Magical Mystery Tour:
Inspired Madness

1967

Magical Mystery Tour

Your Mother Should Know

I Am the Walrus

The Fool on the Hill

Flying

Blue Jay Way

ALBUM

RELEASED

Great Britain: (EP) December 8, 1967 / No. 1 on January 13, 1968 for 2 weeks

United States: (album) November 27, 1967 / No. 1 on January 1, 1968 for 8 weeks

The End of the Epstein Years

In late 1965, Brian Epstein had considered having his group perform in a feature film, called A Talent for Loving, that was based on the novel by Richard Condon for which Epstein had bought the copyright. The project fell through and it was not until April 1967 that the idea for a new film resurfaced. It came from Paul. On April 3, as soon as the recording of Sgt. Pepper was over, he went to join Jane Asher in the United States. When he arrived in Denver with his Super 8 camera, he remembered the bus trips he had taken during his childhood, when people took surprise trips, called “Mystery Tours.” He thought of a television production in which a group of actors and friends would take off on a bus in search of adventure, filming what was going on from day to day. Upon his return to London, Paul discussed the project with Brian Epstein, who found it brilliant. The project was launched. On May 25, 1967, before starting to shoot, the Beatles founded their first company, Apple Music Ltd. That summer, they basked in the triumph of Sgt. Pepper, which appeared on June 1, and they agreed to represent Great Britain in the program Our World that would be broadcast before 400 million viewers on June 25. For this event, they performed the anthem of 1967, “All You Need Is Love,” which immediately became number 1 worldwide.

In July, they left for Greece, where they planned on purchasing an island (a plan that fell through), signed a petition in The Times in favor of legalizing marijuana, then, after attending a conference on transcendental meditation delivered by someone called Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, they went to Wales, in order to take a course on meditation. Two days later, on August 27, 1967, Brian Epstein was found dead in his home, after swallowing a fatal cocktail—which was certainly accidental—of alcohol and sleeping pills. The Beatles were crushed. Their father figure and mentor was no longer there for them. On September 1, they gathered at Paul’s place to decide what to do about their future. They agreed to carry on with the Magical Mystery Tour project and they went to the studio to finalize the songs. Among the six songs, John contributed the extraordinary song “I Am the Walrus” and Paul the irresistible “Fool on the Hill.” George wrote a very well-done song called “Blue Jay Way.” Finally, for the first time, an instrumental written by all four of them was recorded, called “Flying.” The movie was a total failure and the Beatles were heavily criticized for it. On the other hand, the album was successful.

The Movie

The movie was completely improvised: no script, no logistics, no dialogue—everything was fun. Now that Brian Epstein was gone, the Beatles found out how difficult it was to organize a project of this magnitude. Right away, Paul became the director: he distributed the different scenes every day and picked the actors from Spotlight (a London actors’ directory). The shoot began in London on September 11 and lasted two weeks. Thirty-three people took off on the bus with the team, which traveled at random through the British countryside. Nobody knew what would happen—and that was what excited the Beatles. Except for a few scenes that were rather fun (the clip of “I Am the Walrus” or the spaghetti scene), the results were mediocre. It took Paul eleven weeks to finalize the edit, instead of the two planned. The BBC bought the copyright for the ridiculous sum of £9,000 [$14,000 U.S.] and broadcast Magical Mystery Tour on December 26, in black and white, even though the special effects had specifically been designed for color. The very next day, the critics trashed the movie; it was the Beatles’ first failure. Paul had to defend himself on The David Frost Show. Nevertheless, the movie raked in $2 million in the United States and the record brought in $8 million in the ten days that followed the beginning of sales on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Instruments

They used the same instruments as in Sgt. Pepper. The only difference was that they had their guitars painted in psychedelic colors; these were John’s J-160 E and the Epiphone Casino, Paul’s 4001S, and George’s Fender Stratocaster, which he played on “All You Need Is Love.”

RELEASED

EMI decided to edit the master collected on 2 extended plays (EPs), to which was added a booklet of 24 pages with photos, lyrics, and scripts adapted as a comic book.

Record 1—side 1: “Magical Mystery Tour” / “Your Mother Should Know”; side 2: “I Am the Walrus”

Record 2—side 1: “The Fool on the Hill” / “Flying”; side 2: “Blue Jay Way”

The American editors preferred to market a 33 rpm record with a different track order and grouped the following songs on side 2: “Hello, Goodbye” / “Strawberry Fields Forever” / “Penny Lane” / “Baby You’re a Rich Man” / “All You Need Is Love.”

