Happy Valentines Day!

One month from today is the Induction ceremony of the following folks into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

• Performers:
• Alice Cooper
• Neil Diamond
• Dr. John
• Darlene Love
• Tom Waits

• Non-Performers:
• Jac Holzman
• Art Rupe

• Sidemen:
• Leon Russell

What a great honor! They should all be very proud!

For all of you who read this blog I would like to suggest that you sign the following petition to induct

Clay Cole into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

I met Clay at a special book signing in April of last year. One of the nicest people you would ever want to meet!

His passing was truly a sad day for me. His show was one of the best music shows on television.

He truly deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

All of the stores were mom and pop variety and it was always a treat to go inside and look at all the cool gear. There was Terminal Music, and few others I can’t remember! My favorite was Manny’s Music.

Run by Manny Goldrich and family, Manny’s was the place to be ! You never knew who would be in there. Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend, Keith Emerson. I saw them all. Manny’s had what became known as the Wall of Fame

The available wall space was adorned with autographed promotion photos of all the musicians and groups that purchased equipment there. I actually ended up on that wall! What an honor!!!

I started hanging out there when I was about 12 because of drummer Don Lamond. When I would cut school and go with him to the taping of the Les Crane show, we would sometimes go out for a bite to eat at Jim and Andy’s, a musicians hang also on West 48th St. He showed me around, introduced me to the owners and I was a “regular” there. I gravitated to one of the sons, Stewart. He was a born salesman and truly a great guy. I ran into him in Nyack NY about 4 years ago and it was great to see him.

One of the guitar salesman Billy, who happened to be a great guitarist told me that he was going to do a commercial and need a bass player and he would call me for the date. Imagine me at Electric Lady Studios, 20 years old cutting an Uncle Ben’s Rice jingle! I left that studio feeling as if I had truly made it! Oh, how naive! About two weeks later, I was listening to the Jazz station WRVR and on came my bassline. OMG!

Back in 1969, I had saved up enough money to buy a brand new sunburst Fender Precision bass and I was going to Manny’s to buy it. When I got there, money burning a hole in my pocket, I got a hold of Stewart and told him “I wanted a Sunburst P bass.” He went to the stockroom and after what seemed an eternity came down with a bass case. He told me that they were sold out of the Sunburst P Bass but, he had a “Fretless” Sunburst P bass. Now as I said, “I wanted a Sunburst P bass” and I was not leaving without one.

So I became a fretless bass player. A couple of months of intonation problems and I was ready to play! I really loved that bass!

Many many basses later, I still remember that one and how Stewart got a sale! Roughly 14 years later, Manny’s was having a celebration at the Rainbow Room and I was invited. I was playing in a band with ex Foreigner and King Crimson member Ian MacDonald and we had a great time! One funny incident that night, Stewart and I took a picture together, reminisced and I opined, “Stewart, we know each other so long, I  remember when you had hair!”

Manny’s was bought by Sam Ash Music. An end of an era! Paul Ash is quoted as saying Music Row will at some point no longer exist. I hope he is wrong.

As I said, 48th St was like Disneyland to all aspiring musicians.

Fast forward to today. I still play fretless bass, albeit a 6 string fretless. The bass builder is a gentleman by the name Ken Bebenseehttp://www.kbguitars.com/wordpress/?page_id=498

He is in the process of building me a new one as we speak!

Can’t wait to play it.!

A little commentary on some great songs!

The Music Machine-Talk Talk

So even at my young age, I always wondered how they could play their instruments with a leather glove on!

The Seeds-Pushin to Hard

The Seeds were a bit scary to me! Probably one of the worst designed record label logos!

The Blues Magoos-We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet

One of my favorite songs! When I was managed by Leiber Krebs, former Magoo Peppy Castro was also managed by them in a great band named Balance

The Electric Prunes-I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night

The Prunes were great on the Smothers Brothers Show. Dig that autoharp! SHades of John Sebastian?

The Music Explosion-Little Bit O’Soul

Out of Ohio, they were discovered and managed by Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz who worked with the 1910 Fruitgum Company and Ohio Express

The Five Americans-Western Union

Da dit da dit da dit da dit Western Union!

