Tag Archives: Paul McCartney

McCartney and Wings – “Live and Let Die” OST Vinyl

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The garage sale advertisement in the local paper last Saturday said:

“Vinyl – 1000’s rare & collectable, cds, books, furniture, house contents, whitegoods etc.”

It was in a suburb about a 25 minute drive away – way outside my usual garage sale territory, and one I had to think twice about…..But I finally decided that, yes, it sounded like too good an opportunity for the collector in me to pass up. It was those words: “Vinyl – 1000’s rare & collectable”. That did it…..

When I finally got there (a bit later than is wise with these things) the sale was literally in an old, free-standing garage at a private house on a quiet street. There were already two or three guys there picking over literally shelves and shelves of vinyl – stacked floor to ceiling around the walls of the garage, and also in the centre of the floor space as well. The guy holding the sale was definitely in the business and looked like a) a real collector and b) like he owned (or used to own) a second-hand record store and this was both his excess stock and some of his private collection combined.

The question in situations like this is “Where to start?” The feeling of anticipation mixed with the sheer volume of LP’s to look through can be daunting. I asked the owner if there was any order to the way the albums were arranged. He said no, its all pretty random, which just added to the anxiety. No sections like “Female vocal” or “Popular”, “Classical”, “Jazz” and the like. So I just delved in. First shelves were classical – so I kind of bypassed that pretty quickly. There was actually very little popular music. Mostly Broadway shows, film soundtracks, and a lot of 50’s singers as far as I could see, with some decent jazz, blues and a little bit of pop scattered throughout. Kind of disappointing really.

The only Beatles-related item I could find in the 45 minutes I was there was this:

This is the rear cover:

He had LOTS of copies of this – probably 20 or 30 – and they were all US pressings on the United Artists label, all original and all still sealed. They were “cut-outs” or remaindered stock, each having a corner cut off by a machine at the warehouse to designate their clearance status. The one I grabbed had only a tiny cut-out on the top left-hand side (which you can see in the photos). This is a gate-fold cover, but as it is still sealed in its original shrink wrap from 1973, I’m probably going to keep it that way and not open it.

I already had an Australian pressing of “Live and Let Die”. It’s not a gate-fold, and as you can see from the images below, it has a slightly different front cover:

And a very different rear cover:

And here’s the label for the Australian pressing:

Trust me. That stamp on the label stating “Property of A.B.C. (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation)” is genuine. And I genuinely purchased this record from a second-hand store. I know the ABC sold off a lot of surplus LP’s a few years ago and I’m assuming that this is one of those legitimate items.

McCartney and Wings also released a single from the album. I have two copies of this (both Australian pressings) – one on the green Apple label:

And one on the red Capital label:

The “Live and Let Die” original soundtrack recording contained music from both Paul McCartney and George Martin, and was released in 1973. It’s on the United Artists label (US catalogue number: UA-LA 100G; Australian catalogue number: L34949). The flipside to the “Live and Let Die” single is Wings doing “I Lie Around”.

McCartney and Obama – The Gershwin Award

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Paul McCartney was in the East Room at the White House this week to receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from US President Barack Obama. It’s just the third time the award has been presented.

From Glen Levy at TIME Magazine:

“It’s sure to be a pop culture reference point for years to come: Sir Paul McCartney performed for the Obamas at the White House on Wednesday in light of the Beatle being presented with the third annual Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. He followed in the formidable footsteps of Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon.

You would imagine that the possibility for puns in pieces such as these would be endless when it comes to the songs he could sing but Macca simply rocked up and dedicated his very own track, “Michelle”, to the First Lady herself. After serenading Mrs Obama with the lyrics, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” McCartney joked that he could be the “first guy ever to be punched out by a president.” (if that had been the case, he surely would have screamed “Help!” See what I mean when it comes to the puns?)

