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):
Then came a copy of the BeatlesRock and Roll Music single (1965):
These next few have the release date displayed on the label:
This next one, Yoko Ono’s Walking on Thin Ice (1981) comes in a picture cover:
All the above are Australian pressings (except the John and YokoHappy 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:
I’ll keep it – in the hope of finding the correct record to go inside it one day….
A couple of weeks ago we were contacted by a Spanish publishing company called Hércules de Ediciones. They’ve just released an e-Book called At John Lennon’s House, by a woman named Rosaura López Lorenzo.
Rosaura was born in Spain but became the Lennon’s housekeeper at the Dakota Building in New York – a job she did for just on four years.
It should be said up-front that in writing this book financial profit was the last thing on Rosaura’s mind. She says on more than one occasion that she’s not doing it for any ulterior motives. After all, Rosaura kept her unique story quiet for nearly 25 years. It was only following a chance meeting with the journalist who helped her write down her story that she finally agreed to share her experiences with the rest of the world.
When Rosaura first began work in Apartment 72 in the Dakota building she was completely unaware of the real significance and impact of Beatlemania. As a result she writes in a totally unaffected manner, and genuinely from the heart. She also says that she had Yoko Ono’s blessing to tell her story, and you have to believe her – such is her honesty in recounting what she experienced working in the Lennon’s Dakota apartments. Yes, that’s plural. One of the things we learn is that they owned and occupied at least four separate dwellings in the building. Here’s a photograph of Rosaura standing outside the Dakota:
Many people would know about John’s time in the US in the late 70s. He’d retreated from public life. He’d all but retired from the music business. He was living happily and quietly in New York, bringing up his new baby son Sean, baking bread, and living the simple life. And we learn that it was Rosaura who taught him how to bake. Born and raised in the Spanish town of Pontevedra in Galicia, she grew up in a bakery and really knew what she was doing. She recalls John saying that making bread to the ancient European tradition made him feel calm and peaceful. It’s simple observations like these which make this book so intriguing and endearing.
At the back of the book are many pages filled with photographs of Rosaura Lopez and her family. There are postcards and Christmas cards sent to her over the years by the Lennon’s. And there are many photographs of her interacting with John, Yoko, Sean, and Julian Lennon, too.
Rosaura left the employ of John and Yoko abruptly, shortly before John’s murder in 1980. She says she was sacked by Yoko after a vicious spate of rumours spread about her by another nanny keen to get her own relatives employed in the house. Rosaura didn’t get the chance to explain or defend herself for eight years. It was a chance meeting on the streets of New York which brought her face-to-face once again with Yoko. That meeting opened the opportunity for a rapprochement. Later that day the two got to talk for hours and to finally make good a wrongful dismissal. This part of the story is told in full in the book.
Rosaura’s memoir has been available since 2005, but only in Spanish (as En Casa de John Lennon):This new English e-Book translation will bring her story to many new readers. In the hundreds of thousands of words written about John Lennon here is a genuinely new and different examination from someone on the very inside of the Lennon household.
I have been browsing through the book and enjoying it a lot. It’s a very interesting and sweet little book and not at all voyeuristic. Rosaura has achieved an honest and open account of a unique period in her life – working for one of the most famous families in the world. She does it with integrity. It is well worth a read.
If you have Apple iBooks you can download At the House of John Lennon in English at iTunes here.
It is also available as a Kindle book on Amazon here.
OK. In Part One I detailed the four main record stores I was able to visit while in San Fran.
Now some detail on what I found and brought home to join the collection. Firstly, the vinyl.
At Rasputin Music on Powell (near Union Square) I found a very clean copy of George Harrison’sLiving in the Material World. It was a US pressing I didn’t have – a budget re-issue on the green Capitol label:As you can see, it’s a nice clean copy and the vinyl is mint.
