Recording, mixing: Yer Blues, What’s The New Mary Jane

Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott

‘Yer Blues’ was largely completed during this 7pm-4.30am session, which also saw the recording of another song, ‘What’s The New Mary Jane’.

‘Yer Blues’ had several overdubs recorded onto track four of the multitrack tape – itself an edit of takes 17 and 16. John Lennon recorded his lead vocals, with harmonies by Paul McCartney, and some extra snare drumming during the guitar solo and after the edit from Ringo Starr.

Four mono mixes of ‘Yer Blues’ were then created. Because of the poor separation between instruments while recording, Lennon’s guide vocal and some unused lead guitar leaked into the final mix.

‘What’s The New Mary Jane’ was at this stage a contender for the White Album. A demo had been recorded back in May 1968, and it was mixed and readied for the album but left off at the last minute. Instead it remained unreleased until 1996’s Anthology 3.

The song was written by Lennon, and recorded on this day with George Harrison, Yoko Ono, and Mal Evans.

Four takes were recorded. The first two were fairly conventional, with Harrison on acoustic guitar and Lennon on piano and vocals.

Take four was the longest, lasting 6’35” and featuring a lengthy improvised section. Overdubs added to this take included more piano and guitar, a second vocal track, and drums, vibraphone, tambourine, handbell, slide whistle, cowbell and ratchet.

A rough mono mix of ‘What’s The New Mary Jane’ was made towards the end of the session, which truncated its length to 3’15”. Two mono mixes were made on 25 September, and two stereo mixes on 14 October.

Tape copies of the rough mix and the third mono mix of ‘Yer Blues’ were made at the end of the session, and taken away by Lennon for further listening.