Doctor Robert
It was about myself. I was the one that carried all the pills on tour and always have done. Well, in the early days. Later on the roadies did it, and we just kept them in our pockets loose, in case of trouble. John Lennon 1980 Playboy Interview
Well, he's like a joke. There's some fellow in New York, and in the States we'd hear people say: 'You can get everything off him; any pills you want.' It was a big racket, but a joke too about this fellow who cured everyone of everything with all these pills and tranquilizers, injections for this and that; he just kept New York high. That's what 'Dr. Robert' is all about, just a pill doctor who sees you all right. Paul McCartney
In fact, the name was based on the New York Dr. Feelgood character Dr. Robert Freymann, whose discreet East 78th Street clinic was conveniently located for Jackie Kennedy and other wealthy Upper East Siders from Fifth Avenue and Park to stroll over for their vitamin B-12 shots, which also happened to contain a massive dose of amphetamine. Dr. Robert’s reputation spread and it was not long before visiting Americans told John and Paul about him. Paul McCartney Many Years From Now
Doctor Robert was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney at John's Kenwood mansion in early 1966.
On 16 April 1966, which was the eighth recording session for what became the Revolver album, The Beatles entered EMI Studio Two at 2:30 PM for an eight hour recording session to concentrate solely on Doctor Robert. The rhythm track consisted of John on electric guitar, George on electric guitar, Paul on bass and Ringo on drums. Seven takes of the song were recorded with take seven deemed best and ready for overdubs. The song was 2:56 long on this take and ended with John saying something that sounds like "OK Herb."
The overdubs consisted of John on harmonium in the bridges, George on lead guitar and maracas throughout the entire song and, reportedly, Paul on piano, although this was apparently mixed out of the recording entirely. By 10:30 PM they were done for the day. The only thing left to complete the song was the vocals.
On 19 April 1966, The Beatles returned to EMI Studio Two at 2:30 PM to record the vocals. John performed his lead vocals simultaneously with Paul's harmony vocals with George chiming in on the "well, well, well you're feeling fine" vocals in the bridges. The customary double-tracked vocals were now replaced by a new engineering advancement invented by EMI staff member Ken Townsend called Artificial Double Tracking. By copying the recorded vocal track to a separate machine with a variable oscillator, which allowed you to alter the speed of the recording, and then recording it back to the original tape on top of the recorded vocal, a double image of the sound could be created with one of the images slightly out of time with the first by maybe just a few milliseconds. This created an effect that somewhat mimicked what double-tracking could do, although a discerning ear can still tell the difference. Since it saved time, this new process was used quite regularly by The Beatles from 1966 on. A good portion of Revolver included this technique.
This session ended at midnight after three MONO mixes were performed. None of these three mixes were released.
On 12 May 1966, one of the MONO mixes was edited down to 2:13 by removing 43 seconds just before first bridge. This MONO mix appeared on Yesterday...And Today. Listen closely for the "OK Herb" as the song fades out...
http://youtu.be/5XWYlKMNUBMTwo STEREO mixes were made on 20 May 1966. The first mix was given to Capitol Records for the US release, although they instead opted to create a Duophonic fake stereo mix for the album instead of waiting for these stereo mixes to arrive, which could have been past their deadline. John’s "OK Herb" was removed from the end of the song on the Duophonic stereo master for the album. The true stereo mix of the song that they received was eventually incorporated onto some copies of the album a couple of years.
The second stereo mix was used for the stereo copies of the British Revolver album. As with the first stereo mix, the fade-out is done more carefully to hide the true ending to the song...
http://youtu.be/niuNlPo1q9MJohn Lennon - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar (1965 Epiphone 230TD Casino), Harmonium (Mannborg)
Paul McCartney - Bass Guitar (1964 Rickenbacker 4001S), Harmony Vocals
George Harrison – Lead Guitar (1965 Epiphone 230TD Casino), Harmony Vocals, maracas
Ringo Starr – Drums (1964 Ludwig Super Classic Black Oyster Pearl)
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Topic: Song Of The Week - Doctor Robert (Read 11052 times)