Greetings all,
Stateside, we are heading into the Thanksgiving holiday this week, which means, per tradition, another televised Beatles “event.” It’ll be interesting to see if this milestone stirs another wave of new Beatles fandom among the uninitiated, or at least spurs their catalog to spike in the charts again. Unlike “Now and Then,” Beatles ‘64, or certainly Get Back, the re-boot of Beatles Anthology doesn’t have the feel of something momentous, even with the added extra hour of material. Still, it will be new to someone, so let’s see if younger fans seize the moment and get caught up in another wave.
NEWS
Despite the announcement of the specific song titles months ago and the periodic issue of songs laying the groundwork for the Anthology 4 music set’s release, there was still at least one big surprise among the set of tunes: the reworking of “Real Love” which stirred loads of online outrage among the faithful. It was re-produced by Jeff Lynne, who 1) replaced parts of John’s original vocal (meaning the 1995 one we all got on Anthology 2) with another one of several takes he did; 2) shortened the whole track by at least 20 seconds and 3) - more inexplicably - removed some of George’s marvelous guitar leads. (With friends like Jeff…) This has not stopped online folks from attempting corrections (here’s a good one). One of the more intriguing new tracks was take 19 of “I Am The Walrus,” representing the string, brass and clarinet overdub and therein cementing George Martin’s reputation as an unsung arranger and integral contributor to some of their most revered recordings. The new release represents an opportunity for folks to get creative and, in this instance, produce interesting variations (like this) by grafting the new “Walrus” on top of the 1995 one (take 16).
Slow news week, but we are getting very near the end of Paul’s 2025 hike. The roadshow closes out the year in my home town tonight and tomorrow night. No, I have no plans to trek down there but I know plenty of folks who are. I have my own special memory of seeing him in person and nothing will surpass that, so I see no need. Better than one more rock show, I found this essay a compelling read, written by someone who attended the Ontario concert on Friday. This kind of food for thought is worth a ton, as far as I am concerned.
This just in: the passing of reggae pioneer/actor Jimmy Cliff at 81 was announced. He scored a hit in 1969 in the UK and US with “Wonderful World, Beautiful People.” In 1973, he starred in The Harder They Come, from which the song “Many Rivers To Cross” originated. Many of you may know it from the terrific version produced by John for Harry Nilsson’s Pussycats album. Cliff scored a fabulous comeback with One More in 2012, giving him a last opportunity to show what he could do before ill health overcame him. If only for putting “reggae” on the lips of people outside of Jamaica, he will never be forgotten.
SATB
I am falling behind on getting video editions of recent shows up on YouTube, but it will happen by years’ end as I am experimenting with ways of getting them worthy of sharing in as streamlined a way as possible. There are some new technologies I am implementing and I want everything to be in good shape before posting, which takes a little practice to fine-tune, so watch this space.
The latest episode, 314, reviewing the new set, the SDEs, and the reissue campaign generally has stirred no small amount of feedback from some folks, to put it one way. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion regarding what they think of what’s come out so far - fair enough - but the greater point to the conversation, lest it get missed is: 1) there is still plenty of material in the vaults (like demos and some live material that is within reach of a good clean up) that should be considered for release, alongside the obvious things like the Decca audition, Christmas messages and so forth, and 2) a two-tier system of hard media (vinyl/CDs) and streaming can serve everyone’s desires if implemented with smarts and care, taking the hint from the other artists that are doing it with coherence. As fans, you hate to see The Beatles’ (and solo) archives managed with no consistency or apparent strategy. I am hoping the new regime will take a hard look at what’s been done so far and can come to the conclusion (as I have) that there’s room for improvement.
Not SATB but close enough: Gary Wenstrup and I had a conversation for the Olympics series on Paul Simon’s Hearts and Bones album; a release that personally I much prefer to Graceland (but YMMV).
HISTORY
November 25, 1966: OTD, The Beatles recorded their 4th annual Christmas message.
In a departure from previous years (recall the '65 message, captured at the end of the "Think For Yourself" session, as the latest in variations on previous themes), this one - entitled "Pantomime: Everywhere It's Christmas" - was a full-blown production, featuring a series of vignettes, musical cues and characters.
Recorded at Dick James' studio on New Oxford Street, it was, as Ringo said later, mostly the brainchild of Paul, who similarly was driving the band toward bigger, more adventurous concepts as the groundwork for Pepper was being sketched out. (They'd started tracking "Strawberry Fields Forever" by this time, and while "Penny Lane" would not arrive until a month later, work on "When I'm 64" would begin in about ten days.) John, in the meantime, would film his segment as washroom attendant at the "Ad Lav" club two days later for TV's Not Only...But Also. (See it here w/1965 bonus.)
