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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The Beatles had a new single to promote but did not want to interrupt their Revolver recording sessions to visit television studios all over the world to perform it for everyone. So instead they enlisted the help of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (who would also end up working on a few Beatles projects after this) to create promo films of both sides of the single (Paperback Writer & Rain). The clip, seen here, was filmed on May 19, 1966 and, in the U.S., was aired exclusively on the Ed Sullivan Show on June 5, 1966, six days after the U.S single had hit the stores. Paul’s chipped front tooth from a recent moped accident is very visible in the Paperback Writer performance. A still from the intro clip was used for the back cover of the Revolver album. The intro clip also show the Beatles looking at transparencies of the butcher cover photograph soon to be placed on their upcoming Yesterday and Today album.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are a some links from Amazon to read about or purchase releases related to this post

1) Past Masters (Remastered) – 2009 remastered version of Beatles non-album tracks on 2 CDs including Paperback Writer & Rain

2) More 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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A sealed copy of The Beatles controversial album Yesterday And Today will go up for auction this week at Heritage Auction Galleries in New York. A good condition copy alone is very rare, but a sealed copy goes way beyond that. The lot description reads that it is the finest copy that they have seen and it is expected to bring $30,000 (bidding begins at $15,000). Included with this precious record is a letter from Beatles-expert Perry Cox stating it is the finest copy he has ever seen, as well. The auction begins on Friday, February 18 snd more information is available at this Goldmine Magazine article. For more info on this album, read my article in the Collector’s Corner.

Yesterday and Today LP (sealed copy w/butcher cover), 1966

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 the Beatles Rarity of the Week. This week’s post is a follow up to an earlier BROW I posted way back in October of 2008, that you can check out here if you like.

The previously referenced post points out that there have been five mixes in the standard Beatles catalog of I’m Only Sleeping. Actually, I should have said there are four, since the mix on the stereo US Yesterday…And Today LP is a fake stereo mix identical to the one on the mono Y&T album.

1. Yesterday…And Today (mono) + Yesterday…And Today (stereo) which had a fake stereo mix – this mix was featured on the Oct. 2008 BROW and never released officially to CD.

2. UK Revolver mono mix – available again recently on the mono remasters box set issued last September.

3. UK Revolver stereo mix – this has been the standard mix since the CD was issued in 1987.

4. Yesterday…And Today (stereo reissue) – around 1973 the stereo Y&T album was upgraded with a newly created stereo mix of I’m Only Sleeping since early issues had ‘fake’ stereo mixes. This version has not been officially released to CD.

All four of these mixes have subtle differences to do with where the backwards guitar overdubs are faded up and down in the mix. Also, the lead guitar is mixed differently throughout the guitar solo and at the end. My earlier post included the mono US Y&T mix (#1 above). Since #2 above was recently issued and #3 above is the standard mix, I have chosen the US stereo 1973 reissued mix (#4) as this week’s BROW. In case you’re interested in comparing, I have charted specifically how these mixes differ below the photo, but, of course, you don’t have to sweat the details just to enjoy the song.

The Beatles, 1966

Note: #4 below is the characteristics for the mix featured in this post. To compare with mono Y&T version (#1), check out the earlier post. To compare with UK stereo Revolver mix (#3), play your Revolver CD. With the mono box set you can compare with your mono Revolver CD (#2).

Verse 1: no backwards guitar on any mix

Verse 2:
#1-no backwards guitar
#3-backwards guitar on “everywhere at such a speed” and “find there’s no need”
#4-backwards guitar on “running everywhere at such a speed” and “till they find there’s no need”
#2-backwards guitar on “where at such a speed” and “there’s no need”

Verse 3:
#1-backwards guitar on “time” and “ceiling”
#3, #4-no backwards guitar
#2-backwards guitar on “staring at the ceiling”

Solo:
#1-guitar continues into words “please don’t” at end of solo
#3, #2-guitar ends at end of solo
#4-guitar fades in 2 bars later, continues into “please”

Verse 4:
no backwards guitar on any mix

End:
#1-guitar starts 4 beats after the last word “sleeping”
all others- guitar starts immediately after last word “sleeping”

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

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. Journalist Richard Simpson claims that John Lennon wrote And Your Bird Can Sing after hearing from Rolling Stone Mick Jagger that his new girlfriend, Marianne Faithful, is quite a singer (“bird” is slang for girl or girlfriend in the UK). Whatever the inspiration, it turned out to be a good little rocker with a nice dual-guitar melody played by George and Paul. It was first titled You Don’t Get Me and The Beatles started recording it on April 20, 1966. After creating a rhythm track (take 1), John and Paul overlaid a basic vocal track to create take 2. Additional vocal overdubs were still needed and several were worked on the same day, including one that has John and Paul giggling hysterically. That one can be heard on The Beatles Anthology 2 CD set. The liner notes say that nothing in the surviving tapes indicate the reason for the laughing. I happen to suspect it might have something to do with what they were smoking. The version featured here is the same take 2 heard on Anthology, but before the “giggles” overdub was added to it. This take has a completely different arrangement from what was to end up as the master and was eventually scrapped. The following week on April 26th, they started over on it, completing takes 3-13. Take 10 ended up being used to create the master, but the mono mix uses a different instrumental ending from one of the other takes. An early version of the mix was sent to Capitol in the US to use for the Yesterday…And Today album released on June 20, 1966. The final mix appeared on the UK version of the Revolver LP released on August 5, 1966. By the time of the following album (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), there would no longer be so much difference between the US and UK Beatles releases.

