nickhoorwegmusic

The last in our series on the Sgt Pepper multitracks. I wish there were enough multitracks circulating to cover the whole album! The tracks for this one are set out as follows:

Track 1: Acoustic guitar (John), piano (Paul), maracas (Ringo), bongos (George), vocals (John). This track features the first basic backing, all four Beatles playing rhythm parts. Sounds incredibly stark by itself! Only once does the vocal appear on this track, during the lyric ‘now they know how many holes it takes to fill the albert hall’,  on the words ‘albert hall’ continuing through ‘I’d love to turn you on’. The orchestra sections are filled by piano, the second time round Mal Evans can be heard counting the bars, his voice drenched in echo. The alarm clock heard before Paul’s vocal section is also on this track. In stereo this track starts on the left but is switched to the right channel at 3:19.

Track 2: Vocals (John), piano (Paul). The lead vocal track. John’s voice is treated with tape echo, and by itself sounds absolutely stunning. Paul’s lead on the middle section has no echo and is deliberately muddy. During the section after Paul’s bit of the song, the ‘ahh’ section, while Paul is singing the long notes, at least two other voices can be heard quietly behind him singing eerie, ghostly harmonies. Sounds like Paul and John; Paul can be heard quite clearly on a second track underneath his lead vocal in the ‘woke up…’ section, doing the out of breath effect, humming along and counting. This track also has Paul’s second piano part, which comes in for the intro chords and fills between some of the vocals. On this track the first orchestra section is counted out by Mal, drenched in echo. The edit points are very clear on this track. In stereo this track starts on the right but moves all around the spectrum throughout the course of the song.

Track 3: Bass (Paul), drums (Ringo), tambourine (George or John). Beautiful rhythm section playing - this is stunning stuff! Nothing to say here except that it’s a total joy to hear this isolated, especially as the sounds have been recorded so well. Tambourine appears for the ‘woke up…’ section and continues until the last verse. In stereo this track is heard in the centre. 

Track 4: Orchestra (40 piece), piano (Paul). The third piano part by Paul is only heard during the intro but is mixed out on the final release. The orchestra was recorded on all four tracks of a tape on a second machine, then bounced down to this one. This means the orchestra is really 160 pieces instead of 40! A huge sound. There’s about ten seconds of noise and chatter on this track before the orchestra starts playing the first time. In stereo this track is in the centre.

Not found on this multitrack is the final piano chord. Also missing is the audience noise heard at the very start of the song on the record. Unlike most Beatles songs of the period, this is one case where the stereo mix is nearly preferable to the mono mix, mostly due to the panning of the vocals, and the fact that the bass and drums are in the middle of the mix. The mono is still the better one though, for my money.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this little excursion into the Sgt Pepper multitracks! I’ve certainly enjoyed writing the series.

Nick