Tag Archives: John Lennon

Fashioning The Beatles – The Looks That Shook the World

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“It wasn’t like we were following a trend;
we were in the trend.”
— PAUL MCCARTNEY

There’s no doubt that clothing is one of the most visible aspects of the development of a culture. A new book that’s just hit the shelves, Fashioning the Beatles – The Looks That Shook the World, is a well-researched and thoughtful exploration on how The Beatles played a leading role in shaping the fashion, attitudes and social change going on around them throughout the 1960s and beyond.

Author Deirdre Kelly wisely begins her book with a brief preliminary section called ‘Dressing for Pepperland’. That’s because during this period the band reached the zenith of their flamboyant style. Designers on Carnaby Street and around the world were influencing, and were in turn being influenced by, The Beatles in something of a symbiotic relationship. They were in their heyday.

We then journey back to the year 1960 and in chronological order, chapter by chapter, visit key fashion moments with quite a detailed examination year-by-year of what the band were wearing through to 1970, and beyond. We learn who was helping, advising, and being commissioned to come up with new looks for them, but also importantly, how The Beatles themselves played a central role in defining their style. Kelly then uncovers how that style in turn influenced whole industries and often swung the pendulum of the fashion world in new directions.

After a stint as “the savage young Beatles” which (in their early Hamburg/Liverpool days) saw the band sporting a tough look (black leather pants and jackets, black shirts, black t-shirts), in 1961 the group underwent a complete makeover. At the suggestion of their new manager, Brian Epstein, the band took on a suited, clean-cut, almost boy-next-door look that was carefully designed to help them break through in the pop world. They weren’t forced into this. It was something the group agreed was the right thing, as they too saw it as a way to achieve their goal of becoming the “toppermost of the poppermost!”. It was a makeover that worked, one where even the footwear they chose was considered. Kelly goes into detail about how the band had input into the evolution of the famous “Beatle Boots” and how this too became part of their defining look, and a fashion icon of the time. Soon manufacturers where knocking off copies and The Beatles were well on their way to becoming major influencers.

1963 was the year of the now iconic collarless suit – created for the band by UK tailor, Dougie Millings, whom we learn went on to make over 500 outfits for the group. His collarless creation was conceived in a brainstorming session involving Paul McCartney, who’d originally proposed the idea. Their suits were modeled on an original design by Pierre Cardin, but tweaked to make it a distinctively Beatles’ garment. Kelly writes: “It established the Beatles as fashion forerunners”:

It continued what was to become a trend. What a Beatle wore today would soon turn up as the latest hot trend in the shops tomorrow:

However, as with their music, The Beatles never stood still, always pushing the boundaries and never repeating themselves. Once a particular fashion look they’d pioneered started catching on, they’d already moved on.

Fashioning The Beatles is meticulously researched and contains fascinating detail around how the designs they wore came to be. The book also turns up interesting side observations along the way. Take this 1965 photograph taken during the filming of Help!:

In the movie, the band mixed British and US clothing styles. Denim wasn’t yet the ubiquitous fabric it would become and was regarded as something of a novelty. Notice though that George has bleached his jeans, prefiguring the acid wash jean trend that proliferates to this day.

By this mid-decade period and beyond The Beatles largely discard the suits (and boots) and begin to dress to please themselves. In doing so they have a further profound influence on the way young people dress and behave too. What the band wears is an extension of their innate creativity: their personal taste, their natural sense of style – and it was being followed closely by millions.

Tony Palmer (director of the documentary series All You Need is Love: The Story of Popular Music) says in his Preface to the book that The Beatles didn’t set out to be trendsetters. They were innately stylish young men and by simply wearing what they wanted to wear, became the leading style-makers of their day. Their huge, worldwide fame ensured that whenever they were photographed, filmed, or simply seen out and about in public, people took notice of their sartorial style, and those looks helped influence the culture of the day.

