Brass Band Logo

NJH Music Logo

Some of the contents of the pages on this site are Copyright © 2016 NJH Music
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Penny Lane

Hi Dave.........

Neither James Watson or Bill Phillips played on "Penny Lane"

There is a great book on The Beattles that answers your question.

THE BEATLES
Recording Sessions
The Official Abbey Road
Studio Session Notes
1962-1970

This should set the record straight.......I quote from the book........

SESSION: Tuesday 17 January 1967  Studio Two 7:00pm - 12:30am

"Penny Lane" still needed the finishing touch.  Paul McCartney realised what it
was when he sat watching the second of a five-part, late-night BBC2 television
series. "Masterworks" at home on the Wednesday evening of 11 January.  "He saw
me playing Bach's Branbenburg Concerto Number 2 in F Major with the English
Chamber Orchestra from Guildford Cathedral." remembers
David Mason, recruited for the Beetles session and paid the special Musicians'
Union rate of L27 10s for his efforts.  "The next morning I got a call and a few
days later I went along to the studio. I took nine trumpets along and we tried
various things, by a process of elimination settling on the B-flat piccolo
trumpet"

True to form, there was no prepared notation for Mason to follow.  "We spent
three hours working it out, " says Mason.  "Paul sang the parts he wanted,
George Martin wrote them out, I tried them.  But the actual recording was done
quite quickly.  They were jolly high notes, quite taxing, but with the tapes
rolling we did two takes as overdubs on top of the existing song.  I read in
books that the trumpet sound was later speeded up but that isn't true because I
can still play those same notes on the instrument along with the record"

Further correcting previous accounts of the story, Mason was never a member of
the London Symphony Orchestra. "I was in the New Philharmonia then, now known
simply as the Philharmonia, and still am.  I've spent a lifetime playing with
top orchestras yet I'm most famous for playing on "PennyLane'!"

Mason's two trumpet overdubs, his solo in the middle eight and his flourish
towards the end of the song, completed the recording of "Penny Lane", close on
three weeks after it had been begun.

The question Dave,  is who is David Mason?  Perhaps someone can tell us more
about him.
I hope this helps.

Mark Freeh
(New York City)




--

[Services] [Contact Us] [Advertise with us] [About] [Tell a friend about us] [Copyright © 2016 NJH Music]