Every Mother’s Son-Come On Down To My Boat Baby

My dentist, Bruce Miner was the keyboardist and his brother played guitar in this band. The song paid Bruce’s dental school bills! He still plays and sings and as well as extracting molars!

The Count Five-Psychotic Reaction

Take five guys from San Jose, CA wear Count Dracula-style capes when playing live and co-op the sound of the Yardbirds and boom, instant hit

The Barbarians-Are You A Boy or Are You A Girl

Age 11, my sister took me to see the T.A.M.I show at the Bell Blvd movie theater. On screen was this cool band with a drummer using a hook for a hand! The song was good too!

One of those bands was Danny Beline the Rich Kids.

Money Isn’t Everything

Danny was Perry Como’s nephew.The band was considered RCA Victor’s answer to the Young Rascals.  I had heard a lot about this group but never got a chance to see them. I did end up playing on another member of the band’s solo LP “Tale Tales” by Richie Supa who went on to great fame with Aerosmith, Richie Sambora and Pink. A great writer! I remember walking into Tower Records, hearing something on the sound system, thinking to myself, “I know this song, I know this bassline!” Well, I realized that the track I recorded with Richie was Lightning Strikes recorded here by Aerosmith! Small world.

Another interseting, ironic twist was I was at Richie’s house on the Eastside when we received the news about John Lennon.

The Illusion were an American psychedelic rock band from Long Island. They released three full-length albums in the U.S., the first of which was also issued in the United Kingdom. The group had one minor hit in the U.S. in 1969 w!ith “Did You See Her Eyes”, which peaked at #32. I wore this record out!

I felt they were similarities between the Illusion and Nazz, Todd Rundgren

Listen to the song and let me know

Did You See Her Eyes

The Hassles were a rock group in the 1960s, most notable for being the first releases to feature Billy Joel. The group released two full-length albums and a number of singles. The original line-up of the group was John Dizek (vocals), Billy Joel (Keyboards), Jon Small (drums), Howie Blauvelt (bass) and Richard McKenner (guitar). Dizek left some time after their first album, at which point Joel took over on vocal duties. Joel and Small eventually formed Attila while Blauvelt later joined Ram Jam who had the hit Black Betty.

There was a band from my high school days that had some great musicians in it. They were called Fire and they played this song. A personal shout out to Taylor Daniels, Tommy Schiff, my good friend, the late Bobby Blaine and Roger Kahn!

Have a listen to this great Sam and Dave cover!

You Got Me Hummin

Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band. The band’s original lineup – vocalist/organist Mark Stein, bassist/vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer/vocalistCarmine Appice – recorded five albums during the years 1966-69, before disbanding in 1970. What a great band! Tim Bogart was one of my early influences. The band has been cited as, “one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal.”

You Keep Me Hangin On

The Rascals (initially known as The Young Rascals) were an American blue-eyed soul group initially active during the years 1965–72. The band released numerous top ten singles in North America during the mid- and late-1960s, including the U.S. #1 hits “Good Lovin’” (1966), “Groovin’” (1967), and “People Got to Be Free” (1968). Back in 1989, I got a call from Gene Cornish, their guitarist. He was reforming a new version of the Rascals and asked if I would like to audition. I was thrilled! How great to play that great music and to be part of  a rhythm section with the great Dino Danelli. The audition went great, we started rehearsals, shot a new video, which I wish I could find, and then I went out on the road with CIndy Bullens, followed by 6 months in Europe with Robin Beck. Oh well, I still enjoyed myself immensely with the Rascals. The band was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore

What all of these bands had in common was a club, I had heard about on the radio dubbed  ”the real home of the Long Island sound.” The Action House in Island Park. It was owned by Phil Basile, described a New York magazine article as “the all-time classic Island club owner. A reputed Luchese crime-family member, Basile operated several famous L.I. clubs—the Action House, Speaks, Channel 80,  Industry—three of which were the same club (on Austin Boulevard) with different names.” Here are a bunch of ads for bands that played there. It was a regular stop on the East Coast circuit. I wish I was old enough to own a car!

