Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 73 (2019)

I think its about time for another episode of Mike Solof's excellent Beatles-O-Rama radio show, and this one is a bit of a departure from the usual in depth exploration of the Fab Four, as it looks at the political history of the 60's, with choice musical interludes which help explain what was happening during this period, and what the musicians of the time though of it.

 

Track listing

01 Episode 73 - Off Track With Just 4 Guys

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 152 (2020)

I think its time for another dip into Mike Solof's Beatles-related radio shows, and this one is a bit different, as it doesn't feature The Beatles, but a band who many people seriously thought were The Beatles when their self-titled album appeared in 1976. With hindsight it's hard to believe that we ever really though that this was the reformed Beatles, for some unknown reason releasing a record under a pseudonym, but Mike's in depth investigation follows the clues, and it's a really enjoyable listen.

Track listing

01 Episode 152 - Klaatu: The Other Beatles

  

The Pete Best Combo - I Don't Know Why I Do (1965)

Randolph Peter "Pete" Best was born 24 November 1941 in the city of Madras, then part of British India. After Best's mother, Mona Best, moved to Liverpool in 1945, she opened The Casbah Coffee Club in the cellar of the Bests' large house in Liverpool, and it became very popular with British youths, having a membership of over 1,000. The Beatles (at the time known as the Quarrymen) played some of their first concerts at the club, and Best played there with the Beatles, as well as with his first band, the Black Jacks. In August 1960 The Beatles invited Best to join the group, on the eve of their first Hamburg season of club dates. He was eventually replaced by Ringo Starr on 16 August 1962, when the group's manager, Brian Epstein, dismissed Best under the direction of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, following their first recording session at Abbey Road Studios. Soon after he was dismissed, Epstein attempted to console him by offering to build another group around him, but Best refused. Feeling let down and depressed, he sat at home for two weeks, not wanting to face anybody or answer the inevitable questions about why he had been sacked. Epstein secretly arranged with his booking agent partner, Joe Flannery, for Best to join Lee Curtis & the All Stars, which then broke off from Curtis to become Pete Best & the All Stars, and they signed to Decca Records, releasing the unsuccessful single 'I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door'. Best later moved to the United States along with songwriters Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington, and as The Pete Best Four, and later as The Pete Best Combo, they toured the US in 1965 with a combination of 1950's songs and original tunes, recording for small labels Cameo and Mr. Maestro, but with little success. They ultimately released an album on Savage Records in 1966, 'Best Of The Beatles', which was a play on Best's name, but which led to disappointment for record buyers who neglected to read the song titles on the front cover and expected a Beatles compilation. The group disbanded shortly afterwards, and Bickerton and Waddington were to find greater success as songwriters in the 1970', writing a series of hits for the American female group, The Flirtations and the British group, the Rubettes. Many of Best's group's singles were written by Bickerton and Waddington, and by 1965 they had amassed a considerable body of original material, which would have been enough to put together an album of their own songs in 1965. While 'Best Of The Beatles' did include some of those songs, it also featured a lot of covers, and so this album would have been a much better example of their work, had it come out a year earlier in 1965. 

Track listing

01 Why Did You Leave Me Baby?  
02 I Need Your Lovin'  
03 I Can Do Without You  
04 She's Alright  
05 Keys to My Heart  
06 I'm Checkin' Out Now Baby 
07 I'll Try Anyway  
08 I Don't Know Why I Do  
09 How Do You Get to Know Her Name?  
10 She's Not the Only Girl in Town 

11 Don't Play With Me 
12 More Than I Need Myself  
13 I'll Have Everything Too 
14 The Way I Feel About You  
15 If You Can't Get Her 

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 26 (2018)

As a companion piece to Mike's post on the soundtrack to the film 'The Shining', here is a Beatles-O-Rama Christmas special from 2018, where he chooses tracks from the Fab Four which complement the film. This file is included in the folder for Mike's soundtrack post, but if you just want to hear this show then here it is on its own.

Track listing 

01 Episode 26 - A Shining Christmas

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 67 (2019)

For this episode of Mike look at all thing Beatles, he investigates the song-writing process of the individual members of the band, and this show includes in-depth interviews with John, Paul, George and even Ringo, and also John and Paul together, talking about how they come up with their ideas, and what they think about covers of their songs from artists like Matt Monroe, Peggy Lee and Frankie Vaughan. As usual, it's a fascinating insight into the band that most people in this day and age will not have heard before. 

Track listing

01 Episode 67 - The Song-Writing Process

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 55 (2019)

Time for another episode of Mike's radio showing exploring all things Beatles, and on this one he looks at how the blues influenced the band. 
The Beatles were not primarily known for their blues music, as they were more famous for their pop and rock songs, however, they did incorporate elements of blues into some of their tracks. 'Yer Blues' is one of the most blues-influenced tracks by the band, featuring raw vocals and a heavy blues-rock sound. While 'Why Don't We Do It in the Road?' is not a traditional blues song, it has a bluesy vibe with its simple structure and raw vocals, whereas 'For You Blue' is a more traditional blues track with a slide guitar and a 12-bar blues structure. These are all later tracks from the band's catalogue, but they weren't averse to covering old blues songs on their early records, such as 'Kansas City' or 'Honey Don't', and so on this episode Mike shows how what the guys learned in the band carried on when they embarked on their solo careers, with examples of how the blues broke through every so often in their later work. 

