Category Archives: Beatles Music

John Lennon – a Jazz Reinterpretation

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I’m usually not a big fan nor collector of Beatles cover versions. But I must admit that when I first saw this CD cover I was intrigued:

It’s a Lennon reinterpretation that is very worthy of further investigation. Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell is one of the world’s great musicians – as the small sticker on the front of this CD proclaims:

While he’s been around a long time I only became aware of Bill Frisell relatively recently when Elvis Costello teamed up with veteran composer and arranger Burt Bacharach in 1998 to produce an album of new songs called “Painted From Memory”. Both Costello and Bacharach are favorites and this album is great. The interesting thing about their project is that they gave all their new songs to guitarist Bill Frisell very early in the process to create his own jazz versions of their new work. As a result he released his album “The Sweetest Punch” almost simultaneously with their “Painted From Memory” disc. Quite unusual in the music business. I got both “Painted From Memory” and “The Sweetest Punch” back then and have enjoyed them immensely since…..hence my interest in the work of one Bill Frisell.

Then, late in 2011 came this record – “All We Are Saying” – Frisell plays Lennon. Naturally I was interested to hear how it sounded – and was lucky enough to be given it as a Christmas present from my son:

As you can see from the rear cover song-list, Frisell does a wide range of Lennon compositions from the Beatles days (both early and late), through to the Plastic Ono Band, Lennon’s early solo work, and right up to songs from the final John Lennon/Yoko Ono album “Double Fantasy”.

The cover art is also interesting. Inside the gatefold digipac it’s revealed that the project has the blessing of Yoko Ono and the Lennon Estate because they have officially licensed the cover art which is a John Lennon original drawing.

Here’s the detail from the image above:

So – it all looks and feels very original. These are all songs I know well, and the interpretations that Frisell and his band deliver are fresh takes on familiar material. As I say, Beatles cover versions are not my thing – but this album delivers on many levels, not the least being that it comes from an artist who respects and loves the originals.

The Beatles Collection – Australian Blue Box

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Not one, but two large Beatles box sets from the collection to feature in this post….

Why?

Well, both are Australian editions of “The Beatles Collection” – a box containing all twelve official Beatles studio album releases, plus one disc of “Rarities”. But the two examples of this box-set here differ in quite a few ways and are worth noting.

“The Beatles Collection” first came out in Australia back in 1978. At the time this was the catalogue-spanning Beatles box set to buy. For a very short time in 1978 it was released with all the Australian-pressed albums contained in the more familiar (and sturdier) British-made box with a flip-top lid. However, only 2000 of these sets were released here. The following year (1979) an Australian-made box was created to hold all the albums – but it was different to both the UK and the European box in that it had a detachable, lift-off lid. It was also a lot more flimsy in construction:

These original Australian blue boxes were textured on the outside and had the title “The Beatles Collection” in gold lettering and the signatures of each band member reproduced along the bottom, but the rear of the box was plain:

The LP’s inside, if they were originally released on the Parlophone label, were on the orange Parlophone label – which was a version unique to Australia:

And, if the LP was originally released in Australia on the Apple label it came out in the box-set also on the Apple label. For example “Yellow Submarine”:

The box also came with the two unique covers produced in Australia for “With the Beatles” and “The Beatles For Sale”:

“Sgt Pepper” came in a single sleeve:

“The Beatles” double LP (aka “The White Album”) came with all the inserts included (i.e. the poster with lyrics and the four individual photographs):

“Let It Be” had the red Apple logo on the rear:

And there was a unique 13th LP called “Rarities”, which gathered together for the first time on one record songs and versions of songs previously unavailable on any album:

This too came out on the orange Parlophone label:

The other box I have is different. In copies of “The Beatles Collection” released from the mid-1980’s there were quite a few changes. Firstly, the textured look to the box was replaced with a flat cardboard finish, and all the LP titles were listed on the back of the box:

Also, all the LPs inside have the black and silver Parlophone label, including those titles previously released on Apple:

“With the Beatles” came in the UK cover, which featured the famous black-and-white Robert Freeman portrait of the band – not its distinctive Australian cover:

But, a little surprisingly, “The Beatles For Sale” was still in its unique yellow Australian cover:

“Sgt Pepper” is in a single cardboard sleeve, “The White Album” came with all the inserts, “Let It Be” has the red Apple logo on the back cover, and you still get the “Rarities” LP, only this time it’s on the black and silver Parlophone label:

Also, in my copy at least, there’s a single sheet insert (printed on both sides) detailing all the Beatles records and cassettes currently available through EMI Australia at the time:

I’m not sure that this sheet was originally included in the mid 1980’s box set as it has the catalogue number PLAY 1005 on it and this was an insert usually included with Australian copies of “The Beatles Ballads” LP from 1981. Anyway, it’s nice to have.

