Category Archives: John Lennon

The Beatles With Records – Part Five

Posted on by
6

The Beatles have sold millions and millions of them – but there are relatively few photographs where they’re seen actually holding LP’s, singles and CD’s.

We’ve uncovered a few though in this series (you can see all the original blog posts here:  Part One; Part Two; Part Three; and Part Four). People are still sending in photos from their own collections, and so here is Part Five. Most of the photos below come from French Beatles collector and author Claude Defer. The first is John Lennon holding up the French “Ticket to Ride” EP.  Claude tells me that this photograph is from the cover of a French record collectors magazine called “Jukebox”. The picture was taken in June, 1965 when the Beatles gave two shows in Paris at the Palais des Sports:

Immediately behind “Ticket to Ride” I think you can just see another French Beatles EP called “Eight Days A Week”. Here’s the cover of that one:

Here’s another Beatles EP (or Extended Play), this time it’s George and John with a copy of the UK version of “Twist and Shout”.  In the UK, “Twist and Shout” was released in 1963 by Parlophone with three other tracks, “Do You Want to Know a Secret”, “A Taste of Honey”, and “There’s a Place”, from the Please Please Me album. Both the EP and album reached No. 1 :

From what must have been around the same time as the photograph above (mid-1963) comes this next photo:

It’s the Beatles with the group called Gerry and the Pacemakers at what appears to be celebratory drinks. Perhaps it was taken in April/May, 1963 when Gerry and the Pacemakers had a number one hit in the UK with “How Do You Do It?”, which came out on the Columbia label and was produced by Beatles producer, George Martin. That song was knocked from its top chart spot in May by the Beatles with “From Me to You”. It came out on Parlophone and was of course also produced by George Martin. It’s a bit difficult to tell from the photograph, but maybe band leader Gerry Marsden is holding up a copy of “How Do You Do It?”, and John is holding a copy of the new number one, “From Me to You”:

Beatles manager Brian Epstein features in previous posts pictured with Beatles records. Claude Defer sent through these next two. The first is Brian looking through a pile of what look like acetates or “test” pressings:

Wow. If some of those are Beatles test pressings (and no doubt they are) then they’d be real collectors items now! The other shot of Brian has him with a copy of “Help!” from 1965:

In 1966 the Rolling Stones released their LP “Aftermath”. Clearly the Beatles were keen to get a hold of it as soon as they could:

The caption says: “The Beatles always took a close interest in the new releases by the other top groups. Neil Aspinall (their road manager) had made a special trip to get hold of “Aftermath”, the new album by the Rolling Stones, and “Bo Dudley”, the single by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore”.

Cook and Moore were a popular British comedy act and “Bo Dudley” was the B-side to their 1966 single “Aint She a Sweetie” on the Decca label:

A year later (1967) the Beatles released “Magical Mystery Tour”. In the UK it came out as a film for TV, and also as a double EP. Here’s John signing a copy for a fan:

Not strictly the Beatles with records, but the lovely Patti Boyd who became a Beatle wife. She had a a very successful career as a model and here she is in a photo shoot featuring some of the work of her future husband, George Harrison:

Three Beatles albums are seen in the shot: “Please Please Me”, “With the Beatles”, and in her hand, “A Hard Days Night”:

John and Yoko posed for some photographs to publicise their new records in 1970. We had a couple of these in The Beatles with Records Part 2. Here’s one more, this time a picture of John and Yoko with their Plastic Ono Band LP’s. According to Claude Defer the man between them is Pete Bennett, Apple Records US promotions manager.  John had just released “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band”, and Yoko had “Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band”.  Both titles were released simultaneously. The front covers were almost identical, but the rear artwork of Yoko’s album showed her as a young girl, while John’s showed him as a young boy:

The Lennon’s have also been photographed with an earlier release, “The Wedding Album”. It was a lavish box set celebrating their union in 1969 and contained amongst other things an LP, a wedding photo album, a picture of a slice of the wedding cake and, as you can see here, a copy of the marriage certificate pasted inside the lid of the box containing all the other goodies:

Finally, a more recent photograph – this time another of Paul McCartney out publicising his alter-ego The Fireman and a recording from 2008 called “Electric Arguments”. You can see a full report on this release here. Paul is photographed holding (upside down) the CD version, while one fan behind him holds the vinyl version, and another (on the left) is reaching for a vinyl copy of “Sgt Pepper”:

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos.