The Beatles, circa 1966

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.
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Welcome to this week’s Beatles Rarity Of The Week. This track was requested by a subscriber a few weeks ago. Back in 1966, while The Beatles were working on their Revolver LP, Capitol Records in the U.S. were putting together a compilation album of singles tracks that had yet to appear on a U.S LP plus some leftover songs that were on the British Rubber Soul album but left off of the U.S. Rubber Soul album. It came up three songs short of being a typical length so they pressed EMI for 3 new songs to round it out. What they received was three Lennon tracks: Dr. Robert (featured in an earlier BROW), And Your Bird Can Sing and the one featured here: I’m Only Sleeping. With that the U.S. album was completed and named Yesterday…And Today. These three songs were early versions that The Beatles modified with edits and overdubs after they were released in the U.S. That is why the U.K. Revolver mixes of these songs differ from the U.S. mixes. There are also mix differences between the mono and stereo mixes within each country and in the case of I’m Only Sleeping there are five different versions: U.K. mono, U.K. stereo, U.S. mono, U.S. fake stereo (on original stereo Yesterday…And Today albums) and U.S. stereo (later editions of Yesterday…And Today albums). Since the U.K. Revolver album was what was later issued to CD, the U.K. stereo version of I’m Only Sleeping is the most common. The version I’m featuring here is the U.S. mono version. The backwards guitar heard in verse two with the common version on “everywhere at such a speed” and “find there’s no need” is missing on this version and the guitar ends at the end of the solo whereas here it continues into the words “please don’t”. The common version also has the guitar starting immediately after the last word “sleeping” at the end and it comes in four beats later on this version. So if you’re fairly used to the common version of this song, I hope you enjoy this variation. On the other hand, if you haven’t heard any version of this song in awhile, I hope you enjoy it anyway because it’s a great tune.

Yesterday...And Today album cover, 1966

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

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I’ve seen a lot of discussion on MOG.com about The Beatles being “first” to do a lot of things: lyrics coming with the album packaging (Sgt. Pepper), the first feedback sound in a rock/pop song (I Feel Fine), the first classical instrumentation in a pop song (Yesterday), the first rock band to wear their hair longer than anyone was used to seeing on males, the first metal song (Helter Skelter), the first band to put backwards secret messages in their music or other hidden meanings on the album jackets, etc., etc. etc. Yeah, well, whether or not you agree with all of these, you should at least agree that The Beatles were innovative as hell.

I think this weeks BROW was the first pop/rock song to contain drug references or maybe to actually be completely about drugs. Then again, maybe I’m wrong. If you can find, or know of an earlier one, then please comment and educate me. The fact that it was about a pill pusher actually went unnoticed for awhile. The Beatles were always stretching the boundaries of what was “acceptable” and in this case got away with it without any bans. Soon afterward, the Rolling Stones followed suit with Mother’s Little Helper which was also about pill popping. Most of us also know the story about how A Day In The Life was banned on the BBC due to the I’d love to turn you on lyric. And, of course, afterward there are countless other “druggie songs” that followed.

Specifically a composition of John’s (with a little collaboration with Paul), aboutthebeatles.com says this about who Dr. Robert actually was:

[A song] written about a New York doctor named Doctor Robert Freymann, a 60 year old, German physician who was famous for prescribing generous amounts of amphetamines to famous people. Freymann once boasted that he could name 100 famous names in 10 minutes of people who used his services. Some books credit Dr. Robert as being Dr. Charles Roberts, but that name was only used as an alias for one of Andy Warhol’s actresses to protect another doctor who practiced the same type of medicine. The real Dr. Robert died in 1987 after losing his license in 1968 and removed from the NY State Medical Society in 1975.

And why am I posting this as a rarity?

Dr. Robert, the song, was first released in the US on the Yesterday…And Today album (yes, this was the one with the infamous Butcher cover, but that’s another story) on June 20, 1966. It was later released on the UK Revolver album on August 5th, 1966 but some mixing changes were made after the US version was released that only appear on the UK albums. Since the masters from the UK stereo album was what was eventually used for the Revolver CD, the US (fake stereo and mono) versions were destined to obscurity. The version I’ve posted here is the US mono version from Yesterday…And Today which unlike the UK Revolver CD version has the fade reaching the true ending of the song where John is saying ‘OK Herb’ (?) or something like that (you have to turn the volume up loud to hear this as it is at the end of the fade). The middle-eight section (which starts with ‘well, well, well you’re feeling fine’) are also mixed differently here than on the common version we hear on the Revolver CD.

Top to bottom: Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison

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

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