For this week’s BROW, I first want to talk about a guy who was a Capitol Records A&R executive in the 1960′s named Dave Dexter. Capitol Records was actually owned by the U.K.-based company, EMI, that were handling the distribution of Beatles records in Britain through their Parlophone subsidiary. When EMI sent “Please Please Me” to Capitol for consideration as a U.S. single release, it was Dave who turned it down, citing he didn’t think it had what it took to be a marketable piece of music for the American audience. Dave, being in his forties at the time, had grown up with jazz and big band music, and apparently was not totally tuned in to picking out the best in rock and roll. Dave also declined the next couple of Beatle-offerings from EMI too: “From Me To You” and “She Loves You”. At this point, Beatles producer George Martin was infuriated. The singles did get a U.S. release anyway through either Vee Jay Records or Swan Records, but with very little promotional efforts and no backing from a major label, there was no interest generated for The Beatles in America. Fortunately Beatles manager Brian Epstein was able to persuade Capitol Records president, Alan Livingston, to play a few sample Beatles singles himself, including the new “I Want To Hold Your Hand” record, and that was all it took. Capitol agreed to begin distributing The Beatles with major promotional backing by the end of 1963.

Although, he initially passed on The Beatles, Dave Dexter soon came around to the idea, once he saw how the power of “Beatlemania” was taking hold in the U.S. He became the man in charge of compiling the American versions of the Beatles albums, which were arranged quite differently than the LPs released in England. U.S. albums typically contained 11-12 songs, whereas the norm was 14 tracks in the U.K. Dave held some songs back from the British LPs and added singles tracks, so that 2 English LPs meant 3 LPs in America, and thus more sales. The cover art and album titles were also different, such as the U.K. LP “With The Beatles” shortened and becoming “Meet The Beatles!” in the U.S. The mixes of the songs were also changed for the American market. Dave would add lots of echo to the “cleaner” sounding British mixes, because he felt that this added ‘ambiance effect’ was preferred in the U.S. This was okay on some of the music, but was overdone on a few occasions too. “I Feel Fine” and “She’s A Woman” are two tracks that suffer the most from this overabundance of ‘reverb’. These tracks appear on an American single and the Beatles ’65 album. Most listeners today seem to prefer the crisp British mix over the murky sounding American mixes of these two songs, but to each his own.

By late 1965, some of the differences between the U.S. and U.K. catalogs were starting to diminish. The Rubber Soul album was released in December of that year with the same cover art and title on both sides of the Atlantic. This was a first. The track listing was still slightly modified as the U.S. album had a couple of leftover tracks from the U.K. Help! album and also a few U.K. Rubber Soul tracks were left off the U.S. version (such as “Nowhere Man”) to appear later on the U.S.-only LP, “Yesterday”…And Today. Dave Dexter continued with his practice of adding an additional layer of echo on the stereo version of the album, but not all first pressings of the record contain these “Dexterized” versions of the songs. For pressings released in the sixties, it seems that most, if not all, of the east coast pressings have the added echo effects, while other pressings can have either the cleaner sounding mixes heard on the U.K. versions, or the echo enhanced versions. Later pressings, from the 70′s and beyond, have the cleaner sounding mixes, as do the CDs, to include the Rubber Soul disc packaged with the Capitol Albums Vol. 2 box set.

If you have an American Rubber Soul vinyl LP, you may be curious about whether of not yours contains the “clean” or “Dexterized” mixes. Rather than go into details about discerning what vinyl pressing you may have, I thought it might be more effective to suggest a good audio-test instead. The details are forthcoming, so read on…

This week’s BROW, in honor of this Saturday’s anniversary of the birth of George Harrison, is a track he penned for the Rubber Soul album in 1965, about someone, unrevealed, that George had parted ways with. This was an interesting time in Beatle history and one of the key reasons was that George was coming into his own and honing his skills, not only as a guitarist and vocalist, but also as a composer. The song is called “Think For Yourself”. A fuzzbox was added to Paul McCartney’s bass in the recording to pepper the sound with a bit of distortion. Since the “Dexterized” version of the song is no longer readily available, I have chosen to share it with you here, allowing you to hear how much more echo-laden it actually sounded on many of the U.S. stereo albums in the 60′s. The audio comparison test I mentioned earlier is to focus on the song’s ending, because the chords terminate cold and dry on any of the Rubber Soul CD issuances, but echo away with an unmistakeable bit of delay on the mix heard here. Take it away George…

The Beatles, circa 1965

Extra info:

1) Although George prepared two songs for Rubber Soul, “Think For Yourself” was his only track on the U.S. Rubber Soul album. The other track, “If I Needed Someone” appeared in the U.S. on the album “Yesterday”…And Today, released in June 1966.

