Original subtitles

[music] You got [singing] me big high

heart high

anyone. [singing]

[music]

Yeah. [singing]

Yeah. Yeah.

[music]

You [singing] got me, Lord.

Baby, [singing and music] why don't you

go?

>> Take it, bro. [music]

>> Yeah.

[music]

[music]

[music]

Yeah. [singing]

>> [music]

[music]

>> Oh yeah.

[music]

>> Well, you got me [singing] running.

>> You got me down.

>> Got me [music] up. Got me up, down,

down, [singing] up. Anywhere you want to

go.

>> [music]

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [singing]

Oh yeah.

You got me [singing and music] doing

what you want me. Well, baby, what you

want me to do? [music]

>> Next question. At the beginning when I

joined, Paul was the only one who'd

sleep with me.

>> Well, there was actually a little bit of

a a thing to that. I

>> was never very prejudiced.

>> No, I thought that was the best

>> move really because when you joined and

you were like the new fellow and nobody

and I thought, well, if I hang out with

you, then they'll all be like, you know,

>> so I thought it'd be good to, you know,

>> put Paul with him because [laughter]

because then it would be all right then.

>> Yeah. Anyway, but then it changed. It

would be with anybody. I mean, for a

while we wild be John and I, we didn't

we just sort of, you know, went on for

different

>> actually. I enjoyed it a lot cuz, you

know, it wasn't the kind of thing you'd

done much. I mean, as kids, we'd

hitchhiked. So, like me and George got

down to Harlock and you'd sort of sleep

in the same bed and just cuz, you know,

it's like a bed B&B kind of thing. We I

hadn't really done much of that being

away from home when we started. I

haven't done any of it cuz I'm an only

child

>> and you're butlins almost.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. But I still slept on my own.

>> So it was kind of good, you know, and so

um

>> it was great. You sort of staying in a

room with a friend and that and seeing

his habits. I mean you you stayed up

late, didn't you? He couldn't sleep.

>> So you'd always have to he'd have to

have the light on. [laughter]

>> So I was frightened of the dark.

>> He was Oh wow, poor. So you'd have to

you know he'd have the light over there

and you'd have to sleep this way. You

couldn't like passenger. It was good

though. You know, you get to know each

other a bit that way.

[music]

[music]

Hey, hey, hey.

[music]

Yeah.

>> [music]

>> Oh yeah.

[music]

[music]

Oh yeah.

Yeah. [music]

Oh yeah.

>> [music]

>> Okay, one more time. There we go.

>> You know, my hair I'm still trying to

make it go back like rock and roll.

Uh but really naturally it just goes

forward and we used to use that Vaseline

like really thick Vaseline and just get

it go back like that and I remember once

we went to the swimming baths in Hamburg

and I remember walking back down towards

the reaper bar and it dried and it was

all like that and then by the evening we

saw our friends who was all in yoga and

acid and I remember them saying oh no no

don't do that it's leave it like it is

it's really Good. It was kind of like

that and everybody around that time was

starting to just because of their

influence. If they'd had said, "No, no,

it's NAF," we would have probably

changed it. But cuz they liked it, then

we liked it.

>> We didn't really go with it in a major

way. We still

>> when it got into a permanent

>> Well, I remember when John and I went to

he had his 21st and he got 100 quid off

his uncle who was a dentist in

Edinburgh. um [snorts]

you know very very elevated stuff that

we'd never known the likes of like

anyone who had a relative as a dentist

even

100 quid well to this day I say no one's

ever given me 100 quid on my birthday

smack 100 smackers

that was I mean and then obviously you

can imagine it was just like

>> only I'd have known last

>> yeah me too

>> yeah 100 smackers next time next time

but um

>> I even have it [laughter]

>> but John got these this 100 quid so He

said, "Oh, you know what should we do?"

We were hanging out. So, we decided to

go to Spain, spend this 100 quid. We got

as far as Paris. We hitchhiked, got as

far as Paris, um, and decided, "No,

we'll maybe go to Spain, maybe later in

the week." And we kept liking Paris.

Anyway, we bumped into Jurgen, who was

our friend from Astrid and Jurgen and

Clouse. Bumped into Jurgen and said,

"Um,

your hair's nice, you know, could you do

ours like that?" Yeah.

>> So he said, "Are you sure you want

this?" You know, maybe no one, you know,

we're on holiday, Paris, go on and all

that. And so he did it. Then we arrived

back in Liverpool with this sort of me

and John with this sort of funny hair

forward like you were saying and

everyone was a bit dubious [music] about

it, but it just just fell into the thing

then and we sort of kept it forward.

>> Sounds.

>> And you brushed yours forward. Ringo

always had a big gray shock under there

from when he was a kid. Well, he had to

have his push done to join the band

then.

>> And he had the only way I could join.

>> And it was like uh what's his name?

>> But it was cool cuz it when it come

forward, you didn't see his grave.

>> He had a beard, too.

>> Beard's got to go

bloody rich.

>> Put your head in.

>> You know, we want to see these faces.

>> Yeah. We've got a look.

>> [ __ ] face, man. We don't want beards

>> like this. Actually, just before I

joined you guys.

>> That's right. Yeah. Only with a suit. We

actually saw a London band in Hamburg

and one of these London bands had this

boot with a big point. It had like a

chisely pointy toe and a Cuban heel and

we thought, "hm, they're good. Where did

you get those?" And he said, "Uh, it's

in London. It was called Anelo and

David's." And we went to Anelo and

Davids and bought those boots. And then

later we thought, "Hey, they make them.

We'll make our get our own." Well, the

one that became the Beetle Boot was like

ones we had made. But the original one,

you remember, he had that elastic down

the side and

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> It was a ballet shop, wasn't it? Vanilla

and David was ballet made ballet stuff

and tutus and and shoes you could where

all the little girls went. So, we'd be

making our uh

>> we were getting our um beetle boots made

and there' be little tutu ladies with

their children, you know.

>> No, you had the tutu.

>> I never did. I never had one of them.

I just said, "Well, it was Ringer. His

feet bandage, wasn't it?"

>> Yeah.

>> It had to go into those little belly

shoes.

[laughter]

>> So, we had a man and then later

[clears throat]

>> we had uh you know, we started realizing

you can get whatever you wanted. So, cuz

at first they were all the same. Then we

could have like when we made the film

size,

>> we get a I got a cord. What boots would

go? I'll get cord boots. just give them

the same fabric and make them. And then

we had like ankle ones, calf ones, knee

eye, you know, all kinds of ones.

[music]

>> Then there was this one that went,

>> "Oh, no.