I know you will find it hard to believe in the 1960′s, Macy’s had one of the best record departments! My mother worked there and I would sometimes go to visit her for lunch and she would give me her employee discount card and I would go into the record dept. and go nuts! I never met the person who was the buyer but whomever it was, had a very progressive bent. Some days I would walk out with 10 LP’s (LP-big black piece of vinyl that you would put on a turntable-(something that goes round and round) and miraculously sound would come out!)

I was also very lucky because I would get tickets to the Thanksgiving Day Parade and sit right in the front of Macy’s Herald Square.

It wasn’t until years later that I was introduced to the Thanksgiving Eve balloon inflation spectacle at the Museum of Natural History.

Every year, on Thanksgiving Eve thousands of people would visit the blocks between 78th and 81st St on Columbus and Central Park West and watch the balloons as they were blown up. One year we were at my friend, record producer Richard Gottherer’s house, which was on 78th st. Around 11:30PM all of a sudden, Snoopy would be peering in the window!

My grandmother lived on Central Park South and when it was too cold to watch the parade on the outside, we would go to her house. Outside her window was the famous Coca Cola Weather sign which is now the Trump International Hotel.

What a great parade!

Well, back to the music!

I bought so many great records there. There are a few occasions that really stand out. I purchased Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull “This Was” the same day. What a revelation to an impressionable youth to hear both Good Times Bad Times and Dharma for One the same day!

Good Times Bad Times

Dharma For One

A great story about Jethro Tull. A good friend of mine from high school, Doane Perry was a great drummer. He loved Clive Bunker. Well, just to show you how life imitates art, for the past 15 years, Doane has been the drummer for Jethro Tull!

Another day of record shopping brought me face to face with Spirit and Pink Floyd Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Having a sister who got all of the Melody Makers, I was already familiar with “See Emily Play” from the charts but had never heard the song. That was certainly going to change! I saw Pink Floyd a number of times. Once at Carnegie Hall, they debuted their “Quad” sound system. They had just released Meddle and the sound was incredible!

See Emily Play

As a young bass player, I remember attempting to learn “Fresh Garbage” took a lot of time. When I was in Aztec Two Step, we opened for Firefall and I met Mark Andes who was their bassist but had previously been the bassist for Spirit. A very small world!

Fresh Garbage

For me, Macy’s really was  the Miracle on 34th St.

I am writing today to express my deep sadness over the passing of one of the legends of music television in the late 1950′s and 1960′s, Clay Cole. Clay passed on Dec 18th.

In October 2009 I started this blog as an homage to my sister Denyse as well as to  New York City in the 1960′s. I never dreamed I would one day receive an email from Clay Cole telling me he loved the blog and thanking me for mentioning him. Clay was thanking me! I immediately wrote back telling him how important he and his show was to me and we immediately became friends. Clay in the short time I knew him was one of the most gracious and generous people I had ever met. I was fortunate to meet him on April 18, 2010 for a book signing in NYC. There were so many memories going through my mind that day. I saw the Stones on his show. I saw the Who on his show. Music already had transformed my life that any chance I got to see bands on TV, I jumped on it! Clay’s show was not only a great piece of music history, it was a great piece of NY history as well.

It would be a fitting tribute to induct Clay Cole into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! He certainly deserves it!

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/rabcdfcc/

All I can say is thank you for all of the memories! aI am so happy to have met you!

The Clay Cole Show

Remember when there were only 4 television networks and we were all glued to the box? Well, part of the “entertainment” was the commercial and here are some great ones I remember.

Oh how I wanted one of these. Mr Machine I felt I was the only kind in America without one. Now if I can only find one with the box in mint condition!

Starkist Charlie the Tuna, a cool bebopping kid of a guy.

Cracker Jack with  actor Jack Gilford. Whenever I go to Yankee Stadium, I must get a box of Cracker Jack and I still immediately search for the prize!

Mr. Clean Isn’t it funny how many people now look like Mr Clean? He, Telly Savalas and Yul Brynner paved the way for the follically challenged! Who loves ya baby?

Who hasn’t poured milk on their Rice Krispies and put an ear to the bowl?

Good & Plenty Charlie says!

Think of all the toothpastes that no longer exist yet Crest continues to dominate the market

G.I. Joe the first doll for boys!

My apologies for not finding an Operation Moonbase commercial. One of my favorite toys!

