Tag Archives: John Lennon

Goodbye, Abbey Road

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I just got home and opened my emails to find this post by Brandonblog, a guy who writes with great wit and authority on music matters. Couldn’t really say it better myself, so here are Brandon’s words as-is:

Just heard news of the ultimate bit of Beatles memorabilia, although, you can bet it isn’t about to be offered on ebay.

If Michael Jackson were still around, he’d probably be vying for it but, most likely, it will go to some cashed-up entrepreneur who will want to open it up for tours. Let’s hope it isn’t turned into a restaurant: “Would sir like the Savoy Truffle? Or, the Yellow Matter Custard, perhaps?”

Anyhoo, for better or worse – and I fear it may be the latter – EMI is about to sell the historic Abbey Road Studios where the Fabs recorded the greater bulk of their astonishing legacy.

But it wasn’t just The Beatles who recorded there. Abbey Road also played host to the likes of Pink Floyd who delivered their landmark opus, ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ in those hallowed studios.

How cool would it be if the British Government chipped-in for it and registered Abbey Road with The National Trust? Former Kinks frontman, Ray Davies recently lamented the gradual disappearance of his city’s iconic landmarks in the song he recorded with Chrissie Hynde, “Postcard From London”.  Imagine what he must think of this.

In it’s current financial predicament, I can’t blame EMI one bit but if Abbey Road is allowed to disappear, or to be so transformed as to become virtually unrecognizable, then England will lose something of significant cultural value.

Let’s hope not. 

Brandon accompanied his post with this groovy photograph – an angle of the boys in concert that I’d certainly never seen before…

More on Beatles Box Sets

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The other day I posted an item about two variations of a little box that was produced last year (2009) by Apple/EMI to hold up to four copies of the new Beatles Remastered series of CD’s, and it got me thinking about another “box” I have.

I don’t collect Beatles memorabilia (clothing, dolls, badges or Beatles wigs!), and I don’t have many paper-based items (posters, photographs, store-displays, etc.).  I tend to stick pretty solidly to just collecting officially released records, CDs and books – in all their many variations….

However, occasionally you come across some interesting Beatles-related paraphernalia that’s directly related to the Beatles and the record business that is of interest.

Back in the sixties and seventies Apple Records in the USA used to ship its 7-inch (45rpm) records out to record shops and stores in specially produced brown boxes that could hold up to 24 singles.

The one I have is a little worse for wear now, but it looks like this:

Official Apple 45rpm record Shipping Box

The catalogue number of the 7-inch record was written in large numbers on the top flap of the box to help identify the contents. This one would have been used to ship copies of John and Yoko’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” when it first came out in 1971. It carried the US Apple catalogue number 1842:

Apple Shipping Box - top flap with disc catalogue number

To give you an idea of the size of the box, here’s a shot with the 7-inch 45 rpm single alongside:

Apple Shipping Box with "Happy Christmas (War is Over)"

That’s not the US version of the single – it’s the Australian – but you can get the idea.

“All Together Now” nominated for a Grammy

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From the Beatles official news site:

“All Together Now”, the documentary about the making of  the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil’s “The Beatles: LOVE”, has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Long Form Music Video category (Adrian Wills, video director; Martin Bolduc & Jonathan Clyde, video producers).

“All Together Now” details the story behind the unique partnership between The Beatles and Cirque du Soleil that resulted in the creation and 2006 launch of “LOVE”, the stage production still playing to packed houses at The Mirage in Las Vegas. The film also documents the creation of the show’s music, the experimental Beatles soundscape album of the same name which garnered two Grammy Awards for producers Sir George Martin and Giles Martin in the categories of Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or other Visual Medium and Surround Sound Album.

You can see two short trailers from “All Together Now” here.

The 52nd Annual Grammies will be presented Sunday, January 31, 2010 in Los Angeles.

The Film
“All Together Now” is a feature-Length documentary chronicles the making of “The Beatles’ LOVE” by Cirque du Soleil. The film details the story behind the unique partnership between The Beatles and Cirque du Soleil that resulted in the creation and launch of “LOVE” and the double Grammy-winning album of the same name. The film is dedicated to the memory of Neil Aspinall, an Executive Producer.

“All Together Now” faithfully recounts how the “LOVE” project came into being, borne from the personal friendship between George Harrison and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte. George saw how the twin talents of Cirque’s artistry and The Beatles’ music could be fused into something new and totally original.

