What Goes On - The Beatles Anomalies List

Anomalies A
Across The Universe
0:00 [Let It Be version]
The attack of the first note of the guitar is clipped off.
2:28 [Past Masters Volume 2 version] Listen!
After the line "inciting and inviting me", a bassy, soft male voice in the
right channel says something like "Hit me with a pizza". OOPS brings this out
better than listening to just the right channel.

Act Naturally
1:59
Right channel, the backing vocal comes in late, on the words "you come..."
2:18
The right hand harmony sings "All I gotta do is, act natch" and is then cut
off by the guitar riff.
2:25-2:26
Numerous rattles and hisses in outro, both left and right channels. John
almost entirely misses the last strummed acoustic chord!

A Day In The Life

0:36
The middle note (the 'D') of the three descending notes after John's "aaah"
is played a little early and quiet, with a backbeat feel that doesn't match the
rest of the playing.
1:43
Switch click as the orchestra comes in, orchestra's volume suddenly doubles
at this point (right channel). Maybe this is the introduction of one of the
additional tracks of orchestra used to thicken the sound.
1:44-2:16, 3:50-4:19
Mal Evans is heard counting the bars from 1 to 24; only about the first
dozen are audible, starting at about three to 12 (left channel). 1:53 "9" and
1:55 "10" stick out quite well, as do 3:51 "4" 3:52 "5" 3:53 "6".
2:17
Right channel - sudden intake of breath.
2:18 Listen!
An alarm clock sounds to mark the end of the first 24 bar orchestral
section. At this point in the recording, there was a gap 24 bars long, with no
orchestra. It was undecided what would go there, the orchestra was added in
later.
2:18-2:20
A strange ticking noise, like a rotary-dial phone returning to its rest
position. It could be a 'tick' sound through a heavy delay setting. Then someone
says "One" to mark the downbeat (it's easy to lose the correct rhythm without
this). Quieter, but just audible on the CD is the trailing "two three four"
(right channel).
2:40
Strange effect on the "t" of "flat", it's really over-pronounced, like
"fla-tuh".
2:42-2:48
Just before and after the words "had a smoke", Lennon starts talking and
carrying on, most audibly a loud "hoooo" under the word "smoke" (right channel).
2:58
 (Left channel) Sounds like a cough.
3:02-3:12
Paul can be heard doing a faint falsetto "ooo" harmony above John's more
prominent "aah's".
4:49-4:52 Listen!
A chair squeaking (four creaks total, the last three being most audible).
This is probably one of the piano stools.
Also wrongly reported as a nose sniffle, paper rustling, someone saying "Shh!",
the sustain pedal being released on the piano ...
4:52-end
I've failed to verify reports I occasionally get of the sound of an air
conditioning fan in this area of the track. I've also seen reference to it in
Lewisohn's "Recording Sessions", but I can't find it to verify for myself.
Rumour has it that the alarm clock at 2:18 was timed to go off after 24 bars to
mark where the downbeat is. Common sense should tell you that this is nonsense.
You cannot set an old, mechanical style alarm clock to go off with anything like
that level of accuracy.
The more likely explanation is that the alarm was "let off", that is
deliberately triggered by hand at that moment. Lewisohn states this was a
mechanism to mark the end of the passage. Many people disbelieve this, as the
musicians should be capable of following along for 24 bars. However odd
Lewisohn's comment seems, it may well be true. I've had justifications of why
the count of bars (on its own) is insufficient to cue the orchestra.
JustToJess@aol.com writes
I've spent my entire life since I was three in musical theatre, and I can assure
you that many people do need to "wake up" after 24 bars of music. Not that they
have poor concentration, or that they would have missed the cue, but after
rehearsing this song over and over and over again, and after countless takes, it
is VERY reasonable to assume that the alarm clock (most likely hit from the
piano ...) got them back into the music, and started that "umph" that they
needed to maintain the same quality of ... atmosphere? Charisma? I don't know
the right word, but just that little bit of enthusiasm and excitement by the
performers that gives the song that special something. I know that many a
director I have worked with has done something like this during long, tedious
rehearsals.
Yes, certainly the alarm fits in with the "Woke up, fell out of bed..." line. I
don't think that was intentional - it is widely written that fitting with the
lyrics was only coincidental, and the alarm clock's purpose was originally as a
marker. Nothing more. A happy accident that was capitalised on, as the Beatles
often did.
Even given this, I still received reports on this alarm clock entry,
perpetuating the idea that the alarm was set and timed to go off after 24 bars.
Please feel free to try it with any wind up alarm clock of your choice, if you
can do it, I'd like to hear about it.
I think the reason for this long running misconception is this :-
There is a very subtle distinction between "setting an alarm clock to go off"
and "setting an alarm clock off". In telling of this story, one phrase has
turned into the other. The former implies an interval passing between doing
something with the clock, and having it sound 24 bars later. The latter implies
direct interference with the clock to make it sound now. The latter is the only
reasonable explanation.

A Hard Day's Night

1:33
Towards the end of the solo, everything slows down slightly.
2:17, 2:19
 Mono CD has a distinct "stereo" wobble in the track here during word
"All-ll", and then "feel". This is more audible on headphones, and probably
caused by physical damage to the master tape.

A Taste Of Honey
1:43
Where John and George respond to Paul's "I'll come back", George (higher
harmony) only seems to manage "ll come back". Maybe he wasn't sure as to whether
it was "I'll", "He'll" or "You'll". John's voice is the low harmony.

All I've Got To Do

Whole Song
Squeaky pedal mechanism on the bass drum throughout the song, especially
audible in the intro (0:03,0:05,0:07). "When ever <squeak> I ... " and from 1:51
onward in the fadeout.
0:01
Strange buzz or squeak noise in the opening strum, which doesn't sound like
fret buzz from the guitar.
1:18-1:21
Stereo version only, Paul hums the melody low in the background (right
channel).
1:21-1:22
Definite edit in the track here between "running home" and "yeah, that's".

All My Loving
Right before start
Parlophone Stereo LP PCS3045 "With The Beatles" has an audible ghost of the
opening "Close your eyes" phrase. This may be print-through in the master tape
used to make the master disc, but it is possibly a mechanical effect of the
stylus picking up the next groove along on the record, in the background.
Certainly, this is not audible on a CD. It may happen with other tracks too, but
on vinyl only.
1:02-1:11
Cymbals get louder for a few bars, but only for part of the solo.
1:19
Really bad (very unusual) mistake from Paul, he plays a completely wrong
note in the bass line on the word "miss". It sounds like he may have played the
next highest string up by accident, the note is very very sharp!
1:51-1:54
Paul's "All My Loving" may be edited (mono and stereo versions), it is
preceded by a vocal noise (this noise is audible in the right channel of the
stereo version).
2:03
Possibly paper rattling.

All Together Now

0:14, 0:24
Click, right channel.
1:00
Paul definitely seems to sing "Yellow Olange and Blue". Some suggest this is
a tongue twister, transferring the 'l' sound between Yellow and Blue into
Orange. Say "Red Lorry Yellow Lorry" rapidly, and repeatedly. Others suggest he
may have been thinking of the colour "Olive".
Ratko Santl says
That kind of thing happens because our vocal apparatus is slow and it is
searching [for] the easiest (most comfortable) way to pronounce vowels and
consonants.
1:28
Voice on the left channel says "Help ... Me ...", under the main lyric of
"skip the rope". There are a couple of other quiet vocals here, but they seem to
match the main lyric.

All You Need Is Love

0:08-0:14
Listening to the centre (gentle) snare sound, it is clearly ahead of the
beat (reference to left channel instruments) for a little while at the start of
this phrase.
0:10
Nasal intake of breath. Between the lines of the song John can also be heard
chewing gum! Listen before the line "nothing you can make that can't be made"
(0:44) for the most obvious one.
0:23
Plink of a guitar with a plectrum (left channel). This was fixed in the new
Yellow Submarine remastered CD/DVDs.
0:25
Right channel, someone speaks. It sounds like "then check it", "Check it
Steve" or possibly "makes a change", "makes the change tough". Also fixed in
Yellow Submarine remastered.
1:19,1:23
Two edits in the guitar tracks, right channel.
1:27-1:33
Random plinking of solo guitar, this isn't part of the solo, surely?
2:06-2:10
Plinking notes, guitar (banjo like sound, centred), they don't seem to fit
with the song. Followed by a tentative go at the riff at 2:08.
3:13-3:18
Paul makes a few errors in the bass part. His speed varies all over the
place through this part.
For a detailed look into who sang "She Loves You, Yeah Yeah Yeah" at the end of
this track see this discussion in the extras section. You may be surprised.

And I Love Her

0:40
Double tracking error on the phrase "lover brings".
0:49
Click.
1:08-1:15
Vocal loses double tracking for these two lines.
1:15
Quiet click, maybe this is where the double tracking restarts.
1:28
Sounds like Paul says "Tut!"
1:47
Talking during the end of the guitar solo (Hard to hear on the CD).
2:12
Someone "Dum Dum Dum's" the guitar line. Michael Bain suggests that Paul was
the culprit. I thought it was George...
2:24
Creak, someone leaning back in a wooden chair? (Not audible on CD).

And Your Bird Can Sing

Whole song
John's tambourine playing is very on-off beat, as if he couldn't decide what
he wanted to do with it.
0:02
John or Paul takes a deep breath under the cover of the intro, most audible
in the right channel.
0:36-0:51,1:05-1:20
Listen to the pattern of the hi-hat in the right channel. There is some
inconsistency between the patterns Ringo plays in the first and second versions
listed above.
1:14
Hi-hat here is a lot louder than the surrounding beats.
1:20
Sharp edit as cymbal crash is dropped in. The crash is a beat too early
anyway (compare 0:51, where the crash is on beat 2 of the bar, not beat 1) which
is why it got caught in the edit.
1:58
Faint guitar notes mixed in with the bass line, during and after the fade
out.

Anna (Go To Him)

Whole Song
The bass drum pedal squeaks through this song.
0:22-0:25
Rhythm guitar stops here for a moment.
1:15-1:18, 2:11 (but less obvious)
George seems to expect a "minor" harmony to be appropriate here, and wavers
into a major one. Jim Neher points out
Many bridges include a four-chord that goes to minor, and George apparently
expected this even though it is not there.
1:40
John sings the word "ring" very flat.
2:01
A possible edit after "like I", the rhythm guitar pops up in level, and
there is a click.
2:52
A click (probably drumsticks) then a pop (maybe a guitar).

Another Girl
0:20,0:36
Stray electric lead guitar notes.
1:03
Subtle drop in the cymbal ring, and the volume of acoustic guitar, plus a
click. A possible edit?
Any Time At All
0:04,0:41,1:18,1:49
Note that although John sings the lead vocal throughout the song, Paul does
the second "Any time at all" every time. This is often not noticed.
0:14
Click, and a time lag in the guitar rhythm. Maybe there's an edit here?
0:38
Edit between "at" and "all". The acoustic guitar strum becomes heavier, and
the bass guitar gets louder here.
1:29-1:35
Discrepancy between guitar chords and keyboard chords (second and third
chords of the run differ).
1:32
Talking during solo.
1:48
Edit in cymbal track.
1:59
John flubs the vocal, missing the first "Any" on the double tracking.
2:07
Tape wrinkle at fade out, although this track is mono, the stereo image
wobbles.

Ask Me Why
0:31, 0:40
John's voice cracks on "makes me cry" and "if I cry".
What is it with John and the word "cry"? In "I Am The Walrus" he struggled with
"I'm crying". In "I'll Cry Instead", an edit was performed around the word "cry"
(1:10). Now this!

Anomalies B
Baby It's You
Whole Song, most audible 0:00-0:10
Kick drum pedal squeaks yet again! Listen just after the "Sha la la la la!"
1:43
John or George does a "Sha la la la la" very quietly after the main one, as
if there was going to be a run down into a new verse here. Just audible on mono
version, clearer on stereo.

Baby's In Black
1:30
Bad edit in the words "Baby's in black". Best heard in the stereo version,
right channel. The strummed guitar appears out of nowhere here, further
enhancing the edit. Also, the maracas and bass jump up in level.
On the mono CD, this is corrected, but there is a stumble in the drumming at
that point.
1:44
John and Paul harmony error.
1 says "And though he'll never come back..."
2 says "But though she'll never come back..."
1:51
A third voice trails a faint harmony in above the other two just for the
words "dear, what can I do, baby's in ... feeling blue". Most audible on the
word "black".
2:03
Right channel, at the very end there is a rattling of paper (after the
tambourine stops).

Baby You're A Rich Man

0:03
Faint noises, possibly talking? (left channel).
Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.
0:26,0:28
Strange noise from one note caught on the guitar (low pitch) then the
synth/Mellotron (high pitch) in the left channel.
0:48
Someone comes in early on vocals "Ho-How does it feel..."
0:53
Sounds like a bell, or possibly a glass being hit.
Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.
1:08-1:11
Offbeat clicks, left channel.
1:18-1:19
Paul plays the bass a bit late, lagging behind the beat.
2:20
Hissing noise, and talking off microphone.
2:30-2:58
This has been reported so many times, I have resisted including it because I
have never been able to verify it. I think this is one of those urban legends
that has just got out of hand, so I'm adding an entry to try and redress the
balance.
According to popular myth, John definitely sings "Baby you're a rich fat Jew".
According to the other popular myth, John definitely sings "Baby you're a rich
fag Jew". According to another less popular myth, Paul is the culprit. These
statements are supposedly directed at Brian Epstein. While I can well believe
that this is not beyond John's sometimes cruel and scathing sense of humour, it
is not the case on this recording.
It is not "very clear that he is saying it", nor is it true "because I read it
in a book about the Beatles". The words are simply "Baby You're A Rich Man Too".
It sounds more like "A Reech Ma Too" simply because of lack of diction. This is
another case of reading too much into a lyric.

Bad Boy
0:50
Vocal edit after the falsetto "Oooo".
1:59
Last note of the downward guitar riff is very dead (right channel), only the
double-tracking helps to hide this.

Back In The USSR

0:09
Right channel, no-one's sure whether this is a voice saying "Guitar", or a
guitar saying "Guitar". It's very odd.
0:31,0:48
 Paul (drumming on this track) misses the snare, and provides an
unintentional rimshot. This is best heard on the right channel, as another snare
is dubbed onto the left side.
1:05
A cut, as "Ukraine" comes in. In the right channel, the word comes in a
little early, and the cymbal too. This throws the beat off slightly. On the
left, the airplane effect drops in level at this point. Maybe a short section of
tape was cut out here, or this is a badly judged edit.
2:24-End
Many people have reported a range of various things said at the end here,
especially at 2:39 "How's That?", "How Bout It?", "Ha ha!" etc. It's actually
just "I'm Back!".
The other speech from 2:24 up to this point is Paul ad-libbing "Ah, let me tell
you honey. Hey I'm back. I'm back in the USSR. Oh yeah, it's so good to be here.
Yeah - back in the USSR".

Because
0:00
First note's attack is clipped off, making it sound different.

Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite

0:54
Accidental hit of the ride cymbal. Also hinted as Ringo losing the drumming
pattern and trying to catch up.
1:24
Tambourine and hi-hat combination percussion missed for the last-but-one
beat (listen to the left channel, it drops in "impact" for the first beat of the
pair).
1:28
Stray note, right channel, just after the piano crashing chords
(bam-bam-bam-bam, bam-bam [honk]).
1:44
Someone either punched out or faded out the beginning of the line "Having
been some days ..." leaving "...ving been" The full sentence can be heard in the
version on Anthology.
2:26-2:27
Sounds like the main organ part goes out of tune (flat) here. Actually, this
is an aural illusion, caused by the swirling organ, calliope and fairground
effects tape in the background. This tape is not strictly tuned to the track,
and it affects your judgement of the tuning of the main instruments.

Birthday
0:14,0:17,0:21
Fairly audible noises from the lead guitar, the strings aren't quite muted,
and are making scratching noises.
0:24
Bass guitar pans to the right and then centres again.
0:36
Stereo glitch, this is a fault in the master tape. Occurs on second note of
guitar riff, and it wobbles the stereo field. Listening in OOPS, you should hear
a brief "crunch" noise here, as the damage goes by.
0:46
 A second tambourine rattles, under the existing tambourine pattern. This
extra tambourine is in the widely spaced vocal track.
0:42-0:47
Whispering between vocalists. You can then hear Paul counting (screaming!)
the bar numbers from 1 to 8, up to 0:56.
1:34,1:37
Reported as "female voices" mocking Paul for saying "Come on", and then
saying "Birthday". Actually, this is all Paul. He says "Wooh!" (1:28), "C'mon"
(1:31), [unintelligible, possibly edited] (1:33) and "Baby" (1:37 in a falsetto
voice).
1:45
One of the guitars misses the first note of the riff.
1:46
Click, to the far left.
1:49
Shaker (cabasa?) rattles on into the "guitar only" section.
1:52
The first note of second phrase in this section is quite out of tune.
2:08-2:10 Listen!
Previous take's "dance" shows through, resulting in Paul ending up singing
"Daaaannceee/oo/aaaance". Barely audible in mono mixes, there's too much other
audio in the foreground.
2:12
Strange clonk, centred, almost like a cowbell.
2:37
Laughter after the drumming stops.
2:38-2:39
Tambourine rattle and two odd clicks at fade out.

Blackbird
0:00
Right at the very start of this track someone says "play" in a high pitched
voice. Graeme Jamieson points out that this should be on the end of I'm So
Tired, and is only here due to poor mastering when making the CD. It's in that
"pre-gap" area of the track, where your CD player normally counts backwards into
the start of the song. See the entry for "I'm So Tired".
Whole Track
Often misreported as "Paul's foot tapping" or "clicking", this is a
mechanical metronome, which is used to time the song. Listening carefully, there
is a "clip-clop" two tone sound to it. This is so that you can tell between the
up and the down beats of the rhythm.
In the middle break where it stops, it is faded out over two beats (the song
slows down, but the metronome can't). It's not switched off. Some people report
it being switched back on, due to a click at 1:41, this is really a creak from
the guitar.
Counting beats across this section in an audio editor shows that the metronome
never stopped, never slowed, and didn't miss a beat, despite the fact that the
guitar playing does slow down, break, and restart.
It was deliberately recorded, it's not leakage into the guitar mic (otherwise it
couldn't be faded out for the ritard in the middle of the song).

Blue Jay Way

0:34
Short high pitched tone, left channel.
1:24
One voice finishes "street" before the other one does. ("Streeet-eet").
2:20
Either a double tracking error, or Paul joins in singing just the two words
"you be" in harmony.
2:22
Wooden click in vocal track (right channel).
3:09-3:11
Reported as voices under chorus.
This seems to be one of the many sections of reversed sound that are faded in
and out. It's the whole track being played in reverse, and dipped in and out of
the mix.

Boys
Whole Song
Ringo's bass drum pedal is squeaking most of the way through the song.
(Quite audible at 0:29-0:30 where the backing is quieter).

Anomalies C
Can't Buy Me Love
0:45
One low string on the acoustic guitar is flat. Most obvious at this point,
but it can be heard elsewhere. This is under "Everybody tells me so".
1:16-1:25
Guitar solo - there is a second solo in the background! This is apparently
leakage from one of George's "atrocious live solos" he played when it was
recorded in Paris.
1:27
Shouts of "Hey!" in the background.
1:56
Stray vocal note "Mmmm buy me love".
2:02
Stray "Can't" that never got double tracked - this has been wrongly
suggested as a "mmm" at the end of the preceding phrase "buy me love-mmm".
Stereo version makes this clearer?

Carry That Weight

0:01
Quick push up of the mixer's fader makes the piano on the right channel
"surge" louder, just before the pattern changes to the heavier playing style.
0:19,0:20
Bad bass guitar fumble and recovery.
0:24-0:33
Drop outs in the orchestra section. Sounds like a worn tape. Also suggested
as bad microphone leads/jacks, but the sound flutters in a manner consistent
with edge damage to the tape, or crinkling.
0:49
Double click, centred.
1:04
Click, during brass stab.
1:00
One high note on the piano clipped by accident.
1:18
It sounds like half the voices are singing "Paul, you're gonna carry that
way ..."

Chains
0:30
Reported as "bad sibilance on the word Chains", this has possibly been fixed
in some mixes. Sibilance is that nasty "SSsshh" that you get on some "s" sounds.
Unfortunately, the whole song seems to have lost its "s" sounds, and maybe this
is why, i.e. "Chain. My baby got me locked up in chain" (Mono CD mix). There
also seems to be a hi-hat embedded in the word, making it sound like "a-Tain".
0:51
Faint click here, maybe a guitar tone switch flipping?
0:59-1:14
Rhythm guitar breaks up badly - more obvious on the stereo version than
mono.
1:27
Maybe John - "S'at enough?"/ "S'at the rhythm?".

Come Together
Throughout
Sound of the drum snares rattling fades in and out - it sounds like the
engineer trying to minimise the rattling caused by Ringo's drumming, only fading
the snare back in when needed. There is still a small amount of bleed into the
other drum mics though.
0:35
Left channel, loud fret squeak.
1:27
Someone shouts "All right" in the background before the line "He bag/bad
production" (Listen on right channel). This may be a guide vocal leaking through
from when the drums were recorded.
2:02
Someone shouts "All" before John's "right" (right channel).
2:27-2:28
Clicking sound (left channel, twice).
2:30
Shout of "Look Out!" before the line "He rollercoaster" (again, right
channel).
2:50
Shout, or more of Lennon's guide vocal.
3:08
Out of tune stray guitar note, centre.
3:13
Shout, like "Yaaah!"

Cry Baby Cry

0:00-0:10
John's vocal starts low in the mix, and normalises over 10 seconds.
0:27-0:28
Click at the very end of "children's piano playing" effect, which is
overlaid on the piano playing properly.
0:45
The word "friend" goes very dull, and drops in volume.
1:19
 One note in the guitar chord is very discordant when overlaid on the piano
chord.
2:28
Right channel, sounds like a warbled alarm clock going off. Probably an odd
effect from the acoustic guitar.
The talking, often thought to be at the end of this track, is explained and
transcribed under the entry for Revolution number 9, as it is part of that track
on the CD.

Anomalies D
Day Tripper
0:05-0:06
Click, centre.
1:20
Right channel only, someone shouts "Hey!" right before the solo starts.
1:40
The note progression that starts at 1:21 in the left channel (guitar) seems
to cut off very abruptly at 1:40, as if excess was edited away.
1:50, 1:56, 2:32
There are three extremely noticeable dropouts near the end of the song. This
is not on any earlier mixes of the same take, so it is quite likely that it
happened during the mastering stage. Other mixes show a sound at 1:50 that was
likely the reason for the dropout, and John's misplaced "yeah" at 2:32, but one
has to wonder if the cure wasn't worse than the illness.
This is particularly true in the 2:32 case, since one can still hear the "yeah"
as we plunge into the dropout. The dropout at 1:50 punches the sixth note of the
riff out, 1:56 punches the first note of the riff out.
2:06
1st voice: "She was a daaay tripper, Sun-day driver yeh"
2nd voice: "She was a daaay tripper, One-day driver yeh"
John is still thinking "one-way ticket yeh" and half-sings it!
2:40
Paul's bass line gets stuck, gets stuck, gets stuck, gets back into it.

Dear Prudence
1:45 (Left)
The bass guitar is tapped for two notes, and struck for the third during the
quiet break here.
2:05 (Left)
The solo electric guitar, which faded out at 2:00 reappears here as if the
fader was brought up too soon.
2:07, 2:11 (Left)
Rumbling or sliding sound, followed by bump noise. Probably accidental
sounds from the bass guitar.
2:10-2:11
Leakage of picking of an acoustic guitar (centre) during quiet spot. Whether
this is the "unprocessed" sound of one of John's guitar tracks that we can hear
on the right, or whether it is a guide part, I don't know.
2:38-2:39
Slight hesitation in the bass guitar part, as if Paul was going to go for
one more go at his descending riff, than realised to change patterns. One note
is late while thinking about it.
2:50
Bass guitar tone changes suddenly to a woodier sound, and it carries on to
end of track like this.
Devil In Her Heart
0:25
Somebody in the backing vocal enters at the wrong note and quickly corrects,
scooping upward.
2:04
Accidental early start to the end guitar figure.

