1969: Studio, Sunshine, Space!

A return to their roots

Paul during the 1969 sessions.

Though the production of A Doll's House and the release of the experimental "Back in Your Safely Beds" were well-received and regarded as interesting recordings at the time, there was a feeling among the band that the last two years were filled with very different material, ranging from the lush sounds of Sgt. Pepper's to the raw, low-quality tracks of Umbrella, the Beatle' standard, A Doll's House, and the experimental "Back in Your Safely Beds". According to Geoff Emmerick, Paul was the first one to express the idea of the return to their roots in the next project.

The project conceived by Paul McCartney was widely discussed with Brian Epstein and The Beatles after the release of "Back in Your Safely Beds", in which was included a documentary film, a special broadcasted live performance, and an album (which would become the eventual, full-length soundtrack, Get Back). An eventual tour was even considered, however, the idea was quickly disregarded.

In 1969, Allen Klein contacted Brian Epstein after reading a comment to fill a position as head manager of Apple Records. Both reached an agreement, and Allen assumed the office. Paul's recommendation, Lee and John Eastman, respectively father and brother of his wife Linda, was considered but ended up being appointed as the attorneys for the band and the company. Allen's position in Apple would determine the future of The Beatles as a band.

"At the time, the hiring of Allen Klein was the worst possible thing to think, but after all, it just ended up keeping us together even more. After 1970 when John, George, Ringo and Brian discovered that Allen wasn't someone to trust in, we've just talked, like that sort of out of the blue thing, and became trustful to each other again. I'm really glad that everything worked out fine, at least to all of us."

-Paul McCartney, 2011 

In March of that year, the Beatles would first gather along with Brian Epstein and the film crew at the Twickenham Film Studios to rehearsal. Most of the documentary was filmed there, along with takes at the Apple Recording Studios, EMI Studios, and the Apple Corps, consisting of the recording sessions of Get Back. Most of the tapes were recorded during March and April when most of Get Back was recorded. The filming would also take place some days in June and July when the band finished the sessions for Get Back and was finishing Abbey Road.

In May and June, John was mostly absent. On May 31, 1969, Yoko Ono gave birth to the couple's first child, a girl named Charlotte Narumi Ono Lennon. The marriage between Lennon and Ono happened in a private ceremony in Gibraltar on July 28, almost two months after the birth of Charlotte, with the presence of The Beatles, friends, and family. Charlotte's arrival ended up messing with John's schedule in peace activism, mainly against the Vietnam War, which he would restart late that year with the Bed-Ins for Peace, recording the single Give Peace a Chance.

During the sessions, the tensions between The Beatles started to rise again, reaching the climax when George threatened to quit the band. Brian Epstein negotiated on behalf of George and decided to do a short radio session instead, scheduling a presentation at the Peel sessions on July 17th. The last recording session with the presence of all the Beatles in 1969 was on August 20th, to overdubs for It's All Too Much!.

Abbey Road was announced as another compilation of tracks that wouldn't take part in the official soundtrack. Most of the songs of Lennon-McCartney were primarily written in Rishikesh, as the same happened in the last two albums (three, if you count "Back in Your Safely Beds"). Moreover, The Beatles did a little promotion for the album, as the members seemed to distance one from each other. Most of the legacy of Abbey Road can be spotted on the iconic cover, to George Harrison's Something becoming a hit and the second most covered song of The Beatles after Yesterday, the longest track of the band [I Want You (She's So Heavy)], and being considered a hit-driven album.

"Sure, Abbey Road was a strange point in our career. We've released the album with no pretensions at all, and then we see Something, the best track of the entire record by the way, becoming a big hit, Dear Prudence, [Oh!] Darling, and a few other tracks becoming rememorable Beatles' songs, that was weird at the time, of course."