Track listing

01 Episode 55 - Beatles Blues

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 69 (2019)

Time for another episode of Mike Solof's investigations into all things Beatles and Beatles-related, and for this episode he is concentrating on one of the things that the band are best known for - their exquisite harmonies. A lot of the Beatles’ songs followed standard triadic three-part harmony, with John taking the main melody, Paul the higher (a third above John) and George below John, or sometimes in between John and Paul. Paul, being the group’s most natural tenor, took the highest line almost without exception. Some songs, and parts of songs, can include strikingly non-standard harmonies, purposeful clashing or with more complex tonality, including 'Yes It Is', 'I Want To Tell You', and Paul and George’s backing in 'You Can't Do That', and in this episode Mike takes an overview of the band's harmonic highlights, from 1963's 'Ask Me Why', to the sumptuous 'Because' from 1969.

Track listing

01 Episode 69 - The Beatles In Harmony

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 88 (2019)

For the next episode of Mike's radio show I've chosen something a bit different, as this one takes a deep dive into the 'Paul Is Dead' conspiracy theory of the late 60's. As a Beatles nut I knew all about the apparent clues on the 'Abbey Road' sleeve, from the order that the guys are walking across the zebra crossing and what they are wearing, down to the number plate on the Volkswagon in the distance, but this show uncovers things that had never occurred to me, and delves back even further than 1969, right back to the time that McCartney was supposed to have been killed in a road accident in 1966. It turns out that Mike made this show as a joke to irk his manager Pat, who hates everything Paul Is Dead!, but like me, Mike was always fascinated by the whole story, and after collecting so many books, magazines and archival recordings on the subject he knew that eventually he’d have to do at least one program on it. It’s easy to say it’s BS… but there are just SO MANY clues that are not just in the music, but also in the album packaging itself. And it’s all backed up by facts that seem to prove that Paul was in a car accident in 1966, and that the accident may have lead to his death. If all this was pre-planned (and as Lennon says during the episode “We planned EVERYTHING!”), then this was the most brilliant ad campaign ever devised, and all those strange clues were out there for all to see… but went completely in noticed for almost 5 years …and then the craziness started! There isn't as much music on this episode compared to others, but the hour will still fly by as you take in all the hidden clues that the boys had apparently dropped into their songs in the latter half of the 1960's. As I mentioned, I had already researched this subject in the past, and if you enjoy this episode as much as I did, and want to learn more about it, then I can recommend the book 'The Walrus Was Paul' by R. Gary Patterson, and the quite superb graphic novel 'Paul Is Dead' by Paolo Baron and Ernesto Carbonetti. 

Track listing

01 Episode 88 - Paul Is Something

Recommended reading

    

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 45 (2019)

The next episode of Mike Solof's 90's radio show is a favourite of mine, as it features various covers of one Beatles' song. While was digging through the internet one day. Mike thought that although it’s kind of true that 'Yesterday' was the most covered song that the Beatles ever did, to his surprise he also found hundreds of covers of the song 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. This seems like such an odd choice, not only being an Indian bass tune, but also that it's based on just one chord, that you'd think it would be too monotonous to tackle. However, he soon discovered that there were many, many, many different covers that he was able to find, very few of which sounded the same, and so he soon had an entire hour's worth for an episode of his show. It's a testament to Mike's deep diving skills that despite the fact that this whole show plays just one song, your attention doesn't wander, and you don't lose interest until The Beatles/The Chemical Brothers have closed the show with their own rendition of the track.

Track listing

01 Episode 45 - Tomorrow Never Knows

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episodes 48/49 (2019)

You may have seen that Mike has mentioned in the notes to his Beatles Remix albums that he started doing them after hosting a Beatles-themed radio show in the US, and a while ago he sent me a load of these shows to listen to, and after hearing a few I thought they would be a great addition to the blog. The only thing stopping me posting them was the fact that I didn't know much about the background of the shows, but out of the blue I've just received a complete history of how they came about from Mike himself, so I'm now able to start posting them. Here's how it all started...........  
When Mike was around 13, in 1976, he used to listen to NPR, which was a classical station, at the same time as he was just getting into the Beatles, and he realized that 'Yesterday' was basically a classical song but just with Paul singing. He got thinking about all the rock groups that took that idea and ran with it, like, to name just a few, The Moody Blues with 'Nights In White Satin', Elton John's 'Indian Sunset', ELP's 'Pirates' and Peter Gabriel's 'Down The Dolce Vita'. That would make a cool show on the classical station and push its bounds, and so he wrote to them with the idea and they wholeheartedly umm...didn’t agree! Jump to 1988, and Mike's interest in the Beatles had greatly intensified in college, when someone played him the Red and Blue albums, and he suddenly realized that all these songs that he didn’t know were the Beatles, were in fact the Beatles! He wasn't the first person to realise that this exceptional group had gone from 'Love Me Do' to 'I Am The Walrus' in the span of just six years. Around that time he was in his local college Record Store, when suddenly he noticed a back room with a black curtain that said you must be over 18 to enter. One day he jokingly said to the owner "what's back there, porn?", and the owner said no, it's bootlegs. The naive Mike said "what are bootlegs?", and he was led behind the black curtain to a locked case that contained about 40 CDs ranging in price from about $30 each up to about $120. Two of them caught his eye - they were Beatles bootlegs entitled Ultra Rare Trax Volume One and Two and they were $90 apiece (for a single CD), and he decided to take a chance and splurged on them. At the time he had a really phenomenal stereo system set up in his college room, and when he slipped these CD's on and heard 'I Saw Her Standing There (Take Two)' in a quality beyond anything that I had heard before, it was so clear and so stunning that he stood there in shock. It was like the band was right there in the room, and that moment cemented his love for the Beatles and all things bootlegs! 
Soon after that his research into the Beatles led him to a website called Beatles-A-Rama. It was 24 hours a day of beautifully produced Beatles stuff, and it often played many things that he had never heard before. After listening to that station for a couple of years he finally got up the nerve to write to the owner, Pat Matthews. He was a super nice guy and they got along great, so Mike told him about his idea to do a single two hour show based around classic rock and it's influences from classical music, using all sorts of different bands, but grounding it in Beatles songs like 'Yesterday', 'I Am The Walrus' and 'Strawberry Fields', plus a few others where they used classical instruments in the song ('Penny Lane' and 'For No One' come to mind). He said great, send me a show, so Mike bought himself a microphone and learned how to record things on Audacity, and proceeded to create a two hour show, the one that he'd been planning in his mind since he was 13. Once Pat had played the tape his reply was unexpectedly... "Love it. You're on every Saturday at 10.00am". And that was the start of 11 years of his own show called 'Off The Beatle Track' on Beatles-A-Rama, running to over 300 episodes in its 11 year run. 
As I said, Mike has sent me a load of these shows, and of course the first one I listened to was the 'classical music' one which started the whole thing off, so in the first of a sporadic series, here are Episodes 48 and 49 of Mike's 'Off The Beatle Track' radio broadcast. 

