Wog Blog is reporting a new budget label release collecting some of Beatle producer George Martin’s output over his many years in the recording industry.
It is a double CD set and there are two Beatle songs included (‘Love Me Do’ and ‘P.S. I Love You’) plus thirty others by a wide range of artists. It’s a pretty good overview of his work:
Every track listed (except the two Beatle tunes) is also available on the 2001, six CD set Produced by George Martin. That box set contains 150 titles, but if you can’t find it (or can’t afford it!), this new release from Not Now Music looks like a bargain at just £5.99.
If you need any convincing to make this a regular download, have a listen to Episode 11.
It’s a great example of how interesting this podcast is. The two look into the instruments that the Beatles used on stage and in the studio – and how these directly impacted the sound and their creative push to always try new ways of making music. Buskin interviews Andy Babiuk, author of Beatles Gear (and the newly-published Rolling Stones Gear), but also talks with his co-host Rodriguez, delving into their own extensive knowledge and understanding of the music. Great stuff.
It is episodes like this that make it well worth subscribing to this podcast – which comes out roughly once a month:See also our post on Beatles 101, Richard Buskin’s latest book.
There was a big car boot sale just around the corner from us this last weekend, and we were able to find quite a few nice additions to the collection. One vendor just had boxes and boxes of CD’s, 7″ vinyl 45’s and 12″ LP’s on their stall – and so quite a bit of our Saturday morning was spent trawling….
It was time well spent though as it turned up a few gems.
First up was a Australian vinyl single taken from the John Lennon and Yoko Ono album Double Fantasy. ‘Watching the Wheels’ was the third single from this LP (the first two were ‘(Just Like) Starting Over’ and ‘Woman’). We didn’t have a copy of ‘Watching the Wheels” so this was a good find.
Next was another 7″ single we didn’t have – Badfinger’s ‘Come and Get It’ on the Apple label. It dates from 1969 and is a Paul McCartney composition written for the band, and it makes an appearance on the soundtrack for the film The Magic Christian, starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. This is an Australian pressing. There’s a lot of writing on the label – but still…..
Further hunting through the boxes revealed another Apple single – this time from George Harrison. It’s an Australian copy of ‘My Sweet Lord’ b/w ‘Isn’t It A Pity’. In Australia this was a double A side as both titles have green Apple labels:
Our good luck continued in the multiple boxes at this car boot sale. Next out were two singles – a US copy of McCartney’s ‘Coming Up’, and ‘Say Say Say’ with Michael Jackson – both on the Columbia label, then a division of CBS. In the late 70’s/early 80’s McCartney was briefly (six years) on the Columbia label for his releases in America. He’d temporarily turned his back on Capitol Records, enticed by one of the most lucrative recording contracts around at the time, a deal which included as a sweetener the ownership of Frank Music, a CBS owned publishing company consisting (amongst other things) of Frank Loesser’s songs (think of the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls, etc.). Frank Music is now of course folded into McCartney’s highly successful MPL Music Publishing business.
The two singles we found came out on the Parlophone label in Australia, so it’s good to have these US versions:
The final 45 we discovered was Billy J. Kramer’s ‘From a Window’ – which sadly is kind of beat up, but worth having because it is a song from 1964 written specifically for Kramer (and his band the Dakotas) by John Lennon and Paul McCartney:
The last purchase of the day was a bit of a find. It’s Jools Holland’s 2001 CD Small World Big Band, which is an important one to have in the collection because it contains George Harrison singing and playing on his last ever recording. George passed away just two months after this recording. He does a song called ‘Horse to the Water’, co-composed with his son Dhani.
Holland’s CD is sub-titled “….his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and friends”, that’s because for each track he invites various stars to join him for a track each. These include the likes of Sting; Paul Weller; Dr John; Mark Knopfler; Van Morrison; Steve Winwood; and Eric Clapton, amongst many others. To quote two of the poignant reviewers on Amazon:
“For me, the big reason to buy this CD was the George Harrison contribution, ‘Horse to the Water’. It is a GREAT song, and a brilliant Harrison song at that. George sounds weak, and I am not sure if Clapton has stepped in on some of the guitar parts, but what a brilliant and fun piece of music, worthy to be held in the highest esteem among its author’s ouvre. IT is reason enough to buy the CD.”
And this one:
“I purchased this CD for one reason. I had seen the DVD Concert for George and loved it. Among the best offerings on the DVD was the Sam Brown/Jools Holland rendition of ‘Horse to the Water’ by George. Except for the words, I would never have guessed that it was a Harrison song. It was too R&B. So I was curious to see how he handled it. Well, he does not have the powerhouse voice of Sam Brown, but I was in fact really surprised at how well he did, helped greatly by the superb backup band. I would not have recognised his voice. I am sure his throat cancer was behind that.”
We love it when you’re browsing a bookshop and discover some Beatle titles you weren’t previously aware of – and that they are at hugely discounted prices….
That’s what happened this week when we found two new Beatle books. We also took delivery (via The Book Depository online store) of a brand new Beatle book – but more on that one later.