By the mid to late 60s The Beatles were now routinely mixing stage clothes with items from their personal wardrobes, and even (albeit briefly) starting up commercial fashion outlets of their own. Kelly provides great detail and context to these ill-fated forays into the fashion retail world via the Apple Boutique store and Apple Tailoring. And herein lies an Australian connection (and yet another example of The Beatles’ questionable choice in business partners), in the form of one John Crittle, proprietor of a business often frequented by the band called Dandie Fashions. They eventually came to own a 50% stake in the store and re-branded it Apple Tailoring (Civil and Theatrical). They opened a hair salon in the premises too, presided over by Leslie Cavendish (who’d been cutting the hair of Paul, George and John). However it turned out that the brains and style behind the clothing part of the venture was really Crittle’s fashion-savvy wife Andrea, who is perhaps better known as the mother of British prima ballerina, Darcey Bussell. Just how Crittle sullied Apple Tailoring’s reputation is something you’ll need to buy the book to read about. It’s not pretty.

Fast forward to today and the influence and spirit of The Beatles still ricochets around the fashion world. Take for example this 2023 collaboration between fashion house Rabanne and the multinational, mass market clothing retailer, H&M. The look could easily owe its inspiration to 1967 and the famous foursome’s adoption of the militaristic uniforms from their Sgt. Pepper era:

We here at beatlesblogger.com have a mountain of books about The Beatles. Amongst them is just one other book on Beatle fashion, Fab Gear – The Beatles and Fashion by Paolo Hewitt – and it’s long out of print. That is proof that very little has been written about this aspect of the band’s creativity and their huge impact on fashion and culture. It is why Fashioning The Beatles – The Looks That Shook the World is an important piece of scholarship. Deirdre Kelly’s new work is a very welcome addition to the library. Grab a copy while you can.

John Lennon ‘Mind Games Ultimate Collection’ Confirmed for June 2024

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And the hits just keep on coming….

Hot on the heels of a huge two weeks of Beatle announcements and expectation comes just a little bit more vital detail on the John Lennon Ultimate Collection box set of his 1973 album Mind Games.

This blurry image has now appeared on the official Lennon website:

Along with it are these words:

This builds on the scant detail in an October 9 Tweet (for John’s birthday) teasing that the Lennon estate would indeed be releasing “….a brand new, completely remixed Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection) in the summer of 2024, featuring an incredible six albums worth of material, followed by even more surprises later in the year.”

Today’s news makes it very clear that the June 2024 box set follows in the format footsteps of Imagine and Plastic Ono Band, two highly acclaimed reissues already out there. Good news for Lennon fans and collectors!

We can also confirm that, as was done for Imagine and Plastic Ono Band, there will be a separate accompanying hardback book to go with Mind Games.

Comparing John’s Demo to the Final Track

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This is a well put together analysis of how the original demo tape of ‘Now and Then’ compares to the finished Beatles ‘Now and Then’ just released:

‘Now and Then’ – There WILL Be a CD Single

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It was always odd that there wasn’t a CD single of “the Beatles last ever single” included in the long-awaited big release announcement last week.

Well, now there is.

A CD single, in what looks to be a simple cardboard slipcase, has belatedly appeared on the official UK Beatles site:

Like all other formats, the CD will feature ‘Now and Then’, plus the 2023 stereo remix of ‘Love Me Do’.

The release date is 3 November – exactly the same date as all the other formats – which suggests that physical product has been prepared and is ready to go out to stores. So why was it not part of the launch last week? Did somebody at Apple/Universal Music stuff up?

So far the CD single only appears on the UK Beatle store site but we’d expect it to pop up elsewhere during the day.

‘Now and Then’, Red and Blue

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By now you’ll be aware that there’s a brand new Beatle song coming. It is called ‘Now and Then’ and is the last Beatles song ever to be released.

Like the singles ‘Free As a Bird’ (1995) and ‘Real Love’ (1996) before it, ‘Now and Then’ is all four Beatles contributing additional music and vocals to a cassette demo that John Lennon was working on in the late 1970’s but never got to properly record. It will now be released in 2023 as a vinyl single (in a variety of colours, plus as a 12″ single), and as a cassette (or a “cassingle” as we used to say), on November 3.

The new single has ‘Love Me Do’, the song that started it all off for the band, on the other side. So, it is listed as a “Double A Side”. The ‘Love Me Do’ news is that it is in stereo in a 2023 mix!

The colours for the 7″ are:

And an exclusive Beatles Shop blue/white marble 7″. Also available at some independent record stores:

There is also a 12″ single.

It’s a little confusing as to whether this is also available on red vinyl. It’s shown on the front page of the official Beatle announcement site, but when you click through to purchase it is not on either the US or UK stores.