Track listing

01 Episode 48 - Classical Classics Part 1

02 Episode 49 - Classical Classics Part 2

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour (Mike's Mix) (1967)

Time for another Beatles album pulled apart and put back together by Mike. This time he's stayed in 1967 and performed his magic on their 'Magical Mystery Tour' EP, later expanded to a full album. 

Here’s my track by track detailed look at each cut (the order by the way is based of the original EP… not the album). Note - 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' were included on 'Sgt. Pepper...' as they started the whole psychedelic era of The Beatles. 

01 Magical Mystery Tour - I’m cheating already LOL. I didn’t pick the album version but the rarer soundtrack version because I loved all the extra different sound effects. Like 'Sgt. Pepper...', this whole album has so much fun hidden away that I really enjoyed making every one of these cuts, except to be honest 'Baby You’re A Rich Man' which took freakin’ forever to mix! 

02 Your Mother Should Know -  Great backing vocals brought to the forefront on this one. I reduced the drums to almost nil… they were hiding too much fun stuff! 

03 I Am The Walrus -  This took a while to mix but is so much fun. Possibly my favorite mix on the album! There's so much going on in this song that it was hard to pick what to focus on at any given time. But that just made it extra fun to mix. I changed up the beginning and the end a bit to make it more fun! Everybody smoke pot, Everybody smoke pot!!

04 The Fool On The Hill -  Another fudge here. This is an earlier take with many different vocals and a very cool completely different arrangement. 

05 Flying -  The only song in all their albums to have all four lads singing LEAD vocal! And one of only 2 songs whose writing was credited to all four. (Can you name the other??) I added a bit of fun at the end! 

06 Blue Jay Way -  My strangest mix. A tribute to George, mysticism, psychedelia and of course the backwards message! 

07 Hello Goodbye -  Get rid of the drums and wow…the song just opens up. Fun bass line! I added one extra note at the end. Ha! Sue Me! 

08 Baby You're A Rich Man -  I don’t know why this one was so hard to mix…just a lot of parts to juggle (I mangled about 3 different versions to Frankenstein this one together) and I got sick in the middle of doing it… so it took 2 weeks to mix. Ack! But it turned out pretty cool. 

09 All You Need Is Love -  Lovely orchestra and horn tracks. Make sure you check out my bonus track of George trying to overdub a violin onto this one. He had never played a violin before…and it shows! “A” for Effort even though it’s an “F” for actual playing. I never knew John sang a lyric from 'Yesterday' at the end… I thought there was only Paul singing 'She Loves You'! The things you find when you start digging around in these songs always amazes me!! That ends the official EP…but here are some cool bonus cuts from roughly the same time period. I just couldn’t stop mixing LOL 

10 Lady Madonna -  The piano is so prominent in the released version of this song… so it had to go! LOL. Great bass and sax solo! 

11 The Inner Light -  Setting the drums free did amazing things for this track. Such a different feel. Tribal almost!! One of my favorite George tracks…so beautiful. 

12 Hey Bulldog -  They had such a fun time recording this…just check out the video on YouTube! Great bass line from Paul and since I love the ending… I brought up the vocals during that part! 

13  All You Need Is Love (excerpt) - George's Violin Attempt (aka -This Tape will (and SHOULD) self destruct in 5 seconds!) Nuff said! 

14 It’s All Too Much -  A tough song to mix as almost every instrument is on the same track as the dirge like single tone drone that runs through the whole darn thing… and it’s the extended version to boot…this was a challenge to make interesting. 

15 Across The Universe -  My other favorite track in this collection to close us out. I once again used about 3 different versions to cobble this together… but the focus remains on the beautiful melody and stunning guitar work from John. I decided to make this mostly an instrumental take…to let the lovely tune shine forth! Created my own ending while I was at it, …and I love the deep breath at the very end! 

That’s it for this one…hope you enjoyed it and as always… please tell me what you think of it …I LIVE FOR FEEDBACK.

Michael 'Rubber' Solof

Track listing

01 Magical Mystery Tour 

02 Your Mother Should Know

03 I Am The Walrus

04 The Fool On The Hill

05 Flying

06 Blue Jay Way

07 Hello Goodbye

08 Baby You're A Rich Man

09 All You Need Is Love

10 Lady Madonna

11 The Inner Light

12 Hey Bulldog

13  All You Need Is Love (excerpt) - George's Violin Attempt (aka -This Tape will 

                                                                            (and SHOULD) self destruct in 5 seconds!)

14 It’s All Too Much

15 Across The Universe

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Mike's Mix) (1967)

Time for another of Mike's remixes of a classic Beatles' album, and for this one he's gone straight to arguably the best of them all.