McCartney was no slouch with his own zingers either, unable to resist the following funny: “After the last eight years, it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is.” (Paul McCartney will be here all week ladies and gentlemen).  Want proof? “I don’t think there could be anything more special than to play here,” he commented, before making the following offer: “Lunchtimes, we could come around … We’re cheap.” Back to the day job and he reeled off a string of classics including “Got To Get You Into My Life, “Eleanor Rigby” and “Let It Be.”

Obama praised the British legend for his contribution to U.S. culture, saying the Beatles had “helped to lay the soundtrack for an entire generation, ” as well as adding, “That’s right, we stole you, Sir Paul.”

If this wasn’t enough, the likes of Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, the Jonas Brothers, Jack White, Dave Grohl, Lang Lang and Faith Hill were among the eclectic, star-studded line up with Jerry Seinfeld on hand to add the official comedy (the show will be broadcast as a PBS special on July 28). The night ended with the Obamas up on stage, singing along to “Hey Jude.” The White House has never hosted a cooler evening. See for yourself here.”

The set list for the night was:
Paul McCartney – Got To Get You Into My Life
Elvis Costello – Penny Lane
Dave Grohl – Band On The Run
Corinne Bailey Rae and Herbie Hancock – Blackbird
Emmylou Harris – For No One
Faith Hill – The Long and Winding Road
Jonas Brothers – Drive My Car
Lang Lang – Celebration on the piano
Jack White – Mother Nature’s Son
Stevie Wonder – We Can Work It Out
Paul McCartney – Ebony And Ivory (a duet with Stevie Wonder)
Paul McCartney – Eleanor Rigby
Paul McCartney – Michelle
Paul McCartney – Let It Be
Paul McCartney – Hey Jude
(The concert and award speeches were taped by PBS and will be televised as a 90 minute TV special on July 28th in the US).

McCartney – Big Q Magazine Feature

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The current (June, 2010 – Issue 287) edition of “Q” magazine has a front cover featuring an angry Paul McCartney:

This is a collector cover – one released just for subscribers to the magazine, something that publishers seem to be doing lately to get people to buy product from them rather than just down-loading or getting a copy from the newsagent. I think the newsagent copy will look like this:

The magazine contains a 26-page special feature on Paul McCartney – and its highly recommended reading. The dramatic cover photo(s), and some shots inside, are by David Bailey – who is not new to photographing the Beatles. His work in the Sixties helped define the decade – Swinging London in particular – and he photographed the Beatles from time-to-time. Here’s a photo he took a LOT earlier:

Inside the current “Q” magazine Editor-In-Chief, Paul Rees, gets to spend a month on the road with the man, interviewing him in England and the USA. We get a look at some really interesting and previously un-seen Linda McCartney photographs, and there’s a couple of pages about Paul the avant-garde member of the Fab Four. This is followed the likes of Brian Wilson, Chris Martin, Jamie Callum, Dave Grohl and Paul Weller, to name just a few giving their favourite Paul song recommendations. And finally an in-depth feature on what happened to Wings in Lagos, Nigeria during the making of 1973’s “Band on the Run”. Some really scary stuff….not the greatest place to choose to record an album, but what an album it turned out to be.

One of the best sections in the magazine is the one featuring the many rare photos by Linda McCartney. This one, of McCartney sitting on a straw bale at his farm in Scotland in 1978, is previously unpublished:

The other one I really like is a candid photograph taken during the shoot for the famous “Abbey Road” cover. The caption says: “McCartney and band banter with passer-by in a shot documenting The Beatles’s Abbey Road cover session on 8 August 1969. Note Macca’s sandals, which he’d remove for the iconic final cover picture”:

Its all pretty good stuff and I reckon well worth the cover price (no matter which cover you get).

Postscript: In a spooky co-incidence, I just found out that the very first issue of “Q” magazine, dated October 1986, also had Paul on the front cover…..Issue 001 included articles on Paul McCartney, Big Audio Dynamite, Cocaine, Bob Dylan, Lenny Henry and John Blake.


