Brass Tracks: when Ronnie Scott played with The Beatles
The core idea behind the toe-curling experiment in awkwardness that was the 1970 documentary Let It Be was to watch The Beatles go back to basics. They’d spent the past five years soaring the psychedelic skies with no pressure to play any of their music live, making records like Revolver and Sgt Pepper’s in the meantime. It’s telling that the working title for Let It Be was Get Back because the whole draw of it was to see The Fabs “get back” to being a rock ‘n’ roll band after years of being, well, The Beatles.
The truth is, however, that over those five years, they’d made a bunch of music paying tribute to the classic rock ‘n’ roll that inspired them in their youth. ‘Back In The USSR’ is a Chuck Berry homage from the title downwards. ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ is a Stax/Motown classic in all but label. ‘Hey Bulldog’ could have been an Elvis track from a decade previous. One of the most iconic examples of this, though, has turned into one of Paul McCartney’s most lauded moments in the band.
After coming up with a dynamite boogie-woogie piano hook inspired by Humphrey Littleton’s trad-jazz version of ‘Bad Penny Blues’, Paul began turning it into a song. He soon found himself singing over the piano track in a Fats Domino impression. Inspired by his 1956 hit ‘Blue Monday’ (no, not that one), he began forming a story about the plight of a working woman, whereas the Domino original is about the plight of the working man. After working on the lyrics with John Lennon, he soon had the first draft of ‘Lady Madonna’ ready for the studio.
The sessions for the single, earmarked for release while the boys attended their ill-fated transcendental meditation course in Rishikesh, took place from February 3rd to 6th, 1968. McCartney was adamant that the song would remain a back-to-basics piece of unreconstructed rock ‘n’ roll. So, when the band lay down backing vocals, they recorded a number of vocals intended as guide tracks for a full-on brass section, one that suddenly had to be found with barely an evening’s notice.
Fortunately, the band’s clout (plus George Martin’s connections) managed to secure them a genuine murderer’s row of saxophonists: Harry Klein and Bill Jackman on baritone sax, along with Bill Povey and Ronnie Scott on tenor. Yes, that is Ronnie Scott, the owner of the legendary Soho jazz club, who plays the solo on the track. It’s a sign of their professionalism that they were able to cut such memorable takes because, for seasoned jazz pros, the band’s guide vocals and McCartney’s instructions weren’t exactly clear about what the band actually wanted.
To illustrate this, Klein spoke to Mark Lewisohn about the session for his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. He said, “I was in the bath at about 6:30 in the evening when Laurie called and said, ‘Are you working tonight?’ ‘No, I’m in the bath!’ ‘Well, get over to EMI as quick as you can… …when I got to Abbey Road, Ronnie was there, along with Bill Jackman and Bill Povey. Paul didn’t recognize Ronnie Scott until we told him who he was.“
In spite of all the uncertainty, the group pulled it out of the bag, making one of their most enduring and beloved singles as a result.
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