Based on feedback from our readers though (thank you!), it turns out the red vinyl 12″ is a Target store exclusive in the USA; a jpc store exclusive in Germany; an HMV exclusive in the UK; an FNAC exclusive in France; and (briefly) as a JB Hi Fi store online exclusive in Australia:

Not finished with vinyl yet…..on some official sites there have been links to a black vinyl 10″ pressing. Take the French Beatles store for example:

The 10″ was listed briefly on the UK official site too – as a “Spotify Fans First” exclusive – but the link provided no longer seems to work. However, it is still up on the US Beatles Store, Universal Music Canada, and the Universal Music Brazil sites – but with all now showing as ‘Sold Out’. Strangely it is still for sale on the Universal Music Columbia site though!

The cassette single is a Beatles store exclusive:

Surprisingly there’s no CD single. [UPDATE: Oh yes there will! See our CD Single post.]

In 2022, Paul and Ringo set about completing the song. Besides John’s demo vocal (now much enhanced quality thanks to the use of new technology developed by film director Peter Jackson and his audio team for the Get Back documentary series) ‘Now And Then’ includes electric and acoustic guitar recorded in 1995 by George, Ringo’s new drum part, and bass, guitar and piano from Paul, which matches John’s original playing. Paul added a slide guitar solo inspired by George; he and Ringo also contributed backing vocals to the chorus.

Then in Los Angeles, Paul oversaw a Capitol Studios recording session for the song’s Beatlesque string arrangement, written by Giles Martin, Paul and Ben Foster. Paul and Giles also added one last touch: backing vocals from the original recordings of ‘Here, There And Everywhere’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Because’, which are woven into the new song using the techniques perfected during the making of the LOVE show and album. The finished track was produced by Paul and Giles, and mixed by Spike Stent. Can’t wait to hear it!

Just by the way, the cover artwork is by celebrated US artist Ed Ruscha. That’s a Paul McCartney influence right there because Ruscha did the cover art (in all it’s many variations) for the McCartney III, McCartney III Imagined releases, and the box set McCartney 1,2,3.

Coincidentally, Ruscha is the subject of a major retrospective currently showing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It’s title? “Now Then”. You can see a short CBS News interview and retrospective about the man here.

As if all this wasn’t enough, on November 10, The Beatles’ 1962-1966 (aka The Red Album) and The Beatles 1967-1970 (aka The Blue Album) collections are to be released in 2023 Edition packages.

Both collections have been expanded, with all the songs mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos. Together both sets contain 75 tracks, 36 of which have new mixes for 2023. The booklets will contain new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris.

The UK single version of ‘Love Me Do’ now kicks off the CD version of The Beatles 1962-1966 (2023 Edition) – now expanded with 12 additional tracks added chronologically. ‘Now And Then’ ends the CD version of The Beatles 1967-1970 (2023 Edition) – now expanded with 9 additional tracks also added chronologically – to complete the career-spanning CD collections. Both are 2CD sets.

But is is different with the vinyl.

The Red and the Blue will have the first two discs just as they were originally released when they were double LPs, with the third disc containing all the expanded material. In other words, 12 extra tracks on Disc 3 for the Red, and 9 extra tracks Disc 3 for the Blue. Quite a different approach to the CD. No slotting in the newly added songs in chronological order here. In fact the new song ‘Now and Then’ is Track 1 of Side 6 of the Blue. A little bit odd.

Both are 180 gram Half Speed Mastered. They will be available on black vinyl separately as triple LP sets, and they’ll be sold together as a 6LP box set:

The Beatles Store is also offering exclusive limited editions of the box set and individual albums on red and blue colour vinyl:

And here’s the CD packaging:

And a 4CD collections will pair the Red and Blue in a slip-cased set.

The new music video for ‘Now And Then’ will debut on Friday, November 3. It is directed by Peter Jackson.

There’s also going to be a short “making of” documentary film released on November 1. Here’s the teaser:

The Countdown Begins

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New Book – Paul McCartney The Songs He Was Singing Vol. 5

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If you’re a completist and want to cross check that you have every physical and digital release, or if you’re interested in a smart, informed commentary on every song by Paul McCartney then this book series is for you.

