Paul has always done this, adlibbing his way through a tune until he arrives at something he can work with He once gave an example of this method on Radio 1 many years ago, free forming sounds that eventually became something more sensible, for want of a better word. Part of the Can You Take Me Back lyric sounds to me like "bass vibrato", which doesn't make much sense but sounds nice. It may not have been those words exactly, but something to fit the rhythm until something better came along. Very often with Paul something better doesn't come along, and he goes with his initial scratch lyric, but that's a whole other thread.
Yes we all know Paul is improvising. But that doesn't mean it's completely random. Your attempt at the lyrics is admirable. I agree that at the beginning he's got "my old brother" in mind but can't fit it in. I actually think he says your "moldbrother" twice. He knows he has a problem so later uses "anybody" as a filler. Lennon's suggestion of "honey" helps him for a while but he doesn't intend keeping it. He tries "baby" then goes back to "honey" (I don't hear "run me"). And then finally thinks of trying "mama" but mixes it up with his original "brother" and it comes out as "brama".
Got the WA box last week love demos and Esher as well as the 2018 mix. This is a box set that will keep giving new things into the future.
Sorry, I mixed up my memories of him talking from the control room during Paul`s Blackbird session and this session. You know "look after yourself" "a nice bit of brass band" etc., that one. I also know that one must consider what he is talking about - the use of sound effects for the play of "In his own write" - but he still has an uncomfortable nasty sound in his voice to my (non-english) ears.
I don't hear any difference between John's voice here and in the session for, for example, What You're Doing in 1964, or Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite in 1967. John was always impatient, we hear him saying "Come on, lets go" and "that'll do" and "We'll fix it later" and "Leave that bit out" all the time during Beatles sessions, whether it's his songs or not. (On the other hand, Paul can most often be heard saying "One more take" "lets try another" "We can do that better".) If you want to hear a very impatient John with a seriously nasty tone, listen to the One After 909 session from 1963.
I just listened to the Blackbird session yesterday. At one point John comes on the talkback, putting on a comical voice but complimenting/encouraging Paul (and getting him to laugh too)
I just relistened to the bit and agree - I remembered that conversation to have a different tone than what it had. Probably that repeated "look after yourself" was stuck in my memory. That plus not being a native-speaker. And I only learned afterwards what John was actually refering to.
Can you tell me what he was referring to with "look after yourself"? I never figured out what it was!
They way I understand it (and I only did after somebody pointed it out to me) he is talking about an idea for a sound effect / speech sample to use at the end of the theatre production of "In his own write", planning to play it to the audience as they are leaving with a creepy-sounding "look at after yourself", really like a bit of a Lennon-prank if you ask me.
While listening to that tape again I figured I still don`t quite know what the whole purpose of that recording is. Has it been figured out? I always thought that they were doing a bit of taped unnumbered rehearsals for the sake of the camera but I it has also been said to be a proper attempt at recording the song. I think it is interesting that they bothered to have two sound sources here that they then switched between: the studio floor and the the control room. One wouldn`t normally have a track with the studio conversation going on during regular taping. Reminds me of the Hey Jude conversation between the two Georges, same thing. Probably done to illustrate the whole happening from both perspectives.
The Blackbird 'sessions' being referred to aren't actual sessions - they were recorded specifically for the cameras, probably specifically for the in-house Apple promotional film it ended up in. John and George Martin, unless my memory is failing me, are not actually in the control room, but on the other side of the studio to Paul, who is sitting near to his girlfriend at the time Francie Schwartz.
I’m away from my copy at the moment, but the phrase reminds me of the sixties BBC police series Dixon Of Dock Green, in which the avuncular (and eponymous) Constable George Dixon would sign off at the end of an episode, telling viewers “look after yourself” and “mind how you go”. It’s just the sort of thing that Lennon - along with many others - might have parodied. “Evening, all.”
They seem to be two separate filming sessions- the one with John and George Martin on the studio floor has Paul busking Helter Skelter; the Blackbird one just has Francie in the corner.
Here's a link to YouTube for Helter Skelter - same 'session' as Blackbird film. Paul and John, and George Martin, together in the studio. Maybe they were seperate for Blackbird, who knows.
I'm curious : How many WA50 Super Deluxe Box Sets were pressed? Mine says "Made In Germany" on it and is #60388 (which I'm ticked about because I reserved it from Amazon US the day/hour of the release announcement in September, yet I still got such a high number; jumping on it so early, I'd been hoping to nail a really low one. Oh well, I guess it's a matter of what pressing plant I'm nearest to, eh?). While mine is German, I'm sure copies were also made in the US & UK, and certainly there's a Japanese version available. Are ALL these deluxe sets, wherever they're pressed, counted in the same overall tally? Or separately? I'd imagine the Deluxe version has the most limited number in existence, and that it will eventually sell out, creating a true rarity. (And FWIW, I see the number 75,000 written in the midst of other characters I can't translate on the Japanese copy's outer label - is that the number pressed? But pressed where - Japan, or worldwide?). One question just leads to another. Overall, is UMG/Apple intending to keep all these versions, vinyl and disc, in print? And how big a run did each of them get? I'd be interested to know where this information is posted, if it is. Thanks in advance to anyone who'll tackle these questions! Jeff
Isn't that phrase precisely what Lennon shouts in all the clamor at the end of the '67 Christmas Message, right before his sweet, cozy, and absolutely unintelligible Scottish-brogue fadeout? And was it "Look after yourself," or "Look out for yourself" ? I'm not sure. Either way, the double meaning is quite enjoyably surreal.
The Purple Chick set refers to the whole shebang as "rehearsals" rather than takes. George Martin even mentions at one point that he's not taking anything. But the whole set up changes at some point, and later on it's much harder to hear what George Martin is saying (but Paul is crystal clear.) It's all from mono nagra rolls. The only proper session audio we have of Blackbird is the album take, the new bonus track, Anthology 3, and a snippet used on the Anthology DVD.
