shut up and listen

There’s a lot to talk about in this production. The crowd sound effect fading out from the previous album track, the doubled piano in stereo, the ways the drums have been recorded and mixed to highlight the toms (like timpani) and de-emphasise the snare, the orchestral interludes, the layered reverbed vocal ‘aah’ after the middle section, the sustained piano chord at the end, the high pitched tone, the tape loop… but let’s just take a look at the use of stereo.

At the beginning the lead vocal (Lennon) is panned right. From the second verse it begins to slowly pan across to the left, coming to the centre on the lyric ‘lords’ and finishing far left on the line ‘I’d love to turn you on’.

In the middle section the lead vocal (McCartney) also begins hard right but doesn’t move.

In the final section when Lennon’s vocal reappears it is still hard left, and remains there until the final line ‘Albert Hall. I’d love to turn you on’ which is doubled with the vocal in both sides equally.

Lennon’s entire lead vocal is echoed, pushing it back in the mix, and the echo follows the dry signal across the stereo field. McCartney’s vocal has no echo or reverb and stands out as very dry, compared to Lennon.

These extreme panning positions of the vocals are balanced by instrumentation. While the bass and drums sit centre, Lennon’s first vocal (hard right) is balanced by piano, guitar and maracas on the left, although they don’t move as the vocal slowly moves to hard left. In the final section when Lennon’s vocal reappears hard left the piano, guitar and maracas now appear hard right. The mid section, featuring McCartney’s vocal hard right, is balanced with the piano and shakers hard left while bass and drums stay firmly centre. At the end of the middle section the reverb soaked ‘aah’ drifts from right to left and back again.

To close the track (after the piano chord dies out and the high pitched tone) is a tape loop – ‘Never could see any other way’ that also slides around the stereo field.

Overall an amazing use of stereo, especially considering how new the effect was at the time. Stereo has been used not just to create more space in the mix but as a way to further differentiate between the two vocal characters (one dreamy and floating around, the other matter-of-fact and firmly fixed in one position).

Notes: Because A Day in the Life is the last track on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album that loop at the end was intended to be a locked groove. So, instead of the needle reaching the centre of the record and triggering the automatic lift off it remains locked in a circle, playing the loop endlessly (until the needle is manually lifted). It would have been quite a surprise to people used to listening to vinyl records come to an end automatically. Kids, ask your parents about vinyl

see here for a fascinating travelogue of locked grooves