Beatles – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Beatles – Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except for Me and My Monkey

I wrote this for Dave’s site for Turntable Talk. He wanted us to write about a song with an animal in the title or lyrics.

This is the Beatles at their most caffeinated, most chaotic, and most cracked. It’s them turning up the thermostat on rock & roll just to see if the walls start to melt. I liked the chaos and music they put to this song. It’s intense and doesn’t let up throughout the song. It’s like a cousin to Helter Skelter, but hopped up on confusion. That said, the song is very tight musically underneath the chaos. This is yet another reason I love the White Album. You have this on the same album as Blackbird and Rocky Raccoon. The Beatles, more than many bands, could adapt to a style of music and play it well.

Lennon sounds giddy, high on something, probably Yoko, maybe drugs, definitely freedom. The monkey might be Yoko. It might be his own self-made madness. Or maybe it’s a giant middle finger to everyone trying to box him in. What was it about? John said he, Yoko, and Paul thought it was drugs. Whatever it was made an interesting recording that still grabs my ear.

The Beatles began working on this song, which continued until 3 a.m. The session was not a keeper, and the tape was to be taped over (EMI saving money), but in 2018, while remastering the album, they found an alternative version of this song that was recorded on the first night. Someone didn’t tape over it. Geoff Emerick, the Beatles’ sound engineer, had said that they recorded this song and Helter Skelter at maximum volume in the studio, and it showed in the final recording.

It has one of my favorite song titles of all time. Chaos reigns in this song, and Paul adds a great short bass run…not to mention a fire bell ringing throughout. Lennon once said it was inspired by something Maharishi Mahesh Yogi would say (Take off your clothes and jump in the water type enlightenment), but by the time it was recorded for the White Album in June ’68, John had already dropped the Maharishi and picked up Yoko Ono.

The White Album was released in 1968 and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Chart, #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and #1 about everywhere else…and it would be #1 as well in Max’s heart.

If you’re looking for one of the most purely energetic cuts in the Beatles’ catalog, something that draws a direct line to punk, garage, and all the future people who liked their rock sweaty and unfiltered, this is your monkey.

John Lennon: About me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love.

Paul McCartney: “He was getting into harder drugs than we’d been into and so his songs were taking on more references to heroin. Until that point we had made rather mild, rather oblique references to pot or LSD. Now John started to be talking about fixes and monkeys and it was a harder terminology which the rest of us weren’t into. We were disappointed that he was getting into heroin because we didn’t really see how we could help him. We just hoped it wouldn’t go too far. In actual fact, he did end up clean but this was the period when he was on it. It was a tough period for John, but often that adversity and that craziness can lead to good art, as I think it did in this case.”

Fats Domino covered this song.

Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey

Come on come on come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on take it easy
Come on take it easy
Take it easy take it easy
Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and
My monkey.

The deeper you go the higher you fly
The higher you fly the deeper you go
So come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on make it easy
Come on make it easy.

Take it easy take it easy
Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and
My monkey.

Your inside is out and your outside is in
Your outside is in and your inside is out
So come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on make it easy
Come on make it easy
Make it easy make it easy
Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and
My monkey.

Beatles – Free As A Bird video

I wrote this for Dave’s Turntable Talk back in April. Now I’m glad I waited to post it myself. The Beatles have remixed the song (along with the Anthology) and smoothed out this great video. This is my favorite post-Beatles song they did.

Dave wanted us to pick a favorite video of theirs and tell us a bit about it, or why they love it.

In the 1990s, I kept reading about the Beatles Anthology coming out and the three surviving Beatles getting back together to release some unheard-of older music as well as new. They would take a John Lennon demo and add something to it. This was beyond exciting for me. I was too young to remember a new Beatles song coming out.

It had an older feel, but sounded modern at the same time. George Harrison’s distorted guitar playing brought an edge to it. It even had a strange ending like some of their other songs. I got an early release of the Anthology CD from a friend of mine who worked in a record store, and he said…don’t tell anyone. I sat glued to Free As a Bird because for once I was listening to a new Beatles song… I was one year old in 1968, so I missed them when they were originally out. I liked the song and still do. I have talked to Beatles fans who don’t really like it that much, but the song has stuck with me. Real Love…the second release didn’t do as much for me because it was basically a solo John Lennon song.

Was Free As a Bird the best song in the Beatles’ catalog? No, not even close but just to hear something new was fantastic. The Anthology videos and CDs jump-started their popularity all over again…and it hasn’t stopped since then. I had cousins who were teenagers at the time who never had an interest in them until Anthology came out. All I could say to them was…I’ve told you for years.

The video of Free As a Bird is fantastic and still my favorite music video. It told their history through the different eras of their career. Every time I watch it I always notice something I didn’t notice before. I just wish they would go in now (and they did!) and smooth it out. In some spots, it can be a bit bitmappy, but it’s still great.

Apple Corps commissioned the services of Joe Pytka, well-known in the U.S. industry for his TV commercials. His task was to assemble a video based on Iyrical themes from the band’s songbook.

‘Free As A Bird’ was the result of discussions between Pytka and his team, the three Beatles and Neil Aspinall, who agreed that archive film of the band members should be added into new footage shot in Liverpool, London and Los Angeles, bringing to life song titles like ‘Paperback Writer’, ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘She’s Leaving Home’.

Though the video has been described as a “post-production nightmare”, producer Vincent Joliet is more upbeat about the project. “It wasn’t easy but we did exactly what we set out to do. There weren’t many surprises on our part,” he said.

Location work began in Liverpool on October 23rd 1995. Joliet comments: “We shot the location scenes knowing that something was going to be added later. We had to find the right footage. With the accident scene, for example, we selected the best take and then looked at all the old footage for the shots of John’s head and body movements that would fit best. The post-production itself took about three weeks from the moment we finished the location shoots to the moment we delivered the tapes.“

Little did he know that day in 1977 when John made a demo of a song idea on a cheap cassette recorder… it would be a future Beatle song. Not to mention that the tape itself would be part of the song.

The song did win a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal…

After reading the mixed reactions, one thing dawned on me. The Beatles did the right thing by not reuniting when John was alive. There is no way they could have made anything that would have lived up to the expectations of everyone…You cannot compete against a memory because you lose every time… But yea… I still would have loved to hear it.

Here is the new version of the video. Still not perfect but, it looks MUCH better!

Here is a cheat sheet from Beatlesagain.com

BEATLE REFERENCES IN “FREE AS A BIRD” VIDEO

***Obvious references***

:07 - portraits of Beatles as children on mantle (from left to right,

      John, George, Paul. Ringo in front)

:14 - more portraits (left to right, Paul, John, Ringo, George)

:38 - Beatles walk through dock workers

:48 - Cavern Club (club where Beatles played many shows before becoming

      famous)

:52 - Beatles performing at Cavern Club

1:06 - Strawberry Field ("Strawberry Fields Forever")

1:18 - Eggman appears ("I Am the Walrus")

1:27 - Beatles begin to walk off curb behind eggman

1:33 - Pretty nurse selling poppies from tray ("Penny Lane")

1:42 - Barber shop, with pictures of every head he's had the pleasure

       to know, including the Fab Four ("Penny Lane")

1:47 - Sign on wall reads "Help" ("Help!")