2) Alternate audio-test: Since the initial stereo issuances of Rubber Soul had the vocals primarily on the right channel, you may be able to play the stereo vinyl (US) LP and adjust your amplifier’s balance control to the right. If it seems like you have more echo in the isolated vocal track than what appears on a Rubber Soul CD or digital file, then you may have an album with the “Dexterized” mix. A good song to try this on is “Girl”.

I would like to thank Fab 4 Radio’s “Beatle Ed” for inspiring me to do the research necessary for this post.

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

1) Rubber Soul (Remastered) 2009 remastered stereo CD with original stereo U.K. LP from Dec. 1965. Includes stereo mix of “Think For Yourself” (not the “Dexterized” mix).

2) Capitol Albums Vol. 2 Box Set – 2006 remastered 4-CD box set of U.S. Capitol Beatles albums Early Beatles, Beatles VI, Help! and Rubber Soul. The set contains both mono and stereo versions of the original four U.S. LPs from 1965. Features mono and stereo mixes of “Think For Yourself”. Note: The Rubber Soul disc does not include the “Dexterized” mixes discussed in this post.

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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Welcome back for another edition of The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. After the filming of their surprise concert on the roof of Apple during the cold afternoon of January 30, 1969, The Beatles thought they had enough footage for their Let It Be documentary film. Well, almost anyway. There were still a few songs not appropriate for the rooftop show that they knew should be covered in the film with finalized versions. Those three numbers were “Two Of Us”, “The Long And Winding Road” and “Let It Be”.

So on the following day, The Beatles and Billy Preston returned to the Apple basement to perform these songs for the camera until they had releasable takes. “Two Of Us” was worked on first and knocked off fairly quickly. The other two required a bit more time. The final results of these recordings are seen in the Let It Be documentary just before the rooftop show which is used to wrap up the film.

This week’s BROW comes from a warm-up rehearsal from this January 31st session, recorded just before getting serious with the initial takes of “Two Of Us” were made. While in a skiffle mood, with acoustic guitars in hand, Paul McCartney leads the group into a singalong medley of Lonnie Donegan’s “Take This Hammer” which continues with Donegan’s “Lost John” with both John Lennon and Paul singing. George Harrison then joins in to steer the band into Johnny Cash’s “Five Feet High And Rising”. After they’ve played about as much of the song as they remember, Paul moves them into the musically similar tune “Bear Cat Mama” (a Jimmie Davis number from the 1930′s). Keeping the same backing, John leads them into the chorus from Koerner, Ray and Glover’s “Black Dog”. This is a traditional song that’s melody was later appropriated for the chorus of his own song, “Crippled Inside” that made it’s way onto his Imagine album in 1971. George and John then go into a few bars of Carl Perkins’ “Right String, Wrong Yo-Yo”. To wrap up the medley John duets with Paul for a verse of their own “Run For Your Life”, the closer for their 1965 Rubber Soul album. The medley ends with a brief reprise of “Black Dog”. The audio dropouts heard here are a result of the source tape coming from an extraction from an old stack of camera reels. A proper studio recording of the warm up sessions was not considered a necessary expense at the time.

By the end of the day, The Beatles had completed acceptable takes of “Two Of Us”, “The Long And Winding Road” and “Let It Be”, all three of which were used in both the film and Let It Be album in 1970, thus bringing to a close the so-called “Get Back” sessions of January 1969.

John Lennon, January 1969

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

1) Let It Be 2009 remaster of original 1970 Let It Be album.

2) Let It Be…Naked – 2003 remastered stripped down version of original 1970 Let It Be album, w/bonus Fly On The Wall EP containing studio chat and session fragments.

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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On February 14-18, 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono did a one week co-host stint on US television’s Mike Douglas Show. This performance aired on the Feb. 14th show and was actually taped two weeks earlier on Jan. 31st. John and Yoko are joined onstage by the Elephants Memory Band to perform a song from John’s most recent Imagine album called “It’s So Hard”. Later in the year, Elephants Memory would record with the Lennons again on John and Yoko’s next album, the double LP Some Time In New York City. This first show with the Lennons also included musical guests The Chambers Brothers, attorney/political activist Ralph Nader and comedian Louie Nye. The show opens up with Mike himself singing his own interpretation of the Beatles’ Rubber Soul classic “Michelle”.

