Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery – Part 3

A couple of posts ago we featured some of the album covers which blatantly copied or where perhaps inspired by the Beatles Let It Be. That followed this fairly similar copy from back in 2010 of the cover for their compilation The Beatles Number 1. 

Now it’s time for the White Album.

Released in 1968, its cover was a simple and stark contrast to the visual complexity of the Sgt Pepper LP which (at least in Britain) immediately preceded it:TheBeatles68LP

Since that austere, one-colour look with absolutely minimal text there has been more than a few followers to have worked the same theme. Here, in no particular order, are just some of the many:

Brian Eno - Music For Films -Talking HeadsLive at Leeds

Of course, good old plain black has been very popular over the years:Metallica_-_Metallica_coverSpinal+Tap+-+This+Is+Spinal+Tap+-+LP+RECORD-441227The_Roots_-_OrganixDire Straights making_moviesarctic_monkeys_suck_it_and_see_2011_retail_cd-front1gangof4The+Undertones+-+Positive+Touch+-+LP+RECORD-129174The FieldBeggarsBanquetLPOf course, John Lennon’s own Live Peace in Toronto probably qualifies too: john-lennon-live-peace-in-toronto

So too does McCartney’s side project The Fireman with his 1993 release Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest:Fireman_Strawberries_Oceans_Ships_ForestKnow of any more? Let us know.

See also Part 1 and Part 2.

The Beatles With Records – Part Twenty

OK, to kick off Part 20 in our series a couple of photographs of the Beatles with records which are going to be tough to solve.

Here Paul is standing in front of a display. The thing is these record covers are all not immediately recognisable as they seem to be from other countries. They would all be from the 1960s. Does anyone have any idea what these discs might be?beatles with records13-tiff

And this one below of John – is that an LP to his left (our right)? This appears to be a photograph taken while the artists known as The Fool give one of John’s pianos a very special paint job. Amongst other things The Fool designed the original inner sleeve for Sgt Pepper, and they did the huge mural which adorned the outside of the Apple Boutique clothing shop in London.

Back to the photo. Is this an LP record cover? You can clearly make out what looks to be the word “Velvet…..”. Or could it be a poster?

beatles with records11-tiff

Let us know if you have any further info on this one.

Now onto some easier-to-solve Beatles With Records photos. Firstly to Paul and Linda with a copy of Press to Play, his sixth solo studio album, released August 1986.beatles with records14-tiffpaul-mccartney-press-to-play

I really don’t know what the occasion is below – Yoko is photographed with a group of young men, one of whom is in a Beatle jacket, and another who is holding up a copy of John’s “legal obligation” disc called John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits (which later, and with much better sound, appeared on Apple Records as Rock ‘n’ Roll):July-2013-1842817rootsYou can read the full story about how this album came into being here. It’s a long and complicated tale….

These next photographs are very similar (but taken at a different event) to those photos you may have seen in Part 14 where Paul McCartney is swamped by waiting fans eager for him to sign LP covers.

Beatles with records8-tiff beatles with records10-tiffIn the two photos above I can make out at least ten albums, beginning at the top:McCartney 1Beatles-RevolverAnthology1coverwhite-album_coverbeatles_loveFireman_Strawberries_Oceans_Ships_Forestbeatles-helpBand on the Run Archives bookWorkingClassicalCoverTug of War

If you can see any others let us know.

And yet again, another flock of fans hoping for a signature but this time at a different location:McCartney with Records1McCartney with Records3

I can make out these titles: pepper-rearrubber_soulBeatles_-_Abbey_RoadBeatles-RevolverMAgical Mystery Tour Rear CoverBeatles19621966At_the_hollywood_bowlFigure of Eight

Signings for their fans have always been something the Beatles as a band (and as solo artists) have always embraced. Here’s another of Paul – this time autographing a copy of Wings at the Speed of Sound from 1976:July-2013-1858535WATSOSCoverThis one of George Harrison doesn’t have any records in view (except for the indistinguishable 45 actually on the turntable) – but it has a cool little record player though….and it’s a great shot of GeorgeBeatles With Records GeorgeOne final photo to finish off this installment….obviously taken at the quality control room at the EMI plant in 1965:Beatles With Records-tiff

A big thank you to Andrey in Russia for most of these images. You can see the other parts in The Beatles with Records series here:  12345678910111213141516,17,18 and 19.

