Beatles Covers: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[Enzo]

I don't care what anyone says, that Su Pollard cover of 'Back in the USSR' is fucking brilliant.

[poodlefaker]

Another great versh of Blackbird, by Brad Mehldau. Love the way it drops at 1.30.

[daf]

Plastic Penny - "Strawberry Fields Forever"



Featured on the album, 'Two Sides of a Penny' released in 1968.

Plastic Penny were formed in 1967 after session singer Brian Keith scored a surprise Top Ten hit, as Plastic Penny, with a cover of Box Tops B-side 'Everything I Am'. With a hit on his hands a band was recruited to tour and promote the release. Two members of The Universals, Paul Raymond and bassist Tony Murray, were chosen along with a guitarist named Nick Grabham from Newcastle, who recommended local drummer Nigel Olsson.

The band immediately embarked on a relentless schedule and made their television debut on Jonathan King's Good Evening show on 30 December 1967, just four days after the band's first gig, followed by a session for Radio One's Top Gear that was recorded on 10 January 1968.



Plastic Penny recorded two albums, 'Two Sides Of A Penny' in 1968, followed by 'Currency' in 1969, before the final line-up morphed into country-rockers Cochise in the second half of 1969.

[daf]

Rainbow Ffolly - "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"



Recorded in 1968. First released in 2019 on the retrospective collection "Spectromorphic Iridescence – The Complete Ffolly"

Rainbow Ffolly were formed by brothers Jon Dunsterville and Richard Dunsterville, drummer Stewart Osborn, and bassist Roger Newell. All four members sang, with Jon serving as songwriter.

Their first album, 'Sallies Fforth' was released in 1968. The group played concerts in support of the record, including a month long engagement at the Star Club in Hamburg, and at the Playboy Club in London.



The album became a 'Record of the Week' on the BBC's Saturday Club, but as they weren't earning enough money from album sales or live performances to survive on, the quartet all decided to get regular jobs and give up on music by the end of 1968. The band re-united 47 years later in 2015 to record a follow up album, "FFollow Up!".

[jobotic]

First band I ever saw live. This is the version I hear when I think of it. They also did Lucy In The Sky

Arcwelder - I am the Walrus.

The other side - Sign O' The Times - was better

[daf]

Christ! That blue lion is horrific - don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight!

[famethrowa]

Rainbow Ffolly - "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"

wow can't imagine why they had to give the game away

[daf]

Kippington Lodge - "In My Life"



Released as a single in April 1969 - did not chart.

Nick Lowe first met Brinsley Schwarz at the Woodbridge School, where they made music as Sounds 4+1 with Barry Landerman and Phil Hall.  Lowe assumed bass duties and Schwarz guitar, while Landerman handled keyboards and Hall also guitar. After leaving school, Lowe, already used to a nomadic existence as his father was in the Royal Air Force, decided to go and see some more of the world, leaving Schwarz to return to his native Tunbridge Wells in Kent. Here Schwarz formed Three's A Crowd with Pete Whale (drums) and Dave Cottam (bass) - who were signed to EMI in 1967, and with the return of Barry Landerman, changed their name to Kippington Lodge.

 

The band attracted enough local buzz to come to the attention of EMI's Parlophone label and producer Mark Wirtz. A song intended for his Teenage Opera, "Shy Boy", was given to them, and released as their first single. The group were disappointed to find that the musical backing had already been recorded by Wirtz and session musicians, and they were only required to handle the vocal chores.

It was around the same time that Dave Cottam left the band, and Nick Lowe filled the vacancy on bass, and would soon be penning songs for the group.  Barry Landerman left to join Vanity Fare, Bob Andrews joined on keyboards and Pete Whale's exit paved the way for Billy Rankin to join the band. In 1970, with the addition of Ian Gomm on rhythm guitar, Kippington Lodge morphed into the band 'Brinsley Schwarz'.

[Replies From View]

This is a slight tangent to this thread, but it's something that I hadn't heard about before, and I've found it quite fascinating.

This popped up in my youtube recommendations feed:

Following that, there's a good article going into the details and versions of this song here:

https://theymaybeparted.com/tag/penina/

It's a pretty weak track, but the very first release (below) really does capture the feel of a drunken McCartney playing one last song at a nightclub, improvising on the piano, saying he's had a great time, goodbye and goodnight.  It's repetitive in a manner not unlike the last looping bars of Hey Jude, which suggests it was built around the pattern of everyone in the audience joining in and revelling in the joy of it all.

The recording so accurately captures McCartney's piano and tone, and the lyrics sound so authentic rather than vaguely remembered, that I can only assume that McCartney's performance was recorded and the cover version was made directly from that. But if that happened, no recording of McCartney singing it has ever surfaced. 

It's just such a strange little artefact, leaving a lot to imagination of a lovely party with McCartney generously allowing an unknown group to benefit from what had been created together that evening.

[Captain Z]

Skimmed the thread and it doesn't look like it's been posted yet. Easy Star All-Stars covered the entire Sgt Pepper's album, and it's brilliant.

Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band

[Satchmo Distel]

'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' on solo piano:

[poodlefaker]

Marcia Griffiths - Don't Let Me Down

[famethrowa]

Here's an old shocker: aand the pweepollllle.....

[daf]

Sounds like he was sitting on a tumble dryer recording that!

[Kankurette]

I don't know which word he sings worse, 'people' or 'knew'. He sounds like a goat.

[Maurice Yeatman]

Steve Hillage funkifies Getting Better and leaves out the beating up a woman bit for some reason

And there was also this Hillage cover where producer Todd Rundgren recorded the drums on a building site

[daf]

Fanny - Hey Bulldog

edit : just noticed the live Beat Club version I'd posted had already appeared on Page 1 - so here's the studio version instead :

Unusually, they've added a new verse, featuring a leapfrogging hedgehog - the mad bastards!

[Jim_MacLaine]

Alison Mosshart Tomorrow Never Knows

Stone Seul (Norwegian Wood) (1966)

I think Stone may have thought the Beatles sounded like the Stones