Tag Archives: Beatles Collecting

Label Variations Part Four – Shaved Fish

Posted on by
Reply

Earlier this week I blogged about an interesting CD variation of John Lennon’s “Shaved Fish”.

That post prompted me to drag out the vinyl copies of this 1973 “Best Of” compilation and publish some photos of the different versions I have in the collection.

The front cover, rear cover, and inner sleeve of this album in LP form seems to be very consistent right around the world. Here’s a typical front cover. This one below is the Italian release:

Italian front cover of Lennon's 1973 "Shaved Fish"

And here is the rear cover:

"Shaved Fish" rear cover (Italy)

There is a strong Japanese influence to the graphic design throughout, which was provided by designer Roy Kohara who worked again with Lennon as Art Director and Designer for both his “Walls and Bridges” and “Rock’n’Roll” LP’s.

The sub-title for this album seems to be “Collectable Lennon” as this phrase is printed on the rear covers of both the Italian and British versions of the album. Its not on the US or Australian rear covers, but does appear on a big sticker on the front of the US copy of the LP that I have:

All copies seem to come with an inner sleeve which is solid red on one side with the lyrics for each song printed in white. The other side has a red rising sun, reminiscent of the Japanese national flag, continuing Kohara’s Japanese theme:

Red inner sleeve with lyrics - Italian release

Kohara's Japanese theme continued on inner sleeve

Here’s the label for the Italian release – a green Apple label:

Italian Apple label

I have two versions of the Australian release. The original Apple label:

Australian green Apple

And the later Parlophone black and silver re-issue:

Australian Parlophone re-issue

The U.S. release is a green Apple:

US green Apple label

And finally the U.K. release, again a green Apple label:

UK green Apple label

If you’d like to see some more label variations you can go to:

Label Variations – Part One “Sgt Pepper”

Label Variations – Part Two “Let It Be”

Label Variations – Part Three – McCartney’s “Choba B CCCP”

and

The Beatles “Love” collectable variations

Apple Records – Re-releases Announced

Posted on by
2

I’ve been away traveling for a while without ready access to a computer and so have missed updating the blog with a significant announcement by Apple about some forthcoming non-Beatles re-releases. So, in case you missed it, here’s a catch-up post.

I’ve been buying records on the Apple label since I was a teenager. They were all Beatles releases of course as at the time that was the extent of my interest and my knowledge of the Beatles record label’s activities. It wasn’t until about fifteen years ago that I realised that alongside their Beatles releases the record label also issued a wealth of other artists, and so I began trying to catch up on these and started to collect the entire Apple catalogue in earnest. I’m still engaged in that quest. There are a lot of original records out there still to track down…..

As one fellow blogger put it “…part of what makes Apple so fun to collect is that the label’s artist roster in the late 60s and early 70s was so varied. Apple covered everything, from the Modern Jazz Quartet, to the folk of Mary Hopkin, to the avant-garde orchestration of John Tavener. The label also released a handful of film soundtracks, and launched the careers of some pretty high-profile artists such as James Taylor and Badfinger.”

Well, when I got back from my travels the other day I found this emailed press release (dated July 6) from Apple Corps Ltd in my inbox:

Badfinger, Billy Preston, Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, and more. Apple Records catalogue remastered and reissued on CD and digital download – Classics Set For Release on October 26th

Launched by The Beatles in 1968, as the new outlet for their own recordings as well as the music of an eclectic roster of artists – James Taylor, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Mary Hopkin, Doris Troy, and Jackie Lomax among them – who were all personally brought to the label by The Beatles (individually and/or collectively), Apple Records made popular music history from the very moment it opened its doors.

Four decades later, Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music raise the curtain on remastered CD and digital download releases of 15 key albums from the Apple Records catalog. All 15 titles will be released on October 26th. Most of the physical CDs will include bonus material. Together, the 15 albums represent the first ever Apple Records releases to be available via digital download.

