It all seems timed to coincide with the release of a new children’s book, which in turn is adapted from the Academy Award winning animated short film of the same name that Sean Ono Lennon was involved in…….
Anyways, on the official John Lennon store site they’ve just announced a very special 12″ Zoetrope disc featuring the songs ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (Ultimate Mix)’ and ‘Listen, The Snow Is Falling (Ultimate Mix)’ on side one, and on side two ‘War Pigeon/A Game Of Chess/A Sudden Interruption/Then Peace’, from the soundtrack to the War Is Over! animated film, composed by Thomas Newman (who has done everything from The Shawshank Redemption to Finding Nemo, two Bond films Skyfall and Spectre, to 1917 and Elemental). Suffice it to say he is up there with the best! This is the first time soundtrack music from War Is Over! has been available on a physical format.
The 12” Zoetrope picture disc is designed by Drew Tetz using still frames from the film, and features (on the front outer title sticker) an illustration by Max Narciso from the children’s book adaptation.
The disc is 180g and cut at 45rpm, and comes in a PVC clear sleeve with a title sticker featuring the credits.
It looks very cool and is set to become a definite collectors item.
Meanwhile, the team at Dark Horse Records has announced yet another pre-Christmas release. This is in addition to the three titles announced for Black Friday Record Store Day.
It’s another Yusuf/Cat Stevens back-catalogue title Tell ‘Em I’m Gone, and it will be on yellow vinyl:
The album was produced by Rick Rubin and sees Yusuf exploring some of his bluesier influences, tapping into musical traditions that have informed his own work. Fans of Cat Stevens will know that Leadbelly has always been one of his favourite artists and alongside the album’s original compositions Tell ‘Em I’m Gone contains covers of songs dear to him such as Edgar Winter’s ‘Dying To Live’, Luther Dixon/Al Smith’s ‘Big Boss Man’, and a bluesy reworking of the Jimmie Davies/Charles Mitchell song ‘You Are My Sunshine’. Interesting stuff. The album is available for pre-sale now and is released on December 5.
George Harrison’s song ‘Be Here Now’ has been named theRSD Song of the Year for 2025’s Record Store Day on April 12.
To celebrate the honor, a double A-Side 12” Single of ‘Be Here Now’ will be released featuring the 2024 mix of George’s original version. The flip-side will contain Beck’s recent cover of the track. Proceeds will go to the Material World Foundation.
It’s another hefty RSD for the Dark Horse label. It will also release a limited Zoetrope picture disc pressing of George’s All Things Must Pass. It is the next part in the plan to eventually issue Zoetrope picture disc pressings of George’s entire studio album catalogue:
The limited edition 3LP Zoetrope set will be the third title in this RSD series and follows Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound from 2024. Like them, All Things Must Pass will come in an individually numbered sleeve.
The Lennon Estate has also entered the RSD fray. They’re no strangers to using Record Store Day to give publicity to other projects they have on the go (see our article “Record Store Day and The Beatles – A History” for proof of this over many years).
This time it’s the turn of the new documentary film One to One: John & Yoko which looks at the couple’s life in 1970’s New York, exploring their musical, personal, artistic, social, and political world. Directed by Kevin Macdonald and set in 1972, the film has at it’s core the story of The One to One Concerts, John Lennon’s only full-length performances after The Beatles, accompanied by Yoko Ono, The Plastic Ono Band, Elephant’s Memory and a range of special guests. Together they headlined two historic benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The performances, held before a combined audience of 40,000 people, raised over $1.5 million to support schoolchildren with special needs.
The film has newly remastered and remixed sound from those concerts, produced by Sean Ono Lennon and mixed and engineered from the original tapes by Paul Hicks and Sam Gannon and for RSD 2025 they’re releasing what is described as an “extremely limited edition” 12″ EP featuring four tracks from the afternoon and evening concerts, including three previously unreleased performances. The EP is pressed on 180g yellow vinyl.
Apologies, but we’re a little slow of the mark with the Record Store Day 2024 news from last week. However, it has given us a bit more time to research and hopefully provide a few more details – so here goes.
First up, from Apple Records is another unique format first for The Beatles. It is a tiny The Beatles Limited Edition RSD3 Turntable, featuring a Beatle-branded dustcover and turntable facing. Each turntable is Bluetooth-enabled and housed in a Beatles’ box that includes four super small 3″ records featuring the four songs they performed 60 years ago on The Ed Sullivan Show: ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘Til There Was You’, ‘She Loves You’, and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. Each record is housed in an outer box and comes in a picture sleeve. There is also a poster for each. The package also includes a bright yellow Beatle-branded carrying case, which can hold up to ten 3” records. These little discs apparently play at 331/3 rpm.
If you don’t want the record player, the four 3″ singles will be sold separately, also housed in an outer box, with a picture sleeve and poster. The records only have music on one side:
The concept of these 3″ singles and their accompanying tiny record player have been around for a while (think the Foo Fighters, The White Stripes, or The Doors as recently as last year for RSD). However, they represent a limited format The Beatles have not yet embraced, making them a bit like those cards from last year containing special editions of the Red and Blue albums for kids to play on their Yoto players. So they could potentially reach a whole new younger audience. If you want to get an idea of just how small the turntable and discs are check out this Youtube unboxing.
Next up, from the John Lennon camp, comes a 4 track, 12″ EP teaser for the forthcoming Mind Games Ultimate Mixes box sets – due in June. Two versions of this will be available – one on “glow-in-the-dark” 140g luminous vinyl, and one described as “black ‘audiophile’ 180g vinyl”:
Gotta say the cover for the EP is great. The track list is:
Side A: 1. Mind Games (Ultimate Mix) 2. I’m The Greatest (Ultimate Mix) – feat. George Harrison & Ringo Starr
Side B: 3. Aisumasen (I’m Sorry) (Ultimate Mix) 4. You Are Here (Outtake, Take 5)
Ringo Starr will have an RSD 12″ 45 EP called Crooked Boy available on exclusive black & white marble vinyl – and also in a really cool cover:
Written and produced by Songwriter’s Hall Of Famer Linda Perry, Crooked Boy features four brand-new tracks from Ringo. The EP also includes guitar performances on every song from Nick Valensi of The Strokes.
