The Beatles EMI Studio 2 London, UK 30 July 1968 7:30 pm – 3:30 am Running time: 5:44 This interesting tidbit is from a documentary entitled ‘Music!’, made by Britain’s National Music Council to examine the country’s burgeoning music scene. The filmmakers were undoubtedly thrilled to be allowed access to a Beatles session in Abbey Road’s Studio 2, as the group ran through early takes of “Hey Jude”. The date is 30 July 1968 and we find Paul, John and Ringo on piano, acoustic guitar and drums respectively. George spends most of the session in the control room with producer George Martin and engineer Ken Scott. We begin with a bizarre clip of a printer spewing out Beatles song titles. The group is then shown running through rehearsal takes of “Hey Jude”, including a brief rendition of “St. Louis Blues”. Following this are portions of take 7 and take 9, ending with Ringo complaining of getting his pants caught in his drum pedal. (John’s answer: “Take ’em off!”) The quality is variable but generally OK – the video is a bit murky and suffers from occasional glitches and dropouts, but the audio is reasonably good. None of the audio has seen commercial release.
Video Rating: 4 / 5