Dig A Pony
0:02-0:09 Listen!
Unknown voices from the film crew
"Rolling?"
"Yeah!"
"Ok!"
John: <Count in> "Ah 1 2 3 er".
Ringo: <slightly off mic> "Hold it!"
John: <sniffs, close on mic> "Aaah."
Paul: <mocking> "Hooold it ..."
John: "Ah One Two [Tell You]?"
(a play on the title "I Want To Tell You"?)

Despite the count in measure being 4 beats, the song is in 3/4 time. The false
'fourth' beat is the downbeat of the next bar, coinciding with the bass note,
and the second word of "Hold it".
1:42
Left channel, there's a click and small change in guitar sound - possible
drop in or edit?
2:10
Paul's voice cracks on high harmony, "Be-c .. ooh!"
2:41-2:42,3:03
Two plosives in John's mic/vocal on "indi[c]ate every[th]ing" and "[b]oat
you row".
3:45-3:53 Listen!
John says: "Thank you, brothers. Me hands getting er... too cold to play the
chords". Edited in from the rooftop performance.

Dizzy Miss Lizzy

0:42
Strange tempo anomaly - the track goes out of time here. One bar here is
played a little too fast. Eddie G reports that
On "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", the first time John sings "Come on, give me fever", the
whole band come in maybe a beat too early. If you count or tap along with the
song up till and after that point, it's totally obvious. But they managed to get
away with it by all coming in together.
Counting cowbell strikes, there is the correct number of beats. The bars before
and after this point are the same length. The bar through this drum fill,
however, is a bit shorter. One rushed bar?
0:49
John flubs the lyric "You make me Dizzy Dizz Lizzy".
1:23-1:26
Right channel, the drums drop out - they continue on left channel only.
Jeremy Deubler writes
The lead guitar riff should be very prominent throughout the song. There are
several mistakes that can be heard:
1) At the beginning of the song, the riff is repeated a few times before the
vocals come in. It sounds as though the riff is double-tracked. At "You make me
dizzy Miss Lizzy," (0:23) the first note of the riff seems to be missing. The
next time, (0:26) one of the guitars plays the first note but the other misses
it. This happens several times (0:30, 0:40) etc.
2) After the break when John comes back in with "You make me dizzy...", the riff
is played very quietly as if George is unsure (1:31), and right at the last
note, the riff from the other track (if it was double-tracked) comes in - one
must have been in the wrong place! (1:47)
3) Through that whole verse, the riff is played very quietly, as if George
doesn't know when to come in or something.

Don't Bother Me
0:03
Reported as George Harrison commenting about it being "too fast". Also
reported as George saying "B-flat". I can't hear anything clearly, just a vocal
"aa" sound.

Don't Let Me Down

0:01-0:04
The sound level from the bass or guitar amplifiers causes the snares to
rattle, which is picked up in the drum mics. Happens at other places throughout
song.
1:09
The word "let" distorts quite a bit.
1:31
Faint edit, finger click can be heard.
1:43
Just after "it's a love that has no past", talking is heard (John's voice),
sometimes heard as "Believe it/me".
"Lennon9@earthlink" says on this
"Well here is one possibility....In all of the ends of the previous verses Paul
plays the high E in various manners....one note slides...sixteen note flourishes
etc... When 1:43 rolls around I think John looks over at Paul and says "Leave
it." just before Paul would have hit the high E..."

Possible, but to me it seems like coincidence - and there's a definite leading

"S" to the words, and sounds more like "San ee eh/ih".
rubbersoul_12@hotmail.com also offers
John calls, "Good evening" to someone entering the studio.
Drew Hill adds
John says "it's in E flat" referring to the key
... which is a shame, because it's in E (thanks for pointing that out, Chris
Chardi! I should've known better, to quote the song ...)
Another alternative is "It's an infinite", referring to the love that lasts for
ever, and has no past.
Jeffrey Jacobs says
I came up with another interesting theory on what he might be saying: "CD
Player!"
That would be impressive, if true!
Father Titus says [in reference to the rooftop weather]
I concluded that what John is saying is simply, "It's sleeting".
1:56
Tambourine rattle, but also sometimes reported as glass breaking.
2:12
Serious sound of breath in the microphone (from "Ffffirst time").
2:25-2:27
Paul high-harmonises "nobody ever really done me", but so faintly it is
hardly heard.
3:22
When John is winding up the last chorus, he sings "Can you dig it?" slightly
off-mic. This was the refrain for another Lennon song recorded earlier the same
month, January of 1969, which appears in edited-down form on Let It Be as "Dig
It".
"Can you dig it?" was edited out of the final Phil Spector cut for "Dig It", so
the lyric's only appearance in the whole of The Beatles' commercial catalogue is
here.

Don't Pass Me By
0:07
Left channel, someone shouts something, like "Hold up!"
1:48
Most strangely, an alarm bell goes off in the middle of "unfair" (right
channel).
2:39-2:48
Someone (likely Ringo) sings out the beats from one to eight, and then
shouts "ooop" (right channel). At the same time John says (left channel) "Give
it some more!" (Level ? More of the song ?)
2:54-3:23
The structure of the last chorus is slightly different to the others. Max
Mismetti notes that at least part of this is because of a mistake (anomaly!).
On Anthology 2, I found the answer! Apparently, Ringo recorded the basic track
and forgot the order of events on the end, or he made a mistake on the basic
track and wasn't feeling like recording it all over again. So he sang normally
as if the mistake hadn't happened, but on Anthology we can hear the piano
better. The song chords are C, F and G. The mistake can be seen because the
piano has its chord change delayed 1/4 of bar (between brackets is where it was
supposed to be)
C(correct)
Don't pass me by, don't make me cry don't make me blue

(F) F
Cause you know darling I love only you
(C) C
You'll never know it hurts me so

How I hate to see you go...

G (corrected!)
Don't pass me by
That's why he sings differently "know it hurts me so" and makes a lot of noise
with his drums. It's to disguise that F chord that is still on. You can hear on
the White Album too, but on the Anthology 2 is better.
3:24-3:50
Lots of fiddle harmonics. Also noted in other places in the song. "No one
uses fiddle harmonics" claims one contributor. I can hear why. Ugh.
Andrew Lubman writes
I think that it's just a case of bad playing technique that results in these
unintentional artificial harmonics. Also, the fiddle parts are different in the
mono version (if I remember correctly).

Do You Want To Know A Secret?

0:39
George sings a wrong note and quickly corrects it on the first "oo-oo-oo".
0:42
Lead vocal quality seems to change here, as if a new take has been used, or
as if there's a vocal drop-in here.
1:02
Slight tape dropout here.
1:09
George sings "I've known a secret for the week or two" as opposed to the
more sensible "the secret for a".
1:11, also 1:49-1:54
Bass guitar plays wrong notes here and there.
1:29
"Do you promise not to tell, adh (doo-dah-doo)"
Was George about to sing "A Doo Dah Doo" by mistake?
(Also reported as someone answering "I do".)
1:51
Reported as a bass trombone note, there is one very bad buzzy note in the
guitar work here.

Drive My Car
0:16
Click (right channel), not audible on mono version.
0:20
Harsh edit, right channel, as piano comes in.
0:44
Guitar fret-squeak sound, right channel.
0:52
Strange 'peep' (on the right channel) as the piano comes back in. Not on
mono version. Probably from George's guitar.
Also George Martin hits one note too many, making a duff chord on the second
chord of this chorus fill (the chord that comes on the downbeat). Quickly
corrects it, though.
1:20-1:22
Paul? sings "You ... can ... drive my ... car" along to the last few notes
of guitar solo. Listen carefully, the last 3 notes of the solo are on top of the
words "Drive My Car". Very hard to hear on CD version, this needs the vinyl
version.
1:42-1:53
Centre of stereo field, right after "start right away" and each subsequent
vocal line there are a number of stray guitar notes, as if the guitarist is
idling, unaware they are being heard!
1:46
Paul fluffs the bass riff and plays a "safe" note instead.

Anomalies E
Eleanor Rigby
0:14
The double tracking is not brought down fast enough after the end of the
second "Ahhh, look at all the lonely people" (in the introduction). It continues
until the second syllable of "Eleanor".
The bad mixing of the double tracking continues throughout the rest of the song,
every time there is a transition from single to double or vice versa, except at
0:46, for "Father McKenzie".
Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered version.
1:19
Right channel, "lo" of "lonely" is sung on the wrong note.
Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered version.
1:29
Left channel, click.
Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered version.

Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey

0:08
An edit which joins the intro to the main song.
0:30
High pitched sound, maybe feedback or a harmonic on the right hand guitar,
under the word "to".
0:32
Sounds like "... 'cept for me and my Monty"!
0:49
Left channel, a voice shouts "C'mon!"
0:52,0:54
Same voice, "C'mon" just ahead of John, twice.
0:59-1:07
Various shouts "whoop" "hee-ee-ee" etc. (left channel, moving to centre).
These recur around 1:30, and other places. It's quite a wild and enthusiastic
backing.
1:00-1:01
Bass flub, uncertainty over what bit we're playing here! Neatly slid out of.
1:16
After John's "Woo", but before guitar comes back in, faint sound of the
tubular bell, left side, being caught.
1:18-1:19
A couple of random clicks or claps, centre.
2:09
A random tap of the snare. Perhaps Ringo thought this part of the riff was
over, and was about to start the next section. I suspect that 2:09-2:12 could be
a "patch" stuck over a problem, and that the drum tap is sticking out just ahead
of the edit.

Every Little Thing

0:00-0:03
Someone whistles along to guitar intro, not audible on mono CD.
Pounding sound, just once, during riff. Sounds like a bass drum clonk, also a
handclap either side. This sounds like a partial count-in remnant.
1:27
Reported as a clatter of a music stand falling, this is in fact just a very
hard "chug-a-chug" acoustic guitar strum.
Anomalies F
Fixing A Hole
0:34
Paul's voice cracks a little during "will go".
0:42
 At the tail end of the guitar sound, sounds like a long slide down the frets
(a sort of "purrrr" sound).
1:06
Click, slightly left of centre.
1:32
Click, right channel, as guitar ends.
2:09-2:13
Bass guitar mishap.
2:11 Listen!
In OOPS only, the vocal leakage goes "gets in, stops stops my mind".
Somewhere over to the left there is leakage of a previous/guide vocal, where the
phrasing was different, because the double-track lead doesn't cause this.

Flying
0:14-0:30
Faint maracas on right, before they join in proper at 0:31.
0:18-0:21,0:29-0:31
George can be heard tapping along in time, between guitar passages ("Knock-a
knock-a ...").

For You Blue

0:00 Listen!
Introduced with John saying "Queen says 'No' to pot smoking FBI members". It
is curious, in that this was edited in here deliberately.
2:00-2:02
A faint guide vocal can be heard to the left on "hope you feel it too",
slightly ahead of the beat.

For No One
0:58.5
Reports indicate that in the horn solo, a possible punch-in occurs. A glitch
in the sustained tone before the final flourish gives it away. However, it has
been strongly suggested that this was a playing technique of the hornist, as it
also happens in the Give My Regards To Broadstreet version.
It is further observed by Ugo Coppola, that
In The Complete Beatles Chronicle, Lewisohn says that the hornist, Alan Civil ,
recorded the whole solo eight times, wiping over the tape with every try. No
punch-ins or edits.
Chris Chardi adds
The noise you hear in the middle of the french horn solo may be due to a
technique called "circular breathing." It is used by brass and woodwind players
so that they can play long lines more fluidly without having to stop and take a
giant breath. Given the peerless fluidity of Alan Civil's solo, I think it's
very likely that this is what happened.
1:31
Reported as "track volume goes down a notch", I can only assume this is
because the bass guitar sound becomes thinner. It loses the low-end punch from
here, just slightly, all the way to the end of the track.

From Me To You
Whole Song
Ringo's kick drum pedal squeaks (left channel in stereo versions). Obvious
around 0:50-0:55 and 1:32-1:34 in mono version.
0:28
John sings "So call on me", Paul sings "Just call on me".
1:43 to end
Bad edit, this is only in the Capitol "Beatles 1962-1966" album. The
harmonica goes out of time, and the vocals suddenly double track (left channel).

Anomalies G
Get Back
Most of this applies to the "Let It Be" version, especially timings.
0:00-0:20 (Let It Be only).
Introduced by John's "Sweet Loretta Fart she thought she was a cleaner, but
she was a frying pan". There is also Paul singing "Rosetta...", John's "The
picker ... picks for the fingers, great!" and a quiet "1-2-1234" count in, a
"Get in!" and a "Level John!"
According to two reports, "picks for the fingers" is in fact "Picture the
fingers going". John is apparently motioning with his hands at this point on
bootleg videos of the rooftop concert, although another report states that this
chatter is from a studio recording (January 27th), and so what is visible in the
rooftop video at this point is of no consequence. It is more likely John was
talking about/asking for a plectrum (a pick), to save his fingers.
1:19 (Let It Be, 1:00 on PM2)
Lead guitar (left channel) breaks up, when both John and Paul sing "Get back
... belonged".
2:31 (PM2 only)
In the quiet break, after "once belong", and just before Paul's "oooh",
someone speaks. It sounds like maybe George saying "Let's give him some Night
Nurse" - Night Nurse being a cough/cold remedy. Paul's voice does sound a bit
odd on this track, maybe they were joking about it! Also reported as "It's
giving him some nightmuures" (Liverpool pronunciation of nightmares), and "Let's
give it some might, guys".
2:55 (Let It Be only)
Outroduced with a policeman (from the "on the roof" session) saying "I'm
afraid it's just too long", telling them to wind up the gig. This is edited on
from the rooftop performance, as is Paul's "Thanks Mo!" (to Maureen Starkey),
and John's "I'd like to thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I
hope we passed the audition".

Getting Better
0:00-0:02
Someone gives a count in for the vocals. Other talking evident on left
channel.
0:13
The word "teachers" has a double-track sound to it, as if an overlapped edit
was performed. I'm sure Paul can't sing two notes at once like this! Listen for
a lower vocal note than the one Paul sings, on the first syllable...
0:21
Distortion on the word "up".
0:28
More audible on right channel, edit in the word "Bett/ter".
0:34
Right channel, someone shouts "Better" under Paul's vocals.
0:43-0:44
 Right channel, rising whistle, and a click.
0:56
Paul makes a verbal slip, "And you're doing the best that I can".
1:04
Odd sound (same as 1:26).
1:05
Centre, loud click.
1:07
Electric piano and cymbal/hi-hat do a "double skip", left side, as if it's a
faulty edit. Doesn't sound intentional.
1:10
"Shhh ..." or intake of breath, right channel.
1:21, 1:26, 1:33
Sound (right channel). Coming from the guitar, possibly a faulty
amplifier/cable, or maybe a very scratchy picking action!

Girl
0:24, 0:54, 1:24, 1:54, 2:25
William Newman writes
After the word "girl" is sung in the chorus, there's a breathy sound. This sound
is John smoking a joint. The sound varies and sometimes he's really gettin' down
on it.
Well, it beats the usual explanation of John expressing his angst over this girl
he's singing about! I'm not sure how accurate it is, though!
0:09, 0:37, 0:49
There is leakage of an acoustic guitar or bouzouki on the right channel. The
instrument is not actually being used in the mix at this point. It's probably
coming through with John's vocal, after the line "girl who came to stay" (0:09),
and "to cry ..." (0:37), and "why ..." (0:49)
0:59
Right channel, someone (John?) coaches "tit tit tit" for the backing vocal.
1:30-1:50
In addition to the bouzouki line here, there is leakage of a harmony
bouzouki line (as found at the end, 2:00-onwards, placed in the left channel).
The harmony line is playing twice as many notes, and sticks out over the main
bouzouki line. Maybe it was recorded both times, but mixed out later. Not as
clear on CD, this has been fixed.
1:54
A few quiet bouzouki notes, right channel. Also reported as piano notes
(there is no piano on this track), or sound of a guitar being put down or picked
up.

Glass Onion
0:00
John sniffs loudly!
0:05-0:06
After the line "told you 'bout Strawberry Fields", someone sings "for evah"
in the background.
0:51-0:52
Two clicks, one during "yeah", one after.
1:00
"Oh" in a high pitched voice during the gap.
1:19
Piano chord cuts off abruptly just before the drum taps, highlighting the
edited-together nature of this song! Maybe this is to delete a sound effect: See
the Anthology version where there is a pinging bell at this point in the track.
1:26
David Vegafria writes
The bass line in Glass Onion is very syncopated - it also is pretty rigid, he
maintains the point where he starts, and never skips a beat that should be
emphasized. At 1:25 he skips a full beat at the beginning of "I tell you man..."
after listening to the song several times, I can't find an instance of a pause
that long that isn't *obviously* supposed to be there.
1:38
Edit in right channel, affecting drums (at the point where the crash cymbal
suddenly appears).
1:45
After "dovetail joint, yeah" someone shouts "hey!"
1:49
Left channel, a click from the bass guitar. This is an edit to the end
piece.
2:16
Some reports say that the tape is slowing down at the end of the song, but I
have a horrible feeling that it was actually played this way. The very very last
second (almost inaudible without processing) may be a tape machine being
switched off, but I'm not convinced.

Golden Slumbers
1:23
Click, centred, but more audible listening to the right channel only. It's
during the word "Darling".

Good Day Sunshine

0:04,0:07
"Taps and cymbals" track (right side) come in suddenly, rather than a
complete fade-in.
0:23-0:24
Piano riff drops out.
0:52
Low frequency bump - "the sun is shining down [bump] burns my ..."
1:19
Right channel, a click, right after the more audible clap.
1:26
Someone (John? Ringo?) quietly repeats "She feels good" This appears to
trigger something closely approximating a chuckle from Paul in the next line.
Listening closely on the CD, it sounds like Ringo or John saying "She f**ing
does" or "She feels nice". The last word is definitely not "good", it ends in an
"esss" sound. Also heard by David Gulczynski.
John Sinclair refers to the version on "Give My Regards To Broad Street" and
says "that it is 'she feels good' repeated."
On Paul McCartney's Get Back video (1990 tour), a live version is performed,
where he sings the second "she feels good" very clearly, showing the intention
to repeat the line.
So maybe he laughed because the line was meant to be repeated, but in fact on
this recording, it became twisted into something new?
1:33
Bad edit or stumble in the piano track totally drops out (right channel).
1:58
 Cut to four vocal tracks is very abrupt, the piano drops out completely.
Loud "swish" at edit point.

Good Morning Good Morning

Whole Song
Throughout the song, the right channel contains soft drum beats, ostensibly
used to direct the brass instruments. There are also hand claps.
0:06
"Hah!" (left channel)
0:16
Edit in the vocals, made audible by a cut off deep breath and a subtle
change in the quality of the vocal.
0:23
Hiss sound, right channel, under the words "to do".
0:30-0:32
Two shouts, left channel, under main vocals. Maybe misplaced "Good Morning"
guide vocals.
0:53
Someone grunts after the sax stops playing (right channel).
1:55
More slightly misplaced "Good Morning" guide vocals, centred.
2:25
Reported as someone (John?) yelling "Lookout Lookout!" when the horses run
by. This is actually John shouting "Go on, Gidyup, Yah!" to gee up the horses.
2:33
Where the "Good Morning" vocals fade out, there is an audible click as the
vocals and brass stop. Just before this a voice, very quiet, says "Turn it off"
(right channel). Not present in the mono version.

Good Night
0:21,0:28,0:42,0:58 and too many others to list
Clicks in centre of stereo field.
2:04-2:11
Ringo sings "Close your eyes and I'll close mine", but the backing sings
"Now it's time to say Good Night", elsewhere the vocals match correctly.
It has been suggested that this is intentional. Ugo Coppola writes
This is Ugo from Italy ... in reference to your Good Night (White Album) note
... I don't think that's an anomaly at all. I think it's intentional. Here in
Italy there are lots of singers who sing something over a choir or some backing
vocalists who sing something else on the same melody, especially in ballads or
melodic songs in general. Umberto Tozzi, Raf, Laura Pausini, Claudio Baglioni
and Lucio Battisti all do this.
Also Buddy Holly's "That Will Be The Day" (backing continues "That'll be the
day" while lead sings "Say You're Gonna Leave").
2:36
When Ringo sings "Dream sweet dreams for me", his voice cracks on "for".
3:09-3:11
Really hard to hear, there's a metallic "ting", and a voice, and a creak
remaining in the fadeout.

Got To Get You Into My Life

0:01 to 0:06
 Talking (John/Ringo?) during the intro, left channel. There are five words
audible, but it's not clear enough to be a regular count in. They occur between
the beats.
0:37
Odd pop sound in Paul's vocal on the word "didn't [lie]".
0:40-1:00, 1:28-1:38
Left side, distorted guitar sound plays horn riff after "find THERE ..." and
in "OOH, then I suddenly" the guitar sound plays chord voicings on beats 2 and
4. Maybe before the brass was added, these parts were carried by guitars, and
this is the remants breaking through as leakage.
1:45
Strange guitar sound (centre).
1:49
New guitar sound appears from nowhere, possible edit?
2:07
Leakage of tremolo guitar (right side) that was edited out.
2:10
Possible edit to the whole take, the vocals and brass seem to have more
presence.
It's also noted by a couple of contributors that John's organ part and Paul's
bass note stick on the chord (and note) G, yet the brass part keeps going from G
to F. The engineer fades this organ part out at 2:16 to 2:19 to hide the
mistake.
I don't believe this to be a mistake in chord structure: It was intended, I'm
sure. Note that Paul holds the G-G-G-G-DG-G-G-G bass pattern over F chords in
the early part of the song. There's nothing wrong with overlaying F and G in
that way.
That does leave the question of where the organ went ...

Anomalies H
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
0:43
Chewing/mouth noises, centre.
0:57
The engineer mixing this song brought up a track too quickly. Originally
John sang the "I need a fix" section twice, but the first was supposed to be
left out in the release (replaced by a guitar). The end of the first "down"
ended up on the master by accident. Not present in mono mixes.
1:34
High pitched titter from the "female" backing voices. Caught unawares by an
early drop-in? This has been attributed to John saying "shoot" or "sh*t".
1:47
"When I Hold You..."
The tempo changes into something like 6/8 here, but Ringo continues in 4/4.
Not sure how this happened.
Two possibilities - they were doing something clever with arrangements by
overlaying 2 rhythms. Or, at the time the drums were recorded, they intended it
to be in 4/4 and changed their minds later. It's clever.
There's a Queen song "The Miracle" where the song ends and goes into a
guitar/bass/drums solo fade out, and a piece fades in over this at a different
tempo and knits at key points (especially the start and end) so that it transits
to a slower tempo without you really noticing.
In the light of the "Mother superior" bit, which has an odd beat pattern of 3 6
3 7 3 6 3 7 3 6 3 7 beats, it may be intentional.
Max Mismetti mentions that John did this sort of thing on a few occasions.
Examples include Anthology ("Remember" - starts singing at an odd time measure),
also Across The Universe (various takes, starting in odd places, running into
verses without the expected pause).
2:21 Listen!
Print-through of the word "Gun" a split second before you hear it at full
volume.

Hello Goodbye
1:15-1:16,1:30
Handclaps, which seem to mark out the start and end of the solo area.
1:54-1:55
Right channel - a clicky sound as John and George's voices are punched in,
possibly from the echo unit.
2:05
Right channel - someone hits something, viz. "I can stay 'til it's time to
go [BANG clatter]". Also background hiss reduces as the vocals are taken away
here. Throughout 1:54-2:05, headphone leakage of other instruments increases
with the new vocal tracks being added.

Help
0:20
Double tracking timing error on word "way".
0:26
Shout, just before backing vocal sings "find", easier to hear on right
channel of the stereo version.
The mono version has the intro spliced on. The vocals differ between the mono
and stereo mixes.
Danny Caccavo adds this
Here's more about the mono mix.
Whenever you hear the guitar run, there's an edit which cuts out the band
hangover (cymbals) and the thumping on John's acoustic guitar. "Won't you (edit)
please, please help (edit) me". On the second edit, the band returns, and the
guitar run stops suddenly.
These edits are not (unfortunately) on the stereo mix. They are quite effective
on the mono.
Also at the end on the mono mix, there are three "Help Me"'s. Note that the
second one is "Help" (Paul/George) and "Me" (John). On the stereo, John's voice
is double tracked, so you lose the back and forth effect (highlighted in the
film "Help" - note how it is edited back and forth)
Glenn Koury also notes
The anomaly is in the tempo of one phrase in the first verse. The line is "Now I
find I'VE CHANGED MY MIND". In the single version of the song, the tempo of the
vocal phrase I'VE CHANGED MY MIND is evenly spaced, with MIND coming right at
the downbeat (actually, a 16th beat before). In the album version, the phrase is
double-timed, with MIND arriving on the upbeat. Also, in the album version, the
phrase is repeated at the END of the song, and there, it is the slower,
evenly-paced tempo like the single version (and thus inconsistent with the same
line at the beginning of the album).

