Move over, Ms L!

Hi all, wondering why you are looking at this jumbled up page? This is due to the fact that Facebook didn't like our url since it starts with wog, so we have been forced to move the blog. This was some time ago, and we have placed a script which would automatically send you to our new location. Obviously, this hasn't worked for all of you, since we have just finished moderating some of your comments which appeared on this site recently, and not on our new (and improved!) site. So what we're saying is head on over to our new site, and update your bookmarks!

Thursday 31 May 2018

Help! and the Trifecta of Vocal Fills

By guest blogger Michael A Massetti

The Beatles were masterful song writers, composers, musicians, and singers. Their library of music is rich with tricks and techniques that captured the ears (and hearts) of their fans then and now. Their compositions and recordings remain relevant decades later.

Help! was released in July, 1965 and became The Beatles’ 10th overall #1 single. It came out after Eight Days A Week in February in the US and after Ticket to Ride, which was released in April of that same year, continuing the relentless march of number 1 singles the Beatles released in such a short window of time.

Help! was The Beatles’ second movie and soundtrack album. Both albums (including A Hard Day’s Night) lead off with a title track that displayed musical magic and severable memorable “bits”, as Paul often says to describe their music. In particular, the harmony and backing vocal fill tracks in the verses of Help! danced between leading, trailing, and in synch with the lead vocals.

By this time, the collaboration between the four lads and their esteemed producer (and, 5th Beatle), George Martin, was paying tremendous dividends. The title for the movie was presented to them in April. Within two weeks, John had written the song and the first recording was on April 13. The finished product demonstrates how tightly coupled the Beatles were with George and what they could achieve, even under tremendous time pressure.

Help! was truly a call out by John as his life ventured from struggling artists to global superstars and was quite a departure from the love songs they wrote that dominated 1964 and early 1965. Originally written as a more melancholy blues song, The Beatles “popped” it up to capture the delight of their worldwide fans – most likely encouraged by George Martin to speed up the original pace of the song.



You may remember, as they entered 1965, their ages ranged from 21 to 24. Nothing could have prepared them for the immense popularity they had already achieved. Nor could they have anticipated the pressures that mounted with every successful album, movie, concert, and more. Life was no longer simple. The Beatles were no longer “just a rock and roll band” as John liked to lament.

Let’s start with the first verse. After the opening chorus with all three Beatles singing “Help!” in advance of John’s solo bits such as “I need somebody” and “Not just anybody,” all three sang in pleading voices “Help!” The first verse begins with Paul and George singing “When …” John proceeds to sing the lead.

Within the first three lines of this verse, Paul and George proceed John’s lyric, follow immediately in harmony, and then sing along together. They continue to bounce from proceeding to trailing and synchronously.

LEAD – John BACKING – Paul/GeorgeVocal Fills

WhenLead
When I was young


When I was young …Lag
… oh so much younger than today


I never needLead
I never needed anybody’s

… help in any way … help in any waySynchronous

NowLead
But now these days are gone


These days are gone … Lag
And I’m not so self-assured


And now I findLead
Now I find, I’ve changed my mind,

I’ve opened up the doors I’ve opened up the doorsSynchronous

The song is loaded up with vocal fills that go back and forth during the verse. The Beatles established an early pattern of Lead-Lag-Lead-Synchronous in the first verse. Additionally, as they did often in their early recordings, there was both a mono and stereo version of the song. The vocal fills remained the same, though.

Help! moves along at a nice pace as it sits on a steady rhythm the lads provided with John’s acoustic guitar, George’s electric guitar, Paul’s bass, and Ringo’s drums and tambourines. One almost loses the fact that John is making a plea for support after nearly 2 years of Beatlemania has enveloped the 4 young lads due to the song’s upbeat energy.

In the chorus, John leads with “Help me if you can I’m feeling down and I do appreciate you being ‘round” before Paul and George join back in during “Help me get my feet back on the ground … won’t you please Help! me.” In contrast to the verses, they reverted back to instrumental fills of lead guitar by George and drums by Ringo to tie it all together.

The words beg the listener’s emotions to feel sympathy and somberness for John. At the same time, the song moves along with a vibrant gripping pace. Help! is filled with lyrics and music that hold steady throughout, almost distracting one from the darker message. Later on, John would acknowledge how happy he was with the song and it was the first of many of John’s truly introspective and honest songs.

The second verse provides more of the same back and forth and repeats the Lead-Lag-Lead-Synchronous fills of Paul’s and George’s backup vocals.

