Category Archives: Beatles Collecting

More Dark Horse Records News

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As well as the new Yusef/Cat Stevens release next month there’s another title on the way from Dark Horse Records.

While we are STILL awaiting a release date from Mobile Fidelity for their audiophile vinyl re-issue of the George Harrison-produced Shankar Family & Friends, Dark Horse has decided to put it out on CD, and on purple coloured vinyl.

It was initially slated for a June 9 release, but it looks like the date has recently been pushed back to July 14:

There could also be a black vinyl version but we’re not exactly sure. This image is appearing on some store sites:

Yusuf/Cat Stevens – New Dark Horse Vinyl & CD

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Earlier this year Dark Horse Records announced the signing of music legend Yusuf/Cat Stevens to the label.

Image (from l to r): Dhani Harrison and Yusuf with David Zonshine (Dark Horse) and Yoriyos Adamos (Yusuf’s son and manager) at F.P.S.H.O.T.

A number of digital back catalogue albums were almost immediately put up on the Dark Horse releases site indicating they were now available on streaming services. These are all what might be considered his second tier works, definitely not his top-selling LPs. So the wait has been on to see what new content from Yusuf/Cat Stevens might be made available for the first time – and on physical media.

In March the label made this announcement about a brand new studio work and now the wait for that release is almost over because next month (June 16) sees King Of A Land issued on Dark Horse:

This will be on CD:

And, if ordered through the official Yusuf/Cat Stevens website, on limited edition white vinyl:

Amazon and some independent stores have a limited edition green vinyl version available for pre-order too:

The album’s artwork is created by award-winning Canadian children’s illustrator Peter H. Reynolds. As well as the cover art he has created illustrations for each song portraying the album’s lyrical themes in an accompanying 36 page booklet. The vinyl and booklet are housed in a gatefold sleeve.

Dark Horse, with it’s direct association with founder George Harrison, seems to be a natural home for Yusuf. “George has been an immense influence on me, spiritually, from the very beginning. He pioneered certain thoughts and ideas, which stretched way east, and that was very important. He was beginning to explore Eastern mysticism around the time I was hospitalised with TB, in 1968. Lying in bed, I had a lot of time on my hands and ended up reading a Buddhist book called The Secret Path. That was the beginning of my own search for the light.”

“Looking at the jagged journey of my music, beginning as I did in the 60’s, I would say this new record is a mosaic. A very clearly defined description of where I’ve been and who I am.”

In welcoming the singer to the Dark Horse Record label, Dhani Harrison said “I’m thrilled to welcome Yusuf/Cat Stevens to the Dark Horse Records family. Not only is he a great musical legend but his songs could not fit the Dark Horse mythos any better. From his back catalogue, through to the new music we can’t wait for you to hear. Yusuf is without question one of the most influential singer-songwriters of all time. It is a great honour to be able to give his music a home on our humble yet historic label.”

Yusuf has started to tease King Of A Land with some very charming lyric videos:

King Of A Land sounds like it could be something special, very reminiscent of his early 1970’s work. Definitely looking forward to this one.

Nasty Discoveries in Discogs

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For many years we’ve catalogued our Beatle collection using a fairly simple Microsoft Word document. There are columns for Artist, Title, Catalogue Number, Year and Place of Manufacture, plus space for any other details – for example does it have hype stickers, inclusions, it’s rarity, and finally a column for a quality rating for the cover and for LP or CD.

Over the years of course this document has grown and grown, and has become more and more bulky and a bit unwieldy to use.

So, why not transfer the whole thing into Discogs, the huge database and marketplace that contains many more details about each entry and is accessible when out and about crate digging or visiting stores if you need to check if you have a particular pressing or release.

With that in mind we’ve slowly been creating entries of what we have in the “Collection” section of Discogs. It’s going to take a while but we’ve been plugging away at it!

Imagine our surprise then, while interrogating the Discogs database, to learn that what we thought were legitimate CDs from The Paul McCartney Collection sereis from 1993 are actually Russian fakes?

We now have all sixteen CDs in the series but while entering them into Discogs it became apparent that 5 of them were definitely illegal copies:

On the surface they all look entirely legit. The external covers are correct in every detail, as are the CD booklets, and the CDs themselves. They look just like the originals. The barcode numbers match up, and the place of manufacture is listed as Holland (or the UK in the case of the McCartney CD).

