BeatleTracks Band

McCartney to Wed . . . . Again.

BeatleTracks — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:51:20 GMT

Oi fans and blogsters; it's happening again. Paul McCartney's penchant for getting married has taken control of his mind and body: he proposed to his long time girlfriend this past weekend, Sept. 9-11, 2011.

Paul with fiance' Nancy Shevell 2011.

This blog has asked Paul to remember one word in the future for something like this: PRENUP. However, all kidding aside, it seems by all accounts that Ms. Shevell is the real deal. First of all, she's already rich. It's hard to imagine her as anything remotely like Heather Mills, the gold digging shall we say, lower socio-economic type that Paul married last time. Secondly, she is highly refined and educated. Thirdly, she herself is getting out of a bad marriage. So, from this blog's perspective, you would think both would want this one to work out.

Trivia: Interestingly, Paul plans to marry this wonderful woman at London's Marylebone Register's Office; the same place he married Linda on March 12, 1969. Furthermore, Marylebone is the section of London where the opening scenes to "A Hard Day's Night" were filmed with the boys running from the fans and the train station scene. One more thing: John Lennon was arraigned there too for his pot bust. Fans will recall that famous picture of John and Yoko emerging from the Resister's office with cops and fans all around the two. Yep, same place.

Trivia II: Is it me or do these Beatles love American women? Paul's first wife was American Linda Eastman. If he marries Nancy, that will be two out of three wives who were/are American with Heath Mills being the lone Englishwoman. John's second wife was Yoko, an Americanized Japanese woman. His lover May Pang, although Chinese, was born in New York City. George's second wife, Olivia, although a Mexican who was born in Mexico City, grew up in California. Presumably she got her American citizenship at some point. Ringo's second wife, Actress Barbara Bach is American.

God Bless you both from BeatleTracks and all Beatle/Nancy Shevell fans around the world.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com for more cool blogs and Beatle information.

The Love We Make - Paul McCartney's 9/11 Tribute

BeatleTracks — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:35:18 GMT

Oi Blogsters. I caught Macca's TV special this past weekend. It was a 1.5 hour movie discussing the 9/11 debacle and Paul's tribute concert thereafter to raise money for the families of the victims. While well intentioned, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Here's why:

Paul at the 9/11 concert.

Paul's "Concert for New York" was actually held shortly after the actual terrorist acts of 9/11, in October of 2001. Weirdly, the movie was held up for 10 years and only this past weekend released. As Paul noted repeatedly in the movie, he happened to be at New York's JFK airport that very morning and was literally taxiing down the runway for takeoff when the two planes slammed into the Trade Towers in Manhatten.

Paul, “But out of the window on the right side of the airplane, you could see the twin towers,” he said. “You could see one plume of smoke. Then you could see two, shortly thereafter. And I said, ‘That’s just an optical illusion.’” It wasn't of course, it was a real assault on sovereign US soil and it was hard to imagine for anyone that it was actually happening.

In any event, Paul generously threw together a tribute show with many guest stars such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Billy Joel, Elton John James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Bon Jovi, among others. All well and good. And if we could have seen the bulk of the concert it would have been even better. Instead, we got 80 of the 90 minutes in black and white featuring Paul talking about himself as well as 9/11 and a few snippets of rehearsal time. The actual concert footage was exceedingly brief and even during that, the camera continually cut to Paul backstage with his daughter Stella talking about the acts on stage through a TV monitor. Bill Clinton and James Taylor show up and chat up Paul, make jokes all while the show is going on. What???

We finally see Paul on stage performing his then new song, "Freedom" that he wrote apparently on the spot while witnessing the 9/11 travesty. What was nice, in the exceedingly brief concert footage (mercifully shown in color), were sweeping images of the firemen and their families in the crowd holding up pictures of their dead comrades/fathers/brothers. It was quite touching as was the entire movie for that matter. Many cops and firemen were invited on stage for the song written for them. That stuff was great. Even some of the black and white footage of Paul meeting and greeting fans on the street were actually fun. But, this special could have been 100 times better if it had focused on the real issue, which was the concert itself. One mildly amusing moment came when bassist Will Lee (Bassist for David Letterman and The Fab Faux Beatle Tribute band) was caught chatting with his idol. Lee was without his now trademark glasses but he clearly looked nervous and fidgety in the presence of Paul. Trust me, I would have too. He mentioned his new band at the time, The Fab Faux and let's just say Paul McCartney didn't exactly swoon over the fact. {"Oh great, another tribute band making a living off me!" Was what he was probably thinking. }

Paul McCartney was billed as the "Executive Producer" of the film and that explains a lot to your correspondent. We all remember Paul's first cinematic foray, which was the bizarre one hour film, "Magical Mystery Tour" subsequently judged to be the Beatles first actual bomb. Years later Paul thought he would throw together( and I mean throw together) a movie called "Give My Regards To Broad Street." Another commercial and critical bomb. And now we have this. The movie is still worth a look but one wonders what might have been if Paul wasn't so intent on talking about himself for an hour and 20 minutes. It is very reminiscent of John Lennon's comment after the release of the "Let It Be" movie: "It was a movie conceived by Paul for Paul."

As for the song, "Freedom," as simplistic and cliche' ridden as it was, it was nevertheless written in great spirit and heartfelt love for the US by one of America's most famous British friends. The song was released in the direct aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy and in the hue and cry of the moment, one could assume it would have done well. It didn't. The song peaked, if that's the word for it, at #97 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for one week and disappeared. Released also in the U.K, it never charted.

Intensions were great and I love and thank Paul for even thinking of this charitable event. I just wish we all could have seen more of the concert with all the other acts. They generously gave their time and talents to this worthy cause. As such, they should have been seen and thus appreciated by the fans.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com for more cool blogs and information.

God Bless.

George Harrison - The Private Life of the Quiet Beatle

BeatleTracks — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:33:55 GMT

Once again blogsters, The Rolling Stone magazine has a lead story on a Beatle. This past week, our own favorite lead guitar playing Beatle George Harrison was featured on a regular issue of the fabled music magazine. This was no special issue, rather, the editors sought to discuss one of the most underrated guitarists of all time. Let's see what the fuss was all about . . . . . .

This cool issue contains an exclusive look at the new book George Harrison: Living In the Material World (by Olivia Harrison, edited by Mark Holborn, (to be published by Abrams on September 26th) along with a cover story on Harrison's life by Brian Hiatt. *Your correspondent's birthday is September 26th, what a nice surprise.

The youngest and allegedly shyest of the Beatles was actually glad and relieved when the band folded. That makes two of the four Fabs along with Lennon. A few years later he retired from the limelight, but his life only got deeper and richer for it. From what I can see in the few pages in RS, this looks like a far more comprehensive look at George Harrison's life than his own, hugely redacted, edited and selective auto-bio "I, Me, Mine." There are some extremely rare pics of George in this volume including he and Bob Dylan playing tennis . . . . in boots and shoes.

As Martin Scorsese's new documentary on Harrison makes clear, Harrison had no casual persuits; his interests were persued with intensity from car racing, to film making, to gardening, to the ukulele to say nothing of his interests in Eastern religion and meditation.

As for being a Beatle, George apparently loved it at first embracing the fame, money, toys and women like most young men would as well as the tightness and comaraderie with his fellow Beatles. "We were four relatively sane people in the middle of madness," Harrison said. In the early years, he also idolized Lennon in particular: 'He told me he really, really admired John," says Tom Petty. "He probably wanted John's acceptance pretty bad, you know?'

Fighting for his place in the band, and his song's place on its albums, was exhausting. So was just being a Beatle. "Sometimes I felt a thousand years old," said Harrison - who was 27 when the Beatles ended. "It was aging me . . . .It was a question of either stop or end up dead." His second wife and widow Olivia says this, " George was not suited to it." *As in being a world famous Beatle.

Harrison told the RS magazine in 1987, "I realized this is serious stuff, this my LIFE being affected by all these people shouting." He felt physically unsafe too. "With what was going on, with presidents getting assassinated, the whole magnitude of our fame made me nervous."

Harrison put the madness into proper perspective in our final quote of the day; with regard to their musical progression- "The nonstop change was amazing. At the age of 17 I was in Hamburg, and by the time I was 24, we had done Sgt. Pepper." Well said George.

It's a nice, short review piece and I would recommend it to all. Watch now for the book by Olivia as well as the book and movie on Harrison by Scorsese, it should be glorious.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com for more great blogs and concert information.

A New Paul McCartney Biography - 2010

BeatleTracks — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:39:58 GMT

Your correspondent ordered this new book sight unseen recently and I am happy to report that it is excellent. What makes this one so different from others is that the author spends over half of the book on Paul's post-Beatle career. It is meticulously well researched and documented. Let's take a look inside . . . .

We draw today from "FAB: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney," by Howard Sounes, Da Capo Press, 2010

In the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS section at the end of the book, Mr. Sounes drives home his main point one last time, lest the reader missed it earlier. I'll quote directly from the book for this paragraph:

"With this book, I set out to write a better-balanced, more detailed and more comprehensive life of Paul McCartney than has previously been achieved. I did not have an agenda to find fault with Sir Paul, nor did I seek to glorify his career glibly. Rather I have tried to tell the epic story of his life truthfully and fairly was I have found the facts to be from studying him closely, as an entomologist might put another kind of beetle under a microscope."

Mission accomplished as far as your humble correspondent is concerned blogsters. I absolutely LOVED this book. Just when you thought, "Jesus, what more can be said about any of these guys?!?!?!" - we have here an honest bio. Mr. Sounes pulls no punches, if an album, song or action wasn't up to snuff, Sounes says so right up front. He both praises and criticizes McCartney throughout. Not to worry, over all, Paul comes out looking great as usual. Let's pull a few quotes to illustrate the point:

1) On the Liverpool Institute (high school) that Paul went to in Liverpool: "Yet he loved the 'Inny' and came to recognize the head start it gave him in life. 'It gave you a great feeling of the world was out there to be conquered, that the world was a very big place, and somehow you could reach it from here.' It was at the Inny that Paul acquired the nickname Macca, which has endured."

2) His mother's death: "Paul was 14, Mike was 12. Mum died on 31 October, 1956, Halloween, aged 47. Over the years, however, it became plain that Paul saw his world shattered by that autumn night in 1956. The premature death of his mother was a trauma he never forgot, nor wholly got over."

The McCartneys in the late 1940's.

