15 years ago
Cover Me Badd celebrates Beatles rooftop anniversary in San Diego
This Friday, forty years later to the minute (minus the eight hour time difference), San Diego legends Cover Me Badd are bringing back their famed Beatles U.S. act to celebrate the anniversary of the Beatles' last semi-public performance. In the spirit of the Fab Four playing a rooftop lunchtime set to an unsuspecting London, the Beatles U.S. will play the same songs that John, Paul, George, Ringo and organist Billy Preston played on January 30, 1969. Though the exact time and location is being kept under wraps, several clues were divulged at a recent secret press conference that no one was invited to.
According to singer Adam Gimbel, "People should head to Horton Plaza and be sure to bring their ice skates. When they see that the ice skating rink has been taken down for the season and look skyward in disappointment, they might just see us." When questioned about what time the set will take place, Gimbel inexplicably yelled out the name of Herman's Hermits singer Peter Noone exactly twelve times. He then bragged about how the Beatles never did encores but they might be doing one at 8pm.
The everchanging Cover Me Badd (above) formed The Beatles U.S. two years ago for a Beatlesque installment of the Tribute! concert series at Safari Sam's in Los Angeles. Though the show was barely attended, two videos from the band's set ended up on Youtube and have been viewed over 35,000 times. Two of the group's main members, Adam Gimbel and Dylan Martinez are no strangers to having thousands of people watch them play the Beatles online. Their "real" band Rookie Card played "Back In The USSR" outside of their album release show several years ago just as a plane flew overhead in a bit of incredible timing. A video of the performance was mentioned in a San Diego Reader coverstory and has become the stuff of legend.
The group vowed to reform when the time was right and the time was right several months ago when they insisted on playing the first event on the roof of the newly re-opened 10th Avenue Theater in San Diego's East Village. Noticing that the 40th anniversary was just a few months away, they vowed to find somewhere right downtown to play on January 30th.
Gimbel inquired with almost every building that has a roof in downtown San Diego about hosting the event but they all had either tented for winter, had never heard of McCartney's pre-Wings material or wanted $15,000. Luckily, the kind folks at Westfield's Horton Plaza stepped forward to give the band a place to play, so that they too could be part of something so historic.
When the Beatles were trying to come up with a place to film their last performance for the film that eventually became Let It Be, they talked about doing it on a boat, at the Royal Albert Hall in London and even in Africa. Strangely enough, there are rumors of an outtake from the movie where John Lennon turns to Yoko Ono and mumbles something about "an MC Esher styled shopping mall that smells like cinnamon buns in San Diego....near Broadway and 3rd Street." Rather than play on a roof where no one could see them, the Beatles US decided to comply with Lennon's wishes and play somewhere a bit more retail oriented. Ever charitable, the band is playing FOR FREE while requesting donations for their friends, local soul/funk outfit The Tightenups, who recently had their rehearsal space robbed of several thousand dollars worth of equipment.
Though world-famous Beatle coverband the Bootleg Beatles played the same famous fifth story roof that the Beatles played at 3 Saville Row in London ten years ago, local council and police have cancelled this year's recreation due to "health and safety reasons". Not surprisingly, all eyes have turned towards a shopping mall in San Diego, California for the next best thing. Those seeking 100% faithful renditions, fake accents, period-perfect costuming or even an actual roof need not attend. Like all Cover Me Badd acts, the Beatles US puts more of a twist (and a shout) on things than most Beatle copycat bands.
An elevated time is guaranteed for all.
Cover Me Badd's Beatles U.S. performs downtown for the 40th anniversary of the beatles' legendary rooftop show
secret location: maybe westfield's horton plaza at broadway circle, downtown san diego
secret date: probably 40 years after january 30, 1969m
secret starting times: rhymes with "moon" (plus 8pm for those who won't ditch work)
secret reason why: because when someone breaks into your friends' rehearsal space and steals thousands of dollars worth of equipment, you learn beatles songs and take to the skies.
According to singer Adam Gimbel, "People should head to Horton Plaza and be sure to bring their ice skates. When they see that the ice skating rink has been taken down for the season and look skyward in disappointment, they might just see us." When questioned about what time the set will take place, Gimbel inexplicably yelled out the name of Herman's Hermits singer Peter Noone exactly twelve times. He then bragged about how the Beatles never did encores but they might be doing one at 8pm.
The everchanging Cover Me Badd (above) formed The Beatles U.S. two years ago for a Beatlesque installment of the Tribute! concert series at Safari Sam's in Los Angeles. Though the show was barely attended, two videos from the band's set ended up on Youtube and have been viewed over 35,000 times. Two of the group's main members, Adam Gimbel and Dylan Martinez are no strangers to having thousands of people watch them play the Beatles online. Their "real" band Rookie Card played "Back In The USSR" outside of their album release show several years ago just as a plane flew overhead in a bit of incredible timing. A video of the performance was mentioned in a San Diego Reader coverstory and has become the stuff of legend.The group vowed to reform when the time was right and the time was right several months ago when they insisted on playing the first event on the roof of the newly re-opened 10th Avenue Theater in San Diego's East Village. Noticing that the 40th anniversary was just a few months away, they vowed to find somewhere right downtown to play on January 30th.
Gimbel inquired with almost every building that has a roof in downtown San Diego about hosting the event but they all had either tented for winter, had never heard of McCartney's pre-Wings material or wanted $15,000. Luckily, the kind folks at Westfield's Horton Plaza stepped forward to give the band a place to play, so that they too could be part of something so historic.
When the Beatles were trying to come up with a place to film their last performance for the film that eventually became Let It Be, they talked about doing it on a boat, at the Royal Albert Hall in London and even in Africa. Strangely enough, there are rumors of an outtake from the movie where John Lennon turns to Yoko Ono and mumbles something about "an MC Esher styled shopping mall that smells like cinnamon buns in San Diego....near Broadway and 3rd Street." Rather than play on a roof where no one could see them, the Beatles US decided to comply with Lennon's wishes and play somewhere a bit more retail oriented. Ever charitable, the band is playing FOR FREE while requesting donations for their friends, local soul/funk outfit The Tightenups, who recently had their rehearsal space robbed of several thousand dollars worth of equipment.
Though world-famous Beatle coverband the Bootleg Beatles played the same famous fifth story roof that the Beatles played at 3 Saville Row in London ten years ago, local council and police have cancelled this year's recreation due to "health and safety reasons". Not surprisingly, all eyes have turned towards a shopping mall in San Diego, California for the next best thing. Those seeking 100% faithful renditions, fake accents, period-perfect costuming or even an actual roof need not attend. Like all Cover Me Badd acts, the Beatles US puts more of a twist (and a shout) on things than most Beatle copycat bands.
An elevated time is guaranteed for all.
Cover Me Badd's Beatles U.S. performs downtown for the 40th anniversary of the beatles' legendary rooftop show
secret location: maybe westfield's horton plaza at broadway circle, downtown san diego
secret date: probably 40 years after january 30, 1969m
secret starting times: rhymes with "moon" (plus 8pm for those who won't ditch work)
secret reason why: because when someone breaks into your friends' rehearsal space and steals thousands of dollars worth of equipment, you learn beatles songs and take to the skies.
Followup: No go for Savile Row
On 30 January 1969 the Beatles walked on to the rooftop on 3 Savile Row and performed live for the last time. For the last 40 years this event has been acknowledged as a landmark event in pop culture. Well, they say history has a habit of repeating itself...
January 30th, 2009 ... 40 years to the day later the band intended to recreate this historic event and pay homage to both it's cultural significance and The Beatles by heading up to the very same roof. This time, however, the performance has been stopped before a note has been played.
Number 3, Savile Row stands empty, awaiting new corporate tenants. The landlords, Kier Group, granted their permission, The Express Group offered to host a party and make a charitable donation to PeaceOneDay, and Westminster Council granted the appropriate temporary license.
The performance itself was to be broadcast live across the nation, enabling millions of fans to enjoy a loving recreation of the original event. But, Westminster had second thoughts. Onerous and extensive demands and conditions were placed upon the band and, with huge disappointment all round, the performance has had to be scrapped.
The Bootleg Beatles (above) office did try to persuade Westminster Council to re-issue a licence but sadly local government bureaucracy won the day. In a strange conversation with Simon Pearce of Westminster Council he insisted that the Council were not 'saying no' and that a new licence had to be applied for. When asked if the band could apply for a new licence Mr Pearce said there was not enough time for a licence to be granted. Bizarre!Mark Cunningham of TPi Magazine sums it up perfectly, "With London 2012 on its way, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was a fantastic chance to remind the world of a unique moment in music history that happened not in New York, L.A., Paris or Berlin, but in LONDON. Westminster Council, you could have made this happen...you chose not to...you should be ashamed of yourselves."