In the revolutionary spirit of 1968, The Beatles’ explosive musical output (characterised by their double-LP White Album) was only exceeded by their fascination with what they saw and heard going on around them. Five years into The Beatles’ reign, Apple Records afforded them the unique opportunity to sign new (and established) artists who appealed to each of them. In turn, the introduction of an artist on The Beatles’ record label was an imprimatur taken very seriously by fans across the universe.

Apple Records’ utopian artist-orientated mission immediately set it apart, as the first operation of its kind in the major-label sphere. Diversity was celebrated, and artists were encouraged to record and release their music in a friendly creative environment. Apple developed a distinctive graphic aesthetic, from its legendary ‘apple-core’ logo to its advertising and merchandising, in the process setting a subtle new benchmark for the industry to follow.

From 1968 to 1973, Apple Records bedazzled the world with a rainbow spectrum of releases – and fans were unusually well-informed about individual involvements of The Beatles with nearly every project. 1968’s self-titled debut album by Boston-based singer-songwriter James Taylor, for example, features Paul McCartney and George Harrison on “Carolina In My Mind”. Paul was instrumental in bringing the Welsh chanteuse Mary Hopkin to Apple, and produced her debut single, “Those Were The Days”. Badfinger, also from Wales, was still known as The Iveys when they recorded “Come And Get It”, written and produced by Paul (for The Magic Christian movie soundtrack).

The Beatles had been fans of Billy Preston ever since seeing him in Little Richard’s band in Hamburg in 1962. George went on to produce and play on Preston’s Apple debut, That’s the Way God Planned It. Harrison was one of the producers and played (along with Ringo Starr) on Doris Troy’s self-titled Apple album. George also produced and played (with Paul and Ringo) on Jackie Lomax’s debut album, Is This What You Want? featuring the Harrison composition, “Sour Milk Sea”.

John was much taken with the music of The Modern Jazz Quartet, who released the only two jazz albums in the Apple catalogue. Ringo was intrigued by the music of contemporary British classical composer John Tavener, and his Apple album, The Whale has become one of the most sought-after Apple collectibles of all time.

Each of the 15 albums in this bumper batch of Apple Records releases has been digitally remastered at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London by the same dedicated team of engineers behind The Beatles’ recent remastered catalogue releases of 2009.

For details about the release, visit www.applerecords.com

Many Thanks

thebeatles.com

The releases (15 titles in all) are:

  • James Taylor (1968) by James Taylor
  • Magic Christian Music (1970) by Badfinger
  • No Dice (1970) by Badfinger
  • Straight Up (1972) by Badfinger
  • Ass (1974) by Badfinger
  • Post Card (1969) by Mary Hopkin
  • Earth Song, Ocean Song (1971) by Mary Hopkin
  • That’s The Way God Planned It (1969) by Billy Preston
  • Encouraging  Words (1970) by Billy Preston
  • Doris Troy (1970) by Doris Troy
  • Is This What You Want? (1968) by Jackie Lomax
  • Under The Jasmine Tree (1968), and Space (1969) by the Modern Jazz Quartet (a 2-on-1 CD)
  • The Whale (1970), and Celtic Requiem (1971) by John Tavener (a 2-on-1 CD)

It has to be said that this is not the first time these titles have been re-issued by Apple. There was another major campaign between 1991-1993 when they were all released for the first time on CD. That campaign also saw them released as vinyl LPs, complete with the original artwork and lots of bonus tracks, additional photographs, etc….So, for many collectors it will be a case of having to decide whether or not to get these 2010 releases a second time. What’s new is that they have all been freshly re-mastered by the engineering team at Abbey Road (who did the recent Beatles re-masters), and that they’re to be available as digital downloads for the first time making these re-issues the first Apple product ever available in that form. Can an announcement about the Beatles catalogue being digitally down-loadable be far behind?

To mark that 1991-1993 release campaign Apple Records released this special apple-shaped extended play CD.

John Lennon – A “Shaved Fish” Variation

Posted on by
3

A while back blog reader and correspondent Ned in the US sent through some photos of Beatles and Beatles-related oddities from his collection. I’ve already published a couple of posts featuring his rare “Love” CD single, and a still-sealed copy of the “Lennon” 4 CD box set with a unique printing error that he has.