[music]

>> I've been thinking of linking my life

with you. [music]

>> Thinking linking love so true.

thinking of linking [music and singing]

can only be done by two.

[music]

Yeah, one of the first.

>> It was about one of the first ones.

There was a commercial in the on the on

the cinema for link furniture called

Thinking of Lincoln. We went the

pictures.

Good intro. Good intro. Yeah.

[music]

Well, I've been thinking of linking my

love so true. Thinking of linking

[music and singing] my life with you.

Thinking of linking can only be done by

two.

There's no second verse.

Thank you.

>> Cost 75 quid. My first car

>> off Johnny Hutch.

>> That was a good car.

>> Was it off Johnny Hutch?

>> Johnny.

>> Now, what color was it?

>> Red and white. Hand painted.

>> Yeah.

>> Painted by hand. And you had a green

Anglia.

>> Blue.

>> Blue.

>> That was much later though.

>> Yeah. I took you to get that car.

>> Did you?

>> Yeah. I took you to

>> Warington.

>> Yeah.

>> And as we were coming home, you may not

remember.

>> Oh, yeah.

>> You were speeding and I was speeding

>> and we were both

>> close to each other. and you overtook

this car in front. And I got right up to

this car and I was ready to overtake

him. Just as I got right up his ass, a

dog ran out in front of him. So he

slammed on his brakes. I smashed right

into him, [laughter]

broke the [ __ ] out of my car, but was

lucky. It was by a garage cuz I drove

Well, we pushed it into the garage

because I had no license or insurance.

>> Did I stop or did I keep going?

>> Oh, you just kept going.

>> I didn't see you. You just didn't give a

damn.

>> Even till this day, [laughter] I never

knew about that.

>> Yeah. Cool, man.

>> Well, couldn't we do Blue Moon?

Blue Moon.

>> Yeah, man. He's got the chords. What's

the opening?

>> Well, just a short version. [music]

Blue moon,

blue moon, keep shining bright.

[music] Blue moon, keep on shining

bright. My baby back tonight.

>> [music]

>> Shine bright.

I said blue moon just to keep on

shining.

Shine on one that's going [music] to let

me blue.

Well, blue moon just to keep on shining.

Shine on one that's going to let me

blue.

[music] But it was only right night when

the stars shine bright. [music]

Wind blowing high. My [singing] love

said by the moon

shine on the wall that's going [music]

to let me blue

on the wall that's going to let me

shine on the wall that's [music] going

to let me blue.

>> So did you ever bad leg?

>> Did you ever meet Elvis again?

>> I felt I'd met him several times.

>> You felt him?

>> Yeah. Well, no wonder he didn't

[laughter] stand up.

>> You mean you remember him? Well,

>> some memories that I met him several

times,

>> but

>> maybe it was just the one night

to him. [laughter]

>> It's called flashbacks, I think.

>> Yeah.

>> Did you meet him again?

>> No, I met him just once. You met him?

>> I met him in Madison Square Garden when

he was just I suppose a couple of years

before the end. It was sad really

>> rhinestone

>> because he um

>> it was like he had all them squawking

girl singers and trumpet players and all

that stuff but he had a great rhythm

section James Burton and uh

>> sure

>> and all that gang and uh I just wanted

to say to him just get your jeans on and

get your guitar and just do that. I went

to see him in Vegas

>> and bugger all that other crap in the

70s thing about

>> after the um

>> Oh, you saw him in Vegas.

>> Yeah.

>> I only met him that once that night

>> he was when I saw him I was like a

hippie and I had all this denim on and I

had long stuff down to here. It was in

the early 70s and uh I went backstage to

meet him and you know those big dressing

rooms like you know miles of toilets and

stuff and so I was sitting there talking

to the guys again and he was nowhere to

be seen and then finally came around the

corner and he had that big white outfit

with all the gold things and big belt

buckle like this and he looked like

Ringo. It was all his beard was was

varnished. [laughter]

No, you know, all his hair was black and

he was all tanned and stuff and he

seemed like I thought I was meeting

Vishnu or you know Krishna or somebody.

It was just like wow and I just felt

like this little snotty grubby little

you know hello Elvis how are you? you

know, and he was like, "Hey, [laughter]

just this big white thing and and I just

wanted to say, oh, why don't you just

just go and do That's all right, Mama."

And um, you know,

chick singers or I did it my way.

[singing]

It was sad, but he did a couple of good

tunes.

>> Yeah. But did you ever meet him again?

>> Not after that day,

but he was great when he was great.

Ain't [music and singing] she sweet?

I ask you [singing and music] very

confidentially. Ain't she sweet?

Cast an eye [music]

in her [singing] direction.

Hold me. Oh my. [music]

Ain't that perfection

[singing]

though? I repeat.

Don't you think she's kind of

[music and singing] sweetly now? That's

it very confidentially. Ain't she sweet?

Ain't she [singing] sweet?

Ain't she

>> sweet?

>> Let's go.

>> Well, this has really been a a really

nice day for me, chap.

>> It's been a pleasure for me, too.

>> We're going to have to see you for the

next 40 years.

>> Yeah. [laughter]

Well, that should end the series. We

could end on this note then. And

>> but I think it was Candlestick Park.

>> Yeah.

>> No, it wasn't. It was

>> This is Candlestick Park.

>> This is Candlestick Park.

>> No, it's been a very nice day. Thanks

for having us, George. Thank you.

>> Been really beautiful and moving for me.

I like hanging out with you two [music]

guys.

>> Little churchy face.

Golden slurs.

I know. It was an old uh an old song,

isn't it? It's an old

>> Well, when did you write it?

>> Well, I mean, it's not my lyrics. It's

an old It's like It's ancient uh really.

>> It's sort of Yeah, it's like an old

wrote arranged.

Yeah.

>> Trad arranged with tune.

I put the tune to it. It's my tune.

>> But um it was at my dad's house.

>> You put the traditional drums on it. I

was at my dad's house and it was one of

those sheep music things that was up to

learn piano and I just like the lyrics

and stuff. So I started I couldn't read

the music so I started doing my tune to

it.

>> Which album was this?

>> This was on Abby Road. [laughter]

You're George, [music]

>> foremost bele expert.

>> George has

>> to get back home [singing and music]

base and piano so far.

>> Once there was [singing] a way [music]

to get back home.

Sleep pretty darling, [singing]

do [music] not cry.

>> That's not a piano.

>> And I will sing [music and singing]

along.

>> Carry that weight.

Those are together. [music]

Smile [singing]

when you rise.

Sleep pretty darling,

[singing and music]

do not cry.

And [singing] I will sing along [music]

by

the way [singing]

to [music] get back home.

