Notes and Quotes: "Rain"

"Rain" probably marks the beginning of a period in John Lennon's compositional life where experimentation with recording effects was almost as important as the music. Here, the experiments with the recording of Paul's new Rickenbacker bass and the reproduction of these sounds on disk continue so that the bass level is boosted to near the front of the mix.

Perhaps even more importantly, Martin and Emerick have recorded part of the backing track at a faster speed and then slowed it down, thus giving the drums a "fatter" sound than before. They have also probably manipulated Lennon's vocals, recording them at a slightly slower (and lower) speed and sped up for the final mix. Lewisohn (1988:74) comments that "John’s lead on take five of the song, the first to feature vocals, was recorded at 42 cycles per second. Tape machines usually ran at 50. Hence when John’s vocal was played back it sounded very fast indeed, halfway to Mickey Mouse."

Finally, as aforementioned, Martin spliced in the last line of vocal backwards so that Lennon's voice appears in retrograde at the end of the recording. The effect can be disconcerting: you hear Lennon's voice, but you do not understand what he is singing.

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21 March, 2012