Finally, EMI adopted the album configuration and abandoned the double EP format.

FOR BEATLES FANATICS

On the original cover of the EP (and copied on the CD), there is the following credit: Produced by Big George Martin!

Magical Mystery Tour

Lennon-McCartney / 2:48
1967

SONGWRITER

Paul

MUSICIANS

Paul: vocal, bass, piano, percussion

John: rhythm guitar, backing vocal, percussion

George: lead guitar, backing vocal, percussion

Ringo: drums, percussion

George Martin: celesta (?)

Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall: percussion

David Mason, Elgar Howarth, Roy Copestake, John Wilbraham: trumpets

RECORDED

Abbey Road: April 25–27, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 6, 1967 (Studio One)

NUMBER OF TAKES: 9

MIXING

Abbey Road: April 27, 1967 (Studio Three) / May 4, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 6, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 7, 1967 (Studio One)

TECHNICAL TEAM

Producer: George Martin

Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Malcolm Addey

Assistant Engineers: Richard Lush, Ken Scott, Graham Kirkby

Genesis

After coming up with the idea for the movie, Paul wrote the theme song, although John said, “Paul’s song. Maybe I did part of it, but it was his concept.”1 The song was based on memories of surprise trips that he and John had taken when they were children and evoked the carnival atmosphere, offering adventure and mystery. Roll up! Roll up! was an invitation to a trip that can be interpreted differently. Paul said, “… [it] was also a reference to rolling up a joint.”2 Obviously, in the days of psychedelics there were innuendos of all kinds. It’s dying to take you away was an allusion, according to Paul, to the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It was a “Mystery Tour,” but with hallucinogenic substances.

Production

Four days after the final touches to Sgt. Pepper and five weeks before the new record was marketed, the Beatles returned to the studio on April 25 to record “Magical Mystery Tour.” The idea of adding trumpets was brought up right at the beginning of the session. For the time being, they built the rhythm track with Paul on piano, John and George on guitar, and Ringo on drums. The third track was satisfactory and reduced right away. While they were reducing, some flanging/ chorus was applied to George’s guitar and to the end on the piano. Someone proposed inserting the noise of a bus passing by. The coach sound effect from the Abbey Road sound effect collection was made into a tape loop, and would be added later to the song at the remix stage. The next day, Paul recorded his bass part. Then, with the help of Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall, the four musicians added a lot of percussion: maracas, cowbell, tambourines, snare drum, toms, etc. John, Paul, and George then tackled the backing vocals with the support of added echo and delay. There was a new reduction of the whole song. On April 27, Paul recorded his singing, backed up by John and George, while the tape recorder ran at a slower speed, raising the song’s pitch when played at normal speed. There were four trumpets in the studio on May 3. Paul sang for George Martin what he wanted as an arrangement, but he was not satisfied with the results. Howarth, one of the trumpet players, tired of waiting, suggested the part to be played. The session ended with the addition of a celesta (?) at the end of the song. Six months later, on November 7, Paul redid other vocal parts and new sound effects were inserted. The final mono and stereo mixes were made the same day.

FOR BEATLES FANATICS

If you use a bit of imagination, you can hear the bus put the brakes on at 0:51 and crash at 0:53. Some people claimed, erroneously, that it was the accident in which Paul was killed.

Your Mother Should Know

Lennon-McCartney / 2:26
1967

SONGWRITER

Paul

MUSICIANS

Paul: vocal, bass, piano

John: organ, backing vocal

George: tambura, backing vocal

Ringo: drums, tambourine

RECORDED

Chappel Recording Studios: August 22–23, 1967

Abbey Road: September 16, 1967 (Studio Three) / September 29, 1967 (Studio Two)

NUMBER OF TAKES: 52

MIXING

Abbey Road: September 30, 1967 (Studio Three) / October 2, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 6, 1967 (Studio One)

