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Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Here We Go Again (demo)

Posted by on March 22, 2010 at 7:00 am.

Welcome to this week’s BROW. Back in October 1973, while John Lennon was in sessions for what would appear later on his collection of oldies called Rock ‘N’ Roll, he wrote a song with producer Phil Spector that remained unissued throughout the remainder of his lifetime. Here We Go Again was eventually released on Menlove Avenue, a collection of out-takes from the Walls & Bridges LP and Rock ‘N’ Roll LP, in 1986. This week’s feature is that same track in demo form. The Spector-produced version on Menlove Avenue sounds very reminiscent of John’s Rock ‘N’ Roll album with lots of brass in the mix and the “wall-of-sound” treatment. The naked version here is quite a contrast with John, still apparently working the song out, and only an acoustic guitar. Additionally, the verse structure is arranged differently, at this point, and there is even an extra verse, apparently omitted later in production, where John sings:

Here We Go Again
Everyone’s a one night stand
You never really heard the band
All I wanted was a thank you, man

While the demo may not have a flawless vocal or be as dazzling as the released version, I think an early account is worthy of a listen. I hope you do too.

John Lennon - Here We Go Again
John Lennon

John Lennon

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Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of 9,074 Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.
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I like hitting the digg button. After setting your preferences you can find some oddball things out there.

Spector was a great artist up until the Beatle Invasion, when either knowing that the Brill Building method of songwriting and production was coming to an end, or a drug induced madness began to take hold. Either way he is an interesting man, but I think over the years his talent has been overestimated and his influence grossly exagerated. I tend to find that unless he was working with girl groups or say The Righteous Brothers, his contributions more or less wreck the music he is part of.

Why John and George had so much faith in him is still a mystery to me.

I would have loved to have seen a Rick Rubin type come into John's life had he lived. I can imagine the fragile and direct records they could have made. This song hints at other, more organic directions Lennon would have succeeded at.

Interesting points, EM.

I think you are absolutely right! It has always been a source of sadness for me that Lennon did not live to work with some new people, people who could have really brought out the forceful beauty in John's songwriting... and Rick Rubin, that's a great suggestion!

This version is truly lovely... hadn't heard it before. Thank you to Happy Nat for posting such a delicious Lennon tidbit!

I'm happy to hit the FAB button every time I visit you, but do I have to hit that Digg button every time as well? If I do, it re-routes me to their site with no apparent benefit.

I like this tune, which says a lot as I'm not much of a post-Beatles Lennon fan.

I find the Digg button doesn't count for much anyway unless 10,000 or so hit it, which is not going to happen.

Cool...I've heard a lot of crazy stuff about Phil over the years. I can't help but think he's "out there", but now I guess he's "in there". Anyway, I might remind you folks to ding the FAB button when you like a tune. It's all part of the fun.

I have always liked this song, but now I love it! I outgrew my affection for Spector a long time ago - it is great to hear a "naked" version of this song. Now if only All Things Must Pass can get de-Spectorized.

John's voice is so present and vivid in this version, which is quite unlike most of his demos. Truly magnificent. This could have been a "reunion" Anthology track.

I was very excited when Menlove Ave. came out, I bought it on cassette with a hard bound copy of Skywriting by word of Mouth, which had just came out as well. I will return to this often. Thanks for providing the memory.

love this story... "never really heard the band.... thank you man" ... yep, we know the history there, you can sense the frustration....
(things softening between those 2 by then; their history together always counted for so much, even through the troubles AS I FIND TRUE TO REAL LIFE)
I love the false starts too, and the little asides. Thanks, Nat! maybe not a treasure for everyone, but a treasure according to me.