-John Lennon, 1996

The Beatles – Abbey Road

 The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)

Genre: Rock, psychedelic rock, blues rock

Total: 46:11

Side A - 22:01

1. "Blackbird" (Lennon-McCartney) - 2:18

2. "Something" (George Harrison) - 3:03

3. "Happiness is a Warm Gun" (Lennon-McCartney) - 2:43

4. "All Together Now" (Lennon-McCartney) - 2:10

5. "Dear Prudence" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:56

6. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" (Lennon-McCartney) - 7:47

Side B - 24:10

7. "Hey Bulldog" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:14

8. "That Would Be Something" (Lennon-McCartney) - 2:43

9. "Here Comes the Sun" (Harrison) - 3:05

10. "Cry Baby Cry" (Lennon-McCartney) - 2:32

11. "Oh! Darling" (Lennon-McCartney) - 3:26

12. "Because" (Lennon-McCartney) - 2:45

13. "It's All Too Much!" (Harrison) - 6:25

Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album (twelfth, counting "Back in Your Safely Beds") by the British rock band, The Beatles. The record was released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records and produced by George Martin. Abbey Road is marked as the return of The Beatles to the EMI Studios, after recording A Doll's House entirely at the A.R.S. Contrasting with its predecessor, Abbey Road contains 6 out of 13 songs primarily written by John Lennon, who was mostly absent from the sessions of the previous album. The lead single, Something/The Inner Light, was released in October, becoming one of the biggest hits from The Beatles.

Portion of the tracks were worked along with the tracks included in the upcoming album and soundtrack, Get Back, which was recorded around the same time as Abbey Road. I Want You (She's So Heavy), It's All Too Much!, Hey Bulldog and Blackbird appeared in the documentary under production. Initially, the record was received with mixed reviews by music critics, comparing the album to something in-between Umbrella and A Doll's House, but ultimately it was met with universal acclaim by the fans, becoming one of their greatest albums.

The album topped UK Album Charts for two weeks and topped Billboard for a week. The album sold two million copies, partly due to the tracks included in the album which ended up being played in radio stations and becoming classic tracks from The Beatles. The remarkable cover was parodied several times, becoming a cultural symbol and making the zebra crossing a tourist attraction. In the next years, it was theorized that the album was one of the first signs of the conflicts behind the scenes.

A very good and interesting little exercise

Nick Mason with his charming hat, 1969.

"[...] I thought it was a very good and interesting little exercise, the whole business of everyone doing a bit. But I still feel really that that's quite a good example of the sum being greater than the parts..." 

-Nick Mason, 1984

To pay the costs of the tour, Pink Floyd assembled again at the Pye Studios. The initial plan was to each of the four group members had half an LP side each to create a solo work without involvement from the others. The idea was carried through the first week when Roger and David decided to convince the rest of the band to collaborate and elaborate a standard album. The material recorded during the first week was Sysyphus, a musical piece by Richard Wright which was released as a solo single.

In the next two weeks, most of the music was worked out. A large part of the songs have resulted from jamming sessions from the band, and the material was put together along with the previously recorded during the sessions of Are Going Insane!. "Actually the sessions for Basking in the Sunshine were pretty simple, in three weeks we've just recorded enough material to a double album. Peter and Steve [O'Rourke] wanted something similar to the other album, so we gave them Basking in the Sunshine of a Bygone Afternoon.", Richard Wright.

The album was produced by Nick Mason and assisted by Brian Humphries, and credited to Pink Floyd. The Blackhill announced the album as a follow-up to what've been Are Going Insane!, with the release of Cymbaline as a promotional single. The song was a minor hit, with a reasonable success, being performed in the tours until 1973.

After the release of Basking in the Sunshine of a Bygone Afternoon, Pink Floyd would enter into a hiatus for four months, until the band decides to gather again in the new decade to go... into a new direction, perhaps. Not flirting with the avant-garde scene like this new record, but engaging in a new, growing scene, that would take the first half of the seventies.

"Honestly I can say to you that Basking in the Sunshine of a Bygone Afternoon isn't a good record. I wasn't seeing direction coming from our band at that time, that record was just a bunch of junk thrown into a LP and sold for a couple bucks. But it certainly it has some good tunes, but surely done in the worst way possible."

-Roger Waters, 2003

Pink Floyd – Basking in the Sunshine of a Bygone Afternoon

(L-R): UK version; US version

Pink Floyd - Basking in the Sunshine of a Bygone Afternoon (1969)

Genre: Progressive rock, space rock, experimental, psychedelic rock, field recordings, avant-garde

Total: 66:15

Disc One - 31:40

Side A - 15:15

1. "Cirrus Minor" (Roger Waters, David Gilmour) - 5:18

2. "The Ummagumma" (Gilmour) - 2:31¹

3. "Another Blues Number" (Gilmour) - 7:26²

Side B - 16:25

4. "Rain in the Country" (Waters, Richard Wright, Gilmour, Nick Mason) - 6:01³

5. "Grantchester Meadows" (Waters) - 7:26

6. "Green is the Colour" (Waters, Gilmour) - 2:58

Disc Two - 34:35

Side C - 19:32

7. "Quicksilver" (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason) - 7:13

