“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.
“From today (9 December) an exclusive Beatles “Yellow Submarine” book that lets readers tap their iPad, iPhone and iPod touch to immerse themselves in the legendary film’s colourful sights and sounds is available for free download at itunes.com/thebeatles. Featuring animated illustrations and text from the 2004 book, 14 full-colour video clips from the original 1968 film, audio clips of classic Beatles hits and Sir George Martin’s original score, plus original dialogue from the film. Actor Dean Lennox Kelly narrates the book which includes interactive features that let you tap the story’s wild array of butterflies, starfish and sea monsters to make them come alive.
The book, designed by Fiona Andreanelli, uses Heinz Edelmann’s original artwork from the film and its story has been adapted by Charlie Gardner from the film’s original screenplay, co-written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Eric Segal.
Inspired by The Beatles’ song of the same name, “Yellow Submarine” dives 80,000 leagues beneath the sea to Pepperland, a musical paradise where Sergeant Pepper’s band plays on until the music-hating Blue Meanies invade, sealing the band inside a music-proof bubble and leaving it a silent wasteland. But Old Fred, captain of the Yellow Submarine, escapes to Liverpool and persuades Ringo – with a little help from his friends John, Paul and George – to join him on a magical adventure to return music and love to Pepperland.”
On the Beatles site front page at the moment there’s a short promotional film about what you’ll get in the free download.
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.
Stumbled across yet another discount book this week. Not bad for A$5.95:
“The Mammoth Book of the Beatles” contains a LOT of information across its 594 pages.
This is a compilation book edited by Sean Egan who has gathered together more than 30 contemporary accounts, articles, and interviews about the Beatles (from Maureen Cleave’s “Beatles Bigger than Christ” feature, to their debunking in the News of the World just before the release of “Sgt Pepper”. Hmmm. Good timing News of the World. It was a dodgy newspaper back then, too). There are also latter-day memoirs and re-assessments. Contributors include Paul Gambaccini, Dave Marsh, Greil Marcus and Alan Clayson. There’s also a short section on the Beatles cartoon series – written by Mitch Axelrod (from the Fab Forum radio show and podcast). The book also includes reviews of each album and single release, interviews, and a comprehensive Beatles and solo Beatles UK discography.
Published by Constable and Robinson in the UK, and by Running Press in the US. I have the US paperback edition that came out in 2009.
There’s a pretty good review of the book here by blogger David Marx.
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.
On Friday 25 November, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States (called Black Friday), the Record Store Day people are making a whole load of special releases available for a limited time only to independent record store retailers.
This is not the same as the official Record Store Day – which stands as a special and separate day where independent record stores are encouraged and supported. On that day they also offer for sale a range of very special and limited vinyl record releases (see below for some previous Beatles-related issues).
The 2011 Black Friday event is a separate and additional day to do the same thing though – and artists, bands and many record companies have got behind it in a BIG way.
On Friday 25 November there will be two releases of interest to Beatles collectors. The first is a limited edition box set of four Beatles vinyl 45 singles, and the second is a 40th anniversary vinyl edition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” LP.
The Bull Moose record store in Portland, Maine has maintained a terrific up-to-date site detailing all the releases, including the two Beatles-related ones. They’ve also posted two lengthy videos highlighting some of the key releases for Black Friday, which includes collectors items from Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, the Doors, Miles Davis, Nirvana, and the Kings of Leon – to name just a few.
The special box set Beatles release is mentioned and detailed right at the beginning of Part Two of the store’s YouTube video and you can see that here:
For information about the Lennon LP re-issue you need to scroll in to about 6 minutes and 56 seconds of this Part Two video. Chris Brown from Bull Moose shows the box set of John Lennon’s “Imagine” re-issue. As you can see, it has a unique cover image:
Both these items will be strictly limited and released on Friday 25 November.
Previous Record Store Day Beatles or Beatles-related limited editions include the Beatles“Paperback Writer” single, George Harrison’s“All Things Must Pass” triple LP, and the John Lennon“Singles Bag”, all of which are really nice limited edition collectors items now.
You can find more details about the Black Friday releases at the official site here.
In the city the other day I stumbled upon this box of Beatles books:
It gathers together four books by respected British Beatles historian and writer Alan Clayson. Collectively it’s called “The Beatles Box”, and contains four individual books on each member of the group. There’s one on John Lennon (which was originally published in 2003):
One on Paul McCartney (also originally published in 2003):
One on George Harrison (originally published in 1996 as “The Quiet One: A Life of George Harrison”, but updated here in 2003):
And one on Ringo Starr (originally published in 1996 as “Ringo Starr: Straight Man or Joker?”, but also updated here in 2003):
This box of books is nicely designed. The covers are all complementary and the book spines line up when they are placed side-by-side in the box, with photos of each looking out:
“The Beatles Box” is published by Sanctuary Publishing. Alan Clayson is also a musician and has his own website.
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.
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.
Some folks have been posting more information and pictures at the Steve Hoffman Music Forums – worth checking out for Beatles information and updates from time-to-time.
Someone put up a photo of the way the boxed sets are displayed in the store – usually at the end of an aisle like this:
As my copies are sealed and will probably stay that way I was interested to see some label images of the records inside:
Just a quick reminder about what we are talking about here:
And here are the copyright and other details on the bottom of one of the boxes – which I forgot to include on my earlier post. This one is for “Hello Goodbye”:
(If you’d like to see this slightly larger just click on the image above).
Beatles Blog 