You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:  Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

The Beatles with Records – Part Four

Posted on by
8

Earlier posts about the Beatles actually being photographed holding either their own records or those of other artists have generated a lot of interest. People are sending in more photos from their own collections and so its time to do a Part Four.

(You can see the original blog posts here:  Part One; Part Two; and Part Three.)

This first one is not exactly the Beatles themselves holding records, but William sent in this great shot of ladies on the EMI Records factory floor packing stacks and stacks of copies of “Rubber Soul”. Its from 1965:

I reckon that is a beauty. Speaking of “Rubber Soul”, Claude Defer in France sent this great photo of Paul McCartney with a copy of that LP – you can see the rear cover of “Rubber Soul” in this shot:

Claude also sent in this more recent one of Paul, this time with his 1997 LP “Flaming Pie”:

Thanks Claude! (Claude Defer by the way is a prolific Beatles collector and expert and he has released a book in France, with his co-writer Hervé Boudaillez, about the Beatles French Discography, from 1971 following the split of the Fab’s until the last vinyl record manufactured in France. The text of the book is in French, and Volume One (which deals with the 45 rpm releases) has 200 pages, including more than 1,000 pictures (sleeves and discs, with details):

Back to the Beatles with Records – Part Four…and some more Paul McCartney, this time with Mary Hopkin in 1969 with a copy of the LP he produced for her, “Postcard”:

I also found this McCartney one. It’s Paul at the HMV store in London for the 2008 release of “Electric Arguments”, a collaboration with Youth released under the pseudonym The Fireman (more on the Super Deluxe edition of this album soon). Here he’s holding the double vinyl LP pressing:

This next one comes from Canadian Jerry Levitan, author of a great little book called “I Met the Walrus“, which details John and Yoko’s visit to the city of Toronto in 1969 and an extended personal brush with fame he had with the couple. He took this photograph of John Lennon signing and drawing a caricature of himself and Yoko for Jerry on the cover of the “Two Virgins” album:

 

And finally to another one of John, taken on the publicity campaign trail in 1971 for his single “Power to the People”:

To see more Beatles with Records see: Parts 1, 2, 3, 5 , 6, 7 , 8 and 9.

Lennon Revealed – Book

Posted on by
1

I was able to drop into a local second-hand book and record fair this week and picked up a couple of things. One of them was this book by Larry Kane about John Lennon:

“Lennon Revealed” came out in 2005.

Larry Kane is an award-winning journalist with a career that spans more than 45 years. From that 45 years in the business he says the thing that stands out most—and the thing people ask him about most often—is his adventure as the only American journalist to travel in the official Beatles entourage during the legendary 1964 and 1965 tours of North America. Kane told that story in his previous book: “Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles’ 1964 Tour that Changed the World“.  In “Lennon Revealed” he digs deeper to give his take on story of John Lennon.

The book has a website with a variety of features so you can delve more into what it’s about, including this extract which will give you an idea of the flavour and approach taken in “Lennon Revealed”.  I haven’t had time to read the book yet – but there’s a pretty good review here, and author Larry Kane promotes his book in a couple of online videos here.

Searching on the web I found the cover photograph for the audio book of this same title and it has a different image. Clearly taken during the same photo session as that of the book I include it below because its such a good one of a happy John Lennon:

Included with the book (and with the audio book edition) is a bonus DVD. It features Larry Kane being interviewed by Andre Gardner (host of the radio show “Breakfast with the Beatles”); the full footage of John and Paul’s last filmed interview together conducted by Larry Kane (part of which was seen in the “Beatles Anthology” and the “Imagine: John Lennon” film); and a clip of the legendary 1975 “Lennon weather report” from “Action News” in Philadelphia:

The Beatles and Why Music Matters

Posted on by
Reply

The Beatles are up for the fight against music pirates. The surviving members of the band, and the estates of the late members, have pledged support for the anti-piracy campaign Music Matters by sanctioning a special animated short film featuring a selection of original Beatles music.

You may have seen this already (it’s been out for about a week now), but its so cute and catchy I’m adding the Beatles film below.
 
