beatles influence in the studio

Beatles Influence in the studio
The Beatles music has moved every generation with their rhythmic
sound and their intoxicating lyrics. Each song has it’s own spirit and life
force that radiates The Beatles unique musical talents. Throughout their
short lived career they created song after song, taking their inspiration
from various artists and worldly figures. The Beatles songs began to
take on a new energy when they stopped touring and focused on
recording in the Abbey Road Studio. Here the Beatles transformed
themselves and their music into something that would grasp the world by
the ears and shout that it must be heard.
In the studio each member of the band was able to relax and sit down
with his ideas, taking the time to mold them into something grand. John
Lennon took his inspiration for ‘A Day in the Life’ from the English
newspaper the Daily Mail. There were two articles that intrigued John.
One was about the Guinness heir Tara Browne, who drove through some
red lights at 110 mph and smashed into the back of a parked van in South
Kensington. The other story was about how four thousand holes had
been found in Blackburn, Lancashire. Paul McCartney also contributed
to this song. He wrote the middle section using lyrics that he had
intended for another song. With the lyrics in place, the real magic was
about to begin.
Lennon’s voice on ‘A Day in the Life’ was achieved with tape echo. The
feed from the vocal mike would be sent into a mono tape machine. They
had separate record and replay heads, so the vocals would be recording,
and then you would have to take the replay and feed it back through the
machine. This method of tape echo suited John’s voice very well,
because he has a cutting voice that used to trigger it so well.
There were several other elements that contributed to this song that could
never have been performed on stage. For instance the use of a symphony
orchestra for the last 24 bars of the song. Each orchestra player was
given the range of notes they were allowed to play, but they could move

freely to any note they wanted until the end of the song. It gave the song
a dramatic and chaotic closing, ending the piece with the entire orchestra
hitting one crisp, clear note that reverberated for 40 full seconds. ‘A Day
in the Life’ is one song among many that is full of sounds and equipment
that only could have been played in a studio, where they could stop
recording and change instruments. A live performance of this song could
have been performed, but the effect would have been reduced drastically.
Recording numbers in the studio such as ‘A Day in the Life’ gave the
Beatles a creative outlet to explore the mechanics of the soundboard and
create new sounds using the studio itself. The number ‘Come Together’
was composed in the Abbey Road Studios by John. He was trying to
come up with a campaign song for Tim Leary, when he got the idea for
‘Come Together’. The studio brought out John’s imaginative side,
digging into his deep admiration for the great artists like Chuck Berry.
There are several subtle additions to the song that are unnoticeable unless
you know what you’re looking for. For instance each exclamation of
“shoot” one hears Lennon singing is actually “shoot me!” followed
immediately by a handclap. These little additions to the song make it
unique to the Beatles studio recordings.
Another song that was altered in the Abbey Road studio was the Beatles
1965 hit ‘Help!’. ‘Help!’ was written by John Lennon for their second
feature film. This song was actually supposed to have a much slower
tempo, but was speeded up in the studio to make the song more
commercial. “Later, I knew I really was crying out for help. So it was my
fat Elvis period. You see the movie: He-I-is very fat, very insecure, and
he’s completely lost himself.” –John Lennon. If The Beatles had had
more time in the studio to record this song, it would have turned out
much more acoustical and with a slower beat.
Each one of the studio songs whether it is created inside the studio walls
or merely recorded their takes on its own life. The Beatles needed this

studio time to rest and explore themselves mentally to gain a greater
understanding of their music. The Beatles had more time to talk things
over with each other and pursue other creative outlets than their
conventional instruments. They were trying to send a message to the
world through their songs. The studio allowed them to do so, and ever
since then we have been learning from the greatest rock n roll group of
all time.