Their Own Records In Their Own Words - Revolver and surroundings

Revolver
Originally released in the UK, August 5, 1966
Single: Paperback Writer/Rain

TAXMAN
(Harrison)
GEORGE 1980: "'Taxman' was when I first realized that even though we had started earning money, we were actually giving most of it away in taxes. It was and still is typical."

JOHN 1980: "I remember the day he (George) called to ask for help on 'Taxman,' one of his first songs. I threw in a few one-liners to help the song along because that's what he asked for. He came to me because he couldn't go to Paul. Paul wouldn't have helped him at that period. I didn't want to do it. I just sort of bit my tongue and said OK. It had been John and Paul for so long, he'd been left out because he hadn't been a songwriter up until then."

PAUL 1984: "George wrote that and I played guitar on it. He wrote it in anger at finding out what the taxman did. He had never known before then what could happen to your money."

GEORGE 1987: "I was pleased to have Paul play that bit on 'Taxman.' If you notice, he did like a little Indian bit on it for me."

ELEANOR RIGBY
(Lennon/McCartney)
PAUL 1966: "I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it. The first few bars just came to me, and I got this name in my head... Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church. I don't know why. I couldn't think of much more so I put it away for a day. Then the name Father McCartney came to me, and all the lonely people. But I thought that people would think it was supposed to be about my Dad sitting knitting his socks. Dad's a happy lad. So I went through the telephone book and I got the name McKenzie. I was in Bristol when I decided Daisy Hawkins wasn't a good name. I walked 'round looking at the shops, and I saw the name Rigby. Then I took the song down to John's house in Weybridge. We sat around, laughing, got stoned and finished it off."

JOHN 1980: "Paul's baby, and I helped with the education of the child... The violin backing was Paul's idea. Jane Asher had turned him on to Vivaldi, and it was very good."

PAUL 1984: "I got the name Rigby from a shop in Bristol. I was wandering round Bristol one day and saw a shop called Rigby. And I think Eleanor was from Eleanor Bron, the actress we worked with in the film 'Help!' But I just liked the name. I was looking for a name that sounded natural. Eleanor Rigby sounded natural."

I'M ONLY SLEEPING
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1980: "It's got backwards guitars... that's me dreaming my life away."

PAUL circa-1994: "It was a nice idea-- 'There's nothing wrong with it. I'm not being lazy, I'm only sleeping, I'm yawning, I'm meditating, I'm having a lay-in.' The luxury of all that was what it was all about. The song was co-written but from John's original idea."

LOVE YOU TO
(Harrison)
GEORGE 1966: "I play sitar on another track. I don't care if everybody is using 'em, you know. I just play it 'cuz I like it."

GEORGE 1980: "'Love You To' was one of the first tunes I wrote for sitar. 'Norwegian Wood was an accident as far as the sitar part was concerned, but this was the first song where I consciously tried to use the sitar and tabla on the basic track. I overdubbed the guitars and vocals later."

HERE THERE AND EVERYWHERE
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1972: "This was a great one of his."

JOHN 1980: "That's Paul's song completely, I believe. And one of my favorite songs of the Beatles."

PAUL 1984: "I wrote that by John's pool one day. When we were working together, sometimes he came in to see me. But mainly, I went out to see him."

PAUL circa-1994: "'Here, There and Everywhere' has a couple of interesting structural points about it... each verse takes a word. 'Here' discusses here, Next verse, 'there' discusses there, then it pulls it all together in the last verse with 'everywhere.' ...John might have helped with a few last words."

YELLOW SUBMARINE
(Lennon/McCartney)
PAUL 1966: "It's a happy place, that's all. You know, it was just... We were trying to write a children's song. That was the basic idea. And there's nothing more to be read into it than there is in the lyrics of any children's song."

JOHN 1972: "Paul wrote the catchy chorus. I helped with the blunderbuss bit."

JOHN 1980: "'Yellow Submarine' is Paul's baby. Donovan helped with the lyrics. I helped with the lyrics too. We virtually made the track come alive in the studio, but based on Paul's inspiration. Paul's idea. Paul's title... written for Ringo."

PAUL 1984: "I wrote that in bed one night. As a kid's story. And then we thought it would be good for Ringo to do."

PAUL circa-1994: "I was laying in bed in the Asher's garret, and there's a nice twilight zone just as you're drifting into sleep and as you wake from it-- I always find it quite a comfortable zone. I remember thinking that a children's song would be quite a good idea... I was thinking of it as a song for Ringo, which it eventually turned out to be, so I wrote it as not too rangey in the vocal. I just made up a little tune in my head, then started making a story-- sort of an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he'd lived. It was pretty much my song as I recall... I think John helped out. The lyrics got more and more obscure as it goes on, but the chorus, melody and verses are mine."

GEORGE 1999: "Paul came up with the concept of 'Yellow Submarine.' All I know is just that every time we'd all get around the piano with guitars and start listening to it and arranging it into a record, we'd all fool about. As I said, John's doing the voice that sounds like someone talking down a tube or ship's funnel as they do in the merchant marine. (laughs) And on the final track there's actually that very small party happening! As I seem to remember, there's a few screams and what sounds like small crowd noises in the background."

SHE SAID SHE SAID
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1968: "That was pure. You see, when I wrote that I had the 'She said she said,' but it was just meaning nothing. It was just vaguely to do with someone who had said something like he knew what it was like to be dead, and then it was just a sound. And then I wanted a middle-eight. The beginning had been around for days and days and so I wrote the first thing that came into my head and it was 'When I was a boy,' in a different beat, but it was real because it just happened."

JOHN 1980: "That's mine. It's an interesting track. The guitars are great on it. That was written after an acid trip in L.A. during a break in the Beatles tour where we were having fun with the Byrds and lots of girls. Peter Fonda came in when we were on acid and he kept coming up to me and sitting next to me and whispering, 'I know what it's like to be dead.' He was describing an acid trip he'd been on. We didn't 'want' to hear about that. We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing, and the whole thing was beautiful and Sixties, and this guy-- who I really didn't know-- he hadn't made 'Easy Rider' or anything... kept coming over, wearing shades, saying, 'I know what it's like to be dead,' and we kept leaving him because he was so boring! And I used it for the song, but I changed it to 'she' instead of 'he.' It was scary... I don't want to know what it's like to be dead!"

GOOD DAY SUNSHINE
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1972: "Paul. But I think maybe I helped him with some of the lyric."

JOHN 1980: "'Good Day Sunshine' is Paul's. Maybe I threw in a line or something."

PAUL 1984: "Wrote that out at John's one day... the sun was shining. Influenced by the Lovin' Spoonful."

PAUL circa-1994: "'Good Day Sunshine' was me trying to write something similar to 'Daydream.' John and I wrote it together at Kenwood, but it was basically mine and he helped me with it."

AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1972: "Another horror."

JOHN 1980: "Another of my throwaways."

GEORGE 1987: "I think it was Paul and me, or maybe John and me, playing (guitar) in harmony-- quite a complicated little line that goes through the middle-eight."

PAUL 1995: "One of my favorites on the Anthology is, 'And Your Bird Can Sing,' which is a nice song, but this take of it was one we couldn't use at the time. John and I got a fit of the giggles while we were doing the double-track. You couldn't have released it at the time. But now you can. Sounds great just hearing us lose it on a take."

FOR NO ONE
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1972: "Another of his I really liked."

JOHN 1980: "Paul's. One of my favorites of his. A nice piece of work."

PAUL 1984: "I wrote that on a skiing holiday in Switzerland. In a hired chalet amongst the snow."

PAUL circa-1994: "I suspect it was about another argument. I don't have easy relationships with women, I never have. I talk too much truth."

DOCTOR ROBERT
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1972: "Me. I think Paul helped with the middle."

JOHN 1980: "Another of mine. Mainly about drugs and pills. It was about myself. I was the one that carried all the pills on tour... later on the roadies did it. We just kept them in our pockets, loose, in case of trouble."

PAUL circa-1994: "John and I thought that was a funny idea-- the fantasy doctor who would fix you up by giving you drugs. It was a parody on that idea."

I WANT TO TELL YOU
(Harrison)
GEORGE 1980: "...about the avalanche of thoughts that are so hard to write down or say or transmit."

GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1968: "We were doing our Tamla Motown bit. You see, we're influenced by whatever's going. Even if we're not influenced, we're all going that way at a certain time."

JOHN 1972: "I think George and I helped with some of the lyrics. I'm not sure."

JOHN 1980: "Paul. I think that was one of his best songs, too, because the lyrics are good and I didn't write them. You see? When I say that he could write lyrics if he took the effort-- here's an example."

PAUL 1984: "That's mine-- I wrote it. It was the first one we used brass on, I think. One of the first times we used soul trumpets."

