Deconstructing I Want You (She's So Heavy) - The Beatles (Isolated Tracks)

A one of a kind breakdown of one of The Beatles' heaviest songs, I Want You (She's So Heavy). The most detailed deconstruction you'll find for now.

History:

John first brought the song to the Beatles on January 28th, 1969 during the Get Back sessions. It wasn't until February 22nd that the song was properly recorded during a session at Trident Studios rather than their usual stomping ground of EMI, or the newly created Apple Studios. I Want You was originally recorded to fatten up the Get Back/Let It Be album. George Martin produced the sessions and Glyn Johns attended the sessions as assistant producer. He can be heard during some studio outtakes.

This session began at 8pm and 35 takes were recorded with the session ending in the early hours of the next day. The song was then stitched together the next day with take nine making up the earlier part of the song, take 20 making up the middle, and take 32 making up the end. Then on the 24th some overdubs were recorded including some piano parts, extra guitar parts, a tambourine, and strangely a backward cymbal probably in the same vein as "Strawberry Fields Forever" backward percussion. Although it is said these overdubs were scrapped I believe at least the piano was kept.

It wasn't until April 19th that the song was worked on again. This session took place in the early morning after George completed some additional overdubs onto "Old Brown Shoe". It was during this session that all the ending coda guitars were tracked. Jeff Jarratt an engineer present recalled that "They wanted a massive sound so they kept tracking and tracking, over and over..." The next day Billy Preston recorded his Hammond organ part with Ringo recording his conga drums along with someone playing claves.

The final stretch of the recording took place after Abbey Road was decided to be their next album with Get Back/Let It Be being put on the backburner. The first round of overdubs were recorded on August 8th which included white noise from a Moog synth and Ringo with some drum hits. These overdubs interestingly were recorded on the original February composite rhythm track that had no overdubs. Then on August 11th the harmony vocals were recorded on the April version.

The narrative at this point has been that on August 20th John recorded white noise again and the two different mixes of the song were joined together. These two being a mix with all the overdubs up to that point except the Moog white noise for the first half, and a mix that used the original February composite edit with only the Moog white noise and backing vocals. However I'm not fully convicted that this is completely right. According to the Abbey Road booklet the Moog white noise was recorded only on August 8th and was then joined to the April-August reduction mix when the final mix was being made. This makes more sense rather than a bare February mix with white noise being used. There are also a few overdubs not accounted for if the original February composite track was used. Including all the April coda guitars, the coda organ heard both at 31:36 and 52:42, and the mysterious piano heard at 46:46.

These stems are made from the 7.1 atmos mix and Rockband stems. Most of the photos come from a mysterious February 1969 session at Apple. The drums have also been mixed in stereo.

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Studio Chatter (0:00)
John and George Overdubbed Intro Guitars (0:41)
George Overdubbed Intro Guitar (0:54)
George's Basic Track Guitar (1:05)
John's Basic Track Guitar (5:35)
Drums (10:11)
Coda Drums (14:47)
Overdubbed Conga (17:55)
Overdubbed Conga/Claves (18:48)
Bass (19:17)
Coda Bass (23:54)
Billy Preston's Organ (27:02)
Billy Preston's Coda Organ (31:36)
Vocals (34:44)
Overdubbed Coda Guitars 1/Possible Additional Piano (37:29)
Overdubbed Coda Guitars 2 (40:38)
Overdubbed Coda Guitars 3 (43:39)
Overdubbed Coda Piano (46:46)
Overdubbed Coda Drum Hits (49:35)
Additional Coda Organ (52:42)
Original Unused Basic Coda Guitar Tracks (55:26)
Unused Solo Starts (56:04)
Wind Machine/ White Noise (58:35) [Starts Very Quiet]
Wind Machine/White Noise picks up more here (59:23)
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John Lennon - Lead and Backing Vocals, Lead and Rhythm Guitar (1965 Epiphone ES-230TD Casino), Synthesizer (1967 Moog IIIp), Wind Machine
Paul McCartney - Bass (Hofner), backing vocals
George Harrison - Lead and Rhythm Guitar (1957 Gibson Les Paul Standard), Backing Vocals
Ringo Starr - Drums (1968 Ludwig Hollywood Maple), Conga Drums, Wind Machine
Billy Preston - Organ (Hammond RT-3)
Unknown- Piano, Claves
#thebeatles #georgeharrison #paulmccartney #ringostarr #iwantyoushessoheavy #abbeyroad #johnlennon

[sebastianmaharg]

0:30 "It's no use being working class these days." That's what McCartney says.

[gconyers]

Paul’s bass playing is stellar as usual.

[rbstems]

It'll be hard for anyone to make a better deconstruction than this, amazing job!

[jameskelly]

That bass playing is incredible. What a tone he has, too.

[hw]

John & George, the greatest and most influential guitar duo ever in my book

[mysterymac]

People have waited over 50 years for this!!

[joaquinsandoval]

I love Billy's parts so much. The harmonies, the improvs, the eerie sounds. Exactly what the song needed.

[sambakery]

The video I'm sure we have all been excited and waiting for. And wow, it is a million times better than we could have imagined. Thank you so much for all the hard and amazing work Isolated Sterms

[philboyer]

Billy's organ part in the coda is vewry eerie. Sounds like a soundtrack to those old time horror movies.

[richeymeister]

I was so happy to hear Billy Preston's contribution. It is so far down in most mixes as to practically vanish. It is astounding.

[RebelBourke]

My all time favourite beatles song. and now I get to listen to an hours worth of everything I've already heard before! thanks for this

[rwjwith]

Great to finally here clearly George’s guitar..it is an essential part if the song. Wow, there is always this talk of “guitar weaving” in the Stones but George and John did a lot of that too here. Very much a live in the studio band track.

[jaradwilson]

Why is this so meditative to listen to this all the way through!?.All the space in each track is so calming. This is a revelation

[thebordenasylum]

That person who complained about The Beatles being too loud, lived out the rest of their life with nobody remembering their name- meanwhile, the noise they complained about turned into a song that will be remembered another 100 years from now

Having known this album nearly all of my life and I’m only 63 I always wondered where the bass run came from in the outro and thought it must be Billy but now realise it’s Paul on his Hofner. Thanks x

[sackrafix]

whou, whou, whou and WOUH Not more words need this amazing deconstruction. I can feel your love for this group of musicans that changed the world!!
WOUH!

[glentorn]

There was genius amidst this crucible of creativity! 💙💜❤🧡

[TheGabeNewellGamingChannel]

This is the most impressive isolation job I've seen. This is awesome man!

[rockyraccoon]

Massive work on deconstructing them and the breakdown and full history in the description! I think you’re the only person to do this haha

[pez.emikazoo]

Thank you, it's such a thrill to hear with such quality that piano. It's so evil and buried so deep down in the mix♪