3) On playing guitar: "It was only when he saw a picture of Slim Whitman playing guitar the other way around (Whitman having taught himself to play left-handed after losing part of a finger on his right hand) that Paul thought to restring his instrument and accordingly began to make progress. Schoolmate Ian James also played guitar, with greater proficiency, and gave Paul valuable lessons on his own REX acoustic." *When James apporached retirement in 2006, and his pension fund wan't as healthy as he'd hoped, he asked Paul to authenticate the REX as the guitar he'd learned on. Paul gladly did so and with that endorsement he sold the instrument at auction for an astounding 333,000 Pounds ($509,490 U.S.)! (*Comment: See, it pays to save things for 50 years! Cool trivia too.)

4) On songwriting: "John's (Lennon) voracious reading accounts, in part, for his lyrics being generally more interesting than Paul's."

5) On playing music: "Both (John and Paul) had good voices, John's possessing more character and authority, which Paul made up for by being an excellent mimic. He was particularly adept at taking off Little Richard."

6) In Hamburg: "By all accounts there was a virtual nightly orgy at the Bambi Kino (after they stopped playing). George losing his virginity in their squalid digs while the others lay in their cots nearby: ' . . . . after I'd finished, they all applauded and cheered.' "

7) Stuart Sutcliffe leaves the Beatles: " Stuart left the band. As neither John nor George wanted to take up Stuart's bass - the least glamorous instrument in a band - this job fell to Paul, who needed a new instrument. To get him started, Stuart generously loaned Paul his expensive Hofner bass." (*Comment: The problem here was the bass looked and felt weird upside down and left handed.) " Later, Paul bought the smaller and cheaper Hofner violin bass, which became his signature instrument. It is a mark of Paul's talent, and strength of personality, that despite being on the backline instrument, he remained an equal front man with John."

8) On success as a Beatle: Above and beyond talent, timing and luck - three other prerequisites are also required in any successful career - a large part of the Beatles' success, and thereby Paul McCartney's, can be put down to the fact that the boys worked with first-rate people from the start. Naive though he was, Brian Epstein was an honest and devoted manager. Add to that, George Martin who was intelligent, sophisticated and cultured. He is the sort of man about whom almost no one has a bad word to say, and he was an excellent record producer."

9) On Elvis: "In many ways, Elvis was an example of how not to conduct a career. Elvis' highest placed single in the US Billboard charts for 1965 was "Crying in the Chapel" that peaked at #3 in May, 1965. The Beatles, in the alternative, scored five US #1's in the same year { I Feel Fine (Jan.), Eight Days A Week (March), Ticket to Ride (May), HELP! (Sept.) and Yesterday (Oct.) }

10) On Lovely Rita: "This slight work inspired by the experience of being given a parking ticket by a traffic warden named Meta Davis." *cool trivia that.

11) Paul visits with The Jefferson Airplane in late Spring, 1967: "To Marty Balin's eyes, the visiting Paul McCartney looked very square. The musicians showed Paul around the trippy Haight-Ashbury distric - he took many pictures - then invited him back to their house. 'Well, what's new with the Beatles?' Balin asked. In reply, Paul took a tape from his pocket and played A Day In The Life. Not so square! 'Holy Christ! This is Amazing. I totally, literally did not know what to say, except Fuckin Great!!! I just couldn't believe it . . . .' having reduced his American friend to a jibbering wreck, Paul replaced the tape nonchalantly in his pocket and sauntered on his way."

12) On teaching Mary Hopkins how to sing Those Were The Days: " ' I kept showing her the way she should sing it and generally working on it and suddenly she got it . . . .' said Paul, who instinctively felt he knew best. *He didn't like her interpretation of the song so he insisted she sing it HIS way. As with Badfinger, he was right again. When Mary Hopkins sang the song Paul's way, it went to #1 in 13 countries."

Paul with Mary Hopkins, 1968.

13) The White Album: "The White Album is a boldly, unapologetically ambitious and arty record. Gone are the corny songs of Beatlemania, The Beatles were now men making mature, reflective music, the quantity and variety of which sets the White Album apart as one of their greatest achievements." (*Comment: I couldn't have said it better myself. )

14) On Yoko: "Then John suggested Yoko dub a backing vocal - instead of Paul. McCartney gave John a look of total disbelief and then walked away in disgust. Before long, Yoko was in the control room, venting her opinion on what they'd recorded so far. ' Well, it's pretty good,' she told George Martin of one take of Revolution, 'but I think it should be played a bit faster.' A LINE had been crossed. John was allowing this strange little woman, with whom he'd become infatuated, to enter into and meddle with a band that, aside from small disagreements, had hitherto been four friends united against the world. It was a SHOCKING breach of eitquette. 'It just spoiled everything,' lamented Tony Bramwell, who blames Yoko ultimately for the break-up of the band. 'Yoko was the exacerbation in the studio that caused the split between all of them. George called her the witch; Ringo hated her; Paul couldn't understand why somebody would being their wife to work.' " (*Comment: Bizarrely, Paul would do just that for the duration of his band Wings dragooning Linda into the band for 10 full years.)

15) On Paul and Linda Eastman: "The couple formed a tight unit that mirrored John and Yoko. Apart from being his lover, Linda also had the makings of a steadfast lieutenant in the Beatles wars. 'She watched his back,' Peter Brown said. 'She was very, very vigilant in watching his back, totally and utterly loyal and looked after his needs domestically and in every other way . . . .' Another quality Paul appreciated was that, having come from money, Linda didn't seem interested in his wealth. She preferred the simple life, as he did too, to a degree. Both were relaxed about sex. They told each other everything about their past (*trust me, there was a lot to tell from both). Linda dug rock and roll in a way Jane Asher never had, and unlike Jane, this American Girl wasn't uptight about drugs. And, she was more than ready to settle down with a man who could look after her and her daughter Heather. "

Paul and Linda on their wedding day, March 12, 1969.

16) On suing his fellow Beatles: "The McCartneys were still in L.A. when, on March 12, 1971, Justice Stamp (the judge) ruled in Paul's favor at the High Court of London. Stating, in part, 'The appointment of ABKCO (Klein's company), without the concurrence of Paul, was, in my opinion a breach of the terms of the Partnership Deed.' There was no evidence that Klein had actually stolen money from the Beatles, but he had received excessive commisions (Comment: the excessively high commisions were uncovered by Paul's tireless forensic examination of Apple and ABKCO's books.) and McCartney had grounds to distrust the American, whose statements read 'like the irresponsible patter of a second-rate salesman.' Under the terms of the Partnership Act, the judge appointed an accountant named James Douglas Spooner, to manage the Beatles' affairs until a full hearing on the issue dissolving the partnership took place. McCartney conducted his case well, with the help of a first-class legal team, showing himself to be a formidable courtroom adversary, one whom judges tended to side with in the future, appreciated his sensible, civil responses to difficult situations."

17) More from accountant James Spooner: "James Spooner therefore became the Beatles' new court-appointed manager, though his role was strictly that of a disinterested professional, not a pop svengali. He didn't move into Apple either, rather staying at his desk in the City of London. Spooner got along well with Paul, the little he saw of him, and tended to agree with McCarntey's view that Allen Klein was a crook, while the accountant considered John Lennon simply impossible. ' John Lennon was a popular hero, a brilliant man, but terribly tiresome' he observed likewise declaring McCartney was correct to sue his band mates. 'They'd have been bust otherwise. The others foolishly took on this crook called Klein as a manager and Klein firstly ripped them off something shocking, by taking a percentage of the GROSS rather that off the NET, after expenses.' Sir (Spooner was later knighted) Spooner conceded that KLein negotiated an adventageous royalty deal with EMI, 'the percentage that the Beatles were getting out of EMI was FAR higher than ANYBODY had ever achieved before (Comment: and jusifiably so, considering it was the Beatles) but the trouble was that Klein, as I say, took his cut before any expenses of any sort or tried to. If Paul hadn't sued the Beatles, the band would have drowned in debt. ' "

18) Tony Bramwell on Paul: "When Paul asked Tony Bramwell what he thought of London Town, he didn't like the answer he got. "I said, "Well, it'll be all right when it's finished." Paul replied, 'What the f*ck do you know? I f**king brought you down from Liverpool.' Is what he used to say in the old days at Apple, to Peter Brown and others when he was pissed off. Bramwell was not given the job of promoting London Town and the men didn't speak for over ten years."

19) The Eastman's renegotiate Paul's deal with CBS: "In signing with CBS, he had recently been given a sweetner; the Frank Music Catalogue. The deal made Paul the owner of the works of Frank Loesser, American author of Guys and Dolls, and added to a publishing portfolio that included the Buddy Holly songbook, the rights to a raft of hit shows including Annie, Hello-Dolly!, and A Chorus Line, which were all earning the star big money."

20) On Give My Regards to Broad Street: "All told, this celluloid misadventure had been a calamitous mistake, one which Paul would excise from his CV, hardly ever referring to it and according to Webb,( Peter Webb, the director) refusing permission for its DVD release in the UK. Unfortunately, as David Puttnam (Producer)observed, Paul didn't possess the will to make that extra effort, preferring to get by on talent. It is a character flaw that has marred his entire career."

21) On the Press to Play LP: "As work on Press to Play dragged on month after month, Hugh (Padgham, record producer who produced LPs for Phil Collins and the Police) discovered what other producers had before him: he couldn't tell Paul anything. Also, Paul's charm wore off. Years ago Paul hardly talked about the Beatles at all. Nowadays, he told the same old Beatle Stories again and again, until they were frankly boring, and nobody had the courage to tell him he was repeating himself. Also, he seemed obsessed with what the public thought of him in relation to John Lennon. As well, Paul's penchant for smoking dope meant that recording a McCartney album could drift on almost indefinitely."

22) On being a Beatle: "Most people couldn't behave normally around a Beatle. John and Paul had chosen as their partners gutsy women who treated them as normal people. Yoko, Linda and Heather (Mills) were all three a match for their dominant, wilful partners. John and Paul had become so famous, so rich and so powerful that they were inevitably slightly monstrous. They were only comfortable with equally monstrous women."