>> I don't think you are on it. Didn't

sound like you are.

>> Didn't sound like anybody's on it.

>> Wasn't you, was it?

>> Well, unless it was overdubbed.

[music] Why would you ever take one?

[singing]

>> Because he was playing the piano.

>> I think I'm playing piano. [music] So,

who was playing bass?

>> I think I'm over at the same time.

>> He overdumped it. Can you

>> You can hear the sound of it. It's like

directing Jake. [music]

>> [singing]

>> You

>> give many takes. Take 17.

>> He was keen.

[music]

[singing]

>> Maybe I played bass. I played bass on

some with that six stringer.

>> It sounds like it. It was It was

definitely Paul playing piano. So, it

couldn't even

>> Well, you you should be able to tell

because

>> Shall we,

>> you know, you just have done [music] it.

There are lots of there's lots of false

starts and breakdowns. That was take

one.

>> So we end up at

>> You're saying the bass is couldn't it

couldn't have been overdub because it's

on every take.

>> It was live.

>> Okay. Well then it must have been me or

John playing it.

>> Obviously you can't remember could have

been ring.

>> Well look we did have we had a six

string bass

um a right-handed bass.

>> Yeah. So the for these kind of

conditions,

>> one of the great things about this

studio and the way EMI was set up was

they were set up for Mrs. Mills or

Daniel Baron or Russ Conway

>> or Peter Cellers. So they always had

these millions of instruments like they

still got now grand pianos odd little

pianos and

>> all the ones that you haven't got at

your

>> and I've well they've ended up at my

studio now cuz they're all trying to get

rid of them here and you know I'll have

>> Neil and Mel would be over here

>> behind these.

>> I thought it was over here. Let's see.

This is where everybody disagrees.

>> Well, they moved them around so much.

>> We mainly were over there.

>> And my bit on um

>> the cable, the cable was through that

door.

>> I think he's talking about yellow

submarine, I [laughter] think.

>> I thought it was natural echo.

>> Just in that door there.

>> Yeah. At that time there was a little

board the the desk of the the console

was just about this big with four faders

on it and there was one speaker right in

the middle and uh for a mix it would be

funny cuz everybody had get on a fader

each and have full bass and full treble

and one speaker and that was it. When

they invented stereo I remember thinking

why what do you want two speakers for?

because it ruined the sound from our

point of view. You know, we had

everything coming out of one speaker.

Now we had to come out of two speakers.

It all sounded like

>> very naked.

>> But then finally someone said, "Well,

you can move things."

>> So like everything from then on got

panned like magic and everything got

moved.

>> But the, you know, to get to the point

where you do a stereo mix and put the

drums and bass in the middle, you know,

>> for a long time used to be over on the

side

>> because we always used to do that

sticking on. I remember being at a party

at Brian's house and talking to someone

and saying, "Oh, this is great. Bit this

on the drums. Listen to this." And it

wasn't on that speaker. So, hang

[laughter] on. Put it on again. And we

had to go over to the other speaker to

hear the drums. It's going great.

[laughter]

>> He's like, "No drums in that space."

>> John got a spool of tape of the rough

mix of the backing track to uh I think

it was I'm only sleeping. And you know,

by the time he got home, uh, he didn't

realize cuz they the tape was tails out.

And, uh, they just stuck it on a reel

and he put it on his tape machine and

threaded the tail in forward and got it

backwards. That's when he came in the

next day and said, "Oh, yeah,

backwards." And then we made him turn

the tape over and play it backwards. And

we all played, I think John and I or

Paul and I played guitars, just like

random notes on the guitars. And then we

turned the tape back over to see what we

had. And that was like the first time

[music] we had a backwards solo.

[music]

[music]

I'm miles [singing] away [music] and

after

I

sleeping,

>> you know, it became easier to do

experiments cuz we'd had a few hits, you

know, that was the key. [laughter]

No, the key was that we'd had success

and then it was, "Oh, great. Come in,

lads.

>> Nice to see you back again." And and as

we got more and more success, we were

more and more able to, you know, try

some far out ideas. And um

>> it also give us more time

>> and also then you'd have success with

something that might have seemed like a

far out idea and that had, you know,

people would say, "Wow, this is great."

And so we'd come back again and George

would be, you know, really quite keen to

try, well, what other ideas have you

got? You know, so it just became, you

know, like a free house for, you know,

whatever idea you wanted. We'd try it.

>> Loops right on two.

>> Can we have a Tomorrow Never Knows,

please?

>> Which take?

>> Which take?

>> All of them.

>> All of them. First take the first take.

It's very weird.

>> Oh, well. Play the rear take.

>> Listen to this on It's like the drums

and a guitar that's going to off speed.

Um,

>> you see right now there's only two

there's only two basic track takes

>> which is one and three

[music]

all that underwater stuff. [music]

We should speed that up and see what it

was. Listen the drum part.

>> Great. [music]

Probably different.

>> [music]

[music]

>> Nothing on

[music]

top

So is that just on its own?

>> That's his voice.

[music]

>> That's good

>> with a bit of drums and a bit of loop.

So nothing on there.

>> We haven't put the loops on this tape.

[music]

>> This was just the first run through.

>> He wanted his voice to sound like the

Dalai Lama um chanting the hilltop. And

I said, well, it's bit expensive going

to Tibet. Can we make do with it here?

And I spoke to Jeff Rick and he had a

good idea. He said, let's try putting

his voice through a Leslie speaker

>> and back again and re-recording it. And

I don't think anyone done that before.

And that's that's the way we got his

special effect on his voice there. And

the other thing on that weird track was

a tamboura drone and Ringo's very

characteristic drumming.

>> See, it's like doing a rumbo.

It's great. I like it. [music]

>> How is he doing that?

>> What's that underwater sound?

>> How is that drummer doing that, George?

>> Oh, he had to be very brilliant. It's

just brilliant. [music]

>> No tambourum.

>> What's that with the drums? [music]

>> Sounds like some kind of resin.

>> Some resin music. Anyway,

>> you then change it up.

>> Yeah.

>> So that was the first take. That [music]

was the first take.

>> John just had the song.

>> Well, the song I think was very much

influenced by you know in those days the

Indian music had come in to our lives

and the the way Indian music just was

all on one uh in one key. It didn't

modulate

>> his idea. But, you know, he wanted to

try a tune like that that didn't change

chords.