1:49 - Boy holds up hand to whisper to girl ("Do You Want to Know

       a Secret?")

1:50 - Ringo jumps from doorway

1:54 - Beatles stand by car

1:56 - Window has Beatles montage. First third looks like

       Anthology 1 cover.  Other panels may be covers of other two

       volumes. [They Are, ed.]

2:02 - Birthday cake ("Birthday")

2:02 - Cake has a 6 and a 4 on it ("When I'm Sixty-Four")

2:07 - George appears on street

2:13 - George walks into office (In reality, Apple headquarters) with

       sign that reads "Dr. Robert" ("Dr. Robert")

2:18 - Ringo runs by

2:22 - John in crowd scene at car wreck, craning neck while others

       turn away ("A Day in the Life")

2:26 - Car wreck of Tara Browne ("A Day in the Life" definitely, "Don't Pass Me By"

       possibly)

2:27 - Fire engine ("Penny Lane")

2:29 - Policemen in a row ("I Am the Walrus")

2:32 - Fireman ("Penny Lane")

2:38 - Helter Skelter slide (It looks like a lighthouse, but you can

       see the slide circling the building. "Helter Skelter," of course.)

2:38 - Kite ("Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite")

2:42 - Children run by in pig masks ("Piggies")

2:43 - Someone enters house through window from ladder ("She Came in

       Through the Bathroom Window")

2:51 - Writer working at desk ("Paperback Writer")

2:54 - Beatles walk behind children in pig masks (It's small, but it's

       obvious it's them)

3:05 - Beatles on TV

3:06 - John sitting in chair

3:08 - Copy of Daily Mail on table ("Paperback Writer")

3:08 - Bowl of green apples (reference to Apple Corps, Ltd.)

3:08 - Box of Savoy Truffles sits on table (kind of hard to make out,

       but that's what it says: "Savoy Truffle")

3:10 - Picture of Chairman Mao in window ("Revolution")

3:13 - Workers repairing hole in roof ("Fixing a Hole")

3:13 - Blue Meanie pops his head through hole (the film

       "Yellow Submarine")

3:18 - Newspaper taxi appears ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds")

3:22 - Woman leaves home ("She's Leaving Home")

3:22 - Picture of Mao being carried across street ("Revolution"

       definitely, "Carry That Weight" possibly)

3:22 - John and Yoko waltz by (taken from film "Let It Be" and

       probably representing "The Ballad of John and Yoko.")

3:23 - Blue Meanie pops head up from out of sewer (the film

       "Yellow Submarine")

3:25 - Magical Mystery Tour bus passes in far background (Hard to see,

       but it's there)

3:31 - Big game hunter leads procession, including elderly lady and

       elephant, out of party ("The Continuing Adventures of Bungalow

       Bill," who always went hunting with his elephant and gun and

       always took his mum.)

3:33 - Ringo at table near door

3:45 - Brian Epstein begins to put on his scarf

3:47 - Head of Stu Sutcliffe on body of James Dean from "Sgt Pepper"

       cover

3:48 - Flowers, drum and tuba from "Sgt Pepper" cover

3:49 - H.G. Wells and Lawrence of Arabia from "Sgt Pepper" cover

       chat (I know other guests are supposed to be rest of people on

       the cover, but they aren't as clearly identifiable as these two)

3:58 - Eleanor Rigby headstone ("Eleanor Rigby")

4:00 - Priest walks from grave ("Eleanor Rigby")

4:01 - Sheepdog runs through cemetery ("Martha My Dear" definitely,

       "Hey Bulldog" possibly)

4:04 - Long and winding road in background ("The Long and Winding Road")

4:05 - Paul romps on hill ("The Fool on the Hill")

4:12 - Crosswalk from the cover of "Abbey Road"

4:14 - Meter maid with bag across her shoulder steps onto curb

       ("Lovely Rita."  She's definitely wearing a uniform and

       carrying a little white book.)

4:30 - Beatles walk into theater (taken from "A Hard Days Night")







***References with more than one possible interpretation***




:01 - Bird flying. (Interpretations range from "Blackbird" to

      "And Your Bird Can Sing" to "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has

      Flown)" to even "Blue Jay Way." The flapping of the wings,

      though, sounds like the intro to the original version of

      "Across the Universe" which I think it's meant to represent.

      The entire concept of flying in the whole video could be

      taken to represent "Flying.")

1:27 - Children run by holding hands ("Lady Madonna" is most likely,

       but "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is another possibility.)

1:45 - Woman appears in plastic-appearing coat (Some say, and I

       agree, that she is "Polythene Pam," but others have suggested

       she is "Sexy Sadie," or that her companion in the white coat

       is "Sexy Sadie." Since I can't locate a "Sexy Sadie" anywhere

       else in the video, I'll play it safe and place it in this

       category.)

1:53 - Couple kissing in car (may be banker on corner with a motorcar

       from "Penny Lane" or amorous couple from "Drive My Car." Most

       likely, though, it's "Why Don't We Do It  In The Road?")

2:45 - Sunflowers. (I lean toward saying they're "the flowers that

       grow so incredibly high" from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

       Other interpretations are "I'll Follow the Sun" (since that is

       what flowers do), "Sun King" and "Here Comes the Sun," hence

       its inclusion here.)

3:08 - Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II sits on floor ("Her Majesty" or

       portrait of the Queen from "Penny Lane," though it's hardly

       pocket-sized)

3:53 - Statue in cemetery turns head (Statue could be of the Madonna

       ("Lady Madonna") or could be Mother Mary ("Let It Be")



***Reference that may not actually *be* references***




1:18 - Marketplace (Could be reference to "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," but

       since I see no one with a barrow in the marketplace, I'm

       unconvinced.)

3:38 - Last boy in Bungalow Bill's entourage looks very much like

       Sean Lennon. Could be a cameo or just a coincidence.

3:50 - Sun through panes in roof (It's the only intentional shot of

       the sun in the whole video. It could be meant to represent

       "Here Comes the Sun," "Sun King," "Good Day Sunshine" or

       "I'll Follow the Sun.")

4:06 - Woman walks down road with suitcase (could be "She's Leaving

       Home," but since we already had that song done with the woman

       leaving home in the newspaper taxi at 3:22, would she need to

       appear again?)

4:06 - Car heads up long and winding road ("Drive My Car"? Not many

       other cars in video, and one of few that's moving)




and let us not forget ...




***The Voice***




4:36 - Voice at end of song. It sounds like backward masking, and it

       is definitely John's voice. Interpretations I've seen include:

      

       "Turned out well at the end"

       "There's that noise again"

       "Turned out nice again."




       Strangely, though, the backward tape sounds like John saying

       "My name is John Lennon" to me. It's possible the Fab Three put

       the tape on the end not only because it's a throwback to their

       backward tape use in the '60s, but also because it SOUNDS like

       "My name is John Lennon" when it's played backward.