An eclectic range of recording artists are featured in this new online campaign. The Music Matters group describe themselves as “a collective of artists and people from across the industry, which has formed to remind music fans of the significance and value of music.” The group works to promote legal digital music and have posted a series of great little animated videos featuring the music of some big hitters including: The Beatles, Elbow, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and Sigur Ros – to name just a few on the international site. There’s also an Australia/New Zealand sitewith a much smaller selection of videos using the music of Nick Cave, Eskimo Joe, Dave Dobyn and others. The Beatles’ film was animated and directed by Lee Gingold. According to Paul McCartney’s website, “The film focuses on the message that music is a shared experience and as such brings us all together, and for him that’s why music matters.”
 

The Beatles With Records – Part Two

Posted on by
10

Since my earlier post about the Beatles being photographed actually holding the things they sold so many of – LP and single records – a few more photos have come to light. This first one is a very early publicity shot of the band with a copy of their very first album for Parlophone Records – from 1963 “Please Please Me“:

Trawling the web I came across a great photo of an obviously happy Ringo Starr with a pile of LPs and singles:

Here you can clearly see Ringo holding the Motown Record “Little Stevie Wonder – The 12 Year Old Genius” (from 1963):

He’s also got a copy of The Shirelles “Foolish Little Girl“, which again dates from 1963 leading to the conclusion that this photograph was taken in that year. The record is lying down, just near Ringo’s left hand:

And on top of that LP are a couple of 45 rpm singles. Its impossible to make out the title of the one we can see, but you can clearly make out the distinctive red and white label of Top Rank records. I wonder if it’s also The Shirelles? In Britain they were released on Top Rank – so it could very possibly be a copy of  “Baby Its You“, a song the Shirelles recorded in 1961 and which the Beatles themselves covered on “Please Please Me“:

I’ve also found  a photograph of Ringo with wife Maureen. They’re sitting at home in a flat they rented for some time in London’s Montague Square. Behind Ringo you can see on the shelf quite a large collection of LP’s, and if I’m nor mistaken Maureen is sitting on what, for the times, would have been quite a sophisticated “radiogram” or record player:

Here’s another of Ringo, once again with Maureen, clutching a copy of the Beatles “Yellow Submarine” LP:

I had a  a photo sent to me after the earlier blog post. It’s Paul with a copy of 1965’s “Rubber Soul“:

George Harrison features on the web photographed with records, some with easily identifiable discs and some not. This one is pretty easy to see. Its a lucky fan getting an autographed copy of “Help“:

Here’s George again, this time a shot taken in what looks to be the Apple offices. It’s him holding a copy of his second solo outing “Electronic Sound“, released on the Zapple label:

You can clearly see the rear artwork for the LP in the photo above. Below is a shot of the back cover of the LP:

And here’s another one of George again signing albums, but this time its very difficult to see just what they are:

In 1970 John and Yoko posed for some photographs to publicise their new records. John had “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band”, and Yoko had “Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band”. Both titles, on Apple Records, were released simultaneously. The front covers were almost identical, but the rear artwork of Yoko’s album showed her as a young girl, while John’s showed him as a young boy:

In the photo is also “The Wedding Album” box set, which came out in 1969. The photo below is taken at the same session:

As I said, the front cover artwork of these two LP’s is difficult to tell apart. “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” has John leaning against Yoko:

While “Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band” has Yoko leaning against John:

Very subtle.

Finally, a photograph of Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein. He’s holding a copy of the controversial 1966 US Capitol Records release “Yesterday and Today“. This is the famous “Butcher Cover” LP. Maybe he’s contemplating the new photograph that Capitol was forced to paste over all the original issues of the album:

This is the more acceptable “trunk” cover shot that Capitol put on over the top of the original artwork:

And this is what it replaced:

The interesting thing about the Epstein photograph is that what he is holding appears to be an early mock-up of the replacement artwork. If you look closely there is no song list at the top and the font for the words “Yesterday and Today” is different to that used on the final version. Interesting.

Don’t forget, if you have any other photographs of the Beatles actually listening to or holding singles or LP’s you can send them to me at:  beatlesblogger@gmail.com

You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:  Parts 1, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7 , 8, 9 , 10 , 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

Thinking About Abbey Road Studios at 80

Posted on by
3

I stumbled today upon an article on (of all places) the computer/gadget specialist site CNet. It is about the famed EMI Abbey Road studios in St. John’s Wood, London – the site of so much fantastic recorded music including just about all the songs recorded, in one way or another, by the Beatles. The studios have just turned 80 years old and it got me thinking about what an important role this particular pile of bricks and mortar on a nondescript street has played in the history of popular and classical music – not the least of which is the music of the the Beatles.

