The Beatles

Nice. If accurate, more collaboration that I thought--at some point, I think I internalized the idea that, with prominent exceptions like "A Day in the Life," Lennon/McCartney almost always meant Lennon or McCartney.

Lol at "Flying" and "Dig It." Never realized before that John had written almost all of A Hard Day's Night

yeah that was my main take from it. I guess that explain's the albums v. consistent style.

Show how much George would have been pretty frickin major had he been in any other band. (Ignoring all the usual alternate-universe shit about how in another band he might not have been inspired to write, and maybe had he been in another band he would caused a butterfly to flapped his wings and make Borneo disappear, or Bono disappear, or something.)

Um, "shows," and "flap," sorry, but you get the idea.

I doubt George would have been anything than a decent guitarist in any other band whose two leaders inspired his best playing and writing.

um yeah, that's the usual alternate-universe shit

Go through the looking-glass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THbvc3lx2pk

love george but he didn't really have enuff swag to be a guitar hero in a non-beatles band IMO

Think I meant to post this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_am82sYFXU&feature=related

Sorry to be all markers/frogman henry reposting the same non-sequitur embed but
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdAX7E34zkg&feature=related

Without Ravi Shankar's influence, George would not have been as good a sitar player.

I doubt George would have been anything than a decent guitarist in any other band whose two leaders inspired his best playing and writing.

man, you need to re-listen the early stuff to realize how massive of a player george was in terms of his contributions to the band sound. he was uniquely creative right from the beginning, in fact i would say his licks were pretty much unparalleled at the time (say, 62-64). the guy virtually invented a whole guitar vocabulary all by himself and i'm only taking into account the pre-psych beatles shit.

Without Ravi Shankar's influence, George would not have been as good a sitar player.

My youtube meandering ultimately led me to some Beatle bloopers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nPtbbO0c98&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2R4_jL1-Ts&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Never mind the haters

aargh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TeqyovfJzE&feature=related

George without the Beatles just doesn't compute for me (meaning George without the Beatles having ever existed), any more than it does for John or Paul.

man, you need to re-listen the early stuff to realize how massive of a player george was in terms of his contributions to the band sound. he was uniquely creative right from the beginning, in fact i would say his licks were pretty much unparalleled at the time (say, 62-64). the guy virtually invented a whole guitar vocabulary all by himself and i'm only taking into account the pre-psych beatles shit.

totally agree and never suggested otherwise

what is pete best doing in these alternate universes?

drumming for gay dad obv.

Beatles museum to close

Beatles invent punk rock and other related things: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/the-beatles-beatles-at-hollywood-bowl.html

Psychedelicized Radio is playing the complete Rooftop Concert tonight. It's in progress now, but they're going to rerun it later -- 7 p.m. Pacific time.

psychedelicized.com

"Thanks Mo"

In case anyone missed it and would like another chance...from the site admin:

"Dear All,
I was out all day yesterday and unable to address an issue with the server. It appears that the Beatles special went out but 5 hours later than each planned slot, so mega apologies, I have fixed the issue, restarted the server and ran the concert this morning to test the timings were working.
I'll run the concerts again this evening at the same times 7pm UK, 7pm NY, 7pm LA. I will be around to make sure that it goes out. If people can't tune in to any of those times, I can probably sort out a link...
Apologies again, stupid server!"

funny I'd never noticed the harmonies on the "aaah" after the "wake up" part.
always thought it was John who sang the "aaah" but apparently it was Paul ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D74rcZuOnWQ&feature=related

xp So Paul didn't write the bridge on "A Hard Days Night." I assumed that was a very collaborative song but I guess not.

Lennon always said the only reason he didn't sing the whole damn thing is because there was no way he was going to hit those high notes like Paul could.

pragmatic

Paul has always claimed the bridge on 'A Hard Day's Night' was his, and I believe him!

I always thought it was a rule : the one who sang the song or the part was the author of said song/part (except for some ringo stuff, of course).
of course, it's much too simple to be totally true but I think it works mostly !
Is there a song by John mainly sung by Paul or vice-versa ?

i think that's the rule of thumb. seems like there should be an exception but i've never heard of one.

i was thinking about this the other day but didn't know which beatles thread to revive, so it may as well be this one. what's with Get Back being so popular on U.S. radio? apparently it was the 5th most played beatles song on the radio last year, and it's been like that for a long time. yet it's probably one of their very worst singles (imo), and definitely not too many people's favorite (imo). is there some sort of deal with radio where certain songs are less expensive to play than others, and maybe Get Back is one of the cheap beatles options or something?

yeah, I have always hated get back and still do.

about songwriting : I think there's a controversy regarding "in my life", Paul claiming it's mainly his although John sings it.
and John said that he wanted to sing "Oh darling" but that didn't happen so apparently it wasn't impossible to consider the other's song...

