono mix was created from take 12 and the intro from take 12 - and only the intro - was spliced in place of the intro with the new vocals. *The edit between the two versions occurs just before the first line of the first verse and is quite evident -listen for it - highlighting the disparity between the quality of the original take and the mono version.
This means that the first 10 seconds of the stereo and mono mix originate from Take 12, but beyond that, they diverge considerably. The mono mix heard in the film had no such editing, just John Lennon fully double tracked on vocals in the intro.
*Imagine being able to play with a new Beatles track like the way George Martin was able to, before the song even came out and watch it go to #1 worldwide. It makes me shudder to think.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us www.beatletracksband.com
*We draw again from "Recording the Beatles," Kehow & Ryan, Curvebender Press, 2006
Beatles folklore is littered with interesting trivia and unsolved "Mysteries." One of the more enduring mysteries was the discrepancy between the Stereo version of HELP! and the Mono mix of the same song. The mono mix (heard in the HELP! movie and on the mono LP and single) contains completely different vocals from the stereo version. Why? There is even a slight change in the actual lyrics; on the mono version, John Lennon sings "And now these days . . ." rather than the stereo version where he sings, "But now these days . . ." The mono version also lacks the tamborine.
Add to all of this, EMI documentation showing the Beatles did 12 takes of HELP! with the vocals heard on the 12th and final take as the vocals used on the finished stereo product. However, the mysterious mono tracks were recorded sometime after this session at EMI, the ONLY session ever documented to have ocurred at Abbey Road for the vocal reductions for this song. So therein lies the mystery: when and why did the Beatles record a new and separate monophonic version of a vocal track after they had essentially completed the song?
Recent photographic evidence that has come to light now seems to have answered this long standing Beatle mystery. Working for The Observer Sunday newspaper, photographer Michael Peto was granted unusually broad access to the Fabs during the filming of HELP! in and around London. One of the locations he shot pictures of them was at a relatively unknown studio called C.T.S. located in London itself. C.T.S. specialized in post-sync work for film and TV and as such it was quite possible for the Beatles to have been there to "touch-up", that is to say, lip-sync in clearer, better dialogue parts for their ongoing movie. The oddity in these newly discovered pictures is the presence of George Martin. The re-recording of film dialogue would not have required Martin's presence in the post-sync studio. The fact that he was there at all strongly indicates that the Beatles were re-doing a vocal track on a song. Literally nothing else would have predicated his appearance at C.T.S. Add to that, the pictures clearly show John, Paul and George gathered around two microphones singing, not talking. Lennon was on a Neumann U49 and Paul & George were gathered around another Neumann u49 set to "a figure of eight" recording protocol. This was the exact same set up the band used at Abbey Road with the same microphones.
Most important however, is that the authors thought to enlarge one of the pictures; the one with John Lennon holding a lyric sheet up in plain view towards the camera. By reversing the negative, the lyric sheet's words are revealed: the words to HELP!
This now explains why there was no record of the band re-recording HELP! at Abbey Road after their initial 12 takes; they did the re-recording elsewhere, C.T.S. to be exact. The question that remains is why? One theory is that the band wanted to get rid of the tambourine s0und. Since the tambourine had been bounced down to the final vocal track and couldn't be removed, a whole new vocal track would have been required. But why bother with the tambourine anyway? It didn't really hurt the song. A better explanation is that the band simply wanted a better vocal track and took the opportunity provided by the C.T.S. studio to do it. (*Opinion: make no mistake, the Beatles and George Martin were perfectionists and wanted every record going out to sound as grand as possible. HELP! was certainly no exception and this, in mid 1965 at the very height of Beatlemania.)
Norman Smith, their 1st engineer had noticed some wobbling on the double tracking of John's voice. When recording the new vocal, John double tracked it perfectly (this before ADT had been invented). The real reason for all this bother may never be definitively known, but clearly the group and George Martin preferred the new mono version to the stereo mix.
Still, when mixing down the final stereo and mono mixes for the vocals, George Martin felt the vocals needed more gusto and some minor clean up. Listening carefully to the song's introduction, Martine detected within the intial backing cry of HELP! that kicks off the song, a sour note courtesy of George Harrison. To fix that, the new mono mix was created from take 12 and the intro from take 12 - and only the intro - was spliced in place of the intro with the new vocals. *The edit between the two versions occurs just before the first line of the first verse and is quite evident -listen for it - highlighting the disparity between the quality of the original take and the mono version.
This means that the first 10 seconds of the stereo and mono mix originate from Take 12, but beyond that, they diverge considerably. The mono mix heard in the film had no such editing, just John Lennon fully double tracked on vocals in the intro.
*Imagine being able to play with a new Beatles track like the way George Martin was able to, before the song even came out and watch it go to #1 worldwide. It makes me shudder to think.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us www.beatletracksband.com
This information is marvelous. To think of what was accomplished by virtue of George Martin and those four young men in that time makes it all the more remarkable. Thanks.
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