Version Variations You Didn’t Know About

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Collecting Beatles recordings is sometimes a confusing business. You think you’ve got a particular CD or LP and then you find out (sometimes years later) that there’s a different version or variation available. That’s what happened to me while surfing the web the other day.

I’ve had for many years a vinyl copy of Paul McCartney’s “All The Best”, which is a two LP “best of” set featuring his greatest solo and Wings hits. It came out in 1987.  This vinyl edition has 20 tracks. The cover is a gate-fold looks like this:

Then, about 12 months ago I was browsing a second-hand book and CD sale in Sydney and found the CD of this same title. It was an Australian pressing (which is the same as the UK release) but I discovered it only has 17 tracks – as opposed to the 20 tracks on the double LP. It misses out on “Maybe I’m Amazed”, “Goodnight Tonight” and “With A Little Luck”. The CD was only $4.00 and so I figured I might as well get it. It’s different to the LP, and it has a slightly different cover:

OK.  So, as far as the collection goes I figure I’ve pretty much got this album. No need to bother with any other copies….

Until the other day when I accidentally notice on the web that the US compact disc version has a slightly different cover again…..and that it has a different song running order as well:

On the UK (and Australian) versions of the CD (released on EMI/Parlophone) you get “We All Stand Together”, “Mull of Kintyre”, “Pipes of Peace” and “Once Upon a Long Ago”.

On the US CD (out on Capitol Records) those songs are deleted and replaced with “Junior’s Farm”, “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, “Goodnight Tonight” and “With A Little Luck”.  All the other songs are the same.

That got me thinking. Are there any other examples of this sort of thing out there?

One that immediately came to mind is the 2002 and 2003 versions of the McCartney double live CD’s “Back in the US” and “Back in the World”.

They have very subtle cover changes both front and rear:

A cursory look down the song lists for each would suggest that they’re exactly the same CD just with a slightly different title, but in fact they are different too.

“Back in the US” (released to the US market in 2002) gets the songs “Vanilla Sky”, “C’Moon” and “Freedom”.  However, those songs don’t appear at all on “Back in the World” (released in the UK in 2003). Instead it gets “Calico Skies”, “Michelle”, “Let ‘Em In” and “She’s Leaving Home”. Otherwise, all the other songs are the same – and in roughly the same running order.

Do you know of any further examples of this sort of thing? Let us know.

“New” Yellow Submarine?

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You’re no doubt aware that there’s a BluRay and DVD re-issue of “Yellow Submarine” due in May. There’ll also be a re-issue of the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” CD too.

But what will we actually get that is really “new”?

The Beatles site says (quote):  “Bonus features for the Yellow Submarine DVD and Blu-ray include a short making-of documentary titled “Mod Odyssey”, the film’s original theatrical trailer, audio commentary by producer John Coates and art director Heinz Edelmann, several brief interview clips with others involved with the film, storyboard sequences, 29 original pencil drawings and 30 behind-the-scenes photos. Both Digipak packages will include reproductions of animation cels from the film, collectible stickers, and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios)”.

That got me thinking, and so I got down off the shelf my 1999 edition of the DVD. This was issued at the same time as the newly digitally remastered “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” CD first came out. The cover looks like this:

Listed on the back in that yellow box breakout are the Special Features. They are: a short making-of documentary titled “Mod Odyssey”, the film’s original theatrical trailer, full length audio commentary, interviews with crew and vocal talents, storyboard sequences (including two not used in the original film), original pencil drawings, behind-the-scenes photos, a collectible booklet, and a music-only track highlighting the film’s score.

So, this new addition coming in May adds what exactly? I figure it’s the “….reproductions of animation cels from the film, collectible stickers, and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter”.

And that’s it.

Apart from the individually hand-cleaned, frame by frame digitisation – which I’m sure is going to look fantastic – there’s not a real lot else I’m afraid.

I’ll probably get the BluRay (the complete-ist in me will have to have it), but I just wish Apple Corps and the remaining Beatles would stop forcing us to re-purchase stuff we already have and re-issue some genuinely new material.

What do you think?

The Beatles Through the Years

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I know this is old, but it’s nice:

McCartney and Jack McCoy’s New Surf Film

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When Paul McCartney re-issued “McCartney II” last year one of the bonus tracks on the 2 CD Edition set (and as audio and video versions in the Deluxe Edition book), was the previously un-released song “Blue Sway”. See track 1 on CD 2 for the details:

(click on the image to enlarge)

Its a great song and I wrote about this at the time because there was a fantastic YouTube video featuring “Blue Sway” doing the rounds at the time. The song, it turned out, had been officially licensed to accompany one of the amazing sequences from a forthcoming Jack McCoy surfing film called “A Deeper Shade of Blue”:

Well, after being well-received overseas the film is now about to get its first theatrical release in Australia – and its causing a round of renewed interest here:

While Jack McCoy is US-born he’s considered a local in Australia because he lives in one of Sydney’s northern beaches suburbs. Last week Jack was interviewed on Australian radio by Fran Kelly about “A Deeper Shade of Blue”. Click here for a link to ABC Radio National and have a listen – Jack talks about Paul McCartney’s substantial interest and involvement in the the film at about 4 minutes in.

