"Mother Nature's Son" Arrangemt notes, recording Q

[Brian Brock]

Ok, first of all, the guitar playing is just great - but listen to all the mistakes! It's comforting to think of Paul in the studio, just laying down the first complete run-through of the song, not fixing anything, and moving on. I'm reminded of his singing in many ways, where, in a lot of songs, he sings quite a few flat notes but his character and intent come through so clearly that people don't even notice it. The guitar is finger picked.

Also, the bass drum! I mean, especially that "duckaduck duck" at the beginning. It's full of humor and totally sets up the orchestrations that appear later by letting us know that there are instruments to be aware of beyond guitar and voice.

Then there's the bongo drums. They're interesting for the kind of "here we go along" character they impart, but also, notice that there's a few missed hits, a late one here, early there. Also, you would almost think that he's tapping on a book, the recording is so thin - but why waste frequencies on the bongos?

The tympani and George Martin's horn arrangements are great at setting the mood and embiggenning the sound without really sticking out. I would bet that there's people who have listened to this album for years and never really noticed the horns, or especially the tympani. Part of what makes them disappear so well is, I think, that there's very little melodic substance beyond a few step up/step down motions and a few things that hew fairly close to the vocal melody.

The song keeps building right to the end, with the second guitar playing a countermelody (well, just a major scale at one point, but it's effective at bigging it up without sticking out), and then a second vocal coming in just for the final "mother nature's son".


Now the questions. Is the vocal recorded separately from the guitar? I think so - if you flip phase and collapse to mono, the vocals basically disappear but for the reverb - if they were in the left channel with the guitar, they would still be present, yes? Also about that reverb, it's really interesting to hear by itself - I would love to know exactly how it was produced (I'm assuming some room in the EMI studios - I guess they recorded this album [it's called "The Beatles"] there and at one or more independent studios, but probably mixed it there, I would assume).

How do you think he played the bass drum, and how was it recorded? I'm imagining he used a mallet and had it set up somehow separate from the kit, but...?

How is the second guitar different from the first? It sounds almost more compressed or something, and perhaps more closely miked? I think I remember it having more of a flat picked sound - maybe that's the whole difference.

And finally, fill in the chain for recording the first guitar: McCartney's mind, fingers, Martin D-28, ???? mic with ???? technique, in ???? kind of room, some EMI board, some EMI tape machine.

OK, thanks.

By the way, I've been reading this book called "The Beatles as Musicians" while listening to a lot of Beatles tracks - really interesting to focus the mind on different elements. I'll probably review the book in a month or three.

bb

[r0ck1r0ck2]

one of the top 5 songs on their best (well sometimes) album

[JGriffin]

Lewisohn's "Beatles Recording Sessions" book has lots of this info, though not everything. I don't have it in front of me, but off the top of my head I can say that very little Beatle work was recorded outside of the EMI-owned Abbey Road studios in London. I'm pretty sure most if not all of "The Beatles" (also colloquially known as The White Album) was recorded at Abbey Road.

More later when I get time to check the Lewisohn book.

[Brian Brock]

From my reading, I understand that they used some of the independent studios at one point, in order to take advantage of the 8 track machines, but whatever.

Anyone know about any of these questions? I'm not really interested in names and places, more in methods, you know...

Brian

[1chroma7]

i think "hey jude" was when they began to use trident studios a bit, although it wasn't really till "let it be" that they started to regularly record outside emi. i'm pretty sure "mother natures son" was done at emi. the book mentioned above would tell you the exact studio and dates, as well as what order the tracks were recorded in. if the vocal is center and the gtr is hard left, then they were recorded separately. it seems from all of the pictures i've seen of beatles sessions, the main mics were u47s, d19s, and coles 4038s. the gtr is probably a 47, the bass drum a d19.

[JGriffin]

Okay, from Lewisohn:

Friday, 9 August 1968
Studio Two: 7:30 pm-2 amRecording: 'Not Guilty' (tape reduction take 99 into take 102); 'Mother Nature's Son' (takes 1-25) Producer: George Martin Engineer: Ken Scott

This session was due to finish at 10:00 pm and it was around that time that work on {Harrison song} "Not Guilty" was completed for the night. But after the other Beatles had gone home, Paul stayed behind to record a fine new acoustic ballad, 'Mother Nature's Son.' Although it was later to receive a brass overdub, the song was to feature no other Beatles...

'Mother Nature's Son' barely altered from the very first take, and it was just a matter of time, Paul runing through the song with live acoustic guitar and vocal, until he hit upon the "best" take. This was take 24, although he did go beyond - -to 25- just for good measure.

