Tag Archives: Music

More Artwork for April Lennon Singles Release

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I wrote earlier this month about a special limited edition John Lennon release for Record Store Day which is on April 17.

At the time not much was known but since then some more detailed artwork for the project has come to light. The three singles will be housed in a paper “bag” with three postcards and a poster.

The poster will look like this:

And there’s a custom 45 rpm single hub:

I got these images from a New Jersey record store site called “Vintage Vinyl” – so thanks to them. Their site is interesting because it reveals the huge number of other special releases for the day. They’ve got a page full of limited release or specially produced product just for Record Store Day, including items from Bruce Springsteen, Bon Ivor and Peter Gabriel, Neil Young, the Sex Pistols, and the Rolling Stones.

(Incidentally, Vintage Vinyl have that special Beatles Remastered gift box I wrote about in January. On their front page they have have a link to a deal where you can buy any 2 Beatles Remastered CD’s and get the box thrown in free).

Label Variations – Part Two – Let It Be

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Late last year I posted a couple of label variations from my collection of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band vinyl LP’s.

That page has been getting a few hits, so here is another selection – this time for Let It Be. Again, a couple of vinyl label variations from around the world. I don’t have as many copies of Let It Be as I do Sgt. Pepper, but am still looking!

I guess the place to start is with the original UK Apple version:

The original UK green Apple

As you’ll probably know, in the UK the very earliest copies of Let It Be were released in a lavish box-set and came with a thick book of text, dialogue extracts and photographs from the film “Let It Be”. Those box-sets, which had the catalogue number PCS-1, now fetch very good prices and in good condition are very collectable. While the box-set’s number was PCS-1, the record inside and all subsequent releases actually had the catalogue number PCS 7096, which you can see in the image above. After stocks of the box-set sold out Let It Be was only ever available as a single sleeve album.

In Australia early copies also came in a similar box-set with the book, and it had the green Apple label. The only real variation was that the catalogue number for the box was PXS-1, and the record number was PCSO 7096.

The first Australian pressing – with green Apple label

Meanwhile, across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand Beatle fans also got a box-set and book for a short time (though I’ve never actually seen one of these from NZ) and then a single sleeve cover after that. Their pressing has New Zealand’s particular version of the green Apple:

An early example of the New Zealand pressing

As you can see, in New Zealand the catalogue number was PCSM 7096. You can click here for a comprehensive list of which countries around the world got the box-set and book, plus some further info on variations.

In the United States they did something different again. For some reason it was decided not to provide the book and box set, and only make the record available in a gate-fold cover. Inside the gate-fold were just a small selection of the photographs from the book that was released in other markets. The other big variation was that the record label itself was not green, but red:

The US pressing – with unique red Apple

I believe that this version of Let It Be was very widely bootlegged in a very accurately reproduced cover and so there are consequently a lot of very good fakes out there, complete with the red Apple label. There is some information here on how to tell if you have a fake. My copy has a fairly washed-out looking label and I suspect it may well not be an authentic original….I’m going to do some more digging.

Later US copies went from the Apple to Capitol labels:

The purple US Capitol label

Among my Let It Be copies I have a couple of Asian pressings. They can be hard to identify exactly because in some territories they imported the covers from the UK and just inserted locally pressed vinyl. That’s particularly true with pressings from Hong Kong because at the time it was a British protectorate with lots of ties back to the “mother” country. I think this Apple label below is a Hong Kong pressing, but I’m not sure…

What I think is a pressing from Hong Kong

This next one is a little easier to identify – it actually says on the back cover it is made and printed in Malaysia. Having said that, the record label is very similar (with a few variations) to the suspected Hong Kong pressing above:

A Malaysian pressing – with green Apple

This next one is probably the most different and unusual. I picked this up in 1992 – the year of it’s release. Its the Russian pressing on the AnTrop label. I think this particular record was produced in St Petersburg because around the AnTrop logo are the words “consummari in unum St.Petersburg” (Thank you to the fantastic Beatles On Vinyl, site which has an absolute wealth of information about every Russian/USSR Beatles release):