LEAD – John BACKING – Paul/George Vocal Fills

Now Lead
And now my life has changed

… in oh so many ways… my life has changed Lag

My independ … Lead
My independence seems to

… vanish in the haze… vanish in the haze Synchronous

But Lead
But ev’ry now and then


… now and then Lag
… I feel so insecure


I know that I Lead
I know that I just need you like

… I’ve never done before… I’ve never done before Synchronous

The final verse is a repeat of the opening one, but they changed the pattern just a bit. The first part of the verse has John singing solo with a bit more sadness in his tone. The second half picks up from the earlier pattern of Lead-Lag-Lead-Synchronous backing vocals.

LEAD – John BACKING – Paul/George Vocal Fills
When I was young

… oh so much younger than today

I never needed anybody’s

… help in any way


Now Lead
But now these days are gone


These days are gone … Lag
And I’m not so self-assured


And now I find Lead
Now I find, I’ve changed my mind,

I’ve opened up the doorsI’ve opened up the doors Synchronous

And, in the end, they replay the chorus just as they did the prior two times. To end the song, they truncated the flow with their final “Help me, help me … oooooohhhhhh” and faded out.

Help! is an example of the Beatles’ creativity and innovation. As singers, songwriters, musicians, and composers, The Beatles developed a bag of musical and lyrical tricks second to none. The vocal fills in Help! is an early example of how creative they were despite the time pressure of a major movie release looming.

Clearly, they really did not need much help at all.


Visit Michael's blog!

Wednesday 30 May 2018

Researcher uncovers the White Album cover


The simplistic design of The Beatles' "white album" sleeve: was it really a work of art? Or was it Richard Hamilton plagiarising himself? Perhaps he thought the pay wasn't much, so he didn't want to put a lot of effort into it. Like, "Here's a poster, and you get the cover for free".

BEATLES AND WHITE ALBUM DESIGN

Written and researched by Kevin Bradford

In what can be now seen as a trilogy is a transformation of The Beatles from pop stars to pop artists beginning with Revolver, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album.

Pepper was the Beatles in an art gallery. "The white album" was the collection of the art.

It is no coincidence that McCartney had befriended Robert Fraser at exactly this time. Fraser and his gallery was the hot spot for Paul to be introduced to Peter Blake, Jann Haworth and Richard Hamilton. It was Fraser's suggestion that The Beatles hire real artists to make their album covers. One could infer that he considered Voormann's "Revolver" cover to not be done of a "real artist" or that he hoped to gain a contract with his own roster of "real artists" that he also represented.

Revolver, designed by Klaus Voormann - not considered as a "real artist"?

It was through Fraser that Paul bought his Magritte art and was the impetus for the Apple label art. Both the art for the Sgt. Pepper cover as well as the "White Album" only got the artists £200 British Pounds for each of the designs. It can be argued it was a measly sum and Blake has made issue about that since.

This reasoning as to why the White Album was a simplistic white cover has been discussed many times over the years. The reasons have been given as:
1. To create a numbered edition like art
2. It was a response to Pepper and psychedelia
3. They wanted to not be judged by the cover but as artists etc.

Hamilton said it best without saying it in one of his last interviews, "It should be treated like a very small edition publication of poems or something!"  What people don't realise is that he literally did just that.

From 1960 to 1966, Hamilton produced a series of monographs for the William and Noma Copley Foundation. The series covered  René Magritte, Thomas Albert Sills, James Metcalf, Serge Charchoune, Jacques  Herold, Hans Bellmer, Richard Lindner, Bernard Pfriem, Eduardo Paolozzi and Diter Rot.

Magritte was the first artist in the series of monographs.
Hamilton's design for Bernard Pfriem
All one need do is look at the design of these covers to know that Hamilton was emulating his previous layout for these other "artists". Interestingly enough is that Lindner and Magritte were
part of the Sgt. Pepper character background and Apple art influence.

Design for Serge Charcoune
Lindner's inclusion was more likely because of Jann Haworth than anything else. These monographs would have been known to Robert Fraser and possibly Paul as a reference guide especially concerning Magritte and Hamilton's association with both Paul and Robert Fraser's Gallery.

Copley (right) and Magritte
The monograph series ended in 1966, not long before William and Noma Copley’s divorce. Timing is everything! Enter Beatles.

The term album comes from latin from the word albus... which means white.

Paul’s art dealer Robert Fraser brought Hamilton and the Beatles together, setting up a meeting at Savile Row. Inevitably Paul kept his visitor waiting, and as Hamilton sat watching the beautiful people flounce by he became bored and irritated. By the time he was admitted to Paul’s presence, Hamilton was really disgruntled. ‘So when he said that they wanted me to do the cover of this album they were working on, I said, “Why don’t you do it yourself?”’ Hamilton recalled to the author Michael Bracewell.