23) On divorcing Heather Mills: "The gothic towers of the Royal Courts of Justice were cloaked in London fog as Sir Paul McCartney was driven down the Strand on Monday 11 Feb. 2008. Sir Paul ordered his driver to take him round the back way. He was familiar with the building. It is where he came in 1971 to sue his fellow Beatles. . . . . Justice Bennet read his 58 page judgement aloud to the McCartneys. The headline result was that Sir Paul should pay Lady McCartney a lump sum of 16.5 Million Pounds ($25.2 M U.S.) meaning that, with the wealth she had acquired during their marriage, the charity worker would walk away with cash and assets worth $37.1 M U.S., which was $100 Million less that she'd asked for. " (*Comment: Paul went on a subsequent compacted world tour which, as the book laughingly points out, paid for the entire divorce with change to spare!)

Blogsters, I am truly, merely scratching the surface here with this awesome book. Do yourselves a favor and grab it, you won't be sorry. You all trust me by now, don't you??

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks Band) Find us and more great blogs at www.beatletracksband.com

The Beatles: Ultimate Album-by-Album Guide

BeatleTracks — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:47:31 GMT

Once again blogsters, the Rolling Stone Magazine has published a Special Edition issue ( August 2011)dedicated to The Beatles. This Special Issue is a compendium of all the Beatles' original UK LPs with comments, critiques and some very cool trivia that your humble correspondent will share with you. Let's see what was so "special" about it:

There is alot to like in this issue. In truth however, there isn't a lot that's all that new or revelatory either. What I liked about it were the short essays/short stories by a number of special guests such as Steve Van Sandt and Graham Nash. It does walk the reader through the history of the Beatles UK LPs and intererstingly has a section at the end of the issue dealing with all the non-LP singles. One of the coolest aspects of this issue is the very last page: it features a whole list of stats concerning the Beatles sales, chart positioning and such. We're also treated to some extremely rare photos that even I haven't seen before. All in all, it's fun and enjoyable to read through, just don't expect any new and shocking revelations.

Here now, a few of my favorite passages from the body of the text:

1) Reviewing "Money" from "With The Beatles:" "Playing multiple live sets night after night, the Beatles developed a knack for personalizing and overhauling other artist's hits. Harrison remembered encounering Barret Strong's original while browsing in manager Brian Epstein's NEMS record store; the band gave it a Merseybeat spin and added it to the live show. The third Motown cover on this album, the song has a lock-step rhythm, providing the perfect support for Lennon's delightfully loose lead vocal - as well as McCartney's near delirious upper-register harmony."

2) "A Completely New Thing" by Steven Van Zandt: . . . . . "Then we all saw them on The Ed Sullivan Show. They were original-looking and - sounding, intelligent young kids, well versed. But what we were mostly responding to was the fact that it was a band, which was a completely new thing to my generation. Before the Beatles, there was no such thing as a rock & roll band."

*Your correspondent found this particular quote fascinating. Consider that the Beach Boys were already out and had some hits. But other than them, there really weren't "bands" as such running around. It was all about Pat Boone, Fabian, Bobby Rydel and other solo singers at the time. It took The Beatles to hammer the "band" concept home to kids like Van Zandt. Vincent Furnier (aka Alice Cooper) was just one more kid (of thousands) who watched the Beatles spectacle on The Ed Sullivan Show and decided then and there; that's what they all wanted to do - be in a band.

3) "A Hard Day's Night" Review: "By the beginning of 1964, 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and 'She Loves You' were mammoth international hits, and Beatlemania was an out of control missle. Says George Harrison in The Beatles Anthology -'In 1964, we seemed to fit a week into every day.' The Beatles weren't just musical stars - they were telegenic and willing to do whatever it took to promote themselves. The logical next step was to do what Elvis Presley had done years earlier, and make a movie - and with a movie, of course, there would be a soundtrack."

4) "Garage Band Pop" by Stephen Malkmus: . . . . . . . "There's alot of group singing on A Hard Day's Night (LP), which makes the vocals really powerful. Later, their sound became more solo voices with backing vocals, not singing all together at once. The Beatles were a vocal group first and foremost, and pop is about vocals in the end - and they were a pop band, even if they were defining what a pop band could be in a rock & roll context."

5) Reviewing the song "HELP!" : "Never has such a brilliant batch of songs emanated from such a scattershot movie. The working title of the Richard Lester -directed movie was Eight Arms to Hold You, but after it was changed, Lennon wrote this song in his new home in Weybridge, England. 'I was crying out for help,' Lennon told Playboy in 1980 about this frenetically poppy ode to fear and alienation. 'I was singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was.' "

6) Reviewing the song "Yesterday:" "McCartney spent nearly two years with this melody rattling around in his head until it finally snapped into place during a trip to Portugal in May, 1965. Weeks later, he entered the studio without the rest of the band and cut the song in just two takes. Later that day, George Martin dubbed in a string quartet. In 2001, McCartney revealed to Rolling Stone that he resents the fact that Yesterday gets credited to Lennon & McCartney, when Lennon played no role in the creation of the song."

7) "When Anything Was Possible" by Wayne Coyne: "I can't imagine what my life would be without the Beatles. . . . . You can't underestimate how druggy and original and mind-blowing "Tomorrow Never Knows" is. If a new group did that today, you'd say, 'F***, that's Amazing!! ' To think that it was the Beatles, and it was 1966 -something like that is so timelessly wicked, it's just uncanny."

8) General text review of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP: "After the 1966 Tour, the Beatles went on hiatus, for the first and last time of their career. On November 24th, the band members reconvened at EMI's Abbey Road studios in London. In the months since their final concert, they had in fact considered disbanding, but ultimately they were excited by the creative opportunities that studio time now afforded them. John Lennon had written a song during the break, "Strawberry Fields Forever," which was full of odd, disjointed lyrical and structural associations, and it grabbed all of the band instantly - it was a new direction. The Beatles worked on it for weeks - which they had never done before - and in the end, they created something haunting and abstract, as well as the single greatest leap forward in popular music history."

9) Review of "A Day In The Life:" "Sgt. Pepper's epic closing song features some of Martin's most awe-inspiring studio sculpture - those dizzy orchestral crescendos, that endlessly reverberating final chord. It's arguably the greatest song the Lennon/McCartney team truly wrote together. They describe morning routines that might as well be taking place on separate planets: Lennon drowns in spaced-out dread as he pages listlessly through a newspaper, McCartney rolls out of bed and hops on a bus wearing an audible grin. That contrast captures the essence of their creative partnership - why it was so special, and why it couldn't last."

Cool Trivia: Regarding "Cry Baby Cry" from the White Album, Lennon apparently began this recording borrowing from a nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence." It was at this session that engineer Geoff Emerick quit due to the tension and arguing going on. Finally, Lennon cribbed the key lyric of this tune from a TV add no less that went like this, "Cry, baby cry, make your mother buy."

Beatles by the Numbers:

A) LP with most weeks on the Charts: 1) Sgt. Pepper (175 weeks!!!) 2) White Album (155 weeks!)

Most Guest Musicians: 85 on Magical Mystery Tour

C) LP that spent the most weeks at #1: 15 -Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band *that's in the US; it spent 22 weeks at #1 in the UK! Nearly half the year.

D) Total Record Sales as of 2004: 1.3 BILLION

There was much more to this issue but you get the idea. It's a fun compendium. Considering the vast archives that the Rolling Stone magazine has including pivotal interviews, this special issue could have been even more fascinating. But as it is, it's great fun.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us and more great blogs at www.beatletracksband.com

Helen Shapiro and The Beatles

BeatleTracks — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:45:34 GMT

50 years ago this summer, Helen Shapiro was one of the biggest acts in the UK, and she was 14 years old. She became even bigger in the next couple of years, so much so that the Beatles opened for her! Lest she be forgotten to the dust bin of pop history, we briefly remember Ms. Shapiro here today.

Helen Shapiro pictured above with legenday empresario Ed Sullivan in October, 1962 when she starred on his popular variety show; 1.5 years before the Beatles rocked the western hemisphere on the same show.

We draw today from a great article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal music section by Marc Myers, July 27, 2011.

Helen Shapiro (b. Sept. 28, 1946) possessed a low, mezzo-soprano voice that resulted in a sultry, soulful delivery and in the process catapulted her to the top of the UK charts back in the early 1960s. Earlier this very year, EMI released a gorgeous retrospective called "The Ultimate Helen Shapiro," a three disc CD collection featuring 90 tracks of music celebrating her career.

While having two UK #1 hits for herself, the so-called "British Invasion" took over pop music, rolling over the United States like a musical tsunami lead by the Beatles themselves. In the process, Ms. Shapiro was left behind. With her trademark "beehive" hairdo, extremely young face and a Jewish last name she refused to change, Helen's ability to penetrate the US market faltered when compared to the long, cool, mature female pop stars like Petula Clark (Downdown) and Dusty Springfield (Wishin' and Hopin') that were joining in the Brit Invasion and helping the Fabs and other British bands sweep the US charts. Slightly after the first wave of Brits came other British females such as Lulu and Cilla Black who did well too.

Helen Shapiro formed her first band at the age of 10 in 1956 (your correspondent's birth year) which was very progressive for a gal in those days. Joining in were a cousin and some friends including a one Mark Feld, later to become a glam rock sensation as "Marc Bolan and T-Rex" in the early 1970's. After winning a number of talent contests, Ms. Shapiro finally got a more formal musical education at the Maurice Burman School of Modern Pop Singing in 1959. At the Maurice school Helen learned the fundamentals of mic technique, clear enunciation while singing, carrying oneself on the stage to say nothing of proper singing technique.

1960- 61: Helen is signed to Columbia Records on a six month contract. She recorded "Don't Treat Me Like A Child" in January of 1961. Together with a timely appearance on a British TV show, the song shot up the charts where it peaked at #3. Not bad for a 14 year old. Her follow up song was "You Don't Know" that was released in June that hit #1 in August selling 500,000 copies. Not surprisingly, Helen became tabloid fodder due in large part to her good looks and extremely young age. She finally dropped out of high school at the age of 15, at the end of 1961.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, she released her third single in September of 1961 called "Walkin Back to Happiness." Yet another smash #1 hit that topped the UK charts in October. This song became her signature hit. In the US, "Walkin' Back To Happiness" peaked at #100 on the Billboard Charts.

1962: Ms. Shapiro's next single was released called "Tell Me What You Said." This tune stalled at #2 in March of 1962. At this point management felt teen rock films were the order of the day so she was cast in two forgettable teen movies. Helen did a hugely successful "World Tour" that included Australia, New Zealand, Canada and finished up with the before mentioned appearance on the "The Ed Sullivan Show" in October. As Helen herself admitted, "Being on the show was a big deal, but it didn't have that big of an impact. Before the Beatles, British acts on American TV were thought of mostly as music hall." Ms. Shapiro's final top 10 hit in the UK (the only song she recorded to ever chart in the US was Walkin' Back To Happiness ) was the ballad "Little Miss Lonely" that peaked at #8.