PAUL circa-1994: "I'd been a rather straight working class lad, but when we started to get into pot it seemed to me to be quite uplifting. It didn't seem to have too many side effects like alcohol or some of the other stuff, like pills, which I pretty much kept off. I kind of liked marijuana and to me it seemed it was mind-expanding, literally mind-expanding. So 'Got To Get You Into My Life' is really a song about that. It's not to a person, it's actually about pot. It's saying, 'I'm going to do this. This is not a bad idea.' So it's actually an ode to pot, like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret. I haven't really changed my opinion too much, except if anyone asks me for real advice, it would be stay straight. That is actually the best way, but in a stressful world I still would say that pot was one of the best of the tranquilizing drugs. I have drunk and smoked pot and of the two I think pot is less harmful. People tend to fall asleep on it rather than go out and commit murder, so it's always seemed to me to be a rather benign one."

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1968: "'Tomorrow Never Knows' ...I didn't know what I was saying, and you just find out later. I know that when there are some lyrics I dig, I know that somewhere people will be looking at them."

JOHN 1968: "Often the backing I think of early-on never comes off. With 'Tomorrow Never Knows' I'd imagined in my head that in the background you would hear thousands of monks chanting. That was impractical, of course, and we did something different. It was a bit of a drag, and I didn't really like it. I should have tried to get near my original idea, the monks singing. I realize now that was what I wanted."

JOHN 1972 "This was my first psychedelic song."

JOHN 1980 "That's me in my 'Tibetan Book of the Dead' period. I took one of Ringo's malapropisms as the title, to sort of take the edge off the heavy philosophical lyrics."

PAUL 1984: "That was one of Ringo's malapropisms. John wrote the lyrics from Timothy Leary's version of the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead.' It was a kind of Bible for all the psychedelic freaks. that was an LSD song. Probably the only one. People always thought 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' was but it actually 'wasn't' meant to say LSD."

PAPERBACK WRITER
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1972: "Paul. I think I might have helped with some of the lyrics, Yes, I did. But it was mainly Paul's tune."

JOHN 1980: "'Paperback Writer' is son of 'Day Tripper' ...meaning a rock 'n roll song with a guitar lick on a fuzzy loud guitar."

PAUL circa-1994: "I arrived at Weybridge and told John I had this idea of trying to write off to a publishers to become a paperback writer, and I said, 'I think it should be written like a letter.' I took a bit of paper out and I said it should be something like, 'Dear Sir or Madam, as the case may be...' and I proceeded to write it just like a letter in front of him, occasionally rhyming it... And then we went upstairs and put the melody to it. John and I sat down and finished it all up, but it was tilted towards me-- the original idea was mine. I had no music, but it's just a little bluesy song, not alot of melody. Then I had the idea to do the harmonies, and we arranged that in the studio."

RAIN
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1966: "After we'd done the session on that particular song-- it ended at about four or five in the morning-- I went home with a tape to see what else you could do with it. And I was sort of very tired, you know, not knowing what I was doing, and I just happened to put it on my own tape recorder and it came out backwards. And I liked it better. So that's how it happened."

JOHN 1980: "That's me again-- with the first backwards tape on record anywhere... I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana... and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day. Somehow it got on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, 'I know what to do with it, I know... listen to this!' So I made them all play it backwards. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the guitars going backwards. (sings) 'Sharethsmnowthsmeanss!' That one was the gift of God... of Ja actually-- the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one."

RINGO 1984: "My favorite piece of me is what I did on 'Rain.' I think I just played amazing. I was into the snare and hi-hat. I think it was the first time I used the trick of starting a break by hitting the hi-hat first instead of going directly to a drum off the hi-hat. I think it's the best out of all the records I've ever made. 'Rain' blows me away. It's out in left field. I know me and I know my playing... and then there's 'Rain.'"

PAUL circa-1994: "It was nice. I really enjoyed that one."

DISCUSSING THE UNFINISHED ALBUM, MAY 1966
GEORGE: "We spend more time on recording now, because we prefer recording."

JOHN: "And we've done half an LP in the time we'd take to do a whole LP and a couple of singles. So we can't do it all, you know, but we like recording."

BRIAN MATTHEW: "Alright. When is it going to be finished?"

JOHN: "In a week."

GEORGE: "It should be finished in about two or three weeks time... because if it's not, we'll never be able to get another holiday in before we go away again, you see."

PAUL: (joking) "If we don't get it done soon, gov, we'll lose our jobs."

ON SONGWRITING (DURING THE REVOLVER PERIOD)
JOHN 1966: "Sometimes they say, 'Now you must write,' and now we write. But it doesn't come some days. We sit there for days just talking to each other, messing 'round not doing anything."

GEORGE 1966: "John and Paul's standard of writing has bettered over the years, so it's very hard for me to come straight to the top, on par with them. They gave me an awful lot of encouragement. Their reaction has been very good. If it hadn't, I think I would have just crawled away."

PAUL 1966: "I don't know whether poets think they have to experience things to write about them, but I can tell you our songs are nearly all imagination-- ninety percent imagination. I don't think Beethoven was in a really wicked mood all the time."

JOHN 1966: "It's too easy to put it off if we just meet without any plan and say, 'Shall we write something today?' If you do that then you feel as though you're losing a free day. What we're going to do is make dates beforehand and sort of say, 'Right, Wednesday and Friday of this week are for songwriting. And Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week.' Then we'll know it's something we've to keep to."

ON RECORDING (DURING THE REVOLVER PERIOD)
JOHN 1966: "One thing's for sure-- the next LP is going to be very different."

PAUL 1966: "I don't think we ever try to establish trends. We try to keep moving forward and do something different... and if in the meantime it starts a trend, that's ok. But we never try consciously to start them."

GEORGE 1966: "We all put alot of suggestions in after we've recorded a take. That's why we take so long to record a number. We've always cooperated with one another. Paul might come into the studio and say, 'Do this' if he has worked out the chords beforehand. But they always need changing."

JOHN 1972: "We'd had acid on Revolver. Everybody is under this illusion-- even George Martin was saying, 'Pepper was their first acid album.' But we'd had acid, including Paul, by the time Revolver was finished."

ON RECORDING AT EMI'S ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS
PAUL 1988: "George Martin would be saying, 'Can you turn the (guitar) amps down please? And John would look at George (Harrison) and say, 'How much are you going down? Let's go down to Five, alright?' John would go down to Six-- 'OK, I'm at Five!' 'You bugger! You're not. You're at Six!' There was always this terrible rivalry. You just wanted to be louder. But it's nice to listen to the Beatle records now. There's more guitar than you'll ever hear on a record these days."

'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' Dies At 46

LONDON — Lucy Vodden, who provided the inspiration for the Beatles' classic song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," has died after a long battle with lupus. She was 46.
Her death was announced Monday by St. Thomas' Hospital in London, where she had been treated for the chronic disease for more than five years, and by her husband, Ross Vodden. Britain's Press Association said she died last Tuesday. Hospital officials said they could not confirm the day of her death.

Vodden's connection to the Beatles dates back to her early days, when she made friends with schoolmate Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son.
Julian Lennon, then 4 years old, came home from school with a drawing one day, showed it to his father, and said it was "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."
At the time, John Lennon was gathering material for his contributions to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," a landmark album released to worldwide acclaim in 1967.
The elder Lennon seized on the image and developed it into what is widely regarded as a psychedelic masterpiece, replete with haunting images of "newspaper taxis" and a "girl with kaleidoscope eyes."

Rock music critics thought the song's title was a veiled reference to LSD, but John Lennon always claimed the phrase came from his son, not from a desire to spell out the initials LSD in code.
Vodden lost touch with Julian Lennon after he left the school following his parents' divorce, but they were reunited in recent years when Julian Lennon, who lives in France, tried to help her cope with the disease.
He sent her flowers and vouchers for use at a gardening center near her home in Surrey in southeast England, and frequently sent her text messages in an effort to buttress her spirits.
"I wasn't sure at first how to approach her," Julian Lennon told the Associated Press in June. "I wanted at least to get a note to her. Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I'd help with something she's passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face."

In recent months, Vodden was too ill to go out most of the time, except for hospital visits.
She enjoyed her link to the Beatles, but was not particularly fond of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
"I don't relate to the song, to that type of song," she told the Associated Press in June. "As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, 'No, it's not you, my parents said it's about drugs.' And I didn't know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself."

Vodden is the latest in a long line of people connected to the Beatles who died at a relatively young age.
The list includes John Lennon, gunned down at age 40, manager Brian Epstein, who died of a drug overdose when he was 32, and original band member Stuart Sutcliffe, who died of a brain hemorrhage at 21.
A spokeswoman for Julian Lennon and his mother, Cynthia Lennon, said they were "shocked and saddened" by Vodden's death.
Angie Davidson, a lupus sufferer who is campaign director of the St. Thomas' Lupus Trust, said Vodden was "a real fighter" who had worked behind the scenes to support efforts to combat the disease.
"It's so sad that she has finally lost the battle she fought so bravely for so long," said Davidson.