Paul McCartney The Songs He Was Singing Vol. 5 2010 – 2019 is (as its title suggests) the latest installment in a series compiled and written by John Blaney. Blaney, a passionate Beatle fan, brings to his writing the expertise and rigour of a professional historian. After starting out in music retail he trained as a graphic designer and studied History Of Art at Camberwell College Of Arts and at Goldsmith College (both in London) before taking up his present post as the curator of a museum of technology. He’s the author and publisher of no less than twelve books on The Beatles, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison.

In The Songs He Was Singing series Blaney has split McCartney’s songwriting and his steady release schedule roughly into ten-year slabs, with Volume 1 covering the period 1967-1979; Volume 2 the 1980’s; Volume 3 the 1990’s; and Volume 4 the Noughties (i.e. the years 2000-2009).

And that brings us to the present book (due out next month) and the years 2010 – 2019. Or, to put it another way, from the re-release of Band On The Run – the very first in the Archive Collection series – through to the bloated Egypt Station (Traveller’s Edition).

The way Blaney has structured the content in this series is comprehensive – with just a couple of caveats. For each entry you get US and UK release dates and chart positions, then the name of each song, the personnel who played, and recording locations. If it’s not a re-issue (or, if it’s a previously unreleased bonus track) you get an individual song description and an appraisal by Blaney. Then there’s a concluding “Data” section for each release detailing correctly and succinctly exactly how it was issued i.e. which formats (LP, CD, digital), along with the sometimes complex configurations and extras the release came in. This includes if promo copies were produced and distributed. It is great book for identifying those rarities which may have escaped your attention. A good example of this is the “Tug Of War Data” section where Blaney explains the more obscure extras. Like for example the Barnes and Noble-only 7″ bonus single ‘Ebony and Ivory’/’Rain Clouds’, released exclusively to their customers in a replica picture sleeve; or the fact that there was a very limited Super Deluxe Edition of the Tug Of War box set issued in a red acrylic slipcase with exclusive hand-numbered 8×10 photo prints. It’s detail like this the avid collector sometimes forgets. Then, for each release, there’s a selection of colour photographs of the packaging and labels to help further identify what you have – or what you might be still be seeking out for your own collection.

The album summaries and individual song descriptions which Blaney provides are worth a special mention – especially for their often outspoken honest opinions. It’s clear that while he reveres the McCartney canon, Blaney is no fanboy who treats everything McCartney touches as brilliant art. If there’s something he feels isn’t up to scratch he has no qualms in saying so. Take this example from the Archive Collection edition of McCartney II. Blaney is addressing one of the included bonus tracks, ‘Mr H Atom’/’You Know I’ll Get You Baby’:

“Not so much a song as a chorus in search of a verse, ‘Mr H Atom’ sounds like a demo recorded by an obscure New Wave band fronted by a female singer – Linda McCartney. Another example of McCartney being unable to flesh out his original idea, ‘Mr H Atom’ is little more than an unfinished fragment. If McCartney had the will to finish the song it may have developed into something a little more interesting. As it stands it’s of passing interest but no contender as a lost gem. ‘You Know I’ll Get You Baby’ is, if anything, less interesting. Consisting of the title repeated over a chugging 12-bar, it may possibly be the worst ‘song’ McCartney has allowed to slip out of his archives.”

Ouch.

Now to a couple of items missing from the book and, to be fair here, what we were sent for review is an early “proof” copy, so there could still be some changes prior to it’s October release. We think the 12 track Paul McCartney Live in Los Angeles should have been included. Yes, it was a free CD given away in 2010 to buyers of the UK newspaper The Mail on Sunday (and also The Irish Mail on Sunday), and it is related to a four-song EP called Amoeba’s Secret officially released on CD and 12″ single by Hear Music in 2007 and 2009 (so it my well have been detailed in a previous volume), but it was the first release of 9 previously unavailable live tracks. Having said all that, Blaney provides at the back of the book a separate section listing all the release dates, record company information, catalogue numbers, etc. Mentioned there briefly is the 2019, 2 x LP, 21 track Amoeba Gig album (also available on CD). But the Mail on Sunday release is different.

There’s also no mention of the 2011 CD re-issue of The Family Way original soundtrack on the Varese Sarabande label. Nor the 2015 vinyl LP of the same title. Again, these may have been dealt with in Volume 1 as the original did come out in 1967.

