We don’t usually post Beatle cover version videos. But this one, from a guy named Cody Senn, is great – and well worth making an exception. Let us know what you think:
Here Comes the Sun – Instrumental Cover Version
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Category Archives: Beatles
Beatles Live in New York Tape for Auction
Cordier Auctions in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania will be offering something of a rarity today.
In amongst the jewelry, the pottery and the decorative arts is a reel-to-reel recording of The Beatles, live in concert at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, New York on August 29, 1964:
After the concert this tape recording was a prize offered to listeners by a New York radio station (probably WMCA – their “Good Guy” disc jockeys were the MC’s at the gig). It was won by the person now offering it up for sale and it includes twelve tracks. Details of the contents of the tape and the auction can be found here.
The auction house has also put up a link to a digital recording of the reel-to-reel tape. (To hear it, scroll to the bottom of the page. You’ll need to use a Firefox browser, or have a RealPlayer plugin installed).
Or you can listen here:
If you are interested you’ll need to be quick. The auction is being held today, Saturday, August 13. You can bid online.
The Beatles Decca Tapes on Doxy Detailed
If you are into collecting Russian Beatle and Beatle-related releases, then you can’t go past the amazing beatlesvinyl.com.ua which has to be the most comprehensive reference site for such items.
They are absolutely thorough and detailed in their cataloguing and descriptions, with great photographs to illustrate the many variations out there.
The latest LP to get the treatment has been out for for a while now, but it’s good to finally have it listed on the beatlesvinyl.com.ua site.
It’s the Russian, Doxy Records edition of The Beatles Decca Tapes.
Here’s the front cover:
And the rear:
And the label:
Thanks to Beatles Blog friend Andrey for sending through the information on this new posting to the site.
A Beatle Music Book – and a McCartney CD
Went browsing at an opportunity shop (or “thrift store” if you are in the USA) and found two items of interest.
The first is a sheet music collection of great Beatle tunes called The Beatles Rock Score:
There are some good photos inside on the lead-in pages:
As you can see from the images above, the book contains the music for twelve songs, scored for small groups:
The book is part of a series, with other titles covering The Rolling Stones, The Doors, AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Sting and U2 to name just a few. These are listed on the rear cover:
The other find is of only mild interest, but at only $2.00 who could resist?
It’s Paul McCartney’s 1987 release All The Best!, only this time the CD was manufactured in a country that now no longer exists – West Germany:
A closer look at the small print:
We already have this CD as an Australian release, and also a US version. That’s because in each country these CDs have different running orders and song selections. See here for the background on that.
Ringo LP’s – Times Two
Friday Music and Sony have just re-issued a special, limited edition, green translucent vinyl pressing of the 1992 Ringo Starr release, Time Takes Time:
This edition comes in a gatefold sleeve. (And BTW for the absolute completists out there, there’s also a red vinyl pressing exclusive to the Collectors’ Choice Vinyl store!)
We also took the opportunity to grab a copy of his most recent release on vinyl as well. Postcards From Paradise was released last year. We already had it on CD…..but it’s nice to now have it in the collection on LP too:
Cool Beatle Art Prints
We’ve just come across a young British artist who does a cool range of Beatle art.
His name is Jay Kelly and he’s recently put out three new Beatles/music collections: Beatles pop art, a Lennon collection, and a sketch collection.
The series we love most are these four Pop Art images:
Good, huh?
Based in Dorset, England, Kelly is a home-schooled and self-taught artist. He’s a graduate of the London Art College with a Diploma of Distinction completed in under seven months at the age of only 15. He is a fan of the 1960s, especially The Beatles.
“I always liked to draw, but got into art more seriously at the age of 13,” says Kelly. “I discovered The Beatles about a year before that when I saw a tribute band play while on holiday. You could say they changed my life, particularly John Lennon.”
“I used to draw only cartoons and caricatures, but The Beatles inspired me to do more than that,” he continues. “I love drawing and painting musicians, and I’m constantly trying to perfect my craft.”
Jay’s works across a range of media including acrylics on canvas, hand-drawn illustrations, caricature, portraiture, graphic design, and acrylic paintings on guitars. His latest works are a collection of pop art canvases featuring various 1960-70s music icons including John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Elton John, as well as a line art collection featuring Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie.
