WE CAN WORK IT OUT

On this day in music history: January 8, 1966 - “We Can Work It Out” by The Beatles hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 3 weeks (non-consecutive). Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it is the eleventh chart topper for legendary the British rock quartet. McCartney is inspired to write the song after an argument with his then girlfriend, actress Jane Asher. He writes the main verses and chorus, and when he isn’t able to complete it, he enlists Lennon’s help, who writes the songs’ bridge. The song is recorded during the sessions for the “Rubber Soul” album beginning on October 20, 1965 and is completed on October 29, 1965. It is initially released as a stand alone double A-sided single with “Day Tripper” (#5 Pop). “We Can Work It Out” enters the Hot 100 at #36 on December 18, 1965, rocketing to the top three weeks later. It spends two weeks at number one, then slips back to number two for one week when “Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sounds Of Silence” returns to the top, then retakes the top spot for one more week. Both “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper” make their US LP debut on the compilation “Yesterday And Today” in June of 1966, and in the UK on “A Collection Of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!)” in December of 1966. When the US single release is re-pressed by Capitol Records in 1969, “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper” are mistakenly manufactured with the red and white “target” Starline series budget priced label. The single like other Beatles 45’s carry a full list price, and were to be pressed with the newly introduced orange and red “target” label. The copies pressed with the incorrect label originate from Capitol’s Jacksonville, IL pressing plant, and are quickly replaced with the correct label. The small number of error pressings are not destroyed, and instead are shipped to retail and sold. Because of the minimal number of copies pressed with the wrong label, it becomes one of the rarest and most sought after Beatles records by collectors. One of the last copies to surface on the collector’s market sold for over $1,800 in 1995. “We Can Work It Out” is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.

a favourite song of all time and boy do we need to understand this today more than ever . . . .  

The Wondrous Willard's Wormholes does us proud again and explores the early BEATLES studio sessions

THE BEATLES Studio Sessions Back To Basics: Please Please Me Studio Sessions, With The Beatles Studio Sessions, A Hard Day’s Night Studio Sessions, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 (2011)

March 5, 2017 – 03:11

Please Please Me Studio Sessions (2011)
With The Beatles Studio Sessions (2011)
A Hard Day’s Night Studio Sessions, Vol. 1 (2011)
A Hard Day’s Night Studio Sessions, Vol. 2 (2011)
The Best… Just Doing What They Did.

FROM 2011: The beauty of these original session tapes (available for many years in different incarnations, but meshed here with obscure mixes) is the opportunity to hear The Beatles playing live in the studio, unconsciously making up all new rules for the music industry, and all while the tapes were rolling. That they had such a fresh approach – both inventively and commercially – for virtually all their sessions is an accomplishment that still mystifies students of the arts to this day. This kinetic, spontaneous live sound is a joy, and it makes you wonder why you’d ever wanna listen to those official albums again (especially those old American LPs, HERE… some of which are included in these sets). There are, of course, non-essential tracks that weigh down the flow  – crappy monitor mixes are the worst offenders – but the live stuff is worth the fat. The old collector in me perversely appreciates the mixture of original studio tapes and eventually lost mixes (from LP sources like Reel Music all the way up to Rock Band). It’s a smart organizational trick, too, maintaining a consistent listening experience across decades of versions and releases. Historically speaking, these are the days, aren’t they? How great is it to be able to immediately access the nervousness in George Harrison’s voice as he records his first, solo composition (“Don’t Bother Me”)? Listen to the ease with which the band is able to count off, and nail, a middle eight whenever George Martin wants an edit piece. It just confirms that these guys were already club-worn pros when they walked through Abbey Road’s doors, and they sound it. Their adaptability is amazing. Listen for the years of pent-up club versions in McCartney’s first vocal take of “I Saw Her Standing There,” one of the few in the series where Lennon gets his ‘when’s, ‘and’s & ‘since’s straight. In another session, Lennon laments that things aren’t written down, illustrating his ongoing lyrical issues – from the first sessions all the way to the rooftop concert where Yoko can be seen holding lyrics for him. There are four discs of A Hard Day’s Night variations, for you gotta-have-it-all types, while the multi-take evolution of McCartney’s powerhouse vocals for the title track’s bridge are worthy of University study.

On this day . . . 

behindthegrooves:

On this day in music history: February 21, 1966 - “Nowhere Man” by The Beatles is released. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it is recorded October 21 - 22, 1965 in Studio Two at Abbey Road Studios in London. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it is the twenty fourth US single for the legendary rock band from Liverpool, UK. Composed primarily by John Lennon, he comes up with the song after spending five hours trying to write something without success. Finally, the words and melody come to him all at once. Lennon shows what he’s come up with to McCartney, who helps him complete the song. “Nowhere Man” represents another departure for The Beatles, with Lennon and McCartney writing more introspective material, moving away from the subject matter of their earlier work which focused more on love and romance. Another one of the songs’ crowning touches is the dual guitar solo played by George Harrison and John Lennon on a pair of matching ‘61 sonic blue Fender Stratocasters, purchased for them by their roadie Mal Evans from Grimwoods Music in Whitstable, Kent. When the song is mixed, Lennon and Harrison asks producer George Martin and engineer Norman Smith, double the amount of treble on the guitars to create an even brighter and cutting sound that is instantly apparent on the finished recording. Originally a track on the UK version of “Rubber Soul, the song is left off of the US version of the album and is instead released as a stand alone single backed with the country flavored “What Goes On” (#81 Pop) sung by Ringo Starr, also extracted from the UK version of “Rubber Soul”. “Nowhere Man” peaks at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 26, 1966. Both songs make their US album debut on the compilation “Yesterday And Today” in June of 1966. “Nowhere Man” is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.

just because . . . . . .