On a recent video Ringo showed the inside cover:
And a quick shot of what looks like a green vinyl edition. Maybe that is coming later?
Zoetrope picture discs seem to be all the rage this RSD. There are no fewer than nine LPs being released, including artists like Blur, Marc Bolan and T.Rex, Fatboy Slim, Lily Allen, and even one from Doctor Who.
What is a Zoetrope Picture disc? They look fantastic spinning on a turntable. Have a look at this YouTube from last year of Blur’s ‘The Ballad of Darren (Zoetrope Vinyl)’:
Dark Horse Records and Record Store Day have announced a multi-year partnership to release limited Zoetrope picture disc pressings of George Harrison’s entire studio album catalogue. The first two titles in the RSD exclusive series – Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound – will be available on Record Store Day in April 2024. Limited to 8,000 units globally and exclusive to Record Store Day, each is individually numbered in silver foil and will include an insert reproducing the original artwork. The front cover will look like this – with a cut-out window showing off the LP plus a hype sticker and limited edition numbering also on show:
As mentioned there’ll be an insert in each LP with the original cover artwork included:
Dark Horse is once again extremely busy this RSD. They’ll also have out a 25th anniversary edition of Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros’Rock Art & The Ex-Ray Style, the debut album by the band in a limited pink vinyl Record Store Day exclusive 2LP pressing. The remastered 1999 album, which was Strummer’s first album release in a decade, is spread over 2 LP’s for optimal sound quality, and the original gatefold artwork by Damien Hirst will be meticulously reproduced:
One obscure Dark Horse release can be found only on the US RSD list as a Limited Run/ Regional Focus release with only 800 copies made. Its an album called Dreamers In The Field by Huun-Huur-Tu, Carmen Rizzo and Dhani Harrison:
From Wikipedia: Huun-Huur-Tu are from Tuva, a Russian federative republic situated on the Mongolia–Russia border. Their music includes throat singing, in which the singers sing both a note and its overtones, thus producing two or three notes simultaneously. The overtone may sound like a flute, whistle or bird, but is solely a product of the human voice. They also play traditional Tuvan instruments. However, in recent years, the group have begun to selectively incorporate Western instruments and electronic music.
Carmen Rizzo is an American record producer, mixer, programmer, DJ, remixer and recording artist. A two-time Grammy nominee, he’s worked with Seal, Coldplay, Dido, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Pete Townshend. In addition to collaborating with Huun Huur Tu, Rizzo co-founded the world/electronic act Niyaz with Azam Ali and Loga Ramin Torkian (with three #1 iTunes albums). He’s released his own solo electronic albums too, so this RSD release looks to be an eclectic sound mix!
And lastly, on the UK and Australian RSD sites, there are two Dark Horse Yusuf/Cat Stevens LP re-issues listed (….can’t seem to find these on the US list).
They are (from 1975) Numbers on black vinyl LP – which will be limited to 2,000 units globally, and reissued for RSD with a lenticular gatefold cover. Included will be a reproduction of the original 16-page book with lyrics and illustrations:
And also (from 1977) Izitso – again, limited to 2,000 units globally and presented in a lenticular gatefold cover:
So, a lot of product from Dark Horse for RSD 2024…..
Image (from l to r): Dhani Harrison and Yusuf with David Zonshine (Dark Horse) and Yoriyos Adamos (Yusuf’s son and manager) at F.P.S.H.O.T.
A number of digital back catalogue albums were almost immediately put up on the Dark Horse releases site indicating they were now available on streaming services. These are all what might be considered his second tier works, definitely not his top-selling LPs. So the wait has been on to see what new content from Yusuf/Cat Stevens might be made available for the first time – and on physical media.
In March the label made this announcement about a brand new studio work and now the wait for that release is almost over because next month (June 16) sees King Of A Land issued on Dark Horse:
The album’s artwork is created by award-winning Canadian children’s illustrator Peter H. Reynolds. As well as the cover art he has created illustrations for each song portraying the album’s lyrical themes in an accompanying 36 page booklet. The vinyl and booklet are housed in a gatefold sleeve.
Dark Horse, with it’s direct association with founder George Harrison, seems to be a natural home for Yusuf. “George has been an immense influence on me, spiritually, from the very beginning. He pioneered certain thoughts and ideas, which stretched way east, and that was very important. He was beginning to explore Eastern mysticism around the time I was hospitalised with TB, in 1968. Lying in bed, I had a lot of time on my hands and ended up reading a Buddhist book called The Secret Path. That was the beginning of my own search for the light.”
“Looking at the jagged journey of my music, beginning as I did in the 60’s, I would say this new record is a mosaic. A very clearly defined description of where I’ve been and who I am.”
In welcoming the singer to the Dark Horse Record label, Dhani Harrison said “I’m thrilled to welcome Yusuf/Cat Stevens to the Dark Horse Records family. Not only is he a great musical legend but his songs could not fit the Dark Horse mythos any better. From his back catalogue, through to the new music we can’t wait for you to hear. Yusuf is without question one of the most influential singer-songwriters of all time. It is a great honour to be able to give his music a home on our humble yet historic label.”
Yusuf has started to tease King Of A Land with some very charming lyric videos:
King Of A Land sounds like it could be something special, very reminiscent of his early 1970’s work. Definitely looking forward to this one.
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