Uh and also because of um some of the

other influences he had that Timothy

Liry book

which was um supposedly uh I think it

was called a psychedelic experience and

he had some stuff that related to the

Tibetan book of the dead and he wrote

those words and did it that was all kind

of book weren't those words

>> monotone kind of thing lay down your

mind it is not

>> and also you know Paul and you know I

mean there was different things going

on, different influences at the time,

one of them being avantgard, you know,

stocks and and so I mean it was very

much experimental um thing and all that

was a number of experimental things that

all came together

>> on the one song.

>> Oh, that was the break.

>> Oh, now we're talking.

>> Now we're talking serious music. Now

[music]

>> you say in Woohoo. Turn off your mind.

Relax. And [music]

>> so what have we got there?

>> This is the real one.

>> On one.

>> Yeah.

>> Got the voice on three.

>> And on track two turn three.

>> You've got your various tape loops and

your guitar on tambour.

[singing and music]

shining.

>> And on that one, I brought in a bunch of

tape loops and a little plastic bag that

I'd done at home. And uh I just made a

lot of little loops that I liked, you

know, and brought them all in. literally

little pieces of loop tape, little

plastic bag, and we got them all on

about eight or so machines with everyone

holding a loop and a pencil or a bit of

a glass and stuff and got them running

around on the machines and then fed them

all into the desk and made a little mix

that you heard before. All those seagull

noises and stuff, it's all sped up tapes

and loops. So, that was another little

ingredient in that.

>> That wasn't used, was it?

>> Yeah.

At that point,

[laughter]

bring Phil Collins in

[music]

really good.

>> [music]

>> I suppose you remember what that loop

was made [music] of

guitar.

>> When we made that, we could never

reproduce it again. It'd be impossible

to reproduce again because the way we

made it was the actual mix. And all over

this this building in different rooms

were tapes, [music] tape machines with

loops on them and people holding the

loops the right distance from thing with

a bit of pencil going all the time being

fed to different faders on our control

panel which we could bring out the sound

like an organ at any time. So the mix we

did then was a random thing at that time

could never be done.

[music] Let's

[music]

listen to this.

>> So the double track voice is straight

and that one is got the wall effect on

it. [music]

>> We are gathered here today.

That's good.

>> That's that piano down there.

>> What are you? I don't know. It sounds

like you.

>> It could be me.

>> It sounds like you.

>> Sy.

[laughter]

>> Well, there you go.

>> That's how we did it. There is

heat.

When I went on tour, [music] journalists

would say, "Is it true the Beatles going

to get back together?" And I had to have

an answer, some kind of answer for that.

So, the answer became, "Yeah, well, it

may be that the three of us will get in

and do some incidental music, maybe an

instrumental [music]

for this uh new Beatles thing we're

doing, this anthology documentary."

>> [music]

>> We were going to do some like incidental

music, you know, just get there and play

of the instrument, see what happened.

And then,

you know, that seemed like an okay idea.

And then we thought, well, why don't we

do some new music? [music]

[music]

[music]

>> [music]

>> We always had a, you know, a thing

between [music] the three of us or the

four of us at that time that if any one

of us wasn't in it, we weren't going to

get, you know, kind of Roger Waters and

go out as the Beatles

or Dave Gilmore. We were going to, you

know, so so therefore the only other

person who could be in it was John. We

kept hitting that wall because this is a

documentary on the Beatles. It's not on

Paul, George, and Ringo.

>> If we were to do something, the three of

us, as interesting as it may be, and as

nice as we could sure make it,

to have John in it is the obvious thing.

>> So, Paul, I believe it was Paul who

asked Yoko, "Is there anything of John's

that never came out? Maybe we could work

with it."

and uh she sent us these tapes and

that's how it came about.

>> And in actual fact, we didn't know as

much [clears throat] as most Lenon fans

because they they'd actually knew all

the releases. They knew that uh um Free

as a Bird and Real Love had been heard.

They'd heard them. We hadn't. It was

really emotional. I mean, just hearing

the tape

uh that was sent was pretty emotional.

And then we got to the studio and it was

it was difficult for a while. I mean,

what uh you know, he's not here. We're

all here. Where's John? Uh, of course

John's in heaven.

And uh, but we had to get over that. We

got over that by feeling that he was

he'd gone for lunch. He's gone for a cup

of tea or he's, you know, cuz

all the time we were making records, we

weren't all in the room all the time. I

mean, sometimes we would split. And so

we dealt with it in that way. That's how

I dealt with it, that he's just around

the corner. So, when we got in the

studio, uh, we had this cassette, Free

as a Bird. It's very bad quality. It was

just a mono cassette, um, with John and

the piano locked in on one track, uh,

which nobody would normally deal with.

You know, you just think, I can't deal

with this. But the song was so strong

that we overcame those technical

difficulties, or rather Jeff Lynn did

who was producing.

>> It wasn't an easy thing because they

were like mono tapes and John singing on

them with the piano as well, and so

[snorts] you couldn't really separate

anything. So Johnny's actually playing

piano on the records too, you know. Um,

which is a great thing. So it kept the

integrity of that and it wasn't like uh

like his voice just appearing out of

nowhere. He was actually doing a

performance at the same time.

Technically it was virtually impossible

to do it. But we we get we did it, you

know, because we really worked at it

very hard. So after that uh we did like

a basic track with all these gaps in it

and then we had to fill in the song you

know uh which which shows what happened.

>> What we actually did was remake this

[music] song. I mean even with chords

and stuff we changed chords.

>> Beautiful.

Well, I vote for the E suspended.

[music and singing]

What do you think, audience? We changed

arrangements. We added parts and we

wrote lyrics and then we made the the

multitrack tape of this song and then

took [music] John's voice and laid him

into the track. when it started taking

shape and John was sort of in there

[music] and coming up and singing and I

think everybody from that moment said,

"Wow, this really works." You know, and

and I was really thrilled cuz, you know,

I'd spent a long long time after we got

the backing done making the vocals fit

exactly.

>> Uh, let's check that. It was really

good.

>> And once that happened, I think we were

all, "Oh, yeah. This really it's really

good, you know, and and it's not doing

John

disservice or whatever. It's actually

make it into a really good record.

[music]

tell [music] me.

>> I listened to it and and [music]

I thought it sounds just like them. You

know, I'd taken myself away from it for

so long that it, you know, it was like

listening to it from like an outsider

and it sounds just like them. It's it's

brilliant. when George and I were doing

the harmonies and that was [music] what

Ringo said when we got back in the

control just sounds just like the

Beatles, you know.

>> It wasn't surprising to me really

because I mean that's what I went there

for was to work with the Beatles. So I

always like assumed in my naivity

whatever that it was going to sound like

a Beatles record because I'm doing

working with the Beatles.

>> It's got to sound like them if it is

them.

