Mono White Album - Beatles' Involvement and Intent

Honestly, why would you doubt the author of the actual song? Why does a strike a nerve with you? This is fascinating.

 

Sir Paul McCartney is notorious for adjusting history to make himself look better.

 

And the fact that Paul has been consistent since day one about the subject matter of "Blackbird" has what exactly to do with your statement?

 

You asked a question.
I answered it.
That is exactly what it means.
Fascinating!

 

Except you didn't.

I repeat, the fact that Paul has been consistent since day one about the subject matter of "Blackbird" has what exactly to do with your statement?

I am honestly a bit fascinated!

 

There would have been riots in here if Jagger were the one thinking about make fans spend more money on purpose.

 

Just curious but is it the bootleg recording of Paul and Donovan in India where Paul claims he wrote Blackbird about civil rights? If so, I stand corrected but it did seem like something Paul would make up after the fact.

 

No, it's from later in 1968 when Paul was working on Mary Hopkins' debut album in London, which Paul produced and on which Donovan contributed.

 

He hasnt been consistent since day one. He didn't start telling that story until decades after the song was released.

 

What are your guys on about??? The idea that a song recorded in June 1968 with the lyrics of “Blackbird” wasn’t alluding to civil rights, but was only about a dusky tweety bird, seems ridiculous, willfully blind, to me. Like saying that the Stones song “Sweet Black Angel” was a song about a chained-up heavenly angel who happened to have an ebony hue, and nothing more down to earth.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free

 

There is audio of him saying it in 1968.

 

Exactly!

 

The Stereo feels definitive and is my go-to.

The Mono sounds loose and has a few interesting bits. George’s songs sound fantastic, which leads me to believe he was deeply involved in the Mono mix.

 

Not the masses but us stateside Beatle-niks were very much aware of the differences in the mono & stereo mixes it just escalated with Pepper.

Up until the 3rd Beatlemania of the mid-80s mono copys of Pepper & MMT were highly sought out
collector items.

Granted not like they are today but to say Beatle collectors were ignorant to mono & stereo mixes until the Rareties LP is unwarranted and not factual.

Lennons remark about mono & stereo in the mid 60s hipped me to the differences.

He was specifically speaking in reference to PPM & WTB.

He said when you take something originally mixed in mono and remix for stereo you take the guts out of the music.

Obviously he was right.

I actually began comparisons in 1966 with Revolver.

 

Your assumption that PM edicate would allow for him to refer to African-American as a blackbird is absurd.

The term is a racist derogatory term that is almost as offensive as the other racist slang some use.

It would be even more adsurd if he did in fact say it.

 

What on Earth?

 

It sounds like there's no clear consensus/evidence re: which mix they intended to be definitive, or if they intended one to be so.

 

Exactly! Both mixes were intended to be definitive. The first 6 weeks of the sessions had George Martin and The Beatles producing the sessions with Geoff Emerick being the engineer. However, these first 6 weeks saw them working on just a handful plus of songs. Revolution 1 which morphed into Revolution 9, Don't Pass Me By, Blackbird, Everybody's Got Something To Hide, Good Night, Ob La Di, Ob La Da, Revolution (fast version) and the initial session for Cry Baby Cry. Sexy Sadie was also recorded during these sessions, but was re-recorded after Emerick quit. The bulk of the remaining recordings were produced by George Martin with Ken Scott producing. However, in September 1968 George Martin went on vacation/holiday until early October and the following songs were produced by Chris Thomas, with Ken Scott engineering:

While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Helter Skelter (remake- album version)
Glass Onion
I Will
Birthday
Piggies
Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Typically, but certainly not definitively, a song was mixed into mono AFTER it was finished. This wasn't always the case. Sometimes stereo mixes were done first or at the same session. Many mixes were re-done in the final 24 hour (16/17 October 1968) mixing session... seeing the Beatles, except for George who was in the US, supervise ALL mixes... and also help create the crossfades and track listing. Mono mixes were still being done on this very last day. As were some stereo mixes too. Over the previous week lots of stereo mixes were done, some months AFTER they were mixed to mono. However some songs were still being mixed to mono, or remixed to mono. Again, there were instances when the stereo mix was finished before the mono. You need Lewisohn's books to fully understand how this all went down.

Another issue is that eight-track came into the discussion. First recording at Trident Studios in August, then at EMI in early September. So not only were there different combinations of staff, but 4-track and 8-track recordings. Around this time songs were not automatically mixed to mono upon completion, though occasionally they still were (i.e. Birthday, Honey Pie)... typically left days or weeks after recording was completed. Probably due to time constraints, mixing sessions were booked exclusively... though sometimes they followed an overdub session. Typically the Beatles were present for all, or the vast majority, of these sessions. Some mixing anomalies occurred because different crews worked on different mixes, sometimes months apart.... sometimes the mixes were done concurrently and they knew there were differences. Purposefully done so? Laziness? We'll never know definitively. Ron

 

One thing that's not meant here as anything more than a bit of information. For the fans who are not into these sorts of things and who ignore it, a blackbird is not just a bird that's black. It's not a "black bird", its a blackbird, an actual common European species bearing this common English name. (Paul McCartney was somehow into birdwatching as a youth.). It belongs to a bird family which has a tendency to sing well into the night, similar to our American Robin.

Members from North America who know about common birds will be familiar with a few Blackbird species of our own, even though these do not belong in the same family of species as the Blackbird from the UK and Europe. But for people from other countries (or even from French-speaking Canada) it might not be as obvious.

 

Not saying that this is in any way gospel or exactly true to fact, but given their often stated preference for mono to that point, my preferred way about thinking about the two mixes is that the band made the stereo for what they perceived this newly developing market wanted, and they made the mono mostly for themselves...

 

Threads locked ?

 

In the Beatles Recording Sessions book, Lewisohn notes that The Beatles got Stereo copies of the album around the time of release.

 

False.

 

What part is false? They were also present for the Stereo mixing of Pepper?

 

They participated in stereo mix of 5 songs on that album.