Beatlesblogger – New Domain Name and More…

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You might have noticed that we’ve now got a new domain name. It’s much more simple. All you need to remember is:

beatlesblogger.com

Don’t worry if you have beatlesblogger.wordpress.com in your bookmarks because it will automatically redirect.

We’re also on Twitter. Just search for beatleblogger  (note there is no “s”, just beatleblogger).

And we have a Google+ account called the beatlesblogger

Our email is still beatlesblogger@gmail.com  Please feel free to get in touch.

And we have a QR Code (just in case you want to copy and paste it somewhere). It looks like this:

The White Book

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Got this one second-hand on Ebay – and it looks like a really good read.

Ken Mansfield was a Capitol Records executive and an insider in the Beatles camp. He had a unique insight into the way the band worked, the absolute power they wielded in the music business, and the causes behind their ultimate demise. His book is called “The White Book”, and it carries the subtitle “The Beatles, the Bands, the Biz: an Insider’s Look at an Era”.

Each book, like the album after which it is named, is plain white all over, comes with the title embossed on the front cover, and has a limited edition number stamped on the lower right-hand side. Mine is 028525.

I really like the layout, look and feel of this book. Its a mid-sized softback, 248 pages with what they call in the book industry French flaps (don’t ask me why they are called that…the paperback front cover and rear extend and fold in – if that makes sense. Small but boring detail?). It has a large selection of photographs which are a combination of black and white, colour and colour-tinted photographs, many of them originals from Mansfields personal collection and as such never seen before. If you want a sneak peak at “The White Book” Google Books has a large selection you can see, along with extensive text extracts. Amazon also has a “Look Inside” preview.

Those links give you a really good idea about the design of “The White Book” and how it’s laid out. If you’ve scrolled through the Google Books/Amazon links you’ll appreciate there are lots of photos of items that illustrate key moments: telegrams, record covers, photographs, and hand-written notes from the Beatles to Ken Mansfield. One of my favourites: an autographed copy of the White Album given to him by George Harrison:

To sum up the contents of the book, this extract from Publishers Weekly is revealing:  “The second memoir from record-industry vet Mansfield (The Beatles, the Bible and Bodega Bay), a simple look at a complex happening, recounts his overwhelmingly positive experiences working with the Fab Four (and others) as they put together their late-career masterpiece The White Album. Mansfield relates how a lucky break in the 1960s took him from promotions executive for Hollywood’s Capitol Records to U.S. manager of Beatles-owned Apple Records. One of the few Americans allowed into the group’s inner circle, Mansfield presents revealing one-on-one time with each band member, yielding insight beyond their public personas. He notes, for instance, that mere words can’t explain how intimidating John Lennon and Yoko Ono were. Though he provides his side of artistic debates (should “Hey Jude” or “Revolution” be the first Apple single?), and eyewitness accounts of key Beatles moments (including the group’s final public performance atop the label’s London headquarters), Mansfield misses numerous opportunities to provide insider details and to comment on the progress (or lack thereof) in the recording industry; further, Mansfield’s awkward writing style—clumsy metaphors and alliteration, short chapters and confusing chronology—gives the work an amateurish feel. As Mansfield notes in the foreword, this book is something to enjoy because of its simplicity: engaging but hardly essential reading for the casual fan.”

That last bit is probably harsh. As a real fan this looks to me like it contains a treasure trove of stuff I don’t know, told from a unique perspective. “The White Book” has its own website fabwhitebook.com with lots more information and of course – a video:

Beatles Rock’n’Roll Music Vols 1 & 2

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Found this great pic on the web the other day:

It’s a beauty – and kind of joyous. The faces behind the Beatles are just as interesting to look at as the band themselves. Check out the face of the cop, who seems to be looking straight at the camera.

This looks like the first arrival in the United States?

Clearly this photograph is from the same day and same photographer as this shot used for these two covers, only the background crowd has been Photoshopped out:

For more info on these releases see the Beatles Music for Pleasure.

The Beatles First Recordings – 50th Anniversary Edition

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Back in November I wrote about the release of a new two CD, 50th Anniversary Edition of “The Beatles (with Tony Sheridan) – First Recordings”.  I’ve finally tracked down a copy for the collection and so can now give you a few more details about its contents and packaging.