‘Come on, haven’t you got any ideas?’ Paul asked.

‘Well, my best idea is to leave a white cover,’ replied Hamilton. He hadn’t intended to do a white cover when he came to the meeting. The notion occurred to him on the spur of the moment, almost as a put-down to Paul in response to being kept waiting and all the nonsense he saw surrounding the Beatles. To Hamilton’s surprise, Paul agreed.

The players:

Richard William Hamilton CH (24 February 1922 – 13 September 2011) was an English painter and collage artist. By many, he was considered the father of pop-art in England. From the mid-1960s, Hamilton was represented by Robert Fraser and even produced a series of prints, Swinging London, based on Fraser's arrest, along with Mick Jagger, for possession of drugs. This association with the 1960s pop music scene continued as Hamilton became friends with Paul McCartney resulting in him producing the cover design and poster collage for the Beatles' White Album.

William N. Copley (1919 – 1996) also known as CPLY, was an American painter, writer, gallerist, collector, patron, publisher and art entrepreneur. Copley and his second wife, Noma Rathner, developed the William and Noma Copley Foundation, later known as the Cassandra Collection, in 1953. The William and Noma Copley Foundation was a non-profit co-founded in 1954 by the newly wedded couple. The two shared the dual aim to “encourage the creative arts” through grants, an enterprise which was made possible by William Copley’s significant inheritance. In addition to its grant program, the William and Noma Copley Foundation also published a series of monographs supervised by artist Richard Hamilton. Ten publications appeared between 1960 and 1966.

The term "monographia" is derived from the Greek "mono" (single) and grapho (to write), meaning "writing on a single subject". Monographic series (alternatively, monographs in series) are scholarly and scientific books released in successive volumes, each of which is structured like a separate book or scholarly monograph. In many cases each volume in such a series itself contains individual chapters or articles written by different authors, usually on the same general theme. And that's perhaps a good way to describe The Beatles' "white album", had it been a book and not a music record.

Richard Hamilton about the White album, by Pete Stern

New Yellow Submarine picture disc

New picture disc release
July 6, 2018, there is going to be a new picture disc release of the single "Yellow Submarine" b/w "Eleanor Rigby". This will be a limited edition, although we have no figures. The vinyl picture disc will be housed in a card sleeve with a die-cut hole on the front to show the disc.



Originally released as a single in 1966, this new release ties in with the 50th anniversary of the "Yellow Submarine" film, which premiered in the summer of 1968. A number of products featuring the cartoon designs from the film have been licensed from Apple Corps Ltd. this year, including clothing, figurines, a graphic novel, a book and other paper ephemera.
Back cover

Link to pre-order

Monday 28 May 2018

White album in surround sound


There are news going 'round that Tim Young has finished mastering the Beatles' "The Beatles" (aka White Album) in 5.1 surround sound as well as in stereo at Metropolis Mastering in London. He had been going a few times to Abbey Road for meetings with Giles Martin during the project. The actual mixings were done by Giles Martin and probably Sam Okell.

Tim Young also did the mastering of the Love album, in 2006.

Record Collector, June 2018 edition.
Meanwhile, UK magazine Record Collector is dressing up in white album clothes for their June issue.

There are no further news regarding the 50th anniversary "white album", so don't bother to ask about formats, the Esher demos etc ;-)

Friday 18 May 2018

John & Yoko exhibition opens

Yoko Ono is in Liverpool to open the new exhibition. Photo: Mark McNulty
Today, the new John&Yoko exhibition opens in the Museum of Liverpool, titled Double Fantasy – John & Yoko, and it will be running until 22 April, 2019. Yoko Ono has taken the trip from New York to be present at the opening. Perhaps one can also expect to see John and Yoko's son Sean Lennon there, as he recently published a selfie from a Thames boat trip, together with George's son, Dhani Harrison.

"The Thames they are a Changin!" is the text which followed this image on Sean's Instragram and Facebook accounts.
Double Fantasy - John&Yoko is a free exhibition, celebrating the meeting of two of the world’s most creative artists who expressed their deep and powerful love for one another through their art, music and film. They used their fame and influence to campaign for peace and human rights across the world, transforming not only their own lives, but art, music and activism forever.

Featuring personal objects alongside art, music and film produced by John and Yoko, the exhibition is drawn from Yoko’s own private collection, some of which has never been displayed.

See our blog post from March for more details of this exhibition.

Thursday 17 May 2018

Help! Calling on all Beatles fans


Help us secure the future of the iconic Strawberry Field site by joining our ‘Strawberry Field Buy a Brick’ fundraising campaign.