Paul McCartney on Beatles computer game: 'God, that looks hard...'

In an interview with NME, out on Wednesday, Sir Paul said: ''I haven't tried it. When you go to a demo they play it and I go 'God, that looks hard'.''

''I think you either don't embrace the modern day or you do embrace it,'' he said. ''For instance, I held out on mobile phones for years. I could see everyone using them, I thought they were poncy. But then I got one and thought 'This is good'.

''So I'm not a dinosaur, I probably resist most trends until I think 'I'll have a go at this' and the Rock Band thing is similar because I'm not a video gamer.

''I go to people's houses and they're whacking away the Wiis, and I can see the fun, and I'll have a couple of games and get beaten instantly and think 'I don't like those games any more'.

Sir Paul said he understood that some purists might not see the point of allowing The Beatles music to be used in the game but thought it would encourage younger fans - and it also bypassed the stand-off over Beatles downloads.



''I started noticing lots of young kids were playing it, and for me the most interesting thing is that it will introduce Beatles music to people who might never have heard it because they game all the time, they don't listen to the radio, they haven't got much of a record collection,'' he said.

''Then the other interesting little side-effect that's come up is that we were having problems with iTunes - well, not iTunes, EMI was the problem - with downloading, which we'd like to do because that's how a lot of people get their music.

''We've kind of bypassed that because now you can do it on Rock Band.

''I always liked that, when you're told you can't do something, and suddenly there's a little route round the back.''

How many of the following facts did you know?

So you think you are the biggest fan of the Beatles. But how many of the following facts did you know?

By Subhajit Banerjee

1. Impossible as it may sound there are still Beatles songs unreleased - the most notable ones being Carnival of Light (an experimental piece recorded on 5 January 1967 for The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave) and a 27-minute jam of Helter Skelter. A John Lennon composition the three surviving Beatles worked on in the early '90s prior to the Anthology release called Grow Old with Me also remains unreleased.

2. The Beatles (or at least half of it) sang for the Rolling Stones: Lennon and Paul McCartney provided backing vocals to the 1967 single We Love You.

3. Besides writing hundreds of songs for the Beatles, Lennon and McCartney also wrote dozens of songs for other artistes such as From A Window (Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas), One and One Is Two (The Strangers with Mike Shannon), Step Inside Love and It's For You (Cilla Black), Come and Get It (Badfinger) and Woman (Peter and Gordon).

4. The Beatles’ third studio album A Hard Day’s Night is the only one to exclusively contain Lennon-McCartney compositions.

5. Paul is not McCartney's first name, James is. Lennon changed his middle name from Winston to Ono after marrying Yoko Ono in 1969.

6. At the end of Strawberry Fields Forever, Lennon is heard mumbling what sounds like "I buried Paul", which helped fuel the 'Paul is Dead' rumours. He's actually saying "cranberry sauce".

7. The only Beatles single to ever feature another musician on the credit is Get Back/Don't Let Me Down (credited to The Beatles with Billy Preston). Preston, recruited by George Harrison to ease the growing tensions in the band, played the Hammond organ on both songs.

8. Two days after Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band released, Jimi Hendrix opened his set at London's Saville Theatre with the title track, something McCartney considers his "single biggest tribute".

9. The final version of Strawberry Fields Forever was created combining two takes of the song in two different keys and speeds - a remarkable achievement considering the equipment and technology of the time - but still failed to fully satisfy Lennon.

10. The only Beatles track to be credited to Lennon and Harrison is an early instrumental called Cry for a Shadow recorded in 1961 when the band was backing Tony Sheridan. Flying and Dig It are the only two tracks to be credited to all four Beatles.

11. The BBC banned several Beatles songs - I Am the Walrus (for the use of the word 'knickers') and Fixing a Hole, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and A Day in the Life (all for alleged drug reference).

12. The working title for the film Help! was Eight Arms to Hold You.

13. For the Sgt Pepper album cover, cutouts of Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus Christ were requested by Lennon, but ultimately they were left out, though a cutout of Hitler was made for use.

14. Ringo Starr was the first to actually leave the group, walking out in 1968 during the acrimonious White Album sessions. As a result, the remaining Beatles all took turns on the drums for some of the tracks. When Starr finally returned he found his drum kit covered in flowers.

15. The closest the Beatles came to reuniting was at Eric Clapton's wedding to Patti Boyd in 1979, where McCartney, Harrison and Starr played. Lennon did not attend.

16. The last time Lennon and McCartney played together was at the Los Angeles Hit Factory studio in 1974. The abysmal (and possibly drug-fuelled) session, which also featured Stevie Wonder and Harry Nilsson, was of such bad quality that the bootleg recording was released as A Toot And A Snore In 74.

17. Lennon and McCartney each recorded demos called India which remain unreleased. Each of them also recorded a version of Fats Domino's Ain't That a Shame for their rock and roll albums (called Rock 'n' Roll and Снова в СССР respectively).

18. The first song ever written by Lennon was called Hello Little Girl. McCartney's first was I Lost My Little Girl.

19. Lennon was charged with plagiarism by Chuck Berry's publisher over Come Together which resembled Berry's 1956 song You Can't Catch Me. The case was settled out of court. George Harrison faced and lost a similar lawsuit over his solo hit My Sweet Lord which resembled the Chiffons' He's So Fine.

20. Lennon's number 9 connection: Lennon was born on 9 October 1940, his son Sean was also born 9 October, 1975. He wrote the songs #9 Dream (part of Lennon's ninth solo album Walls and Bridges which was released in the ninth month of 1974 and peaked at number 9 in the US charts) and with the Beatles - One After 909 and Revolution 9. He lived in apartment number 72 on 72nd Street in New York and was killed in the evening of December 8 when it was already early morning of December 9 in his birthplace of Liverpool.

Thanks to telegraph.co.uk

The Beatles 'bigger than Jesus' on Google

Of course, it's only a bit of fun, but simply because there were more searches for "Beatles" than "Jesus" on Google for a couple of daysdoesn't mean that "the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. Mainly because people don't type the things they like into a search box. Otherwise I'd be constantly harrying Google for coffee and kisses.

And because The Beatles had something new-ish out, you'd probably expect that to have happened. If Jesus had just issued a remastered version of The Bible, or a computer game ("feed 5,000 people using your Wii..."), maybe he'd be doing better.

Not to mention that doing a Google search on one term doesn't mean you have to forswear your love of the subject of another possible search term. Searching on "King Kong" doesn't mean you'd have to abandon your love of "Godzilla".

Still, the Telegraph report does have this interesting paragraph:
Though the graph clearly shows that The Beatles caught the imagination of more people during September than Jesus did, video games experts point out that The Beatles Rock Band has not fared as well in the shops as expected with rival music game Guitar Hero 5 outselling the Fab Four's version.

So, the albums sold nowhere near as well as expected - for all the excuses we keep hearing - and the computer game didn't sell well, either. Perhaps all those searches were people trying to work out what all the fuss was about?

(Graph above showing the relative popularity of the search terms Beatles and Jesus on Google over the past 30 days)

Beatles For Sale?

After all that fuss last week, how have The Beatles re-releases done in their second sales stretch? (And their first full-week sale)?

Vanished completely from the Top Ten, and struggling. Rubber Soul is bested by the 42-weeks-on-chart James Morrison album; Help barely able to outsell Robbie William's Greatest Hits.

They're still selling, but in nothing like the numbers the shipping figures suggest EMI was expecting.

Beatles' Era - Twiggy’s 60th birthday

‘World’s first supermodel” Twiggy’s 60th birthday is all set to be marked with a public display of pictures narrating the story of her life. ‘Twiggy: A Life in Photographs’ will celebrate the occasion by displaying more than 20 snaps starting September 19 - her birthday at London’s National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition will run to March 24.
It has been known that a book celebrating Twiggy’s 60th birthday, 'Twiggy: a Life in Photographs', will be published by the National Portrait Gallery this year.

Cecilia Joicey of the National Portrait Gallery says, ‘Twiggy has worked with leading portrait photographers from Cecil Beaton and Bert Stern in the 1960s to Steven Meisel in the 1990s and Annie Leibovitz in the 21st century, and combining these iconic images with her insights will provide a rare glimpse into the life of the world’s first supermodel.’
The iconic photograph of Twiggy and her bob cut by Barry Lategan will be on display, as will more recent portraits by Bryan Adams and Sølve Sundsbø.

“Over my career I’ve had the privilege of working with many great photographers. I’m very excited to see so many of these portraits coming together at the National Portrait Gallery and in my new book,” the Telegraph quoted her as saying.
“It’s really interesting to see how fashion photography and portraiture have evolved throughout my career. I hope that this display and book will give people the opportunity to see these pictures that have captured definitive moments in my career,” she added.

