Beatles A Day in the Life Blog posts of '1970' 'March'

John Lennon and George Harrison wrote a letter to Paul.......

Dear Paul, We thought a lot about yours and the Beatles LPs – and decided it’s stupid for Apple to put out two big albums within 7 days of each other (also there’s Ringo’s and Hey Jude) – so we sent a letter to EMI telling them to hold your release date til June 4th (there’s a big Apple-Capitol convention in Hawaii then). We thought you’d come round when you realized that the Beatles album was coming out on April 24th. We’re sorry it turned out like this – it’s nothing personal. Love John & George. Hare Krishna. A Mantra a Day Keeps MAYA! Away.

The letter was sealed in an envelope marked “From Us, To You”, and left at Apple’s reception for a messenger to deliver to McCartney’s home at 7 Cavendish Avenue. However, Starr agreed to take it round in person. “I didn’t think it fair some office lad should take something like that round,” he reasoned.

By this time McCartney had long tired of arguing over Apple’s future, and the various parties were more likely to communicate by letter or through their managers rather than face-to-face interviews. McCartney had recorded his album in secret, under the pseudonym Billy Martin, choosing to keep the news from the press and his former bandmates for as long as possible.

McCartney might once have agreed with the logic behind the decision to postpone his album, but after months of acrimony he was in no mood for conciliatory agreements. The contents of the letter left him furious, and Starr received the full brunt of his anger.

Paul McCartney - "Ringo came to see me. He was sent, I believe – being mild mannered, the nice guy – by the others, because of the dispute. So Ringo arrived at the house, and I must say I gave him a bit of verbal. I said: ‘You guys are just messing me around.’ He said: ‘No, well, on behalf of the board and on behalf of The Beatles and so and so, we think you should do this,’ etc. And I was just fed up with that. It was the only time I ever told anyone to GET OUT! It was fairly hostile. But things had got like that by this time. It hadn’t actually come to blows, but it was near enough.

Unfortunately it was Ringo. I mean, he was probably the least to blame of any of them, but he was the fall guy who got sent round to ask me to change the date – and he probably thought: ‘Well, Paul will do it,’ but he met a different character, because now I was definitely boycotting Apple."

Starr described the situation in an affidavit read out in court during the 1971 hearings to end the Beatles partnership.

I went to see Paul. To my dismay, he went completely out of control, shouting at me, prodding his fingers towards my face, saying: ‘I’ll finish you now’ and ‘You’ll pay.’ He told me to put my coat on and get out. I did so.

Starr was immensely upset by the exchange, and reported back to Apple. Lennon and Harrison agreed to let McCartney’s album come out as planned, and delayed the release of Let It Be. While McCartney had scored a superficial victory, his relations with the drummer took a number of years to fully recover.

They eventually sent Ringo round to my house at Cavendish with a message: ‘We want you to put your release date back, it’s for the good of the group’ and all of this sort of shit, and he was giving me the party line, they just made him come round, so I did something I’d never done before, or since: I told him to get out. I had to do something like that in order to assert myself because I was just sinking. Linda was very helpful, she was saying, ‘Look, you don’t have to take this crap, you’re a grown man, you have every bit as much right…’ I was getting pummelled about the head, in my mind anyway.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

The McCartney album was issued in the UK on 17 April 1970, while Let It Be was eventually released on 8 May. On 10 April a press release for the solo album caused a sensation by seemingly confirming that The Beatles had finally split up.

The world reaction was like ‘The Beatles Have Broken Up – It’s Official’ – we’d known it for months. So that was that, really. I think it was the press who misunderstood. The record had come with this weird explanation on a questionnaire of what I was doing. It was actually only for them. I think a few people thought it was some weird move of me to get publicity, but it was really to avoid having to do the press.

Paul McCartney
Anthology

Phil Spector spent most of the day working on an idea which was never used: a 16-second tape loop using part of the instrumental break from George Harrison’s For You Blue.  He overlaid snatches of dialogue from members of the public recording during The Beatles’ rooftop performance.

Several of these vox pops were used in the Let It Be film. In the end, however, Spector rejected the idea for the Let It Be album. Indeed, only one brief piece of dialogue from the entire film soundtrack reels made it onto the LP: John Lennon introducing For You Blue with the words “Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members”.

John Lennon sends a phone message that is broadcast to a gathering of 8,000 demonstrators at Victoria Park, Bethel Green, East London. The demonstration is being held to advocate nuclear disarmament. During the message, John reveals that Yoko is again pregnant, the baby being expected in October (but she will miscarry again later in the year).