>> It's it sounds like them now. That's

what I think.

So [music]

free.

[music]

>> [music]

[music]

>> The first choice uh was free as a bird

and we did that in February 94 and then

[music]

um kind of really didn't do much except

put together the anthology not recording

wise [music] any till uh February 95

where we went back to my studio with

real love.

[music]

[singing]

>> Seems that [singing and music] all I

really was doing

was waiting [music] for you.

Well, real love's poppy. Uh, it's more

of a Poppy song.

It was

It was more difficult actually because

we'd already done it. So now we're we're

doing it again. So you know for me I

felt it was more difficult to to turn it

into a real Beatle track.

[music]

>> [music]

>> It's real love.

It's real. [music]

Yes, it's real love.

>> The thing for me that was not quite as

much fun in the recording of Real Love

was it was finished. It had all the

words and the music. So, I didn't really

get to input which like we the the other

three of us have been able to input on

Freeze Bird. So [snorts] it made it more

like a Beatles session. This was like

more like we were side men to John,

which was, you know, joyful and it was

good fun. And I think we did a good job.

[music]

>> [music]

>> And I was like this. [music] I wasn't

even the fly on the wall. I was fly in

the middle of the room, you know, with

the desperate. Oh, it's great. And it

was the most I mean, it's beyond [music]

me wildest dreams to have actually sat

with the three of them. Very few people

have, [music] I think. And to be making

the records with it, it was just

astonishing. It's [music] real.

It's real.

[music]

Brought back a lot of good memories and

it also gave me a chance to hang out

with Paul and George again. We hadn't

done that in a while.

>> We work well together. That's the truth

of it, you know. We just work well

together and that's a very special

thing. When [music] you find someone you

can talk to, it's a special thing. You

find someone you can play music with.

It's really it's something. I think we

just, you know, we've had so much um the

same background, you know, our musical

background and where we came from and

what we listen to, you know, in common.

And then all those years [music] we

played together, you know, it's somehow

it's it's it's made a very deep groove

in our memories and it doesn't take much

to lock in.

[music]

It's real love. [music]

It's real.

It's real love. It's [music] real.

It's real love. It's real.

It's real love. It's real.

It's real.

It's real.

I think it was yeah the early '7s 71

7071

uh I collected uh

all the footage that I could find from

around the world and uh we put uh a

documentary together or a film together

that was uh without the Beatles being

interviewed or anything like that. And

it was just put all the film together.

It was about an hour and 3/4 long,

right? And uh then I put it on the shelf

for 20 years.

>> And it was an extremely interesting

story, but of course it was then done

uh as uh [sighs] well it was very very

close to the breakup. So it wasn't done

with that long perspective.

>> It was on the shelf, right? I knew it

was there, but I didn't really uh really

think about it. It was a it was a

question of getting like a lot of other

you know business things together. So

and and getting control if we could of

uh various elements of uh

beetle business if you like. And um when

we were in that position

it was uh it was easier to do you know

it it was really easier to do than um

than not. I really thought the anthology

would happen when Neil said it's going

to be there's going to be an anthology.

We're going to do the whole story

and the fellows have agreed and then I

knew it would be on and I was very

interested in in a detached sort of way,

>> you know. I think uh maybe I mentioned

it to everybody in sort of like 1990 or

91 or something like that, you know. Um

and then we started doing it, you I got

uh the production team together, the

production office together and uh you

know we started doing it.

>> Well, I'd worked with the three of them

before, but I was doing uh directing um

McCartney's ortorio for Liverpool and he

phoned me up and said that he'd had a

chat with no mate of mine. And I

thought, my god, who can that be? And I

said, well, who do you mean? He said, uh

George Harrison. I said, oh yeah. He

said, I didn't know you'd work with

George. So I said, "Well, yeah." He

said, "But then again, he didn't know

you'd work with me." I was on my way to

the Montre Jazz Festival. I'd arranged

to go and work on that. And Jeff rang me

out of the blue and told me about it cuz

he initiate got in touch. And he said,

"Well, you got to make your mind up. Are

you coming or not?"

>> So the rest is history. Jeff and I

arrived down here to an empty empty

rooms. I was working at uh EMI, PMI,

making television programs. Jeff was a

director who'd worked there. We'd both

worked with Paul on the uh ortorio and

different things. And he'd been asked to

do this and was doing it and nobody had

asked me. And I said to him, why haven't

you asked me? I'd love to do this. And

he said, well, I didn't even think that

you'd want to do it because you have a

proper job.

full-time job and Jeff

uh was seemed very happy. Spoke to Neil

Aspenol,

spoke to Paul and

went and sort talked to Neil and got the

job.

>> Well, actually I was on holiday when

when the rest of the guys started,

right? And I thought bad timing. I

expected to sort of come back and find

out that they decided that I was surplus

to requirements and didn't need me

anymore. So when I got back from

holiday, I phoned up Apple and I said,

"I'm Bob Smith and I'm going to be

working on this job." Said, "Yeah, come

down whenever you're ready."

>> And we came in and um said, "Now we now

we're going to make a program, which we

hadn't really thought about too much."

>> It's the same track again.

>> Yeah, it's the same track again for the

third time.

>> A lot more music.

>> No, because that was meant to be one.

>> As well as the the work that's been done

by the guys upstairs, there's obviously

been a phenomenal amount of work done by

a very small team. I mean basically the

whole production of this has been done

by 10 people including research and

everything. Um I think we've used

somewhere between 9 and 10,000 different

pieces of footage and music and all

that's had to be cleared. All that's had

to be logged. It's been a phenomenal job

done by people here.

>> I'm as kind of useful to have around if

the Beatles are being discussed uh in a

variety of ways. I mean there are ways

in which I'm no use at all. I'm no use

on some minutia and detail.

I'm not good on things like clearances

and all the mechanics of making a

documentary. But on perspectives and uh

some insights I can be handy to turn to

and I'm extremely generous with my time

and uh views and I get along with them

and with Neil. I realized that uh the

one thing that we had that nobody else

had, no third party had, right? Uh

was the surviving Beatles, the the three

of them and all John's interviews with

Yoko's consent, right? Um, and so once I

started putting it together, what what I

decided right from the very beginning,

right, not just now, but 20 years ago

when I did the original one was not have

some like mid-Atlantic voice

commentator,

right? Uh,

telling the Beatles story, right? It was

better for them to tell their own story.

For them to tell their own story, they

had to be interviewed. So basically

three months of looking at stuff before

we and listening to stuff before we put

anything together and then of course

they're not the easiest people to get a

hold of.

