Throughout the centuries, Richmond Upon Thames has contained many pubs within its boundaries. In this, the third part of the series, I once again look at some of pubs that are no longer here.
If you are interested in buying any of Richard’s books, he can be contacted here holmes1@blueyonder.co.uk.
I am not be the first person to come up with the concept of looking at the worst recordings from an artists back catalogue. I believe that the first was the infamous bootleg, ‘Elvis’ Greatest Shit’ which was released in 1982 showcasing some of the worst recordings from the King’s career.
When it comes to The Beach Boys, I and also not be the first to take this concept and run with it. Mine is a little different though as I will explain. The Beach Boys must be one of the most bootlegged bands of all time, and normally, these contain enough gold to justify a few repeat listens. However, for a group that has been performing for the best part of 60 years, there was always going to be some skeletons in the closet that the band would much rather have not seen the light of day. Luckily (or unluckily depending on your point of view), a number of the worst recordings the band has made were compiled on a bootleg called ‘Endless Bummer, The Very Worst of The Beach Boys’, and it sure does live up to its title. There is a drunk Carl Wilson trying to make his way through ‘Good Vibrations’, Mike Love making a quick buck on some adverts, a Spanish language version of their massive mid 80s hit, ‘Kokomo’ as well Brian Wilson’s father berating him in the recoding studio. However, all of these recording from this have not been released commercially as far as I can tell, and it is unlikely that they ever will be anyway.
Now, if we look at the bands output during their mid 60s heyday, we can see that between 1961 and 1966, the released eleven studio albums (I will include Beach Boys Party on that list) and one live album. There was even room for 19 singles, numerous EPs (these tended to be country specific) and even a Best of Album. Coupled with concert tours and promotion, it is no wonder that main song writer Brian Wilson stopped touring after a breakdown. With this amount of product, it is also not a surprise that some filler would be included. However, some of this filler really does defy description. We have an interview, some unfunny studio banter and a drum solo. It is not like Brian Wilson didn’t have enough material knocking about as he gave some pretty good songs away to the likes of The Honeys, Glen Campbell and Jan & Dean.
So what do we have for your listening pleasure?
Side 1
Side 2
Ten Little Indians – Released as the follow up single to Surfin’ Safari because Capitol Records thought that surf music would be a short lived craze. This song was based on a children’s rhyme and only just scrapped in the US top 50, and nowhere else. Well, except Sweden where it inexplicably made number 6.
Country Fair – Said to have been written in ten minutes and it shows. Detailing, as it does, a trip to the country fair and all of the ‘exciting’ things that can be done there. It sounds like a young persons nightmare. It also includes the lyrics ‘The most specialist girl I knew, I had her pack us a lunch and on down the dirt road we flew’. Were The Beach Boys too manly to make their girlfriends lunch then? No wonder the girlfriend of the song narrator leaves him for the fair’s strongman.
Chug-A-Lug – There is certainly a lot of songs taken from the first beach Boys album, but it really is an awful record. Is this the only record ever recorded about hanging out at a root beer stand, drinking the stuff?
Cuckoo Clock – You want to make out with your girlfriend but every time you get a little too close, the cuckoo clock goes off. Instead of just going to another room, the singer decides to dismantle the clock. What a waste of a good clock. Terrible lyrics to boot.
The Shift – A song about a particular type of dress, Brian Wilson and Mike Love presented the song as a fashion statement. The lyrics make it sound as though there are perving over the girl wearing it and what the hell does “It’s tighter than a moo-moo and it’s just too much’ mean?
South Bay Surfer – A rewrite of the song ‘Old Folks at Home’, also known as ‘Swanee River’. When you run out of ideas, just nick someones else’s song and write some new lyrics over the top (Student Demonstration Time repeated the trick on the ‘Surf’s Up‘ album). When the singer says ‘rock out’, there is also a distinct lack of rocking out. The band must have known this was a clunker.
Heads You Win, Tales You Lose – A song about flipping a coin, or numerous other devices to work out who should win an argument. The singer then claims that his girlfriend is cheating to get the result she wants and then deciding to do the same. A blueprint for a long and happy relationship this is not.
Louie Louie – Rock critic Greil Marcus once said “Has there ever been a bad version of Louie Louie?”. Well, yes there has and here it is. Coming a year after the garage rock behemoth that was the version by The Kingsmen, this sounds so polite and insipid. Move along, nothing to hear here.
Bull Session With ‘Big Daddy’ – A recording made during an interview with Teen Set magazine editor Earl Leaf. Half way through, food is delivered because we all want to hear that. This is a rambling, unfocused mess edited down from a recording that was 20 minutes long. The aching ballad ‘Guess I’m Dumb’ was recorded during the sessions for the parent album but no one in the band wanted to sing it so it was given to Glen Campbell. Surely that would have been better than this spoken word piece of drivel.
Our Favourite Recording Session – Tape noises, mucking around and a distinct lack of care for the record buying public. Not even worth inclusion on an outtakes album.
Finders Keepers – Sounds like at least two different songs stitched together with a lyric about losing a surf board and then getting it back. It sounds too long at 1 minute and 38 seconds.
Denny’s Drums – There are those who say that Dennis Wilson was a better drummer than he is given credit for. However, on the evidence of this track, it is not hard to see why Brian Wilson used the cream of L.A. sessions drummers on his recordings once he retired for the road. Also, the Beach Boys are meant to be a vocal group. Instrumentals are bad enough, but a drum solo. Filler for fillers sake.
Be True To Your School (Album Version) – Not a bad song, but included here because of the subject matter. Why is one of the premier bands of their age sining a song about being true to your school? Not exactly the most hip thing a band could do is it?
