Back in 1995, The Beatles released two new singles to promote the release of The Beatles Anthology documentary. The songs were based on demos that John Lennon had recorded and were provided by Yoko Ono for the rest of the band to complete. In fact, Ono had provided four songs for The Beatles to consider. “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” are the two that were released. One – “Grow Old With Me” – was set aside because it had already been released on Lennon’s posthumously released Milk and Honey (1984). The last, called “Now and Then” was started, but shelved due to a technical problem (a 60-Hz mains hum) that the technology of the 20th century couldn’t correct.
Thanks to Peter Jackson, the director and producer of The Beatles: Get Back documentary (2021), and his audio restoration technology, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were able to complete the song including guitar tracks from the 1995 sessions, by George Harrison.
So, now we have it; the final final song by The Beatles; and it is a worthy ending.
Jackson made a complimentary video that is also “must see” for any Beatles’ fan.
Let’s start the New Year with a post that features music by my all-time favorite band, The Beatles; but with a twist. This one presents “songs that the Beatles gave away.” In other words, it includes songs written by one of them but never officially released by the group. Instead, it was recorded and released by another artist.
Being democratic, I’ll highlight one song (primarily) written by each of the Beatles’ songwriters. Sorry, Ringo!
“Bad to Me” was written by John Lennon and recorded by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas.
The song is very typical of the early Beatle style – a “love song” with a simple, catchy melody. It reached #1 in the UK in 1963 and #9 in the US in 1964, after the Beatles reached our shores.
Here’s Lennon’s demo.
Paul McCartney wrote “Goodbye” for Mary Hopkin as a follow-up to her #2 cabaret hit “Those Were the Days” (1968).
“Goodbye” has another prototypical McCartney melody. It skips along like schoolgirls in the playground on a sunny day. McCartney, himself, played most of the instruments on the recording. It reached #13 in the US in 1969.
Hopkin was one of the first acts signed to the Beatles’ newly formed Apple Records.
Now listen to McCartney’s demo.
Although much less prolific than Lennon/McCartney, George Harrison also wrote a few compositions he was willing to share with other artists. He gave “Sour Milk Sea” (1968) — written on the Beatles’ famous trip to Rishikesh, India — to Jackie Lomax, another Apple Records signee.
“Sour Milk Sea” is more obscure but is a pretty good rocker. It didn’t chart despite featuring musical accompaniment from Harrison, McCartney, and Starr.
Now Harrison’s demo.
You probably can remember and name a few other “songs the Beatles gave away”, including Peter & Gordon’s “A World Without Love” and “Come and Get It” by Badfinger. But there are quite a few more. Check out this Wikipedia page for a more comprehensive list:
Back in 1976, a band called Klaatu released their first album. For some reason they chose to package the album without any photos or credits. This anonymity led to speculation as to who was behind this “mystery band.”
That speculation took flight when journalist Steven Smith, of the Providence Journal, published an article suggesting that Klaatu might really be The Beatles, reunited under a pseudonym. This rumor seemed to be supported by the Beatlesque sound of some of the recordings and the coincidence that they were released on Capitol Records – the same as The Beatles’ early records in the US.
It was later revealed that Klaatu was a group of Canadian musicians. “Sub-Rosa Subway” and “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” were minor hits (both reached #62 on the Billboard Hot 100). “Interplanetary” was covered by The Carpenters who carried it to #32 in the US in 1977.
Around the same time, in the mid-’70s, another band chose to labor in obscurity – San Francisco’s Art Rock band, The Residents.
In a 2018 article for NPR Music, writer Jason Roth described The Residents’ approach to music:
The group’s musical canon – comprising over 60 albums that collectively are more of an ongoing act of cultural subversion than a traditional catalog of songs – includes a “four-part trilogy” of concept albums about a subterranean race of mole people, a record that contains exactly 40 one-minute-long commercials for itself and an album of Eskimo folk music consisting of what The Residents imagined Eskimo folk music might sound like. Which also, naturally, provided the group with its critical and commercial breakthrough.
The Residents’ debut album was titled Meet the Residents and had one of the best covers ever – a defaced parody of Meet the Beatles (released on April Fool’s Day, 1974). This too, caused some rumors to circulate that The Beatles were behind the group.
The album opens with an anarchistic, deconstructed (unrecognizable) version of Nancy Sinatra’s “The Boots Are Made For Walking.” Not everyone will be able to make it through the cut’s brief, less than 2 minutes, of chaos.
From 2010 to 2016, the band toured using the character names “Randy, Chuck, and Bob.” But in 2017, Hardy Fox revealed himself as the primary composer for the band as well as “Chuck.” Apparently he decided to finally expose his identity because he was sick and dying.
If you’re a fan or are interested in learning more about The Residents, check out the new book documenting their history from 1972 to 1983.