The first book we found at the bargain basement store was The Unreleased Beatles by Richie Unterberger. This book dates back to 2009, and it contains a wealth of material about the band and the many sought-after rarities and non-official gems which remain in the Beatle vaults. Unterberger has documented the incredible breadth of music the band recorded but didn’t release, as well as film footage of the group that hasn’t been made commercially available. He examines a huge array of material, including unreleased studio outtakes, BBC radio recordings from 1962-1965, live concert performances, home demo recordings, fan club Christmas recordings, and other informal demos done outside of EMI’s studios. The unreleased gems encompass the Beatles entire career, from a recording the Quarrymen made on July 6, 1957, right up to outtakes from the final sessions of Let It Be in 1970:
The Unreleased Beatles includes a general overview of Beatle bootlegs, their songs recorded by other artists in the 1960s, never-recorded material, and contains more than 100 photos.
Beatles Examiner conducted a Q&A session with Richie Unterberger about the book when it was first released, and Amazon has a “Look Inside” feature if you’d like to see more.
Also – Glass Onion reports that an updated and fully revised Kindle version of this book has just been released. Worth checking out if you like electronic books.
The second bargain book find was Give Peace A Chance, a hardback book dedicated to the eight-day long bed-in for peace mounted by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Montreal, Canada in May/June of 1969:
Compiled by journalist Joan Athey, and based around a fantastic series of photographs taken by Gerry Deiter during the course of the bed-in, Give Peace a Chance presents as a wonderful chronicle of just what happened in their suite on the 17th floor of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. Photographer Deiter was on assignment for Life magazine and had extraordinary access because Lennon and Ono asked him to stay by their bedside for the duration of the event. As it turned out his photographs were never actually published in Life. He tucked away the negatives soon after John and Yoko vacated the famous Room 1742 – the place where the song ‘Give Peace a Chance’ was recorded – and so they are being seen in all their glory, many for the first time here.
There really are some amazing photos and recollections from all sorts of people in this book. It is well worth the A$4.99 we paid for it!One page amongst many which caught our attention was the one below – taken at the very end of the eight days with hotel employees cleaning up the suite after the John and Yoko entourage had moved on:I really like this book. It captures an historic moment in time in a remarkable way.
For a couple of further unique insights into the Montreal John and Yoko peace bed-ins see also I Met the Walrus by Jerry Levitan, and Give Me A Chance by Gail Renard.
The final book added to the collection this week is a 2014 publication called Meet the Beatles from Souvenir Press in the UK.
And here’s the rear cover:
The Wogblog first alerted us to this one. In this the 50th anniversary year of the the Beatles,Meet the Beatlesis a hardback publication which faithfully reproduces a magazine originally issued in the hey-day of the Beatles first flush of success in 1963. No need for us to go into too much detail here as Wogblog has covered it pretty well in his post.
Another trip to the NSW Central Coast, and some time available to check out a couple of the local opportunity shops (or “op shops”) there – like The Salvation Army and the St Vincent de Paul (or “Vinnies” as this chain is more commonly known in Australia – they are similar to Goodwill in the US).
It’s usually a long-shot to look for Beatle items in these places as they tend to be pretty well picked over already. But you never know…..
This time around we did come away with two small finds. First, at the Salvation Army store, was a cassette of A Collection of Beatles Oldies but Goldies:
This one is on Axis, which was EMI’s budget label in Australia. We don’t even have a cassette player anymore – but for just 50c how could we leave this little gem from the past just sitting on the shelf?
Then, from the same store, a 3-track CD single of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ by Band Aid 20. This was released in 2004 and is the twentieth anniversary fundraising re-make of the 1984 song which kicked off the whole Live Aid charity phenomenon. The CD features Paul McCartney on bass:
As you can see in the official video from the time, Sir Paul is obviously having a good time providing the bass line for this remake of the famous song.
BTW, Paul McCartney, U2’s Bono, Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, and Sarah Dallin and Keren Woodward (from Bananarama) are the only artists to have appeared on both the 1984 recording and on this one from 2004.
The CD single features the 2004 recording, the original from 1984, and a version taken from the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium on July 13, 1985.
Genesis Publications have just released Yoko Ono – Infinite Universe at Dawn, a book celebrating “….Yoko Ono’s seminal art and activism across eight decades”.
As the title suggests, it’s a boxed, leather-bound, richly-illustrated retrospective, and in typical Genesis style is an expensive but absolutely beautifully produced work of art in itself.
There are only 1500 signed copies available at £325.00 each (US$521.00 or AU$594.00). Mere mortals like us will have to wait to see if it is ever released in non-limited edition form!
It does look good though. Ono has written about and posted some great photos of what is inside on her Imagine Peace website.
See the Genesis Publications video about Yoko Ono Infinite Universe at Dawn.
We don’t collect Beatle memorabilia like autographs, signed photos, tickets, posters, toys and such – but many people do.
If you have an authentic Beatle photograph which is autographed by one or more of the band you might be wondering what it’s worth. And is it increasing in value as the years go by?
Well, it turns out that signed Beatle photographs appear to be a pretty good investment.