For “It’s So Hard”, John sings and plays rhythm guitar while Yoko hits a bongo drum. The Elephants Memory lineup included Stan Bronstein on sax, Richard Frank Jr. on drums, Wayne “Tex” Gabriel on lead guitar, Adam Ippolito on piano and Gary Von Scyoc on bass.

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) Some Time In New York City (remaster) – 2010 remaster of original 1972 double LP with Plastic Ono Band & Elephants Memory.

2) Imagine (remaster) – 2010 remaster of original 1971 LP with Plastic Ono Band & Flux Fiddlers. Includes classic version of title track.

3) Rubber Soul (remastered) – 2009 remaster of original 1965 stereo U.K. LP by The Beatles. Includes “Michelle”.

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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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. For this week I have assembled a collection of home demos and fragments of early versions of the White Album John Lennon classic, Cry Baby Cry. Proper recording of the song was not begun until July 16, 1968, but there are some recorded demos that date as early as December 1967, some of which I can share with you now. The sound clip presented here can be broken down into 5 separate demos by time, as follows:

1) 0:00 – 1:40: John at his Kenwwood home’s music room, mainly going over the chord structure of the verses on piano, sometime around December 1967. He is singing here, but it is “off mike” and difficult to make out. Although “…king was in the parlor playing piano for the children of the queen” seems to be discernible, where the role of the king and queen are reversed from the finalized lyrics.

2) 1:41 – 2:22: This is still a piano demo recorded at John’s home, likely from the same session, around December 1967. This begins with a more uptempo section (possibly a middle eight that was later discarded?) that John is vocalizing over before returning to the verses. John is still singing “off mike.”

3) 2:23 – 2:33: This 10-second fragment has John on piano and then supplementing, with Mellotron strings, the melody of the “jai guru deva” section of Across The Universe. A complete recording of this has it going into the chorus of Cry Baby Cry, which means it could have initially been part of the same song. This was likely recorded around December 1967, during the same session as the above two entries.

4) 2:34 – 3:27: A brief fragment on guitar where John is singing Cry Baby Cry with the original “make your mother buy” lyric and trying to work out a chorus, before moving into playing the chord structure. This dates around December 1967 or January 1968.

5) 3:28 – 5:55: During mid-February to mid-April 1968, The Beatles spent time in Rishikesh, India, and studied Transcendental Meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They wrote most of the music that was to appear on the White Album during this time, and John finished working out the lyrics and chord structure of Cry Baby Cry. In late May, 1968, The Beatles reconvened at George Harrison’s home in Esher (his Kinfauns bungalow) and also at John’s Kenwood estate, to go over what songs they had to record. Finally, from these sessions is a complete demo of Cry Baby Cry with finalized lyrics.

The Beatles Anthology 3 CD set gives us the first studio quality recording of Cry Baby Cry (Take 1), which is a beautiful account, featuring John on acoustic guitar and vocal, then from the second verse onward, he’s joined by Paul McCartney on bass and Ringo Starr on drums. This take was recorded live without overdubs on July 16, 1968. Most work on the master was completed that day, except for some overdubs, done two days later. The master also features George Martin on harmonium (it comes in right after John sings “make your mother sigh” the first time). George used the same harmonium he had played on the Rubber Soul track, The Word, and John had played on We Can Work it Out.

John Lennon, White Album insert photo, 1968

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

1) The White Album (Remastered) – 2009 remaster of original 1968 double album on 2 CDs, featuring the stereo master of Cry Baby Cry.

2) Anthology 3 1996 2-CD set covering out-takes and previously unreleased tracks from the Beatles during 1968-69. Includes a beautiful take 1 version of Cry Baby Cry recorded live without overdubs.

3) Additional Amazon links for 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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On November 23rd, 1965, The Beatles arrived at Twickenham Studios Stage #3 and filmed promo clips for their upcoming single We Can Work It Out b/w Day Tripper, working into the wee hours of the following day. While they were there, they also went back into their earlier cannon of singles and made video clips for Help!, Ticket To Ride and I Feel Fine (one of the two I Feel Fine clips can be viewed here). Day Tripper had just been recorded the previous month on October 16th and We Can Work It Out four days later. The planned single was due for release in the US and UK during the first week in December along with their Rubber Soul LP, both of which proved to be very hot items during the Christmas shopping weeks of 1965.

