Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producers: John Lennon, Yoko Ono
Engineers: Phil McDonald, John Leckie
The third recording session for John Lennon’s debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, took place on 30 September 1970.
The musicians were Lennon, Klaus Voormann on bass guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums.
They worked on just one song, ‘Hold On’. Thirty-two takes were recorded, the last of which became the master version.
Starr’s drums were recorded onto tracks 1 and 2. Track 3 had Voormann’s bass guitar, and Lennon’s guitar and vocals were on tracks 4 and 8 respectively. Lennon added three more vocal takes to tracks 5, 6, and 7.
At the end of the session, a rough mix was made for Lennon. This was recorded with a slower tape speed with less audio fidelity and, unusually, was included on the album.
‘Isolation’ and ‘Hold On John’, they’re the rough remixes. I just remixed them that night on seven-and-a-half [inches per second tape] to take them home to see what else I was going to do with them. And then I didn’t really, I didn’t even put them onto fifteen [IPS], so the quality is a bit hissy on ’em too. By the time I’d done everything, I started listening. I found out it’s better that, with ‘Instant Karma’ and other things, you remix it right away that night. I’d known that before, but never followed it through.
Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner