I think so too. British names for their pubs have always mystified us Irish anyway ( Red Lion, Black Lion, White Lion, White Hart, Elephant and Castle, Dog and Duck). Ours are more likely Neary's , Casey's, Murphy's, Carberry's and so on. Not for nothing did Monty Python satirise British pub names in the classic "Fox And Gynaecologist". I suspect John was employing Goon-type humour to do exactly the same.
Hmm... did they change tape suppliers for EMI prior to the recording of Abbey Road? I've noticed over the years that the physical composition of the magnetic tape can definitely have an impact on the amount of hiss present...
Going back to the imagery of Good Morning again for a moment: I think "Bird and Bee" would both evocate the image of a pub as well as a reference to sexual reprociation, however the puzzling thing is the "problem with a message in". This very much reminds me of a newspaper with personal adds as a means of communication with somebody who is not to be reached otherwise (something very alien to us these days but if you are a reader of Sherlock Holmes - like John was - you would know what I mean). Now consider it is morning - THE time for reading the newspaper, along with your coffee. So I imagine a King, probably in his morning gown but already wearing his crown sitting at the table, sipping his tea and being slightly irritated by something he spots in the paper. Maybe some gossip? But that wouldn`t be a "message".
Interesting! I have always wondered about the lyrics of Cry Baby Cry (one of my top-10 Beatle favorites) and I have been following this discussion about the meaning of Bird and Bee. I think the personal adds you mention were something I used to see done in newspapers up until the early 1980s or so. "Personal adds" went on to mean "dating adds" but from what I recall they weren't always just that. They were sometimes specific messages from one person to another. You might sometimes see an add that says something like: "To the lady with red hair - we met at the Grouse & Lorry on Weds., you spilled your pint of Newcastle on my shoes and we laughed about it and I bought you another one. Seems like we had a moment there. If interested contact Kenneth at [address or location]." I have also read things stating that in the early 20th Century some members of the mafia in the US would use the adds to send cryptic messages to their associates (i.e., "To Big Tony, Vinny is dropping off some red roses, don't forget to feed the fish") and the police would scramble to decypher these to figure out what was going on. I think the "message at the Bird & Bee" is something along those lines - The Duke reads the message at the pub, either pinned to a board or in a newspaper or broadsheet. He realizes the message is about him/for him, but it's either too obscure for him to fully understand or indicates bad news. He's "having problems" trying to figure out what to do about the bad news or is overall having a hard time understanding what the message means in the first place.
I believe that the 8 trak systems divided one inch tape into 8 tracks while the 4 track used the same one inch tape. With this the case, the 8 trak recordings had less fidelity and more tape noise/hiss. This is why Dolby noise reduction became so important with 24 trak 2 inch tape.
I think George Martin spoke about this in All You Need Is Ears. While the switch to 8-track had big advantages, it also brought about an unforeseen problem - tape hiss. With more tracks, tape hiss became a problem because mathematically it builds up to *more* than twice of what it is on 4-track. Some of the White Album (e.g. Martha My Dear) also suffered from the problem. And they didn't have Dolby yet. EDIT: Ephi82 beat me to it above.
Yeah we got a lot of these English Pub names transplanted over here in Australia. What's a 'Pig And Whistle'
Well said! We don`t now what John actually meant and probably never will but he invokes similar images in our heads, so we might not be that off!
Updated impressions of WA remix I didn’t listen to this for the past two weeks. Last night after a nice evening out, I put the DTS 5.1 mix on. I am now a former “Revolver is their best record” guy. The remix is simply revealing all the musical detail that I assumed were there but now it’s audible. Highlights for me are the incredible harmony vocals, Georges guitar tracks, all Lennon’s vocals and McCartneys superstar musicianship and creativity. Now, I reserve the right to change my mind if a re mix of Revolver reveals new musical elements not heard in the original mixes.
I never thought of it any more complicated than the Duke was at the pub and somebody left him a message (like a note or calling card) and the Duke was having a problem either understanding the message or getting someone to give him the message. A bumbling old comical aristocrat like from an Alice in Wonderland book.
That's either a gross exaggeration or over-simplification of the issue. Having 1/2 the width of tape for a track does not mean it needs to be recorded at 1/2 the volume level [which seems to be what you are either implying or reading into it]. Sure, they might want to reduce the levels slightly to minimize track-to-track side-bleed, but I don't think that has to be on a level [pun not intended] that increases the background hiss to a huge degree. [Engineers, go ahead and correct me if I'm way off base here....]
From the linked article.. As you might expect, the greater the recorded track width, the greater the amount of magnetism that can be retained by the magnetic tape, resulting in a higher output signal and an improved signal-to- noise ratio. The use of wider track widths also makes the recorded track less susceptible to signal-level dropouts. Analog Tape Essentials: Cleaning, Alignment, Archiving, And More - Page 4 of 6 - ProSoundWeb
Would an aristocrate go to a local pub? Also all the activities in the song take place in or around a house / mansion (kitchen, parlor, garden, playroom, then they are having tea and a seance round the table, which also suggest to be at home rather than elsewhere) - so this would be the exception. Was the mansion Kenwood with it`s many (unused) rooms? Anyway, just thoughts. Somebody has figured out that there is a connection to this old rhyme (and someone else found a conection to Clean-up time too): Sing a Song of Sixpence - Wikipedia
If you were wondering what it would be like if Paul put out a Double Album in the White Album style, here is a great listen for you. Here is the 2018 "reconstructed" Red Rose Speedway Double Album. Red Rose Speedway Double Album - Paul McCartney and Wings (2018), a playlist by Dr. Pepper on Spotify Vinyl Side A Night Out Get on the Right Thing Country Dreamer Big Barn Bed My Love Vinyl Side B Single Pigeon When the Night Seaside Woman I Lie Around The Mess (Live at The Hague) Vinyl Side C Best Friend (Live in Antwerp) Loup (1st Indian on the Moon) Medley - Hold Me Tight / Lazy Dynamite / Hands of Love / Power Cut Vinyl Side D Mama's Little Girl I Would Only Smile One More Kiss Tragedy Little Lamb Dragonfly
This. The intro (on LP) to Martha My Dear and some quiet parts on Abbey Road were my introduction to tape hiss before I understood what it was. It bothered me forty years ago, not now.
The only hiss which kind of still annoys me is that on I Want You. I was very surprised-and a little disappointed-that they couldn't rectify that for the '09 remasters (it actually seems to have gotten worse).
Yeah there a quite a few White Album tracks with noticeable tape hiss too but it's less obvious than on Abbey Road because the music tends to be more dense. Martha My Dear is definitely the worst and it's vastly improved on the 50th Anniversary remix, which gives me hope for a potential Abbey Road remix.
Way back in 1987 EMI's Mike Heatley and Jeff Jarratt mentioned that they had to use noise gates and filters on some White Album and Abbey Road tracks when preparing the first CD masters. Guess the new eight track machine used on some WA tracks was a bit noisy and the there were some issues with the transistorized mixing desk used on Abbey Road. Ron PS I Want You is a hybrid of different takes and overdubs from February, April and July 1969... probably too much tape saturation from the night John and George tracked multitudes of guitars in April onto the February master By the time John came up with the "She's So Heavy" refrain, a moog was introduced that sounded like a wind machine and that sort of makes everything sound even more hissy.