So, two “Beatles Collection” box sets with quite a few interesting and collectable variations.

(Many thanks to Jaesen Jones and his invaluable book “An Overview of Australian Beatles Records” for the release date information contained in this post).

The Beatles with Records – Part Six

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Some further photographs of the Beatles being photographed with records have been sent in – and so it’s time to add a Part Six to the series.

These photographs are all great and they come from Claude Defer, co-author of a recent book about all the French Beatles record releases. Claude’s first pic is of Paul, Linda and Denny Laine in the back of a limo and for some reason they have with them a copy of John and Yoko’s rather controversial 1968 release Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins. Paul might simply be re-acquainting himself with the quote he provided for the cover of the album: “When two great saints meet it is a humbling experience. The long battles to prove he was a Saint“….

As you can see below, John also quotes Genesis 2: 21-25:

Of course there are lots of photos available of the Beatles being presented with gold records in honour of their huge sales – but in this one for his work on Band on the Run with his new band Wings, Paul looks particularly pleased:

In this series on the Beatles with records we’ve had a lot of hastily-taken fan photographs sent in. These have been when the band members have stopped to talk and to autograph copies of their LPs and singles for waiting fans. This is another one of those, this time with John Lennon signing a copy of the single ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’/’Penny Lane’:

In the recent Martin Scorsese documentary on the life and times of George Harrison (called Living in the Material World) there’s a fantastic photograph featured of George holding up a copy of All Things Must Pass, his 1970 triple-LP box set. I remember sitting in the cinema watching the film and thinking “Hmmm. Must get that photograph and upload it to the Beatles with Records series!”

Well, Claude Defer found it and sent it in:

Finally, a fairly early publicity photograph of the Beatles in front of a display of some of their  releases, including A Hard Days Night, Please Please Me and With the Beatles:

If you have any other photographs you’d like to share please send them to: beatlesblogger@gmail.com

Oh, and I almost forgot…..of course there’s also this video of John and Yoko putting their Plastic Ono Band Live Peace in Toronto 1969 onto the turntable and playing it. It’s only the very first couple of seconds of this YouTube video – but it’s worth it.You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:

Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

For the Beatles Fan Who Has Everything?

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For a last-minute Christmas gift who could go past this really fine Beatles poster?

Too bad it’s sold out. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Originally released in the lead up to Christmas 2010, this has been re-printed again this year by popular demand. Only 250 copies were made though….

Visit artist Maxim Dalton’s site for more. I like his “Guitar Lessons” poster too.

New Beatles iTunes Promotional Video

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From the MacRumours site:

“Apple has posted a new TV ad on their YouTube page promoting the Beatles on iTunes. The ad is called “Covers” and shows off many of different album covers from The Beatles in an animated fashion. The ad ends with “The Beatles on iTunes”.

The Beatles first appeared on the iTunes store back in November 2010. The new TV ad seems part of another promotion announced earlier today of a free animated version of the band’s Yellow Submarine book as an exclusive on Apple’s iBookstore.”

Also, speaking of iTunes and the Beatles, Rolling Stone magazine has just released “Rolling Stone’s Beatles Album-by-Album Guide“, which is an interactive iPad app with the stories behind each LP, photos, statistics and reviews.  The iPad Insight blog has more. This title is also available in hard copy from news stands as a special edition of Rolling Stone magazine.

McCartney – The Love We Make

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This new McCartney feature film, made by Albert Mayles (of “The Beatles First US Visit” fame), is now out on BlueRay, on DVD, and as a digital download:

If you’d like to see this trailer in a larger format click here. And there are some short comments and further information on the film here.

Guitar World Magazine “Ultimate Beatles” Edition

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Guitar World magazine in the US has released a special holiday edition that focuses on the Beatles as guitarists. They are calling it their “ultimate guide” to the recordings, songs and gear of the band.

The issue is devoted to an in-depth examination of the Beatles 13 albums – from “Please Please Me” to “Let It Be” – and includes commentary culled from original interviews with producer George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick and Alan Parsons.  The magazine explores the Beatles through their musical instruments and the unique recording equipment inside EMI’s Abbey Road studios.

