Recording
Picking up the project again in November, Harrison was joined in his home studio at Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames by Ringo Starr, who arrived specifically to have Harrison produce some songs for him. They recorded two Harrison originals "Wrack My Brain" and "All Those Years Ago" plus a cover of "You Belong to Me" for Starr's impending album Can't Fight Lightning (which was later released as Stop and Smell the Roses). The two other songs were finished but "All Those Years Ago" went unadorned. Starr later admitted that the key was too high for him to sing. During this period, Harrison had received word that John Lennon was slightly hurt over his autobiography I Me Mine, which, in Lennon's estimation, praised every musician Harrison had worked with except him. Unfortunately, Harrison was never able to make amends with Lennon; on 8 December 1980, Lennon was gunned down outside the The Dakota apartment building.
After the shock and devastation of Lennon's murder, Harrison decided to utilise the unfinished recording of "All Those Years Ago". He changed the lyrics of the song to reflect the Lennon tragedy. With Starr's pre-recorded drum track in place, Harrison invited Paul and Linda McCartney, and their fellow Wings band-mate Denny Laine, to record backing vocals in early 1981. Aside "All Those Years Ago", "Blood from a Clone" (a searing indictment of the current music scene), "Teardrops" and "That Which I Have Lost" were added to replace the four discarded songs, and after a new cover was shot in the Tate Gallery in London, Somewhere in England was resubmitted and accepted.
Read more about this topic: Somewhere In England
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)