Tag Archives: Paul McCartney

The Beatles Discomania – A Great Book

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Time for another gem found during my recent brief visit to Paris (see the previous France visit posts here, and here).

At the Gilbert Jeune bookstore I found this wonderful book by French writer and Beatles fanatic Francois Plassat:

“The Beatles Discomania” is a fantastic career-spanning summary of the Beatles output as a band and also as solo artists. It brings the story right up to the end of 2011 with details of the John Lennon Signature box set and his other re-issues, the Paul McCartney “Archive” series gets a mention, Ringo’s “Y Not”, and the George Harrison documentary “Living in the Material World“.  As you can see in the images below this is a lavishly illustrated with extensive album cover images and memorabilia spanning a wide range of releases. It is a very attractive book to own – even though I don’t speak French!

It turns that François Plassat works in graphic design and it shows as the text and image layout throughout this book is excellent. He created an agency called China Night which he led for more than twenty years . After writing a book about  Paul McCartney (released in October 2010 – see below), Plassat’s most recent work “The Beatles Discomania” is about  fifty years of the Beatles releases.

The book is a large format, soft-back  which has been stylishly and sensibly laid out. It was published by JBz & Co in France in 2011. The book is full of information on all the recordings released by the group as well as the solo releases of each band member. There are sections on Apple Records, George Martin, etc. This is a true guide to the complete musical output of the Beatles, a carefully laid out goldmine of information. Bring on the English translation!

Here are some images giving just a taste of what’s inside and the attention to detail in the illustrations and photographs:

Author Francois Plassat has also written another book “Paul McCartney: L’empreinte d’un Géant”, which translates as “Paul McCartney: The Footprint of a Giant”:

If you speak French (and we have some followers of the Beatles Blog in France) then you might be interested in these two interviews with author Francois Plassat about his amazing book “The Beatles Discomania”.

Here’s the rear cover:

Kisses on the Bottom – Some Further Variations

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When Paul McCartney’s “Kisses on the Bottom” CD and LP was released earlier this year we posted on all the known variations at that time.

This week I had an email from Andrey in Russia alerting me to not one, but three further variations.

They are all Russian editions of the CD version of “Kisses”:
*  A 14-track official CD in a digipack – with an official Russian Universal Music small sticker on the front,
*  A 14-track illegal or pirate CD in a jewel case (using the same cover as the EU official version) and,
*  A 16-track illegal or pirate “Deluxe” CD+DVD (of the iTunes Live concert) in a cardboard digipack.

Andrey kindly sent some great scans of the covers, so here they are. Firstly the official Russian Universal Music edition, with 14 tracks in a cardboard digipack sleeve. You can see the official sticker on the front:

Note in the small print the official Russian publication details on the back.

Next an “unofficial” or pirate version which comes in a plastic jewel case:

And finally, the other “unofficial” or pirate edition. This time it is the Deluxe 16-track version of the CD. It comes in a cardboard digipack complete with a “bonus” DVD containing the Apple iTunes launch concert of the album live from the Capitol studios in Hollywood, California. This, to my knowledge, has never been officially released in hard copy like this. (However, if you purchased the official Deluxe edition you do get a bonus digital download of the same performance):

(To see larger versions of all the covers above just click on the images)

Thanks to Russian collector Andrey for this information and the images. See also the terrific website beatlesvinyl.com.ua for comprehensive information, images and details of other USSR and Russian Beatles releases.

If you have any interesting Beatles or solo releases feel free to email us at beatlesblogger@gmail.com

UPDATE:  The very informed and accurate Wogblog site is reporting that the Capitol Studios live concert performance of “Kisses on the Bottom” will be officially released on DVD on September 7th. Thanks for that Roger. Here’s the promo poster for the DVD:

“Take It Away” – 30 Years Old

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The song “Take It Away” was released 30 years ago on 21 June.

Paul McCartney’s official site has all the details. You can check out the video for the song there – or you can view it on YouTube below. It features some very well-known faces:

Steve Gadd and Ringo on drums, Eric Stewart on guitar, George Martin producing and on piano, Linda on vocals, and actor John Hurt as the “lonely driver”…

The song was a single lifted from the album 1982 album “Tug of War”:

It came out as a 45rpm 7-inch single backed with a non-album track called “I’ll Give You a Ring”, and as a 12″ extended play with an additional song – “Dress Me Up as a Robber” (which was also from the LP). Both the 7″ and the 12″ were released in cover sleeves:

Here are some label variations. Click the labels to see larger versions:

McCartney at 70

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The very nice Chained and Perfumed blogsite has posted a trip down memory lane in photographs to mark Paul McCartney’s 70th birthday this week.

Time magazine has released a hardcover special edition book called Paul McCartney: The Legend Rocks On that looks back on his career.