Helter Skelter
0:00
On the first note of the riff (after the guitar slide down) there is a
definite fault in the track that sounds like a CD-copying error. Looking closely
there are a bunch of "noisy" samples in the left track only, followed by a bunch
in the right track. This has been reported from a couple of people, and would
seem to be some kind of digital mastering error.
0:02-0:03
Right channel, you can hear two faint taps that count in the vocal.
0:03, 0:05
Stray noise, twice the same sound, may be guitar, may be vocal.
0:18
Paul laughs the "Do you ..." (probably still got the giggles from the
previous "Yeah yeah yeah ahaha ...")
0:46-0:48
The reverb on Paul's voice drops out completely, his voice sounds much
smaller for this one line.
0:50
Glasses or a bottle rattles for about two seconds, right channel.
1:24-1:25
Again reverb disappears on Paul's voice for one line.
1:31, 1:34, 1:38-1:46
Squeaks, sounds like a child's toy. It may be a manipulated vocal.
2:15-2:19
Paul's vocal moves around the stereo image, panning slightly left.
2:24-2:25
Again the reverb disappears on Paul's voice for one line. Were these
punch-ins to fix an errant "Helter Skelter", and no reverb was applied (to make
editing in and out easier) ?
2:44
Paul sings "Yes she is, coming down fast" and then (closer to the mic at
2:49) "Can you hear me speaking? Whoooo".
2:57-3:09 Listen!
Paul says "Listen, shall we hear that, see if the [sings] eeee's onnn...",
and then says (3:04) "Are you coming, son? I saw you do that you little
bugger... (3:08) Put yer bloody hands on your head, c'mon".
Hard to hear, again OOPS helps to remove the loud guitar part that masks this.
There's also quite a bit of clicking and scratching in the track here.
The famous "blistery shout" (Listen!) is preceded by John's voice asking "How's
that?". The shout itself is from Ringo. This section is missing from mono mixes.
Popular folklore says that this shout is because Ringo had drummed for 27
minutes on this take, and that what we hear on the White Album is a condensed
version. It seems this is not quite true.
JWB writes to tell me
The 27 minute take was a completely different version (another take of this
version is on Anthology 3) that was never released. The White Album version was
only about 5 minutes but they did several takes.
The 27 min take (takes 1-3) were July 1968, the remake session was September
1968 (takes 4-21). Take 21 is the version found on the White Album. I guess the
blisters were from 18 takes of 3-4 minutes each. Take 21 was considered best and
work progressed from there.

Here Comes The Sun

0:13-0:15
Previously listed as "George hits the guitar body to mark the unplayed
beats, a la Help!"
Stephen Moss suggests
The time tapping noted here is more likely George's foot. Listen to how closely
that guitar is mic'd. Were George to beat out the pauses on the guitar body,
it'd be much louder.
Tony Cox suggests
I think the "tapping" at the end of the intro to Here Comes The Sun is down to
perhaps a George Martin oversight (!!) rather than GH. I think the tapping comes
from a metronome which can be barely heard during the intro. This gets louder at
the end of the solo when the compressor on the guitar mic starts to increase its
gain as the last few notes played are fading away.
0:15
I'm fairly sure the start of the strings section is too abrupt, and that
this is an edit/punch in.
0:19,0:35
Soft, then louder clunks against the body of the guitar. (Left channel).
2:23
The vocal comes out as "It seels like years since it's been clear". Previous
verses are "feels/here", "seems/here", and there seems to be some doubt as to
what word came there!

Here There And Everywhere

0:10
Left channel, there is an edit between the intro piece and "Here", the tape
drop out gives this away.
0:13
Left channel, a finger snap where one was not supposed to be!
0:19
Listening to the right channel only, the phrase "changing / my life" has two
different sounds. Edit between two takes?
0:57
Serious fret squeak, right channel.
1:06
At the end of guitar section, under the word "her", is a 'fwip' in the right
channel.
1:10,1:45 Listen!
Between the words "everywhere" and "knowing that love..." is an audible
'fwip' of a punch-in, this time on the left channel.
1:35-1:41
Left voice seems to fade out during "care" and return a few words later.
1:59
Finger clicking drops out for exactly one beat.
2:12
Guitar goes to wrong beat - it had been playing chopped chords on beats 2
and 4, but goes to 1 and 4 momentarily!

Her Majesty
0:03 Listen!
Left channel. Various reports that either :-
A female, vibrato voice sings a note.
A sped up male voice sings a note.
A Moog synthesizer note trails off from "the loud chord".
Or possibly a cartoon "boing" sound effect happens.

Hey Bulldog
0:00-0:05, 0:08-0:11
Right channel, clicks of drum sticks. Also snares on drum kit rattling in
sympathy with the rest of the guitars etc. Also you can hear John/Paul "ruff"ing
along as a count in. Partly fixed on remastered Yellow Submarine version.
0:52-1:04, 1:52-2:04, 2:22-2:32
Some people note strange sounds in here such as "Paul heavy breathing",
"John breathing hard" etc. However this is the sound of the snare through a
delayed reverb, and is intentional. "Thwack-ahhhhh".
1:04
Sharp edit in the guitar track, to put solo in?, cutting in after "talk to
me" and apparently ending at 1:32 in a click.
1:13-1:31
I've received reports of shouting and talking here, but I'm sure these are
intentional. Running around chasing dogs/being chased by dogs etc.
1:32-1:33
Left channel, a click, then someone "Whoops", as Lennon sings "Big Man", and
in the left channel Ringo shouts "Yeah?"
2:33-3:04
The book "The Beatles Lyrics" has the words wrong to the ending. Most
interestingly, they don't include all of the John/Paul dialogue
J+P) "Hey Bulldog ..."
P) "Hey man"
J) "What's that, [boy/Paul]?"
P) "Ruff!"
J) "Whaddya say?"
P) "I say, ruff!"
J) "You know any more?"
P) "Wowowowwwaaaaa"
J) Screams loudly
P) "You got it, that's it, you hit it, that's it man, Woop!, that's it you got
it"
J) Screams hysterically
P) "Don't look at me man, I already have ten children" [also heard as
grandchildren]
J) Screams hysterically
P) "[Clap man, clap / Quiet boy, quiet]" [unclear]
J) "Okay"
P) "[Clap! / Quiet!]" [unclear]

These last couple of lines ("Clap man, clap") are obviously Paul's voice,
however the Yellow Submarine animation shows John singing them. Animator's
error?
3:06
Total drop out in right channel. Some people report that this is fixed on
remastered Yellow Submarine versions, others still hear it! Seems to be a
reaction to Ringo's snare (maybe a limiter kicked in to hold back the signal).

Hey Jude
0:06
Centre - someone rattles a tambourine.
0:21-0:22
Strange vocal noises during singing, almost like swallowing while singing
(clever!) This has been picked up as "more tambourine rattling". True, there is
more tambourine rattling just after "start", which wasn't listed. But the vocal
anomaly above is during "make it". Might be some strange effect of Paul's throat
being picked up by the mic.
2:12-2:15
George plays his riff that doubles the "Da da da daaa daaa" phrase here -
this shouldn't happen until the end of the verse. George stops short of
completing the riff.
2:17
Right channel, a high voice (female? Paul's falsetto?) talking - sounds like
"Love You" - on the words "Just You". This may be Paul's vocal coming through
from the piano track.
2:52-3:02. 2:58 mostly Listen!
This is Mark Lewisohn's "Recording Sessions" non-specific reference to an
"undeleted expletive".
As Paul and John sing "Remember to let her under your skin", John shouts "Got
the wrong chord!", (maybe in response to the clunky dead chord at 2:53-2:55) the
last word sticks out more than the previous three, and then swears.
If you count out loud 1-2-3-4 in time to the rhythm through this section, you
get :-
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1
P/J: skin Then You Be Gi - In
J: Got the wrong chord F**king HellMichael Patrick observes that
George lets out an unchoreographed "aah" at this
point, this may well be him hearing the word "chord".
However, just after "begin" (to make it better) at 3:00 there is some form of
edit, which causes a noticeable brightening of the left channel. Maybe there is
a mistake in the instrumental here too, which was hidden by the edit?
Expletive also heard as "Need some help", "Ok Now", "Take it out" and many
others.
As an alternative, but probably less accurate, explanation
wa3dhb@bellatlantic.net adds
I found this bit of info on whitealbum.cjb.net. The person who says "F*cking
hell" in Hey Jude is John Perry from the group Grapefruit. He says he came into
the studio, and Paul told him to put on headphones and do backup. He did, and
the headphones were on very loud, so he shouted "F*cking hell!"
I find this hard to believe, as it doesn't explain why John Perry "Got the wrong
chord!" Maybe he was heckling John for getting the chords wrong. I also find it
amazing that people can wander in and out of the studio during a take, and are
unprofessional enough to potentially spoil a take by behaving like that. He
won't be invited back! No, I'm not buying that one ...
3:12-3:58
Right channel, lots of shouting from Paul, all very much off microphone for
quite a while before it is mixed in to the centre at full volume. "Make it
[better]" (3:15), lines about "making it, not breaking it" (3:20,3:36) poke
through, but they are all quite hard to hear.
4:30
Non-anomaly - often being reported as "Don't f**k about Jude". This is
really "Don't make it bad Jude".
5:37
Similarly, this is not "What the f**k Jude?" (many reports) or "Hey look at
that you idiot!" or even "play a bit of that tune", "maybe we'll go back to
England" (had this one twice) but just simply "The pain won't come back Jude".
However, on the foreign language anomaly front, V Lichere writes
Sounds exactly, with the proper accent, like the French "He, on peut partir?"
("Hey, can we leave?") Am I the only one to hear that? Is it possible?
6:52-6:54
Past Masters 2 Version, bass attempts a fancy run, but doesn't do it
correctly. Then it hits wrong note repeatedly. Finally, bass is faded out or cut
before the track finishes.
To spare any further odd anomaly reports, the full text of Paul's amazing
shoutings from where it comes in clearly at 3:58 is (approximately) ...

(3:58) "Jude Judy Judy Judy Judy Judy.. ow, wahow!"

(4:07) "Ow hoo, my my my"
(4:12) "Jude Jude Jude Jude Joo-oo ..."
(4:18) "Na na na na na, yeh yeh yeh"
(4:24) "Yeah you know you can make it, yeah Jude, you not gotta break it"
(4:30) "Don't take it bad Jude"
(4:33) "Take a sad song and make it better"
(4:36) "Oh Jude, Jude, Hey Jude, woooow"
(4:44) "Ooo, Joooode"
(4:47) "Yeah"
(4:50) "Hey, hey, hey-ya-ay"
(4:57) "Hey, hey, hey ..."
(5:03)"Now Jude Jude Jude Jude Jude Jude, yeah yeah yeah yeah ..."
(5:12) "Woh yeah ye-ah"
(5:16) "Ah nanananananana cause I wanna na na na"
(5:20) "Nanananana ... nanalalal ow ow ow"
(5:35) "Oh God"
(5:37) "The pain won't come back Jude"

(5:58) "Yeah, eh hehe heh"

(6:03) "Make it through"
(6:07) "Yeyeye Yeah .. yeah y-yeah ... yeah-hahahaha ...."
(6:20) "Goodeveningladiesandgentlemen mymymymy mahhhh"
(6:29) "oooo"
(6:35) "oo-oo"
(6:41) "ooo"
(6:47) "Woooh"
(6:48) "Well then a na-nanan"
(6:56) "Isn't that ..."

Hold Me Tight
Throughout
Squeaky bass pedal on Ringo's kit, best heard at 0:59-1:12, 1:39-1:50, (use
left channel of the stereo version if you have it).
0:03 and 1:12, 1:52
John sings " ... right, so", and yet
Paul sings " ... right, now"
(comes out in total as "so right, sow hold me").
Although at 1:52 there also seems to be an edit through this piece as well!
0:38
Phrasing of "tonight" as "too-night" and "t'night" varies between the
singers.
1:27
John and George's echo of "hold" is disastrous, it sounds like George
scooped into John's note.
2:00
John comes in late with his backing vocal, and there's some faint speech,
leaving a backing of "night <mumble> Tonight!"
2:21
Sudden change in the volume on the right channel of the stereo version only.

Honey Don't
0:34
Ringo's voice cracks in "Don't".
Honey Pie
0:01-0:09
Some voices audible, left channel only.
0:35-0:36
Two quiet ticks, and a stray guitar note (centre).
1:30
Two slightly out of tune (1 semitone flat) guitar notes, probably the
beginnings of the little solo that we weren't meant to hear.
1:33-1:40
Tape noise (hiss) increases during the guitar solo, especially in the right
channel.
1:58
Click, sounds a bit like a "tut" sound, centred.
2:06
Just before "Kindly send", left channel, a voice whoops.
2:21
The word "so" distorts, evidently this is one loud bit that the limiters
didn't catch.
2:39
Click, centre, in fadeout.

Anomalies I
I Am The Walrus
0:04
Orchestra is brought up too early, rattling is heard before they begin to
play (right channel).
1:33-1:35
Edit as John comes in with "yellow matter custard". Listen to the Anthology
version of this take, John's voice cracked on the last "I'm crying" (hence,
after editing, it sounds like "I'm cry"). The first attempt at "Yellow matter
custard" also fails. The take was edited to cover this. Listen to the orchestra
(right channel) and you can hear the edit clearly. There is also some drum
editing.
2:10
Left channel faded up too soon, so organ and tambourine begin before beat.
2:26-2:31,2:35
Various talking reported, this is the very beginning of the recognisable
Shakespeare "King Lear" excerpts (see 3:54)
Ugo Coppola has been doing his research, so I'll hand over to him
I checked Act IV, Scene 6 against the Beatles' recording. It matched perfectly,
of course. So now I can positively say that Gloucester says "Now, good sir,
wh[at are you?]" and Edgar answers : "[A most] poor man, made tame by fortune['s
blows]".
Both sentences are also written on page 269 (September 26, 1967) of Lewisohn's
Beatles Chronicle, where he explains how the whole thing got into the mix.
Michael K. picks up the next lines
[Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, Am pregnant to] good pity..[Give
me your hand, I'll lead you to some biding]
"Good pity" is the tiny fragment before "Expert Texpert".
In the above, [sections marked like this are inaudible] due to editing. However,
on the foreign language anomaly side...
Bo Sybrandt Hansen writes
Around 2:27 there are some words spoken by a male voice. These words sound like
someone in crystal clear Danish language with correct phrasing, intonation and
everything is saying
"Udmaerket, men kan vi ikke tage den lidt hurtigere?"
Translated into English it would be something like
"Quite good, but couldn't we do it a little faster?" or "Alright, but couldn't
we try it a little quicker?"
This is where the the words occur:
If the sun don't come you get a tan
from standing in the English rain
I am the eggman
(Spoken, male voice: [?] sir )
They are the eggmen
Spoken, male voice: Udmaerket, men kan vi ikke
tage den lidt hurtigere?
I am the walrus
Goo goo g' joob
No matter how much I listen I can make nothing else of the words. Do you have
any suggestions?
Shakespeare writing crystal clear Danish. Whatever next! Any better offers?
3:34-3:39
Heterodyne whistle from the radio, fading in for the ending.
3:54-4:33
Towards the end, there is talking fading in and out of the mix. It's more
sections from Shakespeare's "Tragedy of King Lear" - the scene being read is
like this ... times added as a guide
Osw. Slave, (3:53) Thou hast slain me:- villain, take my purse. If ever thou
wilt thrive, (4:02) bury my body, and give the (4:05) letters which thous
findest about me to (4:08) Edmund Earl of Gloster. (4:10) Seek him out upon the
British party. :- O, (4:14) Untimely Death!
Edg. (4:23) I know thee well, a (4:25) serviceable villain. As duteous to the
(4:27) vices of thy mistress as badness would desire.
Glo. (4:29) What, is he dead?
Edg. (4:31) Sit you down father, rest you. (Ends 4:33) Let's see these pockets,
the letters that he speaks of may be my friends.. He's dead. I am only sorry he
had no other deaths man.
So we have two sections containing Shakespeare in the song. How did this get
there? Well, it was being broadcast on the radio at the time of the recording,
and got mixed in for effect. They just tuned to a station and - there it was!
This was not a planned event, according to evidence in Lewisohn's book. The play
was being transmitted on the radio at the time the mixing was being done
(compare studio notes with an extract from the Radio Times progam listing
magazine), and was added live into the mix. This is the reason the mix slips
into fake stereo (mono through delays and filters) if you listen to the stereo
version.
It would be impossible to exactly duplicate the mix (for the stereo remix) as
the Shakespeare was not recorded anywhere but directly into the finished master.

Having said that, listen to the Anthology DVD "I Am The Walrus" 5.1 surround
mix. The final part of the song is now in true stereo, and elements of King Lear
are much clearer than the original. This must have required Apple to get hold of
the original broadcast from the BBC, or an independent archive, and remix using
the original master tape as a guide. This is something that is only really
possible with today's automated mixing technology, and would not have been
considered back then.
4:32
The whole track seems to speed up just as it fades away to nothing.
Note that Paul Simon is thought to be making reference to this song, in his line
"Coo Coo Ca Choo, Mrs. Robinson". If this is true (rather than a coincidence) he
wasn't listening to the lyrics hard enough.
I Call Your Name
0:11
Poor edit after "I Call Your Name" and before "but you're not there", making
a soft "flump" sound. This is made more obvious by the sudden appearance of a
cowbell at this point, three beats late, and also of the sudden, late double
tracking of the vocal.
0:47-0:51
George Harrison forgets his guitar figure for the middle-eight here.
1:43
Poor double track in "Oh I can't sleep at night bu/but just the same".

I Don't Want To Spoil The Party

1:04
John comes in late on "want". He had sung the full line like Paul prior to
"I don't want to".
2:15
John inserts a spurious "If I" after "I've waited far too long". Maybe he
thought the next line was going to be "If she turns up while I'm gone" and
converted to "I think I'll take a walk".

I Feel Fine
0:00
Red/Blue Album Capitol remix opens with drumstick clicks, and John saying
"It's not enough".
0:05 Listen!
Cough and a click sound. Also reported as "an obscenity", and "someone
spitting", "something mechanical, e.g. a WahWah pedal", "finger sliding down
guitar neck to get to proper chord" and "snares being set on or off the drums".
0:48
Most voices sing "She's so glad", one sounds like they've sung "He's" or
"I'm" instead!
0:12-0:14,1:18-1:21
Snares on the drum kit resonate to the sound of the guitar amps, before the
drums come in.
2:15 Listen!
In the fade out, people report hearing a barking dog. It's not a dog, but
Paul freaking out and making woop/woof noises. Very realistic, but no dog!

If I Fell
0:11
On stereo versions only, John's voice is double tracked here, and a timing
error occurs between the two copies of "and I".
1:45
Paul's voice cracks on the word "vain".
Mono version eliminates this by editing in another chorus, although it is
reported that the cracking is still there, I don't hear it on my Mono UK CD.
There is a quiver in Paul's voice, but not as bad a problem as that found in the
stereo mix.

If I Needed Someone
Whole Song
Sounds like George is inhaling on a cigarette throughout this song,
listening to the right channel.
0:52
CD Version only - whole track phases (flanges) very slightly.
1:52
CD Version - track phases (flanges) again.
Apparently in some versions both of these points have someone singing falsetto
harmonies as a guide to the next part coming up. Maybe the phasing is a
by-product of removing this for the CD, through overlapped editing-together of
takes?
2:08
Squeaky blip noise, just where the second 12-string guitar (to the right)
comes in for the end part.
2:18,2:19
Creaking sounds left and right.

I'll Be Back
0:06-0:08
The harmony on "break my heart I'll" is wrong.
1:37
Click after word "to" in "will try to show that" (left channel, stereo mix
only). Also, a bass flub at this point.
2:00-2:02
There's a partial fade out on Paul's voice and an almost total fade out on
the drums, leaving only John and guitar for a moment!
Victor Munoz writes
Paul has TWO tracks of harmony on that tune. He does two harmonies over John's
low harmony except for when John does his lead vocal segments. Therefore there
is no way that Paul's voice could disappear if he has two harmonies going
throughout the main verses.
Agreed, Paul has a double harmony part, but one or both of Paul's vocal parts go
weak at this point, as do the drums.

I'll Cry Instead

0:04 to 1:40
Constant click click click (often thought to be a fault). This is reported
as Ringo's ride cymbal but it leads by about 1/32 of a bar ahead of where the
beat is conventionally "expected". Also suggested as a metronome.
Further reports seem to suggest that this is a double ride cymbal hit - the
first being ahead of the beat, sort of "ca-CHINK" - the first is only really
audible as a tick.
The explanation comes from Stephen Moss
I've been thinking long and hard about the noise in "I'll Cry Instead" for some
time, and the noise is definitely the playing of the ride cymbal.
When I began to write this, I was in fact going to suggest otherwise (spoons, or
rockabilly-style sticks on the drum rim), but an extremely critical listen has
shown me the light (and a number of other thing in the track, some of which are
likely not-quite anomalies, and some of which augment existing anomalies).
If you listen to the song, percussion wise, the tambourine is the most prominent
instrument. Behind that, there's a simple beat on the snare, and a subtle ride
cymbal wash. Ringo's playing a jazz pattern on the ride: Consider a 4/4 count...
1 - - 2 - - 3 - - 4 - - |
R R R R R R R
S SRingo's playing a straight snare beat on the 2 and 4, but the
ride pattern has a
double attack that dances into the 1 and 3 (with the second attack falling on
the beat).
This becomes most obvious at 1:04: "Show you what your lovin' man can do"...
Ringo hits the ride harder, almost as one would strike a crash cymbal, and
quickly hand-mutes the cymbal, grabbing it to silence it.
You can clearly hear the stick, louder than before, on the attack.
0:38
Dropped tambourine noise!
0:48
Double tracking error "I'm gonna lock myself" vs "I'm gonna hide myself".
1:10
Edit, and the rhythm guitar drops out in mid strum. This is between "cry"
and "instead". It is suggested by Stephen Moss that his dual-voiced part on
"cry" is not tight at all, especially compared to previous examples in the
track. It almost sounds like he's about to run into difficulty singing at all.
(Reference the "I'm crying" bridge in the Anthology version of I Am The
Walrus... Does he just have issues with the word 'cry'?) At the cut, on
"instead" suddenly the vocal snaps back into line.
1:12-1:21
George is having problems with the lead guitar. Note how low he is mixed,
compared with the first bridge at 0:45. Critical listening shows that he's
fumbling some of the runs, and is only mixed back in clearly when the playing
improves.
1:37
John makes a double-tracking error, between "But 'til then" and "Until
then", leaving an unclear "Guhtil then ..."

I'll Follow The Sun

0:50-0:52,1:36
Feedback in guitar track.
0:55
In the word "so", Paul's voice seems to double track on two slightly
different notes. Edit to correct a pitching error?

I'll Get You

0:09
Ringo's kick drum pedal makes a mighty squeak on "imagine".
0:32
Harmonica plays the wrong note (one semitone flat), and quickly corrects.
1:10
John (low harmony) sings "Well, there's gonna be a time when I'm gonna make
you mine".
Paul (high harmony) sings "Well, there's gonna be a time when I'm gonna
change your mind".
George is doing a middle harmony, it's hard to tell who he's siding with on
this one.
1:17
Here, George's middle vocal sings: "So I might as well resign yourself to
me".
I'm Down
0:43-0:58
Although not credited as having a double track guitar, the second lead is
heard low in the mix (centred) doing a different solo, along with a second drum
track.
1:28-1:31
Right side, ticking of John's nails on the keys as he flies through the
notes!

I'm Happy Just To Dance With You

1:01
On stereo version only, spoken words (sounds like a repeat of the word
"place"?)
1:53
Squeak in fadeout.

