McCartney “Kisses” Interview – Fresh Air on NPR

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One of my favourite podcasts is Fresh Air from National Public Radio (NPR) in the US.

They have just uploaded a really interesting and insightful interview with Paul McCartney about his recent release “Kisses On The Bottom“. NPR host Terry Gross interviews Paul from his East Sussex studios (Hog Hill Mill) in England. She finds him in a relaxed, expansive, and conversational mood. Paul is candid and open – and is sitting at his piano. He doesn’t perform but illustrates his points with it as he speaks about songwriting and music. It’s really worth a listen for any Beatles fan, or anyone interested in understanding why McCartney has released an album of pre-rock’n’roll songs. You can listen by going to the NPR site, or just click below:

At the end of the interview Paul describes his studio. To get a visual idea of what it looks like inside check out this video of him working in 2009 with Klaus Voormann at Hog Hill Mill:

Harrison – Early Takes Vol. 1

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As reported on the Beatles Examiner, Wogblog and The Second Disc sites, Martin Scorsese’s spectacular documentary “Living in the Material World” (on the life and times of George Harrison) is about to be released on BluRay and DVD for the first time in the USA:

While that’s of course worthy of note (the film has been available in other markets since October last year), the BIGGER news is that the limited edition music CD only previously available if you purchased the expensive Deluxe Box Set of “Living the Material World”, is soon to be released as a single, stand-alone CD:

Not only that, for us mad vinyl collectors it will also be released in vinyl:

Both the CD and vinyl are to be released on the Hip-O Records label, part of the Universal Music stable. They’re the company that released Ringo Starr’s latest CD’s. The Harrison discs will contain previously unavailable demos and, as the title suggests, “early takes” of these ten songs:

  1. My Sweet Lord (demo) 3:33
  2. Run Of The Mill (demo) 1:56
  3. I’d Have You Any Time (early take) 3:06
  4. Mama You’ve Been On My Mind (demo) 3:04
  5. Let It Be Me (demo) 2:56
  6. Woman Don’t You Cry For Me (early take) 2:44
  7. Awaiting On You All (early take) 2:40
  8. Behind That Locked Door (demo) 3:29
  9. All Things Must Pass (demo) 4:38
  10. The Light That Has Lighted The World (demo) 2:23

The other good thing is that the disc is sub-titled “Volume 1” – which suggests that there may just be others in the series……

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.”