Another day, another Beatles session. Yawn city, except that at this point we’re less than a month away from the last time all four Beatles were/will be in a recording studio together.
Today it appears that only Paul and Ringo were present. Paul added bass and piano to “You Never Give Me Your Money,” according to The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions.
The only other overdubs taped this day were drums, timpani and a vocal for “Golden Slumbers”/“Carry That Weight.” Ringo and Paul both had attempts at achieving the right timpani sound, but the tape does not reveal who recorded the final superimposition.
So there’s a Beatle mystery for you — a small one, I’ll admit, but it’s something.
In case you didn’t know,
Timpani or kettledrums are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorized as a semispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper.
Timpani is an Italian plural, the singular of which is timpano. However, in English the term timpano is only widely in use by practitioners: several are more typically referred to collectively as kettledrums, timpani, temple drums, timp-toms, or timps. They are also often incorrectly termed timpanis. A musician who plays timpani is a timpanist. (Wikipedia)
And yeah, it’s a slow news day. We should probably stop there.
I thought timpani was a dessert. What have I been ordering all these years?