My Favorite Ringo Starr songs

Well this finishes up my solo Beatles favorite songs. We had George, John, and Paul, and now last but not least…Mr Richard Starkey or Ringo Starr, whichever way you want to go. John Lennon was initially worried about Ringo when the Beatles broke up. He wondered how Ringo would make his way…he needed not to worry. In the early seventies, he had more hits than John or Paul did at that time. Plus, Ringo found a career in acting.

Lennon jokingly sent a telegram to Ringo after the success of the Ringo album and said, “Congratulations. How dare you? And please write me a hit song.”

Before I get on with the list. Ringo has had some really good songs on albums since the 1980s, but these I grew up with and are forever linked to him. Also now drummers and many other people are coming around to see just how great a drummer Ringo is.

Back Off Boogaloo – Many think a few of the verses are about Paul, and at this time, I can see that. Paul was suing the other Beatles, which turned out to be a good thing for all parties except Allen Klein. It was inspired by Marc Bolan because he frequently used the word “Boogaloo,” which stuck with Ringo.

2. Oh My My -This is an overlooked Ringo song that is really good. I had this single as a kid from a cousin. The song was on the 1973 Ringo album, which was his most successful album. Three of his former bandmates helped contribute to this album. It contained Photograph, You’re Sixteen, and this one, which were hits. Ringo and Vini Poncia wrote this one.

3. It Don’t Come Easy – A great pop single that fits Ringo’s voice perfectly. If you dig on YouTube, you can hear a version in which George Harrison sings. George Harrison is on guitar, Gary Wright on piano, Mal Evans on tambourine, and Pete Ham and Tom Evans from Badfinger on backup vocals. Klaus Voormann, a Hamburg fan, plays bass. It was credited to Ringo and George Harrison.

4. Photograph – Photograph and It Don’t Come Easy were probably the best straight-out pop singles Ringo released, and they are both excellent AM radio hits. George Harrison and Ringo wrote this one.

5. Early 1970 – Why is this song so high on my list? It’s a Ringo written song, and he has verses about each of the Beatles. Is it technically a great song? No, but it has a lot of meaning behind it, and it shows where Ringo was with the other Beatles at this time. He was really close to George, a friend to John, and with Paul, it was up in the air.

The first verse is about Paul… he talks about his farm, and his new wife Linda, and Paul was very quiet around this time and he stopped coming to Apple. He also told Ringo to get out of his house when Ringo delivered a message from the 3 Beatles for McCartney to delay releasing his debut album because of Let It Be releasing at the same time. They finally gave in to Paul. Ringo was wondering if Paul would play music with him when he came by again. And when he comes to town, I wonder if he’ll play with me.

The second verse is about John. Ringo sings about John and Yoko doing the bed in, and what I thought was “Cocaine” as a kid was really a lesser drug…”Cookies.” He also references Yoko with “With his mama by his side, she’s Japanese.” At the end of the verse…unlike Paul, he knows John will play music with him. And when he comes to town, I know he’s gonna play with me.

The third verse is about George. Ringo and George were extremely close in the Beatles and afterward. Things did pop up between them through the years but they remained friends. He describes George in the first line, Pattie Boyd Harrison in the second, and George’s famous mansion Friar Park in the 3rd. Ringo and George wrote together, and George hung out with Ringo more than the other Beatles. He’s a long-haired, cross-legged guitar picker, um-um.
With his long-legged lady in the garden picking daisies for his soup. A forty acre house he doesn’t see, ‘Cause he’s always in town playing for you with me.

6. No No Song – Ok…it’s a pure novelty song but…it’s Ringo. If John, Paul, or George had done this, it wouldn’t be in my top 100…but…again…it’s Ringo. He can get by with it. This was the last of his big hits in America. This one was by Hoyt Axton.

7. Your Sixteen – I had his single as a kid…another one off of the Ringo album. The Ringo album is almost Ringo’s Greatest Hits.

8. Only You – Ringo did a nice cover of this song.

9. I’m The Greatest – Lennon wrote this one for Ringo as well. It was on the huge Ringo album. Lennon knew he could not get by with singing this.

10. Grow Old With Me – John Lennon wrote this song for Ringo, but Ringo waited until 2019 to do it because John gave it to him right before he was murdered.

…

My Favorite Paul McCartney songs

The most commercially successful of the Beatles. Paul was so blessed with huge musical talent. Undoubtedly, he was the most talented musician in the Beatles. That’s not to say he hasn’t written some bad songs, but as a musician, he could have played with anyone. There is a story that Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix wanted to collaborate on a project and attempted to recruit Paul on bass.

He has had so many hits that it would be impossible to not leave one off. Paul is known for his pop hits, but when the mood struck, he could rip out rock and roll with the best of them. I always liked it when Paul would write something with loud guitars. In a stretch in the early 70s, he had quite a few of them. One of them I liked but didn’t make this list was Hi, Hi, Hi.

Junior’s Farm – This one doesn’t get played as much as some others, but it’s my favorite Paul song.

Let Me Roll It – I always thought this one could have been written and performed by John Lennon.

3. Band On The Run – One of Paul’s masterpieces. He pretty much stuck 3 short songs together on this, like he did on Abbey Road.

4. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me) – The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso died at the age of 91 on April 8, 1973. News of his passing reached Paul McCartney when he was in Jamaica.

While having dinner there with Paul McCartney, Dustin Hoffman told the story of the death of Pablo Picasso and his famous last words, “Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore.” Picasso then went to bed and died in his sleep.

Paul had a guitar with him and immediately played an impromptu chord progression while singing the quote. Thus, “Picasso’s Last Words” was born, later recorded and added to the album Band On The Run in 1973. Hoffman later said of Paul writing the song in front of him, the experience was “right under childbirth in terms of great events of my life.”

5. Sally G -I’ve always liked B-Sides… Let’s listen to some Liverpudlian Country Music. I cannot hear this song without thinking of my grandmother. Her name was Sally, and yes, her last name started with G. She lived to the ripe old age of 96.

6. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five – This song was on arguably McCartney’s best album, Band On The Run. It didn’t chart, but it was released as the B side to the song Band on the Run, and it was played quite a bit on the radio. One of my favorite McCartney album tracks.

Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five was never performed live by Wings, and only became part of McCartney’s live set in 2010.

7. Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey – I remember hearing this before I knew who Paul McCartney was…it was unbelievably catchy, but I had no clue what it was about…still don’t.

Paul combined pieces of various unfinished songs to create this… in the later years of The Beatles, he helped do this for the Abbey Road Medley. As a result, Uncle Albert – Admiral Halsey contains 12 different sections over the course of its 4:50 running time.

8. Jet – It was a terrific single…I like the B side (Let Me Roll It) more, but I love this song. Tony Visconti, who did a lot of production work for David Bowie and Thin Lizzy, did the orchestration on this song.

9. Listen to What the Man Said – It’s far from his best song, but it’s a good pop hit. It was recorded for the album Venus and Mars. It was a song that McCartney had high hopes for, but early recordings did not live up to the song’s potential. The missing ingredient was Jazz musician Tom Scott’s sax solo. They ended up keeping the first take that Tony Scott played on.