Last November, Disney+ relased The Beatles: Get Back. The three episode documentary, directed by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame, took 60 hours of film footage and 150 hours of audio tape — from 22 days in January 1969 — and reconstructed it into an 8 hour, “fly on the wall” experience that seeks to revise the negative vibe and historical record of what actually occurred during the sessions that culminated in the original Let it Be movie from 1970. At that, The Beatles: Get Back succeeds.
However, it can’t be denied that a mere 15 months later, on April 10, 1970, Paul McCartney announced that The Beatles had broken up through his ambiguous answers to the questions he was asked during an interview about his first solo album, McCartney.
I was browsing through the recent Paul McCartney book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present that my wife gave me for Christmas. It has the lyrics to 156 McCartney compositions along with his commentary and loads of photos and memorabilia.
I was interested in his explanation of the lyrics to “Too Many People”, from 1971’s Ram.
He explains:
This song was written a year or so after The Beatles breakup, at a time when John was firing missiles at me with his songs, and one or two of them were quite cruel. I don’t know what he hoped to gain, other than punching me in the face. The whole thing really annoyed me.
The key lyrics blame John for the breakup and scold him for preaching and telling people how they ought to live.
That was your first mistake You took your lucky break and broke it in two.
Now what can be done for you? You broke it in two.
Too many people preaching practices Don’t let ’em tell you what you wanna be Too many people holding back This is crazy, and baby, it’s not like me
What surprised me was that John’s most scathing song aimed at Paul, “How Do You Sleep”, was written as a response to “Too Many People.” I had originally thought it was the other way around. “How Do You Sleep” was on Lennon’s Imagine that was released about 4 months after Ram.
John’s basic personality had an acerbic, mean spirited side that was foreign to the genial McCartney. So John’s swipes were direct stabs to the heart where McCartney’s were more subtle. John says:
So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise You better see right through that mother’s eyes Those freaks was right when they said you was dead The one mistake you made was in your head
You live with straights who tell you, you was king Jump when your momma tell you anything The only thing you done was yesterday And since you’ve gone you’re just another day
Those last lines are references to McCartney’s signature Beatles’ tune, “Yesterday”, and the soft rock of his solo song from Ram, “Another Day.” Ouch!
I’d like to think that if John were still alive today, these past grievences would be forgiven and settled, and the Lennon/McCartney team would be friends again.
Over the many years I’ve been writing, I occasionally cover a topic I call the Evolution Series. Those posts either follow a song that has been covered in many forms/styles or demonstrates how a rhythm has been used differently in songs. Today I’m stretching the concept a little further. Today’s evolution traces three songs with the same title, by three different outstanding artists, that are not related in any direct way, except that they all depict a lover’s obsession. The song title is “I Want You.”
First up is the Dylan classic from Blonde on Blonde.
The verses contain the vivid imagery that we all came to expect and enjoy from Dylan and the chorus switches to a very heartfelt, direct plea.
The guilty undertaker sighs The lonesome organ grinder cries The silver saxophones say I should refuse you The cracked bells and washed-out horns Blow into my face with scorn But it’s not that way I wasn’t born to lose you
I want you, I want you I want you so bad Honey, I want you
In 1970, John Lennon contributed a song to Abbey Road called “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).”
Everyone knows this one! It has several cool surprises. It opens with an arpeggiated guitar riff, quickly moves into the main theme, and switches into a Latin influenced reprise. About 4:30 in John practices his primal scream vocal that reveals his excruciating pain — it makes Dylan’s “heartfelt, direct plea” seem charming – then returns to the arpeggio opening. This continues for 3 minutes, getting heavier and heavier with each cycle – until it unexpectedly ends abruptly in a morass of static. Brilliant!
Elvis Costello released one of his best albums, Blood & Chocolate, in 1986 and it too contained a song titled “I Want You.”
The truth can’t hurt you it’s just like the dark It scares you witless But in time you see things clear and stark I want you Go on and hurt me then we’ll let it drop I want you I’m afraid I won’t know where to stop I want you I’m not ashamed to say I cried for you I want you I want to know the things you did that we do too I want you I want to hear he pleases you more than I do I want you I might as well be useless for all it means to you I want you
The slow, sparse arrangement emphasizes the darkness of the lyrics. Wikipedia quotes Rolling Stone aptly calling the track “an epic testament to jealousy over a former lover’s new partner.”
I wonder if any of these artists were influenced by the song(s) that preceded theirs. Perhaps there is a more direct connection than initially seems to be the case.
Buddy Holly released his first record – “Blue Days, Black Nights”/”Love Me” – on Decca in April 1956, when he was just 19 years old. He died less than three years later, in February 1959, at the age of 22. In that very short career, Holly recorded eight Billboard Top 40 hits in the US, 3 of which were Top 10.
