Live Today

The continuing progress of studio equipment in the mid Sixties came at just the right time for the Beatles. Since the late Fifties, the boys had done nothing but play live for hours on end in the sweaty dives of Hamburg and Liverpool. Later, as success arrived, that hard slog was transferred to bigger stages throughout the world where the level of their musicianship dropped a couple of degrees and the hours on stage became minutes. It’s no wonder that they got severely bored of the circus. What they probably needed more than anything was a break. A proper break like bands do today. A couple of years at a time, where they can relax, regroup and perhaps come back with a renewed passion. Of course the music industry was making it up as they went along during that time. There seemed to be no limits to what could be done and what might be achieved next. If you think that The Beatles were playing UK tours in cinemas to a couple of thousand at a time and then imagine what the impact of going from there to say Shea Stadium was, then perhaps they could be forgiven for thinking, what IS the point of this continual nonsense? I doubt that George was alone within the group in thinking that touring and concerts were a total waste of time where all that was achieved really was the treading of water in order that they didn’t drown. Let’s not go into the Jeez comments, Manila or any of that stuff. Imagine it, night after night (er…after night) of the same set, the same reaction, the same one horse town, the same problems getting “down” from show mode? In short they must have come to the conclusion that the shows were pointless. It’s not like they needed to sell more records or get more famous at that point really is it? By that time they could have broken wind and sold a million. My own thought is that it must have been just awful towards the end when they made that decision to end touring.
And, further to that, the recorded output was now getting in the way of being able to transfer from studio to stage. The progress in the technology was responsible. Let’s say two of the boys are singing at the same time putting down a lead vocal and harmony part on one track. Then they have the opportunity to double track that same part. Now two voices become four. With the right balance, this thickens the voice up to an unnatural degree. A great move forward for their recordings of course. You can see that even by using this simple technique, it would be impossible to re produce live, unless you had four voices which could emulate it. Paperback Writer is a prime example of this very point. Even in the studio outtakes you can hear that the opening gambit isn’t quite “alive” until the double tracks arrive – and then BANG! It’s irresistible and of course brilliant. Now compare that to any live version? The live thing can’t compete. That must have been soul destroying as musicians, for them to realise that they weren’t in the position to be as good as they were in the studio. By using string quartets, backwards effects, double tracks etc, it simply ruled out any possibility of being included in their live set. So, going down that road, how long could they realistically continue to play She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand on the road when they’ve got Strawberry Fields and Walrus in the bag at home in the studio? Whilst the technology was helping them in the studio, it hadn’t transferred out to the real world and the reality of the stage. The Mellotron is a fine example. Basically a Mellotron is the father of the sampling keyboard and without it we may not have the samplers today. However where we use micro chips to replay recorded sound in any which way we choose, the Mellotron used small sections of tape. So when you pressed the key down, it was akin to pressing play on a tape recorder. Brilliant idea! But, what would happen if it broke down? Brilliant in the controlled environment of Abbey Road, but what about when twenty thousand people are expecting to hear Strawberry Fields and it’s dead? Er….sorry but we can’t play that song tonight..er…
The point is made. The progress in the studio came at a price. Today, most equipment does what it says and is reliable. However, I myself have still had that problem where you might do something in the studio and NOT be able to reproduce it live, or the synth refused to work because it was too hot. I remember playing a show in the 1980’s where the synthesiser we were using just (out of nowhere) started to lose its tuning very badly and very rapidly. Can you imagine the effect of that during a song? It’s a bit like jumping from a great height onto a blown up bag pipe! Not pretty. The equipment of today is uber reliable and can do things that quite frankly blow your mind. Like live harmony generators which give full blown double tracking effects or four part harmony – live and instant. Live backward guitar parts present no problem. What is strikingly obvious to me, is that what the Beatles were doing in the studio in the Sixties, was unwittingly creating presets for technology to match and for musicians (including themselves) to aspire to. These days that technology is here and is functioning beautifully and there are few songs in the recorded output of The Beatles that wouldn’t be possible to reproduce perfectly today if any.
It really is lucky old us thanks in part to them.