1963: Finally, a UK tour was organized for Helen. This tour was arranged for February through March and it featured five other acts including the Beatles, who were billed dead last. That is to say, the Beatles were the first act on stage essentially opening for everyone else, including Helen Shapiro. Says Helen, "I had a big crush on John, but he was secretly married at the time and we all knew but had to keep quiet about it."

With Lennon, that old smoothie.

When "Tell Me What You Said" failed to get to #1, it was an omen of things to come for Ms. Shapiro, although she nor anyone else knew it at the time. Her career was already on the way down. First, John and Paul had written a song expressly for her called "Misery," but Columbia turned the tune down flat and wouldn't allow her to even record it. The real shocker came about mid-way through the tour when the Beatles' own "Please Please Me" hit #1 in several UK charts. *(Back then, there were 5 major British Pop Charts. The most important being Record Retailer. The Beatles topped the other four, but only got to #2 on Record Retailer and thus, Please Please Me has never been considered a true #1 for the Beatles. Add to that, while it is hard to imagine now, the Beatles had barely been out of Merseyside at that point except for the slave driving Hamburg shows. They were still largely unknown to the UK, yet promoter Arthur Howes liked the look of them and sneaked them into the Shapiro tour as an afterthought). The sudden star power of a #1 hit immediately put the Beatles on equal status with Helen Shapiro. By the end of the tour, the Beatles were getting as much applause and screaming as Helen Shapiro.

"Helen was the star," says Ringo. "She had the telly in her dressing room and we didn't have one. We had to ask her if we could watch hers. We weren't getting packed houses, but we were on the boards, man."

When the tour ended, the Beatles went their way and Helen went hers; off to Nashville, Tenn. as it turned out. She was there to make her next LP with saxophonist Boots Randolph and the Jordanaires, Elvis' backing vocal group. One song stood out above the rest from these sessions, it was called "It's My Party." It concerned a girl's tearful hurt over a cheating boyfriend. Once again Columbia record executives butted in and refused to release this song as a single, deeming it too bratty and juvenile. This decision prooved to be a career breaker for Helen. The judgemental mistake proved to be onerous. The singer Leslie Gore recorded a cover version which shot to #1 on the coveted US Billboard charts. Helen handled the screw up with dignity and grace saying Gore's version was much better than hers anyway. If you say so Helen. The next highest charting song for Helen Shapiro ever, was 1963's "Queen For Tonight" that peaked at #33 in the UK.

After 1963: The Beatles, as we know, shot ever higher from that point on and haven't landed yet as far as your humble correspondent is concerned. Helen's career slowly fizzled in the wake of the British Invasion and the Beatles mega-stardom. She continued to record, appeared on stage in the West End, sang with jazz players and even managed to tour the world with her music. In 1987, she became a Messianic Jew -viewing Jesus as the Messiah, after which she released several popular gospel albums. The last single Helen released was 1967's "Stop and You Will Become Aware" - it completely failed to chart.

God Bless, Helen. Best Wishes from BeatleTracks and all the Beatle fans world wide.

By John Haberstroh (bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us and more great blogs at www.beatletracksband.com

The Beatles' "Taxman" - A Closer Look

BeatleTracks — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:06:31 GMT

For the first and only time as a Beatle, George Harrison got the nod for the opening song on an album. As it turned out, "Taxman" opened the seminal Beatles' LP "Revolver" and it was a barn burner. Let's see how it shaped up . . . .

Above: George Harrison with wife Patti in that oh-so groovy mid 1966 Mod, Swinging London look.

We draw again today from "Recording the Beatles," by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, Curvebender Press, 2008.

April 21, 1966: The Beatles got down to work on George Harrison's latest offering, an ascerbic commentary on the oppressive tax situation in Great Britain. This was no joke; in their income bracket, the Beatles were obliged to hand over 95% of their income to the Tax Service. It was a crushing tax debacle for the well heeled at the time. The "Revolver" sessions were well underway and mid-period Beatlemania was still at a fever pitch. This song represented one of Harrison's early major compositions and it was a winner through and through.

The band recorded 11 takes of the rhythm track that consisted of electric guitars and Ringo and Paul's lockstep drum/bass backing. All of this was recorded onto Track 1. Take 11 was deemed "best." After this, George double tracked his lead vocal onto Tracks 3 and 4 while John and Paul added backing harmonies. Onto Track 2 Ringo added tambourine while John and Paul contributed some lightning-fast backing vocals consisting of the phrase "Anybody got a bit of Money." *this early backing vocal, that was eventually NOT used can be heard on the Anthology 2 disc. On the same track, Paul added a blistering lead guitar solo played on his Epiphone guitar. Says Paul, "George let me have a go for that solo because I had an idea. I was trying to persuade George to do something -feedbacky and crazy. And I was showing him what I wanted, and he said, 'Well you do it.' Even though it was his song, he was happy for me to do it." Harrison apparently agreed; "I was pleased to have Paul play that bit on 'Taxman.' If you notice, he did like a little indian bit on it for me."

Following this overdub, all four tracks were full, and the song was virtually complete.

April 22, 1966: Returning to the studio the next day, the band all agreed the song needed more polishing. In particular, they wanted to scrap the scat singing part ("anybody got a bit of money") and lambaste the Prime Ministers recently and currently in power: Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. (Your humble correspondent jumps in here and admits that, if not for this song, who outside the UK would know, remember or care who was Prime Minister in those years??) A reduction mix was called for so that a new, open track could be available for the new backing vocals. Thus, during the reduction mix, George Harrison's lead vocals from Tracks 3 and 4 were bounced down onto one new track. He was still double tracked, but the actual sounds of his voice were now on one new track instead of two tracks. Since there was music being played on the original Track 2 along with the "anybody got a bit of money" vocals; the fix here consisted of leaving that basic track as it was but the "anybody got a bit of money" vocal lines were turned way down along with some of Paul's 6 string guitar work. With one track now totally open and available, the boys recorded the now famous, "Ha Ha, Mister Wilson . . . . . Ha Ha Mr. Heath" lines. They also took the opportunity to add cowbell here as a last minute inclusion.

Sir Edward Heath.

The recording process shook out like this:

Take 11:

Track 1: Drums, Bass guitar, Electric 6 string guitar
Track 2: Tambourine, "bit of money . . ." scat vocals, more Electric guitar
Track 3: Lead and Backing Vocals
Track 4: Lead and Backing Vocals

Take 12: (reduction mix)

Track 1: Drums, Bass guitar, Electric guitar
Track 2: Tambourine, Electric guitar
Track 3: All Lead and Backing Vocals (bounced onto this one track)
Track 4: New "Ha Ha Mr. Wilson . . . " backing vocals and cowbell overdubs

Mixing: The song was now almost complete. The band was dissatisfied with the ending of the tune and it was decided to add a copy of Paul's blistering lead solo as an outro to the piece. This was done in short order and the song was complete to everyone's satisfaction.

I find it amazing how the entire band had a built in, instinctive "quality control" feel to all of their work. This song typifies their work ethic. Any other artist would have been proud and satisfied with the work completed on the first day and only the first day. But not the Beatles; they had to keep polishing and re-polishing until this song, like all of their songs, were elevated to classic music status. Such is the nature of the group genius on display in this band. All artists must also know when to stop. They have to know when and where the last stroke of a brush occurs; the last chisle stroke; the last word in a book or in the Beatles' case - the last note and overdub. Clearly, this band always knew that too.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us and more great blogs at www.beatletracksband.com

The Beatles Recording Process: 1966

BeatleTracks — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:27:13 GMT

Onward and upward for the Fabs as their meteoric career continued to reach new heights. For some of the sessions for REVOLVER, the band opted to record in the cavernous Studio 3 for a change of pace. That wasn't the only change on the menu . . . . . .

We draw again today from "Recording the Beatles," by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, Curvebender Press, 2008.

"We spent hours getting drum, bass and guitar sounds, then balancing them and then doing the take. That was in effect a backing track and then we later added overdubs. Nowadays you can overdub individually with each person having his own channel to record on. Then, we'd have to think of all the instrumental overdubs, say, a guitar coming in on the second verse and a piano in the middle and then a tambourine. And we'd routine all of that, get the sound and the balance and the mix and do it as one performance. And if one person got it wrong we'd have to back up and do the entire overdub of all the parts again," says George Harrison.

Probably due to scheduling conflicts, but also in an effort to change their surroundings a bit, the Beatles decided to record some of the music for their next LP (Revolver) in the spacious surroundings of Studio 3 at Abbey Road Studios. For those of you who forgot, Abbey Road had/has three main studios with each increasing in size: Studio 1 is the smallest and most intimate; Studio 2 is famed for having had the bulk of the Beatles' recording done there. Medium sized with the famous staircase going up to the control room as seen in countless pictures of the band over the years; Studio 3 is by far the biggest and can literally hold an entire 60 piece orchestra with room to spare. It was in this gigantic room the Beatles made a number of recordings for REVOLVER.

A closer look at the recording log books from REVOLVER shows that the Beatles only held 9 of the album's 32 tracking days in Studio 3. The rest of the sessions were held in the far more familiar Studio 2. Nevertheless, it was a unique experience for the band and as it turned out, the most revolutionary tune on this spectral album, Tomorrow Never Knows, was the first recording done for the LP and it started in Studio 3.

When the band convened on April 6, 1966 to start the first session for this album, it was discovered that Studio 3 did NOT have a four-track Studer recording desk installed yet. Weird, since Studio 2 had had a 4 track recording desk for over a year already. It was suggested that the band use a remote Studer four-track from Studio 1A. As Geoff Emerick explains, "But because of the difficulties of recording "Tomorrow Never Knows" with the backward things and so forth, where you had to communicate with an intercom to tell the Tape Op to drop in - which was ridiculous - we requested that the four-track machine be brought right into the control room (of studio 3)." As usual, because it was the Beatles making the request; they the band of unparalleled success and dizzying heights of musical accomplishment, the studio techs were encouraged to meet the demands of the group. With no other artist did this ever happen. By the following day's sessions, Studio 3 had it's own Studer four-track recording desk fully installed.