Tripping the Live Fantastic – Triple LP Vinyl

Wings Over America (originally from 1976, and released again this year as part of the Archive Series) isn’t the only triple live LP set Paul McCartney has released. He also did it in 1990 with Tripping the Live Fantasic.TTLF Cover

I’ve just picked up a nice Spanish pressing of this for the collection.

The stripped-down, single disc Tripping the Live Fantastic – Highlights vinyl has been in the collection since it was first released, but never the full triple vinyl deluxe package, complete with its 26 page full-colour booklet, three individual coloured inner-sleeves and custom labels:

TTLF rearTTLF Label

TTLF inner1TTLF inner2TTLF inner3Here’s the front cover of the glossy booklet with some great live photography inside:TTLF booklet frontTTLF booklet2TTLF booklet1This is the cover of the trimmed-down single LP Tripping the Live Fantastic – Highlights:

TTLFH Cover

The giveaway of the single vinyl version is the addition of the word “Highlights!” on the front cover:TTLFH detailThis is the Australian vinyl pressing so no custom labels, just the standard black and silver Parlophone issue:

TTLFH LabelTTLFH rear

And the Highlights! inner sleeve:

TTLFH inner

Highlights! was also released as a single CD – but with quite a different track listing having 17 songs instead of just 12 for the vinyl version. The CD adds “Got To Get You Into My Life”, “We Got Married”, “All My Trials” [which is unique to this CD – it doesn’t appear on the vinyl Highlights! LP, or the more complete triple LP/CD versions], “Things We Said Today”, “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, and “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End”. However, the LP version has the song “Put It There” included. That makes both interesting, and also a little bit collectable for the completists among us.

The full Tripping the Live Fantastic set was also released as a double CD in a jumbo sized jewel case in most markets (though in the US it was also available in two separate jewel cases). It has the exact same track listing and running order as the vinyl LP.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery – Part 2

Back in October, 2010 we noticed this uncanny resemblance to a Beatles album cover. It was created by another record label to mark a big anniversary.

I was reminded of this post when I read the March, 2013 edition of Q Magazine recently. The mag ran an article called “Album Cover Clichés”. In it they featured a number of examples of what they labelled “the grid of four individual portraits”, writing that the most iconic example was Let It Be by the the Beatles. At the time it perfectly summed up the group’s together-but-apart dynamic:

Let It Be

Since then, as you can see below, there has been many an imitation:U2 PopQueen Hot SpaceStarfishgorillaz_demon_cd_cover_bigRolling Stones Emotional Rescueblur_thebestoflaibach-let-it-be-stumm58-560x560Listen_to_the_Band_-_The_MonkeesLook+What+the+Cat+Dragged+In+Bonus+Tracks+Poison++Look+what+the+Cat+Dragremain_in_lightEven our world-famous Wiggles, the Australian children’s performers, have got in on the act:

Wiggles Hits and RaritiesGot any other examples that copy the artwork of the Let it Be cover? Let us know.

See also Part 1 here.

Beatles In Australia Exhibition

Back in January we posted on a big new Beatles In Australia exhibition that was destined for Sydney and Melbourne. Well, now it has officially opened in Sydney (at the Powerhouse Museum) and there’s a fair bit of excitement around celebrating 50 years since the Beatles first touched down in this country. Here’s the cover of the free Powerhouse Museum guide brochure:Beatles in Australia

1964 was the band’s first world tour. They were in Australia for just 13 days but in that time played 20 concerts – to a nation which had taken them to into its heart.

The Powerhouse has produced a comprehensive website in support of the exhibition and for any Beatles fan it is well worth a look.  Beatles in Australia Web-tiff

Garage Sale Beatles 45’s

It’s not often you see 7-inch, 45rpm Beatles vinyl for sale at garage sales anymore. There are occasionally one or two, but they are now getting few and far between.

That’s why I was surprised this week when I asked after records at a local garage sale and the guy went into his house and brought out crate after crate of the small, vinyl gems. He had literally hundreds of 45’s – all pop and rock artists ranging from the 60s, 70’s and 80’s.
It took me quite a while to look through them all but the task produced a couple of nice items. Some I already owned, but others I didn’t have in my collection – so it was very worthwhile.