The clip of Day Tripper featured here is one of three recorded at this session, all of which show The Beatles miming to the record. This variation shows them standing behind props that represent travel. George and Ringo stand behind the windows of a train while John and Paul stand behind a grounded airplane. Paul errors his line “she’s a big teaser” replacing it with “tried to please her”, which is the counterpart line from the following verse, and laughs at his mistake. Ringo has no drum kit, so he shakes a tambourine and plays air drums before grabbing a saw and cutting up the train. The resulting films were created by InterTel VTR, a company owned by manager Brian Epstein’s NEMS Enterprises.

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) 1962-1966 (Red) Remastered – 2010 remaster of original 1973 Hits Compilation Double LP by The Beatles, including Day Tripper, plus We Can Work It Out, Help!, Ticket To Ride and I Feel Fine (2 CD set)

2) Past Masters (Remastered) – 2 CD non-album track compilation remastered in 2009 including Day Tripper, plus We Can Work It Out, and I Feel Fine

3) The Beatles 1 – CD compilation of “number ones” by The Beatles from 2000 including Day Tripper, plus We Can Work It Out, Help!, Ticket To Ride and I Feel Fine

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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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. It became more or less expected for The Beatles to put out two albums per year as they had in 1963 and 1964. But when October 1965 rolled around, the band was yet to make it into the studio to record a follow up to their first album of the year, Help! Between their extremely hectic schedule and all of the touring, there simply had not been time. Not wanting to disappoint, John and Paul quickly wrote more than a dozen new songs, and today’s BROW was the first one worked on when The Beatles reconvened at Abbey Road to record the Rubber Soul album on October 12th. The plan was to have it out to the shops by early December.

Run For Your Life was written primarily by John and he borrowed the line I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man from the Elvis Presley song Baby Let’s Play House. Five takes were recorded on October 12th and the master was created from take 5. Presented for BROW this week is the raw recording of take 5, prior to mixing. To my ears it seems to play at a slightly faster tempo and I’m therefore wondering if the master was slowed down a little during the mixing stage. At this point it is also missing some vocal overdubs, to include John’s na-na-na’s heard during the fade out on the finalized version. In the discussion prior to the take, John refers to the acoustic guitar he plays on the track as his ‘jumbo Gibson’ and asks that it be recorded “heavy” so that when more tracks are added, the rhythm guitar isn’t lost in the mix. This was the beginning of a long series of sessions to complete the record which ended up in final production by November 15th and in the shops by Friday December 3rd (the following Monday in the US), as planned.

An interesting aside: In 1973, John said in an interview that Run For Your Life was his least favorite Beatles song, while it was George’s favorite track on Rubber Soul.

Another interesting aside: In the early 1990s, the song was banned by Ottawa radio station CFRA for its allegedly misogynistic message. When the radio station was asked if it had also banned Elvis’s Baby, Let’s Play House, the program director confessed to not being familiar with that song. Upon listening to it, he banned it as well.

The song has been covered by Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Rivers, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Robert Gordon and a British girl group known as Thee Headcoatees.

John Lennon at Rubber Soul sessions, Oct. 1965

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 thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

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

1) Rubber Soul (Remastered)
– 2009 remastered CD contains stereo mix of Run For Your Life

2) 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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Happy Nat w/1st State Mono Yesterday And Today 'Butcher Cover' album

Welcome to the first installment of Collector’s Corner! This time I will be covering what is widely considered a staple to any serious Beatles vinyl collection – the first issuance of the U.S. and Canada only LP release titled Yesterday And Today, but more commonly referred to as the “Butcher Cover” album.

Background information: The hodgepodge nature in which Capitol records compiled Beatles albums between 1964 and 1966 was irritating the group, who felt they “put a lot of work into the sequencing” of the music on the British releases. Yesterday And Today was certainly no exception. The album was a compilation of tracks from the Beatles’ two most recent British LPs, namely Help! and Rubber Soul, which had not yet been included on their U.S. counterpart albums. Additionally, there were tracks from their upcoming U.K. Revolver LP. Since all three of these new tracks were primarily John Lennon compositions, when the U.S. Revolver album came out without them, it significantly limited John’s output for the album to only two songs (Tomorrow Never Knows and She Said She Said). It marked the first time there were more George Harrison composed songs on a U.S. Beatles record than there were John Lennon compositions, since George had three (Taxman, Love You To and I Want To Tell You). Below is the list of the 11 songs from Yesterday and Today and where they came from :

