Love

The songs – part seven

‘A Day In The Life’

I heard ‘A Day In The Life’, and I realized it was a performance opposed to something which we put on a shelf. It was more human than I imagined. I took that with me, and the excitement of hearing that I then wanted to convey with the show. ‘A Day In The Life’ is one of my favorite songs. It’s interesting, and one of my all around favorite performances. I love John’s voice. The bass. Ringo’s drums. It’s just a great piece of work. On ‘A Day In The Life’, I would drive Paul Hicks mad about because I would constantly go “We need to make this better.” In the theater as well, I’m now very happy.

As with ‘Revolution’ and ‘Back In The USSR’, the Love version of ‘A Day In The Life’ was relatively unchanged from the Sgt Pepper original. The dynamics were improved, and the orchestral crescendos and final piano chord sounded bigger and bolder than ever.

Even before we approached this I knew there was nothing we could add to it. It really is a masterpiece. Then Allan Rouse, our project co-ordinator at Abbey Road Studios, brought the early orchestral takes up from the vault. This meant that we could make the crescendo and the last piano chord at the end even bigger.

‘Hey Jude’

In its original 1968 incarnation, ‘Hey Jude’ had been a seven-minute epic. It was edited down to under four minutes for Love, by transitioning to the extended coda after the third verse.

Giles Martin also brought to the fore a funky bassline from the original session tapes, which can be heard from 3:07 on the Love version. The bassline subsequently became part of Paul McCartney’s solo performances, played live by Brian Ray.

The biggest challenge we faced with ‘Hey Jude’ was finding a way of ending it. I’d found a great bass line that Paul played at the end of the song and put it in the middle, but the ending is so well known that it took quite some time to find the perfect match.

‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’

The playout of ‘Hey Jude’ segues into ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’. Both songs were recorded in F major, making it a straightforward transition.

…and it was sheer luck that ‘Sgt Pepper (Reprise) was in the right key so we could link the two together.

‘All You Need Is Love’

The finale of Love was, appropriately, ‘All You Need Is Love’, The Beatles’ hit from the 1967 Summer of Love.

The fade-out contains vocals from ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’, ‘Rain’, and ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, in addition to the guitar riff from ‘Ticket To Ride’.

The ending of the song features the orchestra from ‘Good Night’, and the sign-off speech from The Beatles Third Christmas Record, recorded on 8 November 1965.

Paul: “All right. Fade it there Charley! Take seven!”
George: “Okay, put the red lights off!”
John: “And this is Johnny Rhythm just saying good night to yous all and God bless yous.”

I spent a long time looking for The Beatles signing off and saying goodbye for the very end of the show. But it just so happened that at the end of most of their gigs and radio shows they would either say a polite ‘thanks’ or bow and go straight off. So what you hear over the final chords of ‘Goodnight’ is taken from a Christmas record recorded in 1965.

‘The Fool On The Hill’

On 8 February 2011 the Love album went on sale on Apple’s iTunes Store, with two bonus tracks: ‘The Fool On The Hill’ and ‘Girl’.

The remix of ‘The Fool On The Hill’ featured cellos from ‘I Am The Walrus’, drums from ‘Octopus’s Garden’, brass and vocals from ‘Mother Nature’s Son’, piano from ‘Dear Prudence’, and a tambura drone.

‘Girl’

The Love remix of ‘Girl’ featured acoustic guitar from ‘And I Love Her’, drums from ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!’, and a tambura drone from ‘Within You Without You’.