10. Maybe I’m Amazed – I’ve always liked the original version of this song the best. The studio version of this song was never released as a single (no tracks on the album were), but it is one of the most remembered songs on McCartney’s first solo album McCartney. “Maybe I’m Amazed” was written in 1969, just after The Beatles broke up, about Linda.

My Favorite John Lennon songs

Since I listed George’s songs…I have to finish what I started. This one is the hardest to write of any of them because I’m leaving off a lot of great songs.

John is the Beatle I favor; on the surface, the reasons are many. The man’s voice was one of the best rock voices I’ve ever heard. I preferred his voice to that of McCartney, Harrison, and Starr. He probably could write better pure rock songs than the other Beatles, and he also had a great sense of melody that could keep up with Paul and, at times, surpass him on ballads. Yes, he could be witty, sharp, and downright hateful at times, but he was the truth guy for them.

One of the worst days in my teen years was December 9, 1980. I was 13, and that morning I found out that John Lennon was murdered on the 8th. It really hit me hard and changed me in many ways. At that age, this showed me that the world could be an awful place.

When John was murdered, a very unfair thing happened. John was elevated almost as a Saint, which he would have readily admitted he was not. Paul became the sidekick and sank lower in people’s perception of the band. John became the cool one and Paul the square, which was totally unfair to both of them. It didn’t start changing until the Anthology came out in the mid-90s. People started to see Paul as an equal, which he was, and George started to get recognized more and more, as I said last week. And, most people loved Ringo anyway.

My favorite John songs won’t include The Beatles, as I explained last week in the George Harrison post. This will be just solo John. My favorite albums by him were the first two official albums he released. Plastic Ono Band and Imagine. His Mind Games and Steel and Glass albums are great as well, but he had an edge on those first two that he didn’t have on the rest.

Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) – This song is so damn fresh-sounding. It sounds like it was recorded yesterday. It’s so electric-sounding and live.

2. Working Class Hero – This song was a favorite of mine of John Lennon when I was younger. He took some flak about this one, and also the song Imagine. When it came to being a Working Class Hero and having all of his possessions. His answer was

“What would you suggest I do? Give everything away and walk the streets? The Buddhist says, “Get rid of the possessions of the mind.” Walking away from all the money would not accomplish that. It’s like the Beatles. I couldn’t walk away from the Beatles. That’s one possession that’s still tagging along, right?”

3. Mind Games – This is around the time Lennon started to mellow out a bit musically and personally. I bought this single in 1979…6 years after it was released.

4. I Know (I Know) – Yep…this one is not as well known, but it was reportedly about either Yoko or Paul. It was released on the 1973 album Mind Games.

5. GOD – He pours out his feelings on the Beatles and everything else.

6. Watching the Wheels – When listening to Double Fantasy, I like it, but not as well as his early seventies output. This one, though, fits in nicely with his best songs.

7. Jealous Guy – He wrote this melody with the Beatles, but later added some more words to describe himself.

8. How? – What makes “How?” stand out for me is its vulnerability. Lennon doesn’t pretend to know the answers; instead, he shares the questions most of us keep to ourselves. That honesty is what drew me to music in the first place.

9. Nobody Told Me – This one he wanted Ringo to do and had planned to give it to him. I think Ringo would have done a great job of it but I’m glad we have John’s version.

10. Mother – It seems John was looking for a mother for all of his life. His real mother left him with his aunt Mimi, and years later, when he finally started to get to know his mother, she was killed in a hit-and-run accident.

*Bonus! – How Do You Sleep? – It’s the song about Paul when both were angry at each other. Forget that for a minute…it’s a great melody and song on its own. It’s a brilliant piece of rock and roll with George’s snarling slide guitar and an irresistible groove, but its venom can be hard to swallow. Lennon’s line “The sound you make is muzak to my ears” still makes me wince.

…

My Favorite George Harrison songs

Everyone who knows me knows that John is my favorite Beatle, but since I’ve been blogging, I’ve met a lot of people who have been won over by George. I’ve always liked George, but I’ve probably delved more into his catalog than I did before because of people’s enthusiasm about him. I know many bloggers now who consider him their favorite out of The Beatles, including Lisa from tao-talk.com, who ironically, inspired this post from her John Lennon post on Sunday. Enthusiasm rubs off, so I thought I would list my top ten favorite George songs. For some of Lisa’s posts about George, check here, here, here, here, and here. George’s popularity has grown a great deal in the past few years.

I can only imagine how he felt being in a band that contained two of the top songwriters of the 20th Century. Unlike John and Paul, George didn’t start writing songs until 1963-1964. John and Paul had been writing songs since 1956. He was influenced by both of them, and I think he influenced them later on. Songs like Something, you can hear McCartney’s influence. With Taxman I can hear some of John in that one.

You may notice something about this list. It leaves off his two biggest hits. My Sweet Lord and I’ve Got My Mind Set On You. Maybe I’ve heard them too many times, I don’t know, but the other ones hit me more. I’m also going to leave off Beatles (and Wilburys) songs that George wrote. If I made a list of John’s songs (which I will now), I won’t include his Beatles songs because I think they belong to all four, not just John.

I switched my number one and two songs a little while back. They are close to me, but the number one song has won me over again and again.

All Things Must Pass

This is not only my favorite George Harrison song, but I also think it’s one of the best solo Beatles songs, period.

This 1970 George Harrison song is on the album All Things Must Pass. He brought it up during the Let It Be sessions; they went over it, and it sounded fantastic for a rehearsal…you could hear it taking shape. George was mindful of the TV show concert of some kind on Let It Be (it wasn’t decided yet). He wanted to play acoustic and was afraid the acoustic would get lost live. All the songs they did on Let It Be live on the rooftop…were rockers. They went through the song over 30 times. They picked it back up before the concert, but George dropped it. George wanted to do more of a rocker.

To me, it’s the greatest non-officially recorded Beatles song. When all the Beatles’ voices came together in the chorus while rehearsing this one…a shiver went through me. None of them could reproduce those vocals apart.

2. Isn’t It A Pity

I think this one gets forgotten, and it shouldn’t be that way. It was the B side to My Sweet Lord and I think it’s the superior side. George said he wrote it in 1966, but it didn’t see the light of day until 1970.

It resembles Hey Jude in its structure.

3. What Is Life

What an uplifting song this is. It’s a slice of guitar-pop ecstasy. Power pop? Soul-pop? Sunshine fuzz-rock? However you tag it, it belongs high on anyone’s list of 1970s songs.

4. Blow Away

I bought this album, which was in a cut-out bin at a record store and I was surprised how good this album was. This is a song that doesn’t come up as much when you hear George’s music. Much like Isn’t It A Pity…it gets forgotten. It’s nothing earth-shattering or complicated about this song… It’s just a truly great pop single.

5. Any Road

This song was released posthumously, and it remains one of my favorite George songs. It pretty much sums up his philosophy, and I love it. It seemed like a final message from George to everyone.

I heard this song before George passed away…a live version of it by him on a VH1 special that he was on. The interviewer kept pushing him to do a song…I’m glad he did now. When I heard it, I smiled because it was so George. With George’s songs, you could expect a good melody, slide guitar, and his own nugget of knowledge that he left behind.

This song was on George’s last album, Brainwashed, in 2003. George wrote the song in 1988 while working on a video for “Cloud Nine.”

I would follow with these songs.

6: Crackerbox Palace –I first saw the video of this song on television in the seventies. I might have seen it on the SNL broadcast…probably a repeat. A good catchy song by George off of his Thirty-Three & 1/3 album.

7: Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) – Another positive song from George. George Harrison said this about the song: “Sometimes you open your mouth and you don’t know what you are going to say, and whatever comes out is the starting point. If that happens and you are lucky, it can usually be turned into a song. This song is a prayer and personal statement between me, the Lord, and whoever likes it.”

8. When We Was Fab – It was nice to hear him having fun with his legend instead of the bitterness that all of them had for a short time.

9. Devil’s Radio – From what I read about George, as a kid, he didn’t like the neighbors knowing his business and hated gossip…this song says that plain and clear about the press as well.

10. The Art of Dying – Harrison wrote these lyrics while he was still a Beatle. He found it hard to get many of them on Beatles albums because there was only so much room. The good side is that when The Beatles broke up, he had a backlog full of songs.

Beatles – She Said, She Said

At this point during recording, Revolver was nearly finished. They were worn down and creatively drained, but also ambitious. This song was the final track recorded for the album, and it came under a lot of pressure. They had to nail it quickly because the album deadline was looming. It has been said that this song was the first time an LSD experience directly influenced a song by them.

George Harrison deserves an assist credit with this song. Lennon had the core of the song but was struggling to pull the parts together. George Harrison jumped in to help him link two unfinished song fragments, the “She said / I know what it’s like to be dead” part and the “When I was a boy” section. This last-minute patchwork was crucial: without Harrison, it’s possible She Said She Said wouldn’t have been finished in time.

Love the guitar sound and the brilliant bridge to this song. It was inspired by the actor Peter Fonda, who was on an acid trip along with George Harrison and John Lennon while they were together in a mansion in California. Accounts vary as to how events unfolded, but there is a consensus that Fonda kept saying “I know what it’s like to be dead,” which ended up being a key line in the lyric.

This is one Beatles song that Paul did not play on. He got in an argument with the rest of them and walked out the door before they recorded it, so George Harrison is playing bass. The song was on Revolver, which is considered by many the best album the Beatles produced…and by some the best by anyone.

George Harrison: “I don’t know how, but Peter Fonda was there. He kept saying, ‘I know what it’s like to be dead, because I shot myself.’ He’d accidentally shot himself at some time and he was showing us his bullet wound. He was very uncool.”

She Said She Said

She said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad.”
And she’s making me feel like I’ve never been born

I said, “Who put all those things in your head?
Things that make me feel that I’m mad.
And you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “You don’t understand what I said.”
I said, “No, no, no, you’re wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right,
Everything was right.”

I said, “Even though you know what you know,
I know that I’m ready to leave
‘Cause you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “You don’t understand what I said.”
I said, “No, no, no, you’re wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right,
Everything was right.”

I said, “Even though you know what you know,
I know that I’m ready to leave
‘Cause you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad.
I know what it’s like to be dead…”

Beatles – Lovely Rita

I got Sgt Pepper in 1977 when I was 10. I sat there for hours, staring at the cover and listening to this music I had never heard before. This is one of the songs that grabbed my attention. I liked Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Good Morning, Good Morning, and Lovely Rita, but that quickly expanded.

This song isn’t about a real person. It was Paul making up the character (I have his quote below) after hearing in America that they called Parking Meter Women “Meter Maids.” John didn’t particularly like the song because he liked songs about real things. He hardly ever just made things up…Lennon would write about people he knew or his experiences.

The Beatles recorded their debut album, Please Please Me, in a remarkably short amount of time. The entire recording process for the album took approximately 9 hours and 45 minutes of studio time. Now let’s fast forward 5 years from 1962 to 1966-67.

The Beatles spent up to 700 hours in the studio recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. One of the main reasons was their desire to go beyond the limitations of the standard four-track recorder. To achieve this, they linked two four-track machines together—an innovative move at the time—and experimented throughout the process. While this technique wasn’t commonly used, it allowed them to push the boundaries of what was possible in the studio. Sgt. Pepper’s remains one of the most important albums in music history, not just for its songs, but for the groundbreaking recording techniques that helped shape the future of music.

The following year, The Band changed the course of music in some ways. They released Music From The Big Pink and influenced a generation. Bands started to play more earthy…more roots-oriented music. The Beatles did that by recording the rootsy White Album.

Paul McCartney: “I was bopping about on the piano in Liverpool when someone told me that in America, they call parking-meter women meter maids. I thought that was great, and it got to ‘Rita Meter Maid’ and then “Lovely Rita Meter Maid’ and I was thinking vaguely that it should be a hate song: ‘You took my car away and I’m so blue today’ and you wouldn’t be liking her; but then I thought it would be better to love her and if she was very freaky too, like a military man, with a bag on her shoulder. A foot stomper, but nice. The song was imagining if somebody was there taking down my number and I suddenly fell for her, and the kind of person I’d be, to fall for a meter maid, would be a shy office clerk and I’d say, ‘May I inquire discreetly when you are free to take some tea with me.’ Tea, not pot. It’s like saying ‘Come and cut the grass’ and then realizing that could be pot, or the old teapot could be something about pot. But I don’t mind pot and I leave the words in. They’re not consciously introduced just to say pot and be clever.”

John Lennon: That’s Paul writing a pop song. He made up people like Rita, like a novelist. You hear lots of McCartney influence going on now on the radio: these stories about boring people being postmen and writing home.

Lovely Rita

(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)

Lovely Rita, meter maid
Nothing can come between us
When it gets dark I tow your heart away

Standing by a parking meter
When I caught a glimpse of Rita
Filling in a ticket in her little white book
In a cap she looked much older
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man

Lovely Rita, meter maid
May I inquire discreetly
When are you free to take some tea with me?

Rita

Took her out and tried to win her
Had a laugh and over dinner
Told her I would really like to see her again

Got the bill and Rita paid it
Took her home, I nearly made it
Sitting on the sofa with a sister or two

Oh, lovely Rita, meter maid
Where would I be without you
Give us a wink and make me think of you

(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)

…

Beatles – All You Need Is Love…A Happy Valentines Day!

I posted this on February 14, 2021, and every year this is the first song that comes to mind on Valentine’s Day. I then thought…enough time has gone by so I’m posting it again. Sorry to cheat but to me, it is such a Valentine’s song that I just had to.

I hope all of you have a great Valentine’s Day… let’s join the Beatles on June 25, 1967, for All You Need Is Love. There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done…

How nerve-racking this had to be even if you were a Beatle. They performed this on one of the first Satellite hookups around the world. An estimated 350 million people were watching. This performance was a rock and roll milestone…they were in front of the world.