There is something magical about being able to step back in time and revisit memorable moments even if the memorable moments are commercials. I must have spent hours in front of the television with my bass in my hands practicing and playing along with whatever was on the tube.

I see these commercials as comfort food! They really create a familiar space to go to. Have a great week everybody!

At the book signing there were a lot of folks who were fans of Clay’s as well as of the music and you know, I can say with total confidence, we did it right! The music, the fashion, the vibe itself, we were and are a very lucky generation to have been able to witness some of the most important music every made and we’ve still got it! Thanks for reminding me of that Clay. I look forward to seeing you again the next time you come to NY.

Some of My Favourite Songs from Britain in the 1960′s

I used to go into my sister’s bedroom when she wasn’t home and go through her record collection. Similarly, before I got my first bass guitar, I used to go into her room and play her guitar.

I didn’t know what I was doing so she always new when all the tuning pegs were lined up perfectly, I must have raided her room!

What does this have to do with this blog? Well, when I would go on those “expeditions” into her room, I would look through her British 45′s and find new music that was not popular on American radio.

Take for instance, Paul and Barry Ryan. Twins whose parents were in the music business. This is oneof my favorite songs of all time. A Hal David and Burt Bacharach composition

Have Pity On The Boy

Popular in America, I have always enjoyed Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien better know as Dusty Springfield. She was one of the best-selling British singers in the 1960s. She was voted the Top British Female Artist by the readers of the New Musical Express in 1964, 1965, and 1968. Of the female singers of the British Invasion, Springfield made one of the biggest impressions in the US.

I Only Want to Be With You

Here is a real anomaly. James Marcus Smith, aka PJ Proby, appeared on a Beatles TV show and the rest was history, at least for a little while. Born in Texas, he traveled to London and became a real heartthrob. I saw his name in early Melody Makers and had to find out if he was any good or not! I really like this song Hold Me Proby’s UK career gradually lost momentum after a number of controversial live appearances – including a notorious trouser-splitting incident at a February 1965 show in Luton – led to performance bans by the ABC theatre chain, its TV namesake and BBC TV. A run of minor hits in 1966 was followed by a number of flops, and in March 1968 “It’s Your Day Today” gave Proby his last UK chart entry for nearly 30 years.

Cilla Black, determined to become an entertainer, sgot a part-time job as a cloakroom attendant at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. Impromptu performances impressed The Beatles and she was introduced to Brian Epstein by John Lennon. Her surname was actually White but a Bill Harry from the Mersey Beat paper mistakenly referred to her as Cilla Black, rather than White, and she decided she liked the name, and took it as a stage name. Her second UK #1 success, was an English-language rendition of the Italian popular song “Il Mio Mondo” or You’re My World

Sandie Shaw was known as the barefoot pop princess, always performing without shoes. s. She was seen as epitomising the “swinging Sixties”, and her trademark barefoot performances endeared her to the public at large.^[ Girl Don’t Come was her biggest hit in the US.

Just so you know, the Walker Brothers were unrelated! Comprising Scott Engel, John Maus, and Gary Leeds they formed in 1964, the three unrelated musicians adopted the ‘Walker Brothers’ name as a show business touch – “simply because we liked it”. They provided a unique counterpoint to the British Invasion in that they were a group from the United States that only achieved success in the United Kingdom and Germany.

I always liked this tune!     The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore

Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich were five friends from Wiltshire, David John Harman, Trevor Leonard Ward-Davies, John Dymond, Michael Wilson and Ian Frederick Stephen Amey, formed a group in 1961, originally called Dave Dee and the Bostons. They soon gave up their jobs (e.g. Dave Dee was a policeman) to make their living from music. Apart from performing in the UK, they also occasionally played in Hamburg (Star-Club, Top Ten Club) and in Cologne (Storyville). Vocalist Dee, the ex-policeman, was at the scene of the automobile accident that took the life of the American rock and roller Eddie Cochran and injured Gene Vincent in April 1960. Dee had taken Cochran’s guitar from the accident and held it until it could be returned to his family.

As a teenager, I couldn’t believe that these songs were not hits in the US! A lot of promo people got it wrong!