If George Martin is often referred to as “the fifth Beatle” then surely Abbey Road could be regarded as one of the instruments they played – with as much importance to the Beatles sound as the Gibson acoustics, the Gretsch and Epiphone electrics, the Ludwig drums, and the famous Hofner bass.

The CNet article has some very interesting observations made during a recent tour of the famous building and it’s numerous rooms – so many of which are associated with Beatles tracks. You have got to scroll through the thirty photographs taken during CNet’s visit. Its a terrific tour with some great shots for both Beatles fans and technical nerds alike.

The studio itself has a website which is worth a visit every now and again to catch up on their news – one of the latest of which is the remastering of the Beatles “Anthology” series for digital download.

So much happened at this one address – including the Beatles themselves honoring their home-away-from-home with an album bearing the studio’s name.

Abbey Road photo session - August 8, 1969

Then there was the heritage listing for that famous zebra crossing out the front….and the zebra crossing web cam, now complete with live street sounds. Its no longer in exactly the same spot as the photo on the front of the “Abbey Road” album having been moved down the road a bit from the studios – but countless fans still come each day, month, and year to be photographed striding across it.

Happy 80th birthday Abbey Road Studios. Here’s to 80 more years.

The Beatles With Records

Posted on by
9

Despite selling multi, multi-millions of the things, it’s kind of strange that you hardly ever see photographs of the Beatles themselves with, or listening to, records.

Here are a couple I’ve found:

A very early shot of John using an old record player

A much later shot of John listening intently to a range of singles

There is of course the well known launch of “Sgt Pepper”, when lots of photographs were taken inside Brian Epstein’s house with the four holding copies of their latest masterpiece:

A colour shot of the Sgt Pepper launch

The gatefold photograph displayed with pride

Did Linda Eastman (later McCartney) take any of these? She was there….

Given their fame the Beatles would have found it difficult to get out to shop for music like you and me – and this photo clearly shows John and Paul opening a box of LP’s that have been purchased for them. And don’t they look pleased to have some new titles to listen to?

A new box of albums

You can clearly see “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, and underneath that Ben E. King’s “Don’t Play that Song!” LP:

If you have any other photographs of the Beatles actually listening to, or with singles or LPs, send them to:  beatlesblogger@gmail.com

You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:  Parts 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7 , 8, 9 , 10 , 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

The Beatles Forever

Posted on by
4


Nicholas Schaffner wrote this book in 1977, and I gather from what I’m reading on the web that it was, in it’s time, something of a Beatles “bible” for readers back then. So far this book has eluded me – so its good to have an original paperback copy now in the collection.

“The Beatles Forever” has subsequently been reprinted numerous times and the current cover looks like this. But the copy I found last weekend in an old-wares/antiques/records and second-hand book shop has the original cover above. This is a paperback copy.

It is genuinely one of the first really comprehensive survey’s of the band’s output in terms of their record releases, rarities and memorabilia – all accompanied by fairly detailed text describing the history of the Beatles and giving the context in which records were released and the collectable nature of a wide range of Beatles items. There are extensive photographs of the band as well as photos of albums, singles and memorabilia – but all in black and white. I won’t go into a detailed analysis of the contents because this has already been done by a range of writers who have reviewed and critiqued “The Beatles Forever”. Probably the most comprehensive is by Donald Sauter – who has written extensively on his Beatles collection and reminiscences from his youth. His article also contains a small selection of the many photos from the book. There is another interesting page on the book here.

Its a handy reference book to have in the collection – even though it came out more than 30 years ago. It still has lots of information and insights.

Lennon Legend Book

Posted on by
2

After a long time searching, I’ve finally got hold of a second-hand copy of Lennon Legend – An Illustrated Life of John Lennon, a book by James Henke (and designer Katie LeClerq) which first came out back in 2003. This is one of those books that you can literally delve in and out of at will because as well as lots of text and photos about the life and times of John Lennon it also has a broad selection of replica memorabilia scattered throughout its pages. These are tucked away in little holders and pockets. For example hand-written lyric sheets like this one for ‘In My Life’ from the Rubber Soul album of 1965:

In this regard, this book is very similar to Treasures of the Beatles, which we wrote about here. However, this book is of higher quality in it’s attention to detail.

