Nothing Is Real

The Beatles
 
Nothing Is Real - LP cover Nothing Is Real - LP back
Nothing Is Real - Front Cover Nothing Is Real - Back Cover
Label  oP8 Music
Catalogue No. POP 002
Country of origin Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Release date Late 90's
Total time 59:05
Comments: A stunning archival document of the making of "Strawberry Fields Forever" from Lennon's fledgling recordings to the fully formed masterpiece that was to transform pop culture.
Complete with detailed liner notes.
Very similar to a "Chapter One" release
But this one has loads of extra tracks

The C.D.

No Tracklisting Notes Time
1 It's Not Too Bad Santa Isabel Demo - Warm up 0:26
2 It's Not Too Bad Santa Isabel Demo - Take 1 0:48
3 It's Not Too Bad Santa Isabel Demo - Take 2 1:18
4 It's Not Too Bad Santa Isabel Demo - Take 3 1:32
5 It's Not Too Bad Santa Isabel Demo - Take 4 1:45
6 It's Not Too Bad Santa Isabel Demo - Takes 5 and 6 2:12
7 It's Not Too Bad Santa Isabel Demo - Rehearsal 0:13
8 Strawberry Fields Forever Kenwood demo 1 - Electric guitar overdub rehearsal 1:06
9 Strawberry Fields Forever Kenwood demo 2 - Electric guitar overdub onto demo 2:07
10 Strawberry Fields Forever Kenwood demo 3 - Playback and chat 0:15
11 Strawberry Fields Forever Kenwood demo 4 - Vocal overdub onto demo 2:15
12 Strawberry Fields Forever Kenwood demo 5 - demo playback 0:31
13 Strawberry Fields Forever Kenwood Take 1 - Electric guitar demo 0:38
14 Strawberry Fields Forever Kenwood Takes 2 to 7 - Electric guitar composing sequence 4:02
15 Strawberry Fields Forever Kenwood Take 8 - Electric guitar demo 1:56
16 Strawberry Fields Forever Kenwood demo - Mellotron / Vocal overdubs onto composing sequence 4:08
17 Strawberry Fields Forever Abbey Road Sessions - Take 1 - 24th November 1966 3:16
18 Strawberry Fields Forever Abbey Road Sessions - Take 2 - 28th November 1966 3:11
19 Strawberry Fields Forever Abbey Road Sessions - Takes 3 and 4 - 28th November 1966 3:36
20 Strawberry Fields Forever Abbey Road Sessions - Takes 5 and 6 - 29th November 1966 4:42
21 Strawberry Fields Forever Abbey Road Sessions - Take 7 (Tape reduction from take 6) - 29th November 1966 3:32
22 Strawberry Fields Forever Abbey Road Sessions - Take 7 (RM3) - 29th November 1966 3:07
23 Strawberry Fields Forever Abbey Road Sessions - Take 25 - 15th December 1966 3:52
24 Strawberry Fields Forever Abbey Road Sessions - Take 26 - 21st December 1966 3:42
25 Strawberry Fields Forever Abbey Road Sessions - Take 26 (RS5) - 29th December 1966 4:49

CD Liner Notes

The Drugs Don't Work

They might not now, but on the 24th November 1966 they kicked in big time taking psychedelia from the province of the hip and cool of Chelsea into the front rooms of working class England, creating a maelstrom of musical and cultural change the reverberation of which is still felt some 30 years later.
The creation of what has been top of more "Greatest single of all time" polls than any other record was, as with many masterpieces, a work consisting of as much pain as genius.
What we have strived to present here is an insight into the creation of one of the foremost works of popular culture.

The story begins in Spain, on location, filming "How I Won The War" where the first audio sketches germinate, the so-called Santa Isabel demos, recorded on a portable tape player using, appropriately enough a Spanish guitar.

When he returned from the 8 week Spanish shoot, he continued to develop his ideas in his home studio situated in the loft at Kenwood. Although saddled with equipment that in this day and age would be unthinkable for even a teenage bedroom guitar hero to use, he set about expanding his ideas. The only way he had of building up layers of sound to bring the ideas pouring out of his head to life was to effect a live overdub technique whereby he would play a previously recorded segment on one tape machine and then add another layer by playing part live, bouncing both parts down to a second machine. Although quite advanced for home recording in 1966 it seems nothing but archaic now. Also the analogue nature of the recording led to every "dub" degenerating the overall sound. His obvious frustration with the laborious creative process is evident on these nine takes referred to as the Kenwood Demos.

And finally to studio two, Abbey Road, where four years of learning studio techniques would marry with recent experiments with illegal pharmasuiticals. We start off with Take 1, far removed from the final version, presented with the backing track in the key of B.
What we have here are undocumented stereo remixes balanced from the original multi tracks, allowing his material to be heard in the best ever fidelity.

After time out to record the Xmas single, they returned on the 28th and set down Takes 2 through 4, also preparing three mono mixes of take 4. Twenty four hours later Takes 5 and 6 were recorded. After a vocal overdub Take 6 was reduced to Take 7 they then added more vocals, piano and bass.
At this point they then did 3 mono remixes, the latter is taken from an acetate cut at the time, although sonically imperfect it is notable for presenting the complete ending. Takes 2 through 7 were all recorded in A major which is how they are presented here, however overdubs were recorded at various speed giving the recording a unique feeling.

On Thursday 8th December the Beatles recorded another 15 attempts at the backing track. It was decided that a composite would give the required final take. This edit joining the first 75 percent of Take 15 with the last 25 percent of Take 25 was completed the following day whereupon it was reduced to Track 1 of Take 25 allowing the overdubbing of percussive effects, the curiously named sword mantel, and George's guitar solo to adorn Track 2. The four trumpets and three cellos that provided the distinctive brass and string sound were layered onto tracks 3 and 4 of Take 25. The mix presented here consists of Tracks 1, 3 and 4 with slight bleed through from track 2. This was again reduced to Take 26 with two new John Lennon vocals on Tracks 3 and 4. Further additions were made on 21st December when piano and vocal overdubs were made. A mix of this Take is here with the speed adjusted to give playback in the key of B.

There were now two different recordings of the same song, giving John the problem of deciding between them. He decided that he wanted the first 60 seconds of the first lighter version with the end of the more intense later Take 26. It was now that one of the miracles of pop music occurred, with John's seemingly outrageous request to edit together the two versions, (both had totally different tempos and keys) they slowed down a new mix of Take 26 and speeded up a new mix of Take 7 and finally cut a master. A week later the production team started to make a stereo mix for the first time.

Take 7 was remixed once while Take 26 was remixed twice, the final take on this collection is Take 7 edited with the second remix collectively known as RS5 which differs from the so called German version currently in use. This later stereo mix was done on the 26th October 1971. For those of you with golden ears if you listen to any final mix the edit can be spotted at precisely 60 seconds in, where the ambience changes, the song becoming more urgent, the sound of Ringo's snare drum becoming more natural after the edit.

So there you have it. Genius, pain, luck and drugs that work, those were the days ........

Dr. C. Lalone,
North Munroe,
Ambrosia,
Somewhere Over The Rainbow.



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