Thanks to The Bootleg Beatles Home Page
Bookshelf - Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America
Can't Buy Me Love:
The Beatles, Britain and America by Jonathan Gould
Piatkus, £10.99
Just another Beatles book? Not quite...
Finally, what the world has been crying out for: a book about the Beatles. This is forgivable sarcasm when you consider that there are more than 500 of them already. I must have about a dozen of them myself, and have read a dozen more. These range from the indispensable - Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head, Bob Spitz's The Beatles, the Hunter Davies and Philip Norman works and, for my money the most fascinating of them all, Devin McKinney's inspirational, insanely ambitious Magic Circles - to some of the shoddiest and most opportunistic verbiage you will encounter in the course of a reading life. Anyone with any sense of professional pride now writing about the group must feel like a treasure hunter going over ground that has been thoroughly ransacked by hundreds of people, some armed with pretty sophisticated detection equipment.
But still they keep coming out - and we still want to read them. Well, some of us, and some of them. The group still fascinates. A friend of mine, asked whether he liked them, replied that asking him whether he liked the Beatles or not was like asking a priest whether he liked God or not: the question was all but meaningless. They're there, and you can, should you wish, accommodate yourself to the fact by inhaling every available datum of information about them.
Jonathan Gould, who by his account spent some two decades writing this, his first book, might have felt a certain despair when Spitz's near-1,000-page biography of the band came out in 2005; but Gould plodded on, and we can be glad that he did. For it is not so much that he brings anything really new to the party - he says his book concentrates on the music more than the others, but this is true only if you ignore about two dozen of them - as that he manages, almost miraculously, to retell a story that could hardly be called unfamiliar in a way which actually manages to illuminate.
And he does it subtly (compare Henry W Sullivan's The Beatles with Lacan, a title you could be forgiven for thinking was some kind of joke, but isn't). The trick is in an easy fluency of writing combined with a sense of when not to dwell too much on stuff we already know. He is very good on the political backgrounds of both Britain and America - particularly, in fact, on the differing sociologies which accounted for the differing versions of British and American Beatlemania. (Interestingly, it is only when that phenomenon kicks off that the book itself wakes up; it does take a while to get going.) He has a nice line in clear-headed assessments of the group's faults as well as their virtues, and the occasional, never intrusive way with a nice simile. By the time he says that "Tomorrow Never Knows" is "oddly reminiscent" of their version of "Twist and Shout", you know exactly what he's getting at.
It is a measure of the worth of the book that there is so little you could find in it to take issue with. So here are some pettifogging quibbles. The song "A Hard Day's Night" is more like two and a half minutes long than "a full three". Lennon and McCartney's decision not to put Harrison's "Not Guilty" on the White Album was not "churlish" - it was sensible, considering how dire it is. And that's about it. If he skates over McCartney's tomcatting or how close they came to being murdered in the Philippines, then that is probably because he knows full well you can go elsewhere for that. He doesn't even slip up when considering matters of British heritage, culture and politics - quite a feat when you consider that I have read respected American authors dealing with the subject who think that Private Eye is a TV show, or that London still suffers from pea-soupers.
But it is in his descriptions of the songs that Gould really shines. He knows his terminology and is not afraid to use it - but he is not intimidatingly knowledgable, and when he describes a song it really is as if you're hearing it, too. And if you ask: "What's the point of that, then?", maybe this book isn't for you.
Thanks to by Nicholas Lezard @ The Guardian
But still they keep coming out - and we still want to read them. Well, some of us, and some of them. The group still fascinates. A friend of mine, asked whether he liked them, replied that asking him whether he liked the Beatles or not was like asking a priest whether he liked God or not: the question was all but meaningless. They're there, and you can, should you wish, accommodate yourself to the fact by inhaling every available datum of information about them.
Jonathan Gould, who by his account spent some two decades writing this, his first book, might have felt a certain despair when Spitz's near-1,000-page biography of the band came out in 2005; but Gould plodded on, and we can be glad that he did. For it is not so much that he brings anything really new to the party - he says his book concentrates on the music more than the others, but this is true only if you ignore about two dozen of them - as that he manages, almost miraculously, to retell a story that could hardly be called unfamiliar in a way which actually manages to illuminate.
And he does it subtly (compare Henry W Sullivan's The Beatles with Lacan, a title you could be forgiven for thinking was some kind of joke, but isn't). The trick is in an easy fluency of writing combined with a sense of when not to dwell too much on stuff we already know. He is very good on the political backgrounds of both Britain and America - particularly, in fact, on the differing sociologies which accounted for the differing versions of British and American Beatlemania. (Interestingly, it is only when that phenomenon kicks off that the book itself wakes up; it does take a while to get going.) He has a nice line in clear-headed assessments of the group's faults as well as their virtues, and the occasional, never intrusive way with a nice simile. By the time he says that "Tomorrow Never Knows" is "oddly reminiscent" of their version of "Twist and Shout", you know exactly what he's getting at.
It is a measure of the worth of the book that there is so little you could find in it to take issue with. So here are some pettifogging quibbles. The song "A Hard Day's Night" is more like two and a half minutes long than "a full three". Lennon and McCartney's decision not to put Harrison's "Not Guilty" on the White Album was not "churlish" - it was sensible, considering how dire it is. And that's about it. If he skates over McCartney's tomcatting or how close they came to being murdered in the Philippines, then that is probably because he knows full well you can go elsewhere for that. He doesn't even slip up when considering matters of British heritage, culture and politics - quite a feat when you consider that I have read respected American authors dealing with the subject who think that Private Eye is a TV show, or that London still suffers from pea-soupers.
But it is in his descriptions of the songs that Gould really shines. He knows his terminology and is not afraid to use it - but he is not intimidatingly knowledgable, and when he describes a song it really is as if you're hearing it, too. And if you ask: "What's the point of that, then?", maybe this book isn't for you.
Thanks to by Nicholas Lezard @ The Guardian
Cat Stevens teams up with Beatles man for George Harrison tribute
His cover of 'The Day The World Gets 'Round' is released on Monday, January 26
Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, has collaborated with Beatles associate Klaus Voormann on a cover of George Harrison's 1973 song 'The Day The World Gets 'Round'.
Islam revealed that the collaboration came about after Voormann, who played in John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and designed the sleeve for The Beatles' 'Revolver', asked him to contribute to an album he was making to raise money for the American Indians.
"He asked me to contribute and choose one of the songs he had played on over the years. I immediately headed towards George Harrison's galaxy of material," Islam said.
"I'd met George with John Lennon in the early '70s at David Bailey's studio. He was such a great spirit. His eastern outreach inspired me and many others to embark on a great spiritual adventure.
"George was also more responsible than any other artist for initiating pop music's movement to aid people and countries stricken by war and calamities; his 'Concert For Bangladesh' was the first of its kind. I hope this song will help remind people of the immense legacy of love, peace and happiness we can share when we get round to looking at mankind's futile wars and prejudices and start to change our foolish ways."
The song is released with proceeds going to various children's charities (Small Kindness, UNRWA and Save The Children).
Islam also announced that he is returning to Island Records – the label he released his 'Teaser & The Firecat' and 'Tea For The Tillerman' albums on in the '70s.
'The Day The World Gets 'Round' will also appear on Klaus Voormann’s 'A Sideman's Journey' album, which is raising money for an environment and health project in aid of the Oglala Sioux of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Paul McCartney and Dolly Parton have both contributed to Islam's new album.
Thanks to NME
Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, has collaborated with Beatles associate Klaus Voormann on a cover of George Harrison's 1973 song 'The Day The World Gets 'Round'.
Islam revealed that the collaboration came about after Voormann, who played in John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and designed the sleeve for The Beatles' 'Revolver', asked him to contribute to an album he was making to raise money for the American Indians.
"He asked me to contribute and choose one of the songs he had played on over the years. I immediately headed towards George Harrison's galaxy of material," Islam said.
"I'd met George with John Lennon in the early '70s at David Bailey's studio. He was such a great spirit. His eastern outreach inspired me and many others to embark on a great spiritual adventure.
"George was also more responsible than any other artist for initiating pop music's movement to aid people and countries stricken by war and calamities; his 'Concert For Bangladesh' was the first of its kind. I hope this song will help remind people of the immense legacy of love, peace and happiness we can share when we get round to looking at mankind's futile wars and prejudices and start to change our foolish ways."
The song is released with proceeds going to various children's charities (Small Kindness, UNRWA and Save The Children).
Islam also announced that he is returning to Island Records – the label he released his 'Teaser & The Firecat' and 'Tea For The Tillerman' albums on in the '70s.
'The Day The World Gets 'Round' will also appear on Klaus Voormann’s 'A Sideman's Journey' album, which is raising money for an environment and health project in aid of the Oglala Sioux of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Paul McCartney and Dolly Parton have both contributed to Islam's new album.
Thanks to NME
Revealed: Unseen footage of The Beatles in Scotland
Unseen film of the Fab Four at the height of Beatlemania is set to fetch £12,000 at auction.The 150 seconds of John, Paul, George and Ringo was shot at the Four Seasons Hotel in St Fillans, Perthshire, where they stayed during a 1964 tour.
They're also seen standing next to a "Haste ye Back to Scotland" sign at Gretna.
The band had just topped the charts with A Hard Day's Night and their next No 1, I Feel Fine, was on the way.
The private footage will be auctioned in Reading, Berkshire, on February 2.
Watch 32 seconds here
Their Own Records In Their Own Words - With The Beatles and surroundings
IT WON'T BE LONG
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1980: "'It Wont Be Long' is mine. It was my attempt at writing another single. It never quite made it. That was the one where the guy in the 'London Times' wrote about the 'Aeolian cadences of the chords' which started the whole intellectual bit about the Beatles."
PAUL circa-1994: "We'd spot the double meaning... In 'It won't BE LONG till I BELONG to you' it was that same trip."
ALL I'VE GOT TO DO
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1980: "That's me trying to do Smokey Robinson again."
ALL MY LOVING
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1972: "This was one of his first biggies."
JOHN 1980: "'All My Loving' is Paul, I regret to say. Because it's a damn fine piece of work. But I play a pretty mean guitar in back."
PAUL 1984: "Yeah, I wrote that one. It was the first song I ever wrote where I had the words before the music. I wrote the words on a bus on tour, then we got the tune when I arrived there. The first time I've ever worked upside down."
PAUL 1988: "I think that was the first song where I wrote the words without the tune. I wrote the words on the tour bus during our tour with Roy Orbison. We did alot of writing then."
PAUL circa-1994: "It was a good show song. It worked well live."
DON'T BOTHER ME
(Harrison)
GEORGE 1980: "The first song that I wrote... as an exercise to see if I could write a song. I wrote it in a hotel in Bounemouth, England, where we were playing a summer season in 1963. I was sick in bed... maybe that's why it turned out to be 'Don't Bother Me.' I don't think it's a particularly good song... It mightn't even be a song at all, but at least it showed me that all I needed to do was keep on writing, and then maybe eventually I would write something good."
PAUL 1988: "I think John and I were really concentrating on-- 'We'll do the 'real' records,' but because the other guys had alot of fans we wrote for them too. George eventually came out with his own, 'Don't Bother Me,' but until then he hadn't written one."
LITTLE CHILD
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1972: "Both of us wrote it. This was a knock-off between Paul and me."
JOHN 1980: "'Little Child' was another effort of Paul and I to write a song for somebody else. It was probably Ringo."
PAUL circa-1994: "Certain songs were inspirational and you just followed that. 'Little Child' was a work job."
PLEASE MR. POSTMAN
(Dobbin/Garrett/Garman/Brianbert)
PAUL 1984: "Influenced by the Marvelettes, who did the original version. We got it from our fans, who would write 'Please Mr. Postman' on the back of the envelopes. 'Posty, posty, don't be slow, be like the Beatles and go, man, go!' That sort of stuff."
HOLD ME TIGHT
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1980: "That was Paul's. Maybe I stuck some bits in there... I really don't remember. It was a pretty poor song and I was never really interested in it either way."
PAUL 1988: "I can't remember much about that one. Certain songs were just 'work' songs... you haven't got much of a memory of them. That's one of them. You just knew you had a song that would work, a good melody. 'Hold Me Tight' never really had that much of an effect on me. It was a bit Shirelles."
PAUL circa-1994: "'Hold Me Tight' was a failed attempt at a single which then became acceptable album filler."
I WANNA BE YOUR MAN
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1972: "Both of us wrote it, but mainly Paul. I helped him finish it."
JOHN 1980: "'I Wanna Be Your Man' was a kind of lick Paul had-- 'I wanna be your lover, baby. I wanna be your man.' I think we finished it off for the Stones. We were taken down to meet them at the club where they were playing in Richmond by Brian and some other guy. They wanted a song and we went to see what kind of stuff they did. Mick and Keith heard we had an unfinished song-- Paul just had this bit and we needed another verse or something. We sort of played it roughly to them and they said, 'Yeah, OK, that's our style.' But it was only really a lick, so Paul and I went off in the corner of the room and finished the song off while they were all still sitting there talking. We came back, and that's how Mick and Keith got inspired to write... because, 'Jesus, look at that. They just went in the corner and wrote it and came back!' You know, right in front of their eyes we did it. So we gave it to them. It was a throw-away. The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones. It shows how much importance we put on them. We weren't going to give them anything great, right? I believe it was the Stones' first record."
PAUL 1984: "I wrote it for Ringo to do on one of the early albums. But we ended up giving it to the Stones. We met Mick and Keith in a taxi one day in Charing Cross Road and Mick said, 'Have you got any songs?' So we said, 'Well, we just happen to have one with us!' I think George had been instrumental in getting them their first record contract. We suggested them to Decca, 'cuz Decca had blown it by refusing us, so they had tried to save face by asking George, 'Know any other groups?' He said, 'Well, there is this group called the Stones.' So that's how they got their first contract. Anyway, John and I gave them maybe not their first record, but I think the first they got on the charts with. They don't tell anybody about it these days; they prefer to be more ethnic. But you and I know the real truth."
NOT A SECOND TIME
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1980: "That's me trying to do something. I don't remember." (laughs)
PAUL 1984: "Influenced by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles."
I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
(Lennon/McCartney)
PAUL 1964: "Let's see, we were told we had to get down to it. So we found this house when we were walking along one day. We knew we had to really get this song going, so we got down in the basement of this disused house and there was an old piano. It wasn't really disused, it was rooms to let. We found this old piano and started banging away. There was a little old organ too. So we were having this informal jam and we started banging away. Suddenly a little bit came to us, the catch line. So we started working on it from there. We got our pens and paper out and just wrote down the lyrics. Eventually, we had some sort of a song, so we played it for our recording manager and he seemed to like it. We recorded it the next day."
JOHN 1980: "We wrote alot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in 'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher's house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, 'Oh you-u-u/ got that something...' And Paul hits this chord, and I turn to him and say, 'That's it!' I said, 'Do that again!' In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that-- both playing into each other's noses."
PAUL circa-1994: "'Eyeball to eyeball' is a very good description of it. That's exactly how it was. 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' was very co-written."
THIS BOY
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1980: "Just my attempt at writing one of those three-part harmony Smokey Robinson songs. Nothing in the lyrics... just a sound and a harmony. There was a period when I thought I didn't write melodies... that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock 'n roll. But of course, when I think of some of my own songs-- 'In My Life,' or some of the early stuff-- 'This Boy,' I was writing melody with the best of them."
PAUL 1988: "Fabulous. And we just loved singing that three-part too. We'd learned that from: (sings) 'To know know know her is to love love love her...' We learned that in my dad's house in Liverpool."
I CALL YOUR NAME
(Lennon/McCartney)
JOHN 1980: "That was my song. When there was no Beatles and no group, I just had it around. It was my effort as a kind of blues originally, and then I wrote the middle-eight just to stick it in the album when it came out years later. The first part had been written before Hamburg even. It was one of my 'first' attempts at a song."
PAUL circa-1994: "We worked on it together, but it was John's idea. When I look back at some of these lyrics, I think, 'Wait a minute. What did he mean? 'I call your name but you're not there.' Is it his mother? His father? I must admit I didn't really see that as we wrote it because we were just a couple of young guys writing. You didn't look behind it at the time, it was only later you started analyzing things."
MATCHBOX
(Perkins)
RINGO 1964: "I'm featured on it. Actually it was written by Carl Perkins about six years ago. Carl came to the session. I felt very embarrassed. I did it just two days before I went in the hospital (with tonsilitis) so please forgive my throat."
ON SONGWRITING (DURING THE 'WITH THE BEATLES' PERIOD)
PAUL 1963: "If an idea does pop in your mind, then you do sit down and say, 'Let's do it.' If there are no ideas and say we've been told we've got a recording date in about two days time, then you got to sit down and sort of slug it out. You normally get just a little idea which doesn't seem bad and you go on and it builds up from there. It varies every time."
ON RECORDING (DURING THE 'WITH THE BEATLES' PERIOD)
PAUL 1963: "Lots of people have asked us what we enjoyed best... concerts, television, or recording. We like doing stage shows because it's great to hear an audience enjoying themselves. But the thing we like best is going into the recording studio to make new records. What we like to hear most is one of our songs taking shape in a recording studio, and then listening to the tapes afterwards to hear how it all worked out."
JOHN 1964 "We always record them exactly as we can play them. Even if we do put things on top, the basic thing on a record we do live. We play and sing at the same time on the record, so if we can't do it there, we don't do it."
GEORGE 1977: "It was enjoyable. We'd get into doing harmonies and this and that, because in the early days we were only working on four-track tapes. So what we'd do would be work out most of the basic track on one track, get all the balance and everything set, all the instruments. Then we'd do all the vocals, or overdub. If there was guitar, lines would come in on the second verse and piano in the middle eight with shakers and tambourines. We'd line up and get all the sounds right and do it in a take, and then do all the vocal harmonies over."
Beatles' Memorabilia at British Music Experience
The British Music Experience interactive music exhibition, which is due to open at The O2 in London on March 6, will house £4m worth of memorabilia donated by artists including The Beatles. Tickets to the exhibit will work as "magic wands" enabling visitors to download further info and music once they have left the venue.
Rooftop concert cancelled but Beatles fan anniversary celebration continues
by Dave Haber
Next Friday January 30th is the 40th anniversary of the Beatles playing their last ever live performance, on the roof of 3 Savile Row in London. Beatles tribute band The Bootleg Beatles were due to re-create the concert on the very same roof, but the local council and police have stopped them from doing it.
The orginal event was to be organised by Express Newspapers and OK magazine. The Bootleg Beatles were due to play on the roof of 3 Savile Row 40 years to the minute since the Beatles. Tony Bramwell of Apple was due to attend. However, it was cancelled on "health and safety grounds," by the local council and the police.
Richard Porter, of the British Beatles Fan Club, and The Beatles In London Tours, was surprised by the cancellation of the rooftop event.
"It's a real shame, and rather surprising. I find it rather strange as the Bootleg Beatles were played on the very same roof on the 30th anniversary!"
The Bootleg Beatles performing Get Back live on the roof of the old Apple HQ in Saville Row in London in 1999 on the 30th anniversary of when the Beatles famously did it!
Porter remembers the event 10 years ago, saying, "I was up there with them! You can see me at the start of the clip, to the left of 'Paul', and by the greenhouse, which is one of the few original objects left from 1969. It was very eerie as I was standing right behind the group and they were wearing the same styles clothes as the Beatles in 1969. It was easy to imagine I'd gone back 30 years in time."
Not to be put off by the "Blue Meanies," members of the British Beatles Fan Club, and even some fans from Norway, will be gathering at 3 Savile Row around noon on January 30th to have their own celebration, and they say everyone welcome. If you play a musical instrument, they invite you to bring it along so that they can have a jam in the street.
Porter says, "Even though it looks like the Bootleg Beatles concert has been cancelled we still plan to be in Savile Row around noon, 40 years to the minute since the Beatles played. I will be doing a speical Beatles tour that day, making sure we arrive in Savile Row in good time for noon. The tour will start at 10:45am from outside the Dominion Theatre, which is by the exit of Tottenham Court Road Underground Station. The tour will also visit MPL, the Studios where the Beatles recorded Hey Jude, Abbey Road, and of course 3 Savile Row."
The tour will cost £7 pounds per person (about $9.75). Anyone interested in the tour should e-mail Richard Porter at richard@beatlesinlondon.com. Of course anyone can make their way directly to Savile Row on Friday at noon, without coming on the tour.
Next Friday January 30th is the 40th anniversary of the Beatles playing their last ever live performance, on the roof of 3 Savile Row in London. Beatles tribute band The Bootleg Beatles were due to re-create the concert on the very same roof, but the local council and police have stopped them from doing it.
The orginal event was to be organised by Express Newspapers and OK magazine. The Bootleg Beatles were due to play on the roof of 3 Savile Row 40 years to the minute since the Beatles. Tony Bramwell of Apple was due to attend. However, it was cancelled on "health and safety grounds," by the local council and the police.
Richard Porter, of the British Beatles Fan Club, and The Beatles In London Tours, was surprised by the cancellation of the rooftop event.
"It's a real shame, and rather surprising. I find it rather strange as the Bootleg Beatles were played on the very same roof on the 30th anniversary!"
The Bootleg Beatles performing Get Back live on the roof of the old Apple HQ in Saville Row in London in 1999 on the 30th anniversary of when the Beatles famously did it!
Porter remembers the event 10 years ago, saying, "I was up there with them! You can see me at the start of the clip, to the left of 'Paul', and by the greenhouse, which is one of the few original objects left from 1969. It was very eerie as I was standing right behind the group and they were wearing the same styles clothes as the Beatles in 1969. It was easy to imagine I'd gone back 30 years in time."
Not to be put off by the "Blue Meanies," members of the British Beatles Fan Club, and even some fans from Norway, will be gathering at 3 Savile Row around noon on January 30th to have their own celebration, and they say everyone welcome. If you play a musical instrument, they invite you to bring it along so that they can have a jam in the street.
Porter says, "Even though it looks like the Bootleg Beatles concert has been cancelled we still plan to be in Savile Row around noon, 40 years to the minute since the Beatles played. I will be doing a speical Beatles tour that day, making sure we arrive in Savile Row in good time for noon. The tour will start at 10:45am from outside the Dominion Theatre, which is by the exit of Tottenham Court Road Underground Station. The tour will also visit MPL, the Studios where the Beatles recorded Hey Jude, Abbey Road, and of course 3 Savile Row."
The tour will cost £7 pounds per person (about $9.75). Anyone interested in the tour should e-mail Richard Porter at richard@beatlesinlondon.com. Of course anyone can make their way directly to Savile Row on Friday at noon, without coming on the tour.
The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand
This was taken from "The Beatles Anthology" dvd with a short intro by George Martin ...
The Beatles - She Loves You
The Beatles singing She Loves You on Ready,Steady,Go (with extra chat after)in 1964
She Loves You Gallery
Although not the first Beatles hit in America (that was I Want To Hold Your Hand), and not even the first Beatles record released in America (that was Please Please Me), She Loves You is the Beatles record that most fans associate with Beatlemania in America, with Ringo's exciting drum opening, to the coining of the quintessential Beatles catch phrase, "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!"
The Beatles performed She Loves You on their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show on February 9, 1964, and it is the final song the Beatles perform in the movie A Hard Day's Night.
She Loves You was recorded by the Beatles at EMI Abbey Road Studio 2 on July 1, 1963. Mono mixing and editing was performed on July 4. She Loves You was first released as a single on Parlophone Records in the UK on August 23, 1963, and the next month on Swan Records in the US on September 16.
The label of the first release from September 1963 of She Loves You on Swan Records in Philadelphia. The Beatles were already causing riots in London, but this 45, the third Beatles record in the US, didn't chart.
A counterfiet copy of the original Swan release of She Loves You. Common to these counterfiets are the lack of bright red color. Other clues that this is a counterfeit are the blotchy and off-center label printing.
A typical label of the more familiar second release from January 1964 of She Loves You/I'll Get You on Swan Records, released after I Want To Hold Your Hand finally caused Beatlemania to spread to the US. This release of She Loves You sold over two and a half million copies and was Swan's only number one record.
This is the Capitol of Canada version of She Loves You/I'll Get You, released mid-September, 1963, shortly after it was released on Swan in the US. Capitol of Canada released all of the pre-Capitol singles, including Please Please Me/Ask Me Why, Twist and Shout/There's A Place and Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You.
This is the only US Capitol release on a 45 of She Loves You. It was pressed in red vinyl. These were made in 1992, as part of a series of 45s on colored vinyl labled "For Jukeboxes Only!" but were also sold in record stores.
She Loves You as it was first released on 45 in the UK on Parlophone Records, on August 23, 1963, backed with I'll Get You as it later was in the US.
She Loves You was also released in the UK by Parlophone Records on an EP called "Beatles' Million Sellers" on December 6, 1965, along with I Want To Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love and I Feel Fine.
Recorded in Paris in late January, 1964, the German language version Sie Liebt Dich, backed by Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand, was released by Odeon Records in West Germany just over one month later on March 5. Nicolas and Montague, added to the writing credits, wrote the German lyrics translation.
On shaky legal ground, but figuring they already had the rights to release She Loves You in the US, to further cash in on the growing Beatlemania, Swan released Sie Liebt Dich backed with I'll Get You (in English) credited to Die Beatles on May 21, 1964. This was the only release of Sie Liebt Dich on a 45 in the US.
The rare Swan promotional (DJ) version of Sie Liebt Dich/I'll Get You. This is identical to the stock copies, except that is printed in black on white, and has two large X's above the title.
Capitol of Canada also released Sie Liebt Dich/I'll Get You just as Swan did, credited to "Die Beatles", in June 1964. Notice how, instead of saying "Recorded In Great Britain", normal for other Capitol Canada Beatles singles, this single correctly has "Recorded In Europe", as Sie Liebt Dich was recorded in Paris. (US Capitol Beatles singles were normally printed with "Recorded In England".)
The Swan Records She Loves You 45 picture sleeve, first issued with the 1964 release on the black Swan label. This is the only picture sleeve ever issued for She Loves You in North America.
This is the cover of "The Beatles' Million Sellers" EP released by Parlophone Records in the UK in December 1965. This EP contained She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love and I Feel Fine.
This is the picture sleeve issued with She Loves You in the UK by EMI in 1976, in a set called "The Singles Collection 1962-1970".
This is the picture sleeve issued with Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand/Sie Liebt Dich in Germany by Odeon Records in 1964. This picture is the same shot that was used on the I Want To Hold Your Hand picture sleeve made by Capitol Records in the US.
The Beatles performed She Loves You on their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show on February 9, 1964, and it is the final song the Beatles perform in the movie A Hard Day's Night.
She Loves You was recorded by the Beatles at EMI Abbey Road Studio 2 on July 1, 1963. Mono mixing and editing was performed on July 4. She Loves You was first released as a single on Parlophone Records in the UK on August 23, 1963, and the next month on Swan Records in the US on September 16.
The label of the first release from September 1963 of She Loves You on Swan Records in Philadelphia. The Beatles were already causing riots in London, but this 45, the third Beatles record in the US, didn't chart.A counterfiet copy of the original Swan release of She Loves You. Common to these counterfiets are the lack of bright red color. Other clues that this is a counterfeit are the blotchy and off-center label printing.A typical label of the more familiar second release from January 1964 of She Loves You/I'll Get You on Swan Records, released after I Want To Hold Your Hand finally caused Beatlemania to spread to the US. This release of She Loves You sold over two and a half million copies and was Swan's only number one record.This is the Capitol of Canada version of She Loves You/I'll Get You, released mid-September, 1963, shortly after it was released on Swan in the US. Capitol of Canada released all of the pre-Capitol singles, including Please Please Me/Ask Me Why, Twist and Shout/There's A Place and Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You.This is the only US Capitol release on a 45 of She Loves You. It was pressed in red vinyl. These were made in 1992, as part of a series of 45s on colored vinyl labled "For Jukeboxes Only!" but were also sold in record stores.She Loves You as it was first released on 45 in the UK on Parlophone Records, on August 23, 1963, backed with I'll Get You as it later was in the US.She Loves You was also released in the UK by Parlophone Records on an EP called "Beatles' Million Sellers" on December 6, 1965, along with I Want To Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love and I Feel Fine.Recorded in Paris in late January, 1964, the German language version Sie Liebt Dich, backed by Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand, was released by Odeon Records in West Germany just over one month later on March 5. Nicolas and Montague, added to the writing credits, wrote the German lyrics translation.On shaky legal ground, but figuring they already had the rights to release She Loves You in the US, to further cash in on the growing Beatlemania, Swan released Sie Liebt Dich backed with I'll Get You (in English) credited to Die Beatles on May 21, 1964. This was the only release of Sie Liebt Dich on a 45 in the US.The rare Swan promotional (DJ) version of Sie Liebt Dich/I'll Get You. This is identical to the stock copies, except that is printed in black on white, and has two large X's above the title.Capitol of Canada also released Sie Liebt Dich/I'll Get You just as Swan did, credited to "Die Beatles", in June 1964. Notice how, instead of saying "Recorded In Great Britain", normal for other Capitol Canada Beatles singles, this single correctly has "Recorded In Europe", as Sie Liebt Dich was recorded in Paris. (US Capitol Beatles singles were normally printed with "Recorded In England".) The Swan Records She Loves You 45 picture sleeve, first issued with the 1964 release on the black Swan label. This is the only picture sleeve ever issued for She Loves You in North America.This is the cover of "The Beatles' Million Sellers" EP released by Parlophone Records in the UK in December 1965. This EP contained She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love and I Feel Fine.This is the picture sleeve issued with She Loves You in the UK by EMI in 1976, in a set called "The Singles Collection 1962-1970".This is the picture sleeve issued with Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand/Sie Liebt Dich in Germany by Odeon Records in 1964. This picture is the same shot that was used on the I Want To Hold Your Hand picture sleeve made by Capitol Records in the US.
Beatles' Covert Art Awards
From: nealk@aol.com (NealK)
Date: 9 Jan 1996
I haven't seen this discussed here before, so I'll ask: Which Beatles album do you think has the best art on the album cover?
for its photography: With The Beatles
for its promotional bang-for-the-buck: Capitol's The Beatles' Second Album
Date: 9 Jan 1996
I haven't seen this discussed here before, so I'll ask: Which Beatles album do you think has the best art on the album cover?
for its photography: With The Beatles
for its promotional bang-for-the-buck: Capitol's The Beatles' Second Album
for its high anticipation: Capitol's Something Newfor its whimsy: Capitol's Beatles '65
for its promotional understatement: Capitol's Beatles VI
for its best recreation of the spirit of a movie: Capitol's Help!
for its philosophic undertones: Rubber Soul
for its sheer creative genius: Sgt. Pepper
for its metaphysical undertones: Revolver
for its truth in advertising: Capitol's The Early Beatles
for its lack of truth-in-advertising: Capitol's "butcher cover'" Yesterday... And Today
for its "on second thought..." approach: Capitol's Yesterday... And Today
for its take-off on film sprockets: A Hard Day's Night
for its trojan-horse innocence: Please Please Me
for its something-to-look-at-with-every-turn: Beatles For Sale
for its utter misdirection: Rock 'n' Roll Musicfor its guaranteeing "Paul is dead" clues for the next 500 years: Abbey Road
for its going 360 degrees in the other direction: The Beatles (White Album)
for its "they have blue, so we'll have red" approach: UA's A Hard Day's Night
for its ignorance on semaphore signals: Help!
for its "well, it's sort of psychedelic, isn't it?" approach: Magical Mystery Tour
for its bold attempt to be artistic in America: Vee-Jay's Introducing The Beatles
for its lack of creativity: Parlophone's Rarities
for its "hey, at least it's better than Parlophone's" approach: Capitol's Rarities
for it's best use of a horrible photograph: Love Songs
for it's nice use of type: 20 Greatest Hits
for it's "what do you mean they don't look like the Beatles" approach: Reel Music
for its censorship: Capitol's Yellow Submarine
for its "we desparately need a long vacation" approach: Let It Be
for its high reminiscence and "Pete who?" approach: Anthology
for its perfect mod look: Parlophone's A Collection of Oldies... But Goldiesfor its period recreation look: Live At The BBC!
for its best use of an idea that didn't happen: The Beatles 1962-1966, 1967-1970
All in good fun. Sort of. :-) Neal
And obviously another Tell Your List in comments here...
Playing The Beatles Backwards: The Ultimate Countdown Part 4
By JBev
To most Beatles fans, choosing between the songs of the Fab 4 is a bit like choosing between children. But, on the JamsBio exclusive, Playing The Beatles Backwards, one intrepid fan dares to rank the original songs of The Beatles and give his reasons why in a worst-to-first countdown. Prepare to hit the message boards to defend your favorites, and follow the countdown all the way to Number 1.
155. “What Goes On”
Congratulations, Richard Starkey, on your first songwriting credit with the Fab 4. Although Ringo later claimed that his contributions to this song were minimal (a refreshingly modest contrast to the battles for songwriting credit later waged by Lennon and McCartney), the country and western swing on this Rubber Soul track certainly sounds like something Ringo might write. I also feel like the line in the song “feel my future fold” has a distictly Ringo-esque flair, the kind of thing that he would write just to make a rhyme but ends up having a sort of cosmic wisdom about it.
John claimed to have written the bulk of it, although I’m not sure his recollection can be trusted, considering he gave Paul credit for the middle eight even though the song doesn’t really have one. I guess it doesn’t really matter too much since “What Goes On” is relatively lightweight.
Some characteristics to recommend it: The nice harmonies, as John and Paul sweetly blend in with Ringo’s lead vocal; George’s Carl Perkins-flavored guitar solo; and John’s crazed squonking on rhythm guitar. Seriously, focus your ear on those little stabs John makes with his instrument on this one. It sounds like he’s playing a different song at times, but somehow it works.
On the negative, the lyrics veer toward the melodramatic (“Did you mean to break my heart and watch me die?”) And it was a bit of a disconcerting trend that Lennon and McCartney tended to leave their table scraps for Ringo to sing, making him akin to the kid in the Life cereal ads. I can hear the studio conversation now: “Give it to Ringo. He’ll sing anything.”
154. “Flying”
I’ll be honest with you right up front and tell you that I’m not an instrumental kind of a guy. To me, you can lump Joe Satriani in with Kenny G. All instrumentals tend to send my finger hurtling toward the “Scan” button on the car radio with world-record type speed. They just bore me.
Now that I’ve unburdened myself, I also have to say that I don’t mind “Flying.” Maybe it’s because it’s very subtly done, not an excuse for everybody involved to show off their “chops” or whatever it is musicians like to blather on about. (I know I’m making a lot of friends here.)
The little flourishes here and there nicely complement the melody of the mellotron. It also seems like soundtrack music, which is, of course, what it became (for the Magical Mystery Tour film. And those chanting, wordless vocals that come in at the end to second the melody keep the proceedings from getting too heavy.
The crazed tape loops at the conclusion would anticpate future, more unfortunate experiments like “Revolution 9,” but “Flying” can’t be held accountable for that. It’s an instrumental, and it doesn’t make me want to fill my ears with tile grout, so it can’t be too bad.
153. “There’s A Place”
Bouyed along by great harmonies and a nice sense of drama, “There’s A Place” really jumps out at you the first time you hear it. I’m not sure how well it holds up after that though, simply because there’s not a lot to the song.
Lennon wrote it, and he was apparently trying to do an homage to Motown. The Beatles were able to mimic Motown often and well during this time period, but I’m not sure this song qualifies once you get by the little a cappella part at the start. After that, it’s strictly Mersey beat.
The lyrics are trying to hint at something a little deeper than the simple variations on “I love you” they had been writing. But Lennon bails out too soon from his efforts to depict a safe haven in his head to be with his love, settling instead for easy rhymes that don’t necessarily work in context (“And it’s my mind/And there’s no time.”)
Throw in the all-too ubiquitous harmonica from the Please Please Me sessions, and you have a near-miss. The group would quickly learn how to fill such a great hook with worthier lyrics.
152. “Her Majesty”
Beatles enthusiasts the world over know well the story of how this 23-second ditty ended up as one of the first hidden tracks in rock history (initial pressings of Abbey Road didn’t include it in the track listings.) Paul McCartney was trying to wedge the little tongue-in-cheek ode to the Queen into the first medley on Side 2 of the album, but decided it wasn’t any good and instructed an engineer to destory the tape. The engineer, either because he was under orders never to destroy anything the Beatles recorded or because he possessed amazing historical foresight, stuck the tape at the end of a rough cut of the album, where it stayed until it was re-played for Paul, who decided he liked it at the end. (This is also why there is an opening guitar blast in the song; that was originally intended for the end of “Mean Mr. Mustard.” And it’s why there is no closing chord in the song; it got left at the start of “Polythene Pam” and edited out.)
That’s a lot of info for a sliver of a song, sung affectingly by Paul with a twinkle in his eye. I felt the need to explain it again, because, if you’re like me, you’ve always been bothered by the song’s placement after what should have been the group’s Grand Finale. To me, it undercuts the symmetry of the closing medley, the great last line about making and taking love, that lovely, last horn blast. That’s the way it should have gone down.
Instead, you’ve got a Paul solo performance as the group’s last word, and a hugely anticlimactic last word at that. I know that Paul has spoken since about it being a happy accident and that the group felt that “Her Majesty” helped take some of the air out of the somber proceedings in that final medley. Well, when a group as wonderful as The Beatles signs off for good, things should be somber. Things should be majestic, and poignant, and moving, and all the other highfalutin’ words that mean you get chills hearing it. “Her Majesty’ doesn’t give you any of that, and so it has no right being the closer.
Of course, Let It Be ended up being released after Abbey Road anyway, so what’s my point really? The point is that if I want to listen to “Her Majesty,” I cue it up and play it solo. When I listen to Abbey Road, I hit stop as soon as “The End” ends, drawing the final curtain down properly.
151. “Do You Want To Know A Secret”
John Lennon was inspired by a song from the Snow White movie to write “Do You Want To Know A Secret.” (Also inspired by the movie but left on the cutting-room floor were songs like “Take This Apple And Shove It” and “Dopey’s Theme,” which was an instrumental, of course.) Lennon then gave the hand-off to George Harrison to take lead vocals, since George wasn’t yet writing his own material at the time of Please Please Me.
George actually sounds a little bit like John with a slight head cold here, and it’s interesting to hear him singing such unabashedly romantic lyrics, since those songs would be atypical of his own songwriting output. I actually think he plays the part well here.
Although the song isn’t exactly a deep treatise on love, it’s got some nice elements to its construction. The little spoken-word “You’ll never know…” intro sets the song up well in a retro, 50’s way. Paul’s bass-playing really drives the song, as it’s more in the forefront than usual here. And I like the fade-out, which never really resolves. Nice touch.
One side note: I was introduced to this song by that only-could-have-happened-in-the-80’s Beatles medley by Stars On 45. I heard that again not too long ago and was struck by how bizarre it was and how that crazed concoction became a hit. I guess with The Beatles, anything is a possible hit, even disco medleys that sound like they were edited by a paper shredder.
150. “Dig It”
If there’s one specific matter about which you can criticize the late-era Beatles, lack of efficiency would have to be it. Their interests began to scatter away from what they really did best, which was make rock and roll. You could attribute this to the lack of a clear leader in the absence of Brian Epstein, or you could write it off as one of the many symptoms of the group breaking apart. But it led to a lot of time wasted with precious little to show for it in the end.
“Dig It” is a poster child for this wastrel behavior. There are all kinds of versions off this improvised jam circulating on various bootlegs, suggesting that the group worked awful hard on a song that eventually was hacked into a snippet of less than a minute on the official release of Let It Be in 1970.
It’s too bad, because that snippet does have some promise, with John Lennon having fun calling off the first names that pop into his head and Billy Preston working up a mid-60’s Dylan groove on the organ (hence Lennon’s refrain of “Like a Rolling Stone” as the song fades in.) But it’s over almost before it started, ending with Lennon’s jokey intro to “Let It Be.”
Whatever “Dig It” might have been or become is now just matter for idle speculation. But that would just be more time wasted on this fragment of a song.
149. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”
It clearly wins the Wile E. Coyote Memorial award for most conspicuous use of an anvil in a Beatles song. I’m not sure that would provide any consolation to John, George, and Ringo, who, post-Beatles, all spoke disdainfully about the miserable time they had recording this goofy McCartney composition. (Doesn’t it seem like it was always the weakest songs that caused the biggest rifts within the group?)
You can see the seeds of the worst tendencies of Paul’s early solo career here. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is a clear antecedent to songs like “Uncle Albert” that were overproduced and underwritten. That kind of approach leads to songs that are undeniably catchy but get stuck in your head for all the wrong reasons.
The truly bizarre thing about this song is the fact that the bouncy, ornate music (which finds the group dabbling in synthesizers, no less) accompanies a tale about a mass murderer. Maxwell Edison uses his hammer to dispatch just about everyone in the song, leaving a path of carnage that leads from medical school to the courtroom. (And what about the lax security in the courthouse, as Max is able to get up from the stand and drop the judge like a bad habit while everyone is watching? It’s like an episode of Boston Legal.)
All of these disparate elements add up to one of the true oddballs in the Beatles’ songbook, and it stands out even more amongst the relatively straightforward pleasures on Abbey Road. I guess this darn-near uncategorizable song must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
148. “Julia”
When I embarked upon this list, I knew that I would rank some songs in places that would seem downright heretical to the Beatles faithful. I’m guessing that my estimation of “Julia,” or lack thereof, will likely ruffle a lot of feathers. But I maintain that this song is loved by people for what it is supposed to be, and not for what it is.
