The Beatles Rarity » VOW

“Baby’s In Black” – The Beatles Live in Munich, 1966

Happy Nat — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:00:08 +0000

The Beatles began their 1966 tour dates in Munich, Germany on June 24, 1966, just three days after finishing up with recording their Revolver album in London. The Beatles played both an afternoon and evening performance on this date, taking the stage at the Circus-Krone-Marsstrasse right after opening acts Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers, The Rattles and Peter & Gordon. Portions of the evening show were broadcast for West German television and included opening act material as well as just over half of The Beatles set. On the original German broadcast tape the first few seconds of “She’s A Woman” were spliced awkwardly onto the intro to “Baby’s In Black” and therefore appears that way here. The Beatles Anthology documentary includes a great performance of “Nowhere Man” from this same show.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Beatles For Sale (Remastered) – 2009 remaster of original 1964 LP, including studio version of “Baby’s In Black.”

2) The Beatles Anthology 2003 5-DVD set of original 1995 8-VHS collection of exclusive documentary footage about The Beatles, includes “Nowhere Man” from the 1966 Circus-Krone show in Munich.

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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#9 Dream – 1974 John Lennon promo video

Happy Nat — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:00:06 +0000

John Lennon wrote “#9 Dream” after being inspired by a dream he had in which he heard the repeated phrase “Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé.” John never claimed to know what it meant, but used it as a repeated chorus line in the song. John had also recently worked with Harry Nilsson on his Pussy Cats album and liked a string arrangement he wrote for Harry’s cover of “Too Many Rivers To Cross” so much that he incorporated it into the song as well. The strings seemed to work perfectly with the dream-like feeling he wanted to develop for the sound and subsequently, this promo video. The voice calling to John in the song is that of his companion at the time, May Pang, who has revealed that the song went through two working titles before being officially named. The first was “So Long Ago” and secondly “Walls And Bridges” which, of course, ended up being his next album title with “#9 Dream” included as one of the tracks.

John recorded “#9 Dream” in the summer of 1974, along with the rest of the tracks on Walls And Bridges, and the album was released in September 1974. After the album’s lead single, “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” made it’s highly successful commercial run, “#9 Dream” was released as the follow up single in December 1974, and appropriately peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 22, 1975. In the U.K. it peaked at number 23 on the Melody Maker chart on March 8 & 15, 1975.

By the time the promo video was filmed John was no longer with May Pang and that is why Yoko Ono appears in the clip instead.

Click the image above to play the video.

Extra info: Why is the song title “#9 Dream” (why not #8, or some other number)? I have heard from various sources that both John Lennon and George Harrison were fascinated with the number 9. George had his Cloud 9 song and album and both John and his son Sean were born on the ninth day of the month. John wrote or co-wrote “Revolution 9″, “One After 909″ and “#9 Dream.” There are countless other theories and coincidences that you can Google on the Internet relating John’s past with the number. They include apartment numbers and various dates and times.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Walls And Bridges – 2010 remaster of original 1974 LP, including “#9 Dream.”

2) Power To The People: The Hits – latest hits compilation (2010) using remastered versions of all the big ones from John’s solo years, including “#9 Dream.”

3) Lennon Legend – The Very Best of John Lennon – DVD compilation of John Lennon hits, including this promo video of “#9 Dream.”

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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If I Fell (clip from “A Hard Day’s Night”, 1964)

Happy Nat — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:00:56 +0000

“If I Fell” was the last song recorded on The Beatles February 27, 1964 session set up to record songs for their first feature film A Hard Day’s Night. This clip, taken directly from the film shows the Beatles when they are supposedly rehearsing the song in preparation for an upcoming London television show. In the opening we see that Ringo Starr is initially bitter about the theater tech mishandling his drums.

Paul McCartney, harmonizing on the vocals with John Lennon, had trouble reaching the high note on the word “vain” the second time around, so George Martin mixed out the words “new love was in vain” for the mono mix (heard here). This was done by replacing the faulty section with a copy of when it was sung the first time around. In the U.S., “If I Fell” was released as a Capitol single coupled with “And I Love Her” on July 20, 1964, around three weeks before the movie made it’s American theater debut.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) A Hard Day’s Night (Remastered) 2009 remastered CD of original 1964 UK LP, includes stereo mix of “If I Fell”.

2) A Hard Day’s Night – 2002 DVD remaster of original 1964 feature film. Contains a bonus DVD with lots of special features. Includes this clip of “If I Fell”.