I’m hoping that this week’s in-depth look at 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' will allow you to appreciate the greatest band in the world… in a whole new way. 

Here’s my track by track analysis of what’s Included: 
01 Strawberry Fields Forever - I thought that instead of just remixing the album I’d include the prequel to it. Here is take one of SFF. To start us off I thought I would re-edit the beginning of the song as a tribute to another great band and one of my favorite songs by them. It’s subtle but I tried to edit the beginning to (vaguely lol…) sound like the beginning few seconds of 'And You And I' by Yes. I always loved the way that song starts as just tuning and noodling around on the guitar…but suddenly turned into this amazing song. Here I let the keyboards do the same thing. True, I didn’t use the original single version of the song… but I always liked the gentleness of the first take, so I chose that one to start us off. A lovely ballad version focusing on John’s vocals and soon to be discarded backing vocals. I took a small liberty by fading out and echoing the last repeats of the word “forever”.
02 Penny Lane - The other side of the single. I brought up the backing orchestra and lost most of the band for this one. Except of course for Paul’s vocals, bass and the fun often buried harmony vocals. Since we aren’t into the actual album yet…I took the liberty to add some interesting vocal attempts that went on during the recording sessions but later went unused. 
03 Sgt. Pepper - The official beginning of possibly one of the greatest musical and cultural touchstones ever created. So many unique, unusual sounds were invented during the recording of this album. Experimentation and Innovation were at play during every moment of the recording, which makes this one of the most fun albums I’ve ever had the pleasure to rip apart and put back together. So much to discover and so much to uncover…just for you! Let’s begin with the stabbing, hard rocking guitar parts followed immediately by classical french horns. What an astounding and unexpected way to begin the album. This followed by the lads trademark three-part harmonies and then Paul’s super gritty lead vocals… and we’re off to a great start! 
04 With A Little Help From My Friends - RINGOOOOO! The focus is on three things here. Ringo’s stellar lead vocals, the incredible backup help from his “friends” and Paul’s catchy bass work. I stripped off everybody else at the very end to just focus on the note that had Ringo scared SHITLESS! He was so worried he wouldn’t be able to hit and hold the note. John, Paul and George had to all stand around the microphone with him and silently encouraged him during the recording of his lead parts. Wish I had a picture of that!! 
05 Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - I bring in isolated instruments and vocals throughout on this one so you can really focus on all the cool stuff going on during this one. 
06 Getting Better - Paul’s fun bass work is core here, as it is throughout the entire album. I also tried to bring out some of the hidden harmonies from the guys at various parts during the entire song. I love the little bongo part at the end. 
07 Fixing A Hole - Paul’s vocals and bass are once again brought forward. The cool guitar solo is followed by some more awesome three-part harmonies. 
08 She’s Leaving Home - Such a gorgeous arrangement by Mike Leander who Paul brought in when George Martin, their main producer for many years, had a conflicting recording event scheduled. Paul was very impatient and decided not to wait for George to do the arrangement, and brought in Mike to do the orchestral charts. It’s the ONLY time Paul ever went outside of the band to get another person to arrange and produce one of his sessions. It took years for Martin to forgive him…if he ever did. I included some lovely harmonies that float in among the single tracked vocals that you hear. I also included some stray parts of the orchestra bits that were trimmed out of the final version. 
09 Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! - I really focused on the carnival aspects of this song… and of course Paul’s incredible bass playing… again. 
10 Within You, Without You - George’s showcase on the album. I included a humorous snippet of John commenting on the proceedings that went on during the recording session of this classic cut. Originally the band thought people would have a hard time dealing with a solo Indian piece in the middle of the album…which is why they added laughter between the ending of this track and the beginning of the next. George, to say the least, was not thrilled by this. I’ve moved the laughter to where it rightly belongs… after John’s opening comments! 
11 When I’m 64 - I’ve always called this version “The Bar Mitzvah Version.” I think you’ll see why. 
12 Lovely Rita - An acoustic take on the song with great backing harmonies and lots of hidden treasures at the end usually buried under the other instrumental tracks, and now set free! 
13 Good Morning, Good Morning - Wonderful guitar work similar to the opening track of the album. What an awesome solo!! And those hidden harmonies are brought back up to the front again. Gooooood Morning everybody!! That’ll do. 
14 Sgt. Pepper (Reprise) - Paul’s blistering bass line and the whole groups fun, vocal banterings are finally uncovered. For those wondering what they are saying: (Intro: Paul McCartney & John Lennon) One, two, three, four! (Bye!) Twist it! (What?) Twist it! (Shake it) (Outro: George Harrison & John Lennon) Woo! Bang (Oh my god, it kills me)Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang 
15 A Day In The Life / Inner Groove - My favorite mix on the album! So many cool things going on during this one. McCartney’s bass, John’s haunting vocals, the eerie backing vocals… that orchestra set free to go from their lowest note to their highest…any way they want to do it. A masterpiece! To add to this I threw in some things from the original recording sessions, a wonderful flub by McCartney and some stunningly chaotic piano playing during the second orchestra build-up. I used the original ending… often called the HUMM’s ending as well as an unused synth note in place of the original extended piano note…… And I also couldn’t ignore the infamous Inner Groove. I hope you like my take on it, made from various sections I found when I tried to rip it apart and break it down using about 18 different modern tech devices! So that’s it kids… my version of the Beatles masterpiece: 'Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band'!

I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it! 

See ya again soon! 