I'm Looking Through You

0:04
Paul tries out the start of the song "Where did you go?, Where did you go?"
(Vinyl version only, not on CD).
0:15
Feedback on the acoustic guitar (left).
1:01,1:04
Handclaps go all out of time and stop.
1:05,1:43
Edit in the phrase "Love ha/as a nasty habit". Second time is much more
subtle.
1:18
On the down-beat of "were above me <here> But not today" there is a loud
guitar feedback/harmonic (left of centre).
1:20
Sounds like the dropping of a tambourine.
1:34, 2:16-2:19
One of the organ stabs moves to the centre of stereo (from the right) for no
real reason. Same again at 2:16-2:19, but more random in nature.
1:35
Talking.
1:39
Out of place guitar notes, actually these occur in a few places.
1:41-1:42
Two clicks (centre).
1:52-1:54
George plays various out of tune notes, right channel. This happens in a few
places (not the cleanest of guitar tracks!) but here is worst.
1:58
Ringo misses the snare! Actually, from 1:50 to 1:58 Ringo seems to be moving
his position, as the snares change sound each time, one time he hits the rim
only (1:54), before missing this beat totally.
2:19-end
George either gets bored with the riff, or becomes distracted, as he plays
random notes into the fadeout (right).
Also note that on the American stereo LPs there are two false starts not counted
above. The first is about 1 beat, and the second three or four beats.
David L Fairey has a wild theory on why this track is like this. See if you
agree ...
My main argument surrounds the recording of the Rubber Soul track I'm Looking
Through You, possibly one of the messiest recordings the Beatles made. It is
rushed, terribly recorded and not particularly played well. Thus, I have a
theory...
I believe, contrary to all other reports (including Lewisohn and Macdonald) that
this could be a solo Paul recording. After all it was his song and quite a
personal subject for him. The drumming is awful, with a noticeable rimshot being
missed, no bass drum [MB: untrue, it's there, flumping away!] or hats and
cymbals. Sounds like the old patting-the-knees percussion to me, recorded on top
of a snare to keep time.
The guitars sound out of tune and sound like Paul's style of play, especially at
the end. George was always a more organised guitarist and I can't see him
committing this to tape when the Beatles where at their height! The guitar sound
is also Paul, maybe his Epiphone Casino? The tambourine work is poor also and
the organ stabs should have been heavily compressed.
In fact, the best input is the acoustic - capo'd? - guitar most audible at the
start of the song.
Whatever, it's a messy recording, especially when compared to other Rubber Soul
tracks which are well played and nicely produced. I don't have the date at hand
when it was recorded but I'd guess it was one of the last songs recorded for the
album. I do know however that Paul had had the main part of the song for some
time. Was it dusted down, quickly recorded to complete the album?
Anyway, my main point is that it sounds like a song in which neither Ringo or
George (and probably John) contributed.
Well, according to Lewisohn's Recording Sessions, "I'm Looking Through You" was
almost the last track recorded. This version was recorded on the 10th and 11th
November, 1965. 11th November is described as a marathon recording session.
Final remixing was done on the 15th November. So yes, there was a deadline
looming very hard.
Also, Lewisohn's Recording Sessions states that there was an initial attempt to
record a backing for this song on 24th October. No list of who was present, or
who-played-what is given. Interesting.
On the 6th November, a re-make was performed of this track, described as "too
fast and frenetic". Again, no details of performance credits. "Verrrry
interesting" as they say.
10th November, it was "finally made in a way that pleased everyone". Were the
others even present? Could it be that this recording pleased Paul as it was
completed to his satisfaction, and the others were pleased, because the thing
was finished without them having to do it again with deadlines looming!
The album sleeve credits Ringo as playing a Hammond organ on the song, "but it
cannot be heard on the recording, nor is the instrument detailed on the tape
box" (Lewisohn again). In which case, what are those loud stabs on the organ?
Evidently the tape box is not accurate either, as there is an organ there.
As a "conspiracy theory" it's an interesting idea, and I wonder how many other
tracks might fall into this category. Suggestions on a postcard, or e-mail ...

I'm Only Sleeping

0:35
Click (right channel) just before the lead vocal comes in.
0:40
Paul plays a rather sharp bass note, quickly followed by the correct note,
just under the words "I don't".
1:08
Three clicks just after "...sleeping". Sounds like someone is snapping
fingers to measure out bars. You can also hear the leakage of a backwards
guitar. Best heard using OOPS.
1:57
Voice says "Yawn Paul", and at 2:01, he does!

I'm So Tired
0:37
Sounds like a brief distant guitar sound (centred).
0:48, 0:51, 0:54, 0:58, 1:30, 1:33, 1:36, 1:40
Strange drum/guitar/vocal sound, like a falling "whoosh", or a laboured
breath. Occurs right after every line of the chorus, on the 3rd beat. One
suggestion is that it's a distorted guitar, hammering out a chord and then
allowing it to fall down the fretboard, and this is mixed very low or bled over
from another track.
1:07
Under the word "so" in "I'm so tired" there is a strange vocal/instrument
sound.
1:58 Listen!
Lennon gibberish. This is not backwards. Renditions such as "M'sieur
M'sieur, How about another?" seem to be reading in sounds that are just not
there in an attempt to force it to make sense. It's nonsense speak. It's pure
John Lennon.
Also rendered by Iain Tacey as
"missya, missya, how 'bout dinner huh? ..... Julian?"
To which the very last sound appears to be a child's voice which is immediately
cut. (Remember Julian would have been 5 years old then and was around John and
Yoko at that time , as pictures show).
The child's voice (I guess) being the "pleh".
The nearest I can transcribe phonetically is "Lissum, Blussak a mizure,
habuts-an-oh'en. Tidja tidja tuplay, pleh!". The final "pleh?" is often
translocated onto the beginning of Blackbird due to a mastering error when
making the CD. At a stretch, I can also get "Listen, bloodsucking m'sieur".
Whatever that might mean.
Having read the above, coopastarr@yahoo.com writes
For "I'm So Tired" you said that the 'gibberish' at the end of the song is not
backwards, well, it actually is.
No, actually, it isn't. Really, it isn't.
I have recorded and reversed it and clearly heard "Paul's dead man, miss him,
miss him" You can hear this yourself by recording it onto your computer and
reversing it in your "Sound Recorder" if you have Windows. This can also be done
with Blue Jay Way, revolution 9, and other songs.
This shows how easily people believe urban legends and folklore. You hear "Paul
is dead" because that's what you've been clued to hear. I'll say it again - it
was said and recorded forwards, and makes no sense. Listening to it backwards it
sounds even less like speech, makes less sense, but if you were looking for a
hidden message you'd be able to find one.

I Need You
0:41
Stray clunk noise from guitar, right channel.
1:06
Centre, a quietly hummed note.
1:10
Click to the left, during the syllable "mem", and the track loses something
in content - as if an instrument went quieter, or stopped.
1:47
Clicky sound along with skip in acoustic guitar (left side) just before the
volume-pedal guitar comes in.
2:23
Click (in acoustic guitar track).

In My Life
0:47
Finger snap, and rustling (right channel).
1:09
Stray guitar note (right channel).
1:47
At very end of piano solo, one single guitar note can be heard, in the right
channel.
2:12
Lennon flubs the word "life-thhhp" in the double tracking.
On the subject of the "baroque" solo that George Martin played for this piece,
Ugo Coppola writes :-
...a friend of mine, who is a classical pianist / harpsichord player, very
experienced in baroque music, remarks that all of the mordents in this piece
(i.e. the little three-note trills) are stylistically wrong, because they come
before the "embellished" (real) notes, instead of coming after them (where they
should correctly be). He also said: "You cannot close a bar with a mordent, and
Martin does this twice."

I Saw Her Standing There

0:00-0:02
Jeffrey Aarons observes
If anybody has the raw outtakes 1 through at least 9 or higher than you all know
that the famous vocal count intro of "1 2 3 4" was edited onto take one from
take 9. On an unedited outtake recording, following another collapse of the tune
during take 8, Paul is getting a bit impatient and frustrated and that is why he
is captured punctuating his "1 2 3 FOUR!".
Another brilliant move by Martin to edit that intro on to the final composite
capturing Paul's passionate intro count in.
1:11
Paul hits a wrong note on the 6th note of the repeating 8-note pattern,
partly masked by drum fill.
1:23
Bad edit between takes 9 and 12 (between drums and "Now I'll").
1:25
Paul sings: "Now, I'll never dance ..."
John sings: "I wouldn't dance ..."
1:29
John sings: "When I saw her standing there".
Paul sings: "Sin' I saw her standing there".
John and Paul both distinctly laugh at this mistake, whilst still singing
(1:30-1:31).
1:32
Horrible edit in the end of the chorus, during the word "there". The new
take comes in over the old one (leading to "there-ere"). This cut is just before
the solo, and probably leads to a cut back at 2:26.
2:26
 Paul sings: "Now I'll never dance with another".
John sings: "H-i wouldn't dance with another".
(From "How could + I wouldn't", both of which were wrong!)
This point seems to be an edit back to the original take, so not entirely John's
fault on the vocal error. Close examination of Ringo's fill reveals that he goes
to smack the crash cymbal, yet all we hear is the impact point, and then a heavy
bass drum sound as the other take returns. The cymbal itself is lost to the
edit.
2:31
John is late with the word "Since".

I Should Have Known Better

0:01, 0:04
Although this is a mono track, there are two distinct "stereo" effect
wobbles in the track here.
0:06
The harmonica drops out for a bit. Sounds to me more like running out of
breath than bad mixing. (Not on Mono CD version).
0:59
Click during "Mine".
1:08
Random finger snap.
2:00-2:01
Double tracking lost here, during word "see" - and it sounds like "Can't you
see (it)" because of some talking at this point.
2:16
Bad edit between "love me to-oo-o, oh../And when I".
2:21
Double tracking regained, on the words "mine, ah-ha-hine".
Anthony writes to point out an "off-record" anomaly
In the movie A Hard Day's Night , why is Paul miming along to a song he doesn't
even sing? "I Should Have Known Better!" The song even gets more ridiculous when
it's performed on someone's show or even live. John's harmonica plays on its own
while he is miming (or singing).

It's All Too Much

0:00-0:01
Often pointed out, "To your mu..." vocal is cut off by the guitar. However,
the vocal continues to about 0:04, but is unintelligible due to the guitar. The
vocal is not "All too much".
4:20-4:31
Ringo does some strange fills and seems to lose sync, it's impossible to
follow the original beat of the song through this point. When you come out of
the other side, you have to resync to a new downbeat. For a couple of bars
(4:33-4:37), the clapping (which didn't waver) goes from being on the 2 and 4
beats, to the 1 and 3 beats. Ringo does a half fill to bring us back into time
at 4:39.

It's Only Love

0:08
John counts in "1,2" (centre, very quiet). The "one" sounds like "hum".
0:41
 LP only - word "only" loses its double tracking. This is intentional (to
hide an error) as on the CD the double-track has been left in. You can hear that
the timing of "only" is out of place. The mono version also loses double
tracking to try and correct this problem.
1:03-1:06
John puts a bit too much emphasis on the word "bright" so it sounds like
"bbrright" and he lets out a slight laugh up until he sings "very bright." Also
lead guitar fill here is flubbed.
Anthony again points out a non-audio anomaly
On the US version of Rubber Soul, why does it credit John and Paul as being the
singers of It's Only Love when it's a John solo? He provides his own harmony in
the song.

It Won't Be Long
1:09
Guitar and hi-hat all drop out for a moment here (bad edit?) This seems very
sudden compared to other places where this happens in the song.
1:59,2:01
For mono CDs, there are distinct stereo-wobble glitches here, the first on
the initial sound of "till", and the second almost as if the final "to you" was
edited on.
2:09
Buzzed note in final strum of guitar.

I've Got A Feeling

Throughout
Paul never seems to play his melodic bass line and sing at the same time.
Especially at 2:01, Paul returns to doing the full bass line while John sings,
yet stops at 2:45 when he has to rejoin him. CoreyTan@aol.com observed: "Such is
live recording, but you would have figured Paul could chew gum and walk at the
same time." There is a tuning or intonation problem with the higher notes on the
bass - they are sharp.
0:02-0:04
During John's guitar intro, George plays some stray notes, noticeable to
centre and right as the faders open. Sounds like maybe George tuning up his
first and second notes? Bootlegs of the rooftop concert contain lots of junk at
the start of this track, so this may be a bit that was missed in "cleaning up"
for the CD.
0:05-0:06
CD release makes the fade in of Paul's vocal very obvious, with copious
amounts of hiss.
2:35-2:39 and 3:09-3:25
Right channel, you can hear (acoustically) the sound of the plectrum going
across guitar strings here.
2:41
Something disastrous happens with the guitar work here.
3:18
Some discussion arose over whether John says "Oh yeah" or "F*ck yeah".
Sounds like "Oh yeah", but with a laugh in the middle of the phrase.
3:33 Listen!
Apart from the obvious "Oh my soul, Ooo that's so hard", there is a faint
background comment about "Although these people wanna look over the edge ..."
I've Just Seen A Face
0:24,0:29
Note Paul's very "English" pronunciation of "beeeen", not as you would
expect ("bin") to fit in with the style of the song "fallin', agin ..."
0:35
'Fwip' as double tracking and maracas come in (right channel).
1:03
In the harmony track, audible singing of "Yes ... pop a lop top" over the
guitar solo.
1:25-1:35
Harmony vocal on the right quietly adds just "Face, ... or place, ... met,
... met ... oooo" to main vocal. So quiet it's almost inaudible.
1:35
'Fwip' as double tracking and maracas come in (again).
1:43, 1:51
Only audible with OOPS, Paul's backing vocal gurgles (and wobbles in level),
like a tape defect or similar.

I Wanna Be Your Man

1:02-1:16
Solo is taken from a live take, and has the rest of the group in the
background. Also there is some talking evident on the end of solo (right channel
in stereo versions, harder to catch in mono). Sounds like it could be John.
Drumming sound changes (especially the ride cymbal).
1:30
Random "ooh" after "no other can".
1:33-1:34
Mono CD, but the whole sound shifts slightly to the right, and back.
1:36
Ringo's bass pedal squeaks here.
1:55
Paul barks twice (actually, sounds like "Woop!").

I Want To Hold Your Hand

0:33 and 0:44
John/Paul lyric differences :-
Oh please, say to me
You'll/And let me be your man
And please say to me
You'll let me hold your hand
I/You'll let me hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
1:22
After word "something", a voice whispers "something" (right channel). John,
as ever, seems to forget the vocals and ad-libs "balum-a-lumba Haaand".
Charles Mitchell states
What John in fact is saying is: "I'm not gonna hold your hand" for that one
line. Typical, no? A friend of mine, Stuart Hirsch cornered John in the elevator
of the White Plains county courthouse where John was being considered for
deportation. Stu gave him a 7 page interview, which John kindly filled out and
mailed back. This was one of the questions.
Toward the end of the version on the Red Album, Paul's voice cracks viz. "I
Wanna Hold Your Haaa-ah!".
1:48
Edit at the beginning of the second "I Can't Hide", with a 'fwip' in the
right channel.
1:52
During the word "hide" an additional voice faintly appears in the centre
with a slightly off key "Oooo".
2:22
During the final fade out, the instruments to the left fade very suddenly
before the fade out has completed.
Whole Song:
Jeffrey Aarons points out the following
You have not mentioned the most curious "anomaly" (in my opinion) ... There is a
superimposed instrument that in fact "makes" the song. It provides the rich
texture that could not be duplicated live (hint). For 30 years I have claimed
this instrument is superimposed as a brilliant move by Mr. Martin.
It's amazing that it's so obvious and yet no one ever catches it or even hears
it after you tell them it's there. Yes ... a Hammond organ is SUPERIMPOSED on
top of John's rhythm guitar to create that richly textured effect that drives
the whole tune.
Note that John could never re-create that sound on live versions. The Hammond
organ is a brilliant choice made by George Martin and he confirmed the use of
the organ when a radio host fielded him the question on my behalf a few years
ago at a Washington D.C. press conference. It's obvious Martin felt that this
would strengthen the backing track and his superimposition of various keyboards
had already been employed throughout many Beatles recordings. The use of the
organ in I Want to Hold Your Hand must have been inspired be the recording of I
Want to Be Your Man, where John, Paul or Martin dubs in the Hammond organ as a
superior backing texture to just a plain rhythm guitar. Hold Your Hand was
recorded after the I Want to Be Your Man sessions according to Mark Lewisohn's
Book 'Beatles Recordings', so it further explains the choice of the Hammond
organ.
The Hammond is superimposing low note 5th intervals over John's two bottom
strings which also pound out 5th intervals on most of the chords. That sound
inspired a generation of power chord style or "two note" fifth interval guitars
as in the Kinks You Really Got Me, All the Day and All the Night, etc.. plus the
Who, and Animals as heard in the last two ending chords of We Got to Get Out of
this Place. George has a dubbed in riff over the chromatic bass line and Paul
has what sounds like a dubbed in bass superimposed on that same chromatic fill.
On the German stereo version you can separate the left instrumental channel and
clearly hear the Hammond organ integrated with John's guitar. You can also more
clearly discern George's guitar as two guitars. One is doing chord fills and the
little bent string riff over the chromatic line plus another guitar he over dubs
with the chromatic line that follows the bass.
The organ is still present during the middle eight, it is very soft and just
following Paul's two string 5th interval bass chords on that specific segment
doing bam bambam, bum bumbum etc... George is doing soft chord arpeggios then it
breaks out into that powerful intro again to lead back into the verses
Overall I Want to Hold Your Hand is quite a complicated production and that is
why it came off as a studio masterpiece of power and texture.
I must agree there is something "extra" in there, and it could indeed be an
organ overdub. This is not documented by Lewisohn in "Recording Sessions", but
he makes no mention of the instrument lineup anyway ... It really does bolster
the track.

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

1:55
 Loud plink from centre guitar.
2:19
In earlier editions, I wrote here :-
Next to last note of arpeggio is wrong
I'll modify that, and say that it is strange. It unexpectedly makes an augmented
5th chord. But Jud McCranie says
To me it still sounds like he missed the string and didn't play what he
intended. It is different from the other times.
2:21
George audibly flicks his pick up selector to change the tone of the guitar.

3:08
Pickup click again, and some stray guitar notes.
3:37
Fluffed bass note.
3:40,3:42
(Center) click/edit/crackle in guitar channel, and then John's pickup
clicks.
4:28
Distortion in John's "Yeeah" ... prompting someone (rumoured as in the
control room) to yell at him (4:32). Sounds like Paul's voice to me, and Michael
Bain/Laurent Cerveau agreed on this.
4:32
Left channel, shout, something like "Turn it down man/Mal" or "Bloody
loudmouth!"
4:34
Faint "Yeaah" scream. (couldn't be print-through, it's too far away from
4:28)
Latest thinking from JWB
That's incorrect. That's an urban legend about the song.
Nobody was yelling at John. (There is no reason anybody would DARE!) Someone was
just yelling in approval or excitement. It certainly doesn't come from the
control room, control rooms are sound-proofed from the rest of the studio.
That's why they use talkback intercoms. It's one of the other Beatles shouting
during the performance.
It definitely isn't "mal" at least. Mal wouldn't be in charge of turning
ANYTHING down.
Even though he's not always right, Lewisohn says:
"Close scrutiny of the original Trident tapes reveals the indecipherable shout
to belong to a fellow Beatle, off-microphone, taped on 22 February, and that it
was certainly not one of disapproval."
Yelling "turn that down" off-mic in the center of a studio while a song is being
played is not an efficient way of letting the engineer know that you want
something turned down, nor is that something a Beatle would do anyway. And after
all....the engineers can only hear the shout as well as we can. They're
soundproofed from the rest of the studio. They don't hear the studio sound. They
hear what's going onto the tape.
So after assessing the facts, I have concluded without a shadow of a doubt that:

The shout is made by another Beatle in the studio. (I can't tell which one. It
sounds like Ringo to me but it would be louder if it was him. It's probably
Paul.)
The shout was just an "I'm excited about that scream in this rocking song"
noise. (Paul is quite prone to those.) They DEFINITELY aren't saying "turn that
down". It doesn't sound like that to me, and it isn't logical either. That rumor
was started by someone who probably doesn't know a whole lot about studios or
how the Beatles recorded.
I Want To Tell You
0:06
Talking, heard using OOPS - it sounds like "Thrill me".
0:12-0:14
George tries out the opening vocal line "I want to tell you". OOPS needed
here to make it clearer.

I Will
Whole Song
I thought this was common knowledge, but it has been suggested so many times
that I'm listing it! Paul is doing the bass line vocally - "Doo Doo ... Doo..."
- it's not a bass guitar.
0:00
Starts with a click (left channel). Maybe Ringo tapped out the count in, and
it couldn't be trimmed without cutting into the "Who" at the start of the song.
0:18
Third note of acoustic guitar riff is quite flat.
0:59, 1:12, 1:17
Acoustic guitar final note ringing out is also flat.
1:42
Buzzing frets from guitar, right channel, in fadeout.

Anomalies J
Julia
0:10
John's voice gets double-tracked for "just to reach", very quietly.
0:14
John is a bit late coming in on the "Julia" line. Is this him, or was it a
mixing/editing error?
0:21
Small mistake in picking pattern, adding an extra note: The pattern usually
sounds like 'one, two and three and four', but this time it's 'one, two and
three and-a four'.
0:26, 0:28, also 0:48, 1:31 etc.
The acoustic guitar lowest note becomes extremely resonant and distracting.
It even seems to distort slightly due to the level.

Anomalies K
Kansas City
0:59
Small drop out in the track, Lewisohn describes this as a "one take wonder",
so it's not an edit. This has been suggested as a physical flaw in the tape. The
cymbals surge slightly here.

Komme, Gib Mir Deine Hand

0:00
Stereo version (Capitol 'Something New'), on the right channel in the split
second before the song starts, someone shouts something. Maybe "Come On!". Not
present in mono version.
0:06-0:07
Instruments in the left channel leak over into the right channel as John's
vocal comes in. Again, stereo versions only.
1:38
Sounds like John or Paul laughs after the word "glucklich" (happy).

Anomalies L
Lady Madonna
0:00-0:06
Rhythmic noises in the right channel during piano notes, it carries on for a
bit. Also you can hear Paul's breath on the microphone at 0:08.5 as a rumble
(right channel).
1:40
Often reported as a click, but this is part of Paul's vocal "is never
ending". The final sound turns into "endinnngk". Rafael Szot de Lima notes that
It is a click indeed, because it was (almost) fixed in the 'One' CD. If it was
part of the vocal, it was not supposed to be fixed, I think.
I think that it is indeed part of Paul's vocal, and the reason it was corrected
in 'One' is because it was an unwanted part of that vocal. It's not an
instrumental/editing click. It's also right in the middle of the stereo field
(so it's not part of the two instrumental tracks, left and right).

Let It Be
0:00,0:09
Drumstick clicks, through an echo. (Let It Be Album version only, not on
Past Masters).
0:32
The "p" in "speaking" suffers from a loud plosive (worse on PM, partly fixed
but still there on LIB).
0:48
(LIB, not PM) Under the word "Let" there is a sound like a chair creaking,
or a bicycle wheel freewheeling.
1:07 (PM/Blue Album, not LIB)
After the words "For though they may be parted," there is a whisper,
possibly "Stop, John/It". Rumour has it that it's "Excuse me", as a result of
John having just parted. Yes, I did spell that right. Thanks to Biffy, the
Elephant Shrew for explaining that one ... Paul does seem to giggle a little
here!
Stephen Moss adds
This sound doesn't sound like John, unless it's a low whisper that shouldn't be
picking up on Paul's mic. More likely it's from the booth; it might be the word
"sibilance"
Again, voices from the booth should not be audible on the track due to the
soundproofing in studios.
1:21
(PM, not as audible LIB)
Reported as a thump against microphone, I think it's again a plosive (breath
noise into microphone after the word "Beeeeh").
1:46
(PM, not LIB)
Right channel, John or George plays three wrong notes as they head into the
solo, then stop altogether.
1:55,1:56,1:57
Three little distortions in organ solo (last few notes).
1:59-2:26
(PM, not LIB)
Centre, leakage of the "other" guitar solo evident in many places, probably
leaking from drum mics.
2:21 (LIB, not PM)
One note in guitar solo, very quiet, is wrong. Sounds like an open string
being caught or released?
2:58
Piano chord under the word "Mother" is wrongly played, and quickly
corrected.
3:18-3:19,3:30 (PM, not LIB)
Leakage of another guitar playing between "answer" and "Let it be", and the
second time, just before "Whisper words".
3:22 (LIB only)
An edit during the word "be", to lengthen the track by one stanza. The words
should go to "whisper words", but we get one more "there will be an answer" on
this version.
Tony Cox adds
... the title track drums have been doctored by Phil Spector as follows. At 0:52
Ringo originally played a SINGLE hi-hat on each bar (one on BROKEN, next one on
PEOPLE, next on IN etc, but Phil Spector took the whole drum track(s) and passed
it through an echo unit so the (whole) drum kit repeats in 16ths, so BROKEN is
accompanied by tic-tic-tic-tic... Now here's the woof:
This works well at this verse, but on the next verse the song changed tempo
ever-so-slightly. And Spector never adjusted the echo, so at ANSWER 1:14, the
real hi-hat and the echoed hi-hat overlap into a splurge. Secondly, going into
the chorus then, he didn't turn off the echo soon enough so the drums at 1:18 is
a mess.