The Strawberry Field site, treasured by John Lennon, has become a gathering place for Beatles fans from across the globe. Fans will now have an exciting opportunity to own a piece of the old Victorian Building that stood on site when John used to spend his time there.

There is a limited edition of 2,500 bricks, which will be released in 5 batches. Each brick is individually numbered which comes complete with a certificate of authentication.

Strawberry Field holds a special place in the history of The Beatles, with John Lennon’s experiences in and around the children’s home providing inspiration for the unforgettable song, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

Julia Baird, John Lennon's sister and Hon President of the Strawberry Field project says "I am sure that all Beatles fans will find a way to support this significant project that will bring hope to so many young adults with learning disabilities. With Fathers' Day coming soon, what better present could there be for lovers of Strawberry Fields Forever!"

John grew up with his aunt Mimi just a stone’s throw away from the site, he used to jump over the wall to play and regularly joined the children during the annual Garden Party and was said to find peace and refuge in the grounds. The large Victorian mansion was the centre piece of the estate, then sadly it was demolished in the 1970s but during the development work for the new plans, we have managed to salvage a number of original bricks.

Owners of this last piece of Beatles heritage in Liverpool, The Salvation Army, have ambitious plans to redevelop the site. The new vision for Strawberry Field will weave together educational, cultural, heritage and spiritual exploration in one bold, imaginative plan.

To own a piece of Strawberry Field is a special gift for the Beatles fan in your life.  If you are scratching your head wondering what gift to get this year for your Dad, then look no further! But hurry we are now taking advance orders to be delivered in time for Father’s Day on 17 June 2018.

Bricks are priced at £75 per brick; orders are limited to 4 bricks per customer.
Also on offer is the opportunity to purchase a ‘Bundle’ package which includes a brick, a t-shirt and a mug all for the great price of £95. The first release is available for pre order now simply go to store.strawberryfieldliverpool.com to secure this special piece of memorabilia.

You can also purchase a range of exclusive merchandise that will also support the fundraising campaign to help us open the famous red gates to the public for the very first time.

Jules Sherwood, Fundraising Development Manager at The Salvation Army said,

“Help us bring Strawberry Field back to life again, we have big plans and we need your support to achieve them. We have had amazing support and encouragement from Beatles fans and the Beatles Industry Group in the City, we hope this opportunity to be part of the past and future of Strawberry Field will appeal to fans around the word.”

Tuesday 15 May 2018

Mad Day Out sculpture

This "Mad Day Out" photo will be made into a sculpture. Photo: Tom Murray.
Noted British sculptor Andrew Edwards, the amazing sculptor behind the iconic dock front Beatles sculpture in Liverpool, has just finished his homage to the 50th Anniversary of Tom Murray's Mad Day Out photographs of the Beatles by creating a bronze machete of one of the photo's titled "Coming Apart".

This particular piece was a real challenge to create. It required a lot of detail not only in the expressions but the movement of all four Beatles. Paul McCartney was literally falling off the roof of a building, on Old Street Station in London, and John Lennon grabbed him to keep him from falling as George and Ringo held on to John. Andy, as he likes to be called, is no stranger to the Beatles. His eight-foot sculptures of each of the Fab Four was unveiled on the docks in Liverpool in 2016 and quickly became the most photographed sculpture in the United Kingdom.

After seeing Tom's photographs of the Mad Day Out, in the book of the same name, Andy through a mutual friend, asked if he could sculpt one of the photographs. Tom Murray was thrilled to say the least. Even more appropriate was the fact that the photographs were celebrating their 50th Anniversary in 2018.

Andrew Edwards has an amazing background. He has sculpted oversize people such as Mohammad Ali, Frederick Douglass, David Beckham, the Beatles, Gordon Banks, Cilla Black and numerous others. Many of his sculptures tour the world before being placed in their final destination.


Andy is as much a philosopher as he is an artist. And can drive the conversation to social and cultural issues long past as well as present bringing out the most interesting points of view. It helps him form his subjects. He looks at them from many sides not just physical ones but his interpretation of their personality and their souls. Ultimately, his work speaks for itself.

Tom Murray's Mad Day Out book.
Edwards, bronze machete of "Coming Apart" has never been seen and won't be until it is unveiled at the opening VIP reception for the 50th Anniversary of Tom Murray's Mad Day Out photographs on May 31st at Soho Contemporary Art in New York City.

This machete, which is a foot and a half in height, is the first piece of a much larger one Andy plans on creating. It will be an eight-foot bronze. A true tribute to a great band from a great artistic fan.

Part of the creative process has been filmed for inclusion in the Here, There and Everywhere Beatles Fan Film, and more will be filmed at the unveiling of the sculpture.