Michael

Track listing

01 Strawberry Fields Forever
02 Penny Lane
03 Sgt. Pepper
04 With A Little Help From My Friends
05 Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
06 Getting Better
07 Fixing A Hole
08 She’s Leaving Home
09 Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!
10 Within You, Without You
11 When I’m 64
12 Lovely Rita
13 Good Morning, Good Morning
14 Sgt. Pepper (Reprise)
15 A Day In The Life

search hint   lonely aiwe

The Beatles - Rubber Soul (Mike's Mix) (1965)

Mike's next post is his unique take on the Beatles' classic 1965 album 'Rubber Soul' 

Hi! I'm back with more of my coolest remixes of Beatle tracks culled from over 300 shows I produced for a now defunct internet station called Beatles-a-rama. I’m hoping that this new take on the music will allow you to appreciate the greatest band in the world in a whole new way. Here's a brief track by track summary of what I’ve included in this batch. 

Enjoy!! 

Michael 

By the way, did you notice John’s frayed coat (just below Georges ear, in the photo in the pdf)… before it was retouched and stretched for the final cover version? Cool huh! 

01 Drive My Car - All sorts of fun buried treasure here including a solid bass line from Paul, great keyboards and a neat guitar solo! 

02 Norwegian Wood - A revealing look at Paul’s unexpected presence on this classic song. 

03 You Won’t See Me - Cool bass, along with awesome usually hidden backing vocals from George, John and Paul. OHH LAA LAA indeed!

04 Nowhere Man - More hidden harmonies brought to the fore. 

05 Think For Yourself - These guys obviously loved each other and were having so much fun during the sessions for this track. I included some classic Beatles interplay from those sessions as they tried to work out the very intricate harmonies that I then highlight in the main cut.

06 The Word - More hidden harmonies here including some unbelievably high stuff from George. Some sweet bass runs from Paul too! 

07 Michelle - When these guys did three-part harmony nobody could touch them ( see 'Yes It Is' or 'This Boy' for even more proof). I left this almost totally acappella because sometimes…who needs music anyway! 

08 What Goes On - A great tribute to Carl Perkins… a personal hero of the Beatles and a gentleman they performed with many times during their career. Harrison provided the classic lead guitar. Unfortunately this was the last time the Beatles wrote anything in this rockabilly style.

09 Girl - My favorite Greek song by the Beatles, and one of the first songs to include a subliminal message in the background. We can easily guess what John’s favorite part of the female anatomy was from those backing vocals. 

10 I’m Looking Through You - More hidden harmonies and a lovely bass line revealed. 

11 In My Life - Starts with a new piano intro played at the original recorded speed, followed by a mostly instrumental version of the song including the original organ solo , that was later replaced by that piano (sped up) in the intro. 

12 Wait - I wanted to focus on all those hidden Paul harmony parts that are buried in the released version of the song. 

13 If I Needed Someone - The Byrds influenced the Beatles… nope! It’s the other way around. This was released before the Byrds started using this lovely 12 string that George uses throughout this song. More harmonies… YAY! 

14 Run For Your Life - Paul’s bass work and George’s lead guitar work are the key here. 

15 Day Tripper - Recorded during the 'Rubber Soul' sessions as part of a double A-side 1965 single. A pure acappella version here… with slight editing to limit the silent sections. 

16 We Can Work It Out - The other side to the above mentioned single. 'We Can Work It Out' is a comparatively rare example of a Lennon-McCartney collaboration from this period in the Beatles' career, in that it harkens back to the level of collaboration the two songwriters had shared when writing the group's hit singles of 1963. Said Lennon, "In 'We Can Work It Out', Paul did the first half, I did the middle eight. But you've got Paul writing, 'We can work it out / we can work it out' – real optimistic, y'know, and me, impatient: 'Life is very short, and there's no time / for fussing and fighting, my friend." Great harmonies, bass work and acoustic guitar on this one. 

More fun remixed albums coming soon but in the meantime… please comment on this one if you dig it… or hate it! I love feedback either way!!

Track listing

01 Drive My Car

02 Norwegian Wood

03 You Won’t See Me

04 Nowhere Man

05 Think For Yourself

06 The Word

07 Michelle

08 What Goes On

09 Girl

10 I’m Looking Through You

11 In My Life

12 Wait

13 If I Needed Someone

14 Run For Your Life

15 Day Tripper

16 We Can Work It Out 

Soulseek hint  rubber aiwe

The Beatles - Now And Then (1993)

I stumbled on an interesting compilation on Youtube the other day, consisting of various unreleased songs from all four members of The Beatles from their solo careers. There were demos, out-takes, and rejected recordings spanning the years from 1970, through the 80's, and ending in 1993, and while it was great to hear songs that even I, as a massive Beatles fan, was unfamiliar with, the difference in the sound quality of the demos compared to the studio recordings was somewhat grating. While researching one of the songs to find the year that it was recorded, I found that someone had posted a version of it online with a full band backing over-dubbed onto the piano and vocal demo, and as it sounded pretty good, it prompted me to try to find out if there any more of these fan-made recordings. It turns out that there are, and so I was therefore able to upgrade the solo demos to band versions of a number of the tracks, and when slotted into the studio recordings it made for a much better listen. They are mostly the John Lennon demos that have been augmented in this way, and in some cases more than once, so I've picked what I think are the best versions for this album. 