Ned has also sent some shots of an unusual copy of John Lennon’s 1975 compilation CD “Shaved Fish”. Its believed this is a rare withdrawn release originally made in Japan but intended for the US market, and that it was subsequently withdrawn from sale and replaced with (the more common) locally pressed Capitol version. As you can see below there are variations in both the rear cover and interior artwork, and in the printing on the CD itself. Here’s the rear cover of the rare version:

Rear cover of the withdrawn "Shaved Fish" release

Ned writes: “The back cover art of the withdrawn “Shaved Fish” doesn’t list the producer credits on the bottom that are found on the common U.S. release.  Also notice that the label number CDP 7 46642 2 (upper right corner) is the same as the common [U.S.] one, indicating that the release was intended as the official U.S. CD.  Had this Japan-made CD been intended for the Japanese market or elsewhere it would have had a different reference number. I’ve also included a photo of both releases side-by-side.  It’s possible that the EU version of “Shaved Fish” has the same art as the withdrawn U.S. one but since I’ve never run into a European import of it I can’t confirm that”:

”]

Ned says: “The withdrawn version (pictured on top) has the words “Lennon Plastic Ono Band” at the top of the disc just under the EMI logo and the name, “Shaved Fish” at the bottom.  While the official and far more common re-release (pictured on bottom) shows the Capitol logo instead of the EMI logo while John Lennon’s full name appears without the addition of the Plastic Ono Band.  (It’s awkward to call the bottom one the “official release” since most people never knew there had even BEEN a withdrawn one).  How did I acquire this withdrawn one?  I really don’t know!  I just bought it when it came out and then it swiftly disappeared for a few years until I saw it again in it’s reincarnated state.”

Thanks again to Ned for providing these photos and info. If anyone has any further information on this Lennon release it’d be good to share it. Either post a comment using the blog “Comment” link below, or email me direct at beatlesblogger@gmail.com

I have a couple of vinyl LP versions of the “Shaved Fish” release in my own collection and Ned has inspired me to drag these out and do a Label Variations post on these – so keep an eye out for that soon. 


John Lennon – Gimme Some Truth

Posted on by
4

To mark what would have been the 70th birthday of the late John Lennon Yoko Ono, EMI Music and the Lennon Estate are to embark on what can only be described as a huge re-issue and release program – starting on October 4, 2010.

Called the “Gimme Some Truth” campaign, it will comprise a series of Lennon albums remastered from the original mixes as well as new collections compiled for CD and digital download release. One of the new releases will be a “naked” version of the Grammy Award winning album “Double Fantasy” – made available for the first time in a newly remixed, stripped down version produced by Yoko Ono and Jack Douglas, co-producers of the original album with Lennon. The new version will come in an expanded 2 CD edition which will include with the original mix, remastered.

Eight of  the original solo albums and other recordings have also been newly digitally remastered.  These include:

• A hits compilation in two editions titled “Power To The People: The Hits”

• A 4CD set of themed discs titled “Gimme Some Truth”

• A deluxe 11CD collectors box with the remastered albums, rarities, and non-album singles, titled “The John Lennon Signature Box”

Yoko Ono said: “In this very special year, which would have seen my husband and life partner John reach the age of 70, I hope that this remastering / re-issue program will help bring his incredible music to a whole new audience. By remastering 121 tracks spanning his solo career, I hope also that those who are already familiar with John’s work will find renewed inspiration from his incredible gifts as a songwriter, musician and vocalist and from his power as a commentator on the human condition. His lyrics are as relevant today as they were when they were first written and I can think of no more apposite title for this campaign than those simple yet direct words ‘Gimme Some Truth’.”

The albums have been digitally remastered from their original mixes by Ono and a team of engineers led by Allan Rouse at EMI Music’s Abbey Road Studios in London, and by George Marino at Avatar Studios in New York. All of the remastered titles will be packaged in digisleeves with replicated original album art and booklets with photos and new liner notes by noted British music journalist Paul Du Noyer.

The albums to be reissued are:

• John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)

• Imagine (1971)

• Some Time In New York City (1972)

• Mind Games (1973)

• Walls and Bridges (1974)

• Rock ‘n’ Roll (1975)

• Double Fantasy Stripped Down (2010) / Double Fantasy (1980)

• Milk and Honey (1984)

Yoko Ono added: “Double Fantasy Stripped Down” really allows us to focus our attention on John’s amazing vocals. Technology has advanced so much that, conversely, I wanted to use new techniques to really frame these amazing songs and John’s voice as simply as possible. By stripping down some of the instrumentation the power of the songs shines through with an enhanced clarity. “Double Fantasy Stripped Down” will be complemented by the original album in the 2 CD format. It was whilst working on the new version of this album that I was hit hardest emotionally, as this was the last album John released before his passing.”

“Power To The People: The Hits” will gather 15 of Lennon’s most popular songs, and will be available as a 15-track single-disc, and as whats being called an “Experience Edition” with additional content. Both versions will be packaged in digisleeves with booklets including a new liner note essay by Du Noyer. “Gimme Some Truth” will be packaged in a slipcase with rare photos and a new liner notes essays by respected American music journalist and author, Anthony DeCurtis. It will contain 72 of Lennon’s solo recordings on four themed CDs:

• ‘Roots’ – John’s rock ‘n’ roll roots and influences

• ‘Working Class Hero’ – John’s socio-political songs

• ‘Woman’ – John’s love songs

• ‘Borrowed Time’ – John’s songs about life

The “John Lennon Signature Box” is a deluxe 11 CD and digital collection of the eight remastered albums, a disc of rare and previously unreleased recordings, and an EP of Lennon’s non-album singles. The CDs will be housed in digisleeves within a deluxe box including a collectible limited edition John Lennon art print and a hardbound book featuring rare photos, artwork, collages, poetry, and new liner notes by DeCurtis.

Check out johnlennon.com for more info, official announcements and updates as the release dates for these new John Lennon collectables draws closer.

Beatles – Paperback Writer/Rain Re-issue

Posted on by
3

I’ve been sweating on the postman arriving this week as I bought a copy of the “Paperback Writer/Rain” Parlophone Record Store Day re-issue, and it arrived today. Mine came from the US. It was finally released there on June 8 after an on-again/off again series of dates came and went. This followed the initial UK release on Record Store Day proper earlier this year on April 17.

In the UK the re-issue was limited to just 1000 copies – and hence the prices being asked went through the roof. I believe (see below) that the US releases are imports of the exact same UK pressings – and so are a chance to catch up on that really rare initial UK release.

You can see five close-up images here – three of the most recent “Paperback Writer/Rain” US release, and two of a previous US Capitol issue.

Steve Marinucci, who has a Beatles news column online at the Examiner newspaper, published this story about the UK release, and this story about the then US re-issue plans. Reviewer, writer and Beatles fan Matt Hurwitz sent the Examiner the following description of the new vinyl single:

I’ve just received a copy of the new “Paperback Writer”/”Rain” 7″ vinyl single from Capitol, which will be issued to participating indie record stores as part of continued celebration of Record Store Day. The disc & sleeve are actually the same as was released in England. This is an import of that release (i.e. not pressed here in the States by Capitol). The record features a black-and-white Parlophone die-cut sleeve with dark blue label backdrops. The A-side label lists both songs; the B-side label features art that matches that on the back of the sleeve – letters spelling out “Parlophone.” For those who keep track, the disc is Parlophone R-6813/EMI 50999-6-41639-7-0. The disc itself features stereo mixes of the two songs. It’s important to note – this is the first vinyl release taken from the new masters, and they sound fantastic. The stereo spread sounds as if the mastering engineer pulled in the left and right a hair (i.e. so that the hard-left and hard-right panning of some channels isn’t quite as far left or right). And, of course, being mastered at Abbey Road, my needle didn’t jump out of the groove on “Paperback Writer”.

After reading all this I got a bit inquisitive and wanted to find out if the Beatles Parlophone re-issue was a one-off, or part of a bigger re-issue by the company around Record Store Day. Turns out “Paperback Writer” was just one of many re-issues by the label – all done with similar dark blue sleeves and labels. Here is the official Parlophone press release

Parlophone Plan Vinyl Series For Record Store Day – Twelve artists will be taking part (Posted 8th April, 2010)

Parlophone have announced plans to release a series of limited vinyl (1000 copies each) for Record Store Day (17th April).

Twelve artists will be taking part, including Hot Chip, Bat For Lashes, Pet Shop Boys, Lily Allen and The Beatles. Each release will come in a vintage-style paper Parlophone house bag which has been designed ‘specially, and uses elements of historic sleeves from the 1960s to the present day. From this year’s hottest new urban artist Tinie Tempah to the band that made the label what it is today, The Beatles. Each release will come in a vintage-style paper Parlophone house bag which has been designed especially for the releases and uses elements of historic sleeves from the 1960’s to the present day.

The releases are:

Babyshambles Side of the Road/UnBiloTitled

Bat For Lashes Howl! (Live at De La Warr Pavillion)/Wild Is The Wind (Live at Grove Music Studios)

The Beatles Paperback Writer/Rain

Chiddy Bang Opposite of Adults/Sooner or Later

Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse Just War (featuring Gruff Rhys)/Just War (instrumental)

Eliza Doolittle Pack Up/Rollerblades

Hot Chip I Feel Bonnie (featuring Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billie)/Bear Witness

Jónsi Go Do/Boy Lilikoi

Lily Allen Back To The Start/Kabul Shit

The Pet Shop Boys Love Life/A Powerful Friend

Tinie Tempah Pass Out/Pass Out (SBTRKT Remix)

(plus one other release)

Miles Leonard, President of Parlophone said: “Parlophone and our artists recognise the importance of our Indie stores and their contribution to not only our new and developing artists but to our catalogue as a whole. Being able to support this campaign with some great 7″ releases from The Beatles to Bat For Lashes is our way of thanking them for their continued support. After all ‘Music Matters’.”

Of course Capitol in the US also released The John Lennon Singles Bag as part of the celebrations for Record Store Day as well, and you can read more about that here.

McCartney and Wings – “Live and Let Die” OST Vinyl

Posted on by
Reply

The garage sale advertisement in the local paper last Saturday said:

“Vinyl – 1000’s rare & collectable, cds, books, furniture, house contents, whitegoods etc.”

It was in a suburb about a 25 minute drive away – way outside my usual garage sale territory, and one I had to think twice about…..But I finally decided that, yes, it sounded like too good an opportunity for the collector in me to pass up. It was those words: “Vinyl – 1000’s rare & collectable”. That did it…..

When I finally got there (a bit later than is wise with these things) the sale was literally in an old, free-standing garage at a private house on a quiet street. There were already two or three guys there picking over literally shelves and shelves of vinyl – stacked floor to ceiling around the walls of the garage, and also in the centre of the floor space as well. The guy holding the sale was definitely in the business and looked like a) a real collector and b) like he owned (or used to own) a second-hand record store and this was both his excess stock and some of his private collection combined.

The question in situations like this is “Where to start?” The feeling of anticipation mixed with the sheer volume of LP’s to look through can be daunting. I asked the owner if there was any order to the way the albums were arranged. He said no, its all pretty random, which just added to the anxiety. No sections like “Female vocal” or “Popular”, “Classical”, “Jazz” and the like. So I just delved in. First shelves were classical – so I kind of bypassed that pretty quickly. There was actually very little popular music. Mostly Broadway shows, film soundtracks, and a lot of 50’s singers as far as I could see, with some decent jazz, blues and a little bit of pop scattered throughout. Kind of disappointing really.