Twiggy was born Lesley Hornby in London in 1949 and is married to the actor Leigh Lawson.Twiggy became the first prominent teenage model at 16, and was known for her large eyes, long eyelashes and thin build.

George Martin - The Record Producer

BBC Radio 6, Broadcast on September 5, 2009

If the re-release of the Beatles catalogue, known among fans as Beatles Remastered Stereo and Mono 2009, rekindled interest in the Fab Four, then listeners might also like to cast their minds back to another prominent “member” of the group - producer Sir George Martin. (Of course, they’d like to include manager Brian Epstein in the group as well.)
In this BBC programme, Richard Allinson and Steve Levine examine Sir George’s work as a producer, arranger and, through his experiments with sound, technical innovator. Highlights include excerpts from the newly restored versions of the original master tapes for Please Please Me, along with analysis of the original multi-track of Come Together.

This programme also gives listeners the opportunity to hear some of the Beatles most famous songs in a new way. Because of the limitations of tape machines during the 1960s, it was necessary to either record or mix various instruments and voices onto the same track. Once they’d been committed to tape there was no way of separating them. But now, through the use of revolutionary software, listeners can hear some of these parts in isolation for the very first time.
In his exclusive interview, Sir George talks about various aspects of the studio and recording process, the albums Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road, along with a number of songs, including Strawberry Fields Forever, Tomorrow Never Knows and Rain.

Download directions: Do NOT click on links, but select them with right button and then choose "save object as..."

Disc 1
Track 1 Track 2 Track 3 Track 4 Track 5 Track 6 Track 7 Track 8 Track 9 Track 10 Track 11

Disc 2
Track 1 Track 2 Track 3 Track 4 Track 5 Track 6 Track 7

Thanks to Bruce M.

Opinions: Our own one ten days after...

According to our own experience, remasters are not the big thing the whole world seems to say they are.... so the whole boxes do not worth the price, evspecially for those who own yet the 1987 CDs...

Our own check results:
- 1987 MONO CD are better than the remastered ones;
- Help, Rubber Soul and White Album's STEREO remasters are better than the 1987 ones:
all the rest of the remasters consists mainly in a bass frequencies augmenting with a loss of clearliness: the 1987 mixes are more similar to the original LP's sound, in the end....
- ...and - last but not least - the STEREO digipacks are very far from the original folders, (see the left side bar with the Apple logo!!!!): MONO edition's graphic rendition is surely better.

In the end: be careful not to easily give away your money in return of a big advertising operation...

This is our own opinion, but anyone of you can have his own one, and each one does not affect the other one...

Cheers.... Beatlesite

Juke Box Jury 12/7/1963

On December 7th 1963, the Beatles gave an afternoon concert at the Empire Theatre in their hometown of Liverpool which was filmed for BBC-TV. Following the concert, the Beatles rushed to the Odeon Cinema in Liverpool for a special taping of the BBC-TV program Juke Box Jury.
Juke Box Jury was a weekly program featuring a panel of four celebrities who were given the task of rating newly released records as 'HIT' or 'MISS,' based on their personal opinions of the recording's potential to become a popular chart hit.
When the Beatles appeared as the four panelists for this edition of Juke Box Jury, they rated the latest releases by artists like Elvis Presley, Steve and Eydie, Bobby Vinton, Billy Fury, and the Swinging Blue Jeans. Most of the predictions the Beatles made on this episode of Juke Box Jury proved later to be correct, and only three of their predictions turned out to be incorrect.
Their December 7th Juke Box Jury appearance and a 30 minute film of their concert earlier that afternoon at Liverpool's Empire Theatre would both be telecast by BBC-TV later that same evening.
Juke Box Jury began as a program in America during the earliest days of television. The BBC version of the show debuted in 1959 and ran until 1967. The host of Juke Box Jury in Britain was David Jacobs.
John Lennon had appeared without the other three Beatles earlier in the year as a Juke Box Jury panelist in an episode that was taped in London on June 22nd 1963 and was aired on BBC-TV one week later on June 29th.


Song heard: Kiss Me Quick - Elvis Presley

PAUL: "The only thing I don't like about Elvis now is the songs. You know, I love his voice. I used to love all the records like 'Blue Suede Shoes' and 'Heartbreak Hotel,' lovely. But I don't like the songs now. And Kiss Me Quick, it sounds like Blackpool on a sunny day."

(laughter, followed by applause)

RINGO: "I didn't like it at all, no."

GEORGE: "I must admit I didn't like it very much. Not at all. It's an old track. And I think, seeing as they're releasing old stuff, if they release something like 'My Baby Left Me' it'd be number one. Because Elvis is definitely still popular, it's just the song's a load of rubbish. I mean, Elvis is great. He's fine. But it's not for me."

JOHN: "Well, I think it'll be a hit because it's Elvis, like people said. But I don't think it'll be very great. (comically) I like those hats, though, with 'Kiss Me Quick' on it!"

(laughter)

(Beatles vote by holding up cards. Consensus: HIT)

Song heard: Hippy Hippy Shake - The Swinging Bluejeans

RINGO: "I liked it. I thought it was good. But it's not as good as the original by Chan Romero. It still swings, and it should sell. I hope it does, anyway."

GEORGE: "I think it could possibly be a hit, because I know for a fact that The Hippy Shake's a very popular song around here. We used to do it ourselves."

(John laughs comically, the crowd of fans cheer)

GEORGE: "I know a lot of the groups around here do this song, and they're expecting somebody to come up with a new version of it. I think it could possibly be a hit. I like the way the Bluejeans did it, but I still prefer Chan Romero's version."

JOHN: "Yeah, I think it'll be a hit because they sort of re-made it for the last one, and it's better. Especially without that banjo. I like Bill Harry's version as well. I think it'll be a small hit, at least."

(laughter)

PAUL: "I think it'll be a hit too, because I don't think it matters much about the Chan Romero record being greater, 'cuz I don't think many people will remember the fact that he did it, and he wrote it as well. You know, I don't think people will remember. They'll just think of it as a new song."

(Beatles vote by holding up cards. Consensus: HIT)

Song heard: Did You Have A Happy Birthday - Paul Anka

GEORGE: "Well, I had a happy birthday, yeah."

(laughter)

GEORGE: "But I mean, If I'd have heard the record first, I maybe would have cut that out."

(laughter)

GEORGE: "You know, I definitely don't like it. It's not for me. (jokingly) And I didn't get the flowers either that he sent me."

(laughter)

JOHN: (jokingly, at the top of his voice) "I LIKE IT !!!"

(laughter)

JOHN: "I don't like these sort of sob songs, and it sounds as though he's on tremelo, technically. You know, it sounds a bit wobbley. Anyway, I don't like it."

PAUL: "Well, I don't like it either, because of that little crack in his voice. He sounds, you know, off his head."

(laughter)

PAUL: "Instead of 'Happy Birthday' it's (comically) 'Woo woo woo!'"

(laughter)

PAUL: "It's a bit off, and I don't like it."

RINGO: "Uhh, I didn't like it at all. It's such a big drag, man, the way it sounded, you know."

(Beatles vote by holding up cards. Consensus: MISS)

Song heard: The Nitty Gritty - Shirley Ellis

JOHN: "Uhh yeah. I like it. I thought it was somebody else. I've never heard of Shirley Ellis. I like all those kind of things. I'll buy it. But I believe it won't be a hit."

DAVID JACOBS: "Who did you think it was?"

JOHN: "At first I thought it was Mary Wells. I liked that."

PAUL: "The same as he said. In fact, I will say exactly the same 'cuz I agree with him. I love these kind of records but I don't think this one will be a hit, 'cuz I dunno... It doesn't say anything."

RINGO: "You know, we all like this sort of thing. I'd buy it, but I don't think it'll be a hit."

GEORGE: "Well, it definitely won't be a hit, in England anyway. It probably will be, or probably is already in the States. But I don't think it'll be a hit. The public haven't got 'round to that sort of stuff yet. When they do, I mean, that would be..."

DAVID JACOBS: "So, you mean you think that our teenagers are behind the Americans in their tastes?"

GEORGE: "Yeah I mean, just lately they've been going for some more way-out stuff, and Rhythm and Blues, and THIS sort of thing we've always liked. We've liked it for years. And it still hasn't caught on in England."

PAUL: "Well it's just that people who buy the records, their taste doesn't match the teenagers generally. Lots of teenagers love this kind of music but don't buy it, because they don't buy records."

(Beatles vote by holding up cards. Consensus: MISS)

Song heard: I Can't Stop Talking About You - Steve And Eydie

PAUL: "Uhh, yeah. I don't think it's a good'n. It's alright. That kind of thing is catchy. It may be catchy, but I just don't think it's good, generally."

RINGO: "I like it, you know. I think she carries them, actually."

(laughter)

GEORGE: "I think it's equally as good as (sings) 'da de-de-de-de de-de da-deee.' It's great, I like it, the sort of relaxed style of both. Yeah, I like it and I think it's a hit."