I’m Bugged At My Ol’Man – Sounds like a demo than a fully realised track. Just Brian Wilson and the piano with his brother and wife backing him up. Written in response to Brian Wilson’s tumultuous relationship with his father, the lyrics mention the punishments the singer has to content with for any minor incident, including having his windows boarded up, his hair cut off and a meal of bread crumbs. Brian Wilson would credit himself as ‘Too Embarrassed’ instead of by his actual name. If he was that embarrassed, why release it?
In The Back Of My Mind – A Brian Wilson experiment with Dennis Wilson singing solo. Includes an unusual time signature and a chord sequence that was not common in Brian Wilson’s work. Some say that this os one of the band’s masterpieces, but to my ears it sounds sloppy, especially when the instrumentation starts to play out of sync with itself.
The Times They Are-A-Changing – Taken from the ‘Beach Boy’ Party!’ LP, an album made to have some produce ready for the Christmas market, it was meant to be recorded at an actual party, but was made after lots of rehearsing and recorded in the studio. Party noises added on later. In the hands of The Beach Boys, this anthem of change sounds like Little Richard songs covered by Pat Boone.
‘Cassius’ Love v ‘Sonny’ Wilson – Supposedly showcasing a behind the scenes look at The Beach Boys in the recoding studio. There is no doubt that during their history, fights in the studio undoubtably happened. However, this is so clearly staged for the microphones. Not worthy of a B-Side, let alone an album track. The cultural reference in the title is now lost on anyone not above the age of 70.
This compilation only includes tracks that were on original US albums, so there isn’t anything that has been subsequently released on any of the numerous reissues/archive projects that have been released under the Beach Boys name down the years. There will be some who disagree with this collection, but that is the nature of music. One persons gold is another person manure.
The cover artwork is adapted from an archival released called ‘Ultimate Christmas’.
One of the many surprises included on the 2013 box set ‘The RCA Albums Collection’ was a number of songs Nilsson had recorded in Italian. Even though the majority of these Italian versions were recorded as far back as 1967, only ‘Cuddly Toy’ would see an initial release. Another song, called ‘Leggenda’ was the B-Side the the Italian language version of ‘Without You’. Leggenda is an Italian folk song that is about catching a butterfly but accidentally killing it. The moral being that you cannot catch your dreams.
Nilsson would return to recording in Italian in 1971 for his super hit single, ‘Without You’. There is also an interloper on this mini album in that I have included a Spanish language version of ‘Without You’ as well. This follows the trend of records of this type by not being a direct translation but following the feeling of the words instead. In the opening there is no mention of evening, and the first verse is all about a single event of her leaving rather than a longer problem (‘always smile but..’). The second verse is different words but same sentiment – about seeing everything dark in the future so needs her to hear the truth right away. The title of the Spanish version translates as ‘If You Aren’t There’. This matches the chorus which would read ‘Living Isn’t life, if you aren’t there. I can’t exist without your love’. This is also true of the Italian versions where the meaning is similar but not exactly the same.
The sleeve is a photo of Nilsson from the late 60s with the title and record company logos added. If this were to be released, it would fit nicely onto a 10” record and if was released, it would have been a nice exclusive for the Italian market.
Side A
Side B
Harry Nilsson was an American musician famous for his interpretations of Everybody’s Talking’ and Without You. During the 1970’s he spent a lot of time in London. In this video, we follow in his footsteps as we discover Harry Nilsson’s London.
If you would like to follow the route of the walking tour, please download this file.
‘I thought it would be great to go out, because it would break The Beatles. It would break the myth. That’s us, with no trousers on and no glossy paint over the cover’. John Lennon.
Over the previous four years, we have had a steady stream of deluxe box set versions of the albums the Beatles released between 1967 and 1970, finishing off with the recent ‘Let It Be’ effort. Even though the contents of the previous box sets was always a bit on the short side (with the ‘White Album’ being the exception), I feel that ‘Let It Be’ was a major slap in the face to the fans, especially if you bought the CD/DVD like I did*. The two CD’s worth of rehearsals, jams and sessions could easily have fitted onto one disc. The EP was particularly poor as this contains only four songs. What about the rooftop concert? I suspect that this will come out as part of a box set that will tie in with the physical release of Peter Jackson’s ‘Get Back’ TV series. Why not put it with the ‘Let It Be’ box set though? It isn’t as though there wasn’t enough room for it seeing as it was 42 minutes long? There was plenty of room on the EP CD.
Anyway, what is most probably most irritating to me is the lack of care that went into the much heralded release of the 1969 Glyn John’s mix from when the project was called ‘Get Back’. It turns out that this is the not the 1969 mix at all, but a hybrid of the 1969 and 1970’s version of the LP. A good example of this is the song ‘For You Blue’, which uses the re-recorded vocals from 1970. The Japanese box set does include the true 1969 ‘Get Back’ mix. Why is it the Japanese box set is correct whereas the rest of the world has to suffer with a botched job. Replacements would be nice, but I doubt that this will happen.
With this in mind, I thought about putting together my own ‘Let It Be’ box set, but listening through all of the Nagra rolls and session tapes would take a considerable amount of time, and there are only so many times you listen to the false starts, breakdowns of takes and jams of old songs before turning off the stereo and playing something else instead.
