Paul
– lead and backing vocals, guitar, possibly harpsichord
John – backing vocals, possibly bass
George – backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo – drums, maracas
On 9 February 1967, Abbey Road studios were, unusually, not available to the Beatles – normally the scheduling of the studios had to be kept flexible when the Beatles were recording to accommodate their whimsical requirements, but on this evening that was evidently not possible. So, for the first time, George Martin and the Beatles had to go elsewhere to record – to Regent Sound Studio on Tottenham Court Road. It was the first time the Beatles had used a studio that did not belong to EMI since they signed the recording contract with them. In fact, it was the first time they recorded at any studio other than Abbey Road, apart from their session at the EMI Pathé Marconi Studio in Paris in January 1964. Because Regent was not an EMI studio, the engineers and technicians, including Geoff Emerick, had to stay behind – George Martin, being an independent agent, was free to travel with the group.
(The Regent Sound studio, incidentally, was not the one in Denmark Street that was used by the Rolling Stones in their early days. The Tottenham Court Road studio, now no longer existing, was, as George Martin recalls, “little more than a demonstration studio … a low-ceilinged, boxy little room with a low-ceilinged, boxy little sound to it.” Nevertheless, it seems to have been all that was available at short notice.)
The recording procedure for the track itself was also rather unusual. For a couple of years or so, the group had set about taping a song in a certain way, that is, to perfect the rhythm track and then add overdubs, including vocals, onto it. That way they could concentrate on getting the best performance for each part of a song. In addition, Paul had recently – for Sgt Pepper at least – begun to treat his bass as such an overdub. This enabled him to develop more melodic bass lines for the songs, certainly a hallmark of middle-period Beatles tracks. However, ‘Fixing A Hole’ was recorded in the manner of much earlier tracks, that is more or less straight, including “live” vocals. This recording method necessitated a departure from standard procedure, and one with roles that are uncertain.
The harpsichord is the key instrument for the track, and Neil Aspinall, writing in the monthly Beatles Book, states that it is played by Paul. As bass and harpsichord were recorded at the same time (this being the only Sgt Pepper track not have the bass dubbed on afterwards), someone else must have been playing bass. Richard Lush, although not present at Regent Sound, was second engineer at the 21 February Abbey Road session. He remembers John played Fender bass on the track, pointing out that the bass on the album track sounds much less rich than Paul’s Rickenbacker. However, George Martin writes in Summer Of Love that because Paul wanted to play bass himself, “the part of honorary stand-in keyboard player to the greatest group in the world was offered to me”. This has become the generally accepted view, and is that of Ian MacDonald, although he recognises the uncertainty of the bass playing and points out a minor timing fluff under “there I will go”. On balance though, George Martin is probably misremembering the session, particularly as he implies that the playing on the track is archetypal McCartney. John is more likely to have been the bass player, as the playing, although competent, lacks the imagination of Paul’s Sgt Pepper bass playing. Also, for Paul not to play the keyboard on his track – as he had on ‘Penny Lane’, for example – would have been quite remarkable.
The group completed two takes of the track, and although take 1 was labelled “master”, take 2 was the “final master”. Back at Abbey Road two weeks later, they recorded another take of the song, but decided to complete work on the Regent Sound take 2. Although George is usually credited with the guitar solo, it has also been suggested that it was played by Paul, through an old El Pico amplifier. Oddly, the uncertain bass part was not re-done. George Martin then made six mono remixes of the track – for some reason the mono version of the track is an edit of remixes three and six – and a single stereo remix.
Again, the mono album received a higher priority than the stereo. Second engineer Richard Lush points out, “The Beatles were there for all the mono mixes. Then, after the album was finished, George Martin, Geoff [Emerick] and I did the stereo in a few days, just the three of us, not a Beatle in sight. There are all sorts of things on the mono, little effects here and there, which the stereo doesn’t have.” In fact, even George Martin was not present for the stereo remix of ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’.
The mix is notable for having a fair degree of reverb, courtesy of the Abbey Road echo chamber. This reflects a general trend away from the drier vocals of Rubber Soul and Revolver, and helps to give Sgt Pepper the impression of having a broader canvas than earlier LPs. Also evident in this regard is the use of artificial reverb units – the so-called EMT plate units. These give a pleasant, if rather unnatural, reverb effect, and, although they had been available at Abbey Road since the late 1950s, were only seized on by the Beatles for the more artificial soundscape of Sgt Pepper.
‘Fixing A Hole’ follows logically from ‘Getting Better’, lyrically and musically, each seeming to bring out the best in each other. Both songs have an irrepressible optimism, both invoking a mental picture of the sun breaking through. Both decry blinkered people who steadfastly stick to arbitrary rules. The contrasting “can’t get no worse” becomes a reference to “silly people”. George’s lovely extended off-beat guitar solo echoes the syncopated stabbing of the previous song, and the four-square harpsichord line continues the trend set by the Pianette in ‘Getting Better’.
There are also a couple of Paul’s finest homophonic puns – a clever wander/wonder homonym which suggests “stop my mind from wondering where it will go”, and the exquisite “it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, I’m right where I belong”.
The optimism mentioned earlier is reinforced by a simple but very effective technique in the bridge. Not only do we burst into fully blown major territory, but the chords are simply four bars of tonic-dominant (I-V / F-C) followed by four of dominant-secondary dominant (V-V/V / C-G). After a verse governed by Fm and Bb (i and IV as opposed to the usual combination of I and iv), this is a bright move indeed. The flat melody of the bridge also makes its mark after the nomadic skipping of the verse’s melody.
There is also a nod in the direction of Paul’s other song of unbridled exhilaration, ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’, in the outro. Here he also ad-libs the verse in thirds and fifths, though the result is now rather ambivalent being set against a minor key backing.
Lyrically, the song is a merry hotchpotch of ideas and influences, suggestions and exhortations, some mundane, some more philosophical. At its most basic level, the song could even refer to the maintenance of property. In the summer of 1966, as a birthday present to himself, Paul had bought the 183-acre High Park dairy farm near Machrihanish, just west of Campbeltown in Kintyre, Scotland. Although a dairy farm, Paul used it to raise sheep (an experience that famously converted him to vegetarianism). But in the winter of 1966, the farm needed running repairs, including to the roof – hence ‘Fixing A Hole’. Paul later denied that this was what he had in mind when writing the song – the roof apparently remained unfixed until he and Linda became an item.
But the song also has a more considered message concerning one’s outlook on life. The hole in the road is an analogy for a hole in your constitution which allows external interference to prevent your mind from progressing. The holes and the paint should not be constrictive, but should allow free development, unfettered by convention or the need to do the right thing.
The song also gives a rather harsh nod to certain fans and other autocratic types – “Silly people run around, they worry me / And never ask me why they don’t get past my door”. The implication being that if they stopped being silly, if they played it straight, then they would get in his door. And if he stopped listening to their “Don’t do this, don’t do that” and opened his mind to allow things to happen, he’d be able to go where his true self wanted him to go.
What Paul strenuously denies is that he was singing about holes created by needles. As with ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’, even when it did not matter any more, Paul insisted the song had nothing to do with heroin (which is entirely believable anyway). But, of course, if it means heroin to you, then that’s fine.