JOHN: "I don't like it as much as their last one. I don't even like it... I usually like everything Goffin and King write, but not this one. It's too sweet, you know. de-da-de, you know. A bit Christmassy, maybe. I don't like it, though. It'll be a vague hit."

DAVID JACOBS: "A vague one."

JOHN: "A vague hit."

(Beatles vote by holding up cards. Consensus: HIT)

Song heard: Do You Really Love Me Too - Billy Fury

DAVID JACOBS: "Do you really love me too, Ringo?"

RINGO: "Not you."

(laughter)

RINGO: "I didn't like it, you know. I've never bought one of his records, but he's very popular, so it's just uhh... no."

GEORGE: "Not bad, but it was okay, but I wouldn't buy it. And I thought the guitar is just exactly the same as Cliff's. In fact, it's only about a note difference."

JOHN: "He just said the bit about the beginning, didn't he, being like Cliff's one. The tune's not bad. It's quite pleasant. It's one of those you gotta hear again... uhh, tomorrow."

(laughter)

PAUL: "I quite like it, and the same things John said jokingly. The only thing I thought, as well as the guitar bit being like the Cliff Richard bit, the tune is just a little bit like (sings) 'Well I feed the cows and I milks the sheep and I...'"

(laughter, followed by applause)

PAUL: "But I still think it'll be a hit."

(Beatles vote by holding up cards. Consensus: HIT)


Song heard: There I've Said It Again - Bobby Vinton

GEORGE: "Umm, it's quite nice, but I mean, I don't think the record buying public buys this sort of stuff, I mean, the majority -- which will make it a miss. But you know, it's quite alright. I wouldn't buy it me-self."

JOHN: "Uhh, well, I dunno. What is Bobby Vinton doing? He's bringing the oldies back. He might do it, but people always cover them over here. But especially anything old. You know, everybody does it all at once. And he missed it with the last one here. (loudly, comically) I THINK HE'S GONNA MISS IT WITH THIS ONE TOO!!"

(laughter)

PAUL: "Umm, yeah. I think the thing about bringing back old songs and doing them these days, teenagers don't really want old songs brought back. I'm sure they'd like to have songs that they can call their own instead of bringing back their mum and dad's songs."

DAVID JACOBS: "Well now, just a minute. What about Frank Ifield and all that lot?"

PAUL: "Yeah, okay."

GEORGE: "What about Mule Train?"

(laughter)

PAUL: "Yeah well, you're probably right. But I'm sure that if you could get songs these days as GOOD as the old ones, only new songs, that would be ten times better."

JOHN: "Frank Ifield... that's just practically the same as the old."

DAVID JACOBS: "I might tell you that I'm terrified of disagreeing with you chaps, you know, in front of all these people. However, let's see what Ringo says. Ringo."

RINGO: "I liked it, you know. It's nice and smooth. And if you're sort of staying in one night, put it on."

(laughter)

RINGO: "But yeah, right. It won't sell."

DAVID JACOBS: "Thank you, Don Juan Starr."

(Beatles vote by holding up cards. Consensus: MISS)

Song heard: Love Hit Me - The Orchids

DAVID JACOBS: "Three Coventry school gils called the Orchids on 'Love Hit Me.' John Lennon."
JOHN: "Well you know, it's just a big cop, or pinch. It sounds... If it had come out before the Crystals and the Ronettes it would've been great. They've even got that, what is it... castanets?"

RINGO: "Tambourine."

JOHN: (loudly, giggling) Tambourine, is THAT what it's called!!"

(laughter)

JOHN: "It's quite nice, but it's sort of the British version, you know, which... although the song's original, I think. But it sounds... doesn't sound right."

PAUL: "It's okay. It sounds great for an English record, though, you know. Because about a year ago, if someone had brought this out and said 'Listen to this record,' I don't think you would've believed that it was an English one. It's marvelous, the sound things. And I think it's great. I like it."

RINGO: "It's good, you know. I wouldn't buy it. It may sell a few but not that many."

(Beatles laugh)

GEORGE: "I thought it was quite nice. I liked the idea of the British records sort of being on the way to boom-chicka-boom-chicka, all this. I like the American stuff like the Crystals, I mean, even though it is a pinch, you know. I'd rather they pinch the Crystals than carry on doing the stuff they've been doing."

(Beatles vote by holding up cards. Consensus: MISS)

DAVID JACOBS: "They say that it will be a miss, which in fact is most unfortunate, because we do have sitting in the audience three young ladies called The Orchids. Stand up, young ladies. There they are"

(crowd applauds)

GEORGE: (jokingly) "Sorry! Didn't mean it!!"

JOHN: (switching his card) "I'll change it to hit!"

(laughter)

JOHN: "I'll buy it! I'll buy two!"

DAVID JACOBS: (laughs)

JOHN: (comically) "I didn't know you were here!"

DAVID JACOBS: (laughing) "John thinks it's a lousy trick but we'll get on to the next record."

Song heard: I Think Of You - The Merseybeats

(As time was running out in the program, the Beatles did not share their comments on this song, but simply held a quick vote. Consensus: HIT)

DAVID JACOBS: "This is where I say that unfortunately we have to take our leave of you. So, on behalf of the Jury, that's John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. Don't forget to join the Beatles later at 8:10 on BBC television tonight. And join us at the usual time next week for another session of Juke Box Jury. Goodnight."

The Beatles' Albums: Mono Vs. Stereo after the remasters

by Bob Gendron

Every Beatles album through The White Album was mixed with the purpose of being heard in mono. Capitol’s remasters mark the initial occasion of Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, and Beatles for Sale being available on disc in a stereo mix; the converse is true for Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, and The Beatles.

Specifically, the group’s early records tend to sound unnatural in stereo, as the hard panning seems forced and artificial—which, in actuality, it is. In mono, the Beatles’ music thrives from ultra-dynamic front-to-back layering that, intentionally or not, often gives the impression of a stereo mix. The changes wrought by the remasters are dramatic.

Please Please Me is distinguished by a previously vacant fullness, richness, and enormity. There’s discernible air and echo around the swooping vocals on “Misery,” and resolute imaging on “I Saw Her Standing There”—quite a thrill. And the bottom end—quite possibly the single-biggest enhancement on all of the remasters—registers with a forceful thump rather than a dull, empty thud. No longer an undefined aural morass, “Twist and Shout” explodes with a clean yet musical clarity, the singing more distinctive and immediate, the instruments possessing true timbres and resonant clatter. And who ever notices the expressive “Yeah!” at the end of the take?

Similarly, the mono With the Beatles unfolds with ear-bending vibrancy and liveliness. The rolling vocal harmonizing on “All My Loving” astounds. Across-the-board upgrades in airiness, dimensionality, depth, size, and Paul McCartney’s vastly underrated bass lines are detectable on every song. And whether it’s the now-noticeable presence of the piano or the wonderfully rattling chords on “Money,” or discernible rhythmic rumble on “Hold Me Tight,” the record has received a startling facelift that even Hollywood’s most expensive plastic surgeon wouldn’t be able to configure. With the band long faulted for being too sweet, the mono remasters open up space for the argument that the Beatles possessed an edge—if not a slight mean streak (witness the 3-D imaging of “No Reply” off Beatles for Sale).

Vocal precision, smoothness, and extension become even more pronounced on Help! and Rubber Soul. Ditto for the realistic bottom end, long absent on most Beatles recordings. McCartney’s bass and Ringo Starr’s percussion ride side-by-side, and smart albeit illuminating shades and accents—the tambourine on “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” the twangy pitch of the guitar strings on “Ticket to Ride,” the breathlessness of Lennon’s singing on “Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” the natural fade-out on “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” Lennon’s sucking of air through his teeth on “Girl,” the barbershop-quartet swoons during “Michelle”—emerge with breathtaking clarity. Enmeshed with the song as a whole, Starr’s Hammond organ playing on “I’m Looking Through You” now comes across as an integral part of the arrangement.

Revolver marks the point at which the mono-versus-stereo debates begin to get interesting. Admittedly, the backward tape loops on “Tomorrow Never Knows” sound cooler in stereo. In addition, stereo is how most listeners are accustomed to hearing music; for some, mono seems bare. Yet all that’s sacrificed with the latter versus stereo is a larger soundstage, a perceived sense of “hugeness,” and the security of familiarity; mono mixes exhibit an organic presence, naturalness, purity, and outright musicality that render moot any tradeoff. The horns on “Got to Get You Into My Life” have never emitted such boldness or pizzazz; the transparency of the chords during “Here, There and Everywhere” and movement of the bounding piano in “Good Day Sunshine” are utterly staggering. Pure genius.