Headphones: Perhaps the most obvious change in the studio for 1966 was the use by the Beatles of headphones during the recording process. Bizarrely, before 1966, there was no official form of monitoring one's recordings. For the Beatles, it had simply been a matter of listening to what could be heard in the ambient sounds of the studio itself. Go look at all the pictures of the Beatles in the studio before 1966; you will never see any of them wearing headphones. The Beatles would stand next to a monitor speaker in the studio, usually the "white elephant" monitor and when it came time to record overdubs, the previously recorded material would come through the monitor speaker with the band staying close to that speaker listening to already tracked sounds while they overdubbed new sounds.

But, starting with these Revolver Sessions, the band took a leap forward and started using headphones. There were several obvious advantages to this: 1) It eliminated any possible speaker leakage that might occur during overdubbing as just described. 2) It also meant that ALL vocals could now be recorded with the microphones set to cardiod, except certain backing vocals. 3) Each Beatle was being fed an identical mix of the pre-recorded material as well as their new instumental and vocal additions. When recording basic takes, they could hear each other more clearly regardless of where they might have been standing in the studio. 4) Finally, each band member could hear the live performance they were giving as an overdub AFTER the sounds had passed through the Altec compressors and Fairchild limiters thus allowing each player to hear more of what the "recorded" version of their contribution sounded like. Neverthelss, these early headphone sessions were nowhere near as sophisticated as today's studios are but, the technology was a big leap forward at the time.

Emerick and the Fairchild: Uber engineer Geoff Emerick had perhaps his biggest impact on Ringo's drums. Norman Smith, the Beatles orginal engineer had almost always recorded the drums, bass and guitars through the RS124 Altec Compressor. Geoff had discovered that he rather preferred the Fairchild 660 on the drum kit. "Revolver was the first time we put the drums through Fairchild limiters," says Emerick, "and that was just one example of the things that the other Abbey Road engineers used to hate. Because they had done it a certain way for so many years, so why change it?"

Interestingly though, "You Won't See Me" - recorded by Norman Smith duing the very last tracking session for the band's previous LP "Rubber Soul" almost certainly bears a distinctive sound of drums being recorded through a Fairchild. Note how those drum sounds don't sound anything like the rest of the drums on that album! "It became the sound of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper really," says Emerick. "Drums had never been heard like that before." How you ask? The fast acting Fairchild squashed the drum signal more strongly and in a distinctly different way than the Altec resulting in a more effected, less natural drum sound. "The more the bass drum came through," continues Emerick, "the more the Fairchild would knock the other drums back. If Ringo hit a cymbal at the same time you'd get this whooshing, sucking noise of the limiter returning." The Beatles, not surprisingly, LOVED the effect and it would remain a standard element of their recordings for the rest of their career.

There you have it blogsters, just a few more of the inner secrets that made the Beatles sound as good as they did. Simply amazing and all done on old fashioned analog gear. See you next time.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

The Beatles' "Paperback Writer" - A Closer Look

BeatleTracks — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:12:37 GMT

This was the fourth tune recorded during the Beatles' "Revolver" sessions and was eventually released as an A-side single (with "RAIN" on the B side) and not placed on the LP. Yet another smash #1 hit for the band. As well, there were some very interesting things going on in the studio for this hit, let's see what happened . . . . .

We draw again from "Recording the Beatles," by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Curvebender Press, 2008.

In fact, the "Paperback Writer/RAIN" single was the only non-LP single by the Beatles in 1966. But it was unique in that it was the first Beatles song NOT to talk about love or relationships and it featured rock and roll's greatest rhythm section; that of Paul McCartney on bass and Ringo Starr on drums recording great parts at one of their most creative peaks. Noted here is Paul's stunning "lead" bass performace. By this time, mid 1966, McCartney was using his relatively new Rickenbacker 4001S bass guitar for practically every recording session.

The "Paperback Writer/RAIN" single was released on June 10, 1966. 27 weeks had elapsed since their last 45 rpm single release of "Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out" in November, 1965. *those two interestingly were released as a rare double A sided single, both of which got to #1. This new single was to give fans their first glimpse of the Beatles' new sound direction. As for the original master plan by George Martin and Brian Epstein for the Fabs to continue releasing four singles/two albums per year like some kind of clockwork: forget it, right out the window did that plan go. "PW/R" sold the least of any Beatles single in the UK since "Love Me Do." No matter, it still sailed to the top of the charts. But more importantly, those two new songs could only have fit snugly onto the "Revolver" album; they wouldn't have fit in with any of the Beatles' previous LPs and with good reason; the band and its music were changing and evolving so rapidly at this point.

The band recorded the song fairly quickly; at the end of one session and the beginning of the following session. Very interestingly, it was John and Paul on the 6 string guitar parts, with Paul of course on bass, Ringo's sterling drumming and George on tambourine. Everything except bass were stuffed onto Track 1. As for vocals, Paul's lead vocal with John and George's backing vocals were all double tracked onto tracks 3 & 4. The bass was crucial on this tune so the remaining empty track, Track 2 was dedicated to just Paul's bass riff. Tape operator Phil McDonald took detailed notes for these sessions which help us now, recreate the situation 45 years later.

1st Attempt to fill Track 2: Paul played his bass riff while George Martin played the Challen "Jangle Box" piano through a Leslie speaker. McDonald noted that the bass was severely limited and compressed and then it was sent through a bass cut filter with additional filters after that.

Additional overdubs: Paul came up with the idea to add in the Frere Jacques backing vocal pattern later in the second session for this song and actually played it for John and George. Several more attempts were made to perfect the vocals and the bass. Note the drums were fine from the get go.

5th attempt: This is what is heard on the final recording: the magnificent bass line, the Frere Jacques backing vocals and George Martin did not appear on this take nor on the final record. George Harrison added some additional guitar work which is why it shows up in the final mix on Track 2.

Final Tracking line up:

Track 1: Drums, electric guitars, Tambourine
Track 2: Bass guitar, electric guitar, backing vocals
Track 3: Lead and Backing Vocals
Track 4: Lead and Backing Vocals

Note how heavily tracked all the voices were on this recording.

Final mixing included the a capella vocal intro (all other instruments were turned off on the mixing board for this) as well as heavy repeat echo added to word "writer" that is purposely slowed down on the mono versions but not the stereo.

Trivia: As for Paul's bass, engineer Geoff Emerick used one of the large white "elephant" speaker cabs rewired as a huge microphone to pick up Paul's bass. This unique approach created a bass sound unlike anything ever recorded before. In trying to match the level of bass heard on American records, Geoff Emerick became very aggressive with his use of compression and filtering. As a result, Paul's bass guitar sounds began leaping off the record grooves and much of this mentality started with this and the song "RAIN."

*Interestingly, Emerick had just come over from disc cutting to engineering so, unlike previous engineers, he knew how much bass could REALLY be stuffed onto a record and in the process flounted all of EMI's precious rules about disc cutting, lowering the bass and keeping the records sedate sounding. When word got out about what Emerick was up to, workers gathered around the mastering room and were awestruck by the sounds he was getting for this new single. EMI was, predictably, not happy with the rule breakage but again caved knowing it was the Beatles. And the Beatles had a reputation for breaking every rule EMI had ever set up, with stunning results!!

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

McCartney Rocks the Space Shuttle

BeatleTracks — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:48:12 GMT

Today, July 15, 2011 Paul McCartney's pre-recorded voice beamed up to the the Space Shuttle "Atlantis", the last NASA Space Shuttle that will ever fly a mission. "Good morning guys!" McCartney said in the message previously pre-recorded for the final space shuttle crew. "Wake up! And good luck on this, your last mission. Well done!"

McCartney’s wakeup call came at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, 30 minutes later than Atlantis’ crew had been scheduled to wake up. It was delayed to give the crew time to make up sleep they lost over the course of the night due to a failure of one of the shuttle’s five general purpose computers. Moments later, the fan favorite "Good Day Sunshine" began playing to the crew. I can't think of a better way to wake up in the moring after A Hard Day's Night!

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

The Beatles "Girl;" A Closer Look

BeatleTracks — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:36:47 GMT

"Girl" was the very last song recorded for the Beatles' seminal "Rubber Soul" LP. In some ways, it was John's answer to Paul's "Michelle." Let's check out the recording process . . . . . .

We draw again today from "Recording the Beatles," by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, Curvebender Press, 2008.

This song was obviously far more sparse than Paul's "Michelle," nevertheless, it remains a fan favorite to this day. Your humble correspondent saw Todd Rundgren backed up by Joe Jackson a few years ago at the Delacourt Shakespear Theater in Central Park. Joe Jackson played 12 songs, one of which was this one.

George Martin remembers George Harrison using yet another new instrument on this song, It was another first for the Beatles, "George would tackle almost anything," Martin said. The instrument in question here was the bouzouki. Harrison said he had been given one while in Greece once. Harrison insists that he used it on "Girl." Paul McCartney does not seem to recall the use of the bouzouki on the track and has suggested that the distinctive guitar part was actually an acoustic guitar. Still, the sound captured on record sure sounds like a bouzouki. Both Georges insist that it was used.

Bouzouki

Two takes of the basic rhythm track were recorded on November 11, 1965. These consisted of drums, bass, acoustic guitar and the somewhat disputed bouzouki. Lennon then double tracked his vocal with backing from Paul and George on two more tracks. John's vocal was punctuated by sharp intakes of breath during the choruses. "My main memory is that John wanted to hear the breathing," said McCartney. "He wanted it to be very intimate, so George Martin put a special compressor on the voice, then John dubbed it." The last available track was filled with more of George Harrison's bouzouki. The final track listing are as follows:

Take 2:

Track 1: Drums, bass, acoustic guitar, bouzouki
Track 2: Bouzouki, acoustic guitar
Track 3: Lead vocal, backing vocals
Track 4: Lead vocal, backing vocals

Rubber Soul would begin a trend of late season classic rock LPs from the greatest band the world had ever seen. "Girl" was yet another of the great tracks from this great LP. To understand the Beatles, one cannot rely on any of the Greatest Hits compilations because one would miss hidden gems like this tune. It was another reason the Beatles were so great; their musical summation was so much more than their hit singles.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

The "NERK" Twins; at the Fox and Hounds

BeatleTracks — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:57:13 GMT

On April 14, 1969, John Lennon and Paul McCartney got together at the Abbey Road studios to record "The Ballad of John and Yoko" together as a duo. This was the second and final time the two performed or in this case, recorded, together as a duo. The only other time this happend was almost exactly 9 years earlier on April 23, 1960.

