A Little Known Story from Abbey Road

Back in 1968 when the Beatles were recording The White Album, George Harrison and Eric Clapton were engaged in friendly competition on a number of fronts. One was for the attentions of George's (and later Eric's) wife Pattie. The other was for collecting high-end exemplars of the British automotive industry: Rolls Royces, Jaguars, Aston Martins, and the like. Since George was one of the wealthiest Britons in the world at the time, and Eric was still a relatively unknown Yardbird (although known to some London graffiti artists as a deity), they realized that something would be necessary to level the playing field. It was decided that George's handicap would be to purchase cars previously owned by celebrities. Hitler's Rolls Royce, Princess Margaret's Jaguar, Ian Fleming's Aston Martin, and so on.

George was particularly keen on a luxurious British car that had once been owned by a controversial American talk show host. He drove this one to the recording studio nearly every day. He had it rigged up with particularly nice speakers, and he often listened to playbacks of demo tapes through them, to see whether the tracks would be radio-friendly. To avoid having to tromp back and forth between the car and the studio, he and engineer George Martin figured out a system where Beatle George could communicate to the recording booth by tapping on the car horn, in a sort of simplified version of morse code.

The lads had invited Eric to play a solo on one of the tracks for their new double-album. But he was completely bewildered by the novel recording techniques being used. He was much more comfortable with the set-'em-up-and-let-'er-rip studio approach used by the old Chicago bluesmen. The Beatles, meanwhile, were infatuated with the post-Sgt. Pepper possibilities that the studio had to offer. Clapton's ability to adjust to the new methods wasn't helped by all of the psychedelics, narcotics, and alcohol that everyone was using at the time. Sometimes he was just plain addled.

Clapton was having a particularly hard day when the time came to record his solo. No matter when he started his solo, someone would complain that he was doing it at the wrong time. Or when he got into the groove, he would just keep wailing past the chorus and into the verse where the vocals were to return. Clapton was getting irritated at the whole thing. Harrison joked at his friend's discomfort. It was so easy, he said, he could direct the whole operation from the carpark. Clapton told Harrison to quit playing around. "Look," he said, "just give me a signal to start and stop the solo. When am I supposed to play?"

George explained: "While my Jack Paar Bentley beeps."