The idea behind the sessions that led to the ‘Let It Be’ album was to get the band back to playing like a unit again and, potentially, playing a live gig, something they had not done for three years. This was in response to the experimentation and hours spent recording in the studio which had led to tension during the sessions recording the ‘White Album’. The initial plan was to actually play material from the ‘White Album’, with the rehearsals being recorded and the gig being the finale. The plan changed slightly when it was decided to play new material instead. Lennon had developed an heroin addiction and had not produced much new material, whereas Harrison was the opposite. He had recently returned from a stay in the USA where he had jammed with Bob Dylan and The Band and was armed with a number of songs, most of which would end up on his first solo album. McCartney was a busy as ever and had plenty of songs to bring to the table, even if some were not fully formed at the start of proceedings.
With rehearsals kicking off at Twickenham studios on 2nd January, the band were expected to turn up at the beginning of the day (instead of their usual practise of turning up in the late afternoon and/or evening) to practise. The film studio space was massive (and cold), the camera crew were intrusive and tensions ran high, especially between Harrison and both Lennon (for his lack of involvement) and McCartney (for numerous reasons that I won’t go into here). This lead to Harrison walking out of the band, saying ‘see you round the clubs’ as he left.
Lennon quipped that they could get Eric Clapton in as a replacement, but instead, the rest of the band persuaded Harrison to return, although he insisted on certain conditions being met before he did so. These were that the band move from Twickenham Studios to their purpose built recording facility at their offices in Saville Row as well as abandoning the live concert idea. Harrison also brought in keyboard player, Billy Preston. Preston had known The Beatles since their Hamburg days and when he entered the sessions, the working environment became a bit more conducive to recording music. The band would actually play a concert, but it was on the roof of their office building (something that has been imitated many times down the years) and recording would finish on 31st January.
Engineer Glyn Johns was given the task of producing the album and, in May 1969, a version was ready. It favoured the rougher mixes over the more polished efforts from later in the sessions. There were false starts, breakdowns and jams. Even though this did fit the objective of the sessions, the band rejected it and so at the end of 1969, Johns compiled another mix. That would complement the soon to be released film as only songs that were in the movie would now be included. That meant that a version of ‘Across The Universe’ was prepared as well as a brand new recording of ‘I Me Mine’, as no multi track of the song was recorded at the time. Lennon did not appear on this session having left the band the previous September. This version was also rejected and the tapes finally handed over to producer Phil Spector to produce and his version with strings, choirs, edits and all sorts of studio shenanigans (which was what this project was meant to avoid) included. The LP topped both the UK and US album charts, but the band had disintegrated by the time of its release and this would be their last album of original material.
What I was looking here was to put together these two Glyn John mixes as part of the ‘Let it Be’ box set, but whilst researching this piece, I found that there were two other mixes of the ‘Get Back’ material as well as a proposal to release another LP made up of covers of the rock n roll oldies the band played during rehearsals. I must thank the people over at https://www.beatlesource.com for listing the differences between the four versions presented here.
I have decided to follow the current trend with this one and present this as though it was released on vinyl.
Disc 1 – ‘Get Back’ Version 1
It has always been assumed that the tape Glyn Johns delivered in May 1969 was the first attempt at mixing material from the sessions, but this is not actually the case. A tape was constructed and cut to acetate in January of 1969 and it can be said that this was never intended for a commercial release, but just as a reference for the band so they knew what the recording sounded like. At some point though, a tape was made of the acetate and fell into the hands of a number of US radio stations which broadcast this. These broadcasts were taped off of the radio by an unknown listener and these recordings would end up as the first known Beatle’s bootleg. Called ‘Kum Back’, it has been bootlegged many times over the years, but the whereabouts of the original Johns tape is unknown. What is also unknown is how the radio stations received a taped copy of the acetate, even though Lennon himself took responsibility for that slipping out.
Side A
Side B
Disc 2 – ‘Get Back’ Version 2
This could be considered the lost version of the ‘Get Back’ album. Compiled in May 1969, this version was broadcast on WKBW radio station in Buffalo, USA in September the same year. It was always thought that this was the same as version 3, but it does have some marked differences. This are most notably on the song ‘Get Back’ which is the same performance as the single version, but lacks the coda nor the cold ending of version 1. This version comes to a natural end with some studio chat at the end. The other is the ‘Dig It’ jam, which is almost a minute longer than any other version.
Side A
Side B
This version is so similar to Version 3 that I almost did not include it, but for completeness’ sake, it stays.
Disc 3 – ‘Get Back’ Version 3
Glyn Johns went back to the studio to complete further work on the ‘Get Back’ album and this is the version, if it had been accepted, that would have seen the light of day in August 1969, or September, or December when the ‘Let it Be’ single was scheduled to be released. the single would be delayed until March the following year. The version of the song ‘Get Back’ was the April 1969 single mix, and ‘Dig It’ was trimmed by a minute. Some dialogue was also changed. Though this version was not broadcast on US Radio like versions 1 & 2, tapes began circulating of this mix in the 1970s. It shares a lot of similarities with versions 2 & 4, as you will se below.
Side A
Side B
Disc 4 – ‘Get Back’ Version 4
Almost a year after the sessions had wrapped up, the ‘Get Back’ album had still not seen the light of day. Was it because The Beatles had washed their hands of the material, or the book that was meant to accompany the album was taking longer than expected. Whatever the reason, it was decided that the album now need to reflect the music seen in the nearly completed film. That meant that ‘Teddy Boy’ was out, but ‘Across The Universe’ and ‘I Me Mine’ were in.
This proved to be a bit of a problem as neither song had been recorded on multi track once the sessions moved away from Twickenham Studios to Saville Row. ’Across The Universe’ had seen a release on the ‘No One’s Gonna Change Our World’ charity album which came out in December of 1969. A different version was needed so Glyn Johns set about creating a mix that removed the sound effects and female backing vocals that had accompanied the charity album performance. ‘I Me Mine’ needed to be recorded from scratch, so in what would prove to be the last Beatles session until the mid-90s, Starr, Harrison and McCartney met at Abbey Road studios to produce the track.
Side A
Side B
For You Blue (This track is missing a bit of the dialog and the longer false start that is heard on versions 2 and 3. This is the new mix mentioned above. Verses 1 and 2, along with the last line of verse 3, feature the new vocal. Most of verse 3 is the old vocal. In portions of verse 2, both vocals can be heard).
Disc 5 – “Get Back’ Oldies Compilation
One thing that is apparent when looking at what was played during these sessions, there was an awful lot of old songs from The Beatles early days getting an airing. These would include songs that Lennon & McCartney had written before fame (including ‘One After 909’, which did it make it on to the final album), but mostly it was rock ‘n’ roll tunes. Whilst the ‘Get Back’ tapes were being prepared, it was rumoured that a bonus disc made up of these rock ‘n’ roll oldies was also going to see the light of day.
A tape has surfaced which some have called the ‘Oldies Companion’, but when listening to it, it does not completely fit the bill. That is because the first two songs are a rather good version of ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ and an eight minute edit of ‘Dig It’. These do not go with the theme of the album, so I did not use these but instead focused on just the old tunes. The problem with these oldies is they were never recorded up to release standard. The band used them as a way of warming up or alleviating boredom.
Others sounded quite good but they were recorded to the Nagra machines the camera crew were using, so on occasions there is a good deal of talking and the occasional beeping noise. The recordings included here do not have any of the camera crew talking over them but there is the occasional beep. Some of the songs were also recorded quite early on in the process when the band were at Twickenham Film Studios, so these were only available in mono. Stereo equipment was only brought into proceedings when the band moved to Saville Row.
I have included the date when these versions were recorded in case you fancy making your own version.
Side A
Side B
So there it is. The Beatles and their ‘Get Back’ album given the deluxe box set treatment. Will we ever see anything like this come out officially? I doubt it even though by the 60th anniversary comes along in 2030, it would no doubt be a digital only release.
The cover art is taken from https://bbchron.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-beatles-get-back-glyn-johns-mixes.html
*Now, I know I know I didn’t need to buy it, but I am a completist and I had all of the others, so I bought this one as well.
This second Nilsson What-If album of the month could be seen as a companion piece to the previous ‘Singles’ compilation, but instead of focusing on material that was released under his own name, this includes recordings recorded as part of a group or under pseudonyms or for one release, no mention of the recording artist was made at all. More on that later.
The first songs are ‘Donna’ and ‘Wig Job’. Eagled eyed reader will notice that these songs were listed on the previous post. However, these have been re-rerecorded. They were released under the name of Johnny Niles. There are also a couple of singles that were released under the name of Bo-Pete, including ‘Baa Baa Blacksheep. These are the same songs as the ones that Nilsson released under his own name. I have included them here for completeness. The final songs on Side A are a slab of Bo Diddley mixed with novelty combined with a massive jump onto The Beatles bandwagon. The original single came with a 8mm film with clips of The Beatles which, according to a note found on the single, could be synched up to play at the same time. Needless to say, none of these records were hits. I have also never seen the film and so far, it has eluded a posting on YouTube. Someone must have this somewhere.
Side B starts off with another Tower single that was released under the name of The New Salvation Singers (featuring Harry Nilsson). The rest of this album includes songs that were recorded by Nilsson that were released on the ‘New Nilsson Songs’ promo album. This record was released to promote the songs Nilsson had written for his publishing company, Rock Music Co. There were also a couple of songs on there from Perry Botkin and Gil Garfield who just happened to own the publishing company. The reason these songs are included here is because when the record came out, none of the people singing the songs were listed. All that was put onto the label was the name of the songs, the publishers name and their contact details.
These 60s releases were not the last time that Nilsson would release music that was not under his own name. As a bonus 7” single, this release would include the single ‘Joy’ and its B-Side ‘I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City’. This was released under he name of Buck Earl in an attempt to get played on country music radio. It didn’t work and this is one of the more obscure releases connected to Harry Nilsson. It does not end there though as Nilsson had one more pseudonym up his sleeve. This additional cheeky bonus is ‘Party From Outer Space’ Albert Brooks’ comedy album ‘A Star Is Bought’. Nilsson recorded under the name of Lassie.
The sleeve is an adaptation of the the late 1960s reissue of ‘Spotlight Of Nilsson’ with the new title added.
Side A
Side B
Bonus 7” Single
Don’t forget to pick up your copy of the wonderful book ‘Harry & Me’, in which yours truly briefly appears in.
https://thisdayinmusicbooks.com/product/harry-me/
So, after an additional wait of a year, ‘Let It Be’ by The Beatles receives the deluxe box set treatment. Must be time therefore to come up with some fantasy releases for the band. For this entry we are not looking at LPs, but EPs. EP stands for Extended Play and tend to be produced on 7” records that contain on average four songs. The format was popular enough (in the UK at least) to have its own chart for a period of time. By 1967, the chat was history and any EP released after this would be listed in the singles chart. The Beatles released a number of EPs during the 60s, and they cover the full range of what was possible with the format. ‘Twist & Shout’ and ‘No.1’ featured songs that had been on the first LP, so if you couldn’t afford the album, this was a nice alternative. ‘The Beatles’ Hits’ could be seen as an early attempt at a greatest hits package. ‘Long Tall Sally’ contained songs that had not appeared anywhere else before. They even released a double EP with ‘Magical Mystery Tour’, that contained a lovely booklet which gave you an idea of what the film was like for those not old enough to have been around when it was shown on the TV in 1968 (like me for instance). It is with this in mind that I present three alternative history EPs for you.
Yellow Submarine (1968)
This one was almost released back in the day, and even though some work was put into mixing the songs ready for release, it was shelved until 2009. More on that later. ‘Yellow Submarine’, the song, was released as the A-side as well as featuring on the ‘Revolver’ album. It was the only A-Side Ringo Starr was lead singer on during the band’s lifetime and even though it was designed as a lighthearted tune for Starr’s limited vocal range, multiple interpretations of the songs meaning were put forward at the time.
The song would be the inspiration behind the ‘Yellow Submarine’ film which was released in 1968 as a way of fulfilling The Beatles three film deal they had with United Artists. Having an animated film with the band only featuring in a short cameo at the end meant that this contract had been honoured. The film came out in July 1968 in the UK, but fans of the band had to wait until the beginning of 1969 for a soundtrack album to come out. The album was criticised for not giving fans of the band the usual value for money that they had become accustomed to. In that, of the thirteen tunes on the record, only six were by The Beatles and of these, only four had not been released before. The other seven were instrumentals written by their producer George Martin. The band considered releasing an EP of the four previously unreleased songs with the addition of the Across the Universe, which had not come out up until that point. The EP idea was shelved, but the songs had been mixed in mono and would eventually see the light of day in 2009 when ‘The Beatles in Mono’ box was released. Well all except the original version of Across the Universe.
What if the band had released this EP in the summer of 1968 when the film came out? All of the songs that were used had all been recorded at that point, being as they were outtakes from other recording projects. As the songs on the EP are quite long, the original EP would have been released playing at 33rpm. However, this meant that the sound quality would have compromised some what so for this exercise, we will keep the playing speed at 45rpm. That means that the EP will need to take inspiration from the ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ EP and being a double disc affair. That also means that there is a little more time to play with. So here is the play list.
Disc 1 – Side A
Disc 1 – Side B
Disc 2 – Side A
Disc 2 – Side B
‘Hell Bulldog’, ‘All Together Now’, ‘It’s All Too Much’ and ‘Only a Northern Song’ are as per the mono found on ‘The Beatles in Mono’ box set, but to be good value for money, there would have been the aforementioned Across the Universe. This would have been take 8 of the song, which included some additional humming vocals and psychedelic instrumentation which were removed when it was eventually released in 1969. No doubt because psychedelia was a bit old hat by then. This would also be at the original speed so would last for 3 mins 44 seconds. The second previously unreleased track (in this version anyway) is ‘Yellow Submarine’. Instead of putting out the version most fans would have owned on Revolver or single, this version would have included the spoken intro version as well as using a slightly different mix with alternative sound effects. ‘It’s A Too Much’ would most probably have been needed to be released at 33rpm anyway due to it being nearly six and a half minutes long.
If that had been released in June 1968, it would have fitted a gap in The Beatles release schedule and would have been a way of wetting the appetite for the forthcoming ‘Yellow Submarine’ film. George Martin though would have missed out on the biggest pay day of his career if this EP had been released instead of the soundtrack LP.
Let It Be (1969)
Music, as has been said many times before, is subjective to the person listening to it. Therefore, there is no such as thing as bad music. There is just music you like or you don’t. With the ‘Let It Be’ album though, this is without doubt one of the weaker releases in the groups discography. The original 1970 LP had been worked over by legendary Phil Spector to paper over some of the cracks which was down to there being a lack of top notch material, apathy from the participants or the realisation (even if they were not going to admit it) that the bands days were numbered. George Harrison, out of all of the The Beatles was feeling the need to branch out on his own due to the lack of space for his material on the bands LPs, and it was only in 1968 that one of his songs was included on a single, albeit on the B-Side.
Having listened the the original LP, the Naked variation and numerous bootlegs that have circulated shows that even though lots of songs that would become well known were presented at the sessions, these tended to not to be finished, or in Harrison’s case, not given the recognition they deserved. The sessions took place in January of 1969 and until ‘Let It Be’ came out in May 1970, the only release from those sessions was the ‘Get Back’ single, backed with ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ in April 1969. George Martin, the bands producer up until this point, had been there for the recording sessions, but the tapes were given over to audio engineer Glyn Johns to do something with, and what he back with was the ‘Get Back’ album.
Johns was given a free hand to do what he wanted with the tapes, and he preferred to use the rougher version of the songs that had been recorded. More polished performances would be used when the ‘Let It Be’ album was eventually released. These rougher versions included some studio chatter, flash starts and takes that broke down. It really did show The Beatles with their trousers down. Needless to say, the mix that John’s had prepared in May 1969 was rejected.
What if the album was not released in 1970, but an EP of some of the stronger songs was sent to record shops, using Glyn John’s mix and released as a stop gap between the release of ‘The Ballad of John & Yoko’ single in May 1969 and the ‘Abbey Road’ LP in the September. Once again, the ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ is the inspiration behind this release.
Disc 1 – Side A
Disc 1 – Side B
Disc 2 – Side A
Disc 2 – Side B
If we look at what did make the ‘Let It Be’ album and is not on this EP, ‘Get Back’ is most probably the most glaring absentee. However, this was released as a single in April of 1969 so would be doubling up on songs if used. The Beatles tried to keep singles off of albums and so I used the same logic here. If we look back to the ‘Yellow Submarine’ EP, we are looking at giving Beatles fans value for money. The B-Side of this single, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ does not get a place on the EP for the same reason. In this alternative timeline, ‘Across The Universe’ would have come out on the Yellow Submarine EP with ‘Dig It’ and ‘Maggie Mae’ being short snippets so no major loss there. As was the way of thing, Harrison would not have got more than one song on this proposed EP, so it was a toss up between ‘For You Blue’ and ‘I Me Mine’. Not much to choose from on these, and neither are particularly good, especially with what Harrison would release on the next Beatles album and his first solo album.
That leaves ‘One After 909’, which we’ll come back to on the next Lost Beatles EP and ‘The Long and Winding Road’. McCartney obviously loves the song. He re-recorded it for his ‘Give My Regards to Broadstreet’ project, and wanting to remove the production work of Phil Spector was the impetus for completing ‘Let It Be…Naked’. Plenty of people have covered it, Brian Wilson (who knows a thing or two about great songs) says it is his all time favourite Beatles track, but to these ears, it it just not up there with McCartney’s best work, and there are better songs on this EP. Granted, this is not the worst McCartney song from these sessions. ‘Teddy Boy’, take a bow.
Rooftop Concert (1977)
When The Beatles deal with EMI ran out in the mid-70s, the company spent a good deal of its time releasing numerous compilation albums of bands work. However, the only release that of previously unissued material was the ‘Live at the Hollywood Bowl’ LP. You would have thought that with the amount of unreleased material in the archive, they would have been a bit of imaginative, but what do I know about the workings of a multinational record company out to make the quickest buck as possible.
The album does suffer from the technology of the time that it was recorded, and the time in which it was released. George Martin did a good job with what he had, but the alternative history release here is what would have happened if EMI had raided the archive for a release of another live performance by the band. In this case, a few songs from the rooftop concert from 1969, recorded during the making of the ‘Let It Be’ album. Once again, taking a cue from the ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ EP, this is spread over two discs. The Rooftop concert is so famous and inspirational that many other band have copied it down the years, and was brilliantly parodied by The Rutles.
‘One After 909’ starts things off and then is followed by ‘Dig a Pony’, which is a different version than the one used on the ‘Let It Be’ EP. ‘I Got A Feeling’ actually finishes, which did not happen in take that was used when Glyn Johns produced his mix. ‘Get Back’ finishes the EP off nicely, but without Lennon famously saying ‘thank you on behalf of the group’ as this was on the third run through of the song. With that, we finish our look at the Lost Beatles EPs.
Disc 1
Disc 2
None of these EPs could be reproduced on Spotify due to some of the material still not having been officially released. It would have been nice if the Rooftop Concert had been included in the ‘Let It Be’ deluxe edition box set which in my opinion, is a bit light on bonus tracks.
For those who have been following the musical adventures of the Squire down the years will know that I am a big fan of Harry Nilsson. Not only have I produced a couple of Lost Album compilations entering on covers of the great man, I also produced a couple of podcasts. It was due to these podcasts that I was contacted by author Neil Watson who was putting together a book about Nilsson called ‘Harry & Me’. In the words of the author himself “HARRY AND ME is a collection of stories by Nilsson’s fans and people who knew him, going some way to explaining why this unique musician who never toured or gave concert performances managed to elicit such intrigue and adoration from his fans, friends and collaborators”.
Anyway, I was asked to contribute to the book and in doing so, I started to play my old Nilsson records and thought it was about time I put together some fantasy releases for him. The first of these is dedicated to singles that Nilsson released under his own name. This does not cover all of the singles he released during his lifetime, but they will be covered on a future compilation. To introduce this compilation, I feel that a short history of Nilsson is in order.
Nilsson signed with RCA Victor in 1966 as a performer and released his first album a year later. However, Nilsson had been on the fringes of the music scene for a number of years beforehand. He formed a duo with a friend of his singing songs in a style reminiscent of the Everly Brothers. This in turn lead him to be contracted to songwriter Scott Turner to sing on some demos he had written. This in turn lead him to work with John Marascalco, who financed some singles that were released on small, independent labels. The first of these would be ‘Baa Baa Blacksheep’ and this came out in 1963. More singles would follow released under pseudonyms such as Johnny Niles and Bo-Pete, but these will not be included here as I am just including singles related under his own name. Some local airplay was secured but success eluded him.
By 1964, he was working with Phil Spector and even though some of their songs were recorded, some did not see the light of day until they were put out on some archival releases years after the event. It was around this period that he started working with songwriter and publisher Perry Botkin who started to plug his clients songs. He also became friendly with composer and arranger, George Tipton who financed some Nilsson recordings which they were able to place with the Tower record label, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. These singles were collected together to form the basis of Nilsson’s debut album, ‘Spotlight on Nilsson’. All through this period, Nilsson was not only writing and recording, he also held down a full time job as a computer programmer in a bank. This was all to change once he placed the song ‘Cuddly Toy’ with the The Monkees. Well, that and the fact members of The Beatles started name dropping him in interviews.
Nilsson only performed in a live context (mostly for TV shows) a few times during the very early years of his signing to RCA, and realising that he didn’t like the experience, he decided to focus on producing his material in the studio. Nilsson is therefore one of the few artists who have been commercially successful without going out on tour.
Nilsson would hit his commercial peak in 1971 with the release of the ‘Nilsson Schmilsson’ album that included on it his biggest hit, ‘Without You’ on it. After that, Nilsson would follow his muse by recording a standards album, 20 years before anyone thought it was actually a good idea. He appeared in a really seen film made by Ringo Starr called ‘Son of Dracula’ and then got together in the studio with John Lennon to record the ‘Pussy Cats’ album, which was recorded at a time when the pair were getting drunk and misbehaving in Los Angeles. This period has been retrospectively called Lennon’s Lost Weekend period. The sessions would also see Nilsson rupture his vocal cords and instead of resting them, he carried on. You can clearly hear Nilsson struggling to sing on some of the songs and there are some who say his voice never recovered from the sessions.