Lennon Legend traces John’s life from the early days in Liverpool and has reproductions of a little school magazine he produced (called “The Daily Howl” from 1950) and a Christmas, 1955 report card from Quarry Bank High School when Lennon was aged 15 years and 2 months old:

You may be able to make out above that in English J. W.Lennon is “….capable of good work and has done quite well”, in Geography “…he is undoubtedly trying harder in his new form. Hope he keeps it up”, but in French John’s results are disappointing: “He is so fond of obtaining a cheap laugh in class that he has little time left for serious contribution.”  John’s headmaster notes (in red) “The best report he has had for a long time. I hope this means that he has turned over a new leaf.”

As the Beatles become better known the memorabilia in the book reflects their journey. There’s a little Cavern Club membership booklet from 1964, which contains this advice to patrons: “IMPORTANT Handbags, coats, shoes, hats, umbrellas etc. must NOT be left lying around the Club UNDER SEATS, in the toilets….or anywhere where you cannot look after them. Your property is your responsibility. USE THE CLOAKROOMS!“:

You get a set of miniature movie posters for A Hard Day’s Night, and a replica of an original ticket to the film’s Royal World Premiere at the London Pavilion:

Moving on to when John and Yoko were in the thick of their peace campaign (combined with art “events”), on one page of the book in a small pocket there’s a small card tag (below). In July, 1968 one of these was attached to a helium-filled balloon (and there were 365 of them), and released into the skies over London to promote John’s first art exhibition called You Are Here:

In a similar vein is a replica sheet – a typed Declaration from 1973 (note the date of April 1st) of the establishment by John and Yoko of an imaginary country called Nutopia:

Along with the Declaration you get a miniature Nutopian national flag – which is simply an all-white piece of cloth with no colours or emblems…

Lennon Legend also comes with a CD containing 60 minutes of interviews and music. Here’s one of the interviews. John is on radio station WNEW on September 28, 1974. (WNEW was an AM station located in New York, but changed its call sign to WBBR in 1992). In this extract he’s talking about the Beatles:

The CD also contains a live version of the song ‘Imagine’, recorded on the long-running US daytime TV talk show hosted by Mike Douglas. John and Yoko co-hosted the show for a week in February 1972. You can listen to that version of ‘Imagine’ here:

The book takes the Lennon history up to Double Fantasy, and of course his tragic murder.

This is just a small taste of the content inside. Lennon Legend – An Illustrated Life of John Lennon by James Henke comes in a hard cardboard slipcase and was published by Chronicle Books in 2003.

See also: “Treasures of the Beatles” here and here.

Previously Unseen Beatles Photographs

Posted on by
1

The fine art auctioneers Christie’s in New York will next month auction some pretty impressive and previously unseen Beatles photographs from 1964.

They come from a collection of photos of the group shot by photographer Mike Mitchell. At age 18 he was at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C. for the Beatle’s first US concert, two days after their historic Ed Sullivan appearance.

Christie’s is calling the event “The Beatles Illuminated: The Discovered Works of Mike Mitchell“. Their website says it’s:

“….a sale comprised of nearly 50 lots of unpublished and never-before-seen photographs of the Beatles’ first hysteria-inducing visits to America in 1964. Shot in black and white by photographer Mike Mitchell when he was just 18 years old, the images have been filed away for nearly fifty years. The complete rediscovered collection is expected to realize in the region of $100,000.

Over eight thousand fans packed into the Washington Coliseum on February 11th, 1964 and they were treated to the Beatles at their very best. The Washington Coliseum was not only their first American concert but also by far the largest venue in which the Beatles had ever played. Its unique setup – it was often used for boxing matches – meant that the Beatles were surrounded on all sides by an adoring, cheering audience. The Beatles were clearly delighted and having a great time on stage, sharing all of the enthusiasm of the crowd. Here they were, performing in America, the land of their musical heroes and cultural icons, the home of Elvis and Chuck Berry – who’s “Roll Over Beethoven” was chosen by the Beatles to begin the show – and Little Richard, who’s “Long Tall Sally” was chosen to end it. The concert given at the Washington Coliseum was part of a defining moment in the Beatles’ career, and it remains both an important event and a notable place in their story. And Mike Mitchell was there to capture it.”

Yahoo has quite a nice photo gallery here. There’s an absolute ripper shot of Ringo in full flight and absolutley enjoying himself: