There is a great little video from the deluxe materials included with the “Living in the Material World” DVD and BluRay sets. It features George Martin, Giles Martin and Dhani Harrison (George and Olivia’s son) filmed at the mixing desk listening back to the Beatles “Here Comes The Sun” – complete with a previously unheard guitar solo from the song which never made the final mix. Nice.
“There are two ways to look at George Harrison. The nicer one is that he was a top-line and under-appreciated guitarist…, that he wrote at least two classic songs (“Something,” and “Here Comes the Sun,” two more than most songwriters write) and another half-dozen quite good ones….The other and arguably more realistic appraisal might be that George Harrison’s contributions as a guitarist were pretty much limited to a few Beatles riffs.” – Bill Wyman from Slate gets stuck into the Scorsese film.
“One aspect that doesn’t shine through fully enough is his sense of humour.” – Martin Chilton in the UK Telegraph.
“Paul McCartney described George as a “cocky little guy” and producer George Martin labeled him as “so cheeky.” – Rachel Ray, The Telegraph’s US TV reviewer.
“….if you’re a big Beatles fan (I am), then it’s never going to lack interest…He looked inwards, chanted mantras, spent his life trying to forgive and give. A good egg, but no Lennon…” – Ben Walsh, The Independent.
“With Martin Scorsese’s documentary about the quiet Beatle….it is time to appreciate Harrison as a teacher and a transmitter.” – Philip Goldberg focuses on George’s spirituality in The Huffington Post.
“One facet of George Harrison’s personality that came into sharper relief for me during a preview screening of Martin Scorsese’s documentary was his role…as a provocateur.” – The LA Times Randy Lewis.
“In Martin Scorsese’s documentary “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” Harrison’s journey is traced as a search for himself in the tumult of incoming distractions.” – Roger Ebert in The Chicago Sun-Times.
And from today’s paper in my home town:
“In the footage and text, George Harrison comes across as someone who had mixed views about a life indelibly marked by his tumultuous decade in the most famous pop band of all time…If nothing else, the book and film reveal a man for whom friendships mattered more deeply than almost anything.” – Bernard Zuel, music critic with the Sydney Morning Herald
And finally, not so much a review but another interesting article about George’s spirituality in the film from The Washington Post.
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.
ABC Radio in Australia has done a lengthy interview with the man often referred to as “the sixth Beatle” – studio engineer extraordinaire Geoff Emerick. As a 21 year-old he was George Martin’s right-hand man in the control room on albums such as “Revolver”, “Sgt Pepper”, “The Beatles (White Album)” and “Abbey Road”.
702 ABC Sydney Evening Show presenter Robbie Buck spoke to Geoff for over twenty minutes about his career recording the greatest band in the world. Visit the 702 ABC Sydney site to read about the interview. You can play it from that site – or you can listen here:
Geoff Emerick will be in Australia this week to attend “Integrate 2011“, a sound, music and light industry convention where he’ll give a special presentation that is being billed as a “world first”. Geoff will be interviewed live on stage with another legend from the industry, Australian Richard Lush, who also worked extensively with the Beatles in the 1960’s. And they’ll play examples of how they came up with some of the unique and ground-breaking sounds we hear on the Beatles recordings.
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.
Interesting news last week that Paul McCartney’s very first solo work outside the Beatles is to get a decent CD release in July this year.
McCartney wrote the original soundtrack music to the 1966 British movie “The Family Way“, starring Hayley Mills and Hywell Bennett. He was assisted with orchestrations and arrangements by Beatles producer George Martin. The news of a new CD release got me scrabbling through the collection to find my vinyl copy:
This is the Australian pressing – which came out on Decca Records originally in 1967 (though my copy is a re-issue). In the UK the LP also came out on Decca, while in the US it was released on the London label. The LP has 13 tracks but interestingly (as you can see on the label image above) there are no titles for any of them.