1) Act Naturally, Yesterday: from the UK LP Help!, (issued earlier by Capitol as a single)
2) Nowhere Man, What Goes On: from the UK LP Rubber Soul, (issued earlier by Capitol as a single)
3) Drive My Car, If I Needed Someone: also from the UK LP Rubber Soul
4) We Can Work It Out, Day Tripper: both sides of the single
5) I’m Only Sleeping, Doctor Robert, And Your Bird Can Sing: three Lennon compositions from the upcoming UK LP Revolver. Since Capitol was pressuring EMI in the U.K. for three tracks to fill up the album, the mono version of the album contained mixes that were not yet finalized. Capitol then used these same mixes to create duophonic (i.e. ‘fake’ stereo) mixes for the stereo edition of the album.

The tracks were ordered as follows:
Side 1-Drive My Car, I’m Only Sleeping, Nowhere Man, Doctor Robert, Yesterday, Act Naturally
Side 2-And Your Bird Can Sing, If I Needed Someone, We Can Work It Out, What Goes On, Day Tripper

For the reason stated in 5) above, the mixes of And Your Bird Can Sing, Doctor Robert and I’m Only Sleeping differ significantly between Yesterday And Today and the U.K. Revolver LP, where they had time to have been perfected. Since these unique American mixes are a rarity, two of them have been featured in the BROW series. Click the links below to read and hear how these mixes compare to the versions on the U.K. Revolver versions, which are now the standard:

1) I’m Only Sleeping
2) Doctor Robert

Additionally, And Your Bird Can Sing has louder handclaps and the guitars have a lower volume during the verses on the Yesterday And Today mix. Some Capitol Record Club pressings and later (1970′s) pressings of Yesterday And Today contain the better stereo mixes that appear on the U.K. Revolver album.

The Butcher Cover: In March of 1966, photographer Robert Whitaker had the Beatles in the studio for a conceptual art piece entitled A Somnambulant Adventure. The series of photos were to symbolize philosophical messages and included The Beatles linked to a woman by a string of sausages representing an umbilical cord (symbolizing the birth of The Beatles), George hammering nails into John’s head (symbolizing that The Beatles are flesh and blood like everyone else), and John holding an open box with the number 2,000,00 written on it’s bottom flap, placed around Ringo’s head (to symbolize that Ringo is just one of 2,000,000 members of the human race). For one part of the shoot, Whitaker took a series of pictures of the group dressed in butcher smocks and draped with pieces of bloody meat and body parts from plastic baby dolls. There were cigarette burns on the dolls along with toy eyeballs and even a pair of false teeth lying around. The group played along, as they were tired of the usual photo shoots and the concept was compatible with their own sort of dark humor. In fact, Beatles publicist Tony Barrow recalls that John Lennon was very enthusiastic about the session, as it’s bizarre appeal made it interestingly different than what they were used to. It wasn’t originally intended for use as an album cover, however the Beatles were happy enough with the session’s photos that they submitted some for their promotional materials, including an advertisement in Britain for the Paperback Writer single. Another photo from the session was used for the cover of the June 11, 1966 edition of the British music magazine Disc.

It was likely the art department at Capitol that prepared the originally intended cover art design for the Yesterday And Today cover which used an image of George and Ringo standing around a steamer trunk, with John sitting on top of it and Paul sitting inside it. Capitol submitted this to Beatles manager, Brian Epstein but when Brian showed The Beatles the proposed photo, John after just recently seeing Whitaker’s butcher photos, decided he wanted to use one of those instead, and the other Beatles went along with the idea. It’s been suggested that the use of this photo was a statement by the group as to how Capitol “butchered” the Beatles albums into configurations inconsistent with the way they are on the British release (i.e. the way The Beatles intended them to be). Additionally, according to a 2002 interview published in Mojo magazine, former Capitol president Alan W. Livingston stated that Paul stated that he thought of the butcher cover photo as “our comment on the war”.

The Beatles - Yesterday And Today, 'first state' butcher cover, 1966. Click photo for larger image.

Capitol prepared the cover photo as The Beatles wished during May 1966, even though Capitol’s sales department strongly protested. By June, advance copies of the album were being sent to disc jockeys and newspaper and magazine reviewers. It was even on sale in stores in a few limited areas, but only for about a day. The response was immediate and uniformly negative. Stores were refusing to handle the album due to the grotesque cover. Tony Barrow recalls that the cover could have been worse as the blood stains on the Beatles smocks was airbrushed out, however it was apparently offensive enough.