One McCartney track was given the treatment as well, but the recordings by George Harrison and Ringo Starr were all studio quality and needed no enhancement. The only demo that I've left as it was is Lennon's 'Sally And Billy' from 1970, because as well as the piano and vocal, it also had a click track on it, and so by boosting the bass it gave the whole song a bit more depth, and then I just added a fade to it (which sounds like it was his intention anyway), and it sounded fine.  All of Ringo's contributions are from his aborted sessions with Chips Moman in Memphis in 1987, where he recorded around 14 retro rock covers and original tunes, with Bob Dylan even joining him on harmonica on 'Wish I Knew Now (What I Knew Then)'. With no sign of the album appearing, Starr finally kicked his debilitating alcohol dependence eighteen months later, and he formed the All-Starr Band, touring for the first time since the Beatles quit the road. Moman had bankrolled the aborted sessions to the tune of $146,239 and had nothing to show for his investment, so he decided to issue the LP on his own CRS Records. Starr got wind of the news and offered him $100,000 to halt manufacturing, as he considered the recordings substandard, but Moman refused, believing that he stood to lose $3.5 million, a fanciful figure upon survey of Starr's moribund record sales. Starr therefore sued Moman, and the Court ruled that Starr owed him $74,354, but that the master tapes would the be turned over to Starr, and yet despite him now owning the original copies, five tracks have circulated on bootleg for some years. They certainly don't sound the result of some drunken recording sessions as was claimed in court, and so I've included three of them here. 

George Harrison's contributions mostly come from out-takes that were recorded during his 'Somewhere In England' studio sessions, where four songs were rejected by his record company as being too un-commercial. A re-recording of 'Lay His Head' eventually appeared on the flip of the 'Got My Mind Set On You' single, while two of the songs have only ever appeared on the CD which accompanied the second volume of the book 'Songs By George Harrison'. The fourth song 'Tears Of The World' was originally included on the CD that came with the first volume of the book, along with another out-take 'The Hottest Gong In Town', but that eventually turned up on the soundtrack to the film 'Shanghai Surprise', while 'Tears Of The World' was added as a bonus track to the re-issue of Harrison's 'Thirty Three And A Third' album. Paul McCartney's tracks are a couple of out-takes, an augmented demo, and a live performance of a song that was originally written in 1991, but which was only performed the once at The Liverpool Sound concert in 2008, to celebrate the city's year as the European Capital Of Culture. Although the album is bookended by one song from 1970 and one from 1993, the bulk of the tracks date from 1978 to 1987, and so the album flows nicely through the various musical styles, and if you've already heard the Lennon demos in their original form, then do check out these versions, as they've all been done with much love and respect.   

  
Track listing

01 Now And Then (1978 John Lennon demo augmented by Paul Newell)

02 Sat Singing (George Harrison out-take 1980)
03 Your School (1993 Paul McCartney demo augmented by Octavio Cavalli & Max Gonzales)
04 Hard Times (Ringo Starr, from the Memphis sessions 1987)
05 Hottest Gong In Town (George Harrison, from the soundtrack to 'Shanghai Surprise' 1986)
06 Help Me To Help Myself (1980 John Lennon demo augmented by Carlos Zabai)
07 Yvonne's The One (Paul McCartney out-take 1986)

08 Sally And Billy (John Lennon demo 1970)
09 Lay His Head (George Harrison out-take 1980)
10 I've Changed My Mind (Ringo Starr, from the Memphis sessions 1987)
11 In Liverpool (1991 Paul McCartney song played live once in 2008)
12 Grow Old With Me (1980 John Lennon demo augmented by Anton Popov & Vitaly Flippov)

13 Cruisin' Ahead (Paul McCartney out-take 1979)

14 Wish I Knew Now (What I Knew Then) (Ringo Starr, from the Memphis sessions 1987)
15 Flying Hour (George Harrison out-take 1979)

Soulseek hint - now then aiwe

The Beatles - All Made Up (1974) **UPDATE**

Many thanks to Gumboil for providing the location of three of the four radio shows which inspired this post. Having now listened to them again I'd quite forgotten that Merton's imaginary album was a double disc set, and that I'd only compiled the first two sides, but I think this could have been because I wasn't that impressed that side three was mostly covers, and that side four included a track that wasn't recorded until 1998. I'm guessing that at the time I felt happy with just the first disc, but so that we can have the complete listening experience of the full 'All Made Up' album I've added sides three and four to the file, as well as all three radio shows that are available, so you can download the whole thing again or just the tracks that you want, to add to what you already have. I also found that I had tracks 7 and 8 switched, so that's also updated.   

And Gumboil has done it again and tracked down episode 1 of the series right here on Soulseek, so I won't add it to my file as you can grab it by searching 'merton history' (keep it simple!) and add it in yourself. 

Track listing

Side One

01 Be What You See

02 I Don't Wanna Face It

03 Cockamamie Business

04 Ram On

05 Step Lightly

06 Ain't That A Shame

07 No Other Baby

Side Two

08 Fading In Fading Out

09 Steel And Glass

10 Hi, Hi, Hi

11 Horse To The Water

12 #9 Dream

13 Morse Moose And The Grey Goose

14 Oh My Love 

Side Three

15 If You Believe

16 Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive

17 Have You Seen My Baby

18 Rip It Up / Ready Teddy 

19 20 Flight Rock

20 Peggy Sue

21 Love Is Strange

22 I'm Losing You

23 Devil Woman

24 Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea

Side Four

25 Soft Hearted Hana

26 Fluid

27 When We Was Fab 

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The Beatles - All Made Up (1974)

In 2017, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a four-part series by the comedian Paul Merton, based around what would have happened if The Beatles had staged a reunion some years after they'd broken up. The year is 1974. Labour's Harold Wilson is Britain's Prime Minister, and Richard Nixon is in the White House. Abba win Eurovision, Germany win the World Cup and a new writer called Stephen King publishes his first novel. After 5 years of tension, ill feeling and fraught negotiation the four Beatles have buried their individual hatchets and are moving tentatively towards a full scale reunion, hopefully culminating in their first new album since 1969. As a warm up for the recording sessions, the Beatles - and some of their famous friends - have come together once more for a surprise concert, their first time live on stage since 1966 when they gave up live appearances after a show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

Join Paul Merton on the commentator's microphone as the Fab Four take to the boards once more....
Like all of us, Paul Merton is a huge Beatles fan and like all Beatle fans his mind often turns to the "What if's..." of their career. What if they'd never broken up? What if they were still playing live? What if they made another album? The series was Merton's attempt to answer those questions, and to put forward a fantastical version of Beatle history. Based on the known facts, and using the recordings available, he imagines the concert that the Beatles could have given, and follows it up with the album that they could have made. The result is a fascinating look into an alternative reality, but also a clear eyed examination of the strengths and of the forces that drove - and drove apart - the greatest band of all time. He followed up the radio series with an article in Radio Times, where he revealed the track listing of the Beatles re-union album that he hoped would have happened after the concert. 