However, when you go into Discogs there are usually more intricate details listed to help you identify exactly which country or issue you have. For artists like Paul McCartney, whose work is reproduced in multiple countries, there can be multiple entries to check through to confirm the one you have.

You do this by looking closely at what is etched in the tiny letters and numbers that appear on the “run out” section at the centre of the CD. And it’s here you’ll discover the true place of mastering and manufacture.

For us it was an eye opener to see an odd type of etching on these five of our Paul McCartney CD’s from The Paul McCartney Collection series. For McCartney it shows this:

Discogs says this is a Russian fake. They use the term “unofficial” and it is therefore not permitted for sale on their site.

For Red Rose Speedway the run out etching looks like this:

A bit of a pattern starts to emerge. Here’s the etching for Venus and Mars:

Here’s Wings at the Speed of Sound:

And finally an “unofficial” version of Tug of War:

The remainder of the CDs we have in this series are legitimate. It’s interesting that when you know you have a fake you can start to see some other tell-tail indicators. The most obvious with these CDs is the printing quality on the disc itself. The fakes are blurry while the legitimates are much more crisp and clear.

Here’s the fake Tug of War CD:

Compare this to a legit version of Band on the Run from the same series:

You can see that Band on the Run is much clearer. A close-up of the small print at the bottom illustrates this even better. Here’s the “unofficial” Tug of War:

And here’s the detail of Band on the Run:

By comparison the Tug of War printing is inferior. It is kind of blotchy and the lettering is unclear.

The subtitle of our blog is “Adventures in Collecting Beatles Music”. Looking out for fakes is part of the adventure I guess. But it’s a bit disheartening to learn that what you thought for many years was legitimate is not so after all.

If in doubt, check out Discogs – it’s a brilliant database.

RSD 2023 Beatle-related Titles Announced

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The Record Store Day 2023 release list has just come out and come April 23 there’ll be at least three titles of interest to Beatle collectors.

Probably the most interesting and hard-to-get will be a re-imagining of John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth best-of compilation which is being re-issued as a boxset containing 9 x 10” white vinyl EPs. Each EP will feature four tracks. Only 500 copies of this will be produced, hence the ‘hard-to-get’ moniker….

Next is the highly speculated 50th anniversary release of Paul McCartney’s Red Rose Speedway in limited edition, Half Speed Master vinyl form:

According to the RSD list there will be 5,000 pressed so this should be much easier to secure. It follows similar Half Speed Master editions of McCartney, Wings Wild Life and RAM.

Then there’s a re-issue of the 1981 Ringo Starr title Stop and Smell the Roses. This is being re-issued on vinyl as a 2LP with six bonus tracks for the first time. It will come in a gatefold with printed inner sleeves, original record labels and specialty color vinyl described as lava lamp effect clear red/white for LP1 and lava lamp effect clear red/pink for LP2. There are 2,500 copies being pressed.

Stop and Smell the Roses will also be issued on RSD as a CD (500 copies).

So, that’s John, Paul, and Ringo for Record Store Day 2023.

But wait, there is a George connection too. Dark Horse, the record label he started up (now run by son Dhani Harrison) is releasing not one but two LPs.

The first is by Stairsteps, a band originally signed to the label back in 1975. For Record Store Day 2023 we’ll see their 1976 album 2nd Resurrection re-issued on black vinyl. Billy Preston played synthesizer and served as co-producer alongside Robert Margouleff.

Dark Horse will also have a 20th Anniversary edition of the Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros album Streetcore as a limited edition pressing on white vinyl for RSD:

A new Aussie Beatle Connection – Vintage Abbey Road Studio Mixing Console

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It’s not often we get to bring you news relating to The Beatles directly from here (down under in Australia) – but there is some today.

It’s been announced that an original REDD.17 mixing console, used to record and mix music at the famous Abbey Road Studios studios in London, is now the centrepiece of a brand new new recording studio at the amazing Museum of New and Old Art (MONA) located just outside Hobart, Tasmania.

The vintage console, one of only four ever built, was one of those used to mix several Beatle albums. It is now part of Frying Pan Studios on the grounds of the museum, and has become the first working recording studio housed by a museum in Australia.

