Aug
17
Welcome to this week’s edition of the BROW. It’s not quite your typical Beatles rock ‘n’ roll fare this time around, but you never know what you’re going to get into with these Beatle-people, do you? In early May of 1985, CBS began the filming of their account of the classic Alice In Wonderland. Playing the part of Mock Turtle was none other than Beatles drummer extraordinaire, Ringo Starr. The show aired on December 9th, 1985 and featured a clip of Ringo singing a song called Nonsense. A soundtrack was later released but this track was not included, nor has it been on any other of Ringo’s official releases, compilation or otherwise. There is a YouTube clip, if you’re interested in catching more of Ringo in his turtle suit here. By this time, Ringo had been in a respectable number of films, including Caveman a few years earlier with his soon to be Misses, Barbara Bach.
Ringo Starr - Nonsense
Ringo Starr, 1985 in CBS's Alice In Wonderland as Mock Turtle.
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Aug
10
Welcome to this week’s BROW. We are soon approaching the 40th anniversary of the release of one of The Beatles most successful albums. Abbey Road was the vehicle The Beatles used to end their squabbles long enough to go out on a high note. Most of the album was recorded between July 2 and August 1, 1969. This early version of Mean Mr. Mustard, finalized on Abbey Road, was recorded at Twickenham Studios, London on January 8, 1969. John had penned the song while in India the previous year and guides the other Beatles through it here as they have yet to get it down pat.
In the UK, Abbey Road became the most successful album of the 1960′s, the highest selling album of 1969 and was even the 8th best selling album of 1970. In the US it went platinum twelve times over and spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard album chart. That’s a “high note” worthy of going out on indeed in my book. It’s hard to believe it started out as such a simple collection of songs like this little ditty about a guy named Mustard.
The Beatles - Mean Mr. Mustard
The Beatles at the photo shoot for their Abbey Road Album, 1969.
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5 people think this is FAB!
Aug
03
This week on BROW let’s have a listen to a ballad-like track recorded during the sessions for the last Wings album Back To The Egg, sometime between June 29 and July 27, 1978. Aside from Paul and Linda, the band line up at this time included Wings-original Denny Laine, lead guitarist Laurence Juber and former Elton John drummer Steve Holly. Did We Meet Somewhere Before? was not actually intended for inclusion on the Egg album though, but for use in the new film Heaven Can Wait (starring Warren Beatty). The final version of the film however, did not include the song. A few bits of it did surface a year later in the Ramone’s film Rock ‘N’ Roll High School but the song did not appear on the soundtrack. During the late 1980′s a project went underway to put together a compilation of predominately Wings-era out-takes called Hot Hits And Cold Cuts that was to include the song but even though some preliminary track lists were released to the press, the project was never finalized and various bootleg versions of Hot Hits And Cold Cuts began to surface around 1990. Recently, I have read a few rumors from various Internet blogs that an expanded 4-cd box set of Hot Hits And Cold Cuts is planned for 2010. I’ve even seen a projected track listing that includes many tracks that I have featured on the BROW in the past. We shall see if it sees the light of day this time.
Wings - Did We Meet Somewhere Before?
Wings 1979, Left to right: Laurence Juber, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Steve Holly
Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? Then let me hear from you. Read about more Beatles rarities and suggest one for me to post. You can begin by searching for different versions of specific tracks right here.
7 people think this is FAB!
Jul
27
Welcome again to The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. This week’s BROW is a John Lennon track entitled Serve Yourself. I think it was one of his “private” songs never intended to be heard by the public. It was written as a comic response to the well-known Bob Dylan hit single Gotta Serve Somebody from his 1979 album Slow Train Coming. Recorded on piano in the fall of 1980 in his home at the Dakota building, it has a different feel than the acoustic guitar account of the song given on the John Lennon Anthology box set. It’s a very simple sentiment really: Bob says “you’re gonna have to serve somebody” and John says “you’ve got to serve yourself”. The rest of the words (on both songs) are just filler.
John Lennon - Serve Yourself
John Lennon, circa 1980
Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? Then let me hear from you. Read about more Beatles rarities and suggest one for me to post. You can begin by searching for different versions of specific tracks right here.
Jul
20
This week’s BROW is no masterpiece. It’s just John and Ringo having a little bit of fun sometime in late 1967, and it just happened to get caught on tape. It’s kind of a comical improvisation that resembles some of the crazy antics heard on The Beatles Fan Club Christmas records issued from 1963-1969. Ringo sings a bit of Sailor Come Home To Me and John throws in his El Tango Terrible. After all, nobody should be sane all of the time. Enjoy…
John Lennon & Ringo Starr - Chi-Chi's Cafe
John Lennon gets a little intimate with Ringo Starr at the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band photo session, May 1967
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2 people think this is FAB!
Jul
13
Here we go again. It’s time for another BROW. This week’s Beatles Rarity Of The Week takes us back to a recording session from October 8, 1964. The Beatles were recording She’s A Woman which turned out to be a solid b-side for the upcoming hit I Feel Fine, recorded 10 days later and released on a single. She’s A Woman was mixed with an overabundance of reverb on Paul’s lead vocal on the US mix, so I thought it would be nice to hear a “clean” take of it. This is takes 7 (which is discontinued at the intro) and 8, which also features a tuning session and an extended jam at the end, where Paul does some screaming and makes other various noises. George’s guitar solo is yet to be added. It is believed that there were only 8 takes recorded and that the master is a combination of two or more of these. In the US, the master was released on the Beatles ’65 album while in the UK it was initially only issued as a singles track. Enjoy!
The Beatles - She's A Woman
Picture sleeve for UK I Feel Fine/She's A Woman 45
Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? Then let me hear from you. Read about more Beatles rarities and suggest one for me to post. You can begin by searching for different versions of specific tracks right here.
5 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 