The director, Adrian Wills, records early meetings between the Cirque & Apple Corps Ltd. creative teams, as well as contributions from Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison discussing how The Beatles’ music can be used in a different way. We hear about the decision to utilize the combined talents of Sir George Martin and his son Giles Martin to produce what became a 90-minute soundscape created from The Beatles’ multi-track recordings and how this new audio adventure was being quietly worked on in the famous Abbey Road Studios in London, England whilst the first creative ideas for the show were being formulated in Montreal, Canada.

These early stages of the project were all filmed, as were the first rehearsals at the Mirage Hotel theatre in Las Vegas, which was completely rebuilt with a one-of-a-kind sound system and complex round staging to house the “LOVE” show. George and Giles Martin, the show’s Musical Directors, were involved every step of the way with the remarkable Cirque du Soleil creative team, performers and backroom staff.

It wasn’t all “plain-sailing” and there has been no attempt to disguise some of the disagreements that took place along the way regarding how some of the songs would be portrayed visually. These creative differences, a necessary part of the overall process of bringing “LOVE” to its most vibrant life, illustrate the participants’ love and respect for the music and vision of The Beatles.

The “All Together Now” documentary provides fascinating insight into the creative skills and passion that went into making this project a groundbreaking critical and commercial success.

UPDATE: It won!

How the Beatles Recorded Their Music

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Have you ever wondered how the Beatles actually pieced together the masterpieces, instrument-by-instrument, track-by-track?

Well, here’s a fantastic insight thanks to blogger Andy Baio who has posted some all-too brief extracts from what looks to be a fascinating BBC 6 radio documentary called “The Record Producers: Extended Cut”.

The BBC was given free access to the original multi-track recordings of some of the Beatles most famous music, and the radio show begins to pick apart how the songs we know so well now were made in the studio way back when.

Andy has three short extracts from the show on his blog: “She’s Leaving Home”, “A Day In The Life”, and “Come Together”. Each of them is just amazing in the insights they give. Really worth a listen.

As Andy says, unfortunately the original BBC broadcasts are no longer available on their site.

Anyone who has access to where we can find the whole program please let us all know!

More on the Beatles 2009 “Christmas Pack” – Another Variation Exists

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Before Christmas I wrote about Apple/EMI putting together a small box set containing four of the most popular of the new stereo remasters.

I decided as it was a variation in an officially produced box that it’d be worth having in the collection. I found a place in the UK on Ebay that was selling them for a reasonable price (quite a bit cheaper than my local record shops) and so I got one. Who knows, maybe one day it might become a collectable because these were only produced in limited numbers as I understand it.

It arrived the other day – here’s the front view of the box:

Beatles "Christmas Pack" Box Front

And here is the rear:

Beatles "Christmas Pack" Box Rear

I can’t show you the CD’s inside because I’m going to keep this one sealed.

Well, the other day I was in the city and called in to one of the best independent record shops going around – Red Eye Records. They’re great and stock a wide variety of hard-to-get music from around the world. If they haven’t got it they’ll search for you and order it in too. Anyway, while there I saw that they had quite a few copies of what at first appeared to be this same box set up on the shelves behind the counter.

Just out of curiosity (I guess to confirm that I’d got a good deal!) I asked what the price was. The assistant said “Those? Oh, they’re just empty boxes. The record company gave them to us to give to people who bought a few Beatles stereo remasters as something to put them in as gifts. We’ve got a lot of them left over. You can have one if you want.” I thought, well one might be handy to have in case any other remasters come my way, or it could store any Beatles CDs really.

Also, something about the box looked a bit different, though I couldn’t figure out what straight away in the shop, and so I took up the offer. It wasn’t until I got home and compared it to the box above that I realised it was quite different. Here’s the front of the free box:

Beatles "Gift Box" Front

Notice just an Apple logo instead of the four small stereo remasters cover images on the other box. And the rear is different, too:

Beatles "Gift Box" Rear

All the cover images for the entire remasters series are shown.

So, a genuine little gift box that can be used for multiples of any of the new re-issue series. And another collectors item?

Big Price set for Rare “Butcher” Cover

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Earlier this week I posted an item about a rare, first-state copy of the Beatles “Yesterday and Today” famous butcher cover which was up for auction on Ebay.

Well, it sold for a pretty impressive price.

Have a look here for the results.

McCartney Mail on Sunday Free Live CD

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Here’s a heads-up if you live in the UK.

This coming weekend (Sunday January 17, 2010) the British newspaper the Mail on Sunday will contain a free giveaway CD of Paul McCartney live tracks.