8. "Oenone" (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason) - 6:21

9. "The Narrow Way" (Gilmour) - 5:58

Side D - 15:03

10. "Baby Blue Shuffle" (Gilmour) - 3:284

11. "Rick's Piano Piece" (Wright) - 6:455

12. "Cymbaline" (Waters, Gilmour) - 4:50

Basking in the Sunshine of a Bygone Afternoon is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd. The album was released on November 7th, 1969 by Blackhill Records in the United Kingdom and by Capitol Records in the United States, with two different covers to each version. The album was produced by the band and engineered by Brian Humphries. It is considered by many as Pink Floyd's most experimental record to date.

Differently to the predecessor, the record was recorded in three weeks, while the first week was stage of recording tape effects and Rick Wright's piece Sysyphus, later released as a solo single. The first single of the album was Cymbaline, backed with Oenone, and after the release, Cirrus Minor was released as the second single. While Cymbaline was a minor hit in Britain, Cirrus Minor failed to chart in both countries.

The album performed slightly worse than Are Going Insane, though it was praised by the press at the time. Basking in the Sunshine of a Bygone Afternoon reached the number 4 in the UK Album Charts and number 81 on Billboard. According to Roger Waters, the work would be the main reason to Pink Floyd to distance of the Avant-garde scene, exploring other forms of experimental music, such as the symphonic rock of Atom Heart Mother, the next album.

"...Yeah, that album is... just sad. We had no direction from what we would do after 'Are Going Insane', and we would go like this for the next two years until Obscured by Clouds."

-David Gilmour, 2005 

Ground control to Major Tom

David Bowie as Major Tom in the first version of Space Oddity, 1969.

Ah 1969, the year that space themes were predominantly mainstream. David Bowie already recorded one previous version of Space Oddity, for his promotional film, Love You till Tuesday, but according to him, he was not very fond of that version to be included in his next album. "As I said, I recorded one song so far. But I really didn't like the finished song. Probably I'll record it again, but, like I said, there are a few more songs to record.", David Bowie - Press Conference - April 8th, 1969.

Since Tony Visconti seemed uninterested in re-record it again, delegating the producing process to Gus Dudgeon. The second version of Space Oddity was recorded on June 20th, 1969 at the Trident Studios, with the line-up consisting of keyboardist Rick Wakeman (then-session player), Mick Wayne, Herbie Flowers, and Terry Cox. The single was not played by the BBC until after the Apollo 11 crew had safely returned.

UK sleeve.

The single was released on 11 July 1969, backed by the Buddhist-influenced Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud. After a slow start, Space Oddity became known as Bowie's solo breakthrough in the United Kingdom, topping in Britain, but being a minor hit in the United States at the time, reaching number 99. The song would be reissued a few more times until it reached number 15 in Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. The success rendered into Bowie's performance at the Tops of the Pops in October.

In the following times, in December 1969, Bowie recorded an Italian version of the song named Ragazzo solo, Ragazza sola, written by Mogol. Ten years later, Bowie would revisit Space Oddity in a stripped-down version released as single again. The song would renew its popularity after Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield performed the song (with slightly revised lyrics) while aboard the International Space Station, therefore becoming the first music video shot in space.

David Bowie performing with The Hype, at the Roundhouse, 1969.

Bowie started to record his second solo album around the same time as he recorded Space Oddity. Backed by a notable list of collaborators such as keyboard player Rick Wakeman and producer Tony Visconti, David opted to record at the Trident Studios instead of going to the United States this time. Regarding his status as a major growing artist from the underground scene, the deadline given by the heads of the Blackhill was until October, when David actually finished on time.

"It happened that in... August of that year, I believe, there was a reunion with the board [of directors], talking about the future stuff that we were doing and etc., but then Peter [Jenner] and my previous manager established a deadline to me to finish the sessions, without my consent. Obviously I was a bit angry with them, I didn't want to do something very rushed, but I played a little game with them, and I just finished exactly on October 31st."