And yet, the mono version of Sgt. Pepper’s trumps the stereo in several regards. In stereo, “She’s Leaving” runs slower and lower in pitch; the laughter in “Within You Without You” is quieter at the end; McCartney’s scatting is hardly audible on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”; the psychedelic phrasing on “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” isn’t as clear. Such discrepancies owe to the time lapses that occurred between the mono and stereo mixes as well as the full (or partial) participation of the band and George Martin, both of which favored mono.

Accordingly, the stereo version of The White Album boasts life-size images and discerningly more pronounced frequency extension than its mono counterpart. The immersive experience gives birth to underexposed intricacies (the single snare drum strike that parallels the “shot” in “Rocky Raccoon”), defined footprints (McCartney’s bass purrs and growls), and completely new sounds (“Revolution 1” has what seems to be a horn—who knew?). Differences still abound. The mono version of “Helter Skelter” is shorter, sped up, and without Starr’s renowned “blisters on my fingers” comment. The aircraft effects during “Back in the U.S.S.R.” vary, and there are fewer grunts in “Piggies.” Due such distinctions—and no clear-cut winner between the two versions, although stereo does seem to have the edge—both versions are considered “authentic.”

Beatles' Era - Bobbie Gentry: Ode To Billy Joe

Opinions: Beatles Remasters Dazzling, Expensive

by David Bauder

Hard to believe that it's been 40 years since the Beatles sang "You Never Give Me Your Money." You had to expect at least one cheap shot, didn't you? The Beatles' remastered catalog and a dazzling coffee-table "Box of Vision" hits the market Wednesday, as most dedicated fans have known for months. Fanatics will line up, but for most people, a purchase decision is more likely to be financial than musical.

Technicians at Apple Corps Ltd. spent four years cleaning up and giving a digital punch to the master recordings left behind by the Beatles. Each is available individually, as well as in a $259.98 box set that includes the band's original discs, plus the "Past Masters" singles collection, 14 albums in all. Mini-documentaries are included for all but "Past Masters."
Also on sale is a $298.98 box of mono mixes for each album through the "White Album"; after that the music was only released in stereo. For those under age 50, mono has the same music coming through each speaker (stereo splits different parts of a track through different speakers) and was the dominant music system in homes until the late 1960s. At first, the Beatles devoted more attention to their mono mixes.
The "Box of Vision" is an $89.98 package (plus shipping -- it's only available by mail order) to fit all of the CDs with album-sized reprints of every album's covers and liner notes -- yet no actual CDs included.

Do the math: it's possible to spend upwards of $350 and receive not a single note of new music.

Given that we're in an era where artists have a hard time convincing fans they should pay for ANY music, that falls into the selling-ice-to-Eskimos category. Despite that, despite the economy, Amazon.com sold out its allotment of boxes and has a waiting list of buyers.
Now, this is the greatest catalog in popular music, so if your collection is Beatle-less, the box is a terrific buy. Really, though, what serious pop music fan doesn't already own some of these albums already?

Since the albums contain no outtakes or alternate versions, the remaster is the attraction. The advice here is to arrange a test-drive: buy, or borrow, an individual disc ($18.98 list, $24.98 for the White Album and "Past Masters") to see how much difference the sound makes before setting aside a few hundred bucks for one of the boxes.

In the case of "Rubber Soul," what's striking is how the new mix let you hear each background singer with sparkling clarity. A tambourine feels like it's jingling in your ear.
It sounds great. It ALWAYS sounded great, frankly. For an average person with an average sound system, the differences aren't going to make it seem like an entirely new listening experience.

What is new here are mini-documentaries on DVD, about three minutes apiece, on each album. They feature interviews with band members and producer George Martin, seemingly left over from the "Beatles Anthology" days, and some studio banter.
They're all fun and occasionally enlightening. Starr described the lengthy studio sessions for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by saying, "It's a fine album, but I did learn to play chess on it."
Yet that mini-doc talks little about the album's epic "A Day in the Life." No time. Each piece is like a slightly elongated trailer for a show you'd like to see but doesn't exist.

The "Box of Vision" is a beautiful package, with the groundbreaking photo of the four Beatles with their faces in half shadow on the front of a box that has the size and shape of old record albums. Inside are plastic sleeves to insert copies of CDs, purchased separately, and two books.

Both are exhaustive. One lists the Beatles' complete discography, detailing the differences between British and American releases, which were substantial in the first half of the band's career, and all of the reissues. Another reproduces the album covers and all of the liner notes, including booklets of later CD releases like the "Anthology" series.
It's pleasantly memory-jogging and reproduces that experience, from before the CD era, of having something substantial you can hold in your hands while listening to the albums.

All of these packages ooze class and quality. Fans must decide for themselves if it's worth paying for things they've paid for before.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.

Beatles' Era - The Beatles Vs. James Bond

The two biggest pop culture icons to come out of Britain in the 1960s have a strangely antagonistic relationship. It began when James Bond famously insulted the Fab Four in 1964's Goldfinger. "My dear girl," Sean Connery instructed the hapless Jill Masterson, "There are some things that just aren't done. Such as drinking Dom Perignon '53 above a temperature of thirty-eight degrees Fahrenheit. That's as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs!"
The Beatles got their revenge by taking some potshots at 007 and Bond-style spy shenanigans in their 1965 film Help!, but it was all in good fun. Ken Thorne (who would go on to create the fantastic incidental music of The Persuaders!) composed a winning spy score that took some definite cues from Monty Norman's and John Barry's James Bond Theme. (The instrumentals were available on the American version of the soundtrack album, but sadly not the British one that ended up on CD. The American version was finally issued in 2006 as part of The Capitol Albums Vol. 2.)

In 1967 the animated Liverpudlians found themselves competing with secret agent James Blond for Pussy Galore... er, groupies... on their cartoon show. (Of course the actual lads couldn't be bothered to provide their own voices.) When Paul suggests that they "open the gate and let the lucky girls in," the screaming female fans trample right over the poor Beatles, flocking instead to a beaming blond hunk in a suit.
Paul laments, "Where did our fans go?"
A helpful, lovely meter maid (Rita?) explains, "Over to England's greatest detective... James Blond. Number 0-0."
"Oh-oh-what?" inquires George.
"That's all," says Rita, dreamily. "When the girls see him, they say 'oooh, oooh! Heaven!'"
"It's not fair!" complains Paul. (Perhaps he's still secretly stewing over that "earmuffs" remark.) "We do all the records and films and some dimpled detective gets all the glory!" The Beatles attempt to cash in on some of that glory for themselves by thwarting a crime in Penny Lane... only to discover (after performing the song to an animated music video) that the crime isn't being committed in Penny Lane, but against Miss Penelope Lane! And, of course, James Blond has beat them to it, and he ends up with Miss Lane. Can't the Beatles catch a break with 007?

They finally did two years later, when Ian Fleming's widow, Ann Fleming, expressed a grudging admiration for the Fab Four in a letter to adventurer Patrick Leigh Fermor dated November 7, 1969*:
I am very out of touch, and will write a better bulletin soon: depression is in the ascendant, induced by having to pass what Kingsley Amis has written about Ian for the Dictionary of National Biography, and being assailed by the BBC for material for the Omnibus programme they are doing on Ian - I want to kick them all and burst into tears. Improbably, the Beatles have put my quandary into words - a song that goes

I want to be at the bottom
of the sea
In an octopus's garden in the shade

How do the Beatles know octopuses have gardens? I thought only I knew that, there must be more to them than meets the ear.
She got the lyrics slightly wrong, but the sentiment is there: Ann Fleming found solace in the music of the Beatles at a time when she needed it, which forced her to reconsider her apparently disdainful opinion of their music. Perhaps James Bond and the Beatles could get along after all?
Not if Bond producer Harry Saltzman had his way. Saltzman still wasn't won over. In his autobiography, My Word is My Bond, Roger Moore recounts an oft-told story about how the producer was displeased with Paul McCartney's title song for Moore's first Bond movie, the 1973 entry Live and Let Die:

When Harry first heard the song, he said he didn't like it but - perhaps reserving final judgement - turned to [composer and former Beatles producer] George Martin and said, 'So, who are we gonna get to sing it?' George Martin diplomatically told Harry that he already had one of the biggest recording artists of all time singing it.
Martin was now scoring Bond, and the Beatles got the last laugh when McCartney's "Live and Let Die" (performed with his new band, Wings) charted instantly and went on to become one of the best-known Bond songs of the entire series, covered over the years by the likes of Guns'n'Roses, Chrissie Hynde, Geri Halliwell and, most recently, Duffy.

A permanent truce was finally formed between the rival Sixties icons via marriage when Ringo Starr wed Bond Girl Barbara Bach in 1981.

Promoting A Hard Day's Night 7/1964

To promote the worldwide theatrical release of the movie, 'A Hard Day's Night,' the following interview was conducted with the Beatles. Copies of the recorded interview were then sent to radio stations.
It was created to be an 'Open-end' interview-- meaning that once the interview was recorded, the questions were edited out so that local disc jockeys could read scripted questions along with the recording to sound as if they were personally conducting the interview.

Q: "I hate to bring this up, boys, but what happened to John?"
PAUL: (jokingly) "Well actually, he's gone down to the shipyards to have an estimate for a haircut."

RINGO: (mock seriousness) "I don't know, he's supposed to be here. He's late, isn't he?"

Q: "Well Beatles, we really are thrilled to have you here on the show today, and I want to talk to you about a great movie, 'A Hard Day's Night.' Ringo, was it really a hard day's night to make this first big one?"

RINGO: "Well, it was a hard two months. It took two months actually to make this film. But, umm, I think I found the biggest drag was when we were just sitting 'round doing nothing."

PAUL: "And getting up early. That was one of those things. We had to get up about six o'clock in the morning, you know, sometimes. Which is-- oh-- I'm sure it's not good for anyone, that. It's very bad for your health."

Q: "George, how about you? Did you find it an easy thing to do?"

GEORGE: "Oh no. In fact, you see, we're night owls, folks."

PAUL: (hoots like an owl, and laughs)

GEORGE: "You mightn't have noticed. No, but-- you know, we all go out at night. And then suddenly our day was reversed, so that we had to be up at six in the morning, but we still couldn't get the hang of going to bed at night. So we were going out at night AND getting up in the morning for the first week or so, and I just couldn't believe it. Six o'clock, somebody dragging me out of bed."

Q: "Ringo, at six in the morning what did you do about the bags under your eyes?"

RINGO: "Umm, well, I've always had 'em. I just filled them up a bit more."

(laughter)

Q: "How about you, Paul?"

PAUL: "Well, you know. I had a bit of trouble, but there was always this handy makeup man on the (laughs) ...on the scene to sort of paint your face up a bit."

Q: "Who combed your hair so early in the morning?"

RINGO: "We did. We all combed our... well, we don't actually comb it, we shake it."

PAUL: "It's the easiest way, you know. You just sort of shake it, it falls forward and you sort of comb it a little bit then, and it normally works out okay."

Q: "Ringo, was it a fun experience, or was it actually work?"

RINGO: "About eighty percent work, and twenty percent was all laughs."

PAUL: "Even the work, which was hard work, was still good fun because, you know, the film was a good laugh, mainly. I mean, even when we were sort of very tired and really knocked out, and we'd do a thing, when we actually saw it on the screen it looked, sort of, quite funny. I mean, there's one scene where I think I'd been out the night before and I was feeling so tired, you know. But I've seen it on the screen since and you can't tell."

Q: "I guess only the guys who participated in the movie know the truth."

PAUL: "True."

RINGO: "That's about right."

Q: "Ringo, the job of acting-- of saying lines, of reacting to the person who's acting opposite you-- did it come naturally to you?"

RINGO: "No, I don't think so. At first-- and I think we all had a terrible time tryin' to learn lines, 'cuz we wouldn't anyway. We used to sort of read them and try and learn 'em before we went on the set."

PAUL: "Yeah, I agree, you know. It was very hard to just learn a line and say it, because we've never done that sort of thing before. We've always just thought of something and said it, rather than actually read something on a piece of paper. But I think towards the end of making the film, we got the hang of it a little bit more. At first, it was very frightening, you know. It was nerve-wracking trying to say these things as though we meant them-- 'cuz that takes training as an actor, I reckon. So you know, we had to try and make it look convincing without having any experience."

Q: "Well the movie has been done now, and it's a great success. Do you feel now that you want to 'be' actors?"

PAUL: "Naw."

GEORGE: "Not really, no. We still... Even if 'A Hard Day's Night' is the biggest sort of box-office attraction ever, you know, it still won't make us feel as though we're actors. But I think we'd all enjoy making a new film."

RINGO "All different things that happened were funny to us, which they haven't printed and put on the film, but it's great when we go and see the film, then we can sort of say, 'Remember that bit-- if they'd have showed the one we did before, you know, where we all broke up."

PAUL: "This is another one of these bits-- where we got the giggles as well. Ringo is supposed to be sulking, and John sort of starts joking with him, and starts singing this song as though he's singing it to him, you know. It was quite a laugh making it. Probably doesn't sound very funny now, but anyway, it was."

RINGO: "It won't seem very funny on the screen, but to us, we were all breaking up, you know."

Q: "George, alot of people would like to know what has been happening with you romantically recently. Can you fill us in?"

GEORGE: "Oh, nothing much. Nothing exciting, sorry to say."

Q: "You mean you've been freelancing?"

GEORGE: "Oh, yeah."

RINGO: (laughs) "Everybody's freelancing."

Q: "Why do you say, 'sorry to say'?"

GEORGE: "Well, you know. People seem to expect you to get married and everything, you see. So, sorry to break their illusions, but I'm not. I'm freelancing, as you say."

Q: "How were your trips to Australia and New Zealand."

PAUL: "They were fine, you know. The only thing is, it's so far away when you go to Australia, and we tend to get a bit homesick for England, you know."

Q: "Paul, what do you think about all these other groups? Are they very imitative with the hair-dos and style of music?"

PAUL: "None of us think they're imitations, you know. There may be one or two sort of smaller groups that are. I think they're mainly the ones that never seem to make it, because to make it you've gotta be a little bit different. I think the ones that don't make it-- it's not annoying, it's flattering, you know, to think that they should want to copy us."

GEORGE: "Yeah. That's right."

George Harrison on Radio

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New Orleans lawyer creates the questions for a new Beatles Trivial Pursuit game

Beatles expert Bruce Spizer sits in front of shelves full of band memorabilia at his home in New Orleans. Spizer created the questions that are being used new Trivial Pursuit The Beatles Collector's Edition board game.Which Beatle co-starred in a film with Peter Sellers? What New Orleans R&B singer was added to the Beatles' first U.S. tour as a replacement opening act? What was the initial name of John's Lennon's first band?

New Orleans attorney Bruce Spizer can answer any of those questions in a heartbeat. No wonder, since he recently spent three months making up 2,592 questions, including those three, for the new Trivial Pursuit The Beatles Collector's Edition board game ($39.95) scheduled to be released today.

Why was a specialist in tax law and estate planning called on to create an exhaustive Fab Four quiz? Because Spizer wrote the book about the Mop Tops. In fact, he wrote seven.

As obsessions go, Spizer's is relatively recent. It was a mere 12 years ago that his microscopic study of all things Beatles began in earnest.

Before that, his love of the Liverpool quartet followed a more-or-less predictable pattern. Spizer, 54, recalls hearing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on the Newman School bus in 1964. He was 8 years old, and soon swept up in the new sound of the English group. He said he was especially intrigued by the fact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote most of the group's songs, "which at the time was pretty unique."

In 1964, he had a chance to see The Beatles on their one visit to New Orleans, when they played to a screaming crowd at City Park Stadium (later called Tad Gormley Stadium). Trouble was, Spizer said, it was his sister's 16th birthday, so she got to choose the evening's activity. Unfortunately "she was a Barbra Streisand fan."

"I figured I'd see them next time," he said, with a lingering whisper of regret in his voice.

Spizer's devotion to pop music persisted throughout his youth. He played guitar in high school bands, served on the board of directors of the landmark Mushroom record store, and managed the popular late-¤'70s New Orleans band, The Cold. Somewhere in there, The Beatles dissolved, but life went on. During law school, Spizer said he "dutifully bought the solo albums," but he just didn't have the same passion for John, Paul, George, and Ringo's individual careers. Who did?

Then, in 1997, Spizer said he "settled a big class action lawsuit," the sort of settlement that might have provided him with a Mercedes or Rolex. Instead, in a moment of 1960s nostalgia, he decided to replace all of his old Beatles records, most of which had their album jackets ruined by roaches.

"Maybe roaches are Beatles natural enemies," he speculates.

Spizer sought first editions of the records he once owned. As he collected, he discovered that "collector books didn't make any sense." The dates of record releases were confused. His lawyerly mind was especially drawn to legal battles between the Vee-Jay and Capitol record labels, which vied to introduce the band in America. Spizer whiled away his late nights writing what he expected to be an article on the subject, that blossomed into a well-received self-published book.

"So in effect, yes," Spizer said, "I am the tax man and then I got the bug to be a paperback writer." (His $50 books are, in fact, hardbacks.)

One Beatles project led to another and another. Spizer became a sort of monk, laboring over a continuous stream of Beatles manuscripts.

His research revealed that a four-minute news story about The Beatles was scheduled for the CBS Evening News broadcast on the day President John Kennedy was assassinated. The story was postponed for weeks. When it finally aired, Spizer said, "the exuberant music of The Beatles" may have helped uplift the spirit of America.

"Many books attribute the success of the Beatles to the youth of American being despondent over the death of President Kennedy," Spizer said, but he does not believe there was a strict cause and effect, since the Beatles' popularity was worldwide.