They’ve published an excerpt from the book that tells the story of when Lennon and McCartney first met (plus it contains heaps more links). And there’s a 70- photo collection of images here.

Beatles-related Items at a Book and Record Fair

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A local community radio station (2MBS-FM) often holds fundraising book, CD and record fairs to raise some much-needed cash in order to keep going.

There’s just been another one and I was able to score a couple of Beatle-related items of interest. I got in on the first day and before things had been picked over too much.

They didn’t have much in the way of vinyl, but there were masses of CD’s and books this time – and as the CD’s were so daunting (so many of them) I headed first to the books as they’d kindly identified a “Music” section. The very first thing I grabbed was this:

It is a hardback copy of Ray Coleman’s 1984 biography (I think initially released in two volumes?) in one, very thick book (640 pages). Its a little bit worn, but in pretty good shape seeing it is a US first edition from 1985. This is published by McGraw Hill, and for $6.00 looked like a good read. I know that Coleman (who died in 1996) had mixed reviews for this work. I didn’t have a copy of this book in the collection. Now I do.

Also in the books section I found this:

Yes – it is a little bit beaten up and well-used – but it’s an original UK paperback edition from 1965 (published by Mayflower Dell). It is a “novelisation” by author Al Hine of the Beatle’s  “Help!” movie from the same year.  I purchased this little Beatles book because I’d also very recently scored a copy of the “novelisation” of “A Hard Day’s Night” at another record fair.  This makes a matching pair…..and also it was just $6.oo. A bargain.

The final find was hidden away in amongst the many CD’s on offer. I’ve already  got this Paul McCartney release on LP but not the CD version. It comes with a bonus track – “”Ou Est Le Soleil”:

(click on the image for a larger version)

This is the UK pressing on MPL/Parlophone and comes from 1989. There’s a sticker on the back that says it was sold by the “Compact Disc Den” in the regional city of Cairns in Far North Queensland, Australia. So it has had something of a journey to end up in my collection! But isn’t that often the way?

Happy collecting.

yellowsubmarine.com (Plus a Few Other Things)

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I’ve been a bit slow in telling you about some of the supporting websites and background info around two of the latest Beatle-related releases – Paul McCartney’s “Ram” reissues, and “Yellow Submarine” which is now out on BluRay, DVD and CD.

So, here’s a bit of a catch-up:

(click on the image to go there)

On the Yellow Submarine site there is a wealth of interactive material like photos, games, movie dialogue, sounds and “making of” videos. Well worth a look.

There’s also a range of great things out on the web now about the reissue of Paul McCartney’s “Ram” album:

Paul’s people certainly have been busy in producing supporting web content for “Ram” with not one but two dedicated websites:

(click on the image to go there)

In the Deluxe Box set of “Ram” you also get the 1977 orchestral/instrumental version of “Ram” that Paul put out under the pseudonym of Percy “Thrills” Thrillington:

(click on the image to go there)

There’s also a very interesting and insightful interview with McCartney by Paul Draper from the band Mansun. It’s not only about “Ram” but a wide range of other things. One great example is Paul talking about his early influences as a songwriter:

What I take the influence back to was A Teenage Opera. That was a very early record in the late 60s, by Keith West… it was his only, like, big hit. That was episodic, there was a bit and it went ‘buh-buh-bum’, then it went there, and there, and there [Sir Paul makes some stacking gestures with his hands]. I think that was the first record I heard, and we heard, and we thought ‘that’s interesting’. You can have a song here, then you can cut like a film to another song, and you can even cut the tempo and go slow and so on. That was really the one that was the biggest influence, and then lots of people started doing it. We’d do it a bit, prog-rock did it, Townshend started doing it a bit, The Who opera and all that. I think it was just that one record that made you realise that it didn’t have to be the same tempo or the same key all the way through, you could cut like a film.

You can read Part One here, and Part Two here. There are links to musical examples given throughout.

Finally, one cute little “Ram” publicity item – a “Ewe-Tube Map” – based on the London Underground train network:

(click for a larger version)

Oh, and this kind person has added a “Ram” Deluxe Edition “unboxing” video to YouTube:

“The Fireman” – One More Packaging Variation

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When I published a blog about all the different variations of Paul McCartney’s 2008 Fireman project “Electric Arguments” I thought I’d covered off just about everything….

Seems not because I’ve just received this variation which I’d never seen before – it comes in a clear plastic jewel case:

The standard single-disc CD in most major markets (e.g. the US, UK, and Japan) came out in a cardboard digipac cover. For example, here’s the Japanese cover (front and rear):

However, the seller I got the jewel case variation from was from Italy, and so I thought there might be a chance that is was unique to that country. Perhaps it is – but there’s nothing printed in this plastic jewel case version on either the booklet or the tray insert to say “Made in Italy”:

It all looks very generic inside and out and so this version of the packaging may also have turned up in other markets outside Italy. If you know anything about it then let us know too.