Little Child
0:54
Stereo version only, right channel. Harmonica solo contains bleed-through of
the band, as this was edited in from a live take.
1:12
Cuts out again at the end of solo. Mono also has obvious bad edit at this
point as the track sound changes and the harmonica vanishes.

Long Long Long

0:00-0:01
Echoed click, centre, then right. Not part of the guitar work.
0:05, also 0:17, 0:18, 1:43, 1:49
Guitar's 4th string vibrates due to use of a capo, buzzing.
0:08
'Fwip' during "It's/been a", making it sound like "It feel a ...".
0:30
Odd noise, right after the drum fill, sounds like a guitar creaking. It may come
from an accidentally clipped note on the organ.
1:39
Brief "boop" from the bass guitar.
2:31-2:56
A bottle rattles on one of the speakers. It sounds like a coin being spun on
a table. This sound was of accidental origin, but the bottle was deliberately
set up so it would happen again. The sound was put in at the request of George
Harrison, who thought it was cool.

Long Tall Sally

1:58
Guitar makes strange sound (right channel).

Lovely Rita
0:21,0:23
John sings as an aside "Aah, Paul" under the main lyric.
Jim Wagner adds
... right at the point where the heavily reverbed vocals end and Paul's dry
vocal begins there is a screamingly obvious tape splice. In a split second the
muted splice sound jumps from one channel to the other (due to the 45 degree
angle that many tape splices are done with).
This makes a lot of sense. There is a loud "pop" in the left channel, at the
moment the "aah" from John appears. Looking closely at the waveform on an audio
editor, there does seem to be an edit that has eluded capture, until now.
0:32-0:34
In the right ear, after "your heart awaaay" < a fwip> "Standing by..."
1:10
Odd sound, just before call of "Rita!" (Right channel).
1:15-1:17
Probably Paul, screaming "Woo-hoo-hoo".
1:22-1:25
Hiss in the background, right channel, from the piano track which has
finished but not yet been faded down.
2:11
Edit in the tape, causing a click, to join on the ending. Most audible on
the left channel.
2:38 Listen!
Ringo shouts "You'd better believe it" or "They'll never believe it" in the
very final moments of the song. Also suggested that this voice is John.
Not counted as anomalies, but these keep getting mentioned ...
The pop after "Over dinner" - this is very much intentional, and represents the
cork popping over dinner.
The "chukka chukka" sounds Lennon makes as "vocal percussion", which are also
intentional and not that uncommon.

Love You To
2:21
Leftover bit of "eee", from another take.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

0:13
Left channel, a click.
0:45
A cough? It has also been suggested that this is Ringo's hi-hat banging
together more loudly and sibilantly than expected, possibly as a result of
treading on the pedal too. Well, the hi-hat on the word "sun" is louder, but the
cough comes immediately after that, on the word "in". Fixed in Yellow Submarine
remastered.
0:50
Electric guitar breaks through on right channel just before the "Lucy ..."
1:32
John sings "grows so incredibly high", and a much delayed "igh" is heard.
Was this from a previous vocal take? Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.
1:54-1:56
Lead guitar drops out, right channel.
2:34
Paul sings harmony on the "Lu" syllable in "Lucy". He was supposed to sing
in tandem with John, and corrects himself by the second syllable.
2:53
Burst of reverb/echo after the "aaah" that doesn't occur on other "aaah's".
3:08
Print-through of an "Aaah" audible in the centre, also an accidental "sharp
note" mis-key of the long chord that begins on the word "Aaah". Fixed in Yellow
Submarine remastered.

Anomalies M
Magical Mystery Tour
0:09-0:15,0:47
Clicking noise (switches) in the right channel.
0:24,0:30
John extends the "nnnn" of "invitation" and "celebration" for a couple of
seconds. Sounds very unusual.
0:48-0:55
The tour bus can be heard skidding and crashing at (used as part of the Paul
is dead hoax).
1:40
Right channel, a click/scratch. This is the bus being removed from the mix
before the crash happens. Unlike the first time!
2:27
Talking audible on vinyl versions, but not audible on CD mix.
2:40
One bass note cracks a bit, rhythm breaks down totally (bass, drums, piano
all diverge).

Martha My Dear
1:03
Strange overlap of the words "Take a good", due to Paul's double-tracking
not being spot on. Sounds like an "Elvis" style echo!
2:25
Click at the start of the final bass note. Possible edit here?

Matchbox
0:01
Heavy nasal intake of breath.
0:09
Strange halt after the first "Matchbox holding my ..." in Ringo's voice.
Maybe this is because he's trying to remember if he's supposed to "wondering",
"watching", or starting a new take because of cocked up lyrics.
0:14,0:42,1:31,1:32,1:38
Bad double tracking of vocals, especially. "Puppy-dog-py-dog runs" and what
sounds like "We-We-Well ..." at 1:32.
1:01-1:18
Some feature of the guitar solo coming in and out at these points causes the
drums to fall further over to the left channel. Probably leakage between
channels in the recording (drums getting into the guitar mic).
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
0:37,0:45 and corresponding choruses
Each time, the lyrics say "Bang Bang", and then the next time "Clang Clang".
Lyric books often wrongly show this as "Bang Bang" all the way through! Check
the Anthology CD version out for a clearer "view" of what's being sung.
1:21
During the line "Writing fifty times I must not be so" Paul laughs. I think
someone in the background is distracting him. Rumour has it that John mooned him
in response to the line "waits behind".
1:41
Double tracking lost on "head" so that Paul can join the backing vocals
(doo-doo-doo).
2:11
Left channel, sounds like an accidental snare tap.
2:44
Faint guitar note, best heard in right channel although it is in the centre,
under the word "lips".
3:22
A click cuts off the "n" from "Silver hammer maaa".
An interesting point to note, which came in a dream to Eric Stewart ...
The song, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" (the first one) has a
two-part horn solo. [...] It's melody bears a VERY strong resemblance to the
chorus of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer".
Picture this to the tune the Sgt. Pepper horns play, one syllable per note ...
"Bang... Max-well's sil-ver ha-mmer, down up on his head"
(upon his)
"Clang... Max-well's sil-ver ha-mmer, sure that he was dead"
Spooky.
Eric went on to say
Just so people don't get confused when they try to listen for that, can you
please also state that the resemblance is specifically between the second part
of the horn solo and the first part of the Maxwell chorus. Without this
information, interested people will have a harder time finding it in the music.
I understand Eric's submission better now, but I think it fits both parts quite
well! Obviously a small amount of recycling of musical ideas going on here.

Mean Mister Mustard

0:30-End
Up to here, the tambourine playing was solid. But, from 0:24 onwards, as
Kent Rodway put it
For the last half of the song, it fades out, quits, hits out of beat, overall, a
very poor effort. Or perhaps they cut it and meant it that way...
In fact on listening to it, what is actually happening is that the tambourine
fades down every time Paul adds his backing vocal lines. This begins with two
"Mean old man" lines, and then for every line of vocals onward where Paul joins
in on harmony.
This seems like a compressor setup problem, every time the vocal comes in
(louder than the tambourine) it drives down the level of the tambourine.

Michelle
0:15-0:17
Acoustic guitar fret squeaks, much louder than in other parts of the song
where the same phrase is played.
0:45
Bass fret-squeak in the word "say". Not audible on mono mix.
0:56, 2:01
Previously listed as "Wrong note in guitar part under word "ma", it makes a
major chord, instead of minor chord as expected (right channel)."
I've revised my opinion of this after hearing from Max Mismetti. This is called
a dissonant chord, the chord has a major AND minor third. The "third" being the
note which normally distinguishes between a major chord and a minor chord. In
this case, the strings just rang out louder and made it sound wrong, but it is
in fact correct.
1:05-1:07
Left channel, Paul provides a quiet "ooooh" during "Need to I Need to" -
probably as a tuning reference for either his, or the others' harmonies.
1:39
Click on lead guitar channel after solo ends (left channel).
2:01-2:08
Song slows from 118 bpm to 109 bpm, and stays like that. The sound of the
snare changes here, so this could be an edited on ending - at least on the drum
channel. Vincent Dubrall suggested that this was a "ritard" - the song is
intended to slow down. However, the change in sound implies that some kind of
joining of takes took place, and the slow down is sudden, not like a gradual
slowing.
2:27
Left channel, a cough (not audible on CD, as vocals are dipped off). Also
stray guitar notes here.
which prompted Eric Stewart to write
...what it actually is is more interesting than that. The guitar chords are
being played on the right. In the exact spot where the so-called stray note
(which is actually a legitimate and purposefully strummed chord) is heard on the
left, the main guitar chord progression on the right falters and a chord strum
is missed. The lone chord on the left is a fill-in, a patch, an overdub to cover
up the mistake on the right.
In fact, if you mix the track to mono, it sounds spot on correct.
Listening to just the right track, there is a hole (a fluffed picking action).
Listening to just the left track, sounds like a couple of stray, but tuneful,
notes.
I think this was indeed a "patch up" job, but intended to be heard in mono. It
only partly works in stereo.

Misery
Throughout
Kick drum pedal squeaking.
0:41-0:46
Double tracking seems to be lost on some words in the phrase "I'll remember
- lonely one".
0:48,0:54,0:56,1:16,1:23,1:28,1:38
Scratchy sound (left channel, stereo mix only) after each piano section.

Money (That's What I Want)

0:00-0:02
In addition to the drum sticks, there is a soft sweeping sound, which sounds
a little like hi-hats, but is a little too far off mic to be intentional.
0:06
 Lead "crunchy" guitar edited in, in mid-strum (mono version only).
0:15
Soft thump as the guitar portion ends. On the mono CD this thump is quite
clearly stereophonic! (Another audible tape edit?)
0:18
Double tracking goes strange on "free".
1:31
Long scream, way off microphone.
1:37
Double tracking on vocals comes back in, sounding much different. Possibly
re-done for the CD mix?
2:14, 2:27
Stereo version only, as the mono makes it hard to hear. George Martin plays
wrong piano chords here (right channel).
2:38
John hits a high note and his voice croaks badly.

Mother Nature's Son

0:13,0:16,0:18,0:24,0:28,0:43,0:44,0:57, and most of track
Clicks, centre or slightly left of centre. Sounds like static discharging
(featureless tick) every so often.
0:59,1:42
The guitar in the left channel fails to slide (in tune) to the third note of
his upward run, the brass manage much better! This could be down to the slight
difference between the exact note tunings used on the different instruments.
1:05
Paul's vocal gets a reverb tail, off to the right "as she flies", which
wasn't there for the rest of the vocals.
2:14
Paul laughing.
2:16
Second guitar (in right channel) is faded up late. Maybe to cover a playing
error, and we hear a funny buzzy noise.

Mr Moonlight
Whole Song
Another squeaky bass pedal on the drum kit (most of the way through).
1:36-1:38
Someone sings a quiet "reference" note for the chorus coming back in.
2:27
Stray organ riff under second "light" - only in stereo version.

Anomalies N
No Reply
0:15
Between "your window" and "I saw the light" there is a cough and some speech
(Stereo version, this is the right channel. Still audible in mono, but harder to
hear).
0:30, 0:46, 1:10-1:15
Drum kit bass pedal squeaking away again.
0:33-0:34
Vinyl versions only. Loss of tape reverb on the words "telephone" to "were
not home" (This is corrected on the CD, where effects like these are often
re-done).
0:59
Reverb and double tracking disappears on words "in my". Also occurs on CD
version.

Norwegian Wood
0:38
On early American mono releases of Rubber Soul, there is a cough just before
"So I looked around ..."

Not A Second Time

0:44-0:45
Shouts in background (mono, also stereo, right channel).
1:05
Possible edit, immediately after Ringo's fill.
1:49
Ringo's bass pedal - guess what? - squeaks.
1:51
Edit just as John starts "time".
2:00
John blows the double tracking by forgetting what he sang the first time
round. The two parts don't connect properly.

Nowhere Man
0:19 (CD Version only)
The reverb and effects on the CD mixes are often re-created using modern
equipment. Here the reverb drops off completely through the words "point of
view," (gap) "knows not where he's ..."
Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered, by having no discernible reverb at all!
0:39-0:40
Loud feedback tone, slightly to the right and immediately after "you're
missing".
1:04-1:07
"He's as blind as he can be" after guitar solo is very phased on LP (vinyl).
CD version obscures this. Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.
1:49-1:51
Paul loses the bass line a little, under Ringo's fill (this is what he'd
play at the very end, where they repeat the "nowhere plans for nobody" part),
and then plays what sounds like an open string, very buzzy.
1:51
"Aaah-la-la-la" - there's one incorrect note (a low one) in the harmony, it
makes a very strange chord.
2:35
After last "nobody" there is a clipped "yea". Fixed in Yellow Submarine
remastered.
US Versions of Rubber Soul seem to have a stray guitar note in the opening vocal
harmony.

Anomalies O
Ob-la-di Ob-la-da
0:02 Listen!
Paul says "remember to step it up, John", then coughs, then hums a few notes
to hit the opening notes right (0:09). Best heard when this track is OOPS'd.
Laughter and joking by the other Beatles too.
0:10
A clap to mark the start of vocal track.
1:08, 1:17
Three clicks at each of the two points.
1:18
John says "home", in reference to the following line.
1:42
After the line "lets the children lend a hand", the first time George says
"arm", and John says "leg".
2:05
In the words "Life goes on, bra / La la how the" there is a vocal punch-in,
marked by an audible tweet just after. This is a by-product of the two separate
erasing operations, causing an audible sound.
2:13-2:17
John says and spells out "home" at 2:13. Some other talking follows.
2:33
After the line "lets the children lend a hand" George says "foot".

Octopus's Garden
0:00, 0:03
Right channel, the snares on the drumkit rattle audibly to the guitar riff.
1:54
Right channel, a horrible pop sound. At high volumes, this hurts! Is it
possible that Ringo accidentally smacked one of the microphones with a
drumstick? The pop is in time to the fill.

Oh! Darling
0:34-0:35
Click (centred) Maybe from drumsticks? Also, a sharp loud breath.
0:53
The bass note on the down beat goes very dead, almost like a really slack
string! The following note is stepped-to correctly.
1:08, also 3:19-3:25
Daniel Caccavo says :-
"John (or George, I haven't checked the bible) uses guitar amp tremolo in the
bridge arpeggiated sections, which is activated by a footswitch. Going into the
first (I think it's the first) bridge [1:08], he accidentally pushes the switch
one note early, which gives the big chord a tremolo effect (which I'm sure was
unintentional). It sort of sounds like a tape dropout, but isn't. He also kicks
in the tremolo for the last two chords of the song [3:19] (and the plucking of
the ends of the strings at the close)."
1:30
A possible drop-in in the bass line, or slightly late playing of one note
here.

Old Brown Shoe

1:25-1:27
Keyboard player continues playing "verse" pattern once the solo starts, then
quickly corrects to the "solo" pattern.
1:53
Someone "whoops" in the background, or some kind of squeak.
2:22
Isolated "Yeah!" in background.
2:31-2:33
Organ crackles and breaks up.

One After 909

Whole song
Bass guitar intonation is dubious, the higher notes are distinctly sharp,
lower notes are a bit flat.
0:33
Occasionally reported as a shout, it's John affirming that he begged her on
his bended knees - "Yes I did!"

Anomalies P
Paperback Writer
0:10
Breath sound and rustling, centred. More audible listening to right channel
only.
0:57
Sounds like a cough and a tambourine rattle, again centred but more audible
on right channel.
1:01
Left channel, riff fades too quickly.
1:20
Somebody manages to forget to come in with the harmony until literally one
second too late on the "Frere Jacques". (Right channel, likely it's John).
1:45
Right channel again, someone clears his throat, and then has a couple of
quiet tries at the correct notes before singing "Paperback Writer".

Penny Lane
1:19-1:21
Crescendoing microphone feedback, similar to the sound at the end of the
song, but most likely an error here.
1:27,1:30,2:32
A bizarre sound on the 4th beat of each of these measures (under "my ears",
"my eyes", "meanwhile back"). Sounds like the studio was collapsing around the
recording! Whatever the sound is, it is irregular and not consistent within the
choruses.
arp@slab.org writes
I have in my possession a 3:06 rough mix of this song, I believe dating from
January 12, 1967:
At [2:32] the sound mentioned above is very noticeable; it is actually somebody
doing a glissando down the keys of a piano on which the strings have been muted.
The dominant sound is that of the keys themselves, rather than the strings.
That would certainly fit with the sound audible in the track, for all three
occurrences.
2:04
Two bar passage of double-bass, under the lines "banker sitting waiting for
a trim". Was this a mixing decision (only to put double-bass there, i.e. it
could have been throughout the song), or was it recorded like that?.
Mike Dickson observes
I understand that this is a deliberate musical effect, this particular song
being littered with them. The sound of the double-bass playing the slow deep
lines is being used to signify the banker, presumably as an emblem of slowness
or arthritis or something.
So it would appear for the fireman and the tubular bell .... and Max Mismetti
adds
I don't think they had channels enough to record a double-bass isolated [to mix
in later] It was supposed to be like that.
Some reports indicate that this is a cello, played low. However, Lewisohn states
that it was a double-bass, played by Frank Clarke.

Pepperland
0:41
Possible edit to track, one of the stringed instruments is cut off in
mid-stroke here (left channel), and the ambience on the right hand channel
vanishes.

Pepperland Laid Waste

1:17
Possible edit to track, again the attack of the lead instrument (clarinet,
oboe?) is cut off, with an audible click. The note seems rushed, as if a small
piece of the recording has gone.
2:00
On my copy of the CD, the right channel clips on the second orchestra stab
(mastering error in production of the CD).

Piggies
0:00-0:01
Centre, harpsichord is distorted, sounds like tape damage.
0:44
Sounds like a sniff (might be a badly done Piggy-snort effect).
1:53 Listen!
Print-through (or previous take audible) of "One more time" (i.e. it is
quietly said just moments before it is said for real).

Please Mister Postman

0:07
Again, a mono track, but there is a distinct stereo wobble in the sound on
the word "Mister".
0:25
John struggles with the lyrics, "There must be some merzin day" (should be
"some mail today").
2:12
John struggles with the "Deliver de letter, the sooner le bet/You gotta"
through trying to deliver all the vocals at once, seemingly in two or more
languages.

Please Please Me
Throughout
Every time there is harmonica, on the stereo version, there's "leaking" to
the other side of the stereo image.
1:08
John sings "rain in my heart". Backing singers try out the note for harmony,
giving "Mmm....in my heart". Audible in both mono and stereo versions.
1:09
The first word of "I do all the pleasin' with ..." has a loud click in it.
On my copy of the CD, the waveform tries to exceed 0db (maximum level), leading
to clipped samples. This is a mastering error when producing the CD.
1:27
John sings "Why do I-you never even try, girl?"
Paul sings "I know you never even try, girl." (Correctly)
John, apparently realizing his mistake, chuckles out his next "come on." Stereo
version only. This is caused by John singing the second line of the second verse
(not the third verse!).
1:37 (Red Album)
Momentary drop in level of Ringo's crash cymbal. Possibly also 1:36 in mono
version.
1:45 Mono version
Dip out in level and muffling, as the end is edited on.
1:45 Stereo version
Same edit as above, but badly done. Timing goes out with the introduction of
a harmonica edit piece. Edit piece is slower than the left (rhythm) channel and
catches up in time for the last three chords.

Polythene Pam
0:06-0:08
Leakage of guide vocals, sounds like "She Should See Polythene Pam!". The
word "Pam" sticks out most audibly, just before John sings it for real.
0:24,0:44
Paul's slid-to bass note is very ragged each time. Audibly ends up one fret
flat, and steps up the 2nd time.
0:41
Left channel, someone yells "Yeah!"
0:45,0:46-0:47
Right channel, someone picks up the maracas. (After the cowbell clonk and
the tambourine, which were possibly intentional.)
Also miscellaneous shouts from Paul: "Yeah", John: "Great".
0:55-1:04
Left channel, voice counting measures from 4 to 7.
This sounds like the same voice as at 0:41. Probably John.

P.S. I Love You

Whole Song
The bass guitar seems to have intonation problems. The lowest notes are
slightly flat, yet the higher notes are sharp.

Anomalies R
Rain
0:33
Click to right channel, just ahead of vocals coming in.
0:40-0:45
Something weird happens to the drums and bass track - one bar ends up with 6
beats, the fills seem to go on for a little too long, and the bass loses the
pattern. This sounds like it might be a join between takes, or a "loss of
position" by Ringo. Somehow, John stretches his vocal over these beats and hides
it. The down beat should be where the word "sun" lands, (the bass and guitar get
there, but the drums don't, and you are kept waiting a little!)
0:57
Possible edit, there's a "clup" in the track here.
1:46
Guitar loses plot as soon as the drum fill ends.

Revolution 1 (White Album)

0:02
Most certainly not "Take 18" punched into the tape (as reported by
Lewisohn's "Recording Sessions"). Sounds much more like "aah, Take Two" or
"<r>ight Take Two".
JWB writes
I have a bootleg of the overdub session and this is what is on the ORIGINAL TAPE

Engineer: "Revolution TAKE 20."

JL: "What?"
Engineer: "TAKE 20."
JL: "Hey!"
Beatles: *laughter and chatter* (unintelligible thanks to YOKO.)
GH: *heavy laugh*
acoustic guitar begins immediately after laugh
(The very end of the laugh can be heard under the guitar on the White
Album.)
Engineer: "....I'll take it to...." ?????
JL: "Okay."

The engineer ... already said TAKE 20 twice immediately before. I think he was
making a comment to Lennon and he cut it off quickly when he realized they had
begun the take.
The tape that I have is a "control room monitor recording" by LOCO YOKO. It is
from June 4th, because it starts out with a complete playback (probably the
reduction mixdown itself being performed). Then there are long sections of drums
and organ overdubs being performed simultaneously (probably on the same track
since they only had two tracks to work with, and Lewisohn states that a guitar
was recorded the same night).
0:08
"Go On!" prompts an unidentified voice to get the washboard sound underway!
0:46
George Martin counts in the brass section with a very sharp "Wun Two Thri
Fuh", just like on the Strawberry Fields bootlegs of the orchestra parts.
1:47
Vocal noise, sounds like a misplaced "Bom!" or "Uh!"
1:54
Whole track volume dips down and back up.
2:16
Strange high pitched ring or tinkle sound, centre, between "gonna" and "be".
2:20-2:21
Whole track volume dips down and back up, as if something dropped out.
Strange noise, just as guitar comes back in late (sounds like "Oh!")
2:57
Lead guitar flubbed to bits at the end!
3:01
Snare almost completely disappears under the word "Mao".
3:12
 Guitar is panned from left to right too late, catching the first "stab".
This ends up suddenly switching sides.
3:21
Although the rhythm track has been faded down, George's guitar can still be
heard to the left, buzzing away.
3:24-3:25
Stumble (triple) beat in the whole track here caused by editing, rather than
by performance! The track seems to play that section once, and then repeat 2
more times. It adds a whole extra "beat" to that bar, making the effective time
signature 5/4, not 4/4
3:27, 3:28
Sounds like two burps, centred.
3:43
Brass section cut off by guitar riff introduction as the song ends. This
must have been added over the brass section due to shortage of tracks.