His discography is so well known and so highly respected that it should be no surprise that his songs have remained alive for generations via cover versions. Today’s SotW post highlights a few of the best.
The Beatles were huge Buddy Holly fans. They chose their name as a play on Holly’s Crickets, but not Beetles, instead making a pun out of their “beat group” music. They also included as many as a dozen of his songs in their early club sets, many of which can be heard on the BBC recordings. So, let’s start with “Words of Love” from Beatles For Sale in the UK and Beatles VI here at home; the only cover to make it onto an official, studio release.
The Beatles don’t stray very far from Holly’s original arrangement – the “handclaps” are a new feature – but the Lennon/McCartney (Lennon/Harrison?) harmony is sublime. The boys laid this track down in two takes – no surprise since it was in the band’s repertoire since their days woodshedding in Hamburg, Germany.
In 1969, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Rick Grech formed Blind Faith, one of the first rock “supergroups.” The short-lived band released only one album that had only 6 cuts – but one of them, “Well All Right,” was a cover of a Buddy Holly B-side.
Blind Faith made the song their own, adding a heavy opening riff and an improvisational middle section that extended its play time to a whole 4 ½ minutes!
In 1978, Blondie released their power-pop classic, Parallel Lines. On it, they covered Holly’s “I’m Gonna Love you Too” and released it as the first single from the album (though it didn’t chart!).
Deborah Harry’s vocal and the bands aggressive backing adds some punk/new wave fury to the arrangement that modernizes Holly’s original, smoother rockabilly approach.
A Buddy Holly tribute album, Rave On Buddy Holly, was released in 2011. It has covers of Holly songs by contemporary artists The Black Keys, She and Him, Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Fiona Apple, the recently deceased Justin Townes Earle, and classic rockers Paul McCartney, Nick Lowe, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and Graham Nash. It proves that Holly’s music remains vital. The album is worth a listen.
This is the next installment of my series on Rock music in films; today covering the British Invasion.
The Beatles reached into the homes of millions of Americans via The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday evening, February 9, 1964, launching Beatlemania. A month later, the Beatles began filming their first movie – A Hard Day’s Night – that was released in the US the following August.
Like the Beatles’ music itself, A Hard Day’s Night set the bar for quality very high. It’s not only a good Beatle movie or a good Rock music movie; it’s simply a good movie – a very good pun and quip filled movie.
The screenplay was written by Alun Owen and deftly directed by Richard Lester. Both provide ample opportunities for each Beatle to reveal their personality. The Beatles prove that they are more than lovable mop tops. They are smart and funny young men. The scene where George accidentally stumbles into a focus group meeting for a ‘60s version of a style influencer is hilarious.
The segment where the boys escape the TV studio and romp around the Thornbury Playing Fields in Isleworth, Middlesex, to “Can’t By Me Love” was shot using camera techniques that would be copied many times over, especially by The Monkees.
Other movies starring British Invasion groups include fellow Liverpudlians Gerry and the Pacemakers in Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965), Herman’s Hermits’ Hold On (1966), and The Dave Clark Five in Having a Wild Weekend (1965). They all seem to try to imitate A Hard Days Night to a greater or lesser degree. But all fail.
Check out the DC5 mimicking the Can’t Buy Me Love, Thornbury scene at the end of this clip:
Having a Wild Weekend (originally Catch Us If You Can in England) is a decent film, the directorial debut by a young John Boorman who later achieved success with Deliverance (1972). The plot involves a young model/actress Dinah (Barbara Ferris) who wants to escape the pressure of being the commercial image behind a meat industry campaign. Stuntman Steve (Dave Clark) – who was a real-life stuntman before becoming a rock star — sympathizes with the craziness surrounding them and takes her away on an impromptu journey.
The film doesn’t take advantage of any “on-screen” performances by the group, a decision that limits its appeal. But it does include several DC5 recordings – “It’s Gonna Be Alright,” “Move On,” “I Like It” and, of course, “Catch Us If You Can.”
So stay tuned. There’s more to come in this exploration on the topic of Rock music in films.
Those of you that know me personally are
aware that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, The Beatles.
I’ve collected all their official releases and dozens of bootlegs that
contain outtakes, alternate takes, and demos.
I have an iTunes playlist of Beatles
covers that has thousands of versions of their songs. My playlist is totally indiscriminate. Some of the cuts are awesome – some pathetic. But I’ve collected them all – straight covers,
and lots of variations including soul, country, classical, easy listening, big
band, jazz, and bluegrass. I even have
some Polka versions!
I really enjoy when an artist takes a Beatles tune and makes it their own. Especially if it is well played and well sung. Today’s SotW is an example of such – “Things We Said Today” by Dwight Yoakam.