The console was purchased back in 2014 by Australian businessman David Roper. He started discussions with MONA’s artistic director of music (and Violent Femmes bassist) Brian Ritchie about the studio-in-a-museum idea. They took it to flamboyant MONA founder David Walsh who liked the concept and funded the creation of Frying Pan Studios, so named because it sits opposite Frying Pan Island right next to the museum and the beautiful Derwent River.

Frying Pan is a working studio and so it’s bookable facility. You can find more details here. Maybe you’d like to record your own album using the very same mixing desk that John, Paul, George and Ringo used!

You can also visit the studio as part of your ticketed entry into MONA and, if you time it right, actually see musicians at work. It does look like an incredible place to work and create:

Frying Pan Studios have built a great interactive website that gives you more on the history, the facilities, and the amazing location.

You can also check out this article from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for more.

More Info on the Photographs Used for the Revolver Cover

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We’ve had readers doing a lot more detective work and research into the photographs that Klaus Voormann used for his collage and line drawings for the famous Revolver cover.

In case you’ve missed it the story on our blog started here and here when we stumbled across a terrific montage detailing all the then known images used for the cover.

Turns out the author of that montage was Ukrainian Beatle fan Sergey, one of our readers! He wrote to us letting us know he’d first created it (way back in 2012!) for a Russian Beatles discussion forum called beatles.ru.

Sergey has since tracked down the source of the image of Ringo used as inspiration for the line drawing of him Klaus placed at the bottom left of the Revolver cover – the one where he is looking skywards.

We’re still not sure of the photographer, but it was published in a German booklet Das sind die Beatles which features a series of black-and-white photographs and short comments about each. It was produced by Bravo magazine for the 1966 Bravo Blitztournee tour, under the auspices of Beat Publication Ltd. The photographer details are not indicated, but Sergey sent us these photographs of the actual publication:

We then published what we feel is another piece in the mystery – the photograph of John Lennon that was very likely the inspiration for Klaus’s line drawing of John at the top right-hand side of Revolver. You can read about that here.

That prompted two other readers – Tom and burnham42 – to offer up even more clues. These revolve around the source images for the three small Beatle faces (and two hands) on this part of the cover:

burnham42 wrote:

I think the one of the three small photos top left is in The Beatles Anthology book page 70 (in my French edition). You can also find it on pinterest. The photo was taken on the way to Hamburg. There is John, Paul, George and Gerry and the Pacemakers in the photo. The man on the floor (George?) is pulling a face and you even have the hands that Klaus also used.

Well, drag out your English edition of The Beatles Anthology book too if you have one because the image is also on page 70 there as well:

The Anthology Book says the photo is from George Harrison’s private collection. The caption in the book reads: In a lay-by on the road to Hamburg and the Ost See. Me, Paul and John with Gerry and the Pacemakers.

We have George and Paul, who are standing on the left, and John sitting on the ground pulling a funny face.

Voormann has cut out three sections of this image. Paul has been placed to the left, his raised arm now just below George’s face. And he’s cropped John’s face to make it appear he has a Beatles hair-cut, and tilted it so that it is more upright. His hand from the image is also used, but also at a different angle.

So, one more mystery solved!

Following all this, Sergey has been back in touch and has offered up a revised, updated version of his original Revolver cover “sources” montage. Here it is:

Please click on the image to see a larger version.

Paul McCartney – 1964: Eyes of the Storm

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Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami.

Six cities pivotal in the success of The Beatles as their music and their fame burst into the world, changing a generation forever.

The year: 1964.

Captured on film by one of those at the very centre of the storm: Paul McCartney.

In 2020, a treasure trove of nearly a thousand photographs taken by McCartney on a 35mm SLR camera was re-discovered in his archive. It was realised that his photographs form a unique view of the months towards the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964 as Beatlemania erupted in the UK and, after the band’s first visit to the USA, four young men became the most famous people on the planet. These photographs serve as a personal record of this explosive time when The Beatles were inside looking out – right inside the eye of the storm. 

Now comes a new photographic exhibition and a book, 1964: Eyes of the Storm – Photographs and Reflections by Paul McCartney. They present his photographs and memories from six cities, capturing these intense months with many never-before-seen portraits of John, George and Ringo.

In his Foreword to the book, and in the \introductions to each of the city portfolios, McCartney remembers: ‘what else can you call it – pandemonium’, and conveys his impressions of what Britain and America were like for him and his band mates in 1964 – the moment when the culture changed and the Sixties really began. 