Fifty years after the Beatles’ 'Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band' was released, Merton marks the anniversary with a radio series in which he imagines what would have happened if his favourite band had reunited, made another album, and played live one more time.

From Radio Times, May 2017

“It would have been 1974,” he says, firmly.

He’s worked on it painstakingly, plotting when these events could have actually happened as the Beatles’ solo careers were soaring and diverging, their personal lives rocking and rolling, and their finances still affected by the messy legal wrangles that plagued their final years.

He’s even done the set list for the “concert” and ordered the tracks for the “record” himself, stitching together lesser-known songs from the solo Beatles’ catalogues and live shows.

“To be honest, I’ve been doing this for years,” he says, “John Lennon said in the 70's that if you want to create a Beatles album, just take tracks off individual albums and put them together, and I always wondered, could you create something that feels right? Then work out when they could have played together, around solo records, having children, trying to get green cards? And then I developed a theory…”

Another reason Merton has enjoyed creating an alternative history is a personal one: he became a Beatles obsessive after his heroes split up. Born in 1957 in south London, he was five when they released their first album, 'Please Please Me', and 12 when they broke up, but he spent his childhood, amazingly, largely unaware of their music. “I was the least rock ‘n’ roll child ever. My parents listened to the Light Programme, and that was it, really. I was completely out of touch with what was happening in pop culture, projecting old 8mm silent films to myself and the wall. My only album was an Al Jolson album!” But as Merton’s teens whirred onwards, the Beatles’ music seeped in. He’d heard and loved 'Here Comes the Sun' from the last album they recorded together, 'Abbey Road', while wandering around Woolworths one Christmas, and borrowed the vinyl from his local library. “I remember the librarian going: ‘What, you really haven’t heard 'Rubber Soul' or 'Revolver'?’” He mimics a little boy lost. “And I was, ‘Er… no?’”. Soon he was back every other Saturday, borrowing every album in chronological order of release, like a mini-history project; he was agog at the extraordinary transitions the band had made in seven short years. “I basically did the Beatles in three months, in fortnight-long bursts, through headphones I got for my birthday, completely lost in their world.” He didn’t share the music with his friends, as he didn’t really go out to parties, he says; instead, he’d stay at home with his clunky tape recorder making compilations of tracks by the band together, and, prophetically enough, apart.

From day one, Merton loved 'Sgt Pepper'. “It’s not a rock ‘n’ roll record, really, is it? It does whimsy very well. It’s also got this strangeness, this hugeness, this going-upstairs-to-have-a-smoke-and-go-into-a-dream stuff. It’s a record that’s soaring above nature.” As a teenager, he even fantasised he might pay someone to put a photograph of him onto the 'Sgt Pepper' cover one day. Lennon is Merton’s favourite Beatle, who once said he’d rather have been a comedian than a pop star, although Merton himself gives this idea short shrift. “Rose-tinted glasses there, I think, John. I mean, when you’re in a band, you haven’t got another band heckling, trying to get you off the stage all the bloody time, have you?” 

We've all had a go at making up these 'what if......?' Beatles albums, and so here's another one to add to the long, long list, and it's actually a pretty good attempt.

Many thanks to Gumboil for providing the location of all four radio shows which inspired this post. Having now listened to them again I'd quite forgotten that Merton's imaginary album was a double disc set, and that I'd only compiled the first two sides, but I think this could have been because I wasn't that impressed that side three was mostly covers, and that side four included a track that wasn't recorded until 1998. I'm guessing that at the time I felt happy with just the first disc, but so that we can have the complete listening experience of the full 'All Made Up' album I've added sides three and four to the file, as well as all four radio shows.

Track listing

Side One

01 Be What You See

02 I Don't Wanna Face It

03 Cockamamie Business

04 Ram On

05 Step Lightly

06 Ain't That A Shame

07 No Other Baby

Side Two

08 Fading In Fading Out

09 Steel And Glass

10 Hi, Hi, Hi

11 Horse To The Water

12 #9 Dream

13 Morse Moose And The Grey Goose

14 Oh My Love 

Side Three

15 If You Believe

16 Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive

17 Have You Seen My Baby

18 Rip It Up / Ready Teddy 

19 20 Flight Rock

20 Peggy Sue

21 Love Is Strange

22 I'm Losing You

23 Devil Woman

24 Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea

Side Four

25 Soft Hearted Hana

26 Fluid

27 When We Was Fab 

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The Beatles - Stairway To Heaven (1963)

While 'Stairway To Heaven' is undoubtedly one of Led Zeppelin's most famous songs, it's not generally know that they took the basis of their recording from a previously unknown song by The Beatles. They may have given it a new arrangement, and slowed down the pace, but lyrically it was pretty much identical. The Beatles only ever performed the song live a few times, later recycling the intro for 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', but a tape of one of the performances has recently come to light, and so we can now hear where Zep got the inspiration for their iconic recording. I don't usually post videos, but this was such an amazing find that it needs to be shared. 