The activity underscored the group's collective mindset post-touring: they were no longer bound by any previous limitations in how they saw their creative expression and fan interaction.
1967's message would continue the ambitious trend (which included a brief cameo from Victor Spinetti) but the final two messages - issued in 1968 and 1969 - would mark the end of group efforts, being individual audio pieces taped separately and edited together by Kenny Everett.
November 27, 1970: OTD, All Things Must Pass was released.
55 years on and there's a little further insight into what led to this album, courtesy of Peter Jackson. Those who have studied the Nagra tapes have long been aware of George’s undercurrent of frustration at being locked out of the Lennon-McCartney creative dominance of the Beatles when it came to HIS material; though he contributed mightily to developing THEIRS, it wasn’t always as fully reciprocated as he would have liked.
Now having the visual to go along with the audio (as well as Jackson’s cleaned up canteen conversation between John and Paul) puts a finger on a major beef George was having: producing fine, worthy material, sometimes arguably superior to some credited to Lennon-McCartney, that was not finding the home on group releases he had hoped for. This issue bubbled up subtly at Twickenham one week before his walk out, when he offered that the Beatles should treat each song as if they’d written it themselves: think about that for a minute and you’ll land on what he was trying to say.
Following his return to the group, while the lightweight “For You Blue” was enthusiastically rehearsed, weightier material he had in his pocket was kept off the table: “Let It Down,” “Isn’t It A Pity,” “Hear Me Lord,” and “I Me Mine,” seemingly keeping true to his word earlier that he did not want his songs considered for the “live show.” (Only “All Things Must Pass” - the Harrisong they’d attempted the most and were therefore the most familiar with - was sporadically trotted out at Apple Studios, but these performances - even with the presence of Billy Preston - hardly rose to the level of anything more than perfunctory.)
One day before the rooftop recording session, George floated a trial balloon - recording a solo album of his backlog of material. Pointing out that he’d produced his “quota” of allotted Beatle material “for the next ten years,” it might be nice to put them out sooner rather than later, if simply to clear the decks for more material. The idea was met enthusiastically by John (and Yoko).
George, with Pattie and Apple promo man Pete Bennett, arrives in NYC, bearing the ATMP master tapes.
Exactly WHY it took him over a year to act on this idea can only be guessed at, but there’s a subtext throughout the Jackson film that suggests he was lacking confidence about his own material: while on some level he believed in it, on another he seemed to shrink somewhat when presenting it to John and Paul. He desperately craved their approval but only Paul seemed to consistently and energetically support George’s songs (though as the latter pointed out, this came only after you worked on ten of Paul’s songs first).
As producer John Leckie - who worked as tape operator on the All Things Must Pass sessions - observed, George seemed very insecure about his own artistry, even outside the Beatles. It took the love and support of friends around him to get him to run with the treasures he was producing, so full of self-doubt he was. (And this speaks directly to his 1974 quote about Paul McCartney “ruining” him as a guitar player, feeling that working with Paul left him unsure about his own talents.)
George began the sessions for ATMP around the same time he told interviewer Howard Smith that it would be selfish for the Beatles to never work together again, believing that the sacrifice it took to put aside their own interests for the greater whole was worth it for the power for good that they wielded as a collective. We don’t know if his thinking changed between May and November, but once All Things Must Pass landed, the validation poured in, recognizing the artist who’d been hiding in plain sight for years. It must have had an effect on George as to whether there would still be a compelling reason to work with those guys again as “Beatles.”
Heard here: take 27 of “Isn’t It A Pity,” a song recalled by George as first being offered up in 1966 and not taken up. Two different versions were issued on ATMP, the first one very obviously modeled on “Hey Jude” (complete with “na-na na-na”s half audible in the song’s coda). Was there a veiled commentary here from George to Paul on what had been a sore point between them (ever since HJ was recorded and the song’s composer shot down the guitarist’s suggestion of answering guitar lines)? The track clocked in at exactly one second shorter than the HJ single (7:10 vs 7:11) - make of that what you will.
YOUR THOUGHTS
I have been thinking for a while now about starting up a forum platform for all of you, listeners and readers, to have a SATB community - an online place to hang out, offer up your thoughts, start discussions, and converse as you would like. My first thought was on Facebook, but I am completely open and before I set it up, I’d like to know your thoughts - what would be the prevailing consensus on this? I am not expecting anything as sprawling as the Steve Hoffman forum, but if you know it, you get the idea: a place for smart Beatles (and beyond) talk and not the sort of nonsense one typically finds on social media (or Quora). I would be very happy to take your input on this, and maybe have something set up by years’ end.
Thank you!
All best,
RR
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