So I think that was another about 3

months

trying to get a hold of them to do an

interview really. the interviewer. That

was the other thing to get an

interviewer that wasn't an indepth

interviewer, you know, a David Frost

type interviewer, you know, that would

go into and put everybody on their guard

about, you know, what you're going to

say. But, uh, really to use another

musician, that's how Jules Holland

became involved.

>> I think that my real job was to

interview them and to ask them about the

about their history starting at the

beginning from when they were small

going right up to the end of it. And

some of it is quite um there, you know,

some of it is quite hard to talk about

the later parts, you know, it's quite

there's unhappy moments as laughter and

tears of course. And I think because um

I'm a pianist than a musician more more

than a sort of a hard-nosed interviewer,

I think because of that they found it

easier to relax. And so jewels tended to

ask like

questions that uh

like say a trained interviewer or or

whatever wouldn't ask you know and with

the Elvis episode he asked if Priscilla

was there which is fine but I don't

think a regular you know interviewer

would have asked what was she wearing

you know it's not sort of like an

indepth question is it

>> remember how Priscilla was dressed

>> I think she had a long thing on and a

tiara.

>> I've got this picture of her like as a

sort of Barbie doll with like gingham

kind of purple gingham and a bow, a

gingham bow in her very beehive hair.

>> Do you remember uh seeing uh Mrs.

Presley?

>> No, I don't.

>> Well, could be. I don't remember. I

spent most of the party trying to sus

out from his gang if anybody had any

refer. [laughter]

>> What it would be was we would would want

to know what each program was going to

be, right? So I would like write the

main areas, see right, we've got to hit

this base, this base, this base, etc.

And then once we knew what we wanted to

get in there was a case of making sure

that we got the information from the

from the Beatles in order to make the

programs. By the time they got to the

the third interview, you it it in a

sense for me it's noticeable because

you'll find that uh if you ask one of

them a question, whichever one it is, if

they don't know the answer, they'll say,

"Oh, well, maybe Paul knows the answer

or maybe Ringo knows the answer or maybe

George knows the answer." So then you

can cut to the other individual who

doesn't know the answer anyway, right?

And so he'll say, "Maybe somebody else

knows the answer." Uh and that came from

watching what they' done in their first

interviews, right? and see and if you

don't know the answer pass it over to

the next guy and then you've got quite a

nice little cut and stuff you know so we

they gradually gone into it as a like

making this this thing you know we were

aware all the time that you know John

wasn't with us to go to him and get a

quote from him but the researchers done

such a thorough job that there was like

sometimes you'd need a quote from John

and you'd have the option of six or

seven quotes and because he was so

succinct in everything that he said and

John in all his interviews talk so well

in if you ask him a question, he gives

you the answer.

>> We looked through hours and hours of

footage of everything that we have on

John and just really sort of used he's

represented mainly in sort of slow

motion shots cuz obviously he can't be

talking or saying the thing. uh wherever

he's appeared in archives saying

anything we've tried to use.

>> We've used all that stuff, you know, and

uh tried to give them all equal billing,

you know, they've all seen it. They've

all uh had, you know, an approval

process so they all agree with with

what's in it and whatever. If uh there's

something that somebody particularly,

you know, wants to change or doesn't

like about themselves, right, then we

would change it. They left us alone

basically for certainly for three years

in the main. There weren't major things

to change.

>> There's a pause notes for program one

changes. There's not very many as you

can see. We're doing a good job here.

>> Suck the crew. That's one person.

[laughter]

>> They came in occasionally. Uh they came

in the three of them together which was

fantastic, you know, to to have them in

here to look at to look at various parts

of it. But uh no that they have been

in many ways a joy to work with and

they're still the Beatles but they've

I've had more problem problems on a new

band making a five grand pop video.

They've all been, I think, completely

honest and quite uh very frank to the

point where some of the things they say

aren't they don't you know if you were

doing an a safe interview about yourself

uh because after all they're making the

film uh that you might not say but I

think that they feel that they the story

should be told pretty much as it is uh

and that the truth should be known as

much as it can be even if some of it is

a bit sort of painful. So they talk um

and I think that's what I was I was

pleased that it wasn't just a sort of a

um showbiz cover up or something like

that.

>> Position that was taken by Apple and

certainly by us during uh the making of

it has been this may never be released.

We don't know. That's why we can't talk

about it. So for a while there was very

much a sense of that. I can't think of

any particular moment where you really

felt it's never going to be released. It

was it never got that heavy or that

unpleasant, but you

always I mean got the sense from the

phone calls you were getting, the

broadcasters that were phoning up,

people asking questions about it, you

got some sort of sense of what it was

going to be like when it was finished.

Now you've got to start making decisions

about what to leave out, what to leave

in. You've also got a deadline. and it's

got to be finished by hit by this time.

Getting um you know the music together

for a film, getting the rights together,

getting the you know whatever those

rights are, master use licenses,

publishing licenses, you know, uh

permissions for for somebody's name and

likeness that you've used in there. If

they won't give it to you, for example,

or you can't get a particular song, then

you've got to change that bit of the the

thing. So, it's it's the it's the

finishing process that under pressure

because you've got a deadline that for

me is the is always like the

uh what's the word for it? It's a it's

it's the most traumatic time if you

like, you know.

>> Now, what is interesting about this

anthology now is that they've had a long

time to think about it to get used to

not minding being beatles that they had

been Beatles. It's no longer an

embarrassment to them and it's time to,

as the cliche goes, reclaim their own

history.

>> Roll

action.

>> Originally, we were going to have a bird

in the U piece, and you just follow the

bird as it flies through history. It's

like a magic bird that flies through.

It's not magic in the sense that it

glows or anything like that. It's just

the bird that takes you through the

history of uh of the songs where they

came from visiting the places that

inspired the pieces.

>> The bird uh flies through the Beatles

lyrics, you know, flies through Penny

Lane and Helter Skelter.

>> And then Neil said not to use a bird

because at a previous time they had

talked about that and no one could agree

on what kind of bird it should be.

>> You never see the bird. The camera is

the bird.

the sound of the wings. We did that so

that the rest of the piece would uh make

sense. That's why you have the loud

flapping and everything at the beginning

so that later on you know what it is

that's taking you through these places,

not just the camera that's literally a

bird.

We went back and forth uh between all

the guys. We had to send our notes back

to all the surviving Beatles and Yoko

for their approval of the ideas.

And then uh Derek Taylor was incredibly

helpful when we presented the a sketch

of the idea. He sent us a two-page note

back which was a beautiful piece of

poetry which not only reaffirmed the the

uh the potential of the idea but also

gave us a lot of attitude toward the way

the material should be approached.

