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by: Andy Roman (revolver@bright.net)
Help! (takes 1-12)
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By this time in The Beatles' recording career, it had become quite commonplace to record the basic backing track first, then over- dub vocals and other instruments afterwards. Such was the recording sequence of Help! For readers of Mark Lewisohn's Recording Sessions book, I have attempted, in my humble way, to clarify the take sequence.
This first attempt at the backing track of John Lennon's newest song breaks down early. George Harrison's decending guitar phrases are tense.
Again, George's guitar is a little tense and a tad sloppy. Lennon's playing of the acoustic guitar is, too, a little rough. A first verse break down.
George's phrasings are a little better the first time
around, but the take breaks down after the first chorus, his playing of the
phrase a little off again. Ringo also plays an incorrect
hi-hat pattern.
John: "What?"
George
Martin: "The first one was fine, George. The last
one . . ."
George Harrison: "Yeah. . ."
Martin: "Would it be safer to overdub?"
Harrison: "I don't think so, no. 'Cause it's just that its
so fast."
Martin: "Take it again."
George (to Paul): "We want to
double-track the voices, don't we? I'll have to double-track singing it. I'll
have to do this bit singing it, which is gonna be even harder still."
Paul: "No, we've got two voice tracks. ."
The discussion continues.
Paul, referring to the
section where George's guitar phrase comes in suggests,
"Tap a beat. ." (demonstrating)
John comments
that he's already doing so on his acoustic guitar.
Paul:
"Yeah, but it would be something you could hear on the track."
John: "Well, I do that."
After a little more
discussion between Paul and George,
John finally interjects, "Oh, come on. . ."
Another unsatisfactory attempt.
A little bit of warm up precedes this complete take. This take is absent of George's guitar part.
The studio tape suggests that John's guitar may be out
of tune. He strums his guitar a few times, presumably listening for sour
resonance.
George: "Out of tune?"
The take kicks off, but breaks down quickly. John then begins a mini-session of string tuning. The session tape cuts off as he lets out a laugh of frustration.
This take is complete, but not quite right yet.
A quick breakdown.
This take is the one used for the overdubbing of vocals and eventually George's guitar. When these vocals are overdubbed, this take is not renumbered Take 10. It remains Take 9 at this point.
It is interesting to point out that at this stage, John also recorded a second vocal (presumably for the purpose of double- tracking his vocal part).
Mark Lewisohn references this take as "complete." While this is absolutely true, perhaps some clarification is in order.
This take is a reduction mix of Tape 9, used to open up track space needed for George's overdub of guitars. It can be assumed that this mix was properly executed in its first attempt, hence the take being deemed "complete." It can also be assumed that John's second track of vocals were also left in tact during the track reduction mix, especially in view of the following take.
This take, according to Mr. Lewisohn, is a "false start." This, of course, is true. However, the false start comes not from the band, but from the control booth.
A listen to the session tape reveals that whoever was in charge of the tape playback accidentally let John's double-tracked vocal play back. While not etched in concrete, one can assume that this was the reason for the quick stop. (This raises an interesting point to ponder. If John's second vocal did occupy its own track on the four track tape at this point, could it not simply have been muted once it was realized that it was being played back? This should have had no effect on Also, one has to assume that because this second vocal track was preserved during the reduction mix, that there still must have been some inclination on someone's part to use them in some capacity. If not, they simply could have been wiped clean, and George's guitar could have been recorded on that track.)
This take was used for overdubs of George's guitar parts.
February 16, 1965
November 8, 1965 
Behind The Scenes.