Hold Tight and Bend It

When my sister came back from her first trip to London she had a copy of the first Move LP on the Regal Zonophone label.

She also had a British promo of Wild Tiger Woman and the flip side was Omnibus I am not sure if she new how many times I played this 45! I was a big fan and when they signed to Capitol Records and released Looking On. Unfortunately, one more LP and they broke up!

One of my favorite bands were the Small Faces I remember in June of 1967 going to lunch with my mother at Macy’s and picking up the LP

There are but Four Small Faces

Now I am sure most everyone would consider the best song on the LP to be Itchycoo Park but for my money, Tin Soldier wins hands down!

I think there is nothing more fitting to end this blog than this little ditty by The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band! Bonzo the dog was a popular British cartoon character created by artist George Studdy in the 1920s. In 1967 as the Bonzo Dog band’s popularity increased, they were asked by Paul McCartney to appear in the “Magical Mystery Tour” film at the end of 1967, performing Death Cab for Cutie This was a very strange band that created many fun tunes. I owned their first four LPs. They were a cross between Firesign Theater and British Music Hall kinda thing! I actually saw them live at the Fillmore opening for the Kinks and Spirit.  What a great bill!

So without further ado…

Intro and Outro

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

I spent hours studying the cover and reading the lyrics on the back.Moreover, we could spend weeks on this one landmark recording!

Here is a link to the Guide to the LP. This will tell you exactly who is on the cover and who bowed out and why. The recording took 129 days and by this time the Beatles were getting into recording late into the night.

Originally, the group had wanted the album to include a package with badges, pencils and other small Sgt. Pepper goodies but this proved far too costly to realise. Instead, the album came with a page of cardboard cut-outs carrying the description:

SGT. PEPPER  CUT-OUTS

The final bill for the cover was £2,868 5s 3d (equivalent to £37,531 today), a staggering sum for the time. It has been estimated that this was 100 times the average cost for an album cover in those days

Lovely Rita This is in my opinion where the Beatles really got funky. Ringo and Paul were so locked in! Paul’s piano work is brilliant and his bass lays it down. The unusual noises during the song after the lines “and the bag across her shoulder/ made her look a little like a military man” were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison playing comb and paper. Mal Evans was sent to Abbey Road’s lavatories to collect toilet paper (which was stamped with the words, “PROPERTY OF EMI”). This was used to cover hair combs, which they blew through to resemble the sound of a kazoo orchestra.

When my sister ran away from home she did it in style! Growing up in NYC, going to private school, you meet a lot of famous people’s kids. My  sister became good friends with Lorna Luft. When she ran away, she moved into the St Moritz Hotel on Central Park South with Lorna and her mother Judy Garland. Picture if you will my sister watching the Wizard of Oz with Dorothy! Why am I telling you this. Well, She’s Leaving Home has a special meaning to me. Now that she passed, I am playing it again for her.

When Beatles manager Brian Epstein decided that a new single was needed, Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane were issued as a double-A-sided single in February 1967. Unfortunately in keeping with the group’s usual practice, the single tracks were not included on the LP a decision George Martin states he now regrets. Can you imagine where these two songs would be placed if included on the LP? Or, would two other songs be shelved for a later time?

And as all LP’s have to end   A Day In The Life with Outtake Credited toLennon/McCartney, the song comprises distinct segments written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney with orchestral additions. Originally it was given the title “In the Life Of…”While Lennon’s lyrics were inspired by contemporary newspaper articles, McCartney’s were reminiscent of his youth. The decisions to link sections of the song with orchestral crescendos and to end the song with a sustained piano chord were made only after the rest of the song had been recorded. There is some dispute about the inspiration for the first verse. Many believe that it was written with regard to the death of Tara Browne, the 21-year-old heir to the Guinness fortune and close friend of Lennon and McCartney, who had crashed his Lotus Elan on 18 December 1966 when a Volkswagen pulled out of a side street into his path in Redcliffe Gardens, Earls Court. In numerous interviews, Lennon claimed this was the verse’s prime inspiration. However, George Martin believes that it is a drug reference (as is the line “I’d love to turn you on” and other passages from the song) and while writing the lyrics Lennon and McCartney were imagining a stoned politician who had stopped at a set of traffic lights. The description of the accident in “A Day in the Life” was not a literal description of Browne’s fatal accident. Lennon said, “I didn’t copy the accident. Tara didn’t blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse. The details of the accident in the song — not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene — were similarly part of the fiction.  It was arranged for the orchestral session to be filmed by NEMS Enterprises for use in a planned television special. The film was never released in its entirety, although portions of it can be seen in the “A Day in the Life” promotional film, which includes shots of studio guests Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Donovan,Pattie Boyd and Michael Nesmith.