The AnTrop Records Russian pressing of Let It Be

Finally, up almost to the present day and the most recent US vinyl pressings of the album – the so called “Limited Edition” re-issues from Capitol/Apple in the United States a few years ago. For these they resurrected the green Apple but with the variation of a white background instead of the usual black. Notice the Parlophone logo also appears on the right-hand side:

The US Capitol/Apple re-issue

Finally, an very unusual one sent in by Andrey, who is a collector who lives in Russia. This one is a rare one – “Let It Be” from Guatemala:

Well, that’s a quick trawl through just some of the different label variations for Let It Be on vinyl. Of course vinyl copies of the album are still readily available in the UK, though I don’t have a copy. In fact the whole Beatles catalogue is still in print on vinyl there.

I wonder if Apple Records will come good on the rumours that were circulating last year when the new Remastered CD’s and box sets came out? There was talk that a vinyl box-set was in preparation – on audiophile-quality, 180 gram vinyl. Nice!

See also:  Label Variations – Part One – Sgt. Pepper

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

Composing Outside the Beatles – DVD

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Despite the somewhat literal and unimaginative title, this recent release is a really a very interesting documentary study of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s careers immediately following the break-up of the Beatles.

I’d read about this DVD by chance and had been looking around on Ebay for a copy. I dropped in to my favourite shop – Red Eye Records – and there it was on the shelf for a reasonable price. Well, reasonable compared to the prices I’d seen for British or US copies on Ebay, plus postage, plus the uncertainty of “will it ever arrive?”….a bird in the bush as they say.

So, I got it at Red Eye, and watched it last weekend – which was a wet weekend and perfect for being a couch potato and settling in in front of the TV for a couple of hours.

Nicely put together, it traces the first few years of Lennon and McCartney trying to make their ways as solo entities outside the protective shell that used to be the Beatles. It compares them as composers and performers, examining their early singles and album releases. There is much more time and effort during the documentary placed on John Lennon’s output than that of Paul – but this is probably because the overall theory of the documentary is that Lennon was by far doing more serious and worthy work, and being more commercially successful than his former band-mate and co-writer.

There are nice shots of original album covers and single releases as the discussion panel (which includes Klaus Voorman, Paul Gambaccini, drummers Alan White and Denny Seiwell, and writers Johnny Rogan, John Blaney and Steve Turner amongst others) commenting on and appraising the relative strengths and weaknesses of each solo release between 1967 and 1972.

The front cover of "Composing Outside the Beatles"

The packaging of the DVD is impressive. It’s in the digi-pack style with opening “pages” revealing the DVD disc inside. It is glossy and has good production values with great photos and printed information.

The DVD cover open to the first of the tri-folds

Its a tri-fold digi-pack that finally opens out like this:

The tri-fold inner fully open

As you can see they have really taken some care with the presentation, including printing the DVD disc itself so that it matches the printing of the inner cover exactly. Here’s the rear cover:

The rear cover of "Composing Outside the Beatles"

So, “Composing Outside the Beatles” really has a strong slant towards John – both in the comments by the interviewees and the ratio of time spent on each. But maybe this is just a reflection on the times where Paul was struggling to be a musician outside the Beatles while John appeared to leap into it with a bit more style (as well as critical and commercial success). If you are interested there’s a further review here.

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…

Paul McCartney Now & Then – Part Two

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OK. This is where I have to admit that my Beatles collection might be getting a little out of hand….

One of the most visited pages in this Beatles Blog so far has been one I wrote in October last year when I picked up a paperback version of a book called “Paul McCartney – Now and Then”.  You can view this entry here if you missed it. For some reason a lot of people have visited that particular blog page.