The Beatles - 'Yesterday And Today, 'second state' LP, 1966. Click photo for larger image.

Capitol immediately pulled the plug on the album by sending out recall letters to all who had been sent copies, explaining that a new cover was being prepared, and they would be sent a new copy. The letter requested recipients to return the album they were already sent C.O.D to Capitol. A (pdf) copy of this letter can be downloaded here. Capitol employees spent a weekend stripping the covers from the discs and boxing them up to send back to the plants for new covers still being prepared. The original covers were being destroyed by being cut up and taken to landfills. After many were destroyed, a Capitol employee came up with the money-saving idea of re-using them by simply creating a cover slick to paste over the old covers. The original steamer trunk photo was used on the new cover slicks and the factories were set up to paste the new slicks directly over the original butcher photo slicks and then trim 1/8 of an inch, or so, off of the right side of the jacket, in order to insure a smooth opening edge. Later, the collector’s terminology assigned to these pasted over album jackets became “second state” or “paste-over” butcher covers, whereas the few copies that survived being pasted over or destroyed are called “first state” butcher covers. While this pasting over process was underway, there were also new jackets with the steamer trunk cover being prepared, so when stores would receive their supply of the steamer trunk cover albums, some would be “paste-overs” and some would not.

Close up of 'second state' Butcher cover where Ringo's shirt shows through. Click photo for larger image.

If you have a copy of the Yesterday And Today LP with the steamer trunk cover on it, and you are wondering if it is a “paste-over” copy, it isn’t too hard to tell. If you shine a bright light on the cover and look in the white area just to the right of the top of the steamer trunk and Ringo’s elbow, you should be able to see the faint image of Ringo’s black shirt, from the butcher cover photo, showing through the white background of the slick, as shown in the close up photo of the area to the left. When word got out in 1966 as to what Capitol had done, many curious record buyers began trying unsuccessfully to peel off the steamer trunk covers to see if they had a butcher cover hidden underneath, but usually ended up destroying their cover. Consequently, second state copies of the album are now quite rare. There are professional methods for peeling a second state copy, but that should be handled by an expert. In the interview section of this site, I have interviewed one such expert. His name is Gary Hein (owner of Hein’s Rare Collectibles), and in this interview dated November 2010, Gary gives lots of further info about the incredible tale of this album, as well as other information about his dealership of collectible Beatles records and memorabilia. Check this interview out here, if you like.

Mono copy of 'The Beatles -Yesterday And Today' third state butcher cover, 1966. Cut out hole in upper right indicates that while it had the trunk cover still pasted over it, it ended up in a cut-out bin. Click photo for larger image.

So, why would someone want to peel their second-state butcher covers? Many people are intrigued by the bizarre appearance of the original cover and how it deviated from the image of The Beatles at the time, or any other rock or pop band of the era. Some collector-types prefer a peeled copy because it is the closest they can hope to come to a first state original. If the peel job is done professionally, it is almost a perfect replica of an original first state version. The only tell tale signs to indicate otherwise being the remaining glue residue on the newly exposed front cover, and the fact that the jacket will not be quite as wide, due to the right side of the jacket being trimmed immediately after applying the pasted over slick at the factory. Peeled copies are known by collectors as ‘third state copies’, in keeping with the already mentioned terminology. It used to be that if a third state copy had a professional peel job, it was more valuable than a second state copy. This is no longer the case today. Since the number of second states copies that are in at least near mint condition has diminished considerably over the years (due to (1) so many people having already peeled them, and (2) so many copies have had their jackets destroyed in the mere attempt to peel them), the copies in mint/near-mint condition are now matching the value of the third state copies with the best peel jobs.

Stereo copy of 'The Beatles -Yesterday And Today' third state butcher cover, 1966. Since only 10% of the copies of this album were stereo pressings, they are much rarer than the mono pressings. Click photo for larger image.