TECHNICAL TEAM

Producer: George Martin

Sound Engineers: John Timperley (Chappell), Ken Scott, Geoff Emerick

Assistant Engineers: John Iles (Chappell), Jeff Jarratt, Graham Kirkby

Genesis

“Your Mother Should Know” was another one of Paul’s incursions into the world of music halls, in the same vein as “When I’m Sixty-Four,” a song recorded nine months before for Sgt. Pepper. Composed originally for an important scene in Magical Mystery Tour, it was finally used in the sequence of the broad stairway (John almost missed a step at 0:15!). Paul wrote it on the harmonium on Cavendish Avenue in the presence of his aunt Jin and his uncle Harry, which perhaps accounted for the retro style of the song. “In ‘Your Mother Should Know,’ I was basically trying to say your mother might know more than you think she does. Give her credit.”1 It seemed that the song was a runner-up for the BBC program, Our World, but the song that was finally used was “All You Need Is Love.”

FOR BEATLES FANATICS

The Chappell Recording Studios, used by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Cream, and the Who, attracted the finest internationally renowned musicians.

Production

The Abbey Road Studios were not available, so the Beatles recorded on August 22 at the Chappell Recording Studios in London. Once again, they picked up the Magical Mystery Tour project that had been left on the back burner since May. There is a lack of information about the instruments played by each musician; nevertheless, for the rhythm track, we can assume Paul was on piano, John on organ, George on guitar and tambura (which was audible on the last notes), and Ringo on drums. The next day, they recorded the vocals, with Paul singing lead, and George and John contributing backing vocals. On September 16, they returned to Abbey Road to completely redo the song because Paul was dissatisfied with the work done at the Chappell Studios. In this new version, Ringo’s snare drum, accompanied by a harmonium and a piano (see Anthology 2), was predominant. But on September 29, Paul was undecided and finally returned to the recording from Chappell Studios and, together with John, added bass and some organ. The mono mix was carried out on October 2 and the stereo on November 6.

The Last Session

According to John Timperley, the sound engineer at Chappell Recording Studios, when Brian Epstein came to visit the Beatles on August 23, he looked rather gloomy and depressed. It was the very last session he attended. He was found dead in his bed on August 27, 1967.

I Am The Walrus

Lennon-McCartney / 4:33
1967

SONGWRITER

John

MUSICIANS

John: vocal, Hohmer Pianet electric piano

Paul: bass, backing vocal, tambourine

George lead guitar, backing vocal Ringo: drums

Sidney Sax, Jack Rothstein, Ralph Elman, Andrew McGee, Jack Greene, Louis Stevens, John Jezzard, Jack Richards: violins

Lionel Ross, Eldon Fox, Bram Martin, Terry Weil: cellos

Gordon Lewin: clarinet

Neil Sanders, Tony Tunstall, Morris Miller: horns

The Mike Sammes Singers: vocal effects

RECORDED

Abbey Road: September 5, 1967 (Studio One) / September 6, 1967 (Studio Two) / September 27, 1967 (Studios One and Two) / September 28, 1967 (Studio Two)

NUMBER OF TAKES: 17

MIXING

Abbey Road: September 5, 1967 (Studio One) / September 6 and 28–29, 1967 (Studio Two) / November 6, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 17, 1967 (Room 53)

TECHNICAL TEAM

Producer: George Martin

Sound Engineers: Ken Scott, Geoff Emerick

Assistant Engineers: Ken Scott, Richard Lush, Graham Kirkby

RELEASED AS A SINGLE

“Hello, Goodbye” / “I Am the Walrus”

