Working in The Studio
The first problem the three surviving Beatles had to confront was the low quality of the demo, as Lennon had not used professional recording equipment on the take they were using, but a hand-held tape recorder. George Martin had suffered a hearing loss, so the Beatles brought in Electric Light Orchestra's Jeff Lynne (who had worked with Harrison as part of the Traveling Wilburys) to co-produce. Lynne, who had already co-produced "Free as a Bird" said:
| “ | We tried out a new noise reduction system, and it really worked. The problem I had with 'Real Love' was that not only was there a 60 cycles mains hum going on, there was also a terrible amount of hiss, because it had been recorded at a low level. I don't know how many generations down this copy was, but it sounded like at least a couple. So I had to get rid of the hiss and the mains hum, and then there were clicks all the way through it. ... We'd spend a day on it, then listen back and still find loads more things wrong. ... It didn't have any effect on John's voice, because we were just dealing with the air surrounding him, in between phrases. That took about a week to clean up before it was even usable and transferable to a DAT master. Putting fresh music to it was the easy part! | ” |
Although "Real Love" was comparatively more complete than "Free as a Bird," which had required the addition of some lyrics by McCartney, the song also suffered from problems with Lennon's timing. Lynne said:
| “ | Well, nobody is when they're just writing a song. You don't think, 'I'd better use a click while I'm putting down this idea.' You just play and enjoy yourself. So it took a lot of work to get it all in time so that the others could play to it. | ” |
This complicated job was a large part of the reason why George Martin, the traditional Beatles producer, did not produce any of the new, original Beatles songs. McCartney said:
| “ | George wasn't involved, no. George doesn't want to produce much any more 'cause his hearing's not as good as it used to be. He's a very sensible guy, and he says, 'Look, Paul I like to do a proper job', and if he doesn't feel he's up to it he won't do it. It's very noble of him, actually—most people would take the money and run. | ” |
Nevertheless, Lynne and the remaining Beatles did their best to make the song appear very "Beatles-y." Lynne said:
| “ | What we were trying to do was create a record that was timeless, so we steered away from using state-of the-art gear. We didn't want to make it fashionable. | ” |
Therefore, the Beatles gathered once more in Sussex, England at McCartney's studio to produce another single. Added to the demo were the sounds of a double bass (originally owned by Elvis Presley's bassist, Bill Black), Fender Jazz bass guitar, a couple of Stratocaster guitars, one a modern "Clapton-style one" as Lynne described it, and George Harrison's psychedelically-painted "Rocky" strat (as seen in the "I Am the Walrus" video), as well as a Ludwig drum kit. McCartney did not use his traditional Höfner bass guitar, as he did during much of his career as a Beatle. Other than their traditional instruments, a Baldwin Combo Harpsichord (used by Lennon on the Beatles song "Because") and a harmonium (which appeared on the Beatles hit single "We Can Work It Out") were also used. After recording the overdubs Lynne and Geoff Emerick decided to speed the master tape from D minor to E flat which would be the speed that it was officially released in.
The Beatles used sound engineer Geoff Emerick, who had not only worked with them to a great extent in the 1960s, but is often credited with many of the Beatles' audio inventions. McCartney said, "e's solid, really great. He knows how Ringo's snare should sound." The attitude in the studio was very relaxed, according to Lynne, "Paul and George would strike up the backing vocals—and all of a sudden it's the Beatles again! ... I'd be waiting to record and normally I'd say, 'OK, Let's do a take', but I was too busy laughing and smiling at everything they were talking about." Starr said that they had to be, in order to avoid being overwhelmed by the thought of being too reverent towards "a fallen hero" (as McCartney put it): "We just pretended that John had gone on holiday or out for tea and had left us the tape to play with. That was the only way we could deal with it, and get over the hurdle, because was really very emotional."
Read more about this topic: Real Love (The Beatles Song)
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