Jan
30
Ringo Starr
Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. With Ringo Starr’s new album Ringo 2012 hot off the presses, I thought it would be a good week to scrounge up a Ringo rarity. Has it really been 50 years since he first went on a record?!
Additionally, you can consider this a follow-up to an earlier article I made, back in April 2011, concerning the BBE disc (Best Buy Exclusive) that accompanied the first few copies of Ringo’s 1998 Vertical Man CD when bought from Best Buy (you can find that post here, if you like, but I’ll give the necessary details here too). Get the whole story »
8 people think this is FAB!
Jan
23
I’m hoping most of those reading this have had the opportunity to check out Martin Scorsese’s recent biographical documentary George Harrison: Living In The Material World by now. Back in October it made it’s debut in cinemas across the U.K. and was also released on home video. In the U.S., it made it’s first appearance on HBO, with the promise posted on GeorgeHarrison.com of a home video release in the Spring. The 3 1/2 hour feature is divided into two parts with the first part focusing on George’s “Beatle-years” and the second part mainly focusing on the time after The Beatles, up to George’s death in 2001. However, part two actually begins with a 1968 acoustic demo of George’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. Since this demo is only presented as a 45 second edit containing one verse, and not available on any official releases anywhere else, I thought some of you out there might like to hear it in it’s entirety.
This demo of George’s White Album classic is the earliest known recorded account of the song. It was recorded in late May 1968, when The Beatles had recently returned from their time learning about Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in Rishikesh, India. Since the band had written some 35 new songs while on the trip, they were eager to record some demos and make plans for the next album. They had decided to convene at George’s bungalow (named Kinfauns) in Esher Surrey, U.K. to do just that. Get the whole story »
21 people think this is FAB!
Jan
16
Welcome back for yet another Beatles Rarity Of The Week. “Something” was a song written by George Harrison in January 1969 and later featured, not only on the Abbey Road album later in the year, but also on the A-side of a single coupled with John Lennon’s “Come Together” on the B-side. This was George’s first composition (and last) to be issued on the top side of a Beatles single. It was a good pick too because it topped the U.S. charts (Billboard) and reached number 4 on the U.K (Melody Maker) charts. It is second only to Yesterday as being the most covered Beatles song of all time. Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney praised “Something” as among the best songs written by George, or that the group had to offer.
For this week’s BROW, I’m sharing a recording of the song while still a work in progress. This is a mono mix of “Something” that’s basic track was laid down on May 2, 1969. Billy Preston, who had recently worked with The Beatles during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, played organ, while Paul played bass. George Harrison played rhythm guitar through a Leslie speaker and John played a second rhythm guitar. Ringo Starr, of course, manned the drum kit. At this point the song was 7:48 due to a extended jam at the conclusion (some of which I’ve included here) and labeled as take 36. Get the whole story »
16 people think this is FAB!
Jan
09
Welcome back for another Beatles Rarity Of The Week. From 1963 through 1965, The Beatles had a new album ready to go in time for the end-of-year holiday season. When it became apparent that this was not in the cards for 1966, EMI personnel hastily assembled a greatest hits album for the U.K. market only. The album was titled A Collection Of Beatles Oldies (But Goodies), and it was a good way for the English album buyers to pick up several tracks that had only been issued on EPs and singles beforehand in the U.K. Furthermore, if you were one of the “earlybirds” that was into stereo sound, you could get the stereo issue of the album, since the singles and EPs in those days were only issued in mono. Many of the songs featured on this disc were making their stereo debut.
On November 10, 1966, while the album was being prepared, it was discovered that there was one Beatles track that had not appeared on any U.K. release to date. The song was the Larry Williams rocker “Bad Boy,” which The Beatles covered during the Help! sessions of the previous year. When Capitol Records in the U.S. needed two more songs to complete their Beatles VI album, The Beatles recorded “Bad Boy” along with another Larry Williams cover, “Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” specifically for the U.S. album. It was later decided to use the latter track on side 2 of the Help! album, but “Bad Boy” was yet to be used. It was a “no-brainer” to feature it on the new compilation, and it was called up from the vault so that balance engineer Peter Brown could remix it into stereo. This is where the mix up occurred. Get the whole story »
12 people think this is FAB!
Jan
02
Happy New Year and welcome, once again, to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week! One of the songs The Beatles worked on during the first week of February 1968 was John Lennon’s “Across The Universe.” It would be nearly two years before the song would see a release, and then it would only be on a charity LP called No One’s Gonna Change Our World, compiled in 1969 to benefit the World Wildlife Fund. John originally wanted the song to be a single, but when “Lady Madonna” was chosen instead, John agreed to contribute it to the charity LP. Later in the year, bird sound effects were mixed into take eight in order to make it fit in thematically with the album.
During the sessions, The Beatles experimented heavily with the recording by adding in overdubs of guitar, harp, bass and drums, all played backwards. Paul McCartney recruited two teenage female fans (Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease), who were standing outside the studio, to come in to the session and sing backing vocals on the song’s “nothing’s gonna change my world” phrases. Four tracks of humming were also piled onto the already complicated mix before take eight was considered complete. Get the whole story »
20 people think this is FAB!
Dec
26
I hope everyone celebrating had a great holiday weekend, and I thought what better way to begin the last week of the year than with another installment of the BROW? “BROW” stands for Beatles Rarity Of The Week, and my name is Happy Nat. Each week on Mondays, I try to serve up a rare Beatles-related track for you to listen to and read about, and if you happen to have stumbled upon this post on some other day of the year, well that’s fine too. I’m glad you’re here, and I hope it goes down well.
In the early days of Paul McCartney and Wings, right around December of 1971, the band convened for some sessions just after the release of their first album, Wild Life. The testy little instrumental that’s the subject of this week’s post was recorded at this time, and at one point was to be a b-side to the next (and first) Wings single, which turned out to be the BBC-banned protest track “Give Ireland Back To The Irish.” Plans changed, however, and the b-side to “Irish” became an instrumental version of the a-side, leaving this week’s BROW shelved in the vaults. I’m using the name “Rooster” for the track, though I am aware of two other names for it: “The Great Cock and Seagull Race” and “Breakfast Blues.”
Get the whole story »
17 people think this is FAB!
I'm Happy Nat and I'm glad you dropped in! Feel free to listen to the latest BROW (Beatles Rarity Of The Week), watch the latest VOW (Beatles Video of the Week), and join the discussion by leaving comments or 