“First Recordings” is released by Time-Life/Universal Music Special Markets, and the two CD’s come in a separate gatefold sleeve along with a thick booklet, all contained in a cardboard outer slipcase:

Inside is the gatefold cardboard sleeve which holds the two CDs – the front and rear covers of the sleeve look like this:

And here are the two CDs:

Also included in the package is a very detailed and thick 36 page booklet with a lengthy essay written by Swedish Beatles expert Hans Olof Gottfridsson (edited by respected music writer Colin Escott); lots of black and white and colour photographs; reprints of original recording contracts; details of recording dates; and hand-written biographies by Pete Best, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon (who credits himself in brackets as the band’s “LEADER”).

There are also lots of examples of original record covers and labels from the time. Here is the front and rear covers of the booklet:

Here are some examples from inside the booklet:

(click on any of these images to see larger versions)

As you can see above there are 35 tracks in all, in both mono and stereo and the disc claims this is to be every version and track of their earliest recordings. Time-Life has a small website with a little bit more detail about the release and there’s some further information about these recordings here. Of course these tracks have been released in many forms many time (both officially and unofficially) over the years. This set gathers them together in the one place – very much like the two CD box set released in 2002 for the 40th anniversary by Bear Records called “The Beatles with Tony Sheridan: Beatles Bop – Hamburg Days” in which Hans Olof Gottfridsson was also involved:

Writing a review on the Amazon site, kennedy19 summed it up this way (and the same can be said for this Time-Life 50th anniversary edition: “….the 1961-62 recordings of the Beatles (with Pete Best, not yet Ringo) in recording studios in Germany as a backup band for Liverpool singer Tony Sheridan. The Beatles themselves had nothing to do with this reissue, but Beatlemaniacs will be impressed with the thoroughness with which this collection was made….The recordings themselves are contained on 2 CDs, and it should be noted that there are really only about 10 songs here, but that this set excels in tracking down every available mix of each one that was ever released (the original tapes no longer exist), both in mono and stereo. Beatles fans may be disappointed that Sheridan (impersonating Elvis pretty well) sang most of the lead vocals on these recordings, although John Lennon does get to sing a version of “Ain’t She Sweet,” and the Beatles did get to record their own catchy instrumental composition, “Cry for a Shadow.” Other songs include “When the Saints Go Marching In” and the famous “My Bonnie” which brought the band to Brian Epstein’s attention. It is interesting to hear the Beatles playing their recognizable sound here, with the energy and versatility that would amaze the world in a few short years. This is also a rare chance to assess the drumming of Pete Best. Casual fans will think this set, with its multiple versions of the same songs, and its painstaking documentation of each one, to be too much ado about too little. But scholars and rabid fans interested in the early years of the group will definitely want to add this to their collection. And yes, the sound quality is very good.”

“Kisses on the Bottom” – The Variations

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Time to take a run through the different versions of “Kisses on the Bottom”, Paul McCartney’s new album.

It’s been released in physical form as a standard CD, a deluxe CD, a deluxe CD with bonus tracks (more on this later), and as a double LP vinyl. (Remember, to see larger images of all the scans below just click on the image).

Firstly the standard CD. Here’s the front cover with the sticker on the shrink- wrap still attached:

This is the rear cover of the standard CD – which has 14 tracks. This copy is manufactured in the EU:

The standard CD is a cardboard, single gatefold sleeve with the booklet glued onto the cardboard:

Personally I think that when the cover is first opened it looks odd to have that large expanse of white cardboard on the right-hand side. Surely another couple of images or text could have been put there. Or, like the deluxe version (see below), a cutout provided so that you can see the CD label.

The booklet in this version is 18 pages and contains an interview about the album, photographs taken during the recording and also photos from the Mary McCartney official photo shoot. There is also track-by-track personnel details for each song, followed by a page with final credits including studio locations, engineers and the obligatory “thank you’s”, etc.:

The CD printing itself is very simple and uncluttered and looks like this:

In some markets (in the US, I think) the CD came with a red wrap, promoting the song “My Valentine”:

Buyers of the deluxe CD edition in the US will need to know there are two versions: one has 14 tracks and the other has 16 (which is available only from Target stores at this stage – see details below, and see also this post from Wogblog). In Britain, the EU countries (and in Australia because we are getting the EU versions) all deluxe versions have the two bonus tracks:

The bonus tracks are “Baby’s Request”, a re-recording of a McCartney song which first appeared on the 1979 Wings album “Back to the Egg”, and “My One and Only Love”.