Most of this text lifted from Broadwayworld.com

Tom Murray's Mad Day Out book has been previously available from PledgeMusic, but be published for the general public on July 1 in the UK and July 28 in the USA.

Links to preorder the book:
Amazon USA
Amazon UK

Monday 14 May 2018

George Harrison's Höfner Club 40 guitar controversy

George Harrison's Höfner Club 40. Photo: Juliens Auctions
Julien's Auctions are auctioning off George Harrison's first electric guitar – a Höfner Club 40 which has been privately held for over 50 years – on May 19.

Harrison played the small blonde with black body binding single–cutaway hollow body instrument in the early days of The Beatles when they performed around Liverpool, England as The Quarrymen. The group had been transitioning from skiffle – played primarily with acoustic instruments – to rock and roll – played primarily with electric instruments – during that time.

John Lennon and George Harrison were the first to acquire electric guitars, which were nearly identical Höfner Club 40 models. Harrison traded his big Höfner President model acoustic archtop jazz guitar for the Höfner Club 40. He played the guitar with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ken Brown, who were band members at the time, on and off at The Casbah Coffee Club, Mona Best’s social club in the basement of the Best family home in Hayman’s Green, West Derby. The band also participated in Carroll Levis' TV Star Search in October 1959 under the name Johnny and the Moondogs, without Ken Brown and without a drummer.

You can read about the history of this guitar over at Liverpudlian Mark Ashworth's excellent blog "There Are Places I Remember: The Beatles' Liverpool Locations". Part two of the story can be found here.

A photo of a framed photo stirred up controversy.
After a photo of a photo of George playing the guitar appeared, controversy arose when sceptics started to question the authenticity of the photo and suggested that the photograph in question had been tampered with by Photoshop.

It was later discovered that the actual original photo was auctioned off by Christie's in their "Printed books, Autograph Letters, Documents, Pop and Sport Memorabilia" auction in Melbourne in March 1996. It also appeared in the auction catalogue, as scanned here by renowned German Beatles author and collector Thorsten Knublauch.

Scanned from the 1996 auction catalogue.
In Christie's catalogue, the photo is described as "Part of a family snapshot, George Harrison is aged 16 and played with Eddie Sedgewick on bass, and a drummer, at the coming of age party of David Minchella, at the Co-Operative Hall, Rice Lane, Liverpool on Saturday 7th November 1959".

A week later, George, John and Paul performed in Manchester at a final round of the Star Search competition, but lost out - mainly because they didn't have a drummer.

The guitar is expected to fetch $200,000-$300,000 when it sells on 19 May as part of Julien’s Auctions’ Music Icons lot.

UPDATE: The guitar eventually sold for $430,000, and Mark Ashworth has published a third chapter in the story here.

Wednesday 9 May 2018

DeLuxe "Imagine" coming up

Poster, originally included with the Imagine album.
According to Beatles aide Tony Bramwell, a "song and dance" version of the classic John Lennon album "Imagine" from 1971 is in the works, to be released in the autumn. When asked what he meant with "song and dance" by Steve Marinucci, Bramwell replied "Just remixed and fiddled about with."

"Imagine" is the most popular of John Lennon's solo works and the title track is considered one of Lennon's finest songs. In 2012, "Imagine" was voted 80th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". George Harrison also played on the album, alongside seession musicians. It featured Lennon's most vitriolic stab at his former songwriting partner in the form of the song "How Do You Sleep?", where Lennon addresses McCartney, saying "the only thing you've done was 'Yesterday'". However, the two patched up their friendship pretty soon again after that - without telling anyone.

Apple Records issued Imagine on 9 September 1971 in the United States and a month later, on 8 October, in the UK. Early editions of the LP included a postcard featuring a photo of Lennon holding a pig, in mockery of McCartney's similar pose with a sheep on the cover of Ram. A poster of John Lennon sitting behind his white grand piano was also included, and the inner sleeve featured credits printed in a circle. "Imagine" was also released in quadrophonic, which was a seventies surround sound system, using four speakers.

"Imagine" inner sleeve.
"Imagine", backed with "It's So Hard", was released as a single, in the US on 11 October 1971, and in a number of other countries, including Norway. The album went to number 1 worldwide and became an enduring seller, with the title track reaching number 3 in the United States. "Imagine" would not be issued as a single in Britain until four years later, to coincide with the release of Lennon's "Shaved Fish" singles collection.

Imagine - front cover
The front cover was a Polaroid taken by Andy Warhol. The back cover photograph was taken by Yoko Ono. A quote from Ono's book Grapefruit (which the Lennons were in the process of promoting the re-release of in the UK) was also included on the back cover: "Imagine the clouds dripping. Dig a hole in your garden to put them in."