‘Anyone who rediscovers a personal relic or family treasure is instantly flooded with memories and emotions, which then trigger associations buried in the haze of time. This was exactly my experience in seeing these photos, all taken over an intense three-month period of travel, culminating in February 1964. It was a wonderful sensation to be plunged right back.

Here was my own record of our first huge trip, a photographic journal of The Beatles in six cities, beginning in Liverpool and London, followed by Paris (where John and I had been ordinary hitchhikers just over two years before), and then what we regarded as the big time, our first visit as a group to America’ – Paul McCartney

1964: Eyes of the Storm Photography Book Includes: 

  • Six city portfolios – Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami – featuring 275 of McCartney’s own photographs – and his candid reflections on them 
  • A Foreword by Paul McCartney
  • Beatleland, an Introduction by Harvard historian and New Yorker essayist Jill Lepore
  • A Preface by Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, and Another Lens, an essay by Senior Curator Rosie Broadley

The book, to be released on 13 June, is accompanied by a major exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery from 28 June – 1 October, 2023.

The Gallery will display, for the first time, a selection of the extraordinary archive of rediscovered and never-before-seen photographs taken by Paul. 

Like the book, the exhibition provides a uniquely personal perspective on what it was like to be a ‘Beatle’ at the start of ‘Beatlemania’ – from gigs in Liverpool and London, to performing on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York to an unparalleled television audience of 73 million people. At a time when so many camera lenses were on the band, these photographs share a fresh insight into their experiences, their fans, and the early 1960s, all through eyes of Paul McCartney. Find out more and get tickets here.

P.S. If you’re wondering about the cool music used in the YouTube promo video above it’s the McCartney track ‘222’, released as a bonus track on the special edition version of “Memory Almost Full“. The song was written for his youngest child, his daughter Beatrice, when she was aged 2. See The McCartney Project for more detail.

A Happy Crimble! – from The Beatles Monthly Book

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We thought this holiday season we’d take a look at some of the Christmas issues of the British Beatle fan magazine, The Beatles Book.

A little while back we were very kindly gifted a big box full of these great little magazines. They were mostly the re-issues of the originals – practically a full set containing the re-issued originals plus some extras – so thank you again Michael!

The publication history of these gems is a bit convoluted, so here’s a potted history:

The original The Beatles Book was first issued in Britain just as Beatlemania was taking off. Issue No. 1 came out in August, 1963. It’s was a small-format magazine (5.9 inches x 8.1 inches or 15 cm x 20.7cm), and it cost one shilling and sixpence:

There were 77 editions in all until publication stopped in December, 1969 (when it then cost a princely two shillings and sixpence!):

The magazine then went into hibernation for a few years until it was revived in May, 1976 as The Beatles Appreciation Society Magazine Book. The same editor and publisher, Johnny Dean (a.k.a. Sean O’Mahoney), resuscitated the brand by faithfully reproducing the original magazine starting with issue No. 1. He included an 8-page outer wrap (later to become 16 pages) containing more current Beatle and solo news, but the core of the magazine was the reproduced originals.

The magazine continued in this form, still released monthly, until September, 1982 when all 77 original editions had been reprinted.

However, such was the renewed interest in The Beatles at the time, the very next month (October, 1982) the magazine continued on from where it left off with issue No.78. This time though it came with all-new content throughout. The price, by the way, had risen to 80 pence:

Publication continued in this form up January, 2003 (which by then was issue No. 321) when it ceased once again – this time for good. Note the price had risen to £3.00!

These magazines stand as a terrific archive, a real treasure trove of information and images, many not seen elsewhere as editor Johnny Dean had a lot of access to the band and inside information about their activities that others never had. Reading them now they give a great sense the context around their output and plans – some of which came to pass, and some (as we’ll see) which didn’t.

So, as it’s Christmas time, let’s take a look inside an early Christmas Issue of The Beatles Book. It is No.17 from December, 1964:

The Editorial page by Johnny Dean contains some interesting comments and observations:

He’s talking about the Beatles For Sale LP being out just in time to “….make a perfect Christmas present for a host of Beatle people everywhere”, and stating that despite all the band’s success things haven’t changed much backstage. Road Manager, Neil Aspinall and Equipment Manager Mal Evans “….organise everything very smoothly so that the boys can relax comfortably between shows.”

