You Never Give Me Your Money

The spring of 1969 was a tumultuous time for the Beatles.  They had attempted to manage their own affairs since the death of manager Brian Epstein in August of '67 - an unwise decision which saw their company Apple eventually spiraling out of control as a result.  Though they now realized that they needed someone with experience to come in and actually manage things for them, they could not agree on who that person should be.  John wanted the brash Allen Klein, and he convinced George and Ringo to side with him.  Paul, on the other hand, preferred his new in-laws the Eastmans, and a power struggle inevitably ensued.  On one occasion, after hearing what he considered to be more empty promises from Klein, McCartney came up with the title and first few lines of a new song called You Never Give Me Your Money.

The song evolved and shifted into other sections which can loosely be interpreted as reflecting various periods of the Beatles' career.  During sessions for the "White Album" the previous year, McCartney had been especially enthusiastic while working on Lennon's Happiness is a Warm Gun, a piece which also included multiple sections strung together.  Now, the idea of a huge medley combining several unfinished song fragments from both Lennon and McCartney began taking shape.  You Never Give Me Your Money would serve as the opening number of this song suite. 

With this in mind, the Beatles gathered at Olympic Sound Studios in London on May 6th, 1969 to work on the basic track of the song.  They recorded no less than thirty-six takes of the complex number before deciding that take thirty was the best.  The 50th anniversary edition of the album Abbey Road presents the very similar take thirty-six, which turns into an extended jam by the band.  I possess a bootleg version of take thirty and its jam, which goes on for a minute or two before coming to a halt.  As on all of these takes, Paul plays piano and sings a guide vocal while John plays distorted guitar, George alternates between some lovely low notes and the stinging lead guitar parts in the connecting instrumental sections, and Ringo deftly shifts the beat as necessary from section to section.

The focus changed over the next few days to solidifying the lineup of the unreleased Get Back album, following which the group took a break for a month and a half.  Work on what would become the album Abbey Road began in earnest on July 1st, though only Paul was present to record his lead vocal for You Never Give Me Your Money.  He finally added a bass part to the track on July 11th.  And, on the 15th, he played some tubular bells in the "But, oh, that magic feeling" section, as well as double-tracking some of his lead vocal.  At some point, George also double-tracked some of his lead guitar part.

A particularly long and important session took place on July 30th.  First, John, Paul and George overdubbed backing vocals at various places throughout the song, and Ringo hit a tambourine at a few strategic points.  Overdubs were applied to a few other numbers, too, before the entire medley was edited together for the first time as a trial run.  This can be heard in its entirety on the deluxe 50th anniversary edition of the album.  At this point, You Never Give Me Your Money was joined to the following song Sun King by a simple organ chord.  Neither John nor Paul was satisfied with this link, but different ideas were not forthcoming.

Hearing the trial run made Paul decide to re-record his bass part and portions of his piano part on July 31st.  Some of the three-part backing vocals were also re-recorded, while others were deemed superfluous and eliminated.  The body of the song was now complete, but the issue of the segue into Sun King was not yet solved.

The solution arrived on August 5th in a plastic bag.  As he had done in 1966 for Tomorrow Never Knows, Paul compiled a number of tape loops featuring different sounds.  This entire session was devoted to transferring these onto a master tape, then opting to use only the bells and crickets for the ideal mood-setting segue into the next song, though it required multiple editing and crossfading attempts on August 13th, 14th and 21st to finally get it right.

The component parts of the Huge Medley, or the Long One, as the EMI staff and the Beatles themselves referred to it at the time, are so inextricably tied to one another that it is almost impossible to listen to any of them separately.  Thus, You Never Give Me Your Money has never been reissued on any post career compilations, except, of course, on the 50th anniversary editions of Abbey Road.