It choogles, it's not weird or avant-garde or too English, and US oldies radio has moved on from the 64-66 hits. "Revolution" fits that bill too, something that resembles American rock and roll and still allows the station to say "your home for the Beatles' hits!!!"
xpost

it's just the nature of radio now -- there aren't many oldies stations left that play the hits from the first few years, and classic rock stations have increasingly been phasing out the mid/late '60s as they get more centered on the '70s and early '80s (and even up to the late '80s). so the moptop era is totally off limits to those stations, just a handful of songs from The White Album onward -- the biggest in the last couple years being "Come Together," "Revolution," "Get Back" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." compare that to the Who and the Stones, who each have twice as many (mostly '70s) tracks in classic rock rotation.

xpost

re : get back
but I could understand that it works more in the US since it has a bluesy-roots-deep-south vibe, talks about the US...

i think the earliest Beatles i ever hear on classic rock radio now is "Lucy" and "A Day In The Life"

i'm not a paul hater by any means, but i hate the sound of every goddamn syllable he sings on Get Back.

haha same here

about songwriting : I think there's a controversy regarding "in my life", Paul claiming it's mainly his although John sings it.
and John said that he wanted to sing "Oh darling" but that didn't happen so apparently it wasn't impossible to consider the other's song...

― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, November 26, 2012 2:43 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yep, it's true. Paul makes quite a big claim to 'In My Life' in his book 'Many Years From Now', although I think it's more to do with the music, or more specifically, coming up with the original musical idea rather than the lyrical content. The lyrical content of that song to me sounds like it was all John, and if Paul were to make any claims to the lyrics of that track, I wouldn't believe him at all.

Also, it's not that John wanted to sing lead on 'Oh! Darling', it just seems like he felt he would have done a better job. Even as a big fan of McCartney's solo material, I agree with him.

yeah, his voice, tone and pronunciation are very wrong there.

i'm not a paul hater by any means, but i hate the sound of every goddamn syllable he sings on Get Back.

Haha, then have you heard the alternate lyrics? Trust me, that song could have been much worse.

Also, it's not that John wanted to sing lead on 'Oh! Darling', it just seems like he felt he would have done a better job. Even as a big fan of McCartney's solo material, I agree with him.

agreed.
regarding "in my life", I don't know, it seems to me that in general each one came with the main idea for each song (lyrics/music) and the other helped on bits of lyrics and arrangements. I don't remember any song for which one would claim the music and the other the lyrics, like for other songwriting duos.

Haha, then have you heard the alternate lyrics? Trust me, that song could have been much worse.

― pplains, Monday, November 26, 2012 3:04 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, thankfully for them, that version wasn't officially released, eh? See also: 'Commonwealth (It's Just Too Common For Me)'

I've gotta say, though, I haven't actually dug out a Beatles album to listen to in the comfort of my own home for many years now, even though I've obviously heard tracks being played at other people's houses, and on TV/radio etc. This isn't because I'm trying to make some sort of statement, I've just heard that music so many times that their solo albums are far more interesting for me these days - especially Paul's, which is full of hidden gems.

There's also the historical aspect to the band as well - I think everything that could possibly be told about 'The Beatles Story' has already been told and in a ludicrous amount of detail. I'd be very surprised if there's anything left about that band to discover - whereas their solo output for me has a little bit more mystery to it, because less has been written about it.

John said that he wanted to sing "Oh darling"
he likely would've screamed most if it out "cold turkey" style. fuck, that sounds amazing.

Plenty of stoned-out acid-friend late night jam sessions from 1967 exist that will never see the light of day so long as Paul and Yoko are alive.

or if they had been literally engulfed and eaten by a swarming mass of fans. one or the other

the beatles in the philippines sounds like a nightmare, i haven't read this but here's a longread:

https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/notes-and-essays/remember-the-beatles-nightmare-in-manila-a1542-20170524-lfrm10

I approve of all this speculation

Why was Manson hanging out with the Beach Boys but getting all his secret messages from the Beatles? Couldn't Wild Honey or Friends have inspired murders too?

in the candlestick park footage, are the only on-stage monitors the two little gray boxes in the front corners, and maybe a larger speaker to ringo's left pointing at him? that seems like a nightmare in terms of being able to hear on stage even before all the screaming. the monitors are so far away from john/paul

(xp) Smiley Smile probably could.

i mean if "transcendental meditation" wasn't enough to inspire a man to kill i don't know what song could

and i _like_ transcendental meditation

ringo should have filmed douglas adams' spec script for "goodnight vienna", that's my opinion

i totally forgot about that, I see the script finally got published a few years back. b-ark is in it apparently (which got recycled twice!)

I did win a copy of the triple album along with the accompanying songbook from the Long Island Press

nice! long island press was a queens thing? i don't recall seeing it around me. in nassau county it was "good times."

Apparently so! Never thought about that before, made assumptions since it had "Long Island" in the title. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Daily_Press

I believe at one point Lou O'Neill Jr. migrated to the NY Post along with his soulmate Headphone Dan Aquilante

Surely you read Wayne Robins in Newsday back in the day?

Heh, further discussion of Lou O’Neill Jr. here, including me telling a version of the same story I just recounted upthread: The end of Circus Magazine

And some further hilarious Beatles-related Lou O’Neill Jr. anecdotes on another borad: https://iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,1495183