Recording Engineer Ken Scott Shares Stories about Working with the Beatles, Along with Strong Opinions about 'Now and Then'

Ken Scott, in orange shirt, with Paul, George and George.

Headliner Magazine has a lengthy new interview with recording engineer Ken Scott with quite a bit of info about his work with The Beatles. 

Scott also mentions that he's not a great fan of the "final" Beatles single, "Now and Then":

I know that George was not particularly fond of finishing ["Now and Then"] back in the day. To me, it's kind of milking a dead cow. It's putting something together to sell more records, kind of thing. It's that, ‘If there are differences between the mono and stereo, we may be able to sell twice as many records; If we put out a new single that we put together, it doesn't matter if it's not quite as good as our old stuff, but it will boost the interest again, so maybe we'll sell more records’. 

"I almost get that feeling, and it could be I could be completely wrong,” he says, holding up his hands.”But that's what turns me against it.”

Another exchange in the interview looks exactly who that was cussing on "Hey Jude":

Those listening closely (and loudly) to Hey Jude have picked up that in the song's final bridge section, John or Paul (no one is 100% sure) says, "Fucking hell!"

“It’s John,” Scott asserts with a smile, adding that the swear word’s inclusion in the final mix was brought to his attention later. “I don't remember hearing it then, but what I understand from the people at Trident that were there when it happened was that John picked up a pair of headphones and put them on to do backing vocals. 

"They started to roll the tape and John put on a pair of headphones and they were way too loud. As he pulled them off and threw them on the ground, it was, “Oh fucking hell,” and that's what was left on there. Now, of course, the question in my mind has always been, they knew it was there. Did they just miss pulling it out? Or was it done intentionally and kept down just enough that the BBC would never hear it?”

Read it all here.