This volume does give a good amount of space (including some handy photographs) to the12″ EP Hope for the Future from 2015. This contains music McCartney composed for the Bungie online video game Destiny. It even references the very obscure (and rare) secret Record Store Day 12″ ‘Sweet Thrash’ single mix of the song. But it misses an important reference to a 6-LP release called The Music of Destiny Volume I containing the Destiny original soundtrack with many McCartney co-compositions, and a piece titled Music of the Spheres which ends with a movement called ‘The Hope’ that includes his ‘Hope For The Future (Main Version)’.

Having said that some items are missing, in all fairness these are minor and there is plenty here that will be a revelation – even to avid collectors. For us there was numerous releases included we hadn’t been aware of at all. For example in 2011 McCartney and his company MPL helped put together a compilation CD and LP of Buddy Holly cover versions. Rave On Buddy Holly has contributions from the likes of Modest Mouse, Florence and the Machine, Patti Smith, Nick Lowe, and Lou Reed. It also contains Paul McCartney singing a strange, rocky, distorted version of ‘It’s So Easy’. We also learn there was a different digital download only version of the same song sung in a more traditional Holly fashion. Of the CD version Blaney writes “…while McCartney delivers a passionate vocal, the backing is more than a little sloppy and sounds for all the world like a first run through…..And quite why [he] felt compelled to burst into an improvised rap before the track returns for a brief reprise is beyond me…..the result is like watching your dad dancing at a wedding: embarrassing.” When a song is great it gets praised in this book, but if it’s lacking then that gets called out as well – which is kind of refreshing.

Overall, this book is a delight to read, dip into, and is a great resource to cross-check your own collection. John Blaney has done a power of work in researching and engagingly critiquing (almost) every release by Paul McCartney between the years 2010 – 2019. Well worth having in your library.

Now all I need to do is track down the four previous volumes!

‘Beatles Tone Guide’ – Australian Guitar Magazine

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Sometimes tip-offs about Beatle stuff come from the most unexpected places…

Beatlesblog is located in Australia, but it took an email from our friend and avid collector Andrey – based in Russia – to let us know about this magazine, out now in Australian newsagents.

Its the latest edition of Australian Guitar and, following Andrey’s email, we simply walked up to to the corner store and got a copy. Wouldn’t have known it was there otherwise!

As you can see, the mag has a major article (13 pages in all) called ‘The Ultimate Beatles Tone Guide’. In it they unpack how the band crafted their sound from the perspective of the instruments and the electronics used.

To do this writer Chris Gill examines 11 specific songs: ‘Please Please Me’, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Ticket To Ride’, ‘Michelle’, ‘Taxman’, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, ‘Revolution’, ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, Let It Be’, and ‘The End’.

Obviously, this article has been published previously in the US by parent magazine Guitar World (and you can read it here), but it’s nice to have a physical copy to flip through.

Being a guitar magazine the focus is entirely on the gear – the makes, model and year of manufacture, the amplifiers, studio speakers, etc. In some cases they even get right down to the likely strings used on the guitars to achieve a particular sound quality.

Gill acknowledges a big part of the challenge here is the great amount of sometimes conflicting information out there about these things. The Beatles themselves, their producer George Martin, and even engineers like Geoff Emerick, have offered over the years conflicting accounts. They even contradict themselves in some of their personal recollections.

So, its a tough ask to get this stuff right. Gill says that what the feature contains are his best efforts to determine the guitars, basses, amps and effects actually used. He admits it is not perfect and in many cases highly speculative (for example the amp used by John Lennon to record his solo on ‘The End’), but he reckons it is a good guideline for any guitarist wanting to replicate those magic sounds.

The feature is richly illustrated with great photos and examples of the the actual guitars and amplifiers, plus a list of suggestions for modern-day or way less expensive alternatives to get your hands on if you want to sound like John, Paul or George.

And yes, there’s a whole section on guitar string specifics. To quote: “Many guitar nerds note that perhaps the most important detail of replicating the Beatles’ tones after their guitars and amps is the types of strings that they used. It is generally believed that Harrison and Lennon used flatwound strings in the early years up until late 1965, just after the release of Rubber Soul. After that, from Revolver and beyond, they apparently switched to roundwound strings.” Check out the section on string theory here.