Also at Rasputin there were two Ringo Starr LP’s I liked the look of and they were both very reasonably priced. I have Australian pressings of both of these, but good US copies like these were a welcome addition to the collection. They are both on the Apple label and original throughout. This gatefold copy of Ringo (1973) was complete with its book of lyrics and wonderful line drawings by Klaus Voormann (who also played bass on the album):
The Fab 4 Free 4 AllBeatle podcast recently reviewed the Ringo album and raved about it (see episode 60, “Ringo” – Analysis and Review). Also at Rasputin was a copy of Ringo’sBlast From Your Past which came with the original inner sleeve of photos on one side and lyrics on the other:
Later in the week I got over to the Haight-Ashbury district were there were three stores in close proximity (Recycled, Rasputin and Amoeba – all on Haight Street).
The first I visited was Recycled Records. They had some vintage Beatles LP’s, but to be honest they were fairly expensive….and so I concentrated on the Beatles as solo artists. I’ve always been keen on collecting variations of Paul McCartney’s “Russian” album called Choba B CCCP. Well, Recycled was a bit of a treasure trove as they have numerous copies in their bins and tucked away underneath on shelves. There were thirty to forty copies in all, and so I set about identifying some versions I didn’t have. There are so many variations of this particular record because it came out firstly as an 11-track album, followed later by a 13-track version. And they were pressed in about six different Russian pressing plants, each with its own label styles and variations (sometimes subtle) within those labels. I turned up four distinct copies I wanted, and they were all very reasonably priced (between US$6.00-$10.00 each). There was one 11-track version (from the Aprelevka pressing plant), two 13-track versions (Tbilisi plant and Riga plant), and one “hybrid” that had an 11-track cover but a 13-track LP inside (which I didn’t realise until I got home). Both the cover and LP are from the same factory (the Riga plant) so I’m not sure if this is legit or just a mistake….
The rear cover of the 11-track version is identified by its yellow colour:
However, this one has a 13-track LP inside – on a plain white Melodyia Records label, made at the Riga pressing plant where the cover was made too:
So. A mystery there. If anyone knows if any other copies like this exist let me know. These are the labels from the other copies of Choba B CCCP purchased at Recycled:
Of course for the full detail on all Russian Beatle and Beatle-related vinyl releases you need to visit this one, fantastic central repository.
Further down Haight Street is another Rasputin Music store and so I ducked in for a look. No vintage Beatles here, but lots of copies of the latest remastered vinyl at good prices. I did find an interesting re-issue copy of the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’sLive Peace in Toronto LP however, complete with a reproduction of the 1970 calendar which was included with original copies. It is brand new, still sealed, looked like a good buy and so I got it:
I think this re-issue was released in 2012 through a company called Hi Horse Records (which is a subsidiary of City Hall Records). It’s on the original Apple label and has the same SW 3362 catalogue number. If anyone has any other info on this one it would be very welcome. Please drop us a line.
Then it was on to Amoeba Music’s Haight Street store – which is an enormous warehouse of a building with thousands of LP’s, CD’s and books…however, not a lot of vintage Beatles on display here either, but two very good vinyl buys none-the-less. The first was Paul McCartney’s first solo LP simply called McCartney. It is a US copy, a re-issue in very good condition and on the black Capitol label:
And last but not least a really nice copy – practically mint throughout – of George Harrison’sTheConcert for Bangladesh. I already have an Australian and an unusual South African pressing of this, but have been on the lookout for a good UK copy, and of course a US example as well, which is what we have here. Amoeba had this priced at just US$14.99, which for a triple album set in such excellent condition was an absolute bargain. It came with a mint copy of the original 64-page book, and all the LPs were housed in their original brown paper inner sleeves:
So, that was a quick summary of the vinyl found in four San Francisco record stores during a short visit there last week. Next time a look at the CD’s and DVD’s I found and added to the collection.
I was in Armidale, NSW (Australia) last week and managed (in between work meetings) to duck out to the recycled book and record store in town. I picked up a nice, used copy of book which looks to be a companion to the Rolling Stone magazine book I found earlier this year in Sydney about George Harrison. It’s similar in style and scope, only this time the editors of Rolling Stone have John Lennon and Yoko Ono as their focus:
This is the paperback edition and it came out in 1982. The book details (from the pages of Rolling Stone over the period 1967 to 1980) the love, the life and the activities of John and Yoko. It looks to be a fantastic compendium of some of the best writing about the pair as individuals, as a couple, and of course John as a member of the Beatles.
There are some great colour and black and white photos throughout, some of which I’d not seen before – like this one of Yoko.