The deluxe CD has more complex packaging. It comes in a cardboard, double gatefold cover. In other words it opens out to be four panels in total. To give you an idea of how this looks here’s a photograph of how the package opens up, plus the inclusions (which are covered in more detail below). This is the US non-bonus track deluxe version:

When you first open the deluxe CD cover this is what you see on the inside:

These two panels then open out again. This is the left-hand side:

And this is the right-hand side (containing the booklet):

What looks to be the same booklet as the standard CD (also glued onto the cardboard) is actually longer – with 22 pages. The extra space is for a longer version of the interview with Paul McCartney, and there are additional photographs, and these are laid out differently to the standard CD. Inside a pocket in the deluxe CD cover there are also three postcards:

And included in the postcards pocket is a smaller card with details and a code for a download “…of Paul McCartney’s exclusive performance at Capitol Studios…”:

That bonus download sounds like an enticing extra on first read. But when you log in with your code you get just four live songs from that live performance, not the whole show. You get “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter”; “Home (Where the Shadows Fall)”; “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive”; and “My Valentine”.  As has already been noted on the web by Wogblog, this is kind of disappointing. I mean, just four songs? It feels kind of cheapskate on Paul’s behalf.

Back to the 14 track/16 track deluxe confusion. Target in the US is selling the 16 track deluxe edition as a retail exclusive and are the only US vendor selling this edition:

There’s an interesting side story to the interview featured in both “Kisses on the Bottom” CD booklets. It’s done by Paul Du Noyer. If the name sounds familiar he is the well-known British music journalist and writer who also did the liner notes for all the John Lennon remastered re-issues a while back including the John Lennon Signature Box, and the “Double Fantasy – Stripped Down” version. He also worked extensively on Paul McCartney’s “Band On The Run – Deluxe Edition“, which has just won a Best Historical Album Grammy Award. As editorial consultant for the package, Du Noyer edited the 128-page book, wrote the liner notes and interviewed McCartney. He also worked on the “McCartney” and “McCartney II” deluxe reissues.

Finally to the vinyl edition of “Kisses on the Bottom”.  This is a double LP and comes in a gatefold sleeve:

I got my copy from Amazon and thought it would be made in the US, but it says “Printed in the EU” on the back cover…

I haven’t taken my copy out of its sealed plastic cover, preferring it to remain a collectors item and “still sealed”. Also, all that white cardboard is going to get easily marked and scuffed. Keeping it sealed will also help keep it in pristine condition. Looking around on the web I did find this image of the vinyl package opened up:

You can see that it comes with two inner sleeves which reproduce the text elements of the CD booklets. The two 180g vinyl LPs have custom labels. And you get access to a digital download of the 14 track album as well.

[Thanks to cyber-beatles.com for the additional images used in this post.]

What Diana Krall Brought to “Kisses”

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In all the talk about Paul McCartney’s “Kisses on the Bottom” the well-known and popular jazz vocalist/pianist Diana Krall – who plays on every track – has very much taken a back seat. She has stayed quietly in the background. However, I think Krall plays a pivotal role in the success and the essential sound of the album – far more than she’s so far been given credit for.

Diana Krall has been refining her own sound and style for nearly twenty years now, dating right back to her debut recording, “Stepping Out“. Over that time she has released ten jazz albums which, for all intents and purposes, mirror exactly the way Paul McCartney’s “Kisses on the Bottom” was put together – right down to the players and the studio in which many tracks were recorded.

If you want proof you need look no further than her most recent studio recording from 2009 called “Quiet Nights“.

Take, for example, track 2 from that album – the song “Too Marvelous for Words“.  It’s a classic popular song from 1937 recorded hundreds of times over the years. The personnel on Krall’s version reads as follows:  Diana Krall – vocals, piano; Anthony Wilson – guitar; John Clayton – bass; Jeff Hamilton – drums; Paulinho Da Costa – percussion; produced by Tommy LiPuma and Diana Krall; recorded and mixed by Al Schmidt and Steve Genewick; recording studio – Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California.

Now take track 5 from McCartney’s “Kisses on the Bottom”. The song is “The Glory of Love“, a classic popular song from 1936 recorded hundreds of times over the years. The personnel reads as follows: Paul McCartney – vocals; Diana Krall – piano and rhythm arrangement; Anthony Wilson – guitar; John Clayton – bass; Jeff Hamilton – drums; Mike Mainieri – vibraphone; produced by Tommy LiPuma; recorded and mixed by Al Schmidt and Steve Genewick; recording studio – Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California…..

Start to get the picture?

In considering the recording of an album devoted to covers of pop standards from the pre-rock years McCartney himself said he didn’t just want to repeat what Rod Stewart had done so successfully already with his recordings of tunes from the popular American songbook. Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine in May, 2011 he said: “I’ve wanted to do that kind of thing forever, since the Beatle days. But then Rod [Stewart] went mad on it. I thought, ‘I have to wait so it doesn’t look like I’m trying to do a Rod.'”

No offense Paul. I don’t think you’ve done a Rod at all. I think you’ve done something far more clever, so more tasteful, sophisticated and stylish. I reckon you’ve done a Diana.

For an insightful review of “Kisses on the Bottom” see RadioBrandon.blog’s thoughts. Got a lot of time for Brandon’s take on music.