“Julia,” of course, is the name of John Lennon’s mother, with whom it can be said he had a complicated relationship up until her premature death when John was still only 17. And when you listen to “Julia,” you keep waiting for the kind of revelation that might provide some insight into the relationship and, in turn, insight into what made John tick. But that revelation never comes. The “Julia” in the song might as well be a water nymph considering all of the opaque poetry that describes her.
Lennon later said he was writing not just about his Mom in the song but also a little about Yoko (fodder for armchair psychiatrists everywhere). The song makes references to an “ocean child,” which is what Yoko means in Japanese. So you’ve got this amalgam of his lover and his mother to whom the song is addressed, and all of the descriptive images are abstract, as if this person never existed.
John even nicked from Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese poet whose work surged in popularity in the 60’s, for some of the lines. That’s all well and good, as even the best borrow. But on subject matter this personal, you would think that John could have dug deeply into his own reservoir of emotions for the words to say.
Just a few years later, after the Beatles’ break-up, John would write “Mother,” a searing testimonial to his feelings of abandonment and insecurity caused by the absence of his parents. Inspired by the primal-scream therapy he had undergone to unearth his childhood trauma, “Mother,” with its straightforward lyrics and spare instrumentation, proved more haunting than the spacey, dreamy “Julia” ever could.
Maybe Lennon needed that therapy to write the definitive song about his mother, a song that would express as much hurt as love. And maybe The Beatles weren’t the right platform for such a personal song (although it’s interesting to note that “Julia” is John’s one and only solo performance with the group). Whatever the case, the next time you listen to “Julia,” try to hear it again without the history in your mind. I suspect you’ll hear a weightless folk song about a spectral female, not an impassioned tribute to a lost parent.
147. “Day Tripper”
One riff does not a classic song make. Nor do a few clever lines constitute a coherent idea. Hence, “Day Tripper” goes down as perhaps the weakest of all Beatles songs to reach No.1.
Mind you, that legendary guitar riff does carry this song a long way. It certainly provides a killer intro, one of the best in group history. But the riff is so great that the rest of the song, an innuendo-laced ode to those would dip their foot in the pool but not dive in, suffers by comparison.
Just what type of experimental pool the group is referencing here is a matter for debate. Some have speculated drugs, others sex (the lines about the girl being a “big teaser” would back this latter theory). The bottom line is that Lennon and McCartney churned this song out on the quick in need of a single, meaning that lyrical subtleties had to be sacrificed.
The group did manage to throw in a little “Twist And Shout”-style vocal crescendo just for good measure. But for all of the crash and bang on display here, there’s not much underneath. You can crank this one up to let off a little steam now and then, but there are other Beatles rockers that are far more effective. Indeed, like the girl in the song, it only takes us “half the way there.”
146. “Blue Jay Way”
While staying in a rented house in Los Angeles and awaiting some late-arriving dinner guests who were likely having a hard time navigating L.A.’s notorious winding streets, a travel-weary George Harrison happened upon an old organ in the house and sat down to write a song. Hence, “Blue Jay Way” was born.
The tale is told in literal fashion by George, and, as such, it doesn’t resonate all that well. What can be said about “Blue Jay Way” is that it is a seriously spooky song.
George also played the organ on the recording, giving the song a horror-movie vibe that is accentuated by a quivering cello, echoey effects on every instrument, the funereal beat kept by Ringo at the start of the song, and the background vocals in the latter part that sound like they’re being sung by someone who is simultaneously being garroted.
“Blue Jay Way,” with all of its aforementioned quirkiness, works as a pretty effective approximation of that nether region between waking and sleeping that one gets when extremely weary. Whatever the case, I’m guessing that George probably wasn’t very good company once his guests arrived that fateful night. From the soporific sound of the song he produced, they likely found him face down on a G chord.
(4 - To be continued here)
Start from part 1 here
To most Beatles fans, choosing between the songs of the Fab 4 is a bit like choosing between children. But, on the JamsBio exclusive, Playing The Beatles Backwards, one intrepid fan dares to rank the original songs of The Beatles and give his reasons why in a worst-to-first countdown. Prepare to hit the message boards to defend your favorites, and follow the countdown all the way to Number 1.
155. “What Goes On”
Congratulations, Richard Starkey, on your first songwriting credit with the Fab 4. Although Ringo later claimed that his contributions to this song were minimal (a refreshingly modest contrast to the battles for songwriting credit later waged by Lennon and McCartney), the country and western swing on this Rubber Soul track certainly sounds like something Ringo might write. I also feel like the line in the song “feel my future fold” has a distictly Ringo-esque flair, the kind of thing that he would write just to make a rhyme but ends up having a sort of cosmic wisdom about it.
John claimed to have written the bulk of it, although I’m not sure his recollection can be trusted, considering he gave Paul credit for the middle eight even though the song doesn’t really have one. I guess it doesn’t really matter too much since “What Goes On” is relatively lightweight.Some characteristics to recommend it: The nice harmonies, as John and Paul sweetly blend in with Ringo’s lead vocal; George’s Carl Perkins-flavored guitar solo; and John’s crazed squonking on rhythm guitar. Seriously, focus your ear on those little stabs John makes with his instrument on this one. It sounds like he’s playing a different song at times, but somehow it works.
On the negative, the lyrics veer toward the melodramatic (“Did you mean to break my heart and watch me die?”) And it was a bit of a disconcerting trend that Lennon and McCartney tended to leave their table scraps for Ringo to sing, making him akin to the kid in the Life cereal ads. I can hear the studio conversation now: “Give it to Ringo. He’ll sing anything.”
154. “Flying”
I’ll be honest with you right up front and tell you that I’m not an instrumental kind of a guy. To me, you can lump Joe Satriani in with Kenny G. All instrumentals tend to send my finger hurtling toward the “Scan” button on the car radio with world-record type speed. They just bore me.
Now that I’ve unburdened myself, I also have to say that I don’t mind “Flying.” Maybe it’s because it’s very subtly done, not an excuse for everybody involved to show off their “chops” or whatever it is musicians like to blather on about. (I know I’m making a lot of friends here.)
The little flourishes here and there nicely complement the melody of the mellotron. It also seems like soundtrack music, which is, of course, what it became (for the Magical Mystery Tour film. And those chanting, wordless vocals that come in at the end to second the melody keep the proceedings from getting too heavy.
The crazed tape loops at the conclusion would anticpate future, more unfortunate experiments like “Revolution 9,” but “Flying” can’t be held accountable for that. It’s an instrumental, and it doesn’t make me want to fill my ears with tile grout, so it can’t be too bad.
153. “There’s A Place”
Bouyed along by great harmonies and a nice sense of drama, “There’s A Place” really jumps out at you the first time you hear it. I’m not sure how well it holds up after that though, simply because there’s not a lot to the song.
Lennon wrote it, and he was apparently trying to do an homage to Motown. The Beatles were able to mimic Motown often and well during this time period, but I’m not sure this song qualifies once you get by the little a cappella part at the start. After that, it’s strictly Mersey beat.
The lyrics are trying to hint at something a little deeper than the simple variations on “I love you” they had been writing. But Lennon bails out too soon from his efforts to depict a safe haven in his head to be with his love, settling instead for easy rhymes that don’t necessarily work in context (“And it’s my mind/And there’s no time.”)
Throw in the all-too ubiquitous harmonica from the Please Please Me sessions, and you have a near-miss. The group would quickly learn how to fill such a great hook with worthier lyrics.
152. “Her Majesty”
Beatles enthusiasts the world over know well the story of how this 23-second ditty ended up as one of the first hidden tracks in rock history (initial pressings of Abbey Road didn’t include it in the track listings.) Paul McCartney was trying to wedge the little tongue-in-cheek ode to the Queen into the first medley on Side 2 of the album, but decided it wasn’t any good and instructed an engineer to destory the tape. The engineer, either because he was under orders never to destroy anything the Beatles recorded or because he possessed amazing historical foresight, stuck the tape at the end of a rough cut of the album, where it stayed until it was re-played for Paul, who decided he liked it at the end. (This is also why there is an opening guitar blast in the song; that was originally intended for the end of “Mean Mr. Mustard.” And it’s why there is no closing chord in the song; it got left at the start of “Polythene Pam” and edited out.)
That’s a lot of info for a sliver of a song, sung affectingly by Paul with a twinkle in his eye. I felt the need to explain it again, because, if you’re like me, you’ve always been bothered by the song’s placement after what should have been the group’s Grand Finale. To me, it undercuts the symmetry of the closing medley, the great last line about making and taking love, that lovely, last horn blast. That’s the way it should have gone down.