Another thing to note is that in mid 1966, mono was still king in the pop music world. Only 1 out of every 10 pressings of Yesterday And Today was a stereo pressing, therefore they are worth over twice as much as the mono pressings. The stereo pressings have a banner across the top part of the front cover slick that reads “New Improved Full Dimensional Stereo” (see photo at right). I will discuss value in more depth in the next section. Read on…

So exactly how much are these butcher cover albums worth?: The 2007 (6th) edition of Price Guide For The Beatles American Records by Perry Cox and Frank Daniels gives us the following figures:

1) First state mono in near mint condition: $4000
2) First state mono promotional copy in near mint condition (w/Promotional Copy – Not For Sale stamp): $5000
3) First state stereo copy in near mint condition: $12,000
4) Second state (paste-over) mono copy in near mint condition: $800
5) Second state (paste-over) stereo copy in near mint condition: $1500
6) Third state (peeled) mono copy in near mint condition: $800
7) Third state (peeled) stereo copy in near mint condition: $1500

Of course, these figures are just guidelines, and to be honest, seem to me to be quite low in comparison with some recent sales I have seen. In the case of first and second state copies, if the albums are still sealed (i.e. unopened) in their original shrink wrap they can bring several times the price listed above. In the case of third state copies, the value is very dependent on the quality of the “peel job”. This, along with the staggering rate of appreciation first state copies have had since the 1970′s (outperforming Dow Jones Industrial Average every year), the values are somewhat arbitrary.

Here are some examples of butcher covers selling for more than the values listed above:

In 1987, former president of Capitol Records, Alan Livingston released for sale twenty-four first state butcher covers from his private collection. When the original cover was scrapped in June 1966, Livingston took a case of already-sealed butcher albums from the warehouse before they were to be pasted over with the new covers. He kept them in a closet at his home for over twenty years. These albums were first offered for sale at a Beatles convention at the Marriott Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport on Thanksgiving weekend, 1987 by Livingston’s son. These still-sealed pristine items, which included nineteen mono and five stereo versions, are the very rarest “pedigree” specimen butcher covers in existence. These so-called Livingston Butchers today command premium prices among collectors with the five stereo versions being the most rare and valuable of these. In April 2006, Heritage Auction Galleries sold one of the sealed mono Livingston Butchers at auction in Dallas for about $39,000.

An extremely rare original first state stereo copy that was not from the Livingston collection was presented for appraisal at a 2003 Chicago taping of the PBS series Antiques Roadshow. It was still in the possession of the original owner, who had bought it at Sears & Roebuck on the day of release in 1966, the only day that the original butcher cover versions were on sale, before being recalled by Capitol. Although not in its original shrink wrap, it had rarely been played and was still in excellent condition. Roadshow appraiser Gary Sohmers placed it’s 2003 value at $10,000 – $12,000.

At the time of this writing, there is a still sealed (mint) second state butcher cover listed on Ebay for $23,000.There are also an abundance of “counterfeit issues” of these albums as well available, so buyer beware! Feel free to consult any of the professional Beatles Dealers listed at the end of this article if interested in making such an investment.

Original inner sleeve for Beatles Yesterday And Today album, 1966. Click photo for larger image.

Other considerations that influence the value are the condition of both the jacket and the record itself. If the jacket has marks or seam splits or even normal wear it would be considered in less than near mint condition, and significantly influence the value. The record, if considered mint or near mint, should have no signs (or extremely minimal signs) of ever being played. It is also good to have the original inner sleeve that accompanied the record in 1966 (see photo left). It goes without saying that if you have a copy of this record, you should keep it in the best condition as possible and not play it. The record and sleeve should be packaged separately in plastic to help protect it.

Back cover of Beatles Yesterday And Today LP. Click photo for larger image.

Final notes:

What The Beatles themselves had to say concerning the butcher cover album:

John Lennon: It was as relevant as Vietnam.

Paul McCartney: The critics were “soft”.

George Harrison: The whole idea was gross, and I also thought it was stupid. Sometimes we all did stupid things thinking it was cool and hip when it was naïve and dumb; and that was one of them.

Ringo Starr: It was a commentary on how Capitol Records “butchered” our original albums.

Due to the album cover fiasco, Yesterday And Today was the only Beatles record to lose money for Capitol.

Entries in the vinyl inventory of Happy Nat for this record:

1) 1st, 2nd and 3rd state mono copies
2) 3rd state stereo copy
3) stereo re-issue copies (w/steamer trunk cover)
4) Canadian mono copy (w/steamer trunk cover)

In closing, I’d like to credit the main sources of information used in this post: Bruce Spizer’s The Beatles Story on Capitol Records (Part Two), Bill Harry’s The Beatles Encyclopedia, Revised and Updated, Perry Cox and Frank Daniel’s Price Guide For The Beatles American Records (6th edition), and websites: Wikipedia.com, Ebay.com, and MyBeatlesCollection.com. I would also like to personally thank Gary Hein for insuring that my information is accurate. Gary’s website is at http://www.beatles4me.com. Certainly if you are after further details about this album, you can find it with any of these resources.