The photograph above is an interesting composition. As you look at it you realise those are John’s hands.
Articles by the likes of Jonathan Cott, Jann S. Wenner, and Chet Flippo; photos by Annie Leibovitz; and a section just called “Remembering John” – with contributions from Gerry Marsden, Ray Charles, Joan Baez, Jim Keltner, David Geffen, Bobby Keyes, Carly Simon Norman Mailer, Chuck Berry, Mick Jagger and Harry Nilsson – to name just a few. It is going to be a very interesting read.
Since the last instalment we’ve been swamped with some great content – enough for at least two or three more posts featuring the Beatles (or people close to them) photographed or filmed with records or CDs – either their own or those of other artists.
This first one comes from beatlesblogger.com reader Ariel, who sent in this great YouTube clip of John Lennon and Yoko Ono strolling past a crowd of reporters and photographers:
The footage was clearly taken in 1970 when John and Yoko were publicising this Plastic Ono Band album:
The footage comes from a 1977 film by French film-maker Gérard Courant, whose website says of the film: “The year punk music exploded, Courant gave his most avant-garde outburst by relating for the first time the shattering experiences that took place in the second half of the 20th century…with the rock culture that clamored that same idea of rupture…”. Lennon and Ono can also be seen publicising the same LP in Part Five and also in Part Two.
Staying with John Lennon for a moment here’s an image sent in by Andrey in Russia of the Lennon’s in New York – holding court with assembled media and hangers-on in their apartment in February, 1972 in Greenwich Village:
There’s obviously a record you can see sitting there at the foot of the bed:
But what and who is it? I was having real trouble identifying this one. Well, thanks to Andrey’s Russian-speaking friends we’ve been able to find that LP. He asked one of the Beatles.ru forums for some help. Which artist could it be? Andrey says he got the answer in about ten minutes:
The Power Pop website says that the group Soup was from Wisconsin in the USA and the members were Doug Yankus, Rob Griffith and David Faas . The band released a self-titled album in 1970, however what we can see here is the bands second LP, The Album Soup, from 1971. How it came to the attention of John Lennon, and what he thought of it we’ll probably never know.
Continuing on the Lennon theme – this time with Yoko and a gentleman named Kristofer Englehardt, author of the book “The Beatles Undercover“, holding a copy of her solo LP from 1971 called Fly:
In Part Six there’s a terrific photo of George Harrison in the back of a limo holding up a copy of his All Things Must Pass LP. Here’s another good one from around the same time:
Could it be that this photo below was taken on the same day and location? It looks very much like the same shirt George is wearing above. Perhaps he’s playing one of the sides from All Things Must Pass on his record player at home?
One final shot of George taken in 1972 according to the caption, this time with his triple LP from 1971 The Concert for Bangladesh:
When you are Paul McCartney, just getting into a building you are visiting can have it’s challenges. The photo below shows the type of crush which can eventuate when everyone wants a photograph or an album signed – including one fan bravely holding up a copy of the 1988 Russian release Снова в СССР:
Here he is again – this time with fans thrusting forward copies of (amongst other things) Help! and Tug of War (you can see the cover of Tug of War at the very bottom right-hand side of the photo):
One other final shot of Paul holding a 45 single, this time with Ringo and John. It is what is reported as a test acetate recording (printed in limited quantities and used by the band and engineers for checking the quality and the mix) – it is supposedly of a song from Sgt Pepper:
There’s another photo from the studio on the same day below – from a different angle with George also in attendance and more acetates lined up on the piano:
One final photo for this instalment – again of the Beatles as a group and possibly arriving in Rome. I say that because the gentleman in the light coloured jacket, moustache and glasses (who is a fellow named Alf Bicknell – the Beatles chauffeur between 1964-1966) is holding a copy of the Italian version of A Hard Day’s Night. You can tell it’s the Italian cover of the LP because the large type across the top saying “The BEATLES” is distinctively different to the standard UK release:
Thanks to all those who have sent in content and further information. You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7 , 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 and 17.
In Label Variations Part Eight an unusual New Zealand Parlophone label version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” was featured.