Side one
"Imagine" – 3:01
"Crippled Inside" – 3:47
"Jealous Guy" – 4:14
"It's So Hard" – 2:25
"I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" – 6:05

Side two
"Give Me Some Truth" – 3:16
"Oh My Love" – 2:50
"How Do You Sleep?" – 5:36
"How?" – 3:43
"Oh Yoko!" – 4:20

In 1972, Lennon and Ono released an 81-minute film to accompany the Imagine album which featured footage of them at their Berkshire property at Tittenhurst Park and in New York City. It included many of the tracks from the album and some additional material from Ono's 1971 album Fly. Several celebrities appeared in the film, including Andy Warhol, Fred Astaire, Jack Palance, Dick Cavett and George Harrison. Derided by critics as "the most expensive home movie of all time", it premiered to an American audience, on TV on 23 December 1972.

VHS video edit
An edited down version, featuring only John Lennon's music videos was released for the home video market after John's death, on VHS, Beta and Laser disc. It has not been re-released in the DVD and Blu-ray age. Perhaps this "song and dance" re-release of the album will include this film as a bonus DVD?

A DVD which did come out, was "Gimme Some Truth - The making of John Lennon's Imagine", which benefitted from priceless footage of Lennon's creative process, independently edited from original 16-millimeter footage by producer-director Andrew Solt with the hands-off approval of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. Incorporating footage from John and Yoko's original film "Imagine", Gimme Some Truth presents Lennon, Ono, co producer Phil Spector, and a host of gifted musicians in a fluid context of conflict, community, and craftsmanship. Bearing witness to every stage of the recording process, the 63-minute documentary succeeds as a visual diary, a study of familiar music in its infancy, and a revealing portrait of the then-30-year-old Lennon--from witty clown to confrontational perfectionist--at the peak of his post-Fab Four inspiration. The DVD featured remastered sound--which was carefully remixed for Dolby Digital 5.1-channel stereo at Abbey Road studios.

Previous re-releases
In 2000, a remixed version of the "Imagine" album was released, with Yoko Ono supervising the remixing procedures.

In October 2010, a remastered version of the album was released, the mix however was reverted back to the 1971 original.

On Record Store Day 2011, in honour of the album's 40th anniversary, "Imagine" was re-released on 180gram vinyl with an additional 12" white vinyl record entitled Imagine Sessions, featuring six tracks taken from the John Lennon Anthology. Only 6,700 copies of this release was made, for worldwide distribution.

2LP version of "Imagine" for Record Store Day 2011.


In January 2014, "Imagine" was released by Universal Music on the High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray format, featuring PCM, DTS HD and Dolby Tru HD audio tracks, based on the 2010 remaster.
Audio Blu-ray, back cover.
So, I guess what we are trying to say is that this album has been exploited by the record company many times over, and yet - it looks like we are going to buy it once more. Gotta sing - gotta dance.

Monday 7 May 2018

Upcoming McCartney Archive releases rumoured

Red Rose Speedway - coming this autumn?
"Beatlefan" reports that "Wild Life" and "Red Rose Speedway" are in the works for the next McCartney Archive reissues, scheduled for this fall - according to their sources. No official confirmation on that yet.

Wings Wild Life
Austin City Limits Festival poster.
In the meantime, an announcement of the release date of McCartney's new album is rumored to be coming in the next month or so, Beatlefan reports, and also additional concert dates will be announced shortly. It was recently announced that McCartney will be playing at this year's Austin City Limits Festival, during the first of the two festival week-ends.

An indication that the information from Beatlefan is true, especially regarding "Red Rose Speedway", is a May 4 tweet from Paul McCartney's Twitter account. Displaying a very good "restored"-looking album cover of said album, the caption read: "This week in 1973, Wings released 'Red Rose Speedway' What are your favourite songs from the album?"

Of course, "Red Rose Speedway" was originally planned as a double album, and a few of the songs intended for, but cut when the album was made into a single album, were played by Wings during their 1972 and 1973 tours. Titles like "1882", "Seaside Woman", "Best Friend", "Henry's Blue" and "I Would Only Smile" could be heard on the tours. Only "Seaside Woman" and "I Would Only Smile" have been released in the aftermath, the first by Wings under the pseudonym "Suzy and the Red Stripes" in 1977 and the second by Denny Laine in 1980. A live version of "The Mess" was released as the B-side of the "My Love" single, pulled from the double album. Both sides of the single "Live and Let Die" / "I Lie Around" were also scheduled for the double album, as were a few songs recorded during the sessions for "Ram". Several incarnations of the 2LP version were considered, and here's one who made it to the acetate stage in late 1972:

Side 1
  1. "Big Barn Bed"
  2. "My Love"
  3. "When the Night"
  4. "Single Pigeon"

Side 2
  1. "Tragedy"
  2. "Mama's Little Girl"
  3. "Loup (1st Indian on the Moon)"
  4. "I Would Only Smile"

Side 3
  1. "Country Dreamer"
  2. "Night Out"
  3. "One More Kiss"
  4. "Jazz Street"

Side 4
  1. "I Lie Around"
  2. "Little Lamb Dragonfly"
  3. "Get on the Right Thing"
  4. "1882" (live)
  5. "The Mess I'm In" (live)

We're certainly hoping that the 1973 "James Paul McCartney" TV Special will be included on the DVD of the DeLuxe Archive edition of the album. Other stuff we would really like to see as bonus video material from these two albums would be the Bruce McMouse Show - a film from the 1972 Wings tour of Europe with animated mice living under the stage, moving with the tour, and the ICA rehearsal film before the tour. We were treated to a few glimpses from the latter film in the Wingspan documentary, and Mark Lewisohn viewed and described the full film in an issue of "Club Sandwich", the magazine Paul McCartney's fan club, "Wings Fun Club" published. The video below has been put together of glimpses from the ICA film which has popped up over the years in various McCartney-produced TV documentaries. It’s time we get to see the full film.

Friday 4 May 2018

Linda McCartney's photos museum bound

At the press launch of "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in May 1967.
Sir Paul McCartney has donated 63 photographs by his late wife Linda McCartney to the Victoria & Albert Museum (popularly known as the V&A) in London. The collection includes portraits of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, as well as McCartney family snaps.
Some of Linda's original Polaroids will be shown to the public for the first time.
The images by the former US female photographer of the year 1968 will go on display in the V&A's new Photography Centre when it opens on 12 October.


Martin Barnes, senior curator of photographs at the V&A, said: "Linda McCartney was a talented eye-witness of pop culture and explored many creative approaches to artistic photography. Her camera also captured tender moments with her family. Our greatest thanks go to Sir Paul McCartney and his family for this incredibly generous gift."

Linda McCartney (nee Eastman) was born in New York in 1941. She took a photo course with Hazel Archer and studied art history at the University of Arizona before settling in New York City, where she began her photo career shooting rock portraits. In 1966, during a brief stint as a receptionist for Town and Country magazine, Linda Eastman snagged a press pass to a very exclusive promotional event for the Rolling Stones aboard a yacht on the Hudson River. With her fresh, candid photographs of the band, Linda secured her name as a rock 'n' roll photographer. She went on to capture many of rock's most important musicians on film, including Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Simon & Garfunkel, The Who, The Doors, and the Grateful Dead.
The first female photographer with a cover
of the Rolling Stone magazine.
Linda McCartney was voted US female photographer of the year in 1967, the same year she met Paul in a London nightclub. The following year, she became the first female photographer to have her work featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with her portrait of Eric Clapton.
She was the first person to not only have photographed Rolling Stone's cover, but to have appeared on the magazine's front cover herself, with her husband, in 1974.

The couple married in 1969 and had four children - Heather (from Linda's first marriage), Mary, Stella, and James.
After having become Mrs McCartney she kept photography as a hobby, otherwise she cared for her family, unless of course the band was touring, either Wings or the nameless band who accompanied McCartney from 1989 to 1993. Then she was up on the stage, playing keyboards and singing harmonies. The children usually went along, having private tuition. When not on tour, the children went to ordinary schools, not the private schools, as the McCartneys were keen not to have spoilt children. Another of Linda's favourite pastimes was horseriding.

Paul and Linda on the cover of
Rolling Stone in 1974.
Outside of her photography, which has been exhibited in over 50 galleries worldwide, Linda McCartney is known for her passionate animal rights activism and her staunch vegetarianism. When the McCartney family turned vegetarians in the early seventies, Linda started to come up with vegetarian versions of the dishes the family was used to eat with meat. After many years, this resulted in the cook book, "Linda McCartney's Home Cooking" in 1989. As a further development, Linda started up a company which specialised in frozen vegetarian food. This was such a great success that she became a rich businesswoman on her own. Her brand still exists today.

Linda used her photos and snapshots to publish a series of calendar books, which were sold through Wings Fun Club, the official fan club of Paul McCartney and his bands. She also had published "Linda's Pictures: A Collection of Photographs" in 1978, and a large hardcover book "Linda McCartney's Sixties: A Portrait of an Era" in 1993 which contained photos from the early days of the career.

Linda died of breast cancer in 1998, at the age of 56 at the McCartney ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Paul McCartney was knighted before she died, so she did enjoy a brief spell as Lady McCartney.