Yoakam is a country artist, but his style is much closer to rock influenced honky-tonk than traditional Nashville country. At least that was true when he began his recording career in the mid ‘80s. (Today it seems like all the top country acts really play rock music with a twang.) Believe it or not, Yoakam actually shared a bill with the punk band Hüsker Dü in 1986! On his 2012 album 3 Pears, Yoakam enlisted the help of Beck to provide handclaps on “A Heart Like Mine.”
His cover of “Things We Said Today” is a
terrific example of his melding of rock and country. The song has an inventive recurring riff that
sets the tone for what’s to come. It’s
heavier than the Beatles original. And
it ends with a searing guitar solo.
On a side note, I have an interesting
story about seeing Yoakam live. Back in
the mid ‘80s, my wife was working for an ad agency in Boston when she was
invited to a party to celebrate the launch of WBOS’s format change to country
music. I was her guest. The party included live performances by some
of the rising country artists of the day, including Reba McEntire… and Yoakam.
Boston wasn’t a hotbed for country music
fans back then (and probably still isn’t) so the audience of radio and ad executives
were more interested in the hors d’oeuvres and drinks than the music. But being the music nerd that I am, I walked
(alone) up to the front of the stage and watched both artists perform. Even though I couldn’t claim to be a country
music fan, I could tell that these were top quality musicians and deserved to
be heard. It was a great experience that
is seared into my memory.
The Beatles (more commonly known as the White Album) was released 50 years ago. In celebration, a new, boxed set has just come out with remixes of the songs by Giles Martin, the son of the Beatles’ long time producer, George Martin. The box includes the Esher demos – primitive recorded sketches of the songs, mostly written on the band’s trip to India, intended for learning them prior to entering the recording studio. It also has previously unreleased outtakes and alternate versions.
The Beatles has long been admired and excoriated for the range of styles it explores. Its 30 songs cover a broad spectrum of styles – some more successfully than others. This has led to a decades long debate among Beatles’ scholars about whether or not the album should have been edited down to a single album instead of a double, and which songs should have made the cut.
The breadth of the album also provided an opportunity for John and Paul to break out of their stereotyped songwriting roles. Paul was known for his sentimental ballads (“Yesterday,” Michelle,” “Here, There and Anywhere”) and John for writing caustic rockers (“Day Tripper,” “Help,” “Run for Your Life”). Not that the White Album didn’t hold true to those labels — i.e. Paul’s “I Will” and “Mother Nature’s Son,” and John’s “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey” — but they also did a role reversal.
Paul’s “Helter Skelter” stands among the Beatles’ recordings with the hardest edge.
Who would have thought this track would evolve from the blues dirge heard on Take 2 (available on the Anthology series) into the up-tempo rocker we know from the White Album?
“Helter Skelter” was ruined for many people by its association with Charles Manson and his “family” of murderers. I like the intro Bono made when U2 covered the song in concert – “This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back.” Hopefully we have all stolen it back now that Manson is dead and gone.
John contributed two beautifully sentimental cuts to The Beatles. “Julia” is a tribute to his mother that abandoned him in his early childhood but came back into his life as a teenager only to be killed shortly afterward in a car accident. The other was “Dear Prudence,” which was one of his finest compositions – not just for the White Album, but in his entire repertoire.
“Prudence” was written for Prudence Farrow (Mia’s sister) who was on the India meditation trip with them. She became so focused on her practice that she locked herself in her room to meditate all day. John tried to persuade her through song to “come out and play.” At the end of the Esher demo John explains “Who was to know that [suppressed giggle] sooner or later she was to go completely berserk in the care of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. All the people around were very worried about the girl, because she was going insane. So we sang to her.”
Although The Beatles has been criticized for being bloated with non-essential cuts (“Don’t Pass Me By,” “Wild Honey Pie,” “Revolution #9”) it still holds up after 50 years. In my opinion, it is the diversity, risk taking, and wide range of musical genres that account for its enduring charm. There’s something for everyone.
As I write this I’m aware the 50 years ago today, the Beatles were in Abbey Road Studios recording The Beatles, better known as the White Album. Recording of The Beatles would eventually be completed on October 14th and it would be released on November 22, 1968, just in time to be placed under the Christmas tree for millions of adoring fans.
I love the White Album and will probably post about it again before the end of the year. But I’ll start with today’s observation that it is the Beatles’ animals album. Well what the hell does that mean?
There are four songs on the album that specifically mention an animal in the title:
Blackbird
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
Martha My Dear was written about Paul’s sheep dog, but does not explicitly mention it in the lyrics. However, there are several other songs that do mention animals in the lyrics. “He went out tiger hunting with his elephant and gun…” “She’s well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane…” And several more. Go find them.
Today’s SotW are the three that were presented all in a row on Side 2.