Back on this date in 1965.....

This was the fourth day for Phil Spector’s working on Dig It and assembling snippets of dialogue to be used in between songs.

Two versions of Dig It – a largely improvised song let by John Lennon – were recorded, on January 24 and 26th, a year before in 1969. A segment lasting just 49 seconds was extracted from the second of these.

A slightly longer version appearing in the Let It Be film. The full version, however, lasted for more than 12 minutes and featured Billy Preston on organ and George Martin on shaker. The brief section used by Spector was from 8’52” to 9’41”.

After he had finished work on Dig It, Spector trawled through the Apple Studios tapes for dialogue to intersperse between the songs. One of these, Lennon saying “That was ‘Can You Dig It’ by Georgie Wood…”, was appended to the end of Dig It, and provided an apt introduction to Let It Be.

Although eight snippets of dialogue were mixed on this day, only two others were used: “I Dig A Pygmy by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids…”, which began the album ahead of Two Of Us; and the “Thanks Mo”/”I hope we passed the audition” remarks, giving the effect that that the version of Get Back used was from the rooftop performance rather than the studio.

On this date, producer Phil Spector—called in to save the Get Back/LIB project—remixed "Let It Be," adding his signature orchestra and choir. He used the more rocking January 4 solo instead, and also added an extra chorus at the end. This would become known as the "album version" of the song.

Today was Phil Spector’s second day of creating stereo mixes from the Let It Be tapes involved work on three songs.

Although best known for his echo-laden Wall of Sound production techniques, Spector was positively restrained during this session. The first song to be mixed was George Harrison’s For You Blue. This was done in a single take, although Spector then made seven further attempts at remixing the intro; the two parts were later edited together.

Also on this date, Ringo Starr is interviewed for the BBC’s Scene And Heard on Savile Row, London.

Back on this date in 1965......

Twickenham Film Studios, St. Margaret's, Twickenham

At last, shooting began on home territory, Twickenham Film Studios in the west of London suburb of St. Margaret's, where A Hard Day's Night had been shot at the same time in 1964. Working a similar schedule - something like 8:30 am - 5:30 pm daily, the Beatles filmed here and on location until Sunday, May 9th. Including the Bahamanian and Austrian sections, but discounting occasional days off, this second Beatles film was shot in 11 weeks, three more than A Hard Day's Night.

Today the Producer Phil Spector was brought in to work on the tapes.

Earlier in the year, January Phil Spector had worked with John Lennon and George Harrison on the Plastic Ono Band’s Instant Karma!, during a recording session held at Abbey Road’s studio two. Bringing in Spector was Harrison’s idea, and the partnership evidently worked well. Spector worked in room four of the EMI Studios building. Harrison and Allen Klein were also present, a situation that remained for most of these final sessions for Let It Be.

Spector began by making six stereo mixes of I’ve Got A Feeling. The first of these was a studio recording made on 28 January 1969; the second mix, which was used on the LP, was from the 30 January rooftop performance.

Lennon’s Dig A Pony was next. Again recorded from the rooftop, Spector removed the “All I want is…” lines that bookended the song; they can be heard in the Let It Be film. Two mixes of the song were made.

It took Spector three attempts at making a stereo mix of One After 909. After that he turned his attentions to I Me Mine, again mixing the song three times before he was satisfied with the results. Spector also repeated a section of the song, increasing its length from 1’34” to 2’25”.

The Beatles’ studio recording of Across The Universe, made in February 1968, was the next to be tackled. Eight mixes from take eight were made. Both this song and I Me Mine would be remixed again on 1 April, however, along with brass, strings and choir overdubs.

I got on quite well with Spector except that he wanted tape echo on everything, seemed to take a different pill every half an hour and had his bodyguard with him. I explained to him that this was a British recording studio and that he was safe, but the bodyguard used to come along and sit outside the door… he wasn’t there by the end though, I think Spector felt safe in the end.

Although it is doubtful he knew of Spector’s involvement at this stage, Paul McCartney was also at EMI Studios on this day. Between 3pm and 7pm he made master copies of the McCartney album. Booked under the pseudonym Billy Martin, the session took place in studio three.

Source: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

-During an interview with a reporter from the French magazine L'Express, John Lennon states that The Beatles smoked marijuana in a restroom at Buckingham Palace on the day they were given their MBE's (in 1965). Questioned about John's comment, a spokesman for Buckingham Palace replies, "Obviously when people come along to an investiture, toilet facilities are available."