Though Spizer was never able to interview any of The Beatles, he did speak to Beatles producer George Martin. Spizer said that when he met Martin in 2006, he was flattered to find that Martin was aware of his reputation as a Beatles authority.

Indeed, Spizer has spoken at music industry and Beatles fan conventions across the country, and has appeared as a Beatles authority on the CBS Morning Show, Good Morning America, and Fox News.

As his reputation grew, so did his small back room museum of Beatles memorabilia: logo lunch boxes, tumblers, tennis shoes, a rare record player, you name it. Spizer said he even has two "knock-offs" of Beatles stage costumes.

"I did show up in court once wearing the Ed Sullivan suit," Spizer said. "I don't think the judge noticed."

Then, last October, the folks from USAopoly asked Spizer to produce the hundreds and hundreds of questions needed for the new trivia game. Spizer said that he was told he'd been highly recommended for the job, but he's not sure by whom. The questions, Spizer said, are divided into six categories, each with 72 cards containing six questions, divided into easy, moderate, and hard .

Asked for a really hard question, Spizer offered this stumper: "What was the name of the Pan Am jet that flew The Beatles to America in 1964?"

Test your Beatles knowledge

Here are samples of easy, moderate and difficult questions from Beatles expert Bruce Spizer. See how you do:

Easy

Q: What was the name of the Beatles' first movie?
A: A Hard Day's Night.

Q: Which Beatle co-starred in a film with Peter Sellers?
A: Ringo costarred in The Magic Christian.

Moderate

Q: In what city did Paul McCartney record Venus and Mars?
A: New Orleans

Q: What New Orleans R&B singer was added to the first Beatles' US tour as a replacement opening act?
A:Clarence "Frogman" Henry replaced the Righteous Brothers.

Difficult

Q: What was the name of the Pan Am jet that flew the Beatles to America in 1964?
A: Clipper Defiance

Q: What was the initial name of Beatle John's first band?
A: The Black Jacks.

by Chris Granger
© 2009 New Orleans Net LLC.

Memorabilia - Flip Your Wig Game

In 1964 the Milton Bradley company released the Beatles "Flip Your Wig" board game. Originally the game sold for $2.98 retail.

This is probably the best bargin in all of Beatles collecting as it's a super displayable item full of colorful Beatles goodies! A Near Mint complete example is actually quite difficult to find and prices are only now climbing to the $300.00 mark for super copies! As people begin to realize their true rarity in condition, they will surely escalate fast in value in just a few short years. They've nearly doubled in the last few years for Near Mint ones.

Peeking the Auctions: Yesterday And Today

AUTHENTIC SEALED U.S. “YESTERDAY AND TODAY” STEREO ALBUM ON CAPITOL RECORDS

Factory sealed (Unopened) U.S. Stereo issue “Yesterday and Today “album (Capitol ST-2553). This LP was manufactured in the 1966/1967 era. This album is rare and unique as it came from the newly built factory July 1965 out of Jacksonville Indiana with a number # 4 on the back lower right hand corner of the album. The LP cover is in a nice near MINT sealed condition. This album is guaranteed to be authentic and original as stated for life as per Mr. Perry Cox’s Letter of Authenticity dated 05/31/2007.

Please note this album is not a second state paste over BUTCHER, but a forth state original factory cover.

The LP cover is in a nice near MINT sealed condition with the only flaw being a very small tear in the shrink wrap pear shaped by John's foot. The wrap is still there and intacted on the cover.

1295.00 USD

Peeking the Auctions: Revolver

Authentic Factory Sealed U. S. Issue of the Beatles “Revolver” Capitol Records Original album from 1966.

Factory sealed Capitol records 1966 issue of the Beatles “Revolver” stereo album (Capitol ST-2576). This particular example will feature an original black label without “Subsidiary” perimeter print. This example is the first issue of the album. It features the yellow coloured inner sleeve which is visible from the right end of the cover. This album is a near mint factory sealed album and the only issue is a slight 2 ½” split of the cover at the bottom seam. This slight split is just through the wrap and the top paper of the cover and does not in anyway enter the record compartment.

This is a rare and not an easy stereo Beatles title to find sealed at all!!!! Check out the pictures and enjoy this historic 1ST release of this album from 1966.

This sealed album is guaranteed to be authentic and original as stated for life by Mr. Perry Cox’s laminated letter of authenticity dated 04/10/08. (Included with the album).

$695.00 USD

Peeking the Auctions: Help!

AUTHENTIC SEALED U.S. “HELP” STEREO ALBUM ON CAPITOL RECORDS

Factory sealed (Un- opened) U.S. stereo issue “Help” album (Capitol SMAS-2386). This album was manufactured and released August 1965. The record inside well be the original black label issue. The LP cover is in a nice near mint condition with only the following issues. The upper right hand corner has a small push. A small ¾ inch wrap separation is at the upper left top edge with some tanning to the exposed area. There is also a very small “push” to the upper left corner as well as does the lower left corner. The original “3.87” price sticker remains adhered to the front of the cover wrapping. This album is guaranteed to be authentic and original as stated for life as per Mr. Cox’s letter of authenticity dated 05/24/2007. Laminated letter included with album.

It is very rare to find this album in a sealed condition as the buyer could hardly wait to open the gate- fold cover to see the inside photo’s!!!!!!!!!!!

$595.00 USD

Beatles Trivia Quiz

1. Who was George Harrison’s Best Man at his wedding to Patty Boyd?

2. Who recorded the single “Ringo I Love You” and who produced it?

3. How many Beatles recordings have only 1 Beatle on the recording and what are they?

4. How many members of the Beatles are left handed?

5. What actress whose daughter worked with Steve Carell had sex with Paul McCartney?

6. Which Lennon-McCartney Beatles song was allegedly co-written by a Non-Beatle who was not credited and received a cash payment for his contribution but no royalties?

7. How many Lennon-McCartney songs written before the Beatles broke up, have the word love in their title or as part as a bigger word with love contained in the word?

8. Ringo Starr is totally absent on which 16 officially released Beatles recordings. Note if he so much as contributed a backing vocal or so, he’s not considered totally absent.

9. On what Beatles recordings, have the Beatles wives/ex-wives been on?

10. What is the only track on the Beatles White Album that John Lennon and Paul McCartney share lead vocals?


Answers below:

1. Who was George Harrison’s Best Man at his wedding to Patty Boyd?

John Lennon

2. Who recorded the single “Ringo I Love You” and who produced it?

Cher’s first solo recording was the novelty single “Ringo, I Love You”, which was released under the pseudonym “Bonnie-Jo Mason” and was produced by Phil Spector

3. How many Beatles recordings have only 1 Beatle on the recording and what are they?

7 Recordings with Just one Beatles as follows- Paul: Yesterday, Her Majesty, Blackbird, Mother Nature’s Son; John: Julia; Ringo:Good Night; George: The Inner Light

4. How many members of the Beatles of the Beatles are left handed?

Two Beatles are left handed: Paul MCartney and Ringo Starr even though Ringo plays right handed drums

5. What actress whose daughter worked with Steve Carell had sex with Paul McCartney?

Peggy Lipton of the Mod Squad whose daughter Rashida Jones was on The Office with Steve Carell.

6. Which Lennon-McCartney Beatles song was allegedly co-written by a Non-Beatle who was not credited and received a cash payment for his contribution but no royalties?

Fixing A Hole for which Beatles assistant Mal Evans allegedly contributed lyrics and received a payment for his contribution but not songwriting royalties. To quote IMDB in its listing of “Mal Evans Contributed some lyrics to Paul McCartney’s “Fixing A Hole”, for the Sgt. Pepper album; Paul gave him a cash payment instead of a songwriting credit.”

7. How many Lennon-McCartney songs written before the Beatles broke up, have the word love in somewhere their title?

All You Need is Love
It’s Only Love
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
She Loves You
Can’t Buy Me Love
Love Me Do
Lovely Rita
PS I Love You
Step Inside Love Covered by Cilia Black Not Recorded by the Beatles
And I Love Her

8. Ringo Starr is totally absent on which 16 officially released Beatles recordings. Note if he so much as contributed a backing vocal or so, he’s not considered totally absent.

I’ll Follow the Sun, Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, Because,Her Majesty,She’s Leaving Home, Within You,Without You,Back in the USSR (Paul played drums),Dear Prudence(Paul played drums),Wild Honey Pie,Blackbird,Julia,Mother Nature’s Sun,Revolution #9,The Inner Light,Ballad of John and Yoko

9. On what Beatles recordings, have the Beatles wives/ex-wives been on?

Pattie Harrison who contributes backing vocals on Yellow Submarine & Birthday, Yoko Ono does backing vocals on Birthday and a line on The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill and Maureen Starr does backing vocals on birthday.

10. What is the only track on the Beatles White Album that John Lennon and Paul McCartney share lead vocals?

Birthday