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Yellow Submarine – 1968 film clip

Happy Nat — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:00:32 +0000

In celebration of the upcoming Blu-Ray/DVD re-release of Yellow Submarine, I thought it would be a good week to show a small snippet from the film. Details on the re-release can be found here. The animated movie’s box office premier was in July of 1968. At the film’s intro, the village of Pepperland is introduced as a cheerful music-loving paradise under the sea, protected by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. A yellow submarine rests on a hill near a range of high blue mountains.

The land falls under a surprise attack by the music-hating Blue Meanies and it becomes the mission of Pepperland Sea Captain resident Old Fred to go for help. He takes off in the Yellow Submarine and luckily finds The Beatles, who return with him and revive the then-captured Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Together they defeat the Blue Meanies, restoring Pepperland to all of it’s original glory. The animated personas of The Beatles were the only Beatles seen until the final few minutes, when the real Beatles make an appearance to go out singing “All Together Now.”

Yellow Submarine was a box-office hit, drawing in crowds both for its lush, wildly creative images, and its soundtrack of Beatles songs. The soundtrack album release was delayed and did not see release until January 1969.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Yellow Submarine (Remastered) 2009 CD remaster of original 1969 stereo album containing 6 Beatles songs from the film and orchestrations used in the film soundtrack by Sir George Martin.

2) Yellow Submarine Songtrack
1999 CD collection containing 15 fabulous remixes of Beatles songs used in the movie (a more complete account of music than the 6 tracks on original soundtrack). All mixes are by Peter Cobbin.

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Whatever Gets You Thru The Night (promo video)

Happy Nat — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:00:04 +0000

John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” was the lead off single release from his October 1974 LP Walls And Bridges and features harmony vocals and piano from Elton John. Elton was so sure it was a number one hit that he made a bet with John that if it did top the charts, John would appear at one of Elton’s concert as a surprise guest. John had not had a #1 since he began his post-Beatles career and was just pessimistic enough to agree to the wager. On November 16, 1974, the song topped the Billboard singles chart and John ended up performing the song with Elton and band 12 days later at New York’s Madison Square Garden. He also accompanied Elton on two Beatles songs while he was on stage – “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “I Saw Her Standing There.”

John’s inspiration for the song actually came from a quote by Reverend Ike (a famous black evangelist). John was watching him on television and he said “Let me tell you guys, it doesn’t matter. It’s whatever gets you through the night.” John loved the line and wrote it down as he often did, for later brainstorming on a set of lyrics. The studio recording of “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” featured here was made in July 1974 and aside from John and Elton, includes Klaus Voormann on bass, Jesse Ed Davis on guitar and Bobby Keys playing the exhilarating saxophone that in my opinion “makes” the record. We actually hear more of that sax during the outro on the video as it fades a little earlier on both the single and album version of the recording.

There are actually two promo videos in existence for the song. John designed one where he lip-syncs the song while walking through Manhattan. The one seen here, designed by Yoko Ono took a more creative approach and actually brings many of John’s animated drawings to life (and yes, those copulating rabbits were originally drawn by John).

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Walls And Bridges 2010 CD remaster of original 1974 John Lennon LP, including “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”.

2) Here & There 1996 expanded 2-CD edition of original 1976 Elton John live LP Here And There featuring live performances with John Lennon of “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “I Saw Her Standing There”.

3) Power To The People: The Hits 2010 remaster CD + DVD hits compilation set containing video seen here and CD w/”Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”.

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Another Girl (1965 Bahamas “Help!” clip)

Happy Nat — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:00:40 +0000

From February 4 – February 14 (St. Valentine’s Day) ,1965, Paul McCartney went on holiday to Hammamet, Tunisia with his girlfriend Jane Asher. Inside the house on the grounds where they were staying was a lavish bathroom with perfect acoustics for songwriting. This was where Paul wrote “Another Girl”.

The Beatles convened the day after his return on February 15th to begin the sessions for the upcoming Help! album and film. Having polished off “Ticket To Ride” in the afternoon session, they used the evening session to work on “Another Girl” and George Harrison’s “I Need You”.

“Another Girl” was knocked off in one take and 10 edit pieces. The 4-track recording had bass and drums on track 1, John Lennon’s Fender and George’s Jumbo Gibson acoustic on track 2, and Paul’s lead vocal along with John and George’s backing vocals on track 3. Track 4 had a few extra vocals from Paul and John, tom-toms from Ringo Starr and George playing his Gretsch at the end. The song was finished off the following day with the recording of Paul’s lead guitar track. This was most likely combined with track 2.