“The Family Way” will be released on CD on July 26 by specialist soundtrack label Varèse Sarabande, based in California. It takes a bit of a search to find any references to the forthcoming CD on their website. You have to go to the “Vintage News” section and there’s information contained there when you scroll a fair way down the page…..
It’s very interesting to hear the music now with the benefit of hindsight. It would have been composed by McCartney just after the release of “Revolver”, and just before he went into the studio to record “Sgt Pepper”:
The original 1967 soundtrack recording of “The Family Way” contains both the above McCartney themes, the main theme and “Love in the Open Air” – plus eleven more score cues suited to the on-screen action. Varèse Sarabande says that for his composition McCartney was initially inspired by the sound of brass bands, familiar to his childhood in the North of England.
Steve Marinucci in his Beatles Examiner column says the new single-disc release will be taken from the original mono master tapes and will feature sleeve notes by Chip Madinger, author of a new book on the Beatles solo work called “Eight Arms To Hold You“. The CD will also include a previously unreleased stereo mix of “A Theme From ‘The Family Way'”, a rarity that in 1966 appeared as the b-side of a 1966 UK/US 7-inch single by a band called the Tudor Minstrels.
I’m a bit late catching up on this one as news first came out about it at the end of August, but it’s probably only just hitting news stands near you now – depending on where you live…
In a special Collectors Edition, Rolling Stone magazine has named its Top 100 Beatles songs of all time. (Apparently its the first time they’ve done this). News of the the special edition came out in the US on August 26.
The press release reads:
ROLLING STONE RELEASES “THE BEATLES 100 GREATEST SONGS”
“New York, NY – August 26, 2010 – Rolling Stone released its first-ever list of the 100 greatest Beatles songs as part of a special interest publication that coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Beatle’s final album, Let It Be, and the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. Topping the list, as ranked by the editors of Rolling Stone, is “A Day in the Life,” followed by “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Following an introduction by Elvis Costello, the book features the stories behind each song, dozens of photos, an index of the complete list, and a breakdown of the numbers, including the years with the most songs (1965 and 1966 each had 17), the shortest song (“Her Majesty,” 23 seconds) and the song that spent the longest time at number one on the charts (“Hey Jude,” 9 weeks).
The book also includes special sections with lists of Lennon and Paul McCartney’s five favorite songs, the top guitar and drumming moments of George Harrison and Ringo Starr, respectively, and the best Beatles cover songs.” (ends)
The magazine has created a really nice page detailing their Top Ten songs – including some great photographs too.
See also the different Australian cover.
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”.
LOVE rare promo single - front cover
LOVE single - inside
LOVE single - booklet
But back to the “Love” promo CD. “Promo Sample” is printed in Japanese around the hub. The catalogue number on the disc is PCD-3275.
LOVE single - the Japanese promo writing around hub
Sincere thanks to collector Ned for all the info and photos. Here’s a clearer picture of the black promo writing around the center of the CD single’s hub:
LOVE single - promo hub close-up
The ABC Radio weekend of special programming in Australia to mark the 40th Anniversary of the breakup of the Beatles is now under way. To listen:
Here’s the schedule of documentary programs – most of which are from the BBC, many of which have never been heard in Australia before and are rarely heard overseas.
You’ll hear tracks and rare moments from the Beatles along with the following full docos (all times Australian Eastern Standard Time):
Saturday April 10
8:00am Nothing’s Gonna Change My World
9:20am The Beatles Story
2:53pm The White Album at 40
3:50pm Songwriters – Lennon and McCartney
4:04pm Nothing’s Gonna Change My World
5:26pm The Beatles At The Beeb Take 2
6:23pm The Beatles Story
Sunday April 11
0:08am Songwriters – Lennon and McCartney
0.22am The Making of Sgt Pepper
1:18am The Beeb’s Lost Beatles Tapes
8:02am Nothing’s Gonna Change My World
9:23am The White Album at 40
10:21am The Beeb’s Lost Beatles Tapes
5:04pm Nothing’s Gonna Change My World
6:29pm The Beatles Story
Midnight ABC Beatles ends
Enjoy!
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