The Beatles' She Loves You - Tempo change?

[some_white_dude]

At about the 1:23 mark in my version of the song, the tempo seems to slow just a tiny bit. I also notice a tonal change. It’s as if two separate takes of the song were spliced together.

It happens at this point:

You know it’s up to you
I think it’s only fair
[change in tempo/tone]
Pride can hurt you too (not sure about this line…not important)
Apologize to her

The tonal change is in the open hi-hat. It sounds fuller and more pronounced.

Can anyone verify this? Do I perhaps have a bad copy?

[DrMemory]

I’d suggest you go here.http://www.pootle.demon.co.uk/wgo.htm. it’s a site called
“What goes on” which list all the anomalies in Beatles songs. They have quite a bit to say about mistakes and other odd things heard in Beatles songs.

[Walloon]

From What Goes On: A Beatles Anomaly List:

1:22-1:30, 1:32
Bad edit right after the line “I think it’s only fair” … even the cymbals sound different. The drop-in ends after the line “Because she loves you”, but before “and you know”.

Reported as not audible in Capitol Remix, but is reported audible on Red Album, so some doubt as to which mixes this is found in. Definitely audible on mono CD (Past Masters).

Danny Caccavo says

I examined this on a workstation, and I think that somebody (after the initial release) mangled or stretched the tape, and copied a piece from a 45 (record) and edited it in. The insert piece has audible clicks in it when analysed at slow speed. Since the Capitol version doesn’t have this, this might be an explanation.

Dave Prokopy says

*The great number of edits is understandable … they were still working on 2-track recording, primarily an instrumental on one and usually live vocals on the other. The only way to overdub was to make a copy while adding a new element. This meant an extra layer of hiss … to minimise this, George Martin would make a copy with the overdubs added, and then edit JUST the overdubbed sections into the mono mix of the basic recording. Therefore only the overdubbed sections would have the extra hiss, not the whole song.

It sounds like Martin had the boys overdub an extra set of “Yeah Yeah Yeahs” … those three words sound a lot fuller … the downside is that this created a ton of extra edits.

Subsequent versions are cleaned up, with more obvious edits digitally tightened.*

[some_white_dude]

Thanks a bunch. I KNEW I wasn’t crazy.

[RumMunkey]

I can’t remember where but I seem to remember John Lennon pointing this out in an interview once, so the band was at least aware of a lot of the strange stuff going on.

[fishbicycle]

In Mark Lewisohn’s Recording Sessions, he says that that “She Loves You” was recorded on July 1st 1963, but records of this day’s activities are missing. So nobody knows how many takes they made. The final record was assembled on July 4th, and edited together from an unknown number of sections of these unknown takes. This accounts for the equalization and tempo changes in the various sections. Any further damage to and/or reconstruction of the master mixdown tape is undocumented, but the session tapes were erased and reused, so there’s no going back to make a “proper” version. We’re stuck with what we have. That’s also why there is no stereo mix of this song. The Beatles weren’t really a commodity until this record smashed through the charts wordwide. After it, they saved all the tapes of all the sessions.

[Oslo_Ostragoth]

And this thread is yet another reason why, when I die, I want to go to the Straight Dope Message Board.

[some_white_dude]

That site you guys posted is amazing. I’m gonna waste hours over there. It’s a shame that so many of the “anomalies” have been corrected in remastered editions. I know that’s sort of the point of remastering, but it seems part of the charm of these songs is in the subtle mistakes and whatnot. It’s really cool to hear Paul flub a note on his bass and recover, or join John in harmony, only to realize in an instant that he’s supposed to be singing the same melody.