 -David Bowie, 2001

The two first songs that were recorded to the album were Space Oddity, and the backing single, Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud. Following both songs, the title track An Occasional Dream and Conversation Piece were subsequently recorded throughout August and September, since some of these pieces were written in-between late 1968 and early 1969. With brief interruptions, such as the Isle of Wight, and meetings within the people of the Blackhill, Bowie managed to safely finish the recording sessions in late October.

The last songs to be recorded were The Prettiest Star, a song that Bowie wrote to his newly-found partner Angela Barnett, featuring former Rubber Band bandmate and fellow friend Marc Bolan on electric guitar, The Supermen, a song that Bowie wrote inspired by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and H. P. Lovecraft, which was added at the last minute, and Memory of a Free Festival because three versions of the song were recorded, two versions being included on the album as Part 1 and Part 2, and an alternate version which was then released as the backing single of The Prettiest Star.

With great anticipation, Blackhill Records announced David Bowie's second solo album, entitled An Occasional Dream. While in the United States the announcement almost went unnoticed, in Europe and the United Kingdom, the announcement of the album was received with a certain amount of hype towards Bowie's newest record. The Prettiest Star was released as the promotional single, backed by Memory of a Free Festival, becoming a hit and reaching the top 10 mostly due to the Space Oddity effect.

David Bowie – An Occasional Dream

David Bowie - An Occasional Dream (1969)

Genre: Progressive folk, psychedelic rock

Total: 44:33

All tracks are written by David Bowie.

Side A - 22:09

1. "Memory of a Free Festival (Part I)" - 2:43

2. "Space Oddity" - 5:16

3. "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" - 6:15

4. "Letter to Hermione" - 2:33

5. "God Knows I'm Good" - 3:21

6. "An Occasional Dream" - 3:01

Side B - 22:24

7. "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" - 4:53

8. "Conversation Piece" - 3:05

9. "Janine" - 3:25

10. "The Prettiest Star" - 3:12

11. "The Supermen (Don't Sit Down)" - 4:18¹

12. "Memory of a Free Festival (Part II)" - 3:31

David Bowie's An Occasional Dream is the second album from the British singer-songwriter and mostly produced by Tony Visconti, except for Space Oddity and Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud, which were produced by Gus Dudgeon. Along with the debut and previous album, Cygnet Committee, An Occasional Dream is considered part of the transition of psychedelic pop-influenced Bowie to his contact with Art and glam rock. The album was released on 17 December 1969 in the United Kingdom and 28 December 1969 in the United States.

It was noticed by the critics the evolution of Bowie's sound compared to Cygnet Committee, with the music being less influenced by the Rubber Band releases, and far more concentrated into a psychedelic folk sound noticed in Cygnet Committee's Lover to the Dawn, along with psychedelic rock influences of bands such as The Zombies, Bee Gees, and many other contemporary bands. Standouts of the record are generally given to its singles, Space Oddity, and The Prettiest Star.

Three singles from the album were released: Space Oddity, the most successful single, was initially released shortly after the recording sessions have begun, The Prettiest Star was released to promote the album, and The Supermen was released three months after the release, backed by an alternative version of Memory of a Free Festival. An Occasional Dream reached the British Top 10, and peaked in number 2, while it charted in Billboard 200 in number 96.

An Occasional Dream is regarded as one of Bowie's most refined records, and most mature record in the 1960s, even considering the albums from Rubber Band. Although the record received mixed to decent contemporary reviews, the album was reevaluated in more recent years, earning a large cult following along with Bowie's sixties-era, receiving enormous praise by many Folk and Indie artists.

Author's Comments:

And here we see The Beatles' path into the '70s, Pink Floyd on their peak in experimental music, and David Bowie's first hit as a solo artist.

Source:

The Beatles - Abbey Road

• The Beatles - Abbey Road
• The Beatles - The Beatles [White Album; Deluxe Version]
• The Beatles - Yellow Submarine
• Paul McCartney - McCartney I

Pink Floyd - Basking in the Sunshine of a Bygone Afternoon

• Pink Floyd - Soundtrack of Film 'More'
• Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
• Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1965–1972
• Pink Floyd - Zabriskie Point

1. The Ummagumma is The Narrow Way - Part II
2. Another Blues Number is Love Scene (Version 4)
3. Rain in the Country is also known as Unknown Song
4. Baby Blue Shuffle is The Narrow Way - Part I
5. Rick's Piano Piece is Love Scene (Version 6) along with (Version 2)

David Bowie - An Occasional Dream

• David Bowie - David Bowie (1969)
• David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World