April 23, 1960: Taking a trip in between Quarrymen gigs and due to the Easter holidays, John and Paul took a short vacation to Paul's Uncle Mike and Aunti Bett's little pub located in Caversham, in the district of Berkshire. It was Uncle Mike who suggested that the two perform as a duo to livin things up in the sleepy little pub. The boys agreed to do so and Uncle Mike dubbed them "The Nerk Twins" for the evening as a joke.

Many other venues have received far more press such as: The Cavern Club in Liverpool, the Star Club in Hamburg and Shea Stadium in New York (now demolished) and all became actual landmarks in the folklore of the Beatles. But now a new shrine should to be added to the list: The Fox and Hounds in Caversham.

Strumming acoustic guitars and singing without microphones, the pre-fab duo sat on bar stools in the tiny tap room to perform a set that included an old Les Paul and Mary Ford hit, The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise, as well as Be Bop A Lula and other rock’n’roll and country standards. The boys followed up this fabulous concert the following lunchtime to the same incredible apathy from the locals.

Says Paul, "It was the smallest gig I’ve ever done. We were only playing to a roomful, a small, throbbing roomful.’ In fact, John and Paul made hand-made signs to advertise the event. If those signs were still around, they would fetch literally a fortune in the memorabelia market.

Beatles expert Bill Heckle, owner of The Cavern Club in Liverpool, said, ‘The Fox and Hounds is irrefutably a pub of huge historical significance. As the only venue ever to host a public performance by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it should be a world-famous pub. With proper investment it should become a destination for Beatles fans and general music fans."

There you have it Beatle Blogsters; another destination to add to your itinerary when you go treking across jolly old England taking in all the Beatles sites. Here's a rough map:

As one can see, the area is down south, near London town. The secret is out; get there now before it turns into a hotel!

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find more information at www.beatletracksband.com

The Beatles and "PROG" Rock

BeatleTracks — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:12:30 GMT

There has been a great deal of discussion about the Beatles' impact on the genre of so-called "Prog" rock; Progressive Rock. The difficulty lies in actually defining what Progressive Rock really means. Our book draw today tries to answer that question and in no uncertain terms credits the Beatles with inventing PROG Rock. Let's see what the author had to say about this . . . .

We draw today from the new book "Mountains Come Out of the Sky; The Illustrated History of Prog Rock," by Will Romano, Backbeat Books, 2010.

Romano wisely starts out attempting to define Prog rock. This all begins with an interesting Forward to the book by YES drummer Bill Bruford. I'll pull out a few quotes from Mr. Bruford here:

"As a subject for a doctoral theses and learned discussion, progressive rock has everything you need. A reasonably clearly defined begining and an end, with a peak 'golden period' followed by a slower decline and fall, a socioplotical context against which the music could be heard (the counterculture), and at least three major technological innovations in place to facilitate change (i-the long playing vinyl record, ii-stero 24-track recording, iii-FM radio). From Pink Floyd's wildly imaginative 1967 The Piper At The Gates of Dawn to ELP's horrific 1978 Love Beach; porgressive rock flew, like Icarus, too near to the sun, crashed, and burned. After a period of disgrace, a 1980's neo-progressive movement took hold in the charred sub-soil, to be followed by the current resurgence and re-evaluation - of which this book is a part."

The problem is, as the book suggests, every artist could technically be called progressive in their own ways. The term itself becomes meaningless after a time under that code: Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry right through to the immortal Jimi Hendrix could all be called progressive. If a band evolves, is it progressive for just evolving? Thus, the textbook definition of progressive rock in our discussion here would be thus: an artistic approach and expression to music that developed, initially in Great Britain, in the late 1960's and continued well into the 1970's that sought to fuse rock with different musical styles, usually of distinctly European origin - from classical to folk.

"To me, the first progressive rock band was the Beatles," says Ian McDonald, co-founder of King Crimson. "The dawn of so-called progressive rock, or the acorn, to me was the song 'Yesterday.' Just before this interview I pulled out my vinyl album of HELP!, to see what year that came out. It was 1965, and I was 19 years old, and I loved all kinds of music and I already loved the Beatles, and I had interests in jazz and classical, but I basically loved rock music and the Beatles in particular at the time. When I heard 'Yesterday,' a little lightbulb went off that told that something new was happening right now with this because of the use of a classical string quartet. It was not the first time strings had been used on a pop record - that goes way back to Gene Pitney and Buddy Holly . . . . . but there was something about the use of strings in that song that . . . . . had classical music influence and style and to me that was the dawn of progressive rock. The progressive era was happening just as the Beatles were breaking up, and that whole era of Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour basically gave new bands, at that time, license to do whatever they wanted."

The UK version of the Beatles HELP! LP. Quirky movie to be sure, but the soundtrack was anything but. Criminally underated to this day, HELP! contains fantastic music including the breakthrough Prog Rock (?) hit Yesterday.

Says Jon Anderson, lead singer of YES, "The Beatles opened up the doors for everybody."

"Dare I say the Beatles slip into prog rock a little bit with Sgt. Pepper's," says Ian Anderson, founder/vocalist/ main song writer for Jethro Tull. "Though somehow I can't bring myself to acknowledge that Paul McCartney, the master of the showbiz form, be let into that world inhabited by Pink Floyd and their successors to that progressive move in music." (Party pooper!)

"The Beatles led the way with Revolver," says Justin Hayward, guitarist and vocalist for the Moody Blues. "The Beatles are kind of responsible for a lot of musicians thinking that they . . . . . didn't have to fit their own music into a three minute format."

So it was Revolver that did it?????

"I remember hearing Sgt. Pepper's for the first time, and it is such a cliche', but when I was in college, a student in every room had the album on and was playing a different track." says 10cc's Kevin Godley. "It actually made me uncomfortable because the noises were unfamiliar. But after two day's exposure, it clicked in a mightly way. 'F*ck. This is it! Gimmie a piece of this!' It was so much more significant than anything. They broke the rules because they could. They dared. And he who dares, wins."

"I remember when we first heard Sgt. Pepper's," says Styx's original vocalist/keyboardist, Dennis DeYoung. "It was summer . . . and we ran out to get the record, because the Panozzo's parents had one of those Zenith console stereos in their living room. We sat there and it was hot and we listened to it over and over. It changed everything. It changed everything!"

So it was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band after all?! Your correspondent's favorite Beatle album by far, this one did set the music world on its collective ear. To be fair, there were other artists breaking out in a so-called progressive fashion around the same time; the Beach Boys, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Procol Harum, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Moody Blues, Jefferson Airplane to name a few. The heart of the issue is who seemed to set the tone and who kept it going. As usual, my vote goes to the Beatles and Yesterday is just one early example. One could point to the highly unusual fade-in of "Eight Days A Week." Or perhaps the radical chord selection in "It Won't Be Long" featuring D# Augmented/ F#7minor/G6/ among others that literally no one was doing at the time and few have attempted since, to say nothing of the chromatic outro that was another innovation at the time. All that in 1964. Or maybe the sheer volume of chord changes in a song like "I Should Have Known Better" featuring 11 chord changes, that again, nobody was coming remotely close to at the time or since. As Dylan said in 1964, "It's Outrageous!" of the Beatles' music.

An album like Sgt. Pepper was, in retrospect, a perfectly logical extension of the Beatles' perpetual progressiveness. And let's not forget that "Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane" should have been on that LP.

I've been listening to YES quite a bit lately featuring my other favorite bassist, Chris Squire. What a joy. And we can thank the Beatles, in part, for paving the way blogsters. Take Care until next time.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

Todd Rundgren Meets A Beatle

BeatleTracks — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:14:28 GMT

We're back in 1971 blogsters. Badfinger is desperately trying to wrap up their third studio LP, "Straight Up." George Harrison as well as legendary engineer Geoff Emerick are both working feverishly to finish the sessions and mixing of what would become Badfinger's greatest studio album. Then Ravi Shankar called with the horrific news from Bangladesh. That was the end of George Harrison's involvement with "Straight Up" as he was instantly consumed with organizing the first of the great rock charity concerts. Enter Todd Rundgren . . . .

Cover picture of Badfinger's 1971 classic LP, "Straight Up."

Today we draw from "A Wizard, A True Star," by Paul Myers; Jawbone Press, 2010

In the Fall of 1971, Todd Rundgren was offered the chance to finish off Badfinger's then new LP in the making, "Straight Up." Badfinger were comers, then known as a power-pop discovery by the Beatles themselves who had actually signed on to Apple Records. Terminally and forever compared to the Beatles, the bar was set extremely high for this band.

Todd was getting a reputation as literally a wizard in the studio who, as a performing artist himself, already had two albums released and one top 40 hit to his credit, "We Got To Get You A Woman." What Todd didn't know was that he was walking into an already deeply troubled production situation that had been ongoing for a year already at the time. Production of the LP had been attempted once already by legendary engineer Geoff Emerick. Emerick had actually finished the album but APPLE Co-President George Harrison stepped in and thought the LP could be improved and thus, more mixing, rehearsing and recording became the order of the day delaying the album for most of the rest of 1971. Out of nowhere in the summer of 1971, Ravi Shakar begged George to do something about the famine and flooding ravaging Bangladesh, so George simply walked out on the sessions. He did invite Badfinger to play as separate musicians at the legendary Concert for Bangladesh on August 1, which they all did.

Apple's U.S. label manager, Al Steckler, in utter desperate need for a crack fill-in producer who could work fast, on budget and on schedule was told about Rundgren by Albert Grossman; owner of Bearsville Records where Todd was the in house producer/engineer and budding pop star. Grossman wangled a large fee for Todd and it was off to Apple Studios in London, England.

Todd as he looked circa 1970-71 on the cover of his first album, "Runt" released in 1970.

The first thing Todd did, was sit down with George Harrison and discuss the project at Apple Studios. Not said in the book, but offered here by your humble correspondent is the fact that Todd has always cited the Beatles, The Who and Laura Nyro as his biggests influences growing up. Add to that, that in 1971, the Beatles were still the biggest thing in the known universe. I would venture a guess that Todd was rather excited to meet one of the Fabs in person.

According to Todd, "George told me that he just had no time for the project, but he told me that we could use, or not use, anything that he'd done with Badfinger. He didn't really care at that point, it was out of his hands. That was the only time I ever met him and just about the only exchange we ever had."