The only Beatles-related item I could find in the 45 minutes I was there was this:

This is the rear cover:

He had LOTS of copies of this – probably 20 or 30 – and they were all US pressings on the United Artists label, all original and all still sealed. They were “cut-outs” or remaindered stock, each having a corner cut off by a machine at the warehouse to designate their clearance status. The one I grabbed had only a tiny cut-out on the top left-hand side (which you can see in the photos). This is a gate-fold cover, but as it is still sealed in its original shrink wrap from 1973, I’m probably going to keep it that way and not open it.

I already had an Australian pressing of “Live and Let Die”. It’s not a gate-fold, and as you can see from the images below, it has a slightly different front cover:

And a very different rear cover:

And here’s the label for the Australian pressing:

Trust me. That stamp on the label stating “Property of A.B.C. (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation)” is genuine. And I genuinely purchased this record from a second-hand store. I know the ABC sold off a lot of surplus LP’s a few years ago and I’m assuming that this is one of those legitimate items.

McCartney and Wings also released a single from the album. I have two copies of this (both Australian pressings) – one on the green Apple label:

And one on the red Capital label:

The “Live and Let Die” original soundtrack recording contained music from both Paul McCartney and George Martin, and was released in 1973. It’s on the United Artists label (US catalogue number: UA-LA 100G; Australian catalogue number: L34949). The flipside to the “Live and Let Die” single is Wings doing “I Lie Around”.

The Rutles DVD – and Lunch

Posted on by
Reply

I mentioned on an earlier post that while visiting Australia’s capital city Canberra recently I found a CD/DVD store advertising “20% OFF ALL STOCK”.

That’s a good sign for any decent collector. Inside though I didn’t find much in the way of Beatles or Beatles-related material – except for a heavily discounted, brand-new DVD of  The Rutles – “All You Need Is Cash”.

The Rutles is an Eric Idle and Neil Innes invention, a very funny and clever Beatles parody group. I’d never seen the film, and for A$6.40 it was a bargain. “All You Need is Cash” comes from 1978, and  started life initially as a comedy spot on the US TV show Saturday Night Live. It grew from those humble beginnings into a fully-blown “mockumentary” style film that was shown on NBC-TV. George Harrison lpayed along and even appears briefly in the film.

It has had numerous releases around the world, and hence a variety of cover images. This is the cover of the Australian edition I got:

Other people making cameo appearances are Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Paul Simon, the late John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray. Here is the rear cover:

This is the printing on the DVD itself. Notice that its a fruit half opened – just like the Beatles Apple label….:

In addition, at the same time I’m discovering this DVD, the Rutles have a brand new presence online – with a fully-blown comic parody of the the Beatles/Cirque du Soliel CD and Las Vegas show “Love”.

It’s called The Rutles “Lunch” and its only recently gone live. There is a lot of fun content to click through on the “Lunch” web page, including a stream of the entire album. It also has sections on The Show, Music, Making Of, and Contact – all a very close mimic of the Beatles own official “Love” site.

As you can see, even the artwork closely resembles the original. If you’d like to listen to individual songs and not have to download the entire album there’s a song-by-song download page with background to how each song came about.

Click here for more on the official Beatles releases of “Love”.

Beatles USB Apple – not the First Apple-shaped Product Released….

Posted on by
6

I’ve always had a fascination with the Beatles and their music. From the very first days of being old enough to buy my own records I’ve had at least some copies of their albums and singles in my collection – mostly vinyl, starting with Sgt Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be, plus the odd single here and there.

But the way I got into seriously collecting a wider range of related records, CDs and books was when I became intrigued by their Apple Records label and the eclectic stable of artists they signed up – both the well-known and the more obscure. Its a quest I’m still on. There are some titles and artists out there on Apple Records that I still don’t have…

