Is This What You Want? add backing vocals to "Dear Prudence" in late August; he had also joined the backing chorus for "Hey Jude" earlier that month. The songs recorded included "Sour Milk Sea" and "The Eagle Laughs at You", for the A- and B-side of Lomax's debut single on Apple, and "You've Got Me Thinking". Among the guest musicians on the London sessions, much of which would go unused, were Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voormann and Paul McCartney. Other participants included drummers Bishop O'Brien and Pete Clark; the former was part of Apple artist James Taylor's backing group, while Clark was
What Is This? their tenure as Anthym, guitarist Hillel Slovak became acquainted with an audience member at one of their shows, Anthony Kiedis, who was then brought on as a roadie and "hype-man" for the band. After a while, the band began to find bassist Todd Strassman's musical abilities unsatisfactory, so they considered replacing him. Slovak decided to teach a friend of his at Fairfax, trumpet player Michael “Flea” Balzary, how to play bass, and soon after he replaced Strassman as What Is This?’ bassist. After graduating high school, the band began to play gigs in the Los Angeles area. Flea eventually left