A few dealers in Beatles collectibles:

Perry Cox: email to perrydcox@aol.com
Gary Hein: visit online at www.beatles4me.com
Rockaway Records: visit online at www.rockaway.com.

I welcome questions and comments from anyone concerning this album and would certainly love to hear from any owners of it (in any state or condition), so let me hear from you!

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to your Christmas-week BROW!

The Beatles Third Christmas Record, issued Dec. 17, 1965

As most fans are aware, each year from 1963 through 1969, The Beatles recorded a special Christmas greeting for their fans. The Official Beatles Fan Club in England sent flexi-discs containing the Christmas messages to its members each holiday season. Last year, I featured the 1964 message and so this year I shall post the 1965 message, simply titled The Beatles Third Christmas Record. It was recorded on October 19, 1965, which was the day after an involved recording session for John’s In My Life and George’s If I Needed Someone for their Rubber Soul album.

Of course a newsletter was issued with the flexi-disc. It was written by The Beatles press officer Tony Barrow (whose idea it was, by the way, to do the Christmas recordings each year, in the first place). The text of the newsletter appeared on the back of the flexi-disc sleeve. Here is what it read:

THE BEATLES THIRD CHRISTMAS RECORD was made immediately after The Beatles finished work on their latest album “Rubber Soul”. To complete those fourteen LP tracks John, Paul, George and Ringo spent a series of whole days and whole nights in the recording studio with George Martin. Never before have they given such concentrated and extended attention to the production of an album. The Beatles have always been perfectionists but on this occasion they spent a great deal of time creating an unusually wide range of different instrumental sounds. They set out to make “Rubber Soul” the most varied LP programme of their career and they succeeded in achieving this aim.
A special fan club record from John, Paul, George and Ringo for Christmas has become a tradition. At the same time the project remains unique in that The Beatles are the only group to make an annual gift of this kind to their truest fans. THE BEATLES THIRD CHRISTMAS RECORD cannot be bought in the shops. Copies are not available at any price to people who do not belong to The Official Beatles Fan Club Of Great Britain. That’s what makes the entire venture so intriguing. Just about everything else the four boys do – whether it is a concert tour, a recording session or a television show – becomes (more or less) public property. But these Christmas records remain personal and exclusive – collectors’ gems whose value to Beatle People will increase with each year that passes.
Incidentally, I wonder how many members recognise the setting of the picture to be seen on the front of this sleeve. It was in Granada’s Manchester television studios when the boys made their spectacular “The Music Of Lennon And McCartney”. A few seconds after the photograph was taken, The Beatles launched into the energetic performance of “Day Tripper” which closes the first part of the programme. On behalf of the boys, fan club secretary Anne Collingham writes umpteen ‘Thank You’ letters during the course of the year. I think it’s time someone said ‘Thank You’ to Anne and her hardworking staff of girls at Monmouth Street. There’s never a quiet moment at the club headquarters but Anne’s busy band love what they’re doing and even when things get particularly hectic you’ll always find them helpful if you drop in or telephone the office.

TONY BARROW

It’s been fun bringing you the BROWs, VOWs, Interviews and other extras this year and I thank you all for being a part of my web site home for these tributary posts. I also have a few new ideas for the web site to spring on everyone in 2011 that I think you will like, so I hope you stick with me. Fab holiday wishes go out to you all from me to you.

And I still say, Beatles music makes great Christmas gifts…..

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 thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

Amazon links for more 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!

Related posts:

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The Beatles closed their show at the Circus-Krone in Munich with a shorter rendition of I’m Down where the verses were rearranged and John’s keyboard antics in the ending removed. This show took place on the 24th of June, 1966. There was a 5pm show and a 9pm show and this was filmed at the later. Although all the sessions for Revolver had been completed just a few days before this show, the album was not to be released for another 6 weeks and the band did not preview any songs from it at this show. A snippet of Nowhere Man from this same concert and from their previous album Rubber Soul, is shown in the Beatles Anthology documentary.

Click the image above to play the video.

Beatles music makes fab Christmas gifts. Some Amazon links are listed below to read about or purchase a wide variety of Beatles music:

1) The Beatles Anthology – DVD set

2) More 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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After mentioning In My Life in the last BROW segment, it brought back memories of this video account of John Lennon’s beautiful song from the Rubber Soul LP, as it was prepared for the Anthology documentary. The video served as an apt promo for a great film series.

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