One of the last photos of Paul and Linda together.
After his marriage to Linda, Sir Paul McCartney has remarried twice, first to Heather Mills (2002-2008), with whom he has a daughter, Beatrice Milly, and then to Nancy Shevell (2011- ), to whom he is still married.

Still, Paul has always been championing his late wife Linda's photographs, and has staged several exhibitions and published more books of her work over the years, before now donating a chunk of the photos to the A&V. He also released a CD of her music, "Wide Prairie", which Linda recorded with Wings and other musicians over the years, but which was not published while she was alive.

Paul and Linda's first born daughter Mary has followed in her mother's footsteps as a professional photographer and she has also written vegetarian cook books. The couple's second daughter Stella is a famous fashion designer with her own brand and shops. Their youngest, James has been following in his father's footsteps, so he releases music and holds concerts, although in a much smaller scale than his famous dad. Linda's oldest daughter Heather, who she had with her first husband Melville See, but who was adopted by Paul, is a ceramic artist and lives in Sussex.

McCartney decorated by the Queen again

Paul with Her Majesty. Photo: Press Association.
Earlier today, Sir Paul McCartney had an appointment with Queen Elizabeth II, as he was again receiving a special honour.  Sir Paul McCartney paid tribute to his parents as he was made a Companion of Honour for services to music. He received the honour from the Queen more than 20 years after his knighthood.
In a written statement to the Press Association, Paul said: “I see this as a huge honour for me and my family and I think of how proud my Liverpool mum and dad would have been to see this.”

Video Link

Looking For Lennon docu - available in the UK

Available today in the U.K.: New Lennon documentary.
A new, British made documentary about John Lennon premieres on the internet today, as for now, only in the U.K. It will be shown publicly in Liverpool later this month.

The film promises to give an honest retrospective on the early life of John Lennon and the tragedies that shaped his personality and later his music. The film includes rare and previously unseen memoirs along with interviews with some of his closest family, friends and associates.
The film is produced by Garry Popper and directed by Roger Appleton.

Popper, a lifelong Beatles fan, decided that Lennon’s early life deserved a new and honest look that, in his words, “transcended the myths and fabrications,” that have been sensationalized for years, including films like Nowhere Boy, Backbeat and Birth of The Beatles. He continued that this new documentary will be an “uncompromising reassessment of traumatic events that not only shaped Lennon’s complex personality but also how they influenced his adult life and relationships.”

Reflecting on the Lennon myths that became legend after becoming a Beatle, Popper said, “Generations of Beatles fans still don’t know the real man behind the image, or what made him tick…Here’s an ordinary guy, who, despite terrible childhood events, overcame them all and achieved extraordinary things. It’s an incredible story, but it’s been turned into a Disneyland fantasy.”

The film, which is being produced by SEIS Productions Ltd in the UK, is set to debut in May in the Beatles’ home town of Liverpool at “dozens of historic locations.” It promises to be “one of the most honest retrospectives on Lennon’s early life and the tragedies that shaped not only his personality but also his music,” say Appleton (director, “Get Back – the City that Rocked the World” and “Passport to Liverpool”) and David Bedford (author of “Liddypool” and “The Fab One Hundred and Four”.)

Bedford wrote, “Besides the film, which will be a feature length documentary, there will be a limited edition extended companion book. This is a retrospective examination of a complex man who turned a troubled life into some of the most haunting and passionate lyrics in modern music.” Members of Lennon's first band, the Quarrymen, give their perspective of their early friendship with John in the film.

Bedford continued, Michael Hill, (author of “John Lennon: The Boy Who Became a Legend”) is one of our special collaborators in the film and has some very unique insights into John Lennon's youth, because along with Pete Shotton (and a few others in a close-knit gang) he was one of John's closest and longest school friends. He also has the distinction of introducing Lennon to Little Richard's music. John heard it one lunch time in Michaels house and froze. Waaar? That was John's real Rock'n'Roll life changer.”

A combination of biopic and investigative documentary, research has taken three years.
Among the participants listed are: Sam Leach, David Bedford, Hunter Davies, Paul Farley, Jürgen Vollmer, Billy Hatton, Helen Anderson, June Furlong. Here's a trailer:


U.K. residents can rent/buy "Looking For Lennon" using one of these links:
In February, it was reported that "Looking For Lennon" so far had been sold to North America (SP Releasing), China (Lemon Tree), Italy (Koch Media), Brazil (Globosat), Spain (Vertice) and Poland (Against Gravity).

Released through Evolutionary Films.
Source for comments by Popper, Appleton and Bedford: Axs.com
The Film's Facebook page: Looking For Lennon