The albums that followed ‘Pussy Cats’ had their moments, but there was too much filler compared to his earlier releases. There was a concerted effort in 1977 to promote the ‘Knnillssonn’ album, but it was released around the time Elvis Presley died so RCA focused on making sure there was plenty of stock for the King’s in the record store. This was to the detriment of Nilsson and this was his last album for RCA. Nilsson would only complete two more records in his lifetime. 1980s ‘Flash Harry’ and the soundtrack to the Popeye film in 1981. After that, Nilsson focused much of his time on promoting gun control in response to the killing of his friend John Lennon. There would be the odd single released, a musical based on the life of Emiliano Zapata and an attempt at one more record which was left unfinished by the time Nilsson died in 1994.
This will be the first in a series of What-If complication and is not a greatest hits or best of package but it would also need to be a double album to fit all of the records onto it. This contains all of the single mixes and exclusive B-Sides that was released under the Nilsson name. It includes all of his pre RCA released singles as well as a smattering of rarities, such as the promo single that was recorded with Cher. Her version of ‘A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knocking Everyday)’ was produced by Phil Spector, with Nilsson claiming that the backing track was meant to have been used on John Lennon’s ‘Rock n Roll’ album. The song would also appear on the Warner Brothers sampler album ‘Burbank’s Finest 100% All Meat’. There is also the single ‘Please Mr Music Man’ which was recorded back in 1962 as part of the work he did for Scott Turner. These sessions had only been Nilsson singing over a guitar backing track but by the time this single was released in 1977, backing musicians had been dubbed on to the tapes. His last single was the song ‘How About You’ which was recorded for the film, ‘The Fisher King’.
The sleeve for this compilation is based around the RCA company sleeve that was used when Nilsson released his ‘Daybreak’ single, with added graphics as well as a picture of the great man where the record centre should be.
Side A
Side B
Side C
Side D
If you are interested in buying a copy of the book, it can be purchased by following either of these links.
https://thisdayinmusicbooks.com/product/harry-me/
2021 has been a busy year for Beatles related material. There has already been deluxe box sets of Lennon’s ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’ LP as we as Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass’. Ringo Starr has released two EPs of new material where as McCartney has seen the release of ‘McCartney III Imagined’ album. There is even the forthcoming ‘Let It Be’ reissue and ‘Get Back’ TV show to look forward to. Beatles fans have needed very deep pockets to pay for all of this.
With ‘Let It Be’ the last album The Beatles released which contained new material, there has always been speculation of what another album by the band would have sounded like if they had stayed together. I had a look at what The Beatles back catalogue could have been like if they had not split up in 1970, and continued on until the mid part of that decade when Lennon decided to help raise his second son, Sean. Well, with the release of the aforementioned 50th anniversary editions of Lennon’s ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’; and Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass’ album, I thought it would be an opportunity to look at this subject again, but from a slightly different perspective. Where as before, I compiled a series of double albums including singles and EP releases from the releases the solo Beatles put out between 1969 and 1975, this one will concentrate on 1970 alone. First, a little bit of history.
The break up of The Beatles can most probably be traced back to the unfortunate death of their manager, Brian Epstein in 1967. Lennon is quoted as saying that the band were in trouble as soon as this happened as he did not have any misconceptions about their ability to play anything other than music. This would turn out to be true. Even though the overall standard of music did not drop, inter band relations started to deteriorate as personal interests and business ventures took over. These included:
1. Apple. The Beatles as businessmen, maybe not their best idea. Encompassing everything from music publishing, computers, electronics, retail and a record label, the company was run by members of the bands entourage regardless of their experience or capabilities. Harrison would say later “Basically, it was chaos … John and Paul got carried away with the idea and blew millions, and Ringo and I just had to go along with it.”
2. Recording of ‘The Beatles’. Tensions in the studio ran high as the band recorded the follow up to the ‘Sgt. Peppers’ album. At one point, Ringo Starr left the band for two weeks. Lennon lost interest with working with McCartney feeling that the laters material such as ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ was nothing more than “Granny music shit”. The group also stopped working as a band. Essentially this album was collection of songs by individuals which just happened to have the other Beatles on them essentially serving as nothing but backing musicians. Lennon also started to bring avant-garde artist Yoko Ono to sessions, breaking the unwritten rule that wives and/or girlfriends were not allowed in the studio.
3. Not taking a break after the recording of ‘The Beatles’. The original plan for the ‘Let It Be’ film was to use the material recording for the 1968 “The Beatles’ LP, but this did not last as it was suggested it should be a record of new material. There was only a three month break between the end of the sessions for ‘The Beatles’ and work starting on what would become the ‘Let it Be’ album. The band had a bunch of new songs they had been working on but few were in anything like a competed state. Lennon had also acquired a heroin addiction and both he and McCartney were dismissive of Harrison’s material. It would be Harrison’s turn to leave the band for a short time during these sessions.
4. Allen Klein. McCartney and the rest of the band disagreed on who should represent the bands’ business affairs. McCartney wanted to appoint Lee and John Eastman, his brother and father in law. The remaining Beatles wanted Allen Klein. McCartney lost the vote by three to one.
5. Lennon himself. On 20th September 1969, Lennon announced to the other members of the band that he was going to leave The Beatles, but this information was not made public as they did not want to hurt sales of the their forthcoming album.