In launching Apple Records in 1968 the Beatles produced what was then and is now an exceptionally rare promotional box-set of the very first Apple singles called “Our First Four”.  According to Richard DiLello in “The Longest Cocktail Party”, his 1972 memoir about being an Apple Records “house hippie”, this was a presentation box containing the first four 45 rpm vinyl singles from the label. It was “….a box made of plastic, 10 by 12 inches in matte black with a recessed lid carrying the Apple sticker that announced it as Our First Four, 3 Saville Row, W1.” It contained The Beatles “Hey Jude/Revolution” (R 5722), Mary Hopkin – “Those Were the Days” (APPLE 2), Jackie Lomax – “Sour Milk Sea” (APPLE 3), and The Black Dyke Mills Band – “Thingumybob” (APPLE 4).  Richard DiLello again: “There was a single coloured folder containing the biographies and photographs of the artists with the records in a polythene sleeve. The name of the person to whom the box was going was printed on the outside Apple sticker. This was primarily an inter-industry gift presentation package for the benefit of Capitol Records and selected disc jockeys and journalists.” Here’s a website that has a photo of one of these extremely rare boxes – although I’m not sure how authentic it is. DiLello says in his book that one of these boxes was presented to Stanley Gortikov, President of Capitol Records in 1968. Others were hand-delivered to the Queen Mother at St James’s Palace; Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace; Princess Margaret at Kensington Palace; and to British Prime Minister Harold Wilson at Number 10 Downing Street, London.

In 1991, when it came time for Apple to conduct a big re-issue program of all the Apple album releases, they decided to do something similar (but not exactly the same – and certainly not as rare) with a special Limited Edition CD.

The Apple EP

The Apple E.P. (1991) CD

As you can see it’s an official, apple-shaped CD release to mark the re-issuing of the Apple LP catalogue on both CD and vinyl – back in 1991.

When you open the “apple” it looks like this:

Apple EP

The Apple EP opened to reveal the 4-track CD

Inside is a 4-track compact disc with a song each from Mary Hopkin – “Those Were the Days”; Billy Preston – “That’s the Way God Planned It”; Jackie Lomax – “Sour Milk Sea”; and Badfinger – “Come and Get It”. Not exactly the same tracks as Our First Four, but still two tracks written by Beatles (“Sour Milk Sea” by George Harrison and “Come and Get It” by Paul McCartney):

Apple EP - rear cover

The Apple E.P. - rear cover with track details

As well tracks 1 and 4 were produced by Paul McCartney, and tracks 2 and 3 were produced by George Harrison.

OK, so there is no “Hey Jude”/”Revolution”,  but there is still a pretty large Beatle quotient here. And for me its a reminder that the current Beatles USB (containing all the remastered Beatles albums in high quality digital format) is not the first time that Apple has used an apple-shaped object to market product.

Apple EP CD

The artwork for the Apple EP compact disc (1991)

Its also not the first time that Apple has collected together four songs from artists in their stable and released an EP for promotional purposes. In 1969, not that long after Our First Four, they gave permission for the British ice cream company Walls to issue a vinyl EP:

Walls Ice Cream EP

The Walls Ice Cream EP from 1969

Click here for more information on this release.

As for the Apple re-issue program from 1991, I have quite a few of the vinyl LP re-issues from that time (complete with bonus tracks and original and additional artwork) and will post some pictures and info on these in the future.

John Lennon “Lennon” 4 CD Box Set

Posted on by
5

It never ceases to amaze me how many variations there are out there of particular Beatles or Beatles-related items. I guess that’s part of what makes collecting interesting….

Some are big differences, and include completely revised or unique artwork or track running orders, others are small and subtle. This one, sent to me by Beatlesblog reader Ned in the United States, is a case in point. Ned writes: “One favorite Beatles-related item of mine is a still-sealed, 4 CD “Lennon” box from 1990 with a blank space on the back cover art where the song “Imagine” should be listed (the song is on the disc, however) that I bought from a woman going through a bad divorce. She only wanted US$15 for it. Even though I was very much interested I IMPLORED her to ask for more because I knew she could get it.  However, she insisted because, to her, it represented her former husband.  (Years earlier, I had regretfully sold my copy due to being laid off and needed to pay my bills. I was desperate to get a copy back in my possession after my work life returned to normal).”

