| A 41 piece orchestra played on this. The
musicians were told to attend the session dressed formally. When
they got there, they were presented with party novelties (false
noses, party hats, gorilla-paw glove) to wear, which made it clear
this was not going to be a typical session. The orchestra was
conducted by Paul McCartney, who told them to start with the lowest
note of their instruments and gradually play to the highest. (thanks,
Jes - Mason City, IA) |
| This was recorded in 3 sessions: First the
basic track, then the orchestra, then the last note was dubbed in. |
| The beginning was based on 2 stories John
Lennon read in the Daily Mail newspaper: Guinness heir Tara
Browne dying when he smashed his lotus into a parked van, and an
article in the UK Daily Express in early 1967 which told of how the
Blackburn Roads Surveyor had counted 4000 holes in the roads of
Blackburn and commented that the volume of material needed to fill
them in was enough to fill the Albert Hall. Lennon took some
liberties with the Tara Browne story - he changed it so he "Blew his
mind out in the car." (thanks, Ed - Perth, Australia) |
| McCartney contributed the line "I'd love to
turn you on." This was a drug reference, but the BBC banned it for
the line about having a smoke and going into a dream, which they
thought was about marijuana |
| McCartney's middle section (Woke up, got out
of bed...) was intended for another song. |
| The final chord was produced by all 4 Beatles
and George Martin banging on 3 pianos simultaneously. As the sound
diminished, the engineer boosted to faders. |
| The final note lasts 42 seconds. The studio
air conditioners can be heard toward the end as the faders were
pushed to the limit to record it. |
| After the final note, Lennon had producer
George Martin dub in a high pitched tone, which most humans can't
hear, but drives dogs crazy. |
| In 2004, McCartney did an interview with the
Daily Mirror newspaper where he said he was doing cocaine
around this time along with marijuana: "I'd been introduced to it,
and at first it seemed OK, like anything that's new and stimulating.
When you start working your way through it, you start thinking, 'This
is not so cool and idea,' especially when you start getting those
terrible comedowns." |
| The movie reference is to a film Lennon acted
in called How I Won The War. |
| Keith Richards named his second son Tara after
Tara Brown, the Guinness heir who smashes his car in Lennon's first
verse. Richard's son was premature and died soon after birth. |
| The Beatles started this with the working
title "In The Life of..." |
| A few seconds after this ends, at the end of
the album, there is a loop of incomprehensible Beatles studio
chatter that was spliced together. This was put there so vinyl
copies would play this continuously in the run-out groove, sounding
like something went horribly wrong with the record. Kids, ask your
parents about vinyl. |
| That's Mal Evans doing the counting during the
first transition from John to Paul. He set the alarm clock (heard on
the recording) to go off at the end of his 24-bar count. Evans also
helped with the composition of a couple of songs on the Sgt.
Pepper album. Although he never received composer's credit, the
Beatles did pay his estate a lump sum in the 1990s for his
contributions. Evans died January 5, 1976 after a misunderstanding
with the police. (thanks, Brad Wind - Miami, FL) |
| A car dealer and Beatle friend Terry Doran
helped come up with the lyric, "Now they know how many holes it
takes to fill the Albert Hall." (thanks, Jes - Mason City, IA) |
| In the original take, a 41 piece orchestra was
not used. Instead, Lennon had roadie Mal Evans count to 21 in a very
trippy manner and set off an alarm clock after the 21 counts. This
version is on the 2nd Anthology CD, and is a very different
version than the one on Sgt. Pepper. (thanks, Emery - San Jose, CA) |
| David Crosby was at Abbey Road studios when
The Beatles were recording this. In an interview with Filter
magazine, he said: "I was, as near as I know, the first human being
besides them and George Martin and the engineers to hear A Day In
The Life. I was high as a kite - so high I was hunting geese with a
rake. They sat me down; they had huge speakers like coffins with
wheels on that they rolled up on either side of the stool. By the
time it got the end of that piano chord, man my brains were on the
floor." (thanks, Brian - Williamsburg, VA) |
