Recording
The Beatles' recording of this song features lead vocals from Harrison, and backing vocals from John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The unusual bass sound was achieved by tracking the bass with the lead guitar. There is some controversy over whether Harrison played bass. Everett states that it was McCartney's Jazz Bass doubled in the bridge with Harrison's Telecaster playing chromatically moving arpeggiations in a similar manner to the bridge guitars in And Your Bird Can Sing. In a two part CREEM interview (published December 1987 and January 1988), however, George Harrison appears to confirm he played bass for the piece. Extract from the interview:
- Creem: You also told me you played bass on "Old Brown Shoe."
- George: It’s like a lunatic playing.
- Creem: It sounds like McCartney was going nuts again.
- George: That was me going nuts. I’m doing exactly what I do on the guitar.
Everett states that Harrison's "stinging highly Claptonesque solo" was played on a Telecaster coloured through a Leslie speaker given Automatic double tracking (ADT) treatment and "sent wild to both channels." Although Lennon did play guitar on the track, his instrumentation was removed and replaced by the organ sound. It has been said that Ringo Starr sang backing vocals on the line "Wearing rings on every finger", however, this is an unreferenced claim.
The song was recorded during the sessions for the Abbey Road album. The group had previously performed the song a number of times over three days during the Let It Be sessions at Apple Studios in January 1969, which have been widely bootlegged. Harrison made a solo demo (featuring only piano and electric guitar) at EMI Studios on 25 February 1969 (along with "Something" and "All Things Must Pass"), which was released on Anthology 3 in 1996.
In 1980 John Lennon claimed that he was responsible for the inclusion of "Old Brown Shoe" as the B-side of "The Ballad of John and Yoko" single.
Read more about this topic: Old Brown Shoe
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“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)
“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)
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)