Revolution (Single)/Past Masters Version

0:00-0:06
In the centre, (better audible by listening to the left side only), you can
hear a click track.
0:02
John's guitar changes tone (not as in tone switch, I mean sounds different)
- caused by headphone leakage as John's vocal is faded in.
0:12
An edit in the word "well", it changes slightly, but suddenly.
0:23
Mistake in the vocals - sounds like "evol tution" due to second vocal. This
is a double tracking error, the original line was faded out and fades in as
"in-sti-tution, well you know".
0:59
Someone says "Raahght", left channel, thud of a microphone/drum too? Click
track (metronome?) reappears.
1:22
Double skip on snare sound. Edit, or playing error?
1:44
Second voice is late for "Alright".
2:12
Left, as John begins with "You say you'll change", there's a loud click/pop.

2:15
Stray notes from the guitar (centre).
2:20
"Head" sung out of place by the second voice.
2:57
"Alright" out of place by second singer.
3:00-3:03
Click track audible again.
3:15
Voice in the background says something like "Thank you/That's it".
The click track/metronome keeps appearing in this song because the drums are
very heavily compressed to get that powerful sound. Whenever the drums stop, the
compressor automatically starts to lift the level of the drums, thereby catching
the relatively tiny sound of the clicking. The same kind of effect occurs on the
intro to "Here Comes The Sun", and also in the final chord of "A Day In The
Life". The latter example was compressed by hand, that is moving faders up and
up as the chord died away. If someone had sneezed, then it would have deafened
most of the studio's occupants!

Revolution 9
It's hard to decide what is anomalous in this track. However ...
Lewisohn, and other lyrics books show the early section's lyrics as "Brother can
you take me back ...". It sounds more like "Robert, can you take me ...". Also
suggested as "Brahma". On the CD, this section of the track is pushed back into
the end of "Cry Baby Cry".
The mixer used to mix this track has a scratchy pan control. You can hear this
at 1:03-1:10, 1:24, 1:37-1:58, 2:13-2:18, 3:02, 3:24-3:26, using the CD version
timings.
3:33-3:49
Right, and then later centred, the rising tone and rapid gibbling noise is
the tape used to supply artificial double tracking running out, and being
rewound while the mix is taking place. This is not a sound effect tape, or tape
loop, but was an accident left in the mix.
Just to settle the question "What's the chatter about a 'cheap bitch and a
bottle of wine' on Rev # 9" question, here's the transcription. Listen!
AT = Alistair Taylor, GM = George Martin
AT ... bottle of claret for you if I'd realised. I'd forgotten all about it
George, I'm sorry.
GM Well, do next time.
AT Will you forgive me?
GM Mmm.. Yes ... [ with a smile in his voice ]
AT Cheeky bitch!
"Bevern" writes
You can hear someone say: "hur mycket ir klockan?" Swedish as well. It means:
"what time is it?"
This is actually the line "bottle of claret ..."
Also, because so many questions come to me about this, here's a rendition of
most of the audible speech in Revolution Number 9. This is my best guess, some
of it is subjective due to being overlaid by other sounds, and also hampered by
most of it making no sense at all!
1:00
JL: "Mrs Welsh wearing a pair of [her] sun/son's brown underpants"
1:10
JL: "about the shortage of grain in Hertfordshire. Every one of them knew
that as time went by they'd get a little bit older and a little bit slower ....
This was on the air force set thing"
1:20
JL: "manufacturing person who was always umpteen types of 'umpty dumpty
(????) finders, yep ah did-dly ... Peak District was leaving intending to pay
for ..."
1:59-2:06
GH: "Who's to know? Who's to know?"
JL: "colours for the season. Everybody who knew ..."
2:16
JL: "Pakistan ... also spoken for"
GH: "every day through the business terms"
JL: "had informed him on the third, and I, that unfortunately he was"
3:07
GH: "Every few days ..."
JL: "in a pair of brown under" [edited away, clothes, pants?]
3:26
GH: "local doctors that are (???) this may seem"
JL: "I have nobody's ..."
3:46
GH: "on Eaton, with the situation"
JL: "They are standing still"
GH: "upon a telegram from the"
4:04
GH: "to us played it false as the headmaster reported to"
JL: "who could tell what he was saying, his voice was low and his eye was
high and his eyes were glowing"
GH: " ... Sunday, He really ... became a great deal ..."
4:22
JL: "on fire, his glasses were in t'safe, this was"
GH: "into, which enabled him to move his"
5:03
JL: "certain, so the wife told him he'd better go to see a surgeon .... or
what with the price .... yellow underclothes"
JL: "So, any road, he went to see the dentist instead, who gave him a pair
of teeth, which wasn't any good at all. So ... so instead of that he joined the
bloody navy and went to sea."
5:37
JL: "in my broken chair, my wings are broken and so is my hair. I am not in
the mood for wearing"
6:01
JL: "Dogs were dogging, cats were catting. Birds were birding, Fish were
fishing. Thence Pwllheli, went swimming"
6:18
GH: "only to find the night watchman"
JL: "onion soup"
GH: "unaware of his presence in the building"
[Note: JL interjects "onion soup" at the point where GH says "unaware". I think
that this was some JL wordplay on what GH was about to say. In fact, I think you
can hear GH begin to smile, especially through the "presence" and "building".]
6:34
JL: "Industrial output, financial imbalance"
GH: "Thrusting it between his shoulder blades"
JL: "The Watusi, The Twist"
GH: "Eldorado"
6:54
JL: "Take this brother, may it serve you well"
7:04
YO: "Maybe, it's not that, it's .... maybe, even then, expose yourself ..."
7:26
YO: "It's almost like being naked"
7:54
YO: "if ... you become naked"

Rocky Raccoon
Whole Song
Low E string on guitar, is slightly flat.
1:07-1:20
There's an interesting tremolo effect on Paul's bass up to 1:07, which stops
entirely over this period, then returns. In places it goes back out, and then
back in.
1:38
Under the words "Danny Boy, this", you can hear a second faint track saying
"Boyyyy". Is this a guide vocal track?
2:19
 Piano is cut off very abruptly (in the right channel).
3:06
Bad edit as piano comes back in, losing first note.
3:30
Click during fadeout, sounds like lip-smacking noises from Paul?

Rock And Roll Music

0:17
Possible edit in the word "with".
1:46-1:51
Piano drops out abruptly at 1:46, and returns with edit noise at 1:51.
Clearer on stereo than mono, but still evident.
2:19
John sings "oughta got rock and roll music" instead of "gotta be..."

Roll Over Beethoven

0:00-0:10
Messed up guitar intro. Listen to Chuck Berry's original, and then this one.
1:28
George's "ooooo" seems to be cut in the middle. Either an edit, or he
stopped and someone else picked up the sound.
2:08
On Mono CD, the "sss" sound makes an odd stereophonic sound, as if there was
a problem in transfer of the master to CD.
2:40
Final chord is very obviously edited on.

Run For Your Life

0:06-0:08
In the build up to John's vocal, there is a phasing effect. It's John's
vocal mic picking up his headphones as he approaches the mic to sing.
1:06 (Vinyl only)
Muffled thud of a microphone being hit at the end of the fourth bar of the
six bar guitar solo. Cleaned up for CD release!
1:02,1:09
During the guitar solo, there are noises like a speaker or amplifier having
a problem? Evident as slight unintended distortion of guitar sound.

Anomalies S
Savoy Truffle
0:05,0:06
Clicks, centre and slightly to right.
0:10-0:19
Left channel (guitar, hi-hat) loses high end treble and ends up dulled. It
reappears suddenly at 0:19. This is also reported as the whole song going up in
volume at 0:19.
0:27
Right channel, click.
0:35-0:36
A couple of hand claps or finger clicks, and a "Chh!" vocal noise. Sometimes
heard as a voice saying "Check it".
0:41
 Paul treads on the "rest" moment with one stray bass note (compared to the
same riff from the opening of the track). He plays over George's "Coool ..."
0:55
A voice, right channel, sings "oo-ooo!" way in the background.
1:11, 1:20-1:22
After the brass stops, and before "You might not feel..." there are assorted
purring and cooing noises in the right channel.
1:27
Accidental tambourine hit.

Sexy Sadie
0:01
Click, centre, sounds like static discharge.
0:04-0:06
Someone half-heartedly slaps out the rhythm for a moment.
0:06
Thump, left side.
0:40
Very high pitched tone (around 13.5kHz) in the first "you laid it down for
all to". It's low in level, and hard to catch without good headphones. Sticks
through in pauses between words.
1:00
A click, and an errant "Oh!", which sounds like it's in the backing vocals.
1:11
Edit in the middle of the words "Sex/y Sadie". John's vocal becomes harsher
here, and there's a click.
1:13
"Wa wa wa" cut off harshly (right channel).
1:15
Finger snaps/clicks.
1:18,2:42
Pitch of piano (whole track?) noticeably flattens.
1:33,1:42,1:46
Click/Noisy scratch in vocal track.
1:36
Misplaced bass note, left channel.
1:49-1:51
Finger snaps/clicks.
2:05
Some kind of noise moves from the right channel to just left of centre. This
is in the "backing vocals" track, which are being ADT'd, hence the sound moves
from the live vocal position (right) to the output of the ADT machine (panned a
little left, lower volume).
2:20
John lets out a "Waaaah", centre, mixed in with the keyboard sound.
2:30,2:53
You can hear John mumbling "Sexy Sadie".
2:46,2:52
Glass-like tinkling, after the tambourine.
3:02
Very odd sound, like a dull drumbeat, on first beat of bar.

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

0:09-0:10
 "Roll over boys / Roll over Maurice", heavily reverbed, just before the
music starts (sounds like Paul's voice).
Many thanks to Dirk from Germany for this gem, reproduced verbatim
"I read your page with great interest but I think on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band" at 0:09/0:10 a man shouts the German words "Zieh die Hose
aus!" which means something like "Take off your trouser!".
mccartney@sms.at (Oliver) also says
Dirk from Germany is totally right. In Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band it
really means "Zieh die Hose aus!" - "Take Off Your Pants!". I can understand it,
because I am from Austria. I have heard this song for at least 1000 times, but I
never heard this shout until I read your wonderful site.
Which is unfortunate, because Ricky Miranda, writes to say
I have come to believe that it is ''y a du monde en haut'' which is French for
''there are people upstairs''
Marc Van Wassenhoven also says
Hi, I`m from Montreal, Quebec, Canada ... you can hear in real French with the
Quebec accent ( y a du monde en haut) meaning ``there`s people upstair``
(upstair could mean heaven, referring to Paul`s death) ... Some of my friends
(French) have listened to that part and they all agree that it`s in French with
the Quebec accent.
0:26
Drum beat under the word "play" is cut short, a possible edit?
0:54-0:55
Lead guitar begins a little early (sounds like a tubular bell in the end of
the brass section!). Then, Paul lets out a yell "YEow!": faint and grainy, but
audible.
1:35
The word "us" is spoken in a low voice somewhat separate from the harmonies
(Ringo might be doing a low harmony, and got one word out of time?)
1:36
Shake and a bump. Sounds like maracas, and either blowing into the mic, or
hitting the mic.
1:46
Left channel, the clapping fades down and straight back up. I think this may
have been because there was not enough stock recording of clapping to fill the
space required. Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.
1:52
Some kind of edit (more obvious with OOPS) in right channel, during "Shears,
uh [edit] and Sergeant".
1:56
Right channel - The guitar ends very abruptly, as if edited off.

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

0:02-0:03 Listen!
In the introduction, John says something like "Look up, Byeee". An increase
in hum is heard just before this as the faders open.
On mono versions, just before the band start, there is more talking, including
what sounds like John saying "People City", just after the cluck.
0:10-0:15 Listen!
Talking. These words occur pretty much on the kick drum double beats, most
audible in OOPS.
1: "Plectrum" or "Playthrough" from Paul, on the snare beat.
2: "What?" from John.
3: "Blister" or "Twister" or "This one" from Paul.
4: "Aaah!" acknowledgement from John.
5: Paul sings something high pitched, sounds like "Pussy cat".
1:15-1:17
After Paul's "Wooo", John says "Paul, could you hold my guitar for me?"
Also, a voice seems to sing a faint "Ser-geant Pep-per's BAND!" finishing on the
final chord. Heard using OOPS.
Also Paul heard really going mad singing. On mono versions this is heard better,
"We'll be back" or "We're the band", "the greatest band of all time".

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

0:00
John says "We'll listen to that now, hehehe. Oh look out! Sh ...", probably
in reference to the previous track (Polythene Pam). This has also been
misreported as "You can come out now!"

She Loves You

Every chorus
Sounds like "She loves you, She'd love to, She loves you", as opposed to the
official lyrics!
If these are the lyrics being sung, it's just their naughty little joke. "She'd
love to, and you know that can't be bad, wink wink ...."
Of course, it's not documented like that because those aren't the official
lyrics. Compare with "Sie Liebt Dich" - I'm sure Paul and John knew that "Dich"
is not pronounced as "Dick" but the boys are clearly singing "Sie Leibt Dick".
"Ja! Ja! Ja!" ...
0:12
A quick drop in the cymbal sound, maybe an edit or tape damage.
0:37,1:15
As the guitar plays one of the transitions, the hi-hat loses its high-end.
Sounds like it could be a repeat edit, like at 0:12.
1:02
Another edit, leading to phasing of the hi-hat sound as "glaaaad" ends, just
before "wooooooo".
1:22-1:30, 1:32
Bad edit right after the line "I think it's only fair" ... even the cymbals
sound different. The drop-in ends after the line "Because she loves you", but
before "and you know".
Reported as not audible in Capitol Remix, but is reported audible on Red Album,
so some doubt as to which mixes this is found in. Definitely audible on mono CD
(Past Masters).
Danny Caccavo says
I examined this on a workstation, and I think that somebody (after the initial
release) mangled or stretched the tape, and copied a piece from a 45 (record)
and edited it in. The insert piece has audible clicks in it when analysed at
slow speed. Since the Capitol version doesn't have this, this might be an
explanation.
Dave Prokopy says
The great number of edits is understandable ... they were still working on
2-track recording, primarily an instrumental on one and usually live vocals on
the other. The only way to overdub was to make a copy while adding a new
element. This meant an extra layer of hiss ... to minimise this, George Martin
would make a copy with the overdubs added, and then edit JUST the overdubbed
sections into the mono mix of the basic recording. Therefore only the overdubbed
sections would have the extra hiss, not the whole song.
It sounds like Martin had the boys overdub an extra set of "Yeah Yeah Yeahs" ...
those three words sound a lot fuller ... the downside is that this created a ton
of extra edits.
Subsequent versions are cleaned up, with more obvious edits digitally tightened.

As an interesting aside to the released version, Gerry Williamson says

I possess a reel to reel tape of [She Loves You] which was recorded at the
Playhouse Theatre on 30-07-63 and taped during transmission [ ... ] The BBC
confirmed it is the only known copy in existence (1 hour and 12 minutes of the 2
hour long show).
In the first few lines of "She Loves You", The Beatles leave out the words "And
you know" from "That can't be bad". Both BBC and EMI stated that these words
would not have been edited out from the original tape.

She Said She Said

1:37
Sounds like the vocal gets interrupted "... what I've said" <I want the ...>
"I said no no no..." (right channel).
An interesting structural anomaly comes from R.A.Dare @ qmw.ac.uk, who says
It has to do with the timing of the changes in drum patterns, if I can label the
patterns as follows:
Pattern 1: 0'00" - 0'50"
Pattern 2: 0'50" - 0'57"
Pattern 3: 0'57" - 1'11"
Pattern 1: 1'11" - 1'33"
Pattern 2: 1'33" - 1'38"
Pattern 3: 1'38" - 1'53" The second time pattern 3 comes in is at about 1'38", but
it should not be until
about 1'40":
... i said no no no you're wrong, When I was a boy...
^ ^
2nd(1'38") 1st(0'57")Ringo seems eager and starts one bar
early during "no no no"... he doesn't lose
the tempo here, so it sounds ok, but I think it's an error, just not obvious.

She's A Woman
0:46,1:03,1:24,1:31
Right channel flakes out, taking the shaker and piano out.
1:23
Paul gets a huge plosive on "Puh-resents".
1:25
Rhythm guitar drops out for one beat (playing style, not a tape fault, he
missed the chord).
1:32-1:33
Guitarist playing the "up" beat strokes misses a chord change.
I IV I
My love don't give me presents

I IV I
I know that she's no peasant

I* IV
Only ever has to give me ....Where I* should be the IV chord. The rest of the
group change, but he doesn't!
Apparently bootlegs of early takes show the guitarist having real difficulty
with the chords on an ongoing basis, leading to several mistakes.
1:41
Loud click, centred.
2:43
Click during the word "fooling" (Left channel).
2:53-2:54
When the chord changes up to D, the piano stays on G for 2 beats of that
bar.

She's Leaving Home

0:06
Heard with OOPS, squeaking and clicking noises from the strings section
under the word "Wednesday".
0:14-0:15
Deep breath from Paul.
0:11-0:17,1:23,1:28,1:29:2:45
(Left channel) Clicking from the bodies of the instruments in the strings
section (creaking of wood, bows on necks etc.).
1:17,2:31
Whole track, especially vocal, seems to come back a little late as if there
was a join here. At 1:17 there is the click of an edit.

Slow Down
Whole track
The ride cymbal sound phases oddly in the right channel, maybe from
headphone leakage in the vocal track, and Lennon moving back and forth on the
microphone. Especially audible at 0:29-0:33.
0:07,0:10,0:25
Click sounds, the first two are a vocal, lip smacking / gum chewing noises.
0:45,1:02,2:27,2:45
Piano is out of sync with the backing (comes in early, usually). This is an
overdub by George Martin at a later stage.
1:14-1:17
Piano on the right channel stops abruptly and recommences for no apparent
reason, allegedly this is connected with the boy / care edit below.
1:15
One voice sings "Now you've got a boyfriend down the street".
It sounds like the other voice sings "gurr" as in "girlfriend", and seems to
stumble over the "down the street" part.
In fact, from hearing the Decca Audition tapes, John sings "now you don't care a
dime for me" at that point. Listening to the initial sound, it's not a "gurr",
but "curr" ... as in the Liverpool way of pronouncing "care". The "down the
street" stumble is in fact the "dime for me" part of the lyric.

Something
0:11
One drum beat hits the rim or stick instead of the drum head.
0:52
Click, off to the right.
1:41
Click, centred.
2:42-2:47
Listen, very low in the mix, George starts to play a little 4 note riff
which causes him to miss his proper start point, and so the real line fades in a
little late!

Strawberry Fields Forever

0:59
Perhaps the most famous Beatles edit ever. In fact, it is actually two
edits. The famous one is between take 7 and take 26. Take 7 was slower and a
whole note lower in key. The two were edited together right between the words
"cause I'm" and "going to". The lesser known edit occurs right before the words
"Let me take you down". It's also less noticeable (0:55.5) as a slight blip out
in the Mellotron
The main edit (0:59) can be heard clearly by listening to the drums and
Mellotron on the left channel. The drums go very dead, and the Mellotron stops.
At the same time on the right, the orchestra appears from nowhere.
1:17, 2:03
Counting from one to four (centre, whispered).
1:22
Swordmandel (Swarmandela) fill is flubbed at the end. This mistake should /
could have been mixed out! There is a "ting" remaining at the end, out of place.
It's suggested that maybe the plectrum was dropped into the instrument.
1:23
Laughter, left side, maybe connected to the above.
1:51
Mellotron droned note blips erratically as it cuts out.
2:43-2:44
Nasty click from one of the cellos, during the quick run up (right channel).
3:00-3:09
3:00 - Sounds like the guitar gets unplugged (right, after first flourish).
3:06 - Soft click, like a switch.
3:07 - Click, like static discharge.
3:08 - Slight drop in level.
3:09 - Soft pop, the guitar returns with the next flourish.
3:18-3:23
First a single squeak, then lots of them, sounds a lot like a saw. Could be
a comb and paper being played.
3:27-4:05
Left channel, lots of talking - sounds like directions of sorts. From
bootlegs, this seems to be "that's terrific", "here comes the 'weeoo' "
(referring to the droning guitar and brass note?).
3:57, 4:03
John mutters the famous "Cranberry Sauce" twice, allegedly followed by "My
mother made it for me." Paul is dead fanatics insist that what John really says
is "I Buried Paul," but that somehow doesn't go with "My mother made it for me."
Note that "My mother..." cannot be heard on any released version
Max Mismetti says :-
"There's no such thing as "My mother made it for me" it's just the "Calm down
Ringo..."
The song fades out in all cases before the end of the second Cranberry Sauce."
The German release of Magical Mystery Tour fades out later than other releases
(and so, therefore, does the CD), but still too soon to hear the "My mother..."
statement.
Listening to the bootleg versions, they carry both "cranberrys", plus lots of
shouting from John to Ringo, "What are you playing it?", "Alright, calm down
Ringo" (Anthology 2, Back Track)
Frank Daniels is sure that he hears "I'm very hoarse" instead of the claimed
"Cranberry Sauce" (German Version). This is another popular interpretation,
however, it's not that!
He also mentions the famous Strawberry Fields Morse code.
Legend has it that this is the letters "J.L.". This is most certainly not "JL",
and is in fact rather poor Morse code, if it is meant to be that. (Like the
cover to Help, which doesn't say "Help" in semaphore, despite popular rumour).
Marty Blaise says
"I'm an amateur radio operator and at one time I could copy the code at 20 words
per minute. The closest thing that I can guess is that the first letter is a K
... my guess is it's a bunch of beeps with no meaning, just someone having fun."

I've listened to this sound more recently, and compared it to the sound of the
higher notes on the Mellotron "Flute" setting. It's a high note being tapped on
the Mellotron keyboard, and really doesn't equate to anything sensible in Morse.
It's music, so let it be.
For those who want to find the "Morse" it is at 0:15-0:20 in the released
version (left channel). In bootlegs of other takes, it repeats at other places
in the song, always after "cause I'm going to...", and always sounding slightly
different.

Sun King
0:12
Soft click (centre).
0:28
Hiss reduces considerably where the "crickets" sound effect tape ends.
0:32
Click (left).

Anomalies T
Taxman
0:03
Left channel, "for you 19 for me 1-2-3-fooow" in the background.
Right channel, various backward guitar notes (tape being wiped across tape
head?), then a little forward scale up the guitar.
Centre, "wunn twooo threee fourrr <cough> wunn twooo".
0:23
Stray guitar note in the right channel, from Paul's solo track (it's really
quite early!).
0:35-0:37,0:42-0:44
Right channel drops out, taking with it the tambourine. It has been
suggested this was where another vocal came in, like the "Anybody gotta bitta
money" later. It's too short to be that phrase, so maybe just a "Tax-man" each
time? This was then removed.
0:47 Listen!
Right channel, a "Whoosh" before the cowbell hit. "Must have been swinging
that cowbell stick with a lot of enthusiasm" says Mike Borman.
Specifically here :-
1 2 3 4
Cause I'm the tax man [whoosh]
. . o o

[strikes on cowbell . soft o loud]

1:29
Early entrance of the guitar (one or two notes of the riff from 1:32) - then
it seems to fade in from 1:32 to 1:33, so maybe it was faded in late.
1:33
 Left channel, a quick whistle, right before the words "Don't ask".
1:38-1:41,1:45-1:49
"Ah ah Mr Wilson/Heath" dropped into lead guitar and tambourine track with
audible clicks.
Check out the version on Anthology to hear the original drop in, "Any body gotta
bitta money".
2:23
The last "no-one but/me" sounds as if the vocal was edited from another take
(it wasn't), or punched in/overdubbed (it was). This is also suggested as a
double tracking error, just at the end (alas, not quite). Also suggested as
being due to the whole track being cut and spliced at the word "me" to put a
repeat-to-fade of the solo on (which is exactly right), instead of the original
hard ending, compare Anthology version.
Jeremy Deubler writes
It was not brought in from another track because the master was solely from take
12 (a reduction of take 11). The track originally ended cold. The repeat of the
guitar solo was tacked on later. If you listen to Track 1 (left) (rhythm guitar,
bass, drums), you can hear the edit.
However, the cowbell on Track 4 (right) is present during the solo this time -
so it is actually a slightly different mix of the solo. The "me" vocal had to be
punched-in on top of the beginning of the solo repeat.
The "Taxman" vocal at the end, and the guitar solo, are definitely the same
performance as found earlier in the recording. Lining up the two in a sound
editor shows that the "Taxman" vocal and solo cancel out well (when one waveform
is inverted and lined up on the other). This only works if the parts are
identical.