^{Reflecting The Beatles’ taste for experimentation and the avant gardeat this point in their careers, the orchestra players were asked to wear or were given a costume piece on top of their formal dress. This resulted in different players wearing anything from red noses to fake stick-on nipples. Martin recalled that the lead violinist performed wearing a gorilla paw, while a bassoon player placed a balloon on the end of his instrument.}

Following “A Day in the Life” on the Sgt. Pepper album (as first released on LP in the UK and years later worldwide on CD) is a high frequency tone and the repetition of the phrase “Never to see any other way” along with background noises. Recorded two months after the mono and stereo masters for “A Day in the Life” had been finalised, the gibberish (entitled in the session notes “Edit for LP End”, but widely known as “Sgt. Pepper Inner Groove”) was added to the run-out groove of the initial British pressing.

Magical Mystery Tour released on November 27, 1967. If you woke me up at three AM and asked me out of a sound sleep what my favorite Beatle album is I would have to say Magical Mystery Tour. And in fact, really side two of the US released LP. It was released in the UK as a 2 EP package which I still own!

After Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Paul McCartney wanted to create a film based upon The Beatles and their music. The film was to be unscripted: various “ordinary” people (including John Lennon’s uncle Charlie) were to travel on a charabanc bus and have unspecified “magical” adventures, in the manner of Ken Kesey’sMerry Pranksters.

The Magical Mystery Tour movie was made, but the hoped-for “magical” adventures never happened. During the filming, an ever greater number of cars followed the hand-lettered bus, hoping to see what its passengers were up to, until a running traffic jam developed. The spectacle ended after Lennon angrily tore the lettering off the sides of the bus. I remember going to see it in NY

One of the most perfect basslines in rock music is the one on Hello Goodbye. It has a fugue like quality to it.

Under the working title “Hello Hello”, the Beatles recorded the backing track on 2 October 1967, and added vocals and a guitar overdub on the 19th. After further overdubs of bass guitar and viola, recording was completed on the 2nd November, and mixing on the 6th. The final lines of the song, where the entire band sings “Hela, hey-ba hello-a” came spontaneously in the studio. McCartney said “I remember the end bit where there’s the pause and it goes ‘Heba, heba hello’. We had those words and we had this whole thing recorded but it didn’t sound quite right, and I remember asking Geoff Emerick if we could really whack up the echo on the tom-toms. And we put this echo full up on the tom-toms and it just came alive.”

I Am the Walrus, the last song on side 1 is actually the B side of the single Hello Goodbye. Again, the groove is monstrous! Paul and Ringo have a lock that is so connected. Yea for the rhythm section! The walrus is a reference to the walrus in Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter” (from the book Through the Looking-Glass). Lennon expressed dismay upon belatedly realizing that the walrus was a villain in the poem. “I Am the Walrus” was the first studio recording made after the death of The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein in August 1967

The genesis of the lyrics is found in three song ideas that Lennon was working on, the first of which was inspired by hearing a police siren at his home in Weybridge; Lennon wrote the lines “Mis-ter cit-y police-man” to the rhythm of the siren. The second idea was a short rhyme about Lennon sitting in his garden, while the third was a nonsense lyric about sitting on a corn flake. Unable to finish the ideas as three different songs, he combined them into one.

Lennon received a letter from a pupil at Quarry Bank Grammar School, which he had attended. The writer mentioned that the English master was making his class analyse Beatles’ lyrics. (Lennon wrote an answer, dated 1 September 1967, which was auctioned by Christie’s of London in 1992.) Lennon, amused that a teacher was putting so much effort into understanding The Beatles’ lyrics, wrote the most confusing lyrics he could. Lennon’s friend and former fellow member of The Quarrymen, Peter Shotton, was visiting, and Lennon asked Shotton about a playground nursery rhyme they sang as children.