The Beatles - Everyday Chemistry (2009)

Updated cover to replace the old one in your folder.I didn't think this one would work as it wasn't black and white to start with, but I'm amazed at just how good this now looks.

Eric Clapton - ...and on guitar (1970)

Throughout the 60's Eric Clapton's reputation as one of the greatest British guitarists grew and grew, as he moved through some of the UK's best bands, from The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, and finally Blind Faith. With a workload like that, and the constant touring that it involved, it's not surprising that he didn't have a lot of spare time to go into the studio and offer his services as a guest guitarist, so it wasn't really until 1968 that he started to appear on records by other artists. His most famous guest appearance was in 1968 on The Beatles' 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', at the request of George Harrison, who asked him to play on it following the two guitarists collaboration on Harrison's Wonderwall Music' album, and that seems to have given him a taste for popping into the studio to help out friends, acquaintances, and artists that he admired. Also in 1968, while Cream were touring the US, Atlantic supremo Ahmet Ertegun asked him if he would play guitar on a record by a fellow Atlantic artist, and so the other guitarists were pulled out of the studio and a nervous Clapton laid down the lead guitar on Aretha Franklin's 'Good To Me As I Am To You'. The Beatles' recording followed later that year, and the Apple Records connection led to him playing on the b-side of Jackie Lomax's 'Sour Milk Sea' single, and also on Billy Preston's 'Do What You Want To' single from the same year (Preston had played on the 'Get Back' sessions, and on John Lennon's 'Cold Turkey' single). He was also one of the many, many guest artists on Martha Velez's 'Fiends & Angels' album, and by 1970 he was in the studio with other artists more than ever, helping out King Curtis, Jonathan Kelly, Shawn Phillips, and Leon Russell. One of my favourite guest appearances of his was on the 'Labio-Dental Fricative' single by Vivian Stanshall, and especially it's b-side 'Paper Round', where his guitar-work really shines. After adding his guitar to songs by Doris Troy and Stephen Stills, we end this album in 1970, after a flurry of guest appearances spanning just a three-year period. Once his solo career started to take off he cut back on the moonlighting, but rest assured that before that happened there are more than enough for a second volume.        

Track listing

01 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (from 'The Beatles' by The Beatles 1968)
02 Good To Me As I Am To You (from 'Lady Soul' by Aretha Franklin' 1968)
03 The Eagle Laughs At You (b-side of 'Sour Milk Sea' single by Jackie Lomax 1968)
04 Do What You Want To (b-side of 'That's The Way God Planned It' by Billy Preston 1969)
05 Cold Turkey (single by John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band 1969)
06 I’m Gonna Leave You (from 'Fiends & Angels' by Martha Velez 1969)
07 Teasin' (single by King Curtis 1970)
08 Don't You Believe It (single by Jonathan Kelly 1970)
09 Man Hole Covered Wagon (from 'Contribution' by Shawn Phillips 1970)
10 Prince Of Peace (from 'Leon Russell' by Leon Russell 1970)
11 Paper Round (b-side of 'Labio-Dental Fricative' single by Vivian Stanshall 1970)
12 Ain't That Cute (single by Doris Troy 1970)
13 Go Back Home (from 'Stephen Stills' by Stephen Stills 1970)

Danger Mouse - The Grey Album (2004)

The Grey Album is one of the first and best-known mash-up albums, mixing a cappella versions of rapper Jay-Z's The Black Album with samples from The Beatles' 'The White Album'. It gained notoriety when EMI attempted to halt its distribution despite approval of the project from Jay-Z and the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. It was created as an experimental project intended for a limited 3,000-copy release in February 2004, and while Danger Mouse never asked permission to use the Beatles' material, Jay-Z's a cappella recordings were released commercially for the purpose of encouraging mashups and remixes. The hype around The Grey Album caught the attention of Beatles' copyright holder EMI, who ordered Danger Mouse and retailers carrying the album to cease distribution. Music industry activist group Downhill Battle responded by coordinating Grey Tuesday, an electronic civil disobedience event held on 24 February 2004. Participating websites posted copies of The Grey Album for free download for a 24-hour period in protest of EMI's attempts to prevent distribution of the mashup on the grounds that sampling is fair use and that a statutory license should be provided in the same manner as if an artist were to perform or record a cover version of a song. Hundreds of web sites publicized the event with 170 hosting the album for download, and over 100,000 copies were downloaded on that day alone. The album was my introduction to Jay-Z, after downloading it purely for the Beatles' connection, and it pointed me in the direction of a genre that I'd never really explored before, so I'm thankful for that, as well as for the fact that it's a brilliant album in it's own right. This post is for anyone who hasn't already heard it, and if you are impressed enough to want more then there are other mash-ups out there, mixing Jay-Z's rapping with Prince for 'The Purple Album', as well as 'The Silver Album' by Bazooka Joe, 'The White Albulum' by DK Kno, and 'How To Remix The Black Album' by Jon Doe. 

Track listing

01 Public Service Announcement ('Long, Long, Long')
02 What More Can I Say ('While My Guitar Gently Weeps')
03 Encore ('Glass Onion', 'Savoy Truffle')
04 December 4th ('Mother Nature's Son')
05 99 Problems ('Helter Skelter', 'Wild Honey Pie')
06 Dirt Off Your Shoulder ('Julia')
07 Moment Of Clarity ('Happiness Is A Warm Gun')
08 Change Clothes ('Piggies')
09 Allure ('Dear Prudence')
10 Justify My Thug ('Rocky Raccoon')
11 Lucifer 9 (Interlude) ('Revolution 9', 'I'm So Tired')
12 My 1st Song ('Savoy Truffle', 'Can You Take Me Back')