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White Album 50th anniversary editions

Started by Rich Uncle Skeleton, September 24, 2018, 05:43:37 PM

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MiddleRabbit

Top Ten reasons why George Harrison was a bitter old cunt.

1. He couldn't compete with Lennon's or McCartney's songs.
2. He couldn't compete with Lennon's or McCartney's voices.
3. He couldn't compete with  McCartney's instrumental ability.+
4. He was a minor partner in The Fabs' publishing company, meaning he earned significantly less than Lennon & McCartney.
5. Macca was always going on at him.++
6. He told them not go into business, Apple and all that, so when it all went to shit, he said I told you so, but still lost millions.
7. All anybody ever asked him about was John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
8. His natural preferred state (of being alone, for example see any of his songs) was made impossible because he was George Harrison out of The Beatles.
9. He invented World Music and all anybody ever goes on about is fucking Graceland.
10. He invented being spiritual and going off to the mystic east to absorb cosmic cultures and never stopped being into the Maharishi.  His being a Hare Krishna and nobody ever let him forget it.

+ Macca played an awful lot of the lead guitar parts from Help! onwards, which must have pissed Harrison off.  He barely touches a guitar on Sgt Pepper.

++ About everything.  'Play this like this.  Not like that, like this.  No, I want you to play something that can't be played on a guitar, on a guitar.  Why can't you do it?  Stop playing.  Now I'm going to play a ludicrous bass solo all the way through Something, even though it'll still be really good, which will piss you off more. '   And yet, and fucking yet, when The Beatles had split up, he didn't write one single song slagging George off.  A bit of bile aimed at Lennon now and then.   But, for all the niggling, for all those years, none of them added up to one poxy song pointing the finger at him for trying to look a bit like a garden gnome in 1971.  Fair's fair, eh?  It wouldn't have killed Macca to slag him off on Ram, would it?

New page bitter cunt.

biggytitbo

I don't think I've ever heard McCartney slagging George off anywhere. Even John really, after that initial feud he doesn't seem to have a bad thing to say, other than foibles and what not.

grassbath

He betrays some frustration with George at the beginning of this clip, regarding George's refusal to record a third Lennon song in the '90s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCSZn2Q7o8U

IMO George's decision was justified - not that it's a bad song (and put to really poignant use in this video), but the Threetles thing had run its course by the time of 'Real Love,' and George was probably treated like a sideman once again on yet another Lennon/McCartney love-in, this time from beyond the grave.

It's the best song of the three but perhaps too personal for that project. Belongs on Double Fantasy II.

Replies From View

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on November 28, 2018, 10:16:11 PM
It's the best song of the three but perhaps too personal for that project. Belongs on Double Fantasy II.

I think it's a shame it wasn't done, although admittedly it would have been quite a plodding song with John's demo piano banging away like that throughout.

Bennett Brauer

I can believe Harrison wasn't keen on it, but McCartney's "Fucking rubbish / No, George, this is John" sounds a little fibby.

Nowhere Man

I don't normally go for that sort of thing but Paul would be mad not to finish it up one of these days. Honestly wouldn't be too surprised if he's already done that with Jeff and is just waiting for the opportune time to release 'the last Beatles single'.

QuoteIn January 1994, Paul McCartney was given two tape cassettes by Lennon's widow Yoko Ono that included home recordings of songs Lennon never completed or released commercially. The songs on the tape included the eventually completed and released "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", in addition to two other songs was a tape with the words "for Paul" scrawled hastily in John's handwriting, which included "Grow Old With Me" and "Now and Then".[1] In March 1995, the three surviving Beatles began work on "Now and Then" by recording a rough backing track that was to be used as an overdub. However, after only two days of recording, all work on the song ceased and plans for a third reunion single were scrapped permanently.[citation needed]

Producer Jeff Lynne reported that sessions for "Now and Then" consisted only of "one day—one afternoon, really — messing with it. The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn't finish."[2] An additional factor behind scrapping the song was a technical defect in the original recording. As with "Real Love", a 60-cycle mains hum can be heard throughout Lennon's demo recording. However, it was noticeably louder on '"Now and Then", making it much harder to remove.[citation needed]

The project was largely shelved due to Harrison's dislike of the song. McCartney later stated that Harrison called Lennon's demo recording "fucking rubbish."[3] McCartney told Q Magazine in 1997 that "George didn't like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn't do it."[4] An unnamed participant in the sessions told the Daily Express: "George just didn't want to rework it because it's not a matter of putting some vocals, or a bit of bass and drums to finish it. With this, you have to really build the song."[2]

If there's still that rough mix of that early backing track floating around, they could still technically finish it with a contribution from George, added to a cleaner new version featuring Paul and Ringo. God knows digital extractions and all that stuff has improved massively since the mid-90s. I suppose the biggest downside would be that Paul's voice has aged a lot, even since 1995.