Tuesday, 20 August
{among others} Studio Two 8pm-4am. Recording 'Mother Nature's Son' (SI onto take 24, tape reduction take 24 into take 26, SI onto take 26) Producer: George Martin, Engineer: Ken Scott

The first task of Paul's evening session was to complete 'Mother Nature's Son.' Alan Brown was technical engineer on the session and he has a vivid recollection of its events. "...Paul wanted an open effect on his drums (to give a bongos sound) and we ended up leaving the studio itself and putting the drums in a corridor, halfway down, with mikes at the far end. It wasn't carpeted then and it gave an interesting stacatto effect."

"Mother Nature's Son' also received overdubs of timpani, a second acoustic guitar track and brass intruments during this session.

Mono mix done Friday 23 August, stereo mix done Saturday 12 October, released Friday 22 November.

[JGriffin]

From my reading, I understand that they used some of the independent studios at one point, in order to take advantage of the 8 track machines, but whatever.

Okay, I checked the book for that, and it turns out you are correct. Here are all the tracking references I found at other studios:

Thursday, 9 February, 1967: Regent Sound Studio, London. "The first Beatles recording session, expressly for EMI, at a British studio other than Abbey Road." Booked because Abbey road was full up. "A pretty awful little studio," according to George Martin. 3 takes of "Fixing a Hole" basics recorded, of which take 2 was used.

Thursday, 11 May 1967 Olympic Sound Studios, London. Not sure why this was chosen (the book doesn't say) , but the Stones had recorded there a bunch. "Baby You're a Rich Man" was recorded and mixed at this session.

Friday 26 May 1967 De Lane Lea Studio, London. Lead and backing vocals, percussion and mix for "It's All Too Much."

Friday 2 June 1967 De Lane Lea Studio, London. Brass and clarinet overdubs, "It's All Too Much."

Wednesday, 14 June 1967 Olympic Sound Studios, London. Recording, mix "All You Need Is Love." It's noted that 4-tracks were used for this session, so they weren't there to use an 8-track.

Tuesday/Wednesday, 22/23 August, 1967: Chappell Studios, London. Abbey Road fully booked up. Basic tracks, "Your mother Should Know."

Friday, 12 January 1968: EMI studio, Bombay, India. basic tracks for "The Inner Light." (George only)

Wed, 31 July 1968, August 1,2,6, 1968: Trident Studios, London. "Hey Jude" recording and mixing. Trident did have an 8-track, and actually Abbey Road did too at the time, but it hadn't been approved for use by the head engineer at this point.

28-30 August, 1968: Trident, recording "Dear Prudence."

1-5 October, 1968: Trident, recording "Happiness is a Warm Gun," "I Will," "Glass Onion," "Honey Pie," Savoy Truffle," "Martha My Dear."

On 22 January 1969 the band attempted to begin recording at their own Apple Studio in Savile Row, London, and eventually did record there until late February.

...and of course there were the "sessions" for the filming of "Let It Be" at the Twickenham film studios.

22-24 February, 1969: Trident, recording and mixing "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."

Looks like a long list, but consider it's around three dozen dates spanning two years and 4 albums. The number of sessions at Abbey Road listed in the book over this period positively dwarfs this list.

[JGriffin]

I'm pretty sure most if not all of "The Beatles" (also colloquially known as The White Album) was recorded at Abbey Road.

Now that I've actually done some research and am not just talking out my ass, this of course is incorrect; certanly not all, and maybe not even "most" of the White Album was recorded at Abbey Road. Details above.

[Brian Brock]

Okay, from Lewisohn:

'Mother Nature's Son' barely altered from the very first take, and it was just a matter of time, Paul runing through the song with live acoustic guitar and vocal, until he hit upon the "best" take. This was take 24, although he did go beyond - -to 25- just for good measure.

OK, so doesn't this imply that the guitar and voice were recorded simultaneously? I can't notice any of the vocal on the guitar track, but I'll try again.

"...Paul wanted an open effect on his drums (to give a bongos sound) and we ended up leaving the studio itself and putting the drums in a corridor, halfway down, with mikes at the far end. It wasn't carpeted then and it gave an interesting stacatto effect."

And then this indicates that the "bongo" sound is what - toms? Also by "putting the drums in a corridor" it kind of seems to imply that the bass drum was played as part of a kit...

Hmm - thanks.

b

[JGriffin]

Okay, from Lewisohn:

'Mother Nature's Son' barely altered from the very first take, and it was just a matter of time, Paul runing through the song with live acoustic guitar and vocal, until he hit upon the "best" take. This was take 24, although he did go beyond - -to 25- just for good measure.

OK, so doesn't this imply that the guitar and voice were recorded simultaneously? I can't notice any of the vocal on the guitar track, but I'll try again.

Seems so, yeah.

[JGriffin]

Listening again, the vocal and guitar are both shifted left, and the reverb return is on the right. Haven't tried your phase-flipping, but perhaps there's enough dry vocal in the center to cancel it out. That reverb is most likely one of the EMI echo chambers. You can read about those in some of the Mix magazine articles about the Anthology records...they had to re-construct them to match the reverbs on the original records.

The gguitar is most likely a Martin D-28.