Free Beatles' Let It Be (33 1/3) by Steve Matteo Page B

Apple. Without hesitation, he invited Preston to come in and jam. That day, Prestoneventually played on the songs “Don’t Let Me Down” and “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.”
    Paralleling their time at Twickenham, the Beatles’ first day at Apple would be a day of rehearsals. Why the Beatles would need any more rehearsing at that point seems hard to understand. Preston immediately brought a new élan to the session. The Beatles were considerably happier after abandoning Twickenham and clearing up the initial technical problems at Apple. Also, they clearly enjoyed the cozy confines of Apple. Preston essentially became a guest in their home, putting everyone on their best behavior. They treated him right away as a musical equal after the measurable success of his brief input. At the end of the first day, he was officially asked to join the group for the rest of the January recordings at Apple.
    Whereas the imminent departure from the project of Ringo—and to a lesser extent, of Glyn Johns—served to limit the ultimate length of the recording to be done at Apple, other factors added to the pressure to bring the project to a timely conclusion. Specifically, the group had virtually no usable material from Twickenham, and Billy Preston was scheduled to do a tour of Texas in February.
    That first day of rehearsals was not all that different from Twickenham, musically. The group played someoldies, including “New Orleans,” “Hi-Heeled Sneakers,” “My Baby Left Me/That’s All Right,” and “Good Rockin’ Tonight.” “Don’t Let Me Down” was performed and “I’ve Got a Feeling” was fleshed out with seven near-complete takes. One of the last run-throughs of “Dig a Pony” was later included on the double-CD
Anthology 3.
Also, near the end of the day, two takes of “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” were done, neither of which was very exciting. Nonetheless, the second one was also included on
Anthology 3.
Paul brought out “Every Night” for the first time during the “Get Back”/“Let It Be” project. The first version of it was short, poorly performed, incomplete as a song, and marred by technical problems. Paul would perform it again in a rather more fleshed out (yet still incomplete) fashion on the 24th.
    The next day saw a major change in scheduling: the group did only a four-hour session during the day and then returned in the evening without the film crew to work on a complete take each of “Dig a Pony” and “I’ve Got a Feeling.” That day also marked the debut for future superstar producer and recording artist Alan Parsons as tape-op. Parsons, of course, would go on to engineer Pink Floyd’s
Dark Side of the Moon,
recorded at Abbey Road, in 1973. Parsons talked about the sessions: “My first impression was how unhappy they were. They were not very pleased with what they were hearing. I think Paul had a vision for it. Ithink the others didn’t really go with that vision; that was my impression.”
    Activity increased on Friday the 24th and became more varied. The early part of the day was marked by the first discussion about having some kind of booklet accompanying the album. Ethan Russell, an American photographer, had been shooting photos for the past three days. When he showed his pictures to Neil Aspinall and the Beatles, he was asked to stay for the rest of the sessions and do a book to be included with the album. At some point there had been discussions about having über-photographer David Bailey shoot some photos of the filming and sessions. There had also been some serious consideration, particularly by John, about having Billy Preston join the group as a permanent member. In the end, Paul decided the idea was not so good after all. Four of them were quite enough at that point, thank you!
    An early, half-hearted attempt at “Get Back” was made. The song was not worked on further, however, because of Billy Preston’s absence until the afternoon. “Two