Replies From View


Could a good box set be made from the Get Back/Let It Be material or is it just too poorly recorded and the playing too mistake ridden? It's going to be inferior to the White Album either way because the songs are not of the same quality, in the main (and some of the best compositions, like Child Of Nature and All Things Must Pass, did not make it on to the album).

Replies From View

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on December 08, 2018, 08:47:59 PM
Could a good box set be made from the Get Back/Let It Be material or is it just too poorly recorded and the playing too mistake ridden? It's going to be inferior to the White Album either way because the songs are not of the same quality, in the main (and some of the best compositions, like Child Of Nature and All Things Must Pass, did not make it on to the album).

Perhaps.  But they may argue that this terrain was already covered with the 'Let it Be... Naked' release.  My view is that was a missed opportunity as it lacked the spirit of the original Glyn Johns assemblies and even the final Phil Spector release, by shoving all the improvised fun bits on a separate short disc (with jarring fade-outs on tracks that had talking immediately afterwards).

There was a sense with 'Let it Be... Naked' that nobody involved in the sessions wanted to officially release very much from behind the scenes of that project.  Beyond what was already dug out for Anthology 3, the sessions have quite a sour atmosphere, with the people involved in them on record saying they don't like revisiting them.  Hopes in 2009 for a proper release of the film itself came to nothing, and I can imagine that happening again in 2019 and as long as there are people alive who want to continue presenting a specific image of the band.

As with the White Album remix, the difference will always be how much they can bring up the sound quality of anything that's only appeared so far on bootlegs.  But Sgt Pepper and the White Album had tracks that changed radically from their conception to their final versions; the same can't really be said of Get Back / Let it Be.  Just a few improvisational jams and covers here and there, plus some alternate backing vocals that they tried out on a few tracks but then dropped.  Beyond that, just interminable take after take as the band try to learn the new songs.

Not sure what else they have.

Nowhere Man

The versions of 'All Things Must Pass' from the Get Back era vary in quality quite a bit, depending on how arsed McCartney and Lennon were during each take. But if they combine all the best bits we could have a somewhat decent version of it with backing vocals from the rest of the band. That would be interesting at least.
Sadly the countless oldies they tended to run through in rehearsals were performed nowhere near as good as 'You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care)' from the White Album box set, now THAT's a performance I wish had gone on for much longer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwll6I7aR3M

Bennett Brauer

Quote from: Replies From View on December 08, 2018, 09:41:20 PMHopes in 2009 for a proper release of the film itself came to nothing, and I can imagine that happening again in 2019 and as long as there are people alive who want to continue presenting a specific image of the band.

It might also be McCartney not wanting to deal with negative press ever again after what he went through with the Mills divorce, and having worked hard to rebuild a positive media image since then. Being cross-examined about the film and the arguments when he's 77 or older won't be fun.

MattD

Quote from: Nowhere Man on November 29, 2018, 04:41:08 AM
I don't normally go for that sort of thing but Paul would be mad not to finish it up one of these days. Honestly wouldn't be too surprised if he's already done that with Jeff and is just waiting for the opportune time to release 'the last Beatles single'.

If there's still that rough mix of that early backing track floating around, they could still technically finish it with a contribution from George, added to a cleaner new version featuring Paul and Ringo. God knows digital extractions and all that stuff has improved massively since the mid-90s. I suppose the biggest downside would be that Paul's voice has aged a lot, even since 1995.

Where did that quote come from?

I think it's unfinished state as it is gives it a more abstract and impressionist nature and for that it makes it that bit more haunting. It's incredibly intimate and sad, and feels like it gets to the depth of emotion Lennon had regarding McCartney.

Don't think any full band offering could do it justice to be honest. It's something very personal and something else would just feel contrived.

Replies From View

Quote from: MattD on December 09, 2018, 12:51:56 AM
Don't think any full band offering could do it justice to be honest. It's something very personal and something else would just feel contrived.

This fan embellishment is an interesting one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPE795oaw6Y

I wonder how far the Beatles got with their version.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: MattD on December 09, 2018, 12:51:56 AM
Where did that quote come from?


same anecdote, with the quote from lynne at least, is in "you never give me your money", which is quite a harrowing read in places. I hadn't seen the harrison 'fucking rubbish' quote before, but it strikes me as well within character & perfectly believable.