Jay Kelly’s art is for sale online, and he also takes specific requests. You can connect with him on:
Twitter: @jaykelly_ART
Facebook: Jay Kelly Art
George Harrison – The Stories Behind the Albums
We just had an email from Universal Music alerting us that the George Harrison page on their site has some new content.
Every week, music writer Richard Havers will review each of the fourteen Harrison solo albums and tell the stories behind them. Each review will contain audio streams of the album (Spotify and Deezer), quotes, insights and soundbites.
So far they have up there: Wonderwall Music; Electronic Sound; All Things Must Pass; The Concert for Bangladesh; and Living in the Material World.
More on The Beatles: Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Apple and Universal Music have now officially announced details of the expanded and newly remixed version of The Beatles’ 1977 live album At The Hollywood Bowl.
The new release will be known as The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl, and it is directly sourced from the original three track tapes of the concerts. Producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell have remixed and mastered the recordings at Abbey Road Studios. The album will include the thirteen tracks from the original album produced by George Martin, plus four bonus tracks – 3 of which are previously unreleased recordings from the concerts. Those tracks are: ‘You Can’t Do That’ and ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ (both from 23 August, 1964) and ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’ and ‘Baby’s in Black’ (both from 30 August, 1965).
Giles Martin gave this background:
“A few years ago Capitol Studios called saying they’d discovered some Hollywood Bowl three track tapes in their archive. We transferred them and noticed an improvement over the tapes we’ve kept in the London archive. Alongside this I’d been working for some time with a team headed by technical engineer James Clarke on demix technology, the ability to remove and separate sounds from a single track.
With Sam Okell, I started work on remixing the Hollywood Bowl tapes. Technology has moved on since my father worked on the material all those years ago. Now there’s improved clarity, and so the immediacy and visceral excitement can be heard like never before. What we hear now is the raw energy of four lads playing together to a crowd that loved them. This is the closest you can get to being at the Hollywood Bowl at the height of Beatlemania. We hope you enjoy the show…”
Live at the Hollywood Bowl will include a 24-page booklet with an essay by music journalist David Fricke, and will be issued on CD on 9 September and as a gatefold double vinyl LP on 18 November 2016.
Read more at Rolling Stone and Billboard magazines.
Beatles “Live at the Hollywood Bowl” to be Re-issued
Looks like the Beatles At the Hollywood Bowl is to be re-issued as part of the release program surrounding the new Ron Howard film Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years, due out in September.
One change from the original is the title. It becomes Live at the Hollywood Bowl, and rumour has it that there will be four additional tracks included, though it’s not clear exactly what these will be. Two of the songs will most likely be ‘Baby’s in Black’, which has previously been issued as the b-side of the 1996 ‘Real Love’ single, and ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, part of which appears in Love, the Cirque du Soleil Beatles stage production and which appears on the 2006 Love album.
The US Amazon site has the CD only (so far) listed for pre-order, saying the release date is September 9. No images of the packaging are available yet. This will be the first time this album has been officially issued on CD.
UPDATE: Amazon have now added an image. If this is the actual item it is disappointing. While this artwork works as a movie poster, it’s not a classic Beatle album cover by any means.
They’ve also added info about a vinyl release too. It’s due on November 18.
Looking at the cover it seems to indicate that a Hollywood Bowl reissue may be the only release that will be associated with the new film, which is also disappointing if that’s the case. We await further news.
New Klaus Voormann Book – Revolver 50
Klaus Voormann has a new book due for release in the first week of August called Birth of an Icon – Revolver 50.
It celebrates the background story to his now classic front cover design for the Beatles Revolver LP, released on the 5th of August, 1966.
His book, done in a graphic novel style, tells the story from his perspective as a musician and artist who was called by upon by the Beatles, then nearing the height of their fame, to come up with something special, something new, different and lasting.To say he was put under pressure is something of an understatement.
It looks like it’d be a really interesting read.
Pre-orders for The Birth of an Icon – Revolver 50, which will be hand-signed by Klaus Voormann, have a pre-sale price 46 Euro (+ shipping & handling costs).
“…it is good for me to see the other side of a story I know so well and to realize aspects like the sheer panic that Klaus must have felt at being asked to do our album cover. In the end, the Revolver cover was a classic and this book is another.” – Sir Paul McCartney
“…your Revolver book – it brought back such great memories – even farther back than Revolver…I hope it sells a million copies!…the Revolver cover was incredible and perfect for that album.” – Ringo Starr
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