Jackie Lomax and George Harrison during the recording of Lomax’s album, Is This What You Want? (1968

Jackie Lomax and George Harrison during the recording of Lomax’s album, Is This What You Want? (1968)“Things seemed to stiffen up in 1968 during the Beatles’ ‘white out.’ George Harrison told me that the White Album had become a much larger undertaking than they expected. Creating a double album was just a bit much once it all got going, and its natural progression evolved into more of a cacophony of dilemmas as it gained its own monstrous momentum. Besides the enormous volume of musical work, there were all the unexpected inner-group conflicts [during which Ringo [Starr] left the band for several weeks], heavy schedules, the mind-blowing logistics of getting the entire Apple enterprise off the ground, never-ending pressures from the fans, deadlines with the record companies, as well as the everyday demands of each Beatle’s personal life. The music they recorded that summer and fall has stood the test of time, but outside of that, everything else had really become somewhat of a nightmare.By mid-fall, the entire band wanted to put the White Album [as most know, the album was really called The Beatles] project behind them. Anxious for a little artistic freedom, George called me from London and told me that he wanted to come to LA in October to produce more tracks for Apple artist Jackie Lomax’s album. [Jackie’s only Apple album, featuring tracks recorded in LA and in London, was to be released in 1969 as Is This What You Want?] In a brief time, I had George set up with the digs and doings for a seven-week visit.Production for the White Album was completed back in London while George was in LA. Capitol’s engineers had tinkered with the mix, and when George heard Capitol’s acetate pressings of the soon-to-be-released final product, he was unhappy with the sound. So while we [George, Jackie, Mal Evans, and I, among others] were holed up in Armin Steiner’s Sound Recorders Studio [SRS], working on Jackie’s album, George shifted gears and set about remastering the U.S. version of the White Album.George just wanted to get this Beatles project done and behind him. He felt the obligation to jump in there and get the thing finished. By this time, I had gotten a feel for things and how they fermented in the Apple barrel, and from watching the way they worked, I had gathered the impression that Paul [McCartney] would never really let go of anything. Somehow, though, I had the feeling that George grabbed away the reins on this stampeding horse of so many colors and became a creative detail man, and out of sheer necessity put a little methodology into effect just to get the project completed.”- Ken Mansfield (former US manager of Apple Records), The White Book -- source link

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