All the songs on the CD have been chosen by Paul McCartney, and he apparently designed the CD cover art himself  (which, by the way, is based largely on a previous limited edition live 12 inch record he released in 2007 called “Amoeba’s Secret” – more on this below). However, as the Mail on Sunday says, this new giveaway will be “….a CD that is unavailable anywhere else”.  The cover will look like this:

Mail on Sunday - free giveaway - front cover

Mail on Sunday - free giveway - rear cover

The free CD will feature seven Beatle songs – including “I Saw Her Standing There”, “Lady Madonna”, “Get Back”, “Blackbird” and “Hey Jude”,  as well as five of McCartney’s solo compositions. So, twelve tracks in all. That makes it quite different to any previous releases and therefore a collectable item for Beatles fans. From what I can tell from the info so far, the songs all come from a live gig recorded at the huge Amoeba record store in Los Angeles. Of the twelve tracks to be given away free this Sunday, only five have been previously released: “Only Mama Knows”, “That Was Me”, “I Saw Her Standing There” and “C Moon” on the limited edition 12 inch “Amoeba’s Secret” (2007) and CD (2009), and “Dance Tonight”, which was a bonus live song on the CD single for “Ever Present Past” (2007). Therefore all the additional tracks are bonuses.

As well, this Sunday’s “Live” magazine will feature an interview with McCartney with some previously unseen backstage pictures.

As you can see the artwork is very similar to the original used for both the vinyl and CD covers of “Amoeba’s Secret”:

"Amoeba's Secret" - limited edition - front cover

Its not the first time McCartney has teamed with the Mail on Sunday though.

On Sunday 18 May, 2008 his 13 track album “Memory Almost full” was given away free to millions of readers. It was essentially identical to the officially released version of the album of the same name, just with much simpler packaging.

Mail on Sunday - "Memory Almost Full" free giveaway - front cover

Mail on Sunday "Memory Almost Full" free giveaway - disc image

As you can see in the pics above, the cover contains the Mail On Sunday logo, which is also on the disc itself. Both contain the words “For Promotional Use Only – Not For Sale”. The “Live” magazine supplement that came with the previous week’s Mail on Sunday newspaper included a track-by-track analysis by Paul and exclusive photos of him too.

Following on from McCartney’s “Memory Almost Full” giveaway CD, the Mail On Sunday also gave away a free John Lennon CD on January 18, 2009.

Unlike McCartney’s freebie though, which was his most recent studio album, Lennon’s is a selection (12 tracks) of greatest hits and album tracks – largely taken from the official best-of CD release “Working Class Hero – The Definitive John Lennon”. Like the “Memory Almost Full” CD, the Lennon release came in a similar small cardboard sleeve:

Mail on Sunday - "John Lennon" free giveaway - front cover

Mail on Sunday - "John Lennon" free giveaway - rear cover

Very Rare Beatles “Butcher Cover” For Auction

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One very unique and rare Beatles item is up for grabs at the moment – but you’d better be quick and have your wallet ready…

It is a fine, sealed, mint example of the legendary “Butcher Cover” – which is the generic name given by collectors for the original cover of the Beatles US release called “The Beatles Yesterday and Today”.

No need to go into great detail here because most Beatles collectors know the story – but Capitol had to quickly withdraw the cover which was considered offensive at the time by most American consumers. It was a shot of the band smiling at the cameras while holding cuts of butchered meat and baby dolls….not a good combo:

Original "Butcher Cover" in good shape

Because they detected public outcry and took the record off the shelves so fast this particular cover has become one of the most sought after and rare items. Finding one in good condition is rare. Capitol Records initially pasted over thousands of existing withdrawn pressings with a new, safer picture that looked like this:

The Capitol paste-over and the image used for all later releases

Well, one original, un-pasted-over copy – still sealed in it’s shrink-wrap – has come up for auction on Ebay here.

To give you some context of what copies of this item in good condition can sell for have a look at this YouTube item from the US version of Antiques Roadshow.

Thanks to Web Wire for pointing to this item. Also to ivegotneatstuff.com for some more detail and the YouTube link.


Label Variations – Part One – Sgt. Pepper

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For some reason today I started to think about all the different label variations there must be of Beatles LP and single vinyl discs – released over time and from a wide range of countries around the world.

Different countries have different labels of course, but there have been many label artwork changes over the years – from the original issues to the more recent re-releases. For some collectors this is a never-ending fascination. How many different label variations can they possibly find of a particular album or single?

For me as a collector it’s not the primary reason I’ll purchase an item – but for certain titles I already have it can be a factor. For some reason if browsing a stack of second-hand Beatles LPs I’ll always go looking for different labels or covers for Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road and Let It Be. Don’t know why – I guess they where formative in my initial collection and mean more to me as records than the other titles in the collection.

As a result, over many years,  I have accumulated a few variations which I’ll share with you over the coming few weeks. (To see larger images just click on each picture).