So, on September 26, 1971 (oddly, the anniversay date of the release of "Abbey Road" just two years previously), Rundgren sat behind the mixing board at George Martin's AIR Studios in London, presiding over the recording of Badfinger's new song, "Baby Blue." While Rundgren liked some of the tapes left over from the Harrison sessions, he was utterly appalled at the crappy sound of the drums on all the tapes. Thus, Todd asked drummer Mike Gibbons to re-record every drum part on every song on a new master tape. Gibbons did as he was told. "The drums on the Harrison tracks just sounded too flat and weird," says Todd. "I think it was this thing that Ringo had been doing, maybe around The White Album, where they put towels over everything. Ironically enough, they never did that on the songs Emerick had recorded. I guess Emerick wasn't as hung up on that sound as The Beatles were."

In the end, Todd said that only around "two or three" of the Harrison masters were used, but among that batch was a dandy; "Day After Day." Like "Baby Blue," it was a mid-tempo rocker, this time featuring Leon Russell's elegant piano and a slide guitar duet routinely credited to Harrison and Ham. Todd Rundgren disputes what he views as another rock and roll urban myth. "I don't think it was George," he says. " because I saw them play it. I'm pretty sure one of the guys in the band Pete (Ham) or Joey (Molland) played it. We made some alterations to pretty much everything that I got from those Harrison tapes. There was a re-singing of the lead vocals and additional background vocals too; so almost nothing was left from the original song. In addition, we used maybe four of Geoff Emerick's original tracks, but probably made some alterations on those too."

Joey Molland, today the only surviving member of Badfinger, contradicts Rundgren's memory on this. He claims that George Harrison ASKED Badfinger if he could play the slide lead guitar on "Day After Day," and they said sure, why not? "What, we're going to say no to a Beatle? Todd on the other hand, was a star - an ego that preceded him, you know - just outrageous and just rude and obnoxious. And it was really a horrible experience for me."

Says Todd about the whole affair, "It was my job. I had been hired to fly in and cobble this thing together in just under two weeks. They'd been trying to get this album done for over a year by the time I got involved. We did whatever we needed to do in order to tie it all together."

The late Mike Gibbons, the drummer for Badfinger said this about the Todd sessions,"Todd was the fastest, zippiest producer we ever had. He came into one studio and told the engineer to take the day off, even the tape operator, The guy was a wizard behind the board. I was really impressed."

Who are you going to believe? It's one of those "But they're both right" situations akin to the McCartney "bossing" the Beatles around situation of late 1968 through the summer of 1969 and how the other three totally resented it. In both cases, it was a matter of one mover and shaker pushing everyone else along. Todd may very well have been pushy, a bit short tempered and somewhat aggravating. On the other hand, the LP came out and it was a hit. Case closed. Producers like Todd Rundgren "get it" very quickly when dealing with an artist. A sonic soundscape is quickly created in their minds and they want to guide the band if possible, in a certain direction. This is especially true for artists who aren't completely sure of what they want which seems to be the case here.

"Straight Up" was released in November 15, 1971. Rundgren was miffed at something and remains so to this day; after George Harrison "washed his hands of the entire project and told me (Todd) to do whatever I wanted" Apple gave the ex-Beatle the full producer's credit for the hit single "Day After Day," among a few other songs on the album. "Day After Day" was a song Todd spent considerable time re-arranging and re-recording. "I was sort of annoyed about it," says Todd now. "because I could have left it off the record altogether if I'd felt like it, and my version didn't sound much like what he (Harrison) had done. And Geoff Emerick also received no credit for the songs that he contributed to the record, which of course had also undergone all these alterations. . . . You don't contradict a Beatle."

The bottom line was this: Rundgren fullfilled his obligations with stellar results and did it on time and on budget as advertised and as urgently requested by management. "Straight Up" got to #31 on the U.S. Billboard charts subsequently which was weird considering that two songs from the album became substantial hits: "Day After Day" was a smash hit that peaked at #4 on the Billboard charts followed by "Baby Blue" peaking at #14. You would think that the LP would have charted higher on the strength of one Top 5 hit and another Top 20 hit. The album is widely seen now as Badfinger's finest studio album. *Around this same time, Harry Nilsson took a song from the band's previous LP (No Dice) and turned it into a world wide smash #1 torch song mega-hit, "Without You." The song even won the Grammy for Best Male Song Performance of the Year (1972). Badfinger was indeed on a roll, for a short time.

The entire recording experience left a bad taste for both parties. Todd felt he was slighted on some of the Producer's crediting such as "Day After Day". Add to that, Todd virtually re-recorded the entire album and as such "produced" every track in addition to doing the final master mix of the LP and still, he was only credited with "producing" about 65% of the songs while George Harrison got full producer's credit for several tracks. Then there was the subsequent griping by three members of the band. Badfinger, except drummer Mike Gibbons, felt that Todd Rundgren changed their sound so dramatically that it didn't really sound like them on the finished album and thus their creativity was stunted. Such are the hazards of being a highly skilled and creative producer. George Martin had wide lattitude on Beatles music. He got away with huge augmentations of the Beatles' sound regularly. Go and listen to the raw early tapes of "Strawberry Fields Forever" then compare them to the finished product, for example. You would think Martin himself had been tripping on acid at the time. Ditto "I Am The Walrus." "Straight Up" continued to sell well for years and became a highly sought after collector's item until the CD came out in the early 1990's. Interestingly, it is this very album that became for years, the biggest selling vintage CD on the CD market.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

McCartney Rocks the Bass Guitar!

BeatleTracks — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:28:00 GMT

Once again blogsters, Paul McCartney has been cited as one of the great movers and shakers in modern musical history, this time by Bass Player Magazine. Let's see what they had to say about the bottom end virtuoso of the Fabs:

We draw today from BASS PLAYER MAGAZINE, June 2011 edition (Vol. 22, #6)

As the article says, while the Beatles were largely drowned out during their live shows (which was the crucial reason they stopped touring), their records and Paul's bass presence on vinyl was massive, to say the least.

Paul will forever, and correctly, be identified as one of the great melodious bass players essentially playing lead lines on his instruments. He got the basic plunky sounds out of his Hofner but achieved "clarion" tones out of his Rickenbacker 4001. Francis Hall, then President of Rickenbacker, Inc. said it best; "The Rickenbacker will record much better than the Hofner." That's all Paul needed to hear. Hall was right of course. The Ric's intonation is superior, the notes ring out better and the instrument stays in tune - always a plus for a stringed instrument.

"McCartney did for pop what James Jamerson did for R & B and Jaco Pastorius did for jazz." - High praise indeed as far as your humble correspondent is concerned. Jamerson was a huge influence on the young prince of pop bass in the early '60's. Jaco is still considered one of the two or three greatest bassists that ever lived. Not bad for the Liverpudian kid who was forced into playing bass because no one else in the band wanted to at the time and who never took a single lesson.

Hat's off to you Paul, from all of us Beatle Bass players.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

"Got To Get You Into My Life:" A Closer Look

BeatleTracks — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:43:00 GMT

Another of the seminal tracks on the Beatles' Revolver LP and one that brought in a full brass section. There was no direction the Beatles didn't explore on this remarkable album. Let's check out this awesome tune . . .

We draw again today from "Recording the Beatles," by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, Curvebender Press, 2008.

This was primarily a Paul song and the perfecting of this tune spanned virtually the entire duration of the Revolver sessions. It got started on the second day of recording sessions and wasn't fully fleshed out until two months later.

*TRIVIA: This was the first Beatles song to have horns on the track. The distinctive brass sounds heard paid homage to the many American R & B records the Fabs loved and still listened to at the time.

April 7, 1966: Work began in earnest on this evening. The "best" rhythm track however, was actually laid down the following day, April 8. Engineer Phil McDonald kept notes of the proceedings. Ringo and Paul recorded drums and bass onto Track1. McDonald noted that the drums were heavily limited and that Paul's Bass guitar was "prominent." While this was going on, John and George recorded fuzz guitar parts and vocals onto Track 2. McDonald noted that Paul's lead vocal was then recorded onto Track 4 again, with heavy limiting. Onto Track 3 were more backing vocals as well as a secondary Paul McCartney bass line; that is to say, he double tracked his bass guitar. Thus, at this point, the recording shaped up as follows by Take 8:

Track 1: Drums, Bass guitar
Track 2: "Fuzz" guitars
Track 3: Backing vocals, second Bass guitar riff
Track 4: Lead Vocal

Rough mixes were made, acetates cut for all and the standard evaluation period began. Paul McCartney, typically was not satisfied and decided the song needed a complete makeover.

May 18, 1966: A five piece brass section was brought in: three trumpets, two saxes. These players assembled in Studio 2. All four tracks of tape were already full, but rather than carry out a reduction mix, the decision was made to just record over Tracks 2,3,4 of Take 8. With George Martin's able assistance, Paul conveyed his musical ideas to the pro brass players brought in. Two separate performances were taped: Only trumpets onto Track 4 and a combination of trumpets and saxes onto Track 2. Incidentally, a new guitar performance was recorded over the backing vocals and bass previous found on Track 3.

The tape was once again full so, with a satisfying brass overdub in the can, a reduction mix was called for. Both brass tracks were bounced down to Track 2 and the guitar part on Track 3 was erased althogether. Paul then sang a new lead vocal on Track 4 and then double tracked it onto Track 3. John and George contributed organ and tambourine. Electric guitars were then superimposed on another overdub, loaded onto Track 3. Still, these guitar parts were redone yet a month later and dropped in the same way. Listen in at exactly 1:45 into the song and notice the tambourine abruptly disappears while a guitar prep note is heard; this is then followed by a dual guitar solo four seconds later. Add to that, Paul's vocal sounds suddenly single tracked: his second vocal on Track 3 had been wiped off by this time.

Thus, the final mixdown, aka "Take 9" looks like this:

Track 1: Drums and Electric bass guitar
Track 2: Trumpets, Saxes, additional trumpets and electric guitar all culled from Tracks 2,3,4 from Take 8
Track 3: Lead Vocal, organ, tambourine and guitars
Track 4: Lead Vocal

Mixing for stereo and mono was to ensue with the whole process wrapped up by June 17, 1966. A notable fan favorite to this day, Paul plays this song on tour regularly; an unthinkable process back in 1966 for their final World Tour.