According to the press release I was sent by the magazine, each album is explored in detail – from the story behind its creation to the guitars and amps used in its making, for example the George Harrison Rickenbacker 360 12-string guitar used on “A Hard Day’s Night” and numerous other classic-era songs, as well as his custom-made rosewood Fender Telecaster, used during the making of  “Let It Be”. There’s also behind the scenes stories of selected tracks from each album including “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Ticket to Ride,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and others.

The Holiday 2011 issue of Guitar World is out now. To find out more visit the magazine’s website.

 

First Recordings – Beatles with Tony Sheridan

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Released this week in the USA  –  “The Beatles With Tony Sheridan: First Recordings 50th Anniversary Edition”, a new double CD package released by Time-Life Entertainment to mark the Fab Four’s 50th anniversary. :

This features tracks the band performed with singer Tony Sheridan as Polydor artists after the German bandleader and music executive Bert Kaempfert discovered them performing in Hamburg in 1961.

The CD’s come with a booklet full of rarely seen photographs taken by one-time Beatles guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe’s fiancee Astrid Kirchherr. It also has band contracts, poster art from their early shows and handwritten biographies by each member of the group.

The package was released on November 8. Looks like it comes in a nice gate-fold digipack:

Time-Life has a small website with a little bit more detail. And there’s some good information about these recordings here.

Beatles in “Rolling Stone – 1000 Covers”

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At work we have a pretty good library. I was in there the other day and on a shelf displaying their newly-purchased books I saw this nice little item:

Of course, it captured my attention, not only because this book celebrates one thousand covers of the famous “Rolling Stone” music magazine (one of my favourites over the years), but also because of the classic Annie Leibovitz cover photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken from the January 22, 1981 edition.

This book might have been new to our library, but it’s not a new publication. It actually came out back in 2006 and celebrates the publication of “Rolling Stone” over a span of almost four decades. From its humble beginnings in November 1967 to June 2006, making the cover of “Rolling Stone” meant something. And of course the Beatles (either as a group or as solo artists) feature more than a few times. This post features just a small selection of those covers.

I was surprised to learn in the book that John Lennon actually featured on the front cover of the very first “Rolling Stone” magazine ever – Volume 1, Number 1 – in a publicity shot from the 1967 film “How I Won The War“:

As you can see, back in the day “Rolling Stone” was more like a traditional newspaper.

Three years later the cover of the magazine had evolved somewhat and featured a solo Beatle in the form of Paul McCartney, who had just released his first, self-titled album “McCartney“:

In 1971 George Harrison had gathered together a fine coterie of musical friends to stage what would become the first big fund-raising concert of its kind, “The Concert for Bangladesh“, featuring Ringo Starr, members of Badfinger, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar, Klaus Voormann, and of course Bob Dylan – appearing live in concert for the first time in many years. Funds raised went to UNICEF to provide milk, blankets, clothes and food to millions of starving refugees:

The photograph of George above is another one by Annie Leibovitz. In the rear of the book there is an index of photographers and Leibovitz is by far the most credited single photographer with over 140 “Rolling Stone” cover shots to her name out of the one thousand featured.

In February 1984 “Rolling Stone” marked the twentieth anniversary of the Beatles with this special edition:

“He left this world as he lived in it: conscious of God, fearless of death and at peace….” [from a statement by Olivia and Dhani Harrison].

In January, 2002 “Rolling Stone” dedicated an issue to the life of George Harrison, who had passed away after a battle with throat, lung and brain cancer. Bob Dylan wrote of him, “He was a giant, a great, great soul, with all the humanity, all the wit and humor, all the wisdom, the spirituality, the common sense of a man and compassion for people.” :

2005 saw another Paul McCartney cover shot. This time the angle was “….a new album, new tour, new life – and nothing left to prove“. That new album was “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard“, produced by Nigel Godrich.

By my count the Beatles as a group or solo appeared some 27 times as the cover image/story of “Rolling Stone” magazine between 1967 and 2006.

“Rolling Stone – 1000 Covers” was published in 2006 by Abrams Books, New York.

For some other covers of “Rolling Stone” see also: The Lost Lennon Tapes;  Nine Copies of Rolling Stone;  Rolling Stone Names Its Top 100 Beatles Songs; and for the Australian cover variation of the “Top 100 Beatles Songs” click here.

Here Comes the Sun – New Guitar Solo

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There is a great little video from the deluxe materials included with the “Living in the Material World” DVD and BluRay sets. It features George Martin, Giles Martin and Dhani Harrison (George and Olivia’s son) filmed at the mixing desk listening back to the Beatles “Here Comes The Sun” – complete with a previously unheard guitar solo from the song which never made the final mix. Nice.