Mono and stereo mixes of “Another Girl” were prepared by February 16th with the mono mix having a much quieter rhythm track than the stereo. On the mono edition of the U.S. Help! soundtrack, however, the mono mix is simply a reduction of the stereo mix.

“Another Girl” went on to be one of the seven new songs used in the Help! film, released in the summer of 1965. In the movie clip shown here, Paul can be seen lip-syncing the song while standing on a coral reef on Balmoral Island in the Bahamas and playing a girl in a bikini as if she is a guitar. This clip features the stereo master of the song.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Help! (Remastered) 2009 remaster of original 1965 U.K. stereo album, featuring “Another Girl”.

2) Help! 2007 DVD remaster of original 1965 film with 5.1 surround mix plus bonus DVD with lots of extras. Contains stereo and 5.1 mix of “Another Girl”.

3) The Capitol Albums Vol. 2 (Brick) – 2006 4-CD box set containing both stereo and mono mixes of the US Capitol Beatles albums released in 1965. These include The Early Beatles, Beatles VI, Help! and Rubber Soul. Contains both stereo and mono reduction mixes of “Another Girl”.

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End Of The Line (original 1988 Traveling Wilburys promo)

Happy Nat — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:00:27 +0000

On October 18th, 1988, the debut album by the Traveling WIlburys, Volume One, was released to an ovation of widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. Five legendary musicians had joined forces to include Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and George Harrison. Session man and old friend of George’s, Jim Keltner, was also on board, playing drums. Only seven weeks later, Roy Orbison tragically died of a heart attack at age 52.

Roy’s death occurred on Dec. 6th, 1988, just 4 days before they were set to begin filming the follow-up video to their first single and video “Handle With Care”. This song of choice was also the closer for the album – a track called “End Of The Line”. The song refers to the on-the-move aspect of the group and has a “freight train” style rhythm to give it that feel. With that in mind, the plan for the video was to have a lot of “boxcar” scenes of the band playing on a moving train.

When “End Of The Line” was recorded, three of the Wilburys – George, Jeff and Roy – took turns singing lead on the choruses, with Tom Petty singing the verses. When the video was filmed, the original “train theme” was modified to include a guitar in a rocking chair slowly swinging back and forth during the chorus where Roy is singing lead. There is also a brief close-up of a black and white photo of Roy in a frame.

In the fall of 1988, Roy had also been working on his own solo album, Mystery Girl, which also enlisted help of most of the Wilburys (Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison). The tracks were finalized in the weeks following his death and the album released in February 1989. With Volume One and Mystery Girl, Roy Orbison became the first musician since Elvis Presley to have two albums in the U.S. Billboard top five at the same time.

Click the image above to play the video.

Extra info: The surviving Wilburys convened in 1990 to record their second and final album, curiously titled Volume Three. For more on the origin of the Traveling WIlburys, click here.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Traveling Wilburys Volume 1 – 2008 remaster of original 1988 album Volume One, featuring “End Of The Line”.

2) Traveling Wilburys Collection (2 CD / 1 DVD) 2008 2-CD/1-DVD set containing both Traveling Wilbury albums (Vol. 1 & Vol. 3) plus 5 video clips, including “End Of The Line”.

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Blow Away (original 1979 promo video)

Happy Nat — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:00:27 +0000

Since tomorrow will be the 69th anniversary of George Harrison’s birth, I thought it a good day to put up one of his videos for this week’s VOW. George’s “Blow Away” was the lead single released from his self-titled album. Both single and album were released in the U.S. on St. Valentines Day, 1979 (Feb. 14) and two days later in the U.K. George explains in his autobiography I, Me, Mine that he was sitting in a hut in his garden on the Friar Park estate watching a rain storm when he wrote the song, hence the first verse describing a downpour. His message becomes one of learning to be more loving towards others and optimistic despite “stormy” surroundings, and that is the key to being happy and optimistic in your life. He says that the tune he came up with was embarrassingly “obvious”, but after recording it the song grew on him. Accompanying George on the recording is Steve Winwood on mini Moog, harmoniun and vocal harmonies, bassist Willie Weeks (also of Eric Clapton’s “house band”) and drummer Andy Newmark, who has played with everyone from Cat Stevens, to Joe Walsh, to Pink Floyd. “Blow Away” was also featured in a 1990 British comedy film titled Nuns On The Run, starring Eric Idle, of Monty Python fame.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) George Harrison – 2004 remaster of original 1979 “George Harrison” album, featuring “Blow Away”.

2) Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison 2009 remastered CD hits compilation featuring “Blow Away”.

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Please Please Me – McCartney ‘US’ tour encore, 2005

Happy Nat — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:00:54 +0000

Paul McCartney threw the first Beatles #1 into the setlist for one of the encore performances recorded during his ‘US tour’ and it appears from the footage that this ‘pleased’ the audience very much. The ‘US’ tour began on September 16th, 2005 in Miami FL and finished on November 30th, 2005 in Los Angeles, CA. The tour name “US” stands for both “us” and the “U.S.”, where all the gigs were played. Put together for promotion of his latest album Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, the tour included 37 shows with a great account of it appearing on Paul’s DVD The Space Within Us. Paul’s band members on the tour were the same as they’ve been since 2002 and include Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums), Rusty Anderson (guitar), Brian Ray (guitar/bass), and Paul ‘Wix’ Wickens (keyboards).

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Chaos And Creation In The Backyard Paul’s original 2005 CD containing the hits “Fine Line” and “Jenny Wren”.

2) The Space Within Us – 2006 DVD disc with lots of footage from Paul McCartney’s 2005 ‘US’ Tour, including this performance of Please Please Me.

3) The Space Within US – 2008 Blu-Ray disc with lots of footage from Paul McCartney’s 2005 ‘US’ Tour, including this performance of Please Please Me.

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Real Love (Official Anthology Video Clip, 1996)

Happy Nat — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:00:09 +0000

Most Beatles fans are well aware of the John Lennon demos Yoko Ono gave to Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in 1994, and the magic that was breathed into them for use on the Beatles Anthology project. Although even casual fans have seen both of the resulting video clips more than once, it has been awhile since I have seen them and thought a revisit of one of them wouldn’t be out of line.

“Real Love” began as a piano demo recorded around 1979 by John with an audio cassette recorder that he sat on top of his piano. The tape Yoko Ono gave to the surviving Beatles also included “Free As A Bird”, “Grow Old With Me” and “Now And Then”, but only “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” were used for the Anthology project.

Original Beatles producer George Martin was initially offered the opportunity to produce, but declined due to his hearing limitations and Jeff Lynne, who had worked with George Harrison and the Traveling Wilburys, was given the job to co-produce with The Beatles instead.

Since John’s piano and vocal were on a single track, his voice could not be separated from the piano and so it was used on the final production. On the original demo recording, John had added a simple drum-machine beat and a second vocal track.

In February 1995, the additional work began on the demo by first carefully removing the hum, hiss and clicks from the cassette recording and transferring the mono source to two 24-track analogue tapes. George and Paul then added acoustic guitars, George the lead guitar and Ringo the drum track. Paul added two bass tracks, first playing an electric bass guitar and then adding the stand-up bass he had recently acquired, that had been used by Bill Black on Elvis Presley’s recording of “Heartbreak Hotel”. George, Paul and Ringo all added some additional percussion sounds while Paul and George sang backing and harmony vocals. Paul then recorded a vocal track as an addition to John’s lead, not to duet with him, but to strengthen the occasionally thin sound that was a consequence of the cassette recording.

The video features shots of the surviving Beatles recording the song in Sussex, mixed in with various footage taken throughout The Beatles’ career. There are actually two variations of the video but both use the same approach. The video was used in the second installment of the Beatles Anthology television mini-series and also in the Beatles Anthology VHS/DVD sets.

“Real Love” opens the Beatles Anthology 2 CD set and was also released on a CD single in 1996. One of the six original demo takes recorded by John was used in the 1988 film Imagine: John Lennon and is included on it’s soundtrack CD.

While the composition credit for “Free As A Bird” was modified to Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr due to additional lyrical development and chord structure additions, “Real Love” remained solely a Lennon composition.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Beatles Anthology 2 CD set 2-CD set covering Beatles years 1965-1968 and opening with The Beatles version of “Real Love”.

2) The Beatles Anthology (DVD set) 2003 5-DVD set giving expanded version of original 1995 television mini-series, including videos for both “Real Love” and “Free As A Bird”.

3) Imagine: John Lennon Soundtrack CD soundtrack of 1988 film Imagine: John Lennon, featuring acoustic demo version of “Real Love”.

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