[music]

>> [music]

>> to [singing and music] me.

[music]

We tried to shoot in all the uh [music]

authentic locations where things

happened. We shot Penny Lane and Penny

Lane and we had the art department

rebuild it as close to what it was as

possible. Of course, we shot the live

birds, helicopter shot the Lirds in

Liverpool. We shot near the docks for

the docks in Liverpool, which was a

reference to [music] John's father.

>> I am the puppy girl from Penny Lane.

that [music] we once knew.

Can we really live without each other?

>> We had a huge casting sessions. We had

hundreds and hundreds of people on tape

>> and went through the tapes both in

London and in uh Liverpool and and in

Manchester

>> and almost all the people were local

people. I think maybe a [music] few

actors from London. um paperback writer

I think was an actor from London and uh

but most of them were [music] basically

local people who participated in the

piece.

>> Got it. Okay. Can you do that?

>> Yeah.

>> All right.

[music]

>> [music]

>> going to do like [music] a banquet of

piggies based on the uh uh

Sergeant Pepper cover with all these

celebrities, all these different people

having dinner. We weren't quite sure how

we're going to do it. It was probably

going to have to be done digitally after

the fact, after the production phase.

and the art director had gone to a prop

house and found these fabulous little

piggy masks. And instead of doing this

really complicated and probably

ponderous scene with all these people at

a banquet, we just had these little

children with these very unusual masks

skipping down a little lane in

Liverpool, which is far more [music]

powerful and much more in keeping with

the kind of spirit of what the Beatles

were at that period of time.

>> [music]

>> We storyboarded all the ideas with kinds

of points of view about the material,

but we ignored the storyboards

completely once we got to see everything

in practicality. Uh there's nothing

storyboarded about the idea at all. U

you couldn't storyboard the way the

camera flowed because the difference in

perspective of the shots and things. And

one shot in particular was storyboarded.

The the lotus crashing

was storyboarded from above. So the bird

sees from above and you go above it. We

shot it like that for hours and hours

and hours. And then at the last minute I

had the steady cam operator do two or

three takes coming from a more normal

perspective. And in the flow of the

piece that became the u key way we

showed it was much more interesting that

way. um much more interesting. the flow,

the this the shot from above looked nice

in a storyboard. It was kind of clever

and from a bird's point of view, but it

was better to bring the bird down to a

human point of view to see the emotion

in the car and the smoke in the people.

[music]

>> [music]

>> The video's

uh made up of uh referenced archival

footage. It's footage that existed

and uh footage that we filmed

live and then bits and pieces were put

in um at various places which were shot

on a green screen stage which is a way

to just marry film. Every almost

everybody knows what that means now

which marries u the live background and

putting elements into a live background

to enhance it. A couple of shots would

be the dog running across the front of

uh the Ellener Riby Cemetery. [music]

>> Always made me feel

so free.

[music]

>> The elephant was put in in [music]

post-prouction. We didn't have an

elephant Liverpool walking through that

hotel room.

>> [music]

>> We had to shoot the elephant because

when the Ringo saw rough cut, he wanted

his elephant.

And uh and u we hadn't shot the elephant

as part of the piece.

And Neil called and said Ringo wants an

elephant in the piece. He says he likes

everything, but he misses his elephant.

Uh, George wanted a satar

and uh, Ringo wanted an elephant

and uh, so we got an elephant and shot

on a green screen and snuck it in that

procession in the uh, in that ballroom.

[music] as

[music]

the big star of the piece is a Russian

crane called the Achila crane which

gives these big sweeping moves and the

shot at Abby road at the end it comes

down and sweeps up again couldn't be

done with a luma crane

>> [music]

[music]

>> That was the star of the piece. Uh then

we used the lumac crane for [music] more

uh precise shots, uh smaller shots and a

steady cam operator.

And uh we also had a little tiny remotec

controlled helicopter, tiny helicopter

with a video camera on it to do

intricate shots.

[music]

The thing that I'm most happy with is

the fact that the seamlessness [music]

of the piece uh works. The transition

between scenes doesn't look like oh all

of a sudden there's a transition. Many

of them are completely [music] invisible

to even people in the industry. So that

that the seamlessness of everything

marrying all these bits and pieces

[music] of things archival footage new

new footage shot on green screen plus

the the uh production footage which was

live made me very happy. [music]

>> So free

[music]

>> [music]

>> We're given this piece that represents

something that's incredibly precious to

untold numbers of people around the

world and we had to protect it in

addition to do something that inspired

people. So we there was a duality there.

One, we want to do something very

creative and functional

and do the job as a professional piece.

On the other hand, we had to respect

everything that had gone before. I felt

that we succeeded in respecting the

tradition and and bringing it forward

and and inspiring it and looking at it a

fresh and unusual way, which even

reflects how the song was created. One

of the things that's a bit heartbreaking

is that the uh the player at the end,

the ukulele player

or banjo, whatever you want to call it,

George wanted to play that part and I

resisted saying that if I put him in,

then I'd put some of the other Beatles

in. And I didn't think we wanted to see

a contemporary Beatles in the piece. So

I said, "No, no, no." And he says,

"Okay."

thinking that they had sampled an

archival piece of music. And it turns

out that George had actually performed

that on the

uh song. Had I known that, I would have

had him do it because you only see him

from the back anyway. But I'm heart

actually heartbroken about not letting

him do that piece, especially now more

than ever.

[music]

>> [music]

[music]

>> Good job, buddy.

[applause]

The anthology, what we call the

anthology, was originally called the

long and winding road. You know, it was

the idea was for the boys to make their

own life story rather than entrust it to

somebody else. And that made sense

because they knew better than anybody

what had been going on. Um, and somebody

thought it'd be a good idea to have

audio equivalent, but it's no good just

doing a soundtrack of of a film because

if you do that, there's an awful lot of

missing. You know, the vision takes

over. So, what we're providing is

something that is a complement to it.

That's something that runs parallel, but

is pure sound. The main gist of it is

with the music to find the most ancient

Beatle music possible

and come in chronological order through

the various other uh records we'd made

and um bring it up to date up to now.

What we do is we lead the CD with the

new song Free as a Bird, which we figure

is what people have waiting to hear. You

know how we did on that. So that's the

opening track. Um, and then what we do

is flash back

>> also as the documentary uh starts and

then goes backwards. You know, there's a

little area in the very opening where he

says, "Let's go back, back, back, back,

back." And it backs up until Ringo is

about 6 months old.

And then

the record we thought, you know, could

work in that respect. There's a lot of

stuff, you know, from old tape recorders

of George, uh, you know, George on some,

but Paul and John messing around, you

know, singing and playing guitars, uh,

before I was in the band.

