Getting Better

"It's getting better," was drummer Jimmy Nicol's standard response whenever John, Paul or George would ask him how things were going during his brief stint filling in for an ailing Ringo on the first leg of the Beatles' 1964 world tour.  Recalling this a few years later, McCartney set about writing a song with that title for the album-in-progress Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

On March 8th, 1967, a day off in the midst of the sessions for that album, Hunter Davies, who had recently been commissioned to write a biography of the group, was present as Paul and John worked on the song.  He witnessed first-hand the unique give-and-take of the songwriting duo in action, as John added lyrics which provided a sobering backstory to Paul's optimistic song.  Though the credit for the composition remains largely Paul's, there is no question that John's contributions to it are substantial.  While most of these are serious, as in the "I used to be cruel to my woman" section, some are humorous, such as the backing vocal response "It can't get no worse."

The group met the day after this writing session to work out the basic track.  With the release of the 50th anniversary edition of Sgt. Pepper, we can now listen to take one from that day which features Ringo on drums and George on electric guitar, John playing a distorted bass guitar and Paul on an electric piano.  Paul also sings a guide vocal off mike, but this take was clearly just for the instrumental backing.  It breaks down before the third verse and we hear Ringo admitting that he keeps forgetting to play a certain bit, thus revealing that there was rehearsal time before the tapes began rolling.

The group committed seven takes to tape before Paul felt that they had arrived at the best.  On top of that, five reduction mixes were made (bringing the total to take twelve) before he was satisfied that overdubbing could begin.  That process began the next day, March 10th, with the most prominent overdub being a droning tamboura part played by George during the third verse of the song.  Producer George Martin also played a piano at some point, actually striking the strings to make the sharp strident sound heard on the master.  After the other Beatles had left, Paul remained to overdub his bass line, making sure that John's bass part from the previous day was toned down in the mix.

They did not return to the song until March 21st, which turned out to be one of the most infamous recording sessions of the group's career.  Hunter Davies was once again present as John, Paul and George gathered around a microphone to record their vocals.  Davies could not hear the backing track playing in their headphones, only their voices in the room, and he was shocked at how raspy and out-of-tune they sounded.  John became more and more distracted and eventually made his way up to the control room.  Feeling that some spring air would do him good, George Martin took him up to the roof.  When Paul and George learned of his whereabouts, they quickly ran up to retrieve him.  What Martin and Davies did not realize was that John was on LSD and could easily have wandered off the exposed edges of the building.

Needless to say, the vocals were completely redone two days later on the 23rd.  Completing the overdubs on this date were some handclaps, an additional electric guitar and a conga drum played by Ringo which, like George's tamboura part, also first appears during the all-important third verse.

The new stereo mix created by Giles Martin for the 50th anniversary edition beautifully presents each sonic component of this surprisingly complex recording, thus adding fuel to the long-standing debate over whether the mono mix is the only true way to listen to what the group and George Martin originally intended.