Instead, you’ve got a Paul solo performance as the group’s last word, and a hugely anticlimactic last word at that. I know that Paul has spoken since about it being a happy accident and that the group felt that “Her Majesty” helped take some of the air out of the somber proceedings in that final medley. Well, when a group as wonderful as The Beatles signs off for good, things should be somber. Things should be majestic, and poignant, and moving, and all the other highfalutin’ words that mean you get chills hearing it. “Her Majesty’ doesn’t give you any of that, and so it has no right being the closer.
Of course, Let It Be ended up being released after Abbey Road anyway, so what’s my point really? The point is that if I want to listen to “Her Majesty,” I cue it up and play it solo. When I listen to Abbey Road, I hit stop as soon as “The End” ends, drawing the final curtain down properly.
151. “Do You Want To Know A Secret”
John Lennon was inspired by a song from the Snow White movie to write “Do You Want To Know A Secret.” (Also inspired by the movie but left on the cutting-room floor were songs like “Take This Apple And Shove It” and “Dopey’s Theme,” which was an instrumental, of course.) Lennon then gave the hand-off to George Harrison to take lead vocals, since George wasn’t yet writing his own material at the time of Please Please Me.George actually sounds a little bit like John with a slight head cold here, and it’s interesting to hear him singing such unabashedly romantic lyrics, since those songs would be atypical of his own songwriting output. I actually think he plays the part well here.
Although the song isn’t exactly a deep treatise on love, it’s got some nice elements to its construction. The little spoken-word “You’ll never know…” intro sets the song up well in a retro, 50’s way. Paul’s bass-playing really drives the song, as it’s more in the forefront than usual here. And I like the fade-out, which never really resolves. Nice touch.
One side note: I was introduced to this song by that only-could-have-happened-in-the-80’s Beatles medley by Stars On 45. I heard that again not too long ago and was struck by how bizarre it was and how that crazed concoction became a hit. I guess with The Beatles, anything is a possible hit, even disco medleys that sound like they were edited by a paper shredder.
150. “Dig It”
If there’s one specific matter about which you can criticize the late-era Beatles, lack of efficiency would have to be it. Their interests began to scatter away from what they really did best, which was make rock and roll. You could attribute this to the lack of a clear leader in the absence of Brian Epstein, or you could write it off as one of the many symptoms of the group breaking apart. But it led to a lot of time wasted with precious little to show for it in the end.
“Dig It” is a poster child for this wastrel behavior. There are all kinds of versions off this improvised jam circulating on various bootlegs, suggesting that the group worked awful hard on a song that eventually was hacked into a snippet of less than a minute on the official release of Let It Be in 1970.
It’s too bad, because that snippet does have some promise, with John Lennon having fun calling off the first names that pop into his head and Billy Preston working up a mid-60’s Dylan groove on the organ (hence Lennon’s refrain of “Like a Rolling Stone” as the song fades in.) But it’s over almost before it started, ending with Lennon’s jokey intro to “Let It Be.”
Whatever “Dig It” might have been or become is now just matter for idle speculation. But that would just be more time wasted on this fragment of a song.
149. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”
It clearly wins the Wile E. Coyote Memorial award for most conspicuous use of an anvil in a Beatles song. I’m not sure that would provide any consolation to John, George, and Ringo, who, post-Beatles, all spoke disdainfully about the miserable time they had recording this goofy McCartney composition. (Doesn’t it seem like it was always the weakest songs that caused the biggest rifts within the group?)You can see the seeds of the worst tendencies of Paul’s early solo career here. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is a clear antecedent to songs like “Uncle Albert” that were overproduced and underwritten. That kind of approach leads to songs that are undeniably catchy but get stuck in your head for all the wrong reasons.
The truly bizarre thing about this song is the fact that the bouncy, ornate music (which finds the group dabbling in synthesizers, no less) accompanies a tale about a mass murderer. Maxwell Edison uses his hammer to dispatch just about everyone in the song, leaving a path of carnage that leads from medical school to the courtroom. (And what about the lax security in the courthouse, as Max is able to get up from the stand and drop the judge like a bad habit while everyone is watching? It’s like an episode of Boston Legal.)
All of these disparate elements add up to one of the true oddballs in the Beatles’ songbook, and it stands out even more amongst the relatively straightforward pleasures on Abbey Road. I guess this darn-near uncategorizable song must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
148. “Julia”
When I embarked upon this list, I knew that I would rank some songs in places that would seem downright heretical to the Beatles faithful. I’m guessing that my estimation of “Julia,” or lack thereof, will likely ruffle a lot of feathers. But I maintain that this song is loved by people for what it is supposed to be, and not for what it is.
“Julia,” of course, is the name of John Lennon’s mother, with whom it can be said he had a complicated relationship up until her premature death when John was still only 17. And when you listen to “Julia,” you keep waiting for the kind of revelation that might provide some insight into the relationship and, in turn, insight into what made John tick. But that revelation never comes. The “Julia” in the song might as well be a water nymph considering all of the opaque poetry that describes her.
Lennon later said he was writing not just about his Mom in the song but also a little about Yoko (fodder for armchair psychiatrists everywhere). The song makes references to an “ocean child,” which is what Yoko means in Japanese. So you’ve got this amalgam of his lover and his mother to whom the song is addressed, and all of the descriptive images are abstract, as if this person never existed.
John even nicked from Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese poet whose work surged in popularity in the 60’s, for some of the lines. That’s all well and good, as even the best borrow. But on subject matter this personal, you would think that John could have dug deeply into his own reservoir of emotions for the words to say.
Just a few years later, after the Beatles’ break-up, John would write “Mother,” a searing testimonial to his feelings of abandonment and insecurity caused by the absence of his parents. Inspired by the primal-scream therapy he had undergone to unearth his childhood trauma, “Mother,” with its straightforward lyrics and spare instrumentation, proved more haunting than the spacey, dreamy “Julia” ever could.
Maybe Lennon needed that therapy to write the definitive song about his mother, a song that would express as much hurt as love. And maybe The Beatles weren’t the right platform for such a personal song (although it’s interesting to note that “Julia” is John’s one and only solo performance with the group). Whatever the case, the next time you listen to “Julia,” try to hear it again without the history in your mind. I suspect you’ll hear a weightless folk song about a spectral female, not an impassioned tribute to a lost parent.
147. “Day Tripper”
One riff does not a classic song make. Nor do a few clever lines constitute a coherent idea. Hence, “Day Tripper” goes down as perhaps the weakest of all Beatles songs to reach No.1.Mind you, that legendary guitar riff does carry this song a long way. It certainly provides a killer intro, one of the best in group history. But the riff is so great that the rest of the song, an innuendo-laced ode to those would dip their foot in the pool but not dive in, suffers by comparison.
Just what type of experimental pool the group is referencing here is a matter for debate. Some have speculated drugs, others sex (the lines about the girl being a “big teaser” would back this latter theory). The bottom line is that Lennon and McCartney churned this song out on the quick in need of a single, meaning that lyrical subtleties had to be sacrificed.
The group did manage to throw in a little “Twist And Shout”-style vocal crescendo just for good measure. But for all of the crash and bang on display here, there’s not much underneath. You can crank this one up to let off a little steam now and then, but there are other Beatles rockers that are far more effective. Indeed, like the girl in the song, it only takes us “half the way there.”
146. “Blue Jay Way”
While staying in a rented house in Los Angeles and awaiting some late-arriving dinner guests who were likely having a hard time navigating L.A.’s notorious winding streets, a travel-weary George Harrison happened upon an old organ in the house and sat down to write a song. Hence, “Blue Jay Way” was born.
The tale is told in literal fashion by George, and, as such, it doesn’t resonate all that well. What can be said about “Blue Jay Way” is that it is a seriously spooky song.
George also played the organ on the recording, giving the song a horror-movie vibe that is accentuated by a quivering cello, echoey effects on every instrument, the funereal beat kept by Ringo at the start of the song, and the background vocals in the latter part that sound like they’re being sung by someone who is simultaneously being garroted.“Blue Jay Way,” with all of its aforementioned quirkiness, works as a pretty effective approximation of that nether region between waking and sleeping that one gets when extremely weary. Whatever the case, I’m guessing that George probably wasn’t very good company once his guests arrived that fateful night. From the soporific sound of the song he produced, they likely found him face down on a G chord.
(4 - To be continued here)
Thanks to JamsBioMagazine
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