Great Britain: November 24, 1967 / No. 1 on December 6, 1967 for 7 weeks

United States: November 27, 1967 / No. 1 on December 30, 1967 for 3 weeks

Genesis

“I Am the Walrus” was among John’s masterpieces. It was a song with multiple sources of inspiration, full of images from Alice in Wonderland, more specifically from the poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter.” John revealed later that the beginning of the melody came to him when he heard the notes of a police car siren that was passing by while he was on the piano; “the first line was written on one acid trip one weekend, the second line on another acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko.”1 The lyrics were an anthology of surrealistic images, ideas, and allusions. This was a partly deliberate choice: John wanted to make fun of pseudointellectuals who interpreted his songs in a phony way. He asked his friend Pete Shotton for help and both searched their memories to compose this song. They recalled from their childhood the text of a song they used to sing: Yellow matter custard, green slop pie / All mixed together with a dead dog’s eye …, then there was the memory of semolina, a sort of insipid pudding they ate as children, and pilchard, which was a sardine to feed cats. Shotton recalls seeing John writing feverishly: Semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower … Then, turning to him with a smile, he quipped, “Let the fuckers work that one out, Pete!”2 Some people read in the word pilchard a reference to the infamous Sergeant Pilcher, the terror of the rock circles of the sixties, who was known for sending the Stones to jail. John said, “In those days I was writing obscurely, à la Dylan, never saying what you mean but giving the impression of something, where more or less can be read into it.”3 Therefore, according to him, it was just “tongue in cheek … ‘I am the eggman’? It could have been the pudding basin for all I care. It’s not that serious.”4 The author Jeff Kent thought, on the other hand, that John was alluding to his friend Eric Burdon who was nicknamed “Eggs,” because of some of his favorite sexual practices. As for Element’ry penguin, he was targeting the Hare Krishna movement, and more specifically, Allen Ginsberg. John provoked the censors at the BBC, who did not appreciate the sentence you let your knickers down. The walrus would reappear in “Glass Onion” in 1968 and in “God,” from John’s first solo album, Plastic Ono Band.

FOR BEATLES FANATICS

Spooky Tooth’s version of this song is one of the best. A must to listen to!

Production

On September 5, the Beatles were now without a manager, and they found themselves in the studio for the first time since the funeral of Brian Epstein, on August 29. John’s voice was full of emotion as he presented his song. He sang, I’m crying. George Martin felt lost. This tale of walruses and eggmen perplexed him. Despite it all, they recorded the rhythm track in sixteen takes: John was on the Hohner Pianet, Paul on tambourines, George on his Fender Stratocaster, and Ringo on drums. The next day, they reduced the whole song and added flanging/chorus on the Pianet. Then Paul recorded his bass and Ringo doubled his snare drum and bass drum. Finally, John delivered his superb vocal. According to Geoff Emerick, he had one requirement: he wanted it to sound as though it came from the moon. Emerick saturated the entrance of his preamplifier microphone and made John sing on a microphone of poor quality: the results were perfect. The following session was scheduled for September 27, giving George Martin the time to write an instrumental score meeting John’s needs. On the day of the recording, the arrangements he made for eight violins, four cellos, a bass clarinet, and three French horns were extraordinary. To satisfy John, who also wanted a few bizarre sounds, he hired the Mike Sammes Singers, a vocal group of sixteen mixed choir singers. They sang different vocal effects that made the song unique: the Ho-ho-ho, hee-hee-hee, ha-ha-ha; Oompah oompah, stick it up your jumper; Got one, got one, everybody’s got one; and other oddities! John loved it and was splitting a gut laughing as he listened to them. “It was a fascinating session. That was John’s baby, great one, a really good one,”5 said Paul.

Several reductions and overdubs were done the next day. On September 29, there was an epic mixing session with Ringo tuning a radio and John inserting the random radio extracts! He stumbled upon a BBC program broadcasting King Lear. The voices in the coda are lines of William Shakespeare! The final mix resulted from the edit of mixes 10 (up to Sitting in an English garden) and 22 (for the ending). For the stereo mix, carried out on November 6, Geoff Emerick could not find the radio program chosen by Ringo (the radio and the four-track tape of the song had been injected live and simultaneously through the mix console to be recorded on the master tape) and decided to create an artificial stereo for the second part of the mono mix involved. The final stereo mix was done on November 17. John said in 1974, “‘I Am the Walrus’ is also one of my favorite tracks—because I did it, of course, but also because it’s one of those that has enough little bitties going to keep you interested even a hundred years later.”6

The Evil Walrus

John would reveal later that he did not understand at the time he wrote this song that the walrus in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland was an evil character, symbolizing capitalism—one the author wanted to denounce!

Technical Details

When George Martin recorded the string and wind instruments, he did it on a second tape recorder. Likewise for the choir. After mixing together all the tracks on one four-track tape recorder, Martin manually synchronized this tape with the four-track tape of the Beatles’ performances on another tape recorder. This was why in some spots there was a gap between the orchestra and the rhythm track.