>> And then we go into old recordings,

which are from when we were about 14 or

15, which we haven't heard forever, you

know, they've they're like, uh, little

things in my front room. And these are

interesting because

they include a track where Stuart

Suckliffe is playing

and um it its bass guitar is not very

good but it's it's it's historic.

>> You know, we're talking really about a

historical thing now. And I for one

don't mind it being old and scratchy

because most of the music I buy is old

and scratchy. you know, you know, music

that was recorded in the very early, you

know, 20s and 30s and stuff. I like a

bit of tape his personally,

>> but it's good story. It's not the

quality you're listening to. It's the

sort of story and you can see our

development. You can see it happening.

>> And we hear some of the stuff at EMI on

when I first met them in 1962.

Uh there are a couple of tracks there,

the very early version of Love Me Do,

which with the Pete Best on drums, which

no one's heard. Now, no tapes exist of

that, but he managed to find it on a

little acetate because they'd cut it

onto disc. He found that and then that's

been recopied back onto tape.

>> When I was asked to do this proh

project, I said there's no way that I'm

going to mix this on a on a modern

digital machine because it wouldn't be

true to type. It wouldn't be what people

did in those days. And I'm I'm dealing

with these old tapes. So I asked EMI if

they could find an old desk and bring it

in for me. And so they they managed to

find this one uh which was still in the

possession of one of their engineers and

they brought it in and it's a super

desk, marvelous machine to have. This

was in number two studio Abby road and

it was the state-of-the-art in those

days but it it now it's so looks so

old-fashioned but of course it does it's

very appropriate that we work on this

because it actually does make a

different sound from today's discs. So

we're getting right back retro to the

old days and doing this stuff and it

sounds all the better for it and I'm

staying in the analog and the

oldfashioned mode until the very last

moment until it goes onto CD. so that we

keep the authenticity of it. Um, a lot

of these tapes we're working on are two

track, four track, eight track, never

more than eight track. And we still have

the old tapes. And this is an old box

and they're 1 in tapes. And there's a

four track machine. It's a modern

machine, but it is still the old vintage

tapes of 32 years ago.

>> It's like uh the Beatles progression.

And I'm halfway through that CD before I

enter the picture.

>> Oh, it just keeps on coming. There's a

lot of very early years, but stuff that

hasn't been heard. Television or radio

shows from Sweden and various things

from the command performance, things

that just had a one showing on

television, but we managed to get the

find the soundtracks to some variety

shows we did on television in those

early days.

>> There isn't a lot of live stuff out on

the Beatles, and I haven't even got it.

So it was was a pleasure for me to hear,

you know, cuz they were a great little

band.

>> We've been listening to every take of

every song we've done and going back

over those times and we've discovered

some interesting stuff. I mean, some of

the very early takes of most numbers are

interesting seeing how the songs

developed, how they changed. In fact, in

some instances, they started quite

differently to the masters that we

everybody knows. Then we get into sort

of crossfading like you know take one to

take four. So and some on some of them

where you know we were just working the

song out you know still running through

it because we always ran through the

song. We very seldom stay you know sat

around like when the tape was running

said oh let's do this now like run it

down. And so the the attitude it was

like at the beginning to seven takes

later it's just like a mile you know

it's not like oh we've changed you know

a note I mean we changed the whole thing

working on it working on it changing it

changing it

>> one of the strengths of the Beatles was

the fact that they had eternal curiosity

they had eternal quest for something new

exhaustively so for me I mean they were

always saying what new sound can we have

you know what what other instruments do

you know you know what can you do to

make this better? Give me a different

sound of the voice. And they were they

were not content with what they had

yesterday.

>> The one interesting thing was that um we

always thought that people like the

Supremes kind of made a good record, but

then they repeated the good record and

the next record was sort of the same

record. It was the Supreme sound, the

Mottown sound. So after about three of

those, we liked the first one really.

Second one was not so good and it paded

a bit, you know. Um, so I think we were

kind of conscious of trying not to

repeat ourselves

>> and the songwriting got better and our

playing got better. So it just all you

know it all just grew. The music was

always there in the background

reflecting our feelings and our desires

and uh

and all the various um things we'd

experienced. And I think it does it goes

in leaps and bounds and

it's pretty interesting. Now, I thought

we'd have a listen to a bit of an old

recording that we've been working on.

This doesn't require a great deal of

balancing. It's a recording made on the

19th of January, 1967. And the reason it

doesn't require much balancing is it's

only got two tracks on it.

It was a fourtrack tape, but this was

the very first time we heard a day in

the life in the studio.

And we didn't use this. This was the

first version. The master came a bit

later. And this is the version without

Paul's middle bit uh and without the

orchestra. And John is just singing it

really for himself. And I think it's

charming. And I'm I'm going to put it

up. Okay, Paul, let's have a listen.

>> Sugar bum fairy. Sugar bum fairy.

[music]

Sugar plum fairy.

[music]

I read [singing] the news today. Oh boy,

about a lucky man. [singing and music]

And [singing] another news was run

[music] aside.

Well, I just had to laugh.

[singing and music]

I saw the photograph.

[music]

He blew his mind out in a [singing] car.

He didn't notice [music] that the lights

had changed.

A crowd of people [singing and music]

stood and stared.

I think that early take of John is so

charming, so natural. He he wasn't

expecting people 32 years later to be

listening to it.

>> Sometimes after 19 takes, you know, no

matter how professional you are, there's

the boredom creeps in. You can just hear

it like it's very goes very perfect,

>> but you suddenly if you listen to an

early take, you go, "God, sounds like

they were really enjoying it on that."

And uh that's one of the things I like

about it.

>> Now, as it gets into all the other

stuff, we found different outtakes.

um or maybe a version of something that

had maybe some vocals that were

different to the vocals that ended up on

the master. So what we've done is

present the alternate version.

>> You hear the songs for what they are. I

know George Martin when we listen to a

lot of this stuff, he said, "Well, why

did we ever feel we had to do them

again? This sounds so good just on their

own." I said, "Well, you know, probably

the same old creative thing. Oh, maybe

we could get it a bit better if we put a

little bit of drums on it or maybe if we

tried banjo, you know, you're always

questioned to try and get better.

>> Normally, I don't think back on the past

at all, but I've had to because of this.

And it's been a strange experience. Paul

actually said to me, he said, you know,

it's a hearing as we were 30 years ago,

25 years ago, and hearing us chatting

away. Um, it's strange experience. It's

like looking into an old scrapbook, but

it coming to life most vividly.