Original Version Recorded – July 2, August 15, 1969
Ukulele version recorded January 2, 2010
New uke added June 2011
Mike Harvey – All Vocals
David Barratt – Ukulele & Everything Else
Produced by David Barratt at The Abattoir Of Good Taste – Brooklyn
ABOUT THE SONG
Golden Slumbers is yet another Beatles song about death, a very special death.
Golden Slumbers is a song about the death of The Beatles
Paui is sitting at the bedside of the thing he loves most, the thing that gave him everything, the thing he gave everything to. This is his chance to say goodbye.
Of course he was emotional but unfortunately he thought that gave him the right to over sing the chorus. There is a widely available studio outtake of this song featuring the basic backing track and guide vocal that, if you have not yet ever heard it, I caution you to seek out at your own peril.
As the Abbey Road album was being recorded all four Beatles knew that this would be their last album together. At this point they loved and loathed each other in equal measure. John had not written the unessasarly vitriolic “How Do You Sleep” about Paul but he had collected enough pecieved evidence to write the song and poison their 15 year friendship.
He finally did get to add backing vocals in an overdub session on 30 July 1969, On 15 August, orchestral overdubs were made to "Golden Slumbers" and five other songs on Abbey Road
The ukulele version features master vocalist Mike Harvey.
Check out the second verse where all of the instrumentation drops out leaving Mike to re-create the piano, strings and bass with his only his voice.
Where McCartney blasts the chorus like a love-sick hyena on the edge of sanity Mike invites us into an hallucinatory paradise where all is well, which is of course the function of a lullaby.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Originally from Indiana, Mike did a lot of session work singing on jingles and doing background vocals on gospel records in Chicago