The show was called “Our World”, the first worldwide TV special. Broadcast in 24 countries on June 25, 1967, the show was six hours long and featured music from 6 continents, with The Beatles representing Britain. At the Beatles’ feet were members of The Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream, The Hollies, and The Small Faces helping by singing along.

John wrote the song to be simple enough to be understood by the entire world. Simple verses and music with a slogan-type chorus. He thought Peace and Love could be understood by all. He had said: I like slogans. I like advertising. I love the telly. And when you think about it he did have some slogan songs like Power To The People and others.

The song peaked at #1 almost everywhere and probably even in Venus and Mars in 1967.

Musically, this song is very unusual. The chorus is only one note, and the song is in a rare 7/4 tempo. In the orchestral ending, you can hear pieces of both “Greensleeves,” a Bach two-part invention (by George Martin), and Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood.” Royalties were paid to Miller for his contribution.

Just think of all of the bits of paper all of them wrote or scribbled on and threw away. John Lennon’s hand-written lyrics for this song sold for one million pounds in the summer of 2005. Lennon left them in the BBC studios after this appearance, and they were salvaged by a very smart BBC employee.

Sean Lennon: “My list of favorite things changes from day to day. I like when my dad said: ‘There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known/ Nothing you can see that isn’t shown/ Nowhere you can go that isn’t where you’re meant to be.’ It seems to be a good representation of the sort of enlightenment that came out of the ’60s.”

All You Need Is Love

Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love

There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game
It’s easy
Nothing you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown
There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
It’s easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)
Yesterday
(Love is all you need)
Oh
Love is all you need
Love is all you need
Oh yeah
Love is all you need
(She love you, yeah, yeah, yeah)
(She love you, yeah, yeah, yeah)
(Love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)

….

Beatles – Christmas Time Is Here Again

It’s that time of year…and this is one-holiday song that is on my list and not worn out. I first heard this in 1994 when I bought the Beatles Anthology album. I never knew of this song before. This song was never officially released until it appeared as the B-side to “Free As A Bird” in 1994. I’ve posted it every year since I’ve blogged and will continue to do so…it’s repetitive but I like it…it drives home the point.

My friend Dave posted this song in 2021 and he has more info than I do so check it out.

The song is credited to Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey. The original version was distributed to The Beatles fan club in 1967. It’s the only song written specifically for the Beatles Fan Club members. Along with the Beatles…actor Victor Spinetti and roadie Mal Evans were on the recording.

Between December 1963 and December 1969, they sent out 7 flexi discs that had spoken and musical messages to their official fan clubs in the UK and the US at Christmas time.

The Beatles recorded this in 1967 and wasn’t released until 1994 paired with “Free As A Bird”. It is a fun Christmas song that will stick in your head. The Beatles did not release a Christmas song commercially… only to their fan club when they were active.

I like the end where each Beatle tells you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Many performers of this era like The Beach Boys and The Four Seasons released Christmas songs, but The Beatles never had an official Christmas release.

Christmas time is here again

Christmas time is here again
Christmas time is here again
Christmas time is here again
Christmas time is here again

Ain’t been round since you know when
Christmas time is here again
O-U-T spells “out”

Christmas time is here again
Christmas time is here again
Christmas time is here again
Christmas time is here again

Ain’t been round since you know when
Christmas time is here again
O-U-T spells “out”

Christmas time is here again
Christmas time is here again
Christmas time is here again
Christmas time is here again

Ain’t been round since you know when
Christmas time…[music continues and fades to background]

[spoken]

This is Paul McCartney here, I’d just like to wish you everything you wish yourself for Christmas.

This is John Lennon saying on behalf of the Beatles, have a very Happy Christmas and a good New Year.

George Harrison speaking. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas, listeners everywhere.

This is Ringo Starr and I’d just like to say Merry Christmas and a really Happy New Year to all listeners

[a John Lennon pastiche at this point, very hard to understand]

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

I promise after tomorrow…no more Christmas posts!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, whichever you prefer. Since I started this blog, I have tried to post an interesting song or some pop culture fact. Most of you drop by for a view every day, and I appreciate it so much.

I look forward to finishing this year and discovering the new year together. I can’t believe this is my seventh year doing this, and if not for the feedback I get daily, I would have stopped a long time ago. I don’t know how much I discovered about music you didn’t already know, but I have learned so much from you all.

When I started in 2017, it took me around six months to get one follower, one like, and a comment. I don’t take anyone for granted, and I want you to know that. Also, a huge THANK YOU. You don’t have to stop by, but you do—you must be a glutton for punishment! I hope you and your families have a happy holiday and safe travels.

Signed

Max…the owner of this crummy joint.

December 8, 1980…

I wanted to include this early today before my posts for Sunday.

As I’ve told people before…I rarely do anniversaries…but this one I will post as long as I blog. I add something to it every year but I wish John would be alive and well at 84 years old but that didn’t happen. It brings back a lot of memories and I’m 13 all over again.

I grew up in the seventies and became a teen in the 1980s. The Beatles were not popular where I lived to say the least. One concerned mother of a friend actually called my mom warning her that I was headed toward destruction because I was listening to the Beatles at around 11 years old. No, I’m not kidding. My mom, bless her heart, told the lady that “Max knows right from wrong. You worry about your child and I’ll worry about about mine.” Ok back to December of 1980.

Damn this date. Every Dec 8th I can’t help but think of where I was when I heard. Last year’s release of the UK #1 Now and Then only heightened the anger, sadness, and confusion over what happened. I post this post every year on this date and will continue. I have updated it each year and I’ve almost rewritten it since I posted it first back in 2018…and if it’s too long now I apologize. I still feel what I felt on that date. Although to be accurate it was on December 9th that I found out…the next morning getting ready for school.

When I watched the news clips at the time I felt like an interloper because all of these fans who were sobbing grew up with Lennon in real time…I was this 13-year-old kid who was late to the party…a decade late.

It’s odd to think the Beatles had only been broken up for 10 years when this happened…to a 13-year-old at the time…that was a lifetime but in reality, it’s nothing. To put it in perspective… it’s now 2023 and 10 years ago was 2013…that doesn’t seem that long ago does it? I was only 3 years old when the Beatles broke up so I had no clue.

Since second grade (1975), I’ve been listening to the Beatles. While a lot of kids I knew listened and talked about modern music …I just couldn’t relate as much. By the time I was ten, I had read every book about The Beatles I could get my hands on. In a small middle TN town…it wasn’t too many. I was after their generation but I knew the importance of what they did…plus just great music. The more I got into them the more I learned about the Who, Stones, and the Kinks. I wanted to get my hands on every book about the music of the 1960s. Just listening to the music wasn’t enough…I wanted to know the history.

I spent that Monday night playing albums in my room. Monday night I didn’t turn the radio on…I’m glad I didn’t…The next morning I got up to go to school and the CBS morning news was on. The sound was turned down but the news was showing Beatle video clips. I was wondering why they were showing them but didn’t think much of it.