The CD itself is pressed in the UK and it is on the One Little Indian label:

Compare this to the original One Little Indian UK version from 2008:

If anyone knows anything more about it please use the comments box below.

Maybe it’s a lower cost version released more recently? I say this because the booklet is just 15 pages of photographs compared to the original release booklets which were very thick by CD booklet standards – they’ve got 46 pages. Here is the 15 page booklet from the jewel case version:

And here’s the cover of the 46 page booklet include in the original digipac editions from 2008:

The jewel case format therefore means that this cover of the booklet is unique. The black square with the album title, etc. and those coloured circles which look like stickers are actually printed onto the paper. On the original US and UK digipacs these were on a large clear plastic sticker attached to the outside of the shrink-wrap around the cardboard cover. You can see that here:

While I was trawling the web for photographs to help illustrate all the extensive variations McCartney produced for this project I came across what looks like one further intriguing packaging variation. It’s this one:

As you can see, it looks like a cardboard sleeve with a kind of folding envelope top where the CD is kept. If anyone also knows about the origins of this one let us know. Maybe it is a limited promo cover, or a prototype that never went into production?

McCartney’s “Ram” Deluxe – What’s Inside

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The forthcoming deluxe re-issue of Paul McCartney’s “Ram” [21st May (UK)/ 22nd May (USA/Rest Of World)] will be very different in the way it is packaged compared to the three previous deluxe reissues in the Archive series.

Another (Record Store) Day – McCartney

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This week (on Saturday) we once again celebrate the importance of independent record stores around the world. And once again there’s some Beatle-related treasure for collectors. Not as significant as the last Beatle release as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday editions last year, however still collectable. This time there’s a Paul McCartney 45 on offer. It comes in the lead up to the numerous special McCartney Archive editions of “Ram” in May.

MPL/Hear Music/Concord are releasing a limited edition (just 2000 copies) of the 1971 single “Another Day/Oh Woman Oh Why“:

The Record Store Day site says: “A classic Paul McCartney vinyl single reissue manufactured exclusively for Record Store Day! “Another Day” was originally recorded in 1970, during the sessions for the album Ram. It was the first single of his solo career. It was originally released February 19, 1971 with “Oh Woman, Oh Why” as the B-side. Upon its release “Another Day”/”Oh Woman, Oh Why” reportedly sold over a million copies worldwide. It was a number one hit in France and Australia, in the U.K. it reached number two, in the U.S. it reached number five. This exclusive reissue single is taken from the forthcoming Paul McCartney Archive Collection edition of Ram coming this spring!”

You can read more about it here on the excellent Second Disc blog.

And it all leads to the next significant installment in the Archive Series – “Ram”. The Second Disc also has some info on this forthcoming release.

McCartney stated: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is an album from a long, long time ago, when the world was different. This is an album that is part of my history…it goes back to the wee hills of Scotland where it was formed. It’s an album called Ram. It reminds me of my hippie days and the free attitude with which was created. I hope you’re going to like it, because I do!”

There have been some great Beatles collectables associated with previous Records Store Days. I’ve already mentioned last year’s Beatles singles box; in 2010 there was a special re-issue of  Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass“; there was another McCartney limited edition single released as part of the McCartney Archive Series; there was also the Beatles “Paperback Writer“; and of course the great Lennon Singles Bag.


Not One But Three New Videos of “My Valentine”

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That’s right. Three new videos. You’re probably familiar with this, the first official release made during the photo shoot for the cover of “Kisses on the Bottom“:

But yesterday Paul McCartney launched not one, but three new versions of a video he directed himself of his song “My Valentine’. They each feature Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp. The first has both actors presenting the song using sign language:

Then there are two version variations – one with just Natalie Portman on her own:

The other has just Johnny Depp on his own:

If I’m not mistaken, that sounds like a slightly different guitar solo. Could it be Johnny Depp actually playing guitar? He’s a keen player.

The Mail Online has a feature on the making of the videos.

UPDATE:  paulmccartney.com has just issued a press release with more details about the new videos – which are based on an original idea by Paul’s daughter Stella McCartney and were premiered at an event held at the Stella McCartney store in Los Angeles. Two other interesting details from the release:

‘My Valentine’ is the second Paul McCartney music video Natalie Portman has starred in, the first being the Michel Gondry directed ‘Dance Tonight‘ in 2007.  For this new performance, she was exclusively dressed by Stella McCartney. Johnny Depp also plays guitar in his version and recorded the track’s guitar solo live.  His guitar take was then mixed and mastered into the final track.  The original guitar solo on the studio version of the song was performed by Eric Clapton.