And what of plans for the future? “John, Paul, George and Ringo all feel that recording and films are going to be more important because their fans all over the world can share them equally. Personal appearances can’t be continued at the same hectic rate….”

And “….there’s a Christmas Card to you – from “them” and everyone else on your Beatles Book who would like to wish you all the very best for the coming Christmas.”

Let’s jump ahead four years to issue No. 65, which came out in December, 1968:

This one is very interesting, but not so much for its Christmas content. Actually there’s very little Christmas cheer in it at all, apart from then Beatle Fan Club National Secretary, Freda Kelly, telling members to expect their personal copies of the 1968 Christmas Record soon. She says: “Produced by Kenny Everett, this year’s disc is different from any previous one as it was recorded basically in the boys’ own homes.”

No, this issue is fascinating because, as you can see on the front cover, it heralds the return of the band performing live – and even offers a give-away where readers can win tickets go and see them.

This is all about a planned TV special to be recorded in front of a live audience. It’s about the rehearsals for that performance that will take place in early 1969 at Twickenham Film Studios, and later at their own Apple studio. It is about the famous rooftop concert and what we now know as the Let It Be album and film, and the 2021 Peter Jackson Get Back opus on Disney+.

But here, in December, 1968, all that is in the future.

Editor Johnny Dean writes “Isn’t it marvelous to hear that the Beatles are going to appear on stage once again. It seems a very long time ago since they last stood together and performed for a live audience. At long last I will be able to give a positive answer to all those readers of The Beatles Book who have asked me over the past two years: “When are the Beatles going to appear on stage again?””

Then further into the magazine there’s an article headlined FIRST LIVE PERFORMANCES FOR OVER TWO YEARS. It says: “Their intention is to put on a series of shows which will culminate in a final performance which will be filmed for transmission in this country and overseas. Apple Corps managing director, Neil Aspinall, has already been negotiating for the sale of the programme to one of the major companies in the United States.”

“The New Year concerts will also do many things. Firstly, it will give the Beatles an opportunity to perform in front of their fans once again. Not a very large number admittedly, only a few thousand – but, nevertheless, it will have happened. Secondly, the performance, by being shown all over the world, will enable their fans in all those overseas countries to see them probably much better than they would if they were sitting in the back row of a local stadium.”

“But, there’s still a lot of work to do before they get on stage. Firstly, they will have to rehearse the numbers and work them up into an act once again. Performing their songs in the recording studio will not enable them to perform equally well on the stage. The two are not the same and the boys have always accepted this.”

The article goes on the predict the songs in the concert will consist mostly of material from their recently released double LP The White Album, “….with several oldies thrown in for good measure.”

Then, a few pages on, comes a further article headlined BEATLE NEWS – BEATLES TV SHOW. “The Beatles are shortly to finalise details of their own one-hour colour television show. It will NOT take place at the Roundhouse as announced. After rehearsals they will give a set of separate “live” performances before invited audiences. All three shows will be recorded on colour videotape and the final programme will be made up from the best parts of the three.”

There’s talk of an initial plan to sell audience tickets and donate the money to charity, but this had to be dropped (the magazine says) because seats for TV shows cannot be sold – they must be given away for free. It then points readers to The Beatles Book Lucky Dip where 100 seats will be allocated to “regular readers”:

(click on any image to see larger versions)

“At press time it is not possible to tell you the exact dates of the performances….neither the Beatles themselves nor their Apple helpers have sorted that out. But the dates will be some time during January….On January 1st all your applications will go into a drum. The first 50 pulled out will get A PAIR OF TICKETS. The tickets will show the date and time of the performance.”

Well, history proved that big concert never eventuated. We wonder if they ever pulled those 50 entries from the drum? It might be nice to know that at least you were on the shortlist to see The Beatles perform live again for the first time in over two years!

Once again, a big thank you to Michael for gifting us these amazing The Beatles Monthly magazines.

Sadly, publisher and editor Sean O’Mahoney (a.k.a. Johnny Dean) passed away in July, 2020. He leaves behind him a wonderful legacy not only in The Beatles Book but also Record Collector magazine. You should keep an eye out for two books: one by O’Mahoney called The Best of The Beatles Book (2005), and Looking Through You: The Beatles Book Monthly Photo Archive (2016), compiled by Jo Adams and Andy Neill from the immense archives.

We wish all our readers a very happy and safe holiday season and we’ll see you again in 2023.