The Fool On The Hill

Lennon-McCartney / 2:57
1967

SONGWRITER

Paul

MUSICIANS

Paul: vocal, bass, piano, recorder

John: rhythm guitar, bass harmonica, maracas

George: acoustic guitar (?), bass harmonica

Ringo: drums, maracas, finger cymbals

Christopher and Richard Taylor, Jack Ellory: flutes

RECORDED

Abbey Road: September 6 and 25–26, 1967 (Studio Two) / September 27, 1967 (Studios One and Two) / October 20, 1967 (Studio Three)

NUMBER OF TAKES: 6

MIXING

Abbey Road: September 25, 1967 (Studio Two) / September 27, 1967 (Studios One and Two) / October 25, 1967 (Studio Two) / November 1, 1967 (Studio Three)

TECHNICAL TEAM

Producer: George Martin

Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott

Assistant Engineers: Ken Scott, Richard Lush, Phil McDonald, Graham Kirkby

Genesis

“The Fool on the Hill” was one of Paul’s most beautiful ballads. Marijke Koger, a member of the group of Dutch artist-designers called The Fool, regularly did his tarot reading and he always pulled out the card of the Fool, which symbolized innocence and childhood. This inspired him and he wrote a song about someone like the Maharishi. Paul explained, “His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle he wasn’t taken too seriously. It was this idea of a fool on the hill, a guru in a cave, I was attracted to.”1 Paul had played for John a sketch of his song at the end of March, while they were recording “With a Little Help from My Friends.” John liked it, noting, “Another good lyric. Shows he’s capable of writing complete songs.”2 It was probably after attending the first conference of the Maharishi a few months later, on August 24, that he could finish writing the song.

FOR BEATLES FANATICS

In the mid-sixties, the recorder went through a surprising revival in rock music with songs such as the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday.” We could also mention “I’ve Seen All Good People” (1971) by Yes and “Stairway to Heaven” (1971) by Led Zeppelin.

Production

On September 6, Paul recorded a demo alone on the piano. The lyrics were not definitive, but the charm and the structure were already there: it was a great song. On September 25 the real session began. The version recorded after three takes and a reduction was fairly distant from what was kept (see Anthology 2). The very next day, the Beatles redid it almost entirely. A new rhythm part was recorded with Paul on piano, George (?) on acoustic guitar, Ringo on drums, and John (?) on maracas. Then Paul added some “Mrs. Mills” piano, some Schiedmayer celesta (as in “Baby It’s You”), and a recorder. Ringo was on finger cymbals. After a reduction, Paul sang and added another part with recorder. John and George were each on their bass harmonica. A loop, which was probably made with the sound of a strongly varisped electric guitar was inserted at 2:40. On September 27, Paul provided another vocal. Then three flutists were hired for October 20. To record them, Ken Scott had to synchronize a second tape recorder while using the method Ken Townsend used for “A Day in the Life.” The mono mix was done on October 25 and the stereo mix on November 1. “‘The Fool on the Hill’ was one of the movie’s most complicated scenes for Paul to edit. The scene was filmed in the French back country near Nice. Paul danced on a hill while the song played on a cassette player. Unfortunately, Paul had not requested a clapboard, as is typically used in film when audio and video must be kept in sync. As a result, this created a nightmare during the editing process when Paul tried to line up the film with the song.

Recorder Lessons

Paul began composing music when he hit a D 6th chord on his father’s piano in Liverpool.3 And later, thanks to a few lessons from Jane Asher’s mother, Margaret, he learned to play the recorder.

Flying

Harrison-Lennon-McCartney-Starkey / 2:14
1967

MUSICIANS

John: vocals, organ, Mellotron, sound effects

Paul: vocals, guitar, bass

George: vocals, guitar

Ringo: vocals, drums, maracas, sound effects

RECORDED

Abbey Road: September 8, 1967 (Studio Three) / September 28, 1967 (Studio Two)

NUMBER OF TAKES: 8

MIXING

Abbey Road: September 8, 1967 (Studio Three) / September 28, 1967 (Studio Two) / November 7, 1967 (Studios One and Two)

TECHNICAL TEAM

Producer: George Martin

Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott

Assistant Engineers: Richard Lush, Peter Mew, Graham Kirkby

Genesis

The Beatles wrote their first instrumental together under the title “Aerial Tour Instrumental.” Of course, there had been “Cry for a Shadow” in 1961, but that song had been written by Harrison-Lennon and had been recorded under the name of the Beat Brothers. The group also played and composed other instrumentals (“Catswalk,” “12-bar Original,” etc.), but those either didn’t come out as records or were adopted by other musicians.