>On a personal note; your correspondent saw Paul McCartney live for the first time at the Worcester Centrum in 1990 (91?) during the "Flowers in the Dirt" tour. People of every age, race, creed and color were in the audience that night and many of them were dressed up in Beatle costumes. After performing about 5 songs from the then new LP, without any warning, Paul's band broke into "Got To Get You Into My Life." Similar to the Elvis Costello quote in a previous blog, your correspondent witnessed - first hand - unadulturated Beatlemania at that moment. The crazed screeming, whistling, mobbing, ballistics of the crowd left me with no doubt whatsoever; "This is exactly what Beatlemania must have been like in the 1960's." Even with modern sound systems and all the new technology; Paul's band could barely be heard for the first 30 seconds or so of that song; the first Beatle song of the night. It was bliss for me and the entire crowd. Great song. Go and listen to it again.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

Steven Tyler Rocks the Beatles!

BeatleTracks — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:18:00 GMT

Rock Icon Steven Tyler, front man for Boston's legendary rock band Aerosmith just published his long awaited biography, "Does the Noise in my head bother you?" Among many other gems in this book, Mr. Tyler mentions the Beatles more than any other musical influence.

You'll notice a small quote right on the top right of the front jacket of the book (see above); it's none other than Paul McCartney praising Tyler with this, "Steven Tyler is one of the giants of American music." Well said Paul.

While your correspondent generally loved the book, in truth, it was a somewhat jumbled affair in some respects: jumping randomly forward and back on the timeline, an occasionally shaky memory on key historical moments along with a veritable boat load of F bombs. As well, for the younger fans out there that may only know Steven Tyler from his recent gig on American Idol; well, let's just say this book is not for the faint of heart. One definitely gets the impression Tyler is an absolute lover of cats too, the shaved kind.

That all said, the book is also hilarious at times, heartbreaking, boldly confessional with regard to the incessant drug addictions and demons Tyler has faced and faced down over the decades. In fact, your correspondent began skimming the book at times because I just didn't feel like reading about another drug deal, subsequent high, fallout with a woman, fallout with his band and inevitable detox that followed. The whole drug addict confessional thing became tedious for me.

Tyler displays some awesome insights into the soul of a singer and what moves him. On page 97 we have this:

"The Beatles, come on, and what the F***! It wasn't because they were all such great musicians. They Knew. They knew. They were English and they had long hair when nobody else did and they said funny things, but it wasn't that either. It was the alchemy they cooked up -Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Chuck Berry - and music hall numbers. And they evolved as did the Stones, the Who. Many groups came out, had a hit, and then took the ferry back across the Mersey. The Beatles went from "She Loves You" to "HELP!" within a year. In one year. Not ten. In two years they were at the trippy Rubber Soul. "Norwegian Wood," how great is that? So you can say what you want, but in one year they started out recording in a room where Paul and John sang together on one mic, took that vocal and dumped it down to one track, and added it to the next vocals. You know what that means? It means you can't go back. they had to be so sure of themselves. Plus, of course, they had George Martin as producer."

Pg. 199: "They're gonna put me in the movies, they're gonna make a big star out of WE." Thanks, Ringo . . . . I mean Buck. The movie was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. To be involved with ANYTHING that was slightly related to the Beatles was a dream come true."

Pg. 200: "Wait, the dream did come true . . . .I got to meet George Martin. We talked about recording "Come Together" at the Record Plant  for 15 minutes about the track and fifteen hours about the Beatles! He said he loved our band and was looking forward to working with us in the studio. We did a badass version of the song. I would have believed anything George Martin said. However, he wasn't just charming, he was brilliant and beautiful. I could see all that in his eyes. And I must admit that when I was singing the first verse to Come Together and I looked through the glass at Studio A, Record Plant East, it was like for that one nanosecond in time . . . I was John."

Tyler was asked by BIlly Joel to be a special guest at the landmark FINAL Shea Stadium Concert along with Paul McCartney. What a thrill. They all did "I Saw Her Standing There." Later still Tyler sang that last four songs of Abbey Road in front of President Obama and Paul at the 2010 Kennedy Awards. Paul was most grateful and wrote a letter to Steven to tell him so. Not mentioned in the book but common knowledge in Boston, is the fact that Aerosmith was known for their huge "Abbey Road" Medley back when they were still coming up.

You're up, you're down in the game of life. Isn't it true for all of us? It was that way for ST as well. Setting the record straight on a number of internal band issues, one walks away from this book knowing that no matter what, Aerosmith loves each other still despite the highs and lows of 40 years of being together on the road. And there is no doubt either, that the Beatles were Tyler's biggest influence, bar none.

Way to go Steven. See you up in Sunapee this summer.

By John Haberstroh, Bassist for Beatletracks.   Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

The Beatles: Greatest Artists of ALL TIME

BeatleTracks — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:56:00 GMT

Good morning blogsters. This past weekend, I found the latest edition of Rolling Stone Magazine with the following title: "The 100 Greatest Artists of All TIme." I bought the issue naturally and once again, The Beatles reign supreme on this, the latest list of the greatest artists. RS has done this in the past with similar results. Interestingly, over the same weekend, VH1 ran a show featuring their list of the Greatest Artists of All Time. Guess who was #1??

Your correspondent was pleased to see the Beatles have not faded from view over the years. Despite the rise of rap insurgents like Eminem, glam poppers like Lady Gaga, pop sensations like Justin Timberlake and others stylistic stars, the Beatles still continue to rule on lists like this.

Very interestingly, John Lennon was singled out separately at #38 as a solo great. Reviews on all artists were written by fellow artists, usually artists who had a special bond and affection for the artist being written about. In Lennon's case, it was Lenny Kravitz writing about him. I was pleasantly surprised to see this. In the case of the #1 artist of all time, The Beatles, it was Elvis Costello, a fellow Liverpudian writing about the band in gorgeous, loving narrative. But we all already knew that Costello is an unabashed Beatles superfreak. The last few lines in Costello's narrative of the Beatles are very worth repeating here:

     "I've co-written some songs with Paul McCartney and performed with him in concert on a few occasions.    During one rehearsal, I was singing harmoney on a Ricky Nelson song, and Paul called out the next tune; 'All My Loving.' I said, 'Do you want me to take the harmony line the second time around?' And he said, 'Yeah, give it a try.' I'd only had 35 years to learn the part. It was a very poignant performance, witnessed only by the crew and other artists on the bill.

     "At the show, it was very different. The second song he sang the lines, 'Close your eyes, and I'll kiss you" - the crowd's reaction was so intense that it all but drowned the song out. It was very thrilling but also rather disconcerting. Perhaps I understood at that moment one of the reasons why the Beatles had to stop performing. The songs weren't theirs anymore. They were everybody's."

> VH1: As for the VH1 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, the Beatles came in at #1. But again, very interestingly, not only did John Lennon appear as a solo great (#31) but so did Paul McCartney at #38.

In both cases, the contemporaries that inspired, motivated and/or pushed the Beatles appeared very high on the list with the Fabs. In Rolling Stone, the Beatles were followed by #2 Bob Dylan, #3 Elvis Presley, #4 The Rolling Stones, #5 Chuck Berry, #6 Jimi Hendrix, #8 Little Richard.

It's time to crank up those CDs Beatle lovers and savor the magic once again.

By John Haberstroh   (Bassist for BeatleTracks)   Find us at www.beatletracksband.com

Freewheelin' With Bob Dylan & The Beatles

BeatleTracks — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:13:00 GMT

Your humble correspondent always wondered about the girl on the cover of Bob Dylan's breakthrough LP "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," released on May 27, 1963. I became far more interested when I recently saw Suze Rotolo's obituary. She died on Feb. 25, 2011. She was 67.

Funny how we remember a person or an event captured in time by a picture. Ms. Rotolo was Bob Dylan's muse and girlfriend for about three years in the early 1960's. She and he looked so hopeful and full of life on this crucial album. The picture was taken on Jones Street in Greenwhich Village, NYC, around the corner from Dylan's apartment at 161 W. 4th St. And that is exactly how I thought she would look now, stupid as that sounds.

This was the album that shot Dylan to superstar status. It was also the album the Beatles could not stop listening to in late 1963 and early 1964. It was the album that compelled them, especially John Lennon, to start stretching their lyrical content beyond the sophmoric "girl and boy meet, kiss and fall in love, break up, fall back in love blah, blah, blah" lyrics or some variant of same on literally every song they were writing. It was the album that made all the Fabs Dylan fans for life, especially Lennon and Harrison.

Suze Rotolo was in the thick of the Greenwhich Village scene back when the Village got its reputation as THE happening artistic place in New York. Suze wrote a book about her recollections in the Village and of course her time with Dylan in 2008 called "A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwhich Village in the Sixties," Broadway Books, NY. It is an excellent chronical of what went on at the time not only with Dylan but all the prominent artists of the day in the Village.

Out- take shot taken that same day, January 1963 by CBS Staff photographer Don Huntstein.

Suze lived a very interesting life that included trips to Italy, an illegal trip to Cuba after the Missle Crisis in which she met Fidel Castro himself, Che Guevara, was hassled by the FBI for years because of that, moved to Boston and wound up living in Somerville for a time before returning to NYC for the rest of her life.

Suze's life was extraordinary by most standards. She hardly mentioned the Beatles at all except for a brief flurry toward the end of her book. It seems Bob Dylan was as fascinated by the Beatles as they were of him. Dylan couldn't get over the lush vocal harmonies and "outrageous" chord changes the Beatles were always using. Thus, for the Beatles, it was Dylan's command of the English language while for Dylan, it was the Beatles total command of music that charmed. As Suze put it, George Harrison, of all people, called her up on the evening of August 28, 1964 and asked her to come over and see them and Dylan at the Delmonico Hotel in Manhatten.

As Suze put it, "The Delmonico was impenetrable. The crowd pressed close, hungry and eager. The guard returned shaking his head." She couldn't get in. She finally got through to the room where all the stars were and Dylan got on the phone. It seems Dylan was annoyed with her for being with other people and since they had already broken up but were still arguing, as she said, "Beatles be damned: I hung up the phone and went home." Oh well, a close encounter with the Fabs that was not to be.

Suze concludes her great book with this: "Greenwich Village bohemia exits no more. It was the public square of the twentieth century for the outsiders, the mad ones, and the misfits. Today all that remains are the posters, fliers and signs preserved on the walls as a reminder of that bygone era when rents were cheap and New York replaced Paris as the destination for the creative crowd. . . . . The Sixties were an era that spoke a language of inquiry and curiosity and rebelliousness against the stifling and repressive political and social culture of the decade that preceded it. The new generation causing all the fuss was not driven by the market: we had something to say, not something to sell."

RIP Suze Rotolo and thank you.

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com