Another Piece in the ‘Revolver’ Cover Mystery?

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Could this be another piece in the jigsaw puzzle that is the famous Revolver cover montage by Klaus Voormann?

In this explainer collage below there’s a question mark about the origins of the photograph Voormann used as inspiration for his drawing of John Lennon:

(Click on the image to see a larger version)

It is the drawing on the top right-hand side:

Could it have been this image?

The eyes, mouth and hair all look very similar.

We don’t think this has been identified in other Revolver photo research info before. See our previous posts on this here and here.

We’re still looking to confirm who might have taken the photo (more on this soon) but beatlesblogger.com reader naturalkatsup, who kindly sent it in, says it was taken at Reed Pigman’s “Pigman Ranch” in Missouri on September 19th, 1964. They say it seems to be taken by a photographer named Curt Gunther? We’re not sure if the image was published in a magazine that Klaus had access to, but naturalkatsup has found other photos from the same day on the web. Here’s the full photo:

And here are a couple of other shots from the same photo shoot:

What do you think? Could this be the source for Klaus Voormann’s Revolver drawing of John?

If you definitely know who the photographer is please get in touch.

UPDATE:

We can now confirm that this image was in fact taken by photographer Curt Gunther:

Thanks to the info supplied by naturalketsup, we checked our own Beatle library, and found this book:

It was published in 1989 and chronicles the Beatles’ 1964 tour of the U.S. and Canada in great detail. It includes 150 never-before-seen photographs at the time by freelance photographer, Curt Gunther.

Although Beatle manager Brian Epstein had ordered that no photographers accompany The Beatles on the tour, Derek Taylor, their Press Officer and friend, had persuaded Epstein to allow Gunther to tag along with the touring party. And he captured some amazing images. They were issued in 2000 in an expensive Genesis Publications book called Mania Days.

But prior to that came another more affordable book called Beatles ’64 – A Hard Day’s Night In America, with text by A.J.S Rayl and many of the same photographs by Curt Gunther. Here’s the rear cover:

The book has the details a day the band had off in their hectic schedule and their visit to Reed Pigman’s “Pigman Ranch” in Missouri on September 19th, 1964, including a very scary night flight from Arkansas in a small plane to get there. George Harrison feared they’d perish, just like Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper had in a small plane crash in 1959:

So, this confirms the origins of the image:

And the photographer:

The meetthebeatlesforreal.com site has some more images from the Pigman ranch stay.

The only question is, did Klaus Voormann use one of Gunther’s photos as his inspiration for John Lennon’s image on the cover of Revolver?

We reckon it’s likely.

RSD Black Friday – A Dark Horse Extra? (Plus Dark Horse Collecting – The Hard Way)

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Is it just us who completely missed this, or did Dark Horse Records surreptitiously slip an additional title into Record Store Day Black Friday last Friday?

We’re pretty sure when we published this heads-up post back in September detailing which records might be of interest to Beatle completists, this listing definitely wasn’t there:

But when we looked on 25 November, there it was: a Joe Strummer LP Live at Music Millennium, 3600 copies, on the Dark Horse label:

This is a soundboard recording of Strummer’s solo acoustic in-store performance at a record store called Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon on November 2, 1999. It is getting its first ever release for RSD Black Friday and features the songs “Junco Partner,” “X-Ray Style” “Island Hopping,” “The Road to Rock N Roll,” and “Trash City.” The record continues the ongoing celebration this year of what would have been Joe Strummer’s 70th birthday.

While on the subject of Dark Horse, their other title for RSD, Dark Horse Records: The Best of 1974-1977, looks like a great collection:

Side A
1. Ravi Shankar – I Am Missing You
2. Ravi Shankar – Dispute & Violence
3. Splinter – Costafine Town
4. Splinter – Lonely Man
5. Attitudes – Ain’t Love Enough
6. Attitudes – Sweet Summer Music

Side B
1. Stairsteps – From Us To You
2. Stairsteps – Time
3. Keni Burke – Give All You Can Give
4. Henry McCullough – Lord Knows
5. Henry McCullough – Mind Your Own Business
6. Jiva – Take My Love

One of our long-time readers and avid Beatles and Beatle-related collector – see his selection of McCartney III variations for example! – has sent us this photo with the simple caption:

“Dark Horse Records: Best of 1974-1977 THE HARD WAY”

Enough said!