Here’s what came out of crates (in release date chronological order). First up, an Extended Play – four songs – from A Hard Day’s Night (1964):

AHDN frontAHDN rearA Hard Day's Night 1964

Then came a copy of the Beatles Rock and Roll Music single (1965):Rock and Roll Music 1965

These next few have the release date displayed on the label:Happy Xmas 1971Give Me Love 1973Letting Go 1975Mull of Kintyre 1977Coming Up 1980

This next one, Yoko Ono’s Walking on Thin Ice (1981) comes in a picture cover:

Walking FrontWalking rearWalking 1981

Ebony and Ivory 1982Say Say Say 1983All the above are Australian pressings (except the John and Yoko Happy Xmas which is British). There was though one odd item in the crates. It was just the sleeve (no record inside unfortunately) of a French EP from 1964 with four songs:Les Beatles 1964Les Beatles rear

I’ll keep it – in the hope of finding the correct record to go inside it one day….

McCartney Impromptu A cappella Version of “New”

Just uploaded to the official McCartney YouTube site.

Track listing and producers for the New album have also been announced.

And there’s something New happening here….

On Air – Live at the BBC Vol. 2

Finally the official Beatles site has announced the release on CD of On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2. It will be coming out on 11 November this year. Looks like this title will be issued in a tri-fold digipak sleeve:BBC Volume 2

Rumour has been rife for some weeks on blog posts like the trusty WogBlog – which is usually first and most accurate with these things. Check out his site for the very latest on this release, including very detailed track listings.

There is now a nice teaser video on YouTube:

The first BBC recordings officially released back in 1994 (Live at the BBC) will be re-issued on the same date in a matching remastered and re-packaged form – also in a Digipak sleeve:BBC Volume 1

Our First Four – A Very Collectable First Apple Release

One of the reasons I got into this Beatles collecting caper, apart from a love of the music, was that I became fascinated by the band setting up their very own record label – Apple Records.

The Beatles were amongst the first, if not the first, band to do so and (apart from themselves) they signed up an eclectic range of artists to the label.

Their very first releases were marked by the issuing of a limited edition press kit of the first four 45rpm vinyl singles to come out on Apple – which they called “Our First Four”.

In the UK there seems to have been two versions of this.

One was in a stronger, hard plastic outer case. Examples of this version were very limited, and these were hand-delivered to dignitaries like Stanley Gortikov, President of Capitol Records in 1968; to Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace; to her sister Princess Margaret at Kensington Palace; to the Queen Mother at St James’s Palace; and to the then British Prime Minister Harold Wilson at Number 10 Downing Street, London. The plastic box set looked like this:45OurFirstFourUK

The other, lower cost version was posted to radio disc jockeys, music journalists and critics. It was in a cheaper, thin black cardboard box.

Both versions contained four singles: 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).

Each single was accompanied by a press release printed on the outside of a coloured folder containing an artist photo and a plastic sleeve to hold the record.

The reason for this post is that a copy of the cardboard “Our First Four” has just sold on Ebay for an impressive AU$6,199 (that’s US$5,700, or £3,643 UK Pounds).

The price it fetched is testament to it’s rarity. And as it is not often seen (and because the listing had such a good selection of photos of the item – showing in detail how the box worked and what was inside), I couldn’t resist reproducing a selection of them here:off-a2off-boff-coff-doff-fapple1-aapple1-bapple2-aapple2-bapple3-aapple3-bapple4-aapple4-bThe Beatles official site has reproduced a nice press advertisement for “Our First Four”.

In the United States the press kit mailed to DJ’s and music journos was perhaps a little less colourful and extravagant, but its contents were definitely as interesting (and collectable). Respected Beatle writer and discographer Bruce Spizer has a great article on the background to this one:folder-closedOPENFOLD-7-inch

If you had a lazy six grand lying around would you purchase one of these?

“New” Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney has today emailed fans with a preview of a track from his forthcoming album of new material. The song, appropriately enough, is simply called New.

Speaking about the new track, Paul said “We can do what we want, we can live as we choose.”

New comes from an album set for release on October 14 in the UK, and October 15 in the US.  It’s his first record of brand new solo material in six years and is made in collaboration with a number of different musicians. It’s produced by Mark Ronson and will include twelve tracks.Paul_New2SMALL