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

4,323 plays

CHRISTMAS 2016

YULETIDE WASSNAMES!

May as well make a start with some Seasonal Nonsense as I usually do . . . . . . . .

these will raise a smile . . . .from Big O where else?!

A BEATLES COMPLETE COLLECTION

Big O says : 

THE BEATLES
Complete Christmas Collection 1963-1969 [Yellow Dog YD031, 1CD]
All seven Christmas messages plus bonus outtakes. Originally sourced from flexi discs. Very good studio soundboard.

all music says - 

From 1963 until 1969 the Beatles  put together single-sided flexi discs with a Christmas message that were distributed to their fan club members. All seven of these were included in a 12″ LP and sent as a final farewell to members in 1970. Various bootlegs of that limited LP have been floating around for years, and with assorted outtake material and rehearsal chatter included, plus the complete acetate of “Christmas Time (Is Here Again),” that is what has been assembled here in this festive boot from Yellow Dog Records. Aside from “Christmas Time,” which is a pretty good holiday song by any standards, nothing reaches serious artistic heights, but the sheer zany joy of the Beatles  is pretty irresistible as they joke and pun their way through short skits and fractured Christmas carols.
By 1965 everything gets drenched in reverb and quick edits, and tape loops by 1967 make these recordings in their own way as experimental as any of the group’s serious material. John Lennon’s genius for wordplay is rampant everywhere, and odd horn blasts and snippets of songs dart in and out. By 1969 the four Beatles were recording their holiday messages separately, and the sequence was edited together for unity, and yes, Yoko is there, too. As a sort of alternate history of the Beatles told through holiday tidings, The Complete Christmas Collection is fascinating and fun, and makes one wish that it could have gone on forever.

+ + + + +

This is great fun and worth listening all the way through for those who haven't heard these before in which case I must say if you haven't heard any of these then I really don't know here you bin but it's worth revisiting old favourites . . . . . . .  

Also they posted this which is later but has a missing Beatles fan club message from the first lot . . . . 

THE BEATLES - Introducing Martha!

Aaah these take me back and of course we miss George and John . . . so much

brothers . . . . . . . 

People often seem to have to choose between John and Paul and I guess it relates to the falling out time and split up of the Beatles as a band but how close do you actually think these guys were? This includes George and Ringo too but the songwriting partnership meant that John and Paul were inside each other's heads 24/7 these guys were CLOSE, could anticipate the other and knew their little ways, their tells and foibles so intimately they were closer than most brothers. 

[These shots mostly fan shots and all from 1967]

Paul explained how they spent much of the day chilling and hanging around and then spent the evenings working in the studio

fan shot

Martha (Paul's dog) John and Paul - fan shot

with thanks to the extraordinary "Toppermost of the Poppermost"

because . . . . . . 

The Beatles Rooftop Concert 1969 London (HD) from lordcris on Vimeo.

Random 

BEATLES 

The Beatles perform for the film 'HELP!' in the middle of a circle of Chieftain tanks, while being protected by the army, at Knighton Down on the B3086 about ten miles north of Salisbury at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain (home, of course, of Stonehenge).

REVOLVER

one of the most important radical revolutionary recordings of all time

The Beatles 1966 Revolver

released August 1966   -   Happy Birthday !   -   50 years

artwork by Klaus Voormann

THE BEATLES

“The wind machine was throwing their hair around and their famous faces looked like the figures on Mount Rushmore.” - Don McCullin, photographer

July 28, 1968; Mad Day Out

 WE CAN WORK IT OUT . . . . 

“While you see it your way
Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone
We can work it out
We can work it out” 

Q: “A psychiatrist recently said you’re nothing but a bunch of British Elvis Presleys.”

JOHN: “He must be blind.”RINGO: (shaking like Elvis) “It’s not true!! It’s not true!!”JOHN: (dances like Elvis)

John n Paul

Since the rise of The Beatles, John has gained the image of the vicious, outspoken Beatle. How did he like it? “It’s been very useful,” he replied. “A lot of slimy reporter types seem to have got to fear me, it’s fantastic. I didn’t work for the title of the vicious Beatle, the biting Beatle, the one with the rapier wit. It’s a load of crap. It’s handy being tagged like this. When I meet intelligent and hip people, I have to be on my toes not to disillusion them. The people who have fallen for my image and publicity go to Paul, which I think’s funnier still.
“Paul can be very cynical and much more biting than me when he’s driven to it. ’Course, he’s got more patience. But he can carve people up in no time at all, when he’s pushed. He hits the nail right on the head and doesn’t beat around the bush, does Paul.”

JOHN LENNON, INTERVIEW W/ RAY COLEMAN FOR MELODY MAKER. (APRIL 10TH, 1965)

John n Paul goofing . . . . 

 Paul 7 Cavendish Avenue London 1967