Curious, I turned the volume up and found out that John Lennon had been shot and killed. I was very angry and shocked. The bus ride to school was quiet… at school, it was quiet as well. Some teachers were affected because John was their generation. Some of my friends were shocked but some didn’t get the significance at the time and some didn’t care.

I went out and bought the White Album, Abbey Road, and Double Fantasy in late December of 1980…I can’t believe I didn’t have those two Beatles albums already…now whenever I hear any song from those albums they remind me of the winter of 80-81. I remember the call-in shows on the radio then…pre-internet… people calling to share their feelings for John or hatred for the killer.

The next few weeks I saw footage of the Beatles on specials that I had never seen before. Famous and non-famous people pouring their hearts out over the grief. Planned tributes from bands and everyone asking the same question…why?

My young mind could not process why a person would want to do this to a musician. A politician yea…I could see that…not that it’s right but this? A musician? Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and JFK were before my time. By the mid-1970s John had pretty much dropped out of sight…John and Yoko released Double Fantasy on November 17, 1980, and suddenly they were everywhere…Less than a month later John was murdered. The catchwords were Catcher in the Rye, Hawaii, handgun, and insane. The next day we were duly informed who killed John in the First, Middle, and Last name format they assign to murderers. I won’t mention his name.

I didn’t want to know his name, his career, his wife’s name, his childhood…I just wanted to know why… he says now…” attention”

I noticed a change happened after that Monday night. John Lennon was instantly turned into a saint, something he would have said was preposterous. Paul suddenly became the square and the uncool one and George and Ringo turned into just mere sidemen. Death has a way of elevating you in life. After the Anthology came out in the 90s that started to change back a little.

I called my dad a few days after it happened and he said that people were more concerned that The Beatles would never play again than the fact a man, father, and husband were shot and killed. He was right and I was among those people until he said that. Dad was never a fan…he was more Elvis, Little Richard, and country music… but he made his point. When my father passed in 2005 I thought about this conversation and knew he was teaching me again.

It was odd being into the Beatles at such a young age and after their time so to speak. While my peers were talking about all the contemporary artists at the time…all I talked about was John, Paul, George, and Ringo. I would end up comparing all the new music I heard to theirs…and that wasn’t fair at all to new music. I would think to myself…well this song (any new song at the time) wasn’t as good as Strawberry Fields and so on. I, fortunately, grew out of that but it took a while.

Below is a video of James Taylor telling how he met the killer a day before Lennon was murdered. Also, Howard Sterns broadcast the day after.

…

Favorite Beatle

Dave at A Sound Day invited me to write a post in his series Turntable Talk. He wanted to know either our favorite Beatle or someone close to them. I picked the only choice I could.

Ever since I was 8 years old I was always drawn to the long-haired guy with those round glasses on the album cover. When I heard his songs and heard about his personality, I knew he was The Beatle I looked forward to in interviews and songs.

On the surface the reasons are many. The man’s voice was one of the best rock voices I’ve ever heard. I favored his voice over McCartney, Harrison, and Starr. He probably could write better rock songs than the other Beatles and he also had a great sense of melody that could keep up with Paul and at times surpass him on ballads. Yes, he could be witty, sharp, and downright hateful at times. A little about his childhood will say a lot.

His childhood was tragic in many ways, but he wasn’t poor. He was the most middle-class out of all of the Beatles. He was abandoned by his father and then his mother gave him to her sister and brother-in-law to raise. John drew close to his aunt and uncle, especially his Uncle George. They were building a strong bond but when John was 14 Uncle George died suddenly at age 52.

He then just had his Aunt Mimi, and she was very strict…and strict didn’t go well with Lennon at that time or anytime. Uncle George was friendly with John while the black or white Mimi didn’t stand for anything out of line. Lennon’s mother came back in his life when John was 16. He got to know her more and they visited each other. As soon as they were getting close in 1958, she was hit by a car by an off-duty policeman walking back home from Mimi’s house.

Later on, one of his best friends was Stuart Sutcliffe who played bass for the Beatles and was one of the best artists in Liverpool at the time. Stuart would stay close to John even when he quit The Beatles. Stuart would die at 21 years old when John was 21. He felt like when people got close to him they would die or be abandoned. This can help explain the rude and crude Lennon of the sixties. By the seventies, he seemed to be much calmer and more relaxed. By many fans’ accounts…he was the most fan-friendly out of all of them. There are multiple stories of him inviting fans into his home talking to them and showing them around.

The main reason though…I just think his songwriting was the most powerful out of them all. Yes, Paul was the most successful after The Beatles, but you are only as strong as your weakest album tracks. That is where John had Paul beat, to me anyway. It’s not all about hits. Songs like Working Class Hero, God, Gimme Some Truth, and I Know (I Know) were better than many of his and Paul’s hits. John was the leader, the muscle, and the architect of The Beatles.

…

Beatles – Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg …album review

When I got this album I loved it but at first didn’t understand why the quality was so low but the music makes up for it. The recordings are from 1962 in their last engagement in Hamburg and they didn’t want to be there. I have mentioned this album with some posts but never really went over it.

These are the punk Beatles. Raw and relentless playing fast and furious. The Beatles before the world was paying attention to them. This was recorded on an old reel-to-reel recorder at the slowest speed to conserve tape. It was not meant to be an album or anything commercial. A friend named Ted “King Sized” Taylor the leader of a band called the Dominoes, put a microphone near the stage to record them. The quality is poor, to say the least.

Peter Jackson has mentioned that he would love to work on this album. He could improve the sound a lot using modern technology and I wish they would let him try it. It was released in 1977 and the record company sunk 100,000 dollars just to make the audio listenable. Ted Taylor did ask the Beatles before he recorded and they had no qualms with it. Later on, they tried to sue to block its release but obviously were unsuccessful. I’m glad they were…this is a fun and historic listen.

The Beatles were playing to an audience of sailors, prostitutes, drunks, and gangsters. They would rip through songs at such a speed that only 2 songs on this double album are over 3 minutes long. It was like the Beatles doing a future Ramones imitation. They were “enhanced” by prellies (Preludin) that sped them up quite a bit.

They are a great band here. You catch them with their guard down and acting completely natural. The Beatles were on their last club dates in Hamburg. They had already recorded Love Me Do and it was on the charts. They did not want to be back in Hamburg but they honored a previous agreement and were there. They didn’t mail the performances in but they were loose and relaxed.

It contains mostly cover songs with very few originals. The track listing is at the bottom of the post. This is close to what Brian Epstein heard when he first saw them, this is why they took over Liverpool and this is why they got signed.

Casual fans will not want this album but serious Beatles fans will love it. This is more than a low-fidelity album…it is history. John Lennon always said that the world didn’t hear the best of the Beatles live…I agree. By this time in Hamburg they were getting lazy as well. They didn’t want to be there because they were sitting on Please Please Me waiting for it to get released in the following year.

After they became THE Beatles…they could not hear themselves play because of the long constant ~~jet taking off~~ screaming. On this album, you hear them as they were before the screams. I was 11 when I bought this and I didn’t get the importance until a few years later.