6. Phil Spector. McCartney had wanted the ‘Let It Be’ sessions to be a back to basics recording after the amount of time the band had spent recording their previous couple of albums. Initially called ‘Get Back’, the original mix was a rough a ready affair with snippets of songs (‘Save the Last Dance for Me’), jams (‘Dig It’ & ‘Rocker’) and other that break down during a take (‘I’ve Got a Feeling’). This was rejected and Phil Spector was brought in to finish the record off for release. He edited songs and added orchestration which McCartney objected too. When his demands for these alterations to be removed were ignored, he announced his departure from The Beatles. Unlike Lennon’s, this announcement was released to the public.
This is a very brief run down of why The Beatles broke up. The accepted narrative has been that that ‘Abbey Road’ was the band attempt to go out on a high, because each of them knew that the band would not be able to function as a unit for too much longer. This was until a tape was brought to light by author Mark Lewisohn in 2019. The tape was recorded in September of 1969, and it was recorded by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison as they met up at the Apple offices in Saville Row to discuss the recording of their next album to follow on from ‘Abbey Road’. The tape was made for the benefit of Ringo Starr who could not make the meeting due to being in hospital at the time.
Lennon laid out the approach for the next album which is where he, McCartney and Harrison would each have four songs on the album, credited to them alone. It would seem that the days of the Lennon-McCartney credit on the records was over. Starr would have two songs on the record if he wanted them. There should also be a single out for Christmas. Tensions are evident on the discussion as McCartney states that he did not think Harrison’s songs were very good until ‘Abbey Road’. Lennon retorts that no one seemed to be a fan of ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ and that songs like that should be given to artists outside of the group. This meeting occurred on 8th September and has already been noted, Lennon decided to leave on 20th. However, what would have happened if Lennon had decided not to leave and all the other bits and pieces that had gone on since Epstein’s had not derailed what is arguably the most influential band of all time? Well, he is another attempt following the template laid down by Lennon on the 8th September tape.
In some respects, this is quite easy. Both Lennon and Harrison released great albums in 1970. McCartney also released an album so having four songs from each is quite straight forward. The issue is with Ringo. He had normally had one vocal spot on each Beatles album (the exceptions being ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Beatles For Sale’), but had not been one for writing songs in his own right. Even though he did compose ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ which would be released on ‘The Beatles’ in 1968, the songs had been written as far back as 1962. Before this, there was ‘What Goes On’ from ‘Rubber Soul’ and after this, ‘Octopus Garden’ from ‘Abbey Road’. After The Beatles split, his first two albums, both released in 1970 would be made up of covers. It would take unit 1973 for an album of original material to appear, and even then, half of the tracks were not written by Starr. His first song to be released as a single that was not a cover was ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ which did not come out until 1971 so is out of the scope of this album. So what are we left with from Starr? One song and that is ‘Coochy Coochy’ which was originally released on the B-Side of his debut singe, ‘Beacoups of Blue’.
For the other three, McCartney is also limited in what I can use. His first solo album was criticised for being under-produced and unfinished. There was a good deal of instrumentals on this album and critics noted that apart from ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, the material appeared to be below the standards he had set during his time with The Beatles. Having listened to it again in preparation for this project, these criticisms seem justified. This is especially true when you compare it to the albums Harrison and Lennon would put out later that year which in my opinion are classics. What McCartney’s and Lennon’s albums have in common though is the striped back nature of the recordings.
McCartney pretty much recorded the album on his own, where as Lennon employed only two other musicians for the majority of the recordings. ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’ may have been a Phil Spector production, but the trademark Wall of Sound was absent here. However, it was there in abundance on Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass’. With the release of the Super Deluxe Edition of this album in 2021, the archives were well and truly opened with a staggering amount of unreleased material coming out. These recordings tend to be a bit more basic than those on the original album, so taking these along with the albums from Lennon and McCartney, this could have been the stripped down album ‘Let It Be’ could have been.
The majority of the songs came out on those solo albums even though Ringo’s song was a B-Side. However, there was one demo that was on ‘All Things Must Pass’ which fitted in quite nicely and that was the demo of ‘Woman Don’t You Cry’. This song would eventually see the list of day as the opening song for the 1976 album, ‘Thirty Three & a Third’.
Side A
Side B
This playlist only covers the album. What of the single Lennon mentioned should be out for Christmas 1969? There aren’t too many candidates for this. The band could have released another single from the “Let It Be’ sessions as a way of previewing the album. ‘Let It Be’ itself, which did not come out in 1970 could have been brought forward. ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’ could still have been the B-Side. McCartney did not release a solo single until 1971 and Harrison would not release one until the recording of ‘All Things Must Pass. Only Lennon had something in the can in the shape of ‘Cold Turkey’, which could have been used, even though a different B-Side would have been required. That is because the original B-Side was ”Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)’ which was written by Yoko Ono. There were plenty of songs the band demoed during the this that could have finished off and recorded such as ‘Child Of Nature’, ‘Goodbye’, ‘Sour Milk Sea’ or for something a bit more obscure, ‘The Palace of the King of Birds’.
For the title of this album, I drew inspiration from the an article that appeared in a 1970 edition of Rolling Stone Magazine which talked about a Beatles LP you would never hear. The story went that the album was recorded but the master tapes had been stolen. This album was to be known as ‘Hot As Sun’, a track that had appeared on McCartney’s debut album. The story itself was a complete fabrication. The cover itself was found on the internet but I did not make a note of where it came from so I am afraid I cannot give a credit to the person who created it.
Throughout the centuries, Richmond Upon Thames has contained many pubs within its boundaries. Here I am once again joined by Richard Holmes, author of Pubs, Inns and Taverns of Richmond to look at some of those that are no longer with us as well as the Breweries that were once found within the town.
If you are interested in buying any of Richard’s books, he can be contacted here holmes1@blueyonder.co.uk.