I’ve stumbled across another from NZ – this time Lennon’s anguished drug withdrawal song “Cold Turkey“, performed by the Plastic Ono Band. It’s definitely original and as you can see pretty beat up, but interesting I guess – especially for one particular reason which will be revealed later:
It is in it’s original New Zealand Parlophone bag – very faded, but the rear side is interesting with it’s groovy “Young Internationals” advertisement for Air New Zealand (only $397.50 one-way to Singapore or Hong Kong!):
The main point of interest though is the black and yellow Parlophone label:
The printing on the A-side is kind of faded and difficult to read because the silver-coloured lettering does not stand out well on the black background. Like the UK edition, this 45 rpm single carries the catalogue number APPLES 1001, and as in other markets around the world the flip-side is the Yoko Ono song “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)”. However, this New Zealand pressing has a spelling mistake. It clearly says “Don’t Worry Kajoko”, and it has no sub-title printed on the label:
Some people quite like collecting label printing mistakes and so this makes it interesting as well. The spelling should be “Don’t Worry Kyoko….”:
Here are some other label variations from around the world, starting with Australia:
These images following aren’t from my collection but gleaned from the web. Here are two different variations from Brazil:
The original UK version looked like this:
And the US and Canadian versions:
Here’s one variation from Germany, followed by one from the Netherlands:
And since posting this I’ve been contacted by Claude Defer in France with two French variations. He says: “In France, we have 2 types of labels : the first one has «Cold Turkey» on the white part of the apple and the second one has «Cold Turkey» on the green part of the apple. The first one was probably a misprint and the second one fixed it.”:
Also, Andrey in Russia sent another France variation which is very similar to the one above, just a greener Apple:
If you have any other label variations you would like to share please email me.
Visiting my local discount bookstore again this week turned up this interesting read – “The Art and Music of John Lennon” – by Peter Doggett.
Peter Doggett writes a Beatles blog called You Never Give Me Your Money, which is also the title of a book he released in 2009/10, a critically-acclaimed history of why the Beatles split, and what happened over the next 40 years. Doggett knows his stuff. He’s the author of a number of books, and was the editor of the famous and respected “Record Collector” magazine between 1983 and 1999. He’s a regular contributor to “Mojo” magazine as well.
This updated edition of “The Art and Music of John Lennon” (published in 2005) includes additional material, some of it discovered and released after John Lennon’s death. The book aims to be a complete catalogue and history of Lennon’s work as a musician, writer and artist – a definitive portrait. It includes details on each then available officially released recording; a UK and US discography; details on home demo recordings from the early Beatle years onwards; studio out-takes; live recordings; collaborations with other artists and interview material.
The book also examines Lennon’s non-musical work: his films from “How I Won the War” to the avant-garde work he did with Yoko Ono and on to more recent documentaries, videos and promotional clips. There’s a complete catalogue of writings from “A Spaniard in the Works”, prose and poetry, and letters to magazines and friends, as well as artwork, erotic lithographs and other drawings and paintings.
There are also some great photographs inside, some of which I’ve never seen before, like the one on the lower right-hand side taken at Tittenhurst Park:
(click on the image to see a larger version)
If you want to see a bit more of the book, Amazon has one of those “Look Inside“ the book pages with more.
I was fortunate recently to visit Paris, France and while there of course I had to have a snoop around for Beatle books and records. I had a couple of successes and over the next couple of blog posts I’ll detail what I found there….
In Paris there is a fantastic chain of discount bookstores called Gilbert Jeune:
They have a number of outlets all around the Place Saint-Michel, right across the road from the River Seine and just near where we stayed. In one of the stores they were stocking a number of Beatle and Beatle-related titles and I very much liked the look of this one:
“John Lennon – Une Vie en Images” translates roughly as “John Lennon – A Life in Images”. This is a large format softback book – very thick and heavy and printed on quality paper. The text by John Blaney is in French but as the book is largely made up of photographs of John Lennon that’s not so much of a drawback for me (I don’t speak French!). It actually makes this book a little more unusual and interesting if anything.