That’s according to the PFC40 Autograph Index (to 2018), compiled by Paul Fraser Collectibles. Their list tracks the values of 40 of the world’s most sought-after autographs since the year 2000. The prices given are an evaluation of the market value for a fully authenticated, best quality signed photo, based on close monitoring of dealer and auction sales. (A “best quality” example will feature a photograph in superb condition, depicting the subject in their most famous era, with a sharp, clear signature acquired during that period).
On the latest PFC40 Autograph Index Summary the Beatles feature prominently:
The most valuable autograph: £29,500 for a signed photo of The Beatles. (That’s US$38,560, or AU$50,439 at today’s exchange rate!)
One of the top performing autographs was Paul McCartney’s, with a value for the year of £2950.
Over the period 2000-2018 the top performing autograph was George Harrison’s with an 18.2% increase over that period.
The Beatles as a group appear twice in the Top 40 list for 2000-2018, as do all four individual Beatles – John Lennon (+12.2% over 18 years), Paul McCartney (+17% over 18 years), George Harrison (see above), and Ringo Starr (+12% over 18 years).
So, hang on to those autographs – especially if they are on photographs or album covers.
To see some of the prices that Beatle items are fetching go to the search page at Paul Fraser Collectables.
The 18 inch x 24 inch screen print Poster For George (based on a photograph taken by Astrid Kirchherr) is offered in two editions, Red and Silver.
Both editions are limited to 400 signed and numbered copies. Each cost US$65.00.
The Red edition was available only from the Obey Giant web store on October 23 at a random time between 10am and 12pm PST. It looks to be sold out already.
The Silver edition is released today – October 24 – at the George Harrison web store at 10am PST / 6PM BST. There is a limit of one poster per customer.
For collectors and completists there are not one, but three new Beatle and Beatle-related 7″ vinyl singles on the way.
The first two are from Paul McCartney and Wings.
In association with the Best Buy electronics supermarket chain in the USA, two 7″ vinyl singles – one taken from Venus and Mars, and one from Wings at the Speed of Sound – will be released on November 4 as limited bonus items with the purchase of the forthcoming re-issues of these two titles:
From the description on the stickers (i.e. “DETAILS INSIDE”), it looks like there will be a coupon included to redeem these special vinyl singles after initial purchase, though we’re not sure about this.
Also, based on a tiny image on the Best Buy site, it looks like the singles will come in picture sleeves which re-create the original artwork:The third 7″ vinyl item will be released on November 28 as part of the Record Store Day “Black Friday” celebrations at independent record stores. It’s a limited pressing of the Beatles EP Long Tall Sally (originally released in the UK in 1964):
Songs on the EP are: “Long Tall Sally”; “I Call Your Name”; “Matchbox” and “Slow Down”.
A complete set of signed outtake photographs, including the final cover shots for the BeatlesAbbey Road album, is coming up for auction in November.
The press release from Dreweatts and Bloomsbury Auctions says:
The set of six photographs commissioned from Scottish photographer Iain Macmillan (1938-2006) as possible designs for the album’s front cover – together with the Abbey Road street sign used on the back cover – is of legendary rarity on the art market.
This is believed to be the first time that a complete suite of the signed and numbered photographs has ever been offered at public auction. [Hmmm. Maybe not. See WogBlog’s thoughts on this claim…..Ed.) The collection will be on view to the public in central London from Sunday 16th November, before going under the hammer on Friday 21st November where they are estimated to achieve £50,000 – 70,000.
On 8th August, 1969 Macmillan, a close friend of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, climbed a ladder in the middle of Abbey Road and in the next ten minutes took six photographs of the Fab Four walking back and forth across a zebra crossing. The fifth of his six shots, selected by Paul McCartney, would become the album cover for the Beatles’ last-recorded album and one of pop music’s most famous and recreated images.
In 1989 Iain Macmillan was quoted saying; “That photo’s been called an icon of the 60s. I suppose it is. I think the reason it became so popular is its simplicity. It’s a very simple, stylised shot. Also it’s a shot people can relate to. It’s a place where people can still walk.”
With his Hasselblad camera storing the six images, Macmillian set off to photograph a road sign to use as the back cover. To Macmillan’s annoyance, whilst he was photographing the sign on the corner with Alexandra Road, a girl in a blue dress walked through the shot, however it was this image that was later chosen as the back cover.
Sarah Wheeler, Head of Photography at Bloomsbury Auctions [pictured below] said; “To see the full collection of photographs together is a rare and fascinating opportunity for fans of the Beatles, Music and Photography. We are delighted to be offering them at auction and anticipate worldwide interest for this famous and timeless suite.”
The Photographs & Photobooks sale will be held at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions saleroom in London’s Mayfair on Friday, November 21. The full catalogue will be available to view and download soon at www.bloomsburyauctions.com
If you are going to bid you’ll need to have very, very deep pockets. As WogBlog has also reported, an original single photograph from the same set sold at Bloomsbury Auctions in 2012 for £16,000!
Here are the remaining outtakes from that historic shoot:
Beatles Blog 