Shotton remembered:

“Yellow matter custard, green slop pie,

All mixed together with a dead dog’s eye,

Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick,

Then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick“.^[5]

Lennon borrowed a couple of words, added the three unfinished ideas and the result was “I Am the Walrus”. The Beatles’ official biographer Hunter Davies was present while the song was being written and wrote an account in his 1968 biography of The Beatles. Lennon remarked to Shotton, “Let the fuckers work that one out.” Shotton was also responsible for suggesting to Lennon to change the lyric “waiting for the man to come” to “waiting for the van to come”.

Baby Your A Rich Man was the first song by the band recorded and mixed completely outside Abbey Road Studios. The song was recorded during sessions for the Magical Mystery TourEP, but was intended for the Yellow Submarine soundtrack. That plan changed when it was used as the B-side of the “All You Need Is Love” single. The strange oboe like sound is that of a clavioline which preceded the synthesizer

One last note, this LP and The Who Sell Out were my Christmas presents from my sister. I couldn’t thank her enough!

The White Album was released on November 22, 1968. Originally entitled A Doll’s House, the title was changed when the British progressive rock band Family released the similarly titled Music in a Doll’s House earlier that year. Most of the songs were conceived during a transcendental meditationcourse with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India in the spring of 1968. Lennon left Rishikesh because he felt personally betrayed by rumours that Maharishi had made sexual advances toward Mia Farrow, who had accompanied The Beatles on their trip. Shortly after he decided to leave, Lennon wrote a song called “Maharishi” which included the lyrics, “Maharishi/You little twat”; the song became   Sexy Sadie

Despite the album’s official title, which emphasised group identity, studio efforts on The Beatles captured the work of four increasingly individualised artists who frequently found themselves at odds. Long after the recording of The Beatles was complete, Martin mentioned in interviews that his working relationship with The Beatles changed during this period, and that many of the band’s efforts seemed unfocused, often yielding prolonged jam sessions that sounded uninspired. The sessions for The Beatles were notable for the band’s formal transition from 4-track to 8-track recording. The Beatles was the first Beatles’ album released by Apple Records, as well as their only original double album. Producer George Martin has said that he was against the idea of a double album at the time and suggested to the group that they reduce the number of songs in order to form a single album featuring their stronger work, but that the band decided against this. It was also was the last Beatles album to be released with a unique, alternate mono mix, albeit one issued only in the UK and a few other countries.

Dear Prudence The lyrics are about actress Mia Farrow’s sister Prudence who was present when the Beatles visited Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India. Prudence, focused on meditation, stayed in her room for the majority of their stay. Lennon, who was worried that she was depressed, wrote this song for her, inviting her to ”come out to play”. Prudence explained years later that she was just trying to take Transcendental Meditation seriously. She said in Mojo magazine: “They were trying to be cheerful, but I wished they’d go away. I don’t think they realized what the training was all about.”

Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey

In 1980, Lennon said: “That was just a sort of nice line that I made into a song. It was about me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love. Everything is clear and open when you’re in love. Everybody was sort of tense around us: You know, ‘What is she doing here at the session? Why is she with him?’ All this sort of madness is going on around us because we just happened to want to be together all the time.

The song’s title is the longest of any in the Beatles’ catalogue, and it originates from a quote by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, however, as for the “and My Monkey” part, George Harrison attested that he didn’t “know where that came from” though McCartney believes it was a reference to Lennon’s heroin habit.

Good Night This song still gives me chills. It was originally a lullaby written by John to his son Julian. Was it a better time back in the 60′s? Were we in a strange way more innocent? Less preoccupied? Kind of funny that this song ends the LP. It seems like it was a metaphor that really signaled the end of the Beatles.

Yellow Submarine released Jan 13, 1969 Only one side of the album contains songs performed by the Beatles; of the six, four were previously unissued. “Yellow Submarine” had been simultaneously issued in 1966 as a singleand on the album Revolver, and “All You Need Is Love” had been issued as a single in the summer of 1967. The second side features the symphonic film score composed by George Martin, in versions recorded specifically for the album.