The Penguin John Lennon – Plus a Couple of Other Things

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Had a trip to Canberra, Australia’s national capital, this weekend and a chance to browse some second-hand book and record stores.

The trip turned up a couple of unexpected items – but that’s always the way with these things, isn’t it?

While in Canberra itself I found a CD/DVD store in the downtown “Civic” area advertising “20% OFF ALL STOCK”. That is just too good an invitation to walk past. Didn’t find a lot of interest to the Beatles collector in me – except for a heavily discounted, brand-new copy of  “All You Need Is Cash”, a film by Eric Idle’s Beatles parody group The Rutles. I’d never seen the film, and for A$6.40 it was a bargain. More on this soon in a separate post….

Also, strolling past a newsagent shop in the Canberra suburb of Kingston, I saw a table outside with old magazines that they were just throwing out – for free. Buried under the pile was a copy of “Q” magazine from July 2007, with a feature article for the fortieth anniversary of the release of the Sgt Pepper called “It Was Forty Years Ago Today….Sgt Pepper Celebrated”:

In it the likes of Bono, Brian Wilson, George Martin, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne and others take one track from the album and write about why they love it, when they first heard it, or what it means to them. The magazine was still in its plastic outer wrap – and so in absolutely perfect condition. Not bad for free! Also with “Q” in the pile was a March, 2007 copy of a magazine called “Sound On Sound”, which on the front cover describes itself as “the UK’s biggest selling music recording magazine”. I’d not seen this title previously, but the front cover carried the photo below and an extensive article on the making of the Beatles “Love” album:

That’s George Martin and his son Giles, and they take the magazine through the detail of producing the Beatles‘ 2007 release “Love” (see this post, and this post for more details). If you’d like to read the article, “Sound on Sound” have now published it here in full online. The magazine is also in perfect condition. Not bad for free!

And finally, on the way home we stopped in the town of Berrima, just outside of which is a legendary second-hand book store called Berkelouw. They call it the Berkelouw Book Barn, and thats just what it is – a huge barn of a place absolutely filled to the rafters with shelf after shelf of pre-loved books. In the music section, I found (on hand and knee – it was of the very bottom shelf!) this little book to add to the collection:

The Penguin John Lennon

It is “The Penguin John Lennon”, a paperback (or soft cover) which gathers together in one volume John Lennon‘s two humorous prose works “John Lennon In His Own Write” (from 1964), and “A Spaniard in the Works” (from 1965), plus some great original line drawings by John. I believe this edition above (with this cover by David Nutter) came out in 1973, but “The Penguin John Lennon” has been out since about 1966. You may have seen it with this cover:

The book has an Introduction written by Paul McCartney, who says at the bottom of the page: “P.S. I like the drawings too”.  He must have, because one of the first drawings in the book was used for the cover of the Beatles “Free As A Bird” CD single – thirty years later in 1995:

Nine Copies of Rolling Stone Magazine

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Up on the very top shelf of a closet in my study there’s a large pile of old music magazines – mostly Rolling Stone magazine. They’ve been there, oh, for at least 16 or 17 years. Sitting quietly, gathering dust.

About a week ago it suddenly occurred to me that there could probably be some Beatles-related treasure hidden away in there.

Really don’t know why I’d never thought of this before. And so I got them down from the shelf this weekend and had a browse. This post, in chronological order, is about what I found.