Tell Me What You See

0:00-0:03
Paul tries out the initial upper harmony line "If you let, If you let ..."
before the song starts proper. Also hissing can be heard - apparently not a
Leslie speaker (rotating speaker to give a chorus/tremolo effect), but the
electronic tremolo circuit modulating the hiss of the Wurlitzer electric piano.
(Thanks to D Caccavo!)
1:04-1:11,1:47-1:54,2:30-2:35
Hissing from piano, as above. Right channel.

Tell Me Why
0:31
Sounds like "Did you have to leave me oh so bad" - this is a vocal cross-up
between "treat me oh so bad" and "leave me oh so sad".
1:42
Edit, or drop out, between "so in love with you/Tell me why". The level
seems to drop sharply, and comes in a little late ... both in vocals and the
guitar.
2:04
Loud swish in final chord, stereo vinyl versions only?

Thank You Girl

0:33-0:38
Ringo's kick drum pedal squeaks.
0:39
 Reported as
Paul: "Only a fool could doubt our love".
John: "Only a fool would doubt our love"
... but I think this is caused by a background percussive sound from the guitar
making a "cuh!" sound on the beginning of Paul's line.
0:52
Click.
0:56
Paul: "That's the kinda love that seems too good".
John: "That's the kinda love that is too good".
1:03
Sound glitches (edit to a new take? Drum sound seems to change) just before
"and all I gotta". Also suggested as tape damage.
1:38
Song speeds up, echo sound on the vocal changes. Max Mismetti advises that
the basic body of the song is take 6. This is a cut to take 13. Takes 7-12 were
failed attempts at perfecting the ending. Once 6 and 13 were joined, harmonica
overdubs were added.

The Ballad Of John And Yoko

0:02,0:16 and many others
Thumps from the electric guitar.
2:50
Popular rumour again ... apparently John yells "Hey, Peter!" to Peter Brown,
who gets a name-check at around 0:40. Peter Brown was employed by Brian Epstein
and took over the management duties of the Beatles and Apple Corp. after Brian's
death. During the instrumental tracking of "The Ballad of John and Yoko", Peter
came into the studio and was greeted by John.
More mundane (and accurate!) reports list this as someone singing along to the
descending guitar line. It does sound more like "Ba, da da da, da daaa" than
anything intelligible.
2:56
"Paul (playing drums here) sets the sticks down on the snares, audibly!"
reported by more than one source.
Actually, there's a little rumble of a tom-tom, a kick drum thud, and the
closing of a hi-hat, all in a very short sequence. It's a perfectly normal
closing to the drumming, and not anomalous at all. It's known as a "tag", and
it's not quite as wild as a full on "Ba-doom - Tish!"

The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill

0:23
After the line "what did you kill..." Ringo says "I'll tell you" (left
channel only). It's right before "He went out tiger ..."
0:44, 1:22, 2:01
The apparent punch-ins previously listed here at the end of each
"guitar/banjo bridge" turn out to be the pre-recorded mandolin sounds of a
Mellotron. These sounds were produced from a long tape being drawn across a tape
head, and therefore, releasing the key makes the sound cut off sharply. This
makes a sound like an edited tape. Thanks to Daniel Caccavo for making me check
this, I've also corrected the times for this to reflect the time on the CD.
2:12
John seems to sing "Was it a ghel?" (girl) instead of "What did you kill?".
3:13
Print-through of the "Eh-up". Or possibly prompting from another Beatle?
George?
Also, the lyrics at (1:15) on the CD liner are "So Captain Marvel zapped in
right between the eyes" which makes little sense. It sounds more like "For
Captain Marvel zapped him right between the eyes".

The End
0:29,0:31
Someone whispers counts of "6" and "7" counting the measures of the drum
solo. (0:19 "Night" being the start of bar one.)
1:29
Compared to the guitars, the piano and end piece is about a fifth of a note
sharper.
1:44
No bass guitar after the "and in the end" part. Very probably intended, but
often reported as a mixing error.

The Fool On The Hill

0:13
When Paul sings "keeping" you can also hear the word "sitting" at the same
time, way off to the left. This is probably the guide vocal leaking through on
some element of the backing.
0:22
Something being hit, right channel.
0:40-0:44
"Mechanical squeaking noises from the Mellotron (flute sound)". It's not a
Mellotron, but two recorders. The squeaking is the breath sounds of the player.
2:20,2:21,2:47
Clicks, right channel.
2:31
Recorder on the left side starts to "crack" and produces harmonics
(overtones).

The Long And Winding Road

0:19
Microphone thump after "disappear" - through a short echo/delay.
0:26
Wrong notes in bass line, sounds very hesitant. This is John playing.
1:32
Click during word "times" (microphone hit again?)
1:53
Click in vocal track.
1:59
Paul talks about John's bass playing. (Not audible on the CD!)
2:10
Bass note too quiet.
2:39
Mis-struck bass note.
2:52
Another bass note out of time.
2:59
Dropped out bass note (either not played or mixed out!).
3:07
 Further wrong bass notes.
3:14
More dropped out bass notes.
3:15
Sort-of-anomaly: Paul is heard to faintly sing "keep me waiting" a second
time. Whether this is just Paul "getting into" the song, or whether it was mixed
out, I don't know. Apparently this repeat line is included more confidently in
concerts and Give My Regards To Broadstreet, so he obviously liked it.
3:26
Glitch to whole backing track on start of word "Yeah". Tape fault?

The Night Before

0:05-0:06
Two out of place guitar notes, although I like them ...
2:05
Paul sings "Were you telling ...", but we hear a distinct "We". He obviously
wanted to sing "We said our goodbyes".

There's A Place
0:04
Edit in track, a small amount of time seems to be missing from the harmonica
track.
0:08
Click in the word "is".
0:28
Loud stray guitar note pings, exactly on the beat between "time" and "when".

The Word
0:01
Sharp intake of breath (right channel).
0:30
The word "misunderstood" is poorly double tracked.
0:42
The guitar stabs to the left break pattern here, and one stab is missing
under the word "and".
1:16-1:18
Right channel, John pronounces the word "word" as "weerd" (very Northern!)
and makes Paul's voice waver with laughter.
1:47
One harmony sings "It's the", the other " 'nd the".
2:09
Some talking, right channel (CD only).
2:15
The harmonies for this are "flown in" from a separate tape. Listen carefully
and you will hear "Say the ..." and then the "wwwwooordd" slews up to speed.

Things We Said Today

Whole track
Every line of vocals starts with an emphasised word
You say ...
Till the end ...
These days ...
>Seems so ...
Some day ...
This seems to be a studio artefact rather than Paul's singing style. Possibly a
compressor on the vocals (to even out the levels), which was set for a long
"attack time" before it kicked in.
0:06
The word "me" in "You say you will love me" is sung flat as a pancake.

Think For Yourself

0:00-0:03
Some distortions (left channel), and a tambourine is picked up (also
reported as a breath, right channel). Both fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.

1:19
Just for a moment, Ringo carries on with the wrong pattern ("Do what you
want to do") and then realises that we have less snare beats in this phrase.
1:30
Pop in right channel, an edit in the word "future"?
1:55
Although the chorus is repeated, the bass momentarily goes back to the main
pattern, alternates a bit, and recovers!
2:15-2:16 Listen!
Low down, but there is a pronounced "boingy" echo from the guitar.

This Boy
0:20
Of the total parts, only one (John?) says "though" before the "He'll regret
it someday..."
1:28
Bad edit right after the line "Till he's seen you cryyy" in the chorus.
2:07-2:15
Lots of ticks, like static discharging, in the fadeout.

Ticket To Ride
Although I've never seen any official Beatle-sourced confirmation of this, many
reports say that this title is in itself an anomaly.
It is claimed that the lyrics as written and sung are "She's got a ticket to
Rye".
I've had various accounts of how an error was made in the printing of the record
labels, or in studio documentation, and that it was too late to go back and fix.
So "Rye" became "Ride" in print by accident.
I've also been told that it was originally "Rye" but was changed on the
documentation to be "Ride" in an attempt to deal with the fact that no-one in
America knew where Rye was, and so this would confuse Americans less. So it was
done deliberately, by the record executives, if you believe this version.
I must admit, the vocal has no clear 'd' sound. But beware: that's how the
misheard line "It's such a feeling that my love, I get high, I get high ..."
came about, and also "I wanna hold your ham".
Then again, mistakes do occur in documentation. One of EMI's official documents
shows "I Am A Walrus".
0:38-0:41
Drop in the level of Rickenbacker (jangly, right channel) guitar. Fades back
in.
1:08
Tambourine goes into double time half a bar early - compare with 1:58, which
is correct.
1:25
Ringo's drum pattern changes: Compare the opening verses, described as
"snappy, innovative, and [later] nicked by other bands" by Lee Abrahams. Now
listen to the pattern from here on. Not as snappy, maybe he lost his way during
one of the middle eights.
2:45
Last three notes of the bass line sound a semitone flat. Fingering error?
2:47
First bass note in the double time ending is quite sharp, it corrects over
the next few notes.

Tomorrow Never Knows

0:02 Listen!
[Only audible with OOPS, and much volume!]: A voice, sounds like Paul, says
something, most likely "Leslie" (in reference to the Leslie Speaker.
Also reported as "Testing", "Elapsing", "Relaxing", "Loves you".
0:52
"ADT" drops out early, leaving "It is being, It is" in the right ear. At the
same moment the organ sound stops.
Ugo Coppola points out
I know Lewisohn and others emphasize this track as the first-ever Beatles track
using ADT, but are you really sure it is ADT? When I listen to "that you may see
the meaning of within", especially "meaning of wi", what I hear is the good old
natural double tracking, so fine in early Beatles songs, a bit less in this...
I think he has a point. The double tracking is a little too free to be ADT. As
to the reason for the drop out, Jeremy Deubler says
The reason for the drop-out is that George's backward guitar solo was punched-in
to Track 2 to leave a vacant track for the tape loops to be recorded the next
day. Hence the dropping out of vocal, organ, and tambourine that were on Track 2
at 0:52. However, not all of the recorded solo was used in the final mix, just
the portion from 1:08-1:24. So on either side of the solo, there is silence on
the track. The original Track 2 comes back in at 1:49.(tambourine) followed by
the organ.
1:28
Feedback, source unknown. Not (as previously written) from the Leslie
speaker, as the Leslie is being used to process John's voice, and this is from
the right channel. An organ tone, possibly?
Mike Dickson says
"This is also deliberate (as I understand it) since it marks the exact central
position of the song, its running length being 2:56"
What I can't understand is why the exact centre of the song was of importance.
Other than just "because it was something weird to do".
Max Mismetti suggests
"The feedback might be the mark ... to trigger the backwards solo overdub (which
has to be done with the song playing backwards)"
Although the tone follows the guitar solo, remember that when the track is going
backwards, this would serve as a marker just before the place the solo should
start. That works.
It also seems that this is missing from the mono mix, so maybe it was never
intended to be heard in the finished mix?
Another theory is that this sound is one of Paul's tape loops, and the sound is
a wineglass being rubbed. Studio documentation, via Mark Lewisohn's book, states
that one of the sounds being experimented with was a wineglass. It doesn't say
explicitly that the sound was actually used though. Paul had a bag of loops,
obviously some were rejected for the final mix.
However, the count of loops behind this theory had an error in it (listing two
of the loops as being the same loop at different speeds). Unfortunately,
checking by re-speeding the loops showed this to be an error. The five loops are
now thought to be :-
Seagulls effect, 0:08-0:11, 0:30-0:34 etc.
Sustained chord, 0:19-0:22, 0:34-0:37 etc.
Dull violin sound loop, 0:22-0:26, 1:15-1:20 etc.
Strings section/orchestra sound loop, 0:37-0:41, 0:45-0:48 etc.
Zappy strings sound, 0:56-1:00 etc.
If the tone was one of the loops, it was missed out of the mono mix. It also
seems odd that the loop was used at exactly one point - a lot of effort for one
short note.
2:46
John's voice drops out, and returns at 2:48 "ning!"

Twist And Shout

1:19
In John and George's dual-layered-solo (a duo? duet?), one player carries
one too many strings on the down stroke of the third pass through the riff. I've
always liked the chord that this accident makes.
1:25
Careful study of John's first "aaah" will show that half way through, the
pitch flattens slightly.
I do know that Lewisohn states clearly that this recording is one complete take,
and that the following take was useless because John's voice was shredded.
Having said that, this seems like an edit between two takes, although only one
basic take was recorded (the second being abortive due to John's voice being
gone!)
I say "seems like" because it is uncharacteristic for John or Paul to sing out
of tune like that, and it is odd (fortuitous?) that he corrects it on a beat.
This makes it feel like the joining of two takes, or of an edit piece. But as
this cannot be the case, then John just snapped his pitch down realising his
mistake.
Max Mismetti adds
"We must consider that possibility since it was the last song of a hard day of
work on most of the songs for the "Please Please Me" album. John had a sore
throat, so I find it quite possible that his pitch during the Aaaah decays a
little. Before the final "aah" section, he screams "Shake it baby no-" - the
final word almost disappears by that time"
Thanks to Stephen Moss for pointing out the error that no-one noticed, all of
this was originally attributed to Paul's voice flattening.
The order of the "aah's" is something that has caused some discussion. Stephen
and I discussed this, and came up with the following...
1 bar John (Note A)
1 bar Paul (Note C#)
...and George faintly, fades in (Note F#) (Making chord A6th)
1 bar George (Note E)
1 bar Paul (goes to Note G) (Making chord A7th)
Then Paul and John jump up notes, I believe.
John takes Paul's note (Note C#), Paul goes wild.
Although Jeffrey Aarons disagrees on the order of singers
Also the ending order of the "ahs" are as follows (the notes are correct)
John - first ah
George - second ah
Paul - third ah
Paul - fourth higher ah (the seventh)
Paul - - highest (regular ) ah
Then they all go nuts with the screaming, Paul reaching the highest decibel.
Check any video of the guys singing that segment.
Listening again, I think he's got it right. So can we can finally settle on
this?
(1:25)
1 bar John (Note A)
1 bar George (Note C#) ... and Paul faintly, fades in (Note F#) (Making chord
A6th)
1 bar Paul (settles on Note E)
1 bar Paul (goes to Note G) (Making chord A7th)
(1:32)
John has run out of breath so screams "Woow, Yeah"
George breathes and carries on singing his note (C#), turns to scream.
Paul screams up to the highest note.
2:27
"Aaay" during last chord. (Paul?)
2:29
Cough during fadeout - most likely John, after that vocal! This has also
been suggested as a percussion sound (a stick on the rim of the snare), or a
hi-hat.

Two Of Us
3:03-3:07
(Vocal) counting of beats to mark time, soft "thump thump 3 4" audible
3:30-3:33
Whistling to pass the time. Certainly not whistling the melody established
at 3:14! After a couple of passes at the "normal" whistling, it degenerates into
chootling.
Note the tune he is whistling is very similar to the little tune at the Hawaiian
end of "Hello Goodbye"! (Hey-la, Hey-la-Aloha!) Not exactly the same, but
slightly recycled.

Anomalies W
Wait
0:48
One chord is much quieter than surrounding chords (left channel).
1:40
One chord, left, is played a bit too early, ahead of the word "hold".

We Can Work It Out

0:25
Left side, acoustic guitar hits a loud dodgy note on the word "right".
Sounds like an open 'B' string caught when changing between the D and C chords.
Happens more subtly in many other places in anticipation of each chord change.
0:50
Edit in the organ part (right channel) - and the level of the organ pops up
slightly with a click.
What Goes On
0:05
Right channel, the backing chorus is late, leaving just "goes on". The
suddenness of the vocal coming in makes it feel like an edited in piece or a
late fade in, as opposed to being actually sung like that. Also, it doesn't
happen in the chorus at 1:30 and 2:13. Listen carefully to the right channel
alone to hear whether there is a "What" or not.
0:09
Talking, left channel - Paul says "Yip!"
0:16-0:21
Upper harmony drops in level (right channel) in "tearing" and returns with
gusto for "when you".
0:48
Chorus is late (" ... goes on") on right channel.
0:58
Low harmony for "tearing" is flat, and corrects upwards (right channel).
1:11
Left channel, someone says something.
1:27 (quiet), 1:29 (louder)
In the left channel background, John says "TELL me why", both before and
after Ringo's line "Tell me why". It's possible that John says "I already TOLD
you why" one time. If so, "I already" is too faint to hear, and the inflection
is too unclear for me to state it conclusively.
It is suggested that this is a reference to the earlier 1964 song, Tell Me Why.
1:35
Right channel, a little whoop!
1:35-1:54 especially loud at 1:46-1:53
Ringo hums the melody during the middle eight. This left Joe Brennan
wondering how many songs Ringo hummed during, though without a specific mic.
Max Mismetti suggests that all of Ringo's humming was caught while recording the
basic track - as a guide vocal.
2:01-2:10
Guitar is patchy throughout, many muted strings, stray notes. Most
noticeable here.
2:15-2:16
Faint yell (left channel).
2:36-2:40
Ringo sings "in your mind" twice at the end of the song, quietly.

What You're Doing

0:00-0:04
Stereo versions only, on the right channel you can hear the reverberation of
the word "Four!" from the count in, along with Ringo's first beats. Also, at
0:04 John starts following the beat on the body of his acoustic.
1:01
Paul sings "Please ... stop your lying".
Backing sings "You!" (it should be "Please!")
1:05
Paul sings "You ... got me crying girl"
Backing clearly sings just "Oo!"

When I Get Home

0:36
Paul's voice croaks badly, and goes off tune in second "Wo-ah!"
1:31
Double tracking error on the word "again".

When I'm Sixty Four

0:02
Faint click, right channel.
Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.
0:38-0:42
Bass drum pedal can be heard to squeak.
Partly fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.
0:57, 1:57
Compare the tubular bell phrasing: In the first run at this, it is played on
the beat, and sounds fine. The second time, there are quite a few "off-beat"
strikes, which sound oddly out of time.
1:05, 2:00
Paul sings "um um" along with the other instruments, emphasizing the beat.
1:13
Paul gives a little "Huh!" after "When your lights have gone", most audible
on left channel.
1:55
This was listed as a "strange tone" - a few people pointed out it is the
first piano note. Additional information indicates it may be an edit point: In
OOPS, the sound of Ringo's kit becomes duller, and Paul's vocal changes. This
would account for the note's quality - the edit seems to have removed the
initial attack of the piano sound.
2:22
Finger click under the word "more", followed by very pronounced exhale/pant
... Paul then "smiles" the rest of the lyric. I wonder what was so funny?
2:28
Edit in vocals track, "When I'm sixty four [ed] ye Hoo!"
2:37
Faint whistle at the end of the track. Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

0:50-0:51
Just before "I don't know why", centred, there is a sound that is best
described as being like a digital watch beeping the hour! (It has been pointed
out that it couldn't in fact be a digital watch, because this was 1968 ... I was
being descriptive rather than literal.) There's a distinct rapid "pip-pip-pip"
to it.
Ashley Pomeroy writes
Listening to this, I'm fairly sure it's a 'harmonic' - if you pluck (I think)
the 7th and 12th frets on a guitar you get a distinctive 'pinnnng' noise, and I
suspect this was George's fingers accidentally straying. In that respect it's an
anomaly of sloppy guitar work and not time travel. No offense to the memory of
George Harrison, of course!
Also indicated as possible treble feedback from the acoustic guitar.
1:57
Listen to the right channel as the guitar solo begins. Ringo ends the drum
roll, and then returns to the hi-hat rhythm. Just for a moment, he blows it, and
it all recovers by 2:00.
3:14
Paul missed the middle note of his triple in the bass line (right channel)
3:43-4:00
(3:43) Click that makes the tambourine disappear. It suddenly reappears
(3:46), only not as loud as before. It disappears again (3:48), then (3:54) it
is faintly heard in the middle and its volume is raised (4:00).
3:53
Acoustic guitar vanishes.
4:06, 4:22, 4:39
Chris Chardi writes
The pattern of the song up to the coda had the band hitting a D chord before
each "weeps" (3:49) and then a C chord before each "weeps" in the next pass
(4:06). But in the coda, this pattern becomes jumbled. At 4:06, the organ plays
the wrong chord, a D, while the rest of band plays a C.
At 4:22, it becomes even worse. For years, I'd wondered why Paul's bass line
sounds incorrect here. But upon closer inspection, it's the rest of the band
that commits the error! At 4:22, Paul plays a D on the bass while the rest of
the band plays a C. Given the pattern of the song thus far, Paul was correct.
Notice also how, at 4:39, the rest of the band hits a D, while Paul hits a C!
Paul's correct again!
Good catch, that ending always did sound ragged, now I know why!
4:19
Right channel, Ringo misses the kick drum (both beats!)

Why Don't We Do It In The Road

0:01
Squeak during drum intro.
0:11, 0:27
Faint vocal, Paul? going "mmmm".

With A Little Help From My Friends

0:00-0:02
Centre, loud tweets during the word "Billy".
0:08
Noticeable increase in mains hum as the fader opens for Paul's bass (right
channel). Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.
0:18
Under the word "lend", a voice says "one".
0:39/40, 0:42
Distant, echoey voice sound behind main vocals. It may be an artefact of the
drums or guitar, but it has also been suggested as a talkback speaker.
1:45
Rhythm guitar misses a chord, continuing on the same chord for too many
beats.
2:04
Right channel, crackles in bass line (bad lead/connector?) Fixed in Yellow
Submarine remastered.
2:29
Ringo admits that he wasn't confident about that high note at the end. Here
you can hear an edit to join on a successful attempt at the last phrase,
beginning with the words "Ye/es I get by with-a-little-help-from my friends
with-a-little ..." Note that the level of the vocal comes up in the middle of
this edited word ("Yes"). Fixed in Yellow Submarine remastered.
Also note that there is a soft "oo" on the end of the backing vocals at 2:29,
the point of the edit.
2:39
Over the end chord, someone says something extremely faint. May be
"friends"?

Within You Without You

2:23
Immediately coincident with percussion starting, there is a drop-in or edit.
Drone instrument on right channel doesn't start "naturally" here.
3:05
Sitar in centre drops out suddenly here (edit or a punch in?)
3:41-3:47
George is singing along to the drum part, with an audible "Da da da da, two
.. We were". Ronald A. Westgate III says
Those are bhols, the mnemonic system Indian drummers use to say their rhythms.
4:55
Small drop-out glitch in the backing track under end of word "you".

Words Of Love
Whole Song
Ringo's bass drum squeaks through this one, too (left channel in stereo
versions).
0:02,0:04
First one, then both "clappers" come in late - part way into the intro.
0:12-0:14,0:59,1:15
One person stops clapping, the other continues for too long.
0:59-1:04
Possible edit or drop-in in the guitar track (more audible in the left
channel of Stereo version).