Ned sent me a photo of this unusual John Lennon collectors item. Check out the space in the listing on Disc 2:

Its a strange little mistake or variation….who knows why “Imagine” was left off that particular print run? And Ned having a still-sealed copy makes it pretty collectable too. (By the way, it was Ned who sent the additional photos of the Japanese Beatles “Love” rarity from a previous post).

To compare, here’s my copy of the Lennon set:

“Imagine” is definitely still there. This 4 CD “Lennon” box set was released by Parlophone/EMI in 1990. It was compiled by Mark Lewisohn, one of the band’s insiders and a long-time writer and commentator on official Beatles releases and their history. Wikipedia has a song list for each CD. As you can see, most songs were previously released, but there are a couple of hard-to-find tracks, like the three live from Madison Square Garden with Elton John (“Whatever Gets You Through the Night”, “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds”) recorded 24 November, 1974.  I believe these three songs had only ever been previously released on a vinyl single in 1975.

The box set comes with a nice (if plain) 70-page booklet:

Booklet - Front

The booklet has the words to each song, a song index, small images from the album each track comes from, plus some nice photos – both black and white, and some in colour:

Booklet - inside

Each of the jewel cases has an individual image of Lennon. Here’s the one used for Disc 1:

The printing on each CD follows a similar theme, but each jewel case spine, rear artwork and the actual CD disc is a slightly different colour. For example here are discs 1 and 2:

The 4 CD set came out in 1990 and followed the 1989 single CD release “The John Lennon Collection”. In Australia at least EMI released this 4-track EP CD in a gate-fold Digipak to promote both:

As you can see, they used the rear of the cover to promote both the single disc “John Lennon Collection”, and the 4 CD box set:

So, thanks to Ned for another unusual and collectable Beatles-related item.

There is a new set of John Lennon box sets and anniversary releases on the way. Called the Gimme Some Truth  project, these remasters will mark what would have been Lennon’s 70th birthday and will be released in October, 2010.

McCartney – Big Q Magazine Feature

Posted on by
1

The current (June, 2010 – Issue 287) edition of “Q” magazine has a front cover featuring an angry Paul McCartney:

This is a collector cover – one released just for subscribers to the magazine, something that publishers seem to be doing lately to get people to buy product from them rather than just down-loading or getting a copy from the newsagent. I think the newsagent copy will look like this:

The magazine contains a 26-page special feature on Paul McCartney – and its highly recommended reading. The dramatic cover photo(s), and some shots inside, are by David Bailey – who is not new to photographing the Beatles. His work in the Sixties helped define the decade – Swinging London in particular – and he photographed the Beatles from time-to-time. Here’s a photo he took a LOT earlier:

Inside the current “Q” magazine Editor-In-Chief, Paul Rees, gets to spend a month on the road with the man, interviewing him in England and the USA. We get a look at some really interesting and previously un-seen Linda McCartney photographs, and there’s a couple of pages about Paul the avant-garde member of the Fab Four. This is followed the likes of Brian Wilson, Chris Martin, Jamie Callum, Dave Grohl and Paul Weller, to name just a few giving their favourite Paul song recommendations. And finally an in-depth feature on what happened to Wings in Lagos, Nigeria during the making of 1973’s “Band on the Run”. Some really scary stuff….not the greatest place to choose to record an album, but what an album it turned out to be.

One of the best sections in the magazine is the one featuring the many rare photos by Linda McCartney. This one, of McCartney sitting on a straw bale at his farm in Scotland in 1978, is previously unpublished:

The other one I really like is a candid photograph taken during the shoot for the famous “Abbey Road” cover. The caption says: “McCartney and band banter with passer-by in a shot documenting The Beatles’s Abbey Road cover session on 8 August 1969. Note Macca’s sandals, which he’d remove for the iconic final cover picture”:

Its all pretty good stuff and I reckon well worth the cover price (no matter which cover you get).

Postscript: In a spooky co-incidence, I just found out that the very first issue of “Q” magazine, dated October 1986, also had Paul on the front cover…..Issue 001 included articles on Paul McCartney, Big Audio Dynamite, Cocaine, Bob Dylan, Lenny Henry and John Blake.