(July 1979) Issue 295 Paul McCartney by Paul Gambacini

These are all the Australian editions of Rolling Stone, and back in 1979 it was still very much like a newspaper in appearance. No staples to hold it together and printed on flat, newsprint style paper. The cover story about Paul (above) is by veteran DJ, writer and rock historian Paul Gambacini. The cover portrait of Paul McCartney is by Julian Allen, June, 1979. Gambacini’s  byline says: “The leader of Wings looks back at yesterday”, and he writes: “I have known Paul McCartney for over five years, since just before the release of ‘Band on the Run’…Not surprisingly, McCartney at that time was desperate to avoid talking about the Beatles, especially about the never-ending reunion rumors…In the years since, Paul has let down his defenses. Anecdotes about the Beatles now flow, in addition to reminiscences of the pre-Beatles days. He seems pleased with his past. This is a product of being happy with his present.” The article coincided with the release of Wings “Back to the Egg”.

(October 1982) Issue 358 Exclusive: The Private Years

Of course John and Yoko frequently made the cover of Rolling Stone, and there have been some striking images of them published. Who could forget the most famous Annie Leibovitz shot of the pair? But this one comes a close second I reckon. Its by Allan Tannenbaum and it is a beautiful contemplative study that perfectly accompanies an article by Chet Flippo (which was an extract from the book “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, first published by Rolling Stone Press in October, 1982) detailing the years from 1975 to 1980 when John Lennon dropped out of rock & roll, retreating to his white bedroom in the Dakota building in New York. Inside, the article is accompanied by another touchingly composed Tannenbaum photograph:

John and Yoko, New York City, November 1980 (Tannenbaum)

See more Allan Tannenbaum photographs from the same session here.

In November, 1987 Rolling Stone celebrated twenty years on newsstands with a 20th Anniversary Special Edition. In it they re-published a selection of Letters to the Editor from across the 20 years. This one, from 1974, is telling: “John Lennon has given more to America that Nixon and Ford….He fought for peace a long time before it came to the attention of the government that “the people of America” wanted peace. Lennon was concerned about America, and now they’re deporting him. Nixon has admitted he’s a crook; why don’t we deport him?” – Lynn Grubbs, Malvern, Arkansas. And then this, from 1981, sadly again about John Lennon: “We’ve come a long way in seventeen years, from shooting presidents to murdering musicians.” – Jon Grabill, Wayland, Massachusetts…..this was the cover of that special edition:

(November 1987) 20th Anniversary Special Edition.

The special edition was comprised of a series of previously-published Rolling Stone articles. There’s one on Paul McCartney by Anthony DeCurtis, and one on Yoko Ono by David Fricke. There are some image galleries as well from across the twenty years, but they only include one photograph of John Lennon.

(October 1986) Issue 403 Paul McCartney - The Rolling Stone Interview

October, 1986 saw another Paul McCartney cover shot (above) – with very grey hair and an interesting heart-shaped ring on Paul’s wedding finger…? The Rolling Stone interview was by Kurt Loder, who begins: “It is Monday in London, two days before the royal wedding, and Soho Square is filled with flowers, sunshine and fresh-faced young tourists. Some loll on the grass, sharing joints. Others peer up expectantly at the etched-glass windows of an art-deco-style town house across the street, where, in an airy third floor office, Paul McCartney presides over the bustling affairs of MPL Communications, the company that manages the professional projects of the singer and his wife, Linda.”

Inside Rolling Stone, Issue 403

The McCartney’s were doing publicity for “Press To Play”, the fifteenth album he’d released since he announced the breakup of the Beatles in 1970…..Loder observed “After eight years of largely lackadaisical releases on Columbia, he is back with Capitol – the Beatles’ old label – and he seems serious about rehabilitating his somewhat tattered artistic reputation.”

(February 1988) Issue 415 The New Age of George Harrison

In 1988 George had a new record to push. “Cloud Nine”, his first record in five years, had just been delivered to Warner Brothers Records. The article, by Anthony DeCurtis, is a really good read about George, the production of the album (with ELO’s Jeff Lynne), his past, and where he was at in 1988. “After years of tending his garden, his movie company and his son, the elusive ex-Beatle has reemerged with a great album”.