Anomalies Y
Yellow Submarine
1:05-1:06
"And the band begins to play" ... They certainly do, but one of the
trumpeters decides to put in a little trill ahead of cue! Fixed in Yellow
Submarine remastered.
1:06-1:10
Previously, it was claimed that "The acoustic guitar loses it, and hits a
series of wrong chords, masked by the brass coming in."
Jesse Smith has analysed this more closely, and come up with an answer
Now I've listened to this over and over, and I think I know what's happened (but
not exactly why). It's not that John messed up the acoustic guitar chords. He
keeps playing the same sequence that the verse normally follows.
G D C G
And our friends are all aboard
Em Am C D
Many more of them live next door
G D C G
And the band begins to play
(Now the way the band plays, you'd expect this to stay in G)
But both the guitar AND Paul's bass play:
Em Am C G...again, as if they were finishing the verse. The other
verses are finished
that way, and I wonder if the addition of the band was a late idea, and for
whatever reason they didn't bother to re-record the backing track. Or for that
matter, I wonder why they wrote the band's interlude in chords that clash with
the verse structure.
Maybe there was a fourth line of vocals after "and the band begins to play",
which was later ditched in favour of the band part. Anyway, thanks to Jesse for
defending John's guitar playing. Further proof that this is the case is that
Paul's bass matches John's chords note for note.
1:32-1:38
skoumalo@post.cz writes
I'm from Czech Republic and so it is Czech language anomaly
You can hear it during sound effects break. There is one little sentence in 1:36
"prosime, nedychat" which is in English "please, don't breathe". In Czech
fanzine called "Beatles Yesterday And Today" is explanation of this. "There
should have been sound engineer of Czech origin on recording session".
"Bevern" writes
1:32 something that voice says: "Posten ir hir Mr Baker (Burton) posten ir hir!"
and then "Do fortsitter vi resan". It's Swedish and means: "The mail is here, Mr
Baker, the mail is here!" "Then we'll continue the trip"
Most English speakers hear this as "Full steam ahead, Mr Barclay/Barker, Full
steam ahead". "Full steam ahead it is". It's supposed to be someone on the
bridge of the submarine, talking to the engine room by the communications tube.
This submarine being steam powered ... which is unusual.
1:38-1:41
Niels de Wit from the Netherlands writes :-
I've always heard the Dutch phrase "HOU ZE TEGEN!" ("Stop them!") appearing not
once, not twice, but 3 times in the "instrumental" part of Yellow Submarine!
It's even pronounced with a typically Dutch "hard" "g"
I have no idea what this line really is. It sounds like someone yelling "Hot
potato, hot potato" then "Aye Aye Sir!"
1:51
The backing vocals come in a line and a half late in verse 3. See Real Love
single version for the complete "answering" vocal.
Bruce Benham says
The answer line "a life of ease" is only found on the Mono Revolver mix. The
single uses this mix also.
The Yellow Submarine mono LP mix is the same as the Revolver Stereo mix
(essentially) in that the line is missing.
Chris Chardi points out that the "life of ease" line is also audible on the
Yellow Submarine Songbook remix.
2:00
Ringo's voice cracks here, leading people to hear either a totally off key
note, or "slubmarine".

Yer Blues
Whole Track
Bass guitar's low string seems to be tuned flat, compared to the rest of the
track, and the rest of the bass guitar.
0:17
Scratchy noise, "Wanna <scratch> die".
0:20 (exactly repeated at 3:34)
Pop noise, from guitar on right.
0:51 ,1:05-1:08, 1:22, 1:26, 1:49
Feedback.
1:02-1:09,1:31-1:40, 2:00-2:07 Listen!
Left channel, John can be heard shouting out lyrics that are different from
the finished verses, and do not match printed records of earlier lyrics. They
are most obvious here (where they differ) but there is a vocal there throughout.

This is coming from an off-mic guide vocal, performed while the band part was
recorded, and is leaking through the drum microphones. Heard clearer in OOPS
(removes main vocal).
1:22
Click, in tail end of word "already".
2:04-2:07
A couple of handclaps audible behind vocals.
2:25-2:27
(Left channel) Yells.
2:29-3:16
(Left channel) Faint guitar track. Bleedover from the original guitar solo,
bleeding through the drum mics. Right channel is the overdubbed new solo.
3:16
The supposed "instrumental" verse at the end also has some bleedover from
the guide vocals. This segment was spliced in from another take, according to
Lewisohn. The edit can be heard in a clipped guitar note. Unfortunately, it
fades before we get to the repeat of the "alternate lyrics" section above.
The anomaly at 0:20 (3:34) made me check carefully: The instrumental verse at
the end is exactly the same recording as the start of the song, it is not a
different performance or take. The two parts of the song, when lined up in an
audio editor, are identical, save for vocals. They flange together, indicating a
slight variation in speed, that's all.
Daniel Caccavo explains these vocal anomalies
It's the leftover leakage from his live vocal (which he replaced).
Tom Hartman (who was outside the room as the boys left the session) recounts
that John said, "as long as you got the vocal" to the engineer, which cracked
everybody up. If you listen to that shouting, and think of that as the vocal
that John referred to, it's pretty funny....
Occasionally, what sounds like a third voice, singing a higher harmony to the
"Girl you know the reason why" parts sticks through (Paul).
At the referenced times, someone is shouting (not particularly singing) words
that do not fit the main lyric at all, not even the alternate (original) lyrics.
Things that stick out are reported as phrases like "Backs out" (1:31), sometimes
as "[It] blacks out" (also 1:31), "Black cab" (1:34), "Who we are" (1:37),
"crossed the road" (2:00), "Why it's alive" (2:03) - but they are hard to hear.
Chris Chardi thinks that
... Lennon hadn't nailed down all the lyrics when the band recorded the
instrumental take and was just singing random words as a guide vocal.
So these lyrics heard in the background would pre-date the "original lyrics"
that are sometimes quoted in Beatles references. If only we could hear them more
clearly!

Yes It Is
0:08,0:35,1:22,2:09
George reported as making the harmony sound false. This is another one I'm
going to retract on thinking about it. This is an intentional chord, and sounds
out of place simply because it is rather unusual.
0:12
Small drop out in the word "I" (as in "what I said"). Sounds like tape
damage.
1:49
Plosive from John singing "happy", sometimes reported as a "bump" sound.
2:37
Click, centre.
2:39
Click, right side.

Yesterday
0:19
After the word "believe" there is a squeak, sounds like it's from a violin
string (left channel).
0:30
Click, centre, right at the start of the word "There's".
0:49
Click in the word "I", possibly a finger noise in guitar part.
0:52
The words "something wrong ... for yesterday" are double tracked. This could
be to do with Paul having replaced a section of the vocal - George Martin said
that the vocal was piped as a guide track for the orchestra. So the original and
new vocals combine here to double track accidentally? Phrasing of the word
"yesterday" is different, and it shows up.
1:45
Right channel, just before the words "Now I need" there is a clunk from the
guitar.
2:01
Thud, right channel.
2:04
Strange sound as Paul releases the neck of the guitar. Mono version only.

You Can't Do That

1:23
John's guitar changes tone on the pause before "Oh ..." in preparation for
the solo - changed too early. Or this is possibly a bad edit, and the guitar
tone changed between takes.
2:13
John sings "I'll go and let you down" instead of "I'm gonna let you down".

You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)

4:11
At the start of John's incoherent mumbling, someone belches. This is often
attributed to Ringo (why?), but Paul and John were the only ones present (see
Lewisohn).
4:15-4:17
Sound like something (a coin, something round) is spinning to a stop just
behind the mumbling.

You Like Me Too Much

0:00-0:08
Hiss being modulated up and down, this is the electric piano's tremolo
effect (see Tell Me What You See).
0:08
Click of the modulation being turning off.
2:32
Pedal of the "real" piano (not the electric one) being lifted early, and it
makes a clunk noise.

You Never Give Me Your Money

0:29
Short breath is taken.
3:08
Someone picks up a tambourine, left side.
3:29
Bad edit. Lead guitar (centre) which was silent, very suddenly appears at
this point and goes out of time.
3:46-3:56 Listen!
Talking, during the guitar playing. Specifically 3:52, what does John sing
after the very last "1-2-3-4-5-6-7 ..."? It's not "All good children go to
heaven". Could be "Bloody 'ell" [3:52, right]

You Really Got A Hold On Me

0:14
Edit to a different take as the vocals come in ... hi-hat sound changes
here.
0:25-0:26
Switches back to original take. Hi-hat becomes much clearer.
1:38
Edit as guitar playing minor part comes in.
Jerry Sitser suggests another "off-record" anomaly.
How about starting a new category for album jacket anomalies? In the title for
"You Really Got a Hold on Me," there's an extra space between "got" and "a" - at
least on this Parlophone version. We'll ignore the bad grammar, especially since
the Beatles didn't write this one.

Your Mother Should Know

0:19, 0:21
Ringo begins a soft hi-hat count in, but seems to tentatively "tap tap" on
the ride cymbal as well, just to make sure it's there. The ride cymbal proper
starts from 0:25, growing in intensity.

You're Going To Lose That Girl

Whole song
Piano seems out of tune in relation to other instruments. Either the piano
is sharp, or the guitar is flat. Also Ringo's squeaky bass pedal pops through in
places.
0:05-0:07
Third piano chord played "wrongly" - F#m chord with an A# (as if it's a
major chord). Seems to stick out, and not in a pleasant way. Is this a dissonant
chord, or just wrong?
0:40
Overdubbed "t" at 0:40 compensating for John's pronunciation of "right" as
"I will treat her ride and then".
1:46
Edit in the backing of the song.
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
0:19
Edit in John's vocal, the quality of his voiceschanges totally here.

You Won't See Me

Throughout
Tempo of the song slows down. At 30 second intervals, from the start, the
tempo is 119,118,116,115,114,and 113 bpm.
0:02
Cough.
0:12
Odd sound to right.
1:05-1:07
Paul sings "But I'd get turned away" or "But I get turned away", but not (as
often documented) "But I could turn away". The 'd' is very soft.
1:34,2:28
Upper "oo" in harmony comes in before lower one.
2:16
Click, in centre.
2:29-3:07
One (or two?) continuous mid-range note(s) held all through here. Very odd.
Flakes out a little at 2:52.
Identified as Mal Evans, on organ! (Rubber Soul LP liner notes mention Mal
playing on this track). Very obvious from 3:00-3:04, where the backing vocals
stop (it blends into the vocal so well!).
2:32
George (?) says something. Right channel, sounds like "Y'row".
3:15
Shouting - "C'mon?" (Paul, right, during fadeout).
3:16<
Double click, possible handclap, right channel, just before fadeout ends.

Extras - Anthology Chatter

Here is a collection of chats from the Anthology series of discs, simply because
I've been asked about these quite a few times. Some of this is quite hard to
hear, some are hard to understand, so I hope this helps.
My explanations are my own opinion of what I think may have been happening at
the time, based on what we're hearing.

Jump forward to ...

One After 909
Moonlight Bay
Mean Mister Mustard
Glass Onion
Good Night
Mother Nature's Son
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Yesterday
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
A Day In The Life
Julia
I've Got A Feeling
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
Dig A Pony
Two Of Us
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Ain't She Sweet
I Me Mine

One After 909

> I've read that the chat is about Paul's suitcase
> where he left his plectrum.
Basically, but it's deeper than that. Listen to the track. Listen to Paul's bass
line. He's playing 8 notes to the bar in the verses, then funky runs in the
"pick up my bag" part, all still 8 notes to the bar. This is tiring. They're
probably all a bit fed up of doing this track by this point, especially if they
can't complete a take!
At 0:20 Paul fluffs a note, just after "station". Then at 0:27-0:28 seconds, he
does a little slide note, and picks it up again for 3 seconds. That slide note
should be used to lead back into the "Well, my baby says..." part of the song,
but of course there's another part to the middle bit to come yet! Paul's getting
tired, playing odd notes and getting the format of the song wrong.
Finally the take breaks down, probably looks are being exchanged between them to
say "We'll not get away with this." Paul's mistake here, I think. But he won't
admit that he "screwed up, let's go again." See ...
John: "What are you doing?"[ You messed that up, man! ]
Paul: "I just... Ah... It's murder! I can't do it, I
can't keep it up, I just go [thud thud thud
thud]"
[Paul complaining about the tone of the bass guitar here, he exaggerates the
poor sound]
"And I'm trying to keep this ..."

George: "Use your plec?!"[Half question, half statement. It would be easier to

play the bass line, with a
plectrum.]
Paul: "I haven't got one. Ffffking hell. 'Use your
plec', I've been trying to cadge one all day!"
[Cadge is slang for borrow]
John: "Well your clothes have been brought hours ago"
[And there's a plectrum in there, so stop moaning!]
Paul: "I know but the cases aren't even here!"

Neil Aspinall: "I said to you before, Paul, I didn't

get your plec, I didn't want to go through your
clothes ..."

Paul: "I know but the cases are still up at the door!"

Neil Aspinall: "... and I said 'Do you want me to

bring your case in' and you just walked away."

Paul: "I didn't think, I'd thought you'd said I didn't think you want ..."
[Floundering for an excuse]
George Martin: "Here we go..."
[Let's get on with the take, chaps]
Paul: "George..."
[Probably to George Martin, for interrupting the argument]
Next take: Notice that the bass line is now simpler on this take. Paul's stopped
trying to play 8 notes to the bar, and is doing more like 4 to the bar.
Now, you know how the middle of the song should go, right? But in these
recordings, they are probably still changing things and making decisions on how
to present the song. The band are playing a long middle, and get through 6 bars
of playing, when John comes back in. An interesting thing happens here. Either
:-
Paul goes back to the verse bass line, Ringo carries on as ever, John starts
singing. It's just that George decided to do a full 8 bar solo. (George's
error).
Or:
Paul realises John's mistake in going back to singing the verse too early, and
adapts his bass line, Ringo carries on as ever, George gets confused by all this
and stops (John's error).
Without knowing what had been said before ("We'll do it shorter, we'll do it
longer"), it's hard to correctly apportion blame here.
John: Oh, bloody hell, I told you!

Paul: It's you, It's you, you (f*cker?), George.

John: We said we'd miss out the middle eight

George H: You know I'm just not there ...

John: Oh.

Paul: You come in in the wrong ... half way through the solo [Said to John?]

Paul: So don't think you blame me, y'know?

George H: What was it, a 12 bar?

Paul: Wasn't.

George Martin: Yeah Yeah Yeah, four bar, twice.

Paul: Two, three. One, two, three, four!

Moonlight Bay
[Group and Ernie Wise] [Eric Morecambe]
We were strolling along Twist and shout
On Moonlight Bay ooooo ...
We could hear the voices I like it ...
singing
They seemed to say
"You have broken my heart Oh, Twist and shout
So don't go away" Have the Beatles gone?

[Ernie: No, they're 'ere!]

[Eric: Oh!]

With your short [some sing "big"], fat, hairy legs

On Moonlight BayEric and Ernie, UK comedy duo, used to have an ongoing joke about
Ernie having
"short, fat hairy legs".
Mean Mister Mustard
Left channel:
"He's such a dirty, dirty man, you oughta have him put away with [...]"["Put away"
is slang for being put in prison or a mental institution, etc.]
Right channel:
"Ah, you got [..] oh come here, I grip you, I grip you, I do"[This piece is in a
mock country bumpkin or yokel accent.]

Glass Onion
At the start :-
George: Sorry about that. [off microphone by a long way]
John: I told you 'bout Bethlehell Bill ...[a play on Bungalow Bill, and on
Bethlehem/Hell]
In the middle :-
Left side:
[Absolute nonsense, mimicking a foreign language]
John: Zep A Boo shee de da doh doh.
Looking through a glass onion
(Me and my buddies)Right side:
John: Looking through the bent back tulips
To see how the other half lives (Oh wali dadja)
[mock Pakistani? accent]
Looking through a bent glass on
(yuhu me and my friend lubajab byjiver) [Irish? accent, sounds like
corruption of "Bejabers!"]
And, in the end :-
Left side:
John: Looking through a glass onion
(by permission of the county council and all the
friends and neighbours of the old El Chi Chau?)
Right side:
John: Looking through the
(scat singing: da ba doo doo diddle diddle dow doo)

John: (Zebedee and Gene Vincent Fan Club)

Looking through a glass onion
(By courtesy of the community council Oklahoma
town town oowwww)

Good Night
John: ... sound quite nice.
Ringo: What?
John: It sounds nice starting like that anyway.
George Martin: Okay.
George: ... said we'd have a count-in on there.
One, two, three, four.
George: Dreams, sweet dreams...
George Martin: Right, Off you go
George: That's it!
George Martin: You do the count-in then
George: The beginning's different now. Okay.
Ringo: Yeah.
George: Ready?
Paul: How does it go ...
George: It's from `Dreams, sweet dreams'...
Paul: I'll just go in ...
George: One, two, three, four.

Mother Nature's Son

At the start:
Paul: Could you take this thing off my voice I've got,
like, the speaker. I can hear...
Ah. Thenk Yow...

??: It's a nice effect on your voice

Paul: Okay, leave it on then. Good.

In the end:
Paul: Next item on this evening's agenda, I'd like
to give you my version of Londonderry Air
[This is a verbal joke, it doesn't work written down]
"Londonderry Air" - a piece of music (an Air) about Londonderry, in Ireland.
However, "London Derriere" - with derriere being French for backside/bum/ass ...

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

John: One, two, three, one, two, three.
Hold on, hold on!

Ringo: I was out...

(Ringo probably assumed the reason John said "Hold on" was because of his
drumming error, and was confessing to it).
There is an edit of some kind immediately between the word "out" and this next
section, removing some section of dialogue!
John: ...ow, I'm just gonna raise this, so as it's nearer the bass
strings than the top string.
I originally suggested that John is modifying the microphone position for a
different tone for the acoustic guitar. However, Hippie2768 has a better idea
...
The false start is [due to] a capo mis-adjustment and NOT a mic repositioning as
stated. I believe the mic adjustment would be the responsibility of a studio
engineer and by the sound of the first few strums of the acoustic guitar, capo
adjustment makes more sense.

Yesterday
George: What key is it in?
Someone: What key is ...
Paul: It'll be in F for you. 'Yesterday'.
George: What key are you playing in?
Paul: I'm in G, but it'll be in F...
and it goes Em to A7 to Dm, ready?
George Martin: Here we go
Paul: Okay man.
The reason behind this is that Paul played Yesterday with the guitar tuned down
2 semitones (a whole note) to give a different sound. So George asks what key,
the song is in (F). But, George being a sharp eyed guitarist, notices that
fingering looks wrong for F, and says "So what are you playing it in?" As Paul's
guitar is tuned down, he has to play a G shape to get an F chord. The strange
thing is that George isn't playing along in this recording, or in any other
recording of Yesterday. So why was Macca explaining the chords?
Ugo Coppola writes
I'm only adding here that maybe Paul explained the song to George because, at
this stage, "Yesterday" wasn't meant to be like it is on the record, i.e. it was
meant to be played by the whole group. It was only after Paul played "Yesterday"
to George Martin on his acoustic guitar that the producer decided that nothing
else (except later strings) was to be added to it because it was nice that way.
At least this is what Paul and George Martin himself say about the song in
Volume 3 of the Video Anthology...
Additionally, Roland Porth says
Watching the Anthology Videos, there is a video of The Beatles playing
"Yesterday" in Japan, and all 4 are playing.
So George would indeed need to know the chords...for live performances, if not
for the original intent to record as a group.

Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite

John: For the benefit of Mr. Kite ... there will
Geoff Emerick: "For the benefit of Mr. Kite!".
This is Take One.

John: Being for the benefit

(Geoff is using the "talkback", a system so that the engineers can talk to the
artist and 'slate' the tape, to mark the track start, and he (logically) drops a
word from the title. John, sounds a bit peeved at this modification, points out
his error).
Paul: One, two, three, four.Doesn't this bit sound like a cross between
"Yesterday", and the intro to A Day
In The Life (the guitar strummed bit) ?
Geoff Emerick: Take Two.
Paul: That's a bit too slow!
John: [laughs] [nonsense sound "Durrup", probably "For the b", but drunken][I
guess they were trying to get the speed and feel right]
Paul: One, two, three, four.
Geoff Emerick: Take Three.
Paul: Try and sing it as though you, er, know about
the show, especially in the last verses,
when you don't know about the show ...
John: Hehehe ... When? ten some ... Ten somersets?
you know?
[ John found Paul's advice funny, considering he doesn't know what it's
about.
"How can I sound as if I know about ten somersets, what the hell are they?"
Somerset is an alternative word for Somersault, by the way! ]
Paul: Just trying to foresee it as a big gettin' in,
you've gotta get it in, in all the little breaks
that are left for your singing...
Paul: For the benefit of da da da,
da da da da sa-de-lite ...
da da de la
Paul: I don't know.
[ I think Paul lost the plot of what he was trying to explain ]
SynovitzR@rferl.org made me recheck the following, which is very quiet, and
needs some processing to get it audible, it's in amongst instruments, loud bits
etc.
Simultaneous with above, on the right is ...
Ringo? : I'll have water ... About all we've got
(rattling noises)
George : See Mal ...
Ringo? : ... He'll take it away
George : Tell me, what is that?
Ringo? : Water.
George Martin: Okay, man, let's go, lights on!

George: Did you rub the acid in it ?

Paul: One, two. One, two, three, four.

A Day In The Life

John: Dab the mic on the piano, and quite low, this,
just keep it in like, maracas you know.

You know those old pianos. Okay we're on.

Sugar plum fairy, Sugar plum fairy

Middle:-
Paul: made my way upstairs and had a smoke, and
everybody spoke and I went into a dream
(Oh sh*t!)
(Paul blew the vocal, "somebody spoke")
End:-
Some bloke: Oh, really? I ...
[very English, "oh, raaahtherrr" accent]
Paul: See, the worst thing about doing this, that
we're doing something like this, is that I think
that at first people, sort of, are a bit
suspicious. You know, "Come on, what are you up
to?". But the thing is it really is just ...

Julia
Paul: ... again
Paul: That was a great take, you know, the er...
John: It was till then
Paul: ... try it again, there was one or two little
discrepancies
John: There was just the one, wasn't there?
Paul: You're great, really great. Well, let me tell
you.
John: Couldn't I .. ... Couldn't I go from there, you
know?.. 'Cause it ...
Paul: Yeah, sure. We can drop in, if you like, if you
want, John.
John: No.
Paul: You're doin' great
John: 'Cause that one was perfect, wasn't it?
Paul: Yeah, great, we can drop in if you like, yeah,
because that was ...

[Basically John made a couple of little mistakes earlier, that he thought he

might get away with, but Paul heard them - that's the "one or two
discrepancies"]

I've Got A Feeling

Start:
Paul: Yes, he does now. End:
John: I cocked it up trying to get loud. [ His guitar gets louder just before
this, I think he went to turn up the
amp/pickup and then got the playing wrong! ]
Paul: Yeah.
John: Not bad though.
???: Not bad.

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

Paul: See, that what you were doing then, it sounded
like... that's the kind of thing that'd be nice
to have one of the verses like that, like, er,
classical.
John: What's that?
Paul: What you were doing "Didn't any...", have a
couple of them, "Didn't anybody tell her?" But
then just a... "Sunday's on..." You know, that
kind of variation it needs a bit, 'cause it's
very much ...

Dig A Pony
John: Sha la ba.
Glyn Johns: Ah, very.
Paul: Shaloom!
Glyn Johns: You even got the end right.
Paul: Ah, you see, you see. We improve with time...
John: You're not talking to Ricky and the Red Streaks,
you know
Paul: ...Like a fine wine really. I put us down as
Beaujolaise '62
John: Oh, I think we should buy some fans
Paul: Coton ... (Or Cote D'En ...)

Two Of Us
Paul: ... adjust everyone in there
John: Okay. What is there?
Paul: Dunno
Paul: You'll hear it ...
John: Yeah.
Paul: y'know, just the first occasion you get.
John: I did with me thumb.
Paul: Yeah.

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

Paul: One more. It was good, you know, it had nice
 bits in it, but with, be nice to have the nice
bits and the other bits.

Ain't She Sweet

Note: These deviate from the normal lyrics a little.
Ain't she nice?
Well look her over once or twice.
Well, I ask you very hydrophollicky
Ain't she nice?

Just cast an eye

In her direction.
Oh me! Oh my!
Ain't that perfection?
Mouldy Old Dough
Did he just say "Mouldy old dough"? There's a song by a group called "Lieutenant
Pigeon" with this title. Lt. Pigeon is in fact a Coventry born man, pretty much
only famous for that one hit in the 60/70's. But also Lennon is drawing on the
old style singing, where phrases like "Boop boop be doop" (e.g. Betty Boop and
Marilyn Monroe) and "Foldy oldy oh" (very 1920's) appeared. What a strange cross
of styles!
John: I hope you liked that trip/trick

I Me Mine
George: You all will have read that ah... Dave Dee is
no longer with us. But Micky and Tich and I
would just like to carry on the good work
that's always gone down in number two.
Reference to John, absent at this session (holidaying in Denmark), George is
carrying on with Ringo and Paul to record his own song.
No 2 is Studio 2 at Abbey Road.
Of course, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich was another group of the era, so
Dave Dee is John, Mick and Tich are Paul and Ringo (which is which?) and George
is either Dozy or Beaky.
Hmmm.