John Blaney comes with some cred. He’s a contributor to Shindig magazine and has written extensively on the Beatles, and Lennon and McCartney as solo artists. His books include “Paul McCartney – The Songs He Was Singing”; “John Lennon – Listen to this Book”; “Lennon and McCartney: Together Alone”; and “Beatles For Sale: How Everything They Touched Turned to Gold”. (You can read more about Blaney on his Amazon author page).
Amazon also carries this review of “John Lennon – Une Vie en Images” from the Booklist site: “Although this biography-in-photographs appears in conjunction with the thirtieth anniversary of John Lennon’s tragic death at 40, it concentrates on what Yoko Ono describes in her preface as her husband’s “magical” life. While Ono remembers Lennon as a “curious and highly intelligent man,” Blaney writes of Lennon’s “butterfly mind,” shorthand for his brilliance and impatience. In his extensive commentary accompanying hundreds of remarkably elegant private and public photographs, Blaney notes that while the always-photogenic Lennon appears to be “a confident, happy, normal young boy,” everyone knew he was exceptional. Creative, charismatic, ambitious, daring, and sensitive, Lennon concealed his terrible grief over his mother’s death when he was 17 behind a caustic and aggressive demeanor and struggled with his repressed feelings as the tempest of fame engulfed the Beatles. Image and narrative track the group’s rapid rise and evolution and Lennon’s discovery of his soul mate. Blaney writes, “Ono transformed Lennon; she filled him with confidence, inspiration and energy.” This superior photographic record of Lennon and his and Ono’s love, activism, and mutual artistry is strikingly romantic and poignant.” — Donna Seaman
Amazon has a “Look Inside” page for the English version of this book. It gives a much better idea of the great photos, layout and content.
Further research when I got back home revealed that this book has also been published in English, but with the title “John Lennon – In His Life”:
It was published in Germany as “Being John Lennon – The Visual Biography”:
And in Italian as well, this time with the title “John Lennon – A Revolution in Music”:
The French edition is a nice addition to the collection and a great memento of my first visit to Paris. Next post will feature some more French Beatle finds….
I’m usually not a big fan nor collector of Beatles cover versions. But I must admit that when I first saw this CD cover I was intrigued:
It’s a Lennon reinterpretation that is very worthy of further investigation. Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell is one of the world’s great musicians – as the small sticker on the front of this CD proclaims:
While he’s been around a long time I only became aware of Bill Frisell relatively recently when Elvis Costello teamed up with veteran composer and arranger Burt Bacharach in 1998 to produce an album of new songs called “Painted From Memory”. Both Costello and Bacharach are favorites and this album is great. The interesting thing about their project is that they gave all their new songs to guitarist Bill Frisell very early in the process to create his own jazz versions of their new work. As a result he released his album “The Sweetest Punch” almost simultaneously with their “Painted From Memory” disc. Quite unusual in the music business. I got both “Painted From Memory” and “The Sweetest Punch” back then and have enjoyed them immensely since…..hence my interest in the work of one Bill Frisell.
Then, late in 2011 came this record – “All We Are Saying” – Frisell plays Lennon. Naturally I was interested to hear how it sounded – and was lucky enough to be given it as a Christmas present from my son:
As you can see from the rear cover song-list, Frisell does a wide range of Lennon compositions from the Beatles days (both early and late), through to the Plastic Ono Band, Lennon’s early solo work, and right up to songs from the final John Lennon/Yoko Ono album “Double Fantasy”.
The cover art is also interesting. Inside the gatefold digipac it’s revealed that the project has the blessing of Yoko Ono and the Lennon Estate because they have officially licensed the cover art which is a John Lennon original drawing.
Here’s the detail from the image above:
So – it all looks and feels very original. These are all songs I know well, and the interpretations that Frisell and his band deliver are fresh takes on familiar material. As I say, Beatles cover versions are not my thing – but this album delivers on many levels, not the least being that it comes from an artist who respects and loves the originals.
Now in its 40th year – the peace campaign and song by John Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Plastic Ono Band and the Harlem Community Choir.
The single “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)” was released in December, 1971 in the United States (but due to a publishing dispute not until November the following year in the UK and worldwide). Here are some single releases from around the world – not all in my collection! (On most images you can click to see a larger version):
To find out more and to download the original poster in your language and in a range of sizes just click here. And keep praying for peace in the world.
All 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:
Beatles Blog 