First up – Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. My very first copy of this on vinyl was the Australian pressing. Originally all Australian pressings were on Parlophone. By the time I was old enough to buy it the Parlophone label was a bright orange colour and looked like this:

Australian pressing – Orange Parlophone

However, there where a couple of other Australian variations on the Parlophone label prior to it becoming orange like the one above. I think when Sgt. Pepper originally came out it was on a black and silver label like this:

Australian Parlophone – Black and Silver

After the black and silver there was a further Australian variation (seen below) which was very much like the original UK release. It’s a black and yellow Parlophone label. Note in the picture below that this is the Mono version (denoted by the catalogue number PMCO-7027. The stereo versions are all PCSO-7027):

Australian Parlophone – Black and Yellow variation

Across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand they had their own range of variations. An early NZ Parlophone was quite different to both the British and the Australian:

New Zealand Parlophone – Blue and White variation

As you can see, the New Zealand version was unique. New Zealand later went on to release the entire Beatles catalogue on the Apple label, and again there are differences here to the “usual” Apple look – quite distinctive in its way and I reckon collectable for that very reason:

New Zealand – Apple label

This Apple has some unusual features – most prominent among them the large STEREO lettering on the right hand side.

Back to Parlophone – on which most versions of Sgt. Pepper were/are released.  This is how the current UK version of the label looks today:

United Kingdom – the current Parlophone LP label

As you can see in the picture above, the Parlophone name and logo is in a large box, and the EMI label is also present twice on the label in smaller boxes. This is the label you will see if you go out tomorrow to buy a vinyl UK release of this classic Beatles record.

A couple of years ago EMI Australia re-issued Sgt. Pepper on the Parlophone label – and the label looked like this:

Australian Parlophone – Black and Silver c. 1987

The label above comes from 1987 when a special 20th Anniversary commemorative edition of Pepper was released. The pic above is of the more common black vinyl edition, but the record was also released on limited edition red vinyl (same label though!):

Australian Parlophone – Red vinyl edition 1987

OK. On to the US now – and I only have two label variations – which is not that impressive as there are many, many more. In the USA Capitol Records, as an EMI/Parlophone US subsidiary, is the principal label you’ll find Sgt. Pepper released on. This version below is the traditional black and “rainbow” surround Capitol label:

US Capitol – black and rainbow label

Later there were other Capitol variations. This one is the orange Capitol, which I bought originally in the late 1970s or early 1980s:

US Capitol – orange label

Another unusual US variation is the Sgt. Pepper released as part of the MFSL (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab) company’s high fidelity “Original Master Recording” series. This has a different label, but also quite a different cover image as well. The series was released in a big boxed set of all the Beatles records given the MFSL treatment –  which you occasionally see come up on Ebay for many thousands of dollars. I don’t have the box set – but I do have an individual copy of Pepper – picked up at a second-hand shop for a few bucks!:

Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs edition

Finally, two foreign releases worthy I think of a pic of the labels. The first is from Singapore – interesting because it is so similar to the UK “black and yellow” edition:

Singapore Parlophone – black and yellow

And a very different Sgt. Pepper label from Odeon, the subsidiary of EMI that released the Beatles’ records in countries like Germany and France. This one comes from Germany and is an early version fo the Odeon label there:

German Odeon label

I hope you’ve enjoyed a peek at some of the label variations for Sgt. Pepper from my collection. These really only touch the surface of some of the different labels out there. If you have any other information or pictures or scans of Sgt. Pepper labels please leave a comment, or email me at: beatlesblogger@gmail.com

See also:  Label Variations – Part Two – Let It Be

See also: Label Variations – Part Three – McCartney’s Choba B CCCP

This Is Interesting

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I stumbled across a website that I think you might be interested in seeing.

Its a site called PopMatters that describes itself as a “…magazine of cultural criticism. Our scope is broadly cast on all things pop culture, and our content is updated daily, Monday through Friday.  We provide intelligent reviews, engaging interviews, and in-depth essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, sports, theatre, the visual arts, travel, and the Internet. Since 1999, PopMatters has been providing smart readers with sharp, entertaining writing on a wide range of topics in pop culture, offering a refuge from the usual hype and gossip.”

Well, in November they went all-out and produced a fascinating series of articles about The Beatles called “Re-Meet The Beatles – PopMatters Salutes the Still Fab Four”.

Between November 9 and November 24 they produced twenty one different online essays. I’m still wading my way through these, but they cover many aspects of the band from the very early days and hits, buried treasures, the best (and the worst) of the Beatles, as well as personal observation pieces and in-depth reviews and revisits of the key albums and records.

Thought you’d like to know.