In order to record “Flying,” Paul suggested that everyone improvise in the studio, “We can keep it very very simple, we can make it a twelve-bar blues.”1 He brought the little melody that he performed on the Mellotron with a trombone sound. In the movie, “Flying” illustrated a dream sequence with views in the air. It was interesting that these views came from hours of rushes filmed over the Arctic during the final scene of Stanley Kubrick’s Doctor Strangelove (1964), which Derek Taylor (Brian Epstein’s former personal assistant) got hold of.

FOR BEATLES FANATICS

Chet Baker did an adaptation of “Flying” with saxophone and flute player Bud Shank.

Production

On September 8, the Beatles needed six takes to record the rhythm track. Ringo was on drums, Paul on bass, John on the organ (?), and George played lead guitar. One saxophone part extracted from an unidentified jazz record was even added at the end of the piece! Geoff Emerick remembered plugging George’s guitar into a DI box to pass the sound directly into the mixing console. This gave it a softer, more wooly sound. Besides, this was the most interesting instrumental part of the song. Three organ parts were then added and played backwards on a different track. After a reduction, Paul recorded the melody on the Mellotron and all of them together sang the choruses. Ringo’s voice was put forward in the mix to give the song a different color. The piece was over nine minutes long. On September 28, other overdubs were integrated: some Mellotron, guitar, maracas, and various percussion parts. John and Ringo then worked on sound effects, loops, and reversed sounds; namely, recorders played on the Mellotron for the coda. The mono and stereo mixes that trimmed the song to 2:14 were done on November 7.

Blue Jay Way

George Harrison / 3:53
1967

MUSICIANS

George: vocal, organ

John: organ (?), backing vocal

Paul: bass, backing vocal

Ringo: drums, tambourine

Unknown musician: cello

RECORDED

Abbey Road: September 6–7, 1967 (Studio Two) / October 6, 1967 (Studio Two)

NUMBER OF TAKES: 6

MIXING

Abbey Road: October 12, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 7, 1967 (Studios One and Two)

TECHNICAL TEAM

Producer: George Martin

Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Peter Vince, Ken Scott

Assistant Engineers: Ken Scott, Richard Lush, Peter Mew, Graham Kirkby

Genesis

On August 1, 1967, George took off with Pattie for Los Angeles, where his friend Derek Taylor, Brian Epstein’s former personal assistant, lived now. The couple rented a house on a street called Blue Jay Way. Derek was late in joining them, probably because he was delayed by the heavy fog that covered the city. Worn out by the trip and jet lag, George had fun playing a Hammond organ that he found in a corner of the house to fight against sleepiness, and he wrote this song while waiting for his friend. He said about his song, “The mood is also slightly Indian. Derek Taylor is slightly Welsh.”1 George does not recount whether the friend finally found the house in the fog.

In this sequence from Magical Mystery Tour, George was sitting on the ground in a suit playing on an organ drawn on the pavement. There were plenty of psychedelic effects: the atmosphere varied from amateurish to enlightened. Fortunately, there was the music.

Production

“Blue Jay Way” was the only Beatles song to use practically all the effects available at that time. The first recording session took place on September 6. The rhythm track was recorded in one take: bass, drums, and organ. George was on organ, but it was possible that John accompanied him. The next day there was a first reduction onto a second tape recorder. Accentuated flanging bringing the tape to its saturation point was added on both organs, especially at the end of the song. George then sang lead with his voice doubled simultaneously. On the choruses, the vocals were fed through a Leslie cabinet. George wanted to express the feeling of the fog that he was singing about. For the next reduction, many of the instruments were enriched with phasing. Then George, John, and Paul recorded backing vocals through the Leslie cabinet once again. Finally, on October 6, a cello and a tambourine were added to complete the song. The first mix was stereo, and George decided to add intermittent backwards playback of the song through a Leslie cabinet. Since this operation was done live (like the radio on “I Am the Walrus”), it was impossible to reproduce exactly the same mix in mono. George Martin and Geoff Emerick decided to drop this effect for the mono mix. The final mixes are dated November 7.

FOR BEATLES FANATICS

Most likely, the Small Faces song “Itchycoo Park,” which came out in August 1967, influenced the massive use of flanging and phasing on “Blue Jay Way.” “Itchycoo Park,” which was recorded at the well-known Olympic Sound Studios, was one of the very first to use this type of effect.