I was sitting at the computer the other day and just glanced up at a bookshelf nearby. The shelf I was looking at contains a lot of the Beatles or Beatles-related books I’ve acquired over the years. I suddenly found myself staring at the cover of a book called, wait for it, “Paul McCartney – Now and Then”…….not the paperback one I’d posted about earlier, but the original hardback edition. I’d forgotten I had it!

Its in a larger format and has a different cover to the paperback:

Now and Then (Hardback Edition, 2004)

Here are the two books side-by-side:

Now and Then (2004 Hardback, with 2006 Softback edition on right)

If you’d like a peek inside the hardback version, Amazon UK has one of those “click to look inside” features for the book.

The fact that I only just realised I had two different copies of this book is making me worried….

SEE ALSO: Paul McCartney – Now and Then – Part One

“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!

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

Harry Nilsson’s “Son of Dracula” – US Vinyl

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No trip to Newcastle (the one in Australia on the New South Wales north coast) can go without a visit to one of my favourite second-hand record store haunts – Antique Sounds on King Street.  Its a tiny little shop that is literally chock full with a wide range of second-hand items – from clocks, to clothing, bakelite radios, trinkets, toys….you name it and its probably there.

Up the back of the shop are racks and racks of old vinyl and amongst them many Beatles and Beatles-related collectables. To be perfectly honest most of these are not in the best condition or what you might call at the high-grade end of the collectable spectrum. And for the condition that some of the items are in the owner is usually asking an inflated price.  But, the thing about this store is that you just never know what you might find.

The other day I had to pass through Newcastle briefly and so dropped in.

While there I discovered a nice clean copy of an interesting Beatles-related 12-inch vinyl disc I have had on my “should get” list for some time: Harry Nilsson’s “Son of Dracula”, which is the soundtrack to the Apple film of the same name.

Way back in 1974 Apple Corps, the Beatles’ company, was still operating its soon to be defunct Apple Film division. When they first set up Apple the Beatles always envisioned a film arm and, while not prolific, some films they made include the well-known “The Concert for Bangladesh” and the lesser known “Born to Boogie”, a concert film featuring T-Rex and Marc Bolan – directed by Ringo Starr.

Well ahead of the present-day fascination with vampires,  “Son of Dracula” was billed as “the first rock-n-roll Dracula movie musical”.  It starred Nilsson, Ringo Starr, Peter Frampton, John Bonham and Keith Moon….

A film poster from the 1974 Apple film "Son of Dracula"

Apparently it wasn’t much of a film – but the soundtrack and songs provided by Harry Nilsson (still relatively fresh and marketable from his huge, world-wide hit album “Nilsson Schmilsson”) along with contributions from legendary orchestrator Paul Buckmaster, had some really great songs – all largely taken from the LP’s “Nilsson Schmilsson” and its follow-up “Son of Schmilsson”).

I already had the Australian release of this record – which came out here with a very plain, single sleeve cover, and on the standard orange-coloured RCA record label. However, the original US pressings were released with a unique cover, complete with opening bat wings (see pics below):

Front cover - "Son of Dracula" US pressing

The "bat wings" gate-fold cover

Cover with the "bat wings" open

“Son of Dracula” is also interesting to Beatles collectors because it was on something of a unique hybrid label called Rapple Records. There isn’t a lot of detail about this but I can only assume that as Nilsson was contracted to RCA at the time, and this was an Apple film, they decided to combine RCA and Apple and came up with the name Rapple! Its the only time this label was ever used to my knowledge. I like it because they also created a custom record label for the project, complete with a half-eaten apple….perhaps a sign of things to come as the company slowly self-destructed:

The very unusual "Rapple" label

So, another junk shop treasure to add to the collection: an original US pressing (in great condition) of 1974’s “Son of Dracula” – on the intriguing Rapple Records.

Harry Nilsson’s own site has some further reading and pictures from the project if you are interested.

(By the way, the record cost me $8.00 Australian).