This is out of the book Tune In… Without a doubt the best book out on the Beatles. It’s the first of three volumes.

Their playing is adept and hyper-energetic, and the microphone catches many important moments. The tape’s value has been downplayed on the basis that the Beatles are musically sloppy and perhaps even lazy, knowing they’ve one foot out of the door, but this is to ignore its virtues. The Beatles did hate being in Hamburg this last time … but the recording shows them still cutting the mustard on stage. They’re sloppy because, here, they can be, but they’re not lazy, and they’re not playing with extra care because they’re being recorded: this is an authentic eavesdrop on their club act, not something fizzed-up for the tape machine.

At least three sets were recorded, and because the Beatles rarely repeated themselves in Hamburg, there are only five duplicates among the thirty-seven songs. The repertoire is a real surprise. The only self-written pieces are “Ask Me Why” and “I Saw Her Standing There” (twice), so there’s no “Love Me Do,” “PS I Love You,” “Please Please Me,” “One After 909” or any of several other possibilities, and there are few of the songs from the spine of their all-conquering 1962 stage sets—no “Some Other Guy,” “Soldier of Love,” “Please Mr. Postman,” “Don’t Ever Change,” “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues,” “Devil in Her Heart,” “Baby It’s You,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody,” “Hey! Baby, A Picture of You,” and so on. What’s here is an idiosyncratic selection of old rock numbers all played at breakneck speed—Prellies pace. The nights of half-hour “What’d I Say” marathons are past: everything is high velocity, only three numbers tipping into three minutes.

Side one

Introduction/”I Saw Her Standing There” (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 0:34/2:22
“Roll Over Beethoven” (Chuck Berry) – 2:15
“Hippy Hippy Shake” (Chan Romero) – 1:42
“Sweet Little Sixteen” (Berry) – 2:45
“Lend Me Your Comb” (Kay Twomey, Fred Wise, Ben Weisman) – 1:44
“Your Feet’s Too Big” (Ada Benson, Fred Fisher) – 2:18

Side two

“Twist and Shout” (Phil Medley, Bert Russell) – 2:03
“Mr. Moonlight” (Roy Lee Johnson) – 2:06
“A Taste of Honey” (Bobby Scott, Ric Marlow) – 1:45
“Bésame Mucho” (Consuelo Velázquez, Sunny Skylar) – 2:36
“Reminiscing” (King Curtis) – 1:41
“Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey” (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Richard Penniman) – 2:09

Side three

“Nothin’ Shakin’ (But the Leaves on the Trees)” (Eddie Fontaine, Cirino Colacrai, Diane Lampert, John Gluck) – 1:15
“To Know Her Is to Love Her” (Phil Spector) – 3:02
“Little Queenie” (Berry) – 3:51
“Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It)” (Frederick Hollander, Sammy Lerner) – 1:57
“Ask Me Why” (Lennon, McCartney) – 2:26
“Be-Bop-A-Lula” (Gene Vincent, Bill Davis) – 2:29
- Guest lead vocal by Fred Fascher, Star-Club waiter
“Hallelujah I Love Her So” (Ray Charles) – 2:10
- Guest lead vocal by Horst Fascher, Star-Club manager

Side four

“Red Sails in the Sunset” (Jimmy Kennedy, Hugh Williams) – 2:00
“Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” (Carl Perkins) – 2:25
“Matchbox” (Carl Perkins) – 2:35
“I’m Talking About You” (Berry) – 1:48
“Shimmy Like Kate” (Armand Piron, Fred Smith, Cliff Goldsmith) – 2:17
- Based on The Olympics’ arrangement of “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate”;^[32] sometimes misidentified as “Shimmy Shimmy” or “Shimmy Shake”
“Long Tall Sally” (Enotris Johnson, Robert Blackwell, Penniman) – 1:45
“I Remember You” (Johnny Mercer, Victor Schertzinger) – 1:54

The Cavern

Thanks to Dave from A Sound Day for publishing this post on October 25, 2024. It was part of his Turntable Talk: Our guest columnists are invited to go on a magical musical road trip and visit any musical location they want to – past or present – and see it in all its glory.

I would love to go to the Cavern. The Beatles would not have to be there for me to enjoy its dark wet walls. They have built a new one but it’s not the same location of the original. That is great for the tourists but what’s the point? I would love to go back to 1957 – 1972 to walk into the cavern. Just to feel the history inside of that place. The Beatles were not the only big name to play there as you will see. A small cellar club that would be known around the world…including a small town in Tennessee.

The original Cavern Club was founded on January 16, 1957, by Alan Sytner. Sytner was inspired by jazz clubs he had visited in Paris such as the Le Caveau de la Huchette. The Cavern Club was initially a jazz club, with early performances focusing on traditional jazz and skiffle, a blend of folk and jazz. No rock and roll or blue jeans were allowed in the club. Ringo Starr debuted there on July 31, 1957, playing drums in the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. John Lennon would appear there on August 7, 1957, with the Quarrymen Skiffle Group. That year Big Bill Broonzy played there along with jazz great Ronnie Scott. In 1959 Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee played there as well.

In the early 1960s, rock ‘n’ roll became popular in Liverpool, with skiffle bands embracing electric guitars and rhythm. The Beatles made their first appearance on February 9, 1961. They performed there 292 times between 1961-1963. Brian Epstein ran a record store called NEMS and when a teen asked for My Bonnie by Tony Sheridan and The Beatles…Brian wanted to find it. He was told that The Beatles played at the Cavern so on November 9, 1961, Brian walked down the steps in the Cavern to discover The Beatles’ playing.

In less than a year he had them sign an EMI contract and Ringo replaced Pete Best in August of 1962. A year later on August 3, 1963, the Beatles played their last show there…they had outgrown the Cavern and had to start touring nationally. After The Beatles left, other bands came there to play in Liverpool. The Cavern became a hotspot for other British acts, including The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Queen, The Yardbirds, Black Sabbath, Elton John, and The Hollies.

Paul McCartney didn’t forget the place. In 1968 he and Linda went back to visit the Cavern. The band Curiosity Shop was rehearsing, and Paul decided to join them by helping on the drums. Before getting on stage with the band Paul got behind the piano in the lounge and performed a solo performance of Hey Jude.

After struggling with financial issues, the original club was closed in 1973 due to the construction of a railway ventilation shaft. Much of the original Cavern was demolished, though some bricks were saved. A lot of the Cavern was filled in by rubble. In the early eighties architect David Backhouse said that the plans to excavate and re-open the Cavern Club in its original form would not be possible for structural reasons. Tests had revealed the arches of the old cellar had been too badly damaged during the demolition of the ground floor of the Cavern Club and the warehouses above.

There is a new Cavern as I said at the beginning and if I make it over there yes, I will see it but it would not be the same as seeing the real deal. That got me thinking…is that stage still there just covered with rubble from 1973? Dave, Obbverse, Randy, Keith, John, and Christian…grab a shovel and meet me there now!

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