I loved the instrumental tracks. Actually Pepperland is still one of my favorite songs. It has a beautiful melody!  Only four new Beatles songs appeared on the album, and two were recorded specifically for the film, All Together Now and  Hey Bulldog Only a Northern Song an indictment of there publishers had been recorded during the sessions for Sgt. Pepper, but was set aside from the final running order. It’s All Too Much like similar numbers recorded immediately following the Sgt. Pepper sessions, was not intended for a specific project.                                                                                                                      Although the essential artwork on the album covers issued in the United States and Great Britain are similar, there are a few subtle differences on the sleeves. The front of the British jacket contains the words “NOTHING IS REAL” in green print just below the album’s title. This subtitle had been omitted from the American album cover.

The Beatles were not enthusiastic about participating in a motion picture. They were displeased with their second feature film Help!, and were discouraged by the disastrous reception of their self-produced TV special Magical Mystery Tour. They did, however, see an animated film as a favourable way to complete their commitment to United Artists for a third film. (Ultimately, due to their relatively small roles and the fact it was animated, United Artists still considered them to owe another movie; Let It Be would be the third film to complete their contract with the studio.)

The Beatles were impressed after seeing a draft of the film, and agreed to make a live-action cameo appearance in the final scene, which was filmed in early February 1968 upon the band’s return from India. The cameo was originally intended to feature a post-production psychedelic background and effects; but due to time and budget constraints, a blank, black background remained in the final film.

Moving right along we left off with Beatles VI which brings us to August 6, 1965. The LP  Help! is released curiously 19 days before the movie release in the US on August 25, 1965.

According to The Beatles, they were experimenting in marijuana at the time this movie was filmed. That explains why they flub a lot of their lines or their lines don’t make much sense!
Obviously the songwriting was getting a bit more sophisticated. This was evident in the choice of instrumentation that went into some of the songs. The American release was a true soundtrack album, mixing the first seven songs with orchestral material from the film. The holding-over of the other songs, several of which were released on the US version of the next Beatles album, Rubber Soul, created an impression of the group’s direction that differed strongly in the US from the UK.

Yesterday was arranged for guitar and string quartet and recorded without the other group members.

You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away showed Lennon’s penchant for Bob Dylan

I was not a big fan of the movie. I loved the music but, I guess you could almost say that it was a sophmore slump! It would be hard for anyone to beat A Hard Day’s Night!

Here are a few fun continuity issues. I remember and early James Bind movie where his tie is up in the beginning of the scene and to the side towards the end!    You may want to go out and grab a copy of the DVD and check these out:

During the performance of “Help!” in the beginning of the movie, Ringo is wearing the sacrificial ring in the close-ups but not in the other shots. Also, in the close-ups, Ringo and his drums are on a much shorter riser than in the other shots Help!

In the scene where Prof. Foot and Algernon are trying to get the ring off Ringo in their lab and Ahme comes in to rescue them, the door she enters is red. Then after she comes in, it is gray.

When the boys are at the piano in the Alps at the end of the “Ticket to Ride” sequence, you can see a mysterious hand appear on Ringo’s right shoulder which obviously was a crew member giving the signal for the guys to leave. As the boys turn to leave and ride away, the hand can be seen resting on the top corner of the piano.

And now for my favorite song on the LP     You’re Gonna Lose That Girl

In later years, Lennon said that the title track of the album was a sincere cry for help, as the pressures of The Beatles’ fame and his own unhappiness (what he later called his “fat Elvis” period) began to build, and that he regretted turning it from a downbeat song in the style of Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely” to an upbeat pop song as a result of commercial pressures.

The Beatles said the film was inspired by the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup and it was also directly satirical of the James Bond series of films.The Beatles did not particularly enjoy the filming of the movie, nor were they pleased with the end product. In 1970, John Lennon said they felt like extras in their own movie.

Rubber Soul, released Dec 3, 1965 was recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market. Unlike the five albums that preceded it, Rubber Soul was the first Beatle album recorded during a specific period without being interrupted by tour dates.

So there they were on the cover, a bit longer hair. The back cover, little information a bit