The feature ends with a short article called ‘Beatles Unplugged – A Guide to the Fab Four’s Acoustic Arsenal’. You can read that too online here:

RSD 2023 Beatle-related Titles Announced

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The Record Store Day 2023 release list has just come out and come April 23 there’ll be at least three titles of interest to Beatle collectors.

Probably the most interesting and hard-to-get will be a re-imagining of John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth best-of compilation which is being re-issued as a boxset containing 9 x 10” white vinyl EPs. Each EP will feature four tracks. Only 500 copies of this will be produced, hence the ‘hard-to-get’ moniker….

Next is the highly speculated 50th anniversary release of Paul McCartney’s Red Rose Speedway in limited edition, Half Speed Master vinyl form:

According to the RSD list there will be 5,000 pressed so this should be much easier to secure. It follows similar Half Speed Master editions of McCartney, Wings Wild Life and RAM.

Then there’s a re-issue of the 1981 Ringo Starr title Stop and Smell the Roses. This is being re-issued on vinyl as a 2LP with six bonus tracks for the first time. It will come in a gatefold with printed inner sleeves, original record labels and specialty color vinyl described as lava lamp effect clear red/white for LP1 and lava lamp effect clear red/pink for LP2. There are 2,500 copies being pressed.

Stop and Smell the Roses will also be issued on RSD as a CD (500 copies).

So, that’s John, Paul, and Ringo for Record Store Day 2023.

But wait, there is a George connection too. Dark Horse, the record label he started up (now run by son Dhani Harrison) is releasing not one but two LPs.

The first is by Stairsteps, a band originally signed to the label back in 1975. For Record Store Day 2023 we’ll see their 1976 album 2nd Resurrection re-issued on black vinyl. Billy Preston played synthesizer and served as co-producer alongside Robert Margouleff.

Dark Horse will also have a 20th Anniversary edition of the Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros album Streetcore as a limited edition pressing on white vinyl for RSD:

More Info on the Photographs Used for the Revolver Cover

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We’ve had readers doing a lot more detective work and research into the photographs that Klaus Voormann used for his collage and line drawings for the famous Revolver cover.

In case you’ve missed it the story on our blog started here and here when we stumbled across a terrific montage detailing all the then known images used for the cover.

Turns out the author of that montage was Ukrainian Beatle fan Sergey, one of our readers! He wrote to us letting us know he’d first created it (way back in 2012!) for a Russian Beatles discussion forum called beatles.ru.

Sergey has since tracked down the source of the image of Ringo used as inspiration for the line drawing of him Klaus placed at the bottom left of the Revolver cover – the one where he is looking skywards.

We’re still not sure of the photographer, but it was published in a German booklet Das sind die Beatles which features a series of black-and-white photographs and short comments about each. It was produced by Bravo magazine for the 1966 Bravo Blitztournee tour, under the auspices of Beat Publication Ltd. The photographer details are not indicated, but Sergey sent us these photographs of the actual publication:

We then published what we feel is another piece in the mystery – the photograph of John Lennon that was very likely the inspiration for Klaus’s line drawing of John at the top right-hand side of Revolver. You can read about that here.

That prompted two other readers – Tom and burnham42 – to offer up even more clues. These revolve around the source images for the three small Beatle faces (and two hands) on this part of the cover:

burnham42 wrote:

I think the one of the three small photos top left is in The Beatles Anthology book page 70 (in my French edition). You can also find it on pinterest. The photo was taken on the way to Hamburg. There is John, Paul, George and Gerry and the Pacemakers in the photo. The man on the floor (George?) is pulling a face and you even have the hands that Klaus also used.

Well, drag out your English edition of The Beatles Anthology book too if you have one because the image is also on page 70 there as well:

The Anthology Book says the photo is from George Harrison’s private collection. The caption in the book reads: In a lay-by on the road to Hamburg and the Ost See. Me, Paul and John with Gerry and the Pacemakers.

We have George and Paul, who are standing on the left, and John sitting on the ground pulling a funny face.

Voormann has cut out three sections of this image. Paul has been placed to the left, his raised arm now just below George’s face. And he’s cropped John’s face to make it appear he has a Beatles hair-cut, and tilted it so that it is more upright. His hand from the image is also used, but also at a different angle.

So, one more mystery solved!

Following all this, Sergey has been back in touch and has offered up a revised, updated version of his original Revolver cover “sources” montage. Here it is:

Please click on the image to see a larger version.