The front page of Issue 424 has an image of John Lennon and the words “Lennon – A Special Photo Album and the inside story on Goldman’s book”:

(November 1988) Issue 424 Lennon - A Special Photo Album and the inside story on Goldman's book

Inside is a revealing article by David Fricke and Jeffrey Ressner called “Imaginary Lennon – The True Story Behind Albert Goldman’s Character Assassination of John Lennon”. That title pretty much says it all… Albert Goldman’s controversial book “The Lives of John Lennon” had just been released, and his publishers claimed it to be “…a startling and revolutionary portrait”. Fricke and Ressner write however that it is not “the definitive biography”. “In fact,” they say, “the book is riddled with factual inaccuracies, embroidered accounts of true events that border on fiction and suspect information provided by tainted sources.” The magazine devotes five and a half pages to taking apart Goldman’s work. The article is worth digging out if you can. As if to balance that, Issue 424 also has six pages of candid Lennon photographs from another book (“Imagine: John Lennon” by Andrew Solt and John Egan). Here’s a terrific, early shot of Lennon, Paul McCartney, drummer Pete Best and George Harrison – taken by Paul’s brother, Mike McCartney:

Early Beatles (Mike McCartney)

Issue 443, in April 1990 also contained a wealth of rare early photographs, though it was the B52’s who made it onto the front cover. You have to look pretty closely for the Beatles reference:

(April 1990) Issue 443 The Beatles Rare Early Photos

This contains never-before-published photographs that chronicle the Fab Four’s first American tour in 1964. They are all taken by Curt Gunther, and I think you’ll agree they are impressive. I’d never seen these before and will certainly be seeking out the book they come from. Here are just a few from the Rolling Stone eight page spread:

Fans from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at Indianapolis airport (Curt Gunther)

Paul photographs Canadian Mounties at Malton Airfield, Toronto (Curt Gunther)

Lennon in bed, King Edward Hotel, Toronto (Curt Gunther)

All the photos above were reproduced in Rolling Stone, but come from the book “Beatles ’64: A Hard Day’s Night in America” released in 1989. Photographs by Curt Gunther, text by A.J.S.Rayl.  There are also some fantastic Gunther images here from the Genesis Books publication “Mania Days: The Beatles 1964 US Tour”

October, 1990 saw Rolling Stone release another special issue. This time it was The Sixties – The Age of the Beatles. And it was an excuse for a psychedelic-look, Beatles-inspired cover:

(October 1990) Issue 448 A Special Issue: The Sixties - The Age of the Beatles

Mikal Gilmore in his feature article “The Sixties” spends a lot of time on the Beatles and their impact throughout that turbulent decade: “In short, the Beatles were a rupture – they changed modern history, and no less craftsman than Bob Dylan understood the meaning of their advent. ‘They were doing things nobody else was doing. But I just kept it to myself that I really dug them. Everybody else thought they were just for the teenyboppers, that they were gonna pass right away. But it was obvious that they had staying power. I knew they were pointing the direction that music had to go….'”.

The final magazine to pop out of the large pile was from November, 1992, issue 476, a 25th Anniversary Special Edition, subtitled “The Great Stories 1967-1992”.

(November 1992) Issue 476 25th Anniversary Special Edition

Like the special Twentieth  Anniversary edition (above) this one contained some of the all-time great articles ever written by Rolling Stone‘s staff writers and contributors over the past quarter of a century. There are pieces on Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Springsteen, Bowie, Van Morrison, REM, Madonna, Neil Young, Michael Jackson and (of course) Bob Dylan, but probably pride of place was given to the now legendary interviews with John Lennon by Jann S. Wenner – a 30,000 word verbal splurge in which the ex-Beatle spoke openly, fully and truthfully about the Beatles and announced their breakup:

The Jann Wenner interview with John Lennon in Issue 476

Originally from Rolling Stone Issues 74 and 75 in 1971, this was Lennon talking about the demise and aftermath of the Beatles as he saw it – for the first time.  You can listen to extracts and read transcripts at Jann Wenner’s own page.

So, that it. An accidental journey through the past through random editions of Rolling Stone magazine – mags that have been hidden away in a cupboard at home for over 17 years…..

McCartney to Concord Records

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Paul McCartney has announced he’s to reissue his extensive post-Beatles catalogue through the independent label, Concord Music. It means that the struggling EMI Group, his former label, misses out on a potentially huge revenue spinner, though they still remain in control of the lucrative Beatles material.

Concord, which started life in 1973 primarily as a jazz label, has previously released McCartney material. In 2007 it was the album Memory Almost Full, and last year it was the CD and DVD standard and deluxe editions of the live performance release Good Evening New York City. Both albums were distributed under the Hear Music brand, a partnership between coffee chain Starbucks and Concord. A fact I wasn’t aware of until I started to research the announcement is that there’s now a strong Australian connection to Concord, and hence a direct connection to Paul McCartney. In 2008 the label merged with Australia’s Village Roadshow Pictures Group. Veteran TV producer and writer, Norman Lear (co-owner of Concord from 1999), is still chairman of the label following the merger.

So, McCartney has turned over his substantial catalogue of about two dozen albums to Concord. The deal includes all his releases from 1970 to 2006.

Concord has announced that the first reissue they’ll produce is 1973’s Band on the Run. The CD is scheduled for an August 2010 release and will be remastered, featuring enhanced packaging and rare bonus tracks.

“I’m always looking for new ways and opportunities to get my music to people and Concord share this passion,” McCartney said of the new deal.

According to the label’s website fans “can expect both physical and digital distribution of gems from solo offerings like McCartney, Ram, Pipes of Peace, Give My Regards to Broad Street, and Flaming Pie, as well as Wings landmarks such as Wildlife and Red Rose Speedway. In addition, the re-releases will include stuff done under McCartney’s pseudonyms: Percy ‘Thrills’ Thrillington, The Fireman and Twin Freaks.”

The Los Angeles Times has a really interesting article about the journey of the Concord label to this point, and how they’ve expanded their stable of artists significantly, including the acquisition of the legendary folk and roots label Rounder Records, and deals with artists as diverse as Macy Gray, John Fogerty, Joni Mitchell, Loudon Wainwright III, Eric Bibb, Stanley Clarke, Carole King and James Taylor.  The company has some well-known record labels in it’s stable, including Milestone Records, Fantasy Records, Pablo, Prestige, Stax and Telarc.

(Sources: Concord Group website; New Music Express; the Gibson website; LA Times; and BBC News)

UPDATE:  New Release Date Announced.

Promo Copy of Sgt. Pepper

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I received a comment/question that’s interesting from a reader named Trina following my Sgt Pepper – Label Variations post .

She wrote asking if I had any information about this album she’d found:

In the photo you can clearly see some stamped text in the top right-hand corner of what looks to be a US vinyl copy of the legendary Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

This is a promotional or “promo” copy of the LP. It originally came out in 1967 – but what Trina has here looks like a much more recent re-issue by the Beatles US record label, Capitol Records.

The stamp on the cover indicates that it was probably sent to a radio station, a record reviewer, or someone in the industry. Masses of these “promo” copies (nowadays usually just CD’s) come in to radio stations all over the world. The record companies send new releases in the hope that they’ll be played or talked about on the radio, or written about and reviewed in newspapers and magazines. However, record company promo copy numbers are dwindling due to the growing use of electronic file transfer of new tracks to radio stations.

Here’s a close up of the wording for this one:

Promo copies usually have a sticker or a stamp that states the record is strictly for promotional purposes only. The record or CD actually remains the property of the record company, and is “not for sale”, though how they actually police this is an interesting question….

Promo copies don’t usually have a serial number on them (like this one does) but I guess that’s an attempt at some form of added security indicating that, if they wanted to, Capital could trace back exactly who they sent this copy to.

A promo copy like this one for the Beatles is pretty rare and would be of interest to a collector – and therefore more valuable than just the standard, store-bought version. It also looks to be in really good condition which is a bonus. It also looks like it still has the plastic sealing on it, and I’d keep it sealed if possible as that also adds to the value. All-in-all a really nice, collectable record!

Here’s a couple of variations of the “promo” warning wording on some Beatles-related CD’s:

On the rear cover of a US interview disc for the Beatles "Love" CD

Sticker on the jewel case for the Australian Beatles CD single "Free As A Bird"

Printed onto the disc of McCartney's UK promo CD single for "The World Tonight"

And finally, a disc which was sent to me mistakenly by Paul McCartney’s record company after I complained I hadn’t received my mail-order copy of the deluxe version of his latest CD “Good Evening New York City”. (Click here for the full story on that one…)

Promo copy of the deluxe version of "Good Evening New York City"

Dezo Hoffmann – The Beatles Conquer America

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I was in Lismore in New South Wales last week (it’s a small-ish Australian country town in the north of the state). Once I’d completed my work business there I had about 40 minutes to spare before my plane home, so I went for a walk around the town’s CBD. You can probably guess that I can’t resist a second hand/old wares shop when I find one. Especially the one I did find, which was advertising “All Books Half Price”.

Inside this store was a treasure trove. Not only are most walls lined chock-full with old books of all sorts, but there’s antique furniture, old toys, art works, advertising signs, glassware, ornaments and all sorts of collectables.

They had a crate of old records and, while there were some interesting things there from other artists, no Beatles or Beatles-related sadly. “Do you have a music section in the books?”, I asked. “Well, we haven’t got much, but its over there.”, said the sales assistant, pointing to my right.

They actually had four Beatles books.  1. A hardback copy (in pretty good condition) of Peter Brown’s book “The Love You Make – An Insider’s Story of the Beatles” (1983);  2. An original paperback of a book based on the film “Help!” (1965) written by Al Hine (in just reasonable condition);  3. An original paperback called “Love Me Do – The Beatles Progress” (1964) by Michael Braun, similar in vintage and condition to the “Help!” book; and 4. “The Beatles Conquer America”, a book of photographs taken by Dezo Hoffmann.

I already have Peter Brown’s book and, while tempting as they are collectable items, the two old paperbacks were not in the greatest condition. Also, even at half price were reasonably expensive. So, I went for the Dezo Hoffmann book:

Front Cover - The Beatles Conquer America

For a book that came out in 1984 it was in almost mint condition. It contains some absolutely fantastic and rare photographs, and at the half-price cost of just A$7.50, it was a bargain addition to the collection. The black and white photographs were all taken between January 14 and February 22, 1964 when Dezo Hoffmann accompanied the Beatles from London to New York, Washington, Miami, and then back to London. It was their first American tour, and the Beatles as a pop phenomenon was really kicking into gear…

Rear cover - The Beatles Conquer America

The book also contains photos from a short tour to Paris prior to the US visit. Dezo Hoffmann was a Beatles insider – having taken an interest in photographing the band from well before their meteoric rise to fame. As such he got unique access – as seen throughout this book. Dezo also writes a short description of the background to each photograph. Here’s a quick flip through just a couple of the pages:

There is very much a “fly on the wall” feel to these photographs. They capture the Beatles at ease and enjoying themselves away from the fans, enjoying performing, and just soaking up the success that was coming their way.

If you don’t think you’ve ever seen a Dezo Hoffman image of the Beatles before, you might know this one:

Click here for a larger image and some official info on this release. In looking around for additional information on Dezo Hoffmann I found an interesting page about how his original shot outside the BBC was manipulated for this now famous cover.

As well as historic photographs, Dezo Hoffmann also took many informal home movies on location with the Beatles:

Time Magazine – The Beatles Final Year

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Time Magazine online is currently running an interesting photo-essay detailing the events surrounding the demise of the world’s greatest band. Click here to see and read their tribute, in this the 40th anniversary since the Beatles split. They say: “The band’s internal feuds boiled over into public view on April 10, 1970, when Paul McCartney announced his intention to leave the group”.

Time also has a special on the Top Ten Band Breakups, of which the Beatles (of course) are number one on the list.

Label Variations Part Three – Versions of McCartney’s Choba B CCCP

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Снова в СССР is Russian for “Back in the USSR”. It’s the title of a Paul McCartney solo effort, originally released on vinyl only in Russia in 1988, and then on CD internationally in 1991.

Original Issue Vinyl – Front Cover. Note placement of the small MPL logo top right next to gold star

It’s an album of rock and roll covers – favourites of McCartney. According to the Wikipedia entry, he intended Снова в СССР as a present for Soviet fans who were generally unable to obtain his legitimate recordings, often having to make do with copies; they would, for a change, have an album that people in other countries would be unable to obtain. Nice idea.

It’s an interesting album to collect in vinyl because there are a number of interesting variations – both on the covers, the labels, and in the number and sequencing of the songs. In a nutshell, the very first pressings are distinguished on the front cover by a small MPL logo, top right next the gold star, plus a distinctive yellow rear cover unique to the very first editions. And it has just 11 tracks…..

Original vinyl – rear cover. Note yellow colour, 11 tracks, and different text layout (including a red “Paul McCartney” in Russian, top left side)

All following vinyl releases have the MPL logo on the front at the bottom right-hand side, come with a plain white rear cover (with different text layout), and have 13 songs (adding the tracks “I’m Gonna Be A Wheel Someday” and “Summertime”).

Second pressing vinyl front cover. Note MPL logo now at bottom right.

Second pressing vinyl rear cover. Note text layout is different, and the big red “Paul McCartney” in Russian is replaced with a note in Russian signed by Paul

Some fans get right into the minutiae of the details of all possible releases. One has detailed every label and cover variation, release dates and even the Russian factories in which they were pressed! As you can see, there are a lot of them. I have five different versions of the LP releases, and the CD. Here are some images of the label variations, starting with the first pressing that came in the cover with the yellow rear:

The original issue Melodiya label. Its red and has no lines

Second pressings of the disc (all released on Melodiya – an affiliate of EMI) have different labels depending on the date they were pressed, and where.

A second pressing example. In red, with single horizontal line

Some of the labels in the second pressing series where white:

Second pressing label. In white, with one horizontal line

Some of the pressings were made at the Melodiya factory in Leningrad (now known as St. Petersburg) and have a silhouette of that famous old city on the label:

Second pressing label variation. In red, with Leningrad skyline (solid) and one thick line under

Here’s another Leningrad variation:

Second pressing variation. In red with Leningrad skyline (open) and two thin lines under

The international CD release didn’t come out until 1991 and has 14 tracks, adding a further song called “I’m In Love Again”:

The 1991 CD cover, misspelling the Russian title as “СНОВА Б СССР” (see the Wikipedia entry for details)

The front cover of the CD release has in place of the MPL logo the words “the Russian album” and what looks to be a small Apple shaped logo with some Russian text I can’t translate on the right-hand side. If anyone knows what this is about please let us know by emailing beatlesblogger@gmail.com or using the Leave a Comment link below. The MPL logo appears on the rear cover. The CD itself looks like this:

Choba B CCCP compact disc artwork

For some more info on Снова в СССР this site is worth a visit. But if you want the absolute last word on all the background to this release and its many label variations you need to go to the the Beatles Russian Vinyl website. There are a couple of pages there – for the first (11 track) version, and also the second (13 track) version.

Also, since this post originally appeared we’ve been able to add a couple more label variations to our own collection.

See also: Label Variations Part One: Sgt Pepper

See also: Label Variations Part Two: Let It Be