On May 25th, 1967, The Beatles retreated to yet another London recording studio, De Lane Lea Music Recording Studios, undoubtedly because EMI Studios were already booked. This was a basement studio of an office building directly across the street from the Holborn London Underground station. George Martin was not present during this session, which began at 7 pm, the staff engineers Dave Siddle and Mike Weighell manning the controls while The Beatles themselves called the shots on this day.
"I was losing interest in being 'fab' at that point." This George Harrison quote from the book "Beatles Anthology" sums up where his head was during the year 1967.
Personally, Ive never been very keen on this George song, for me it lacks the depth required to be a great song.
But hey, its The Beatles so I love it
Always some debate about what (John) was saying at the beginning.
Also debate who played the guitar solo, but instrumentation that day was;
Instrumentation (most likely):
George Harrison - Lead and Backing Vocals, Organ (Hammond C-3), handclaps
John Lennon - Guitar (1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster), backing vocals, handclaps, woodblock
Paul McCartney - Bass Guitar (1964 Rickenbacker 4001S), backing vocals, handclaps, cowbell
Ringo Starr - Drums (1964 Ludwig Super Classic Black Oyster Pearl), handclaps, tambourine
Paul Harvey - bass clarinet, contra bass clarinet
David Mason - trumpet
Its definitely Paul on Bass, its a very Paulesque Bass line, so it mustve been John.
Anyway it rambles on a bit 6.5 minutes. With George playing that drone on the Hammond Organ.
One of the trumpeters was David Mason, who had become a regular for Beatles sessions like this (see “Penny Lane”), his diary indicating that the session went much overtime, ending at 2 am the following morning. “George Harrison was in charge of that session,” Mason explains, adding, “I don't think he really knew what he wanted.” It appears, therefore, that George Martin didn't have any score written for them beforehand, them having to be instructed as George Harrison came up with ideas. Among the ideas were a trumpet rendition of a section of "The Prince Of Denmark's March" which is heard in the long closing section of the song, undoubtedly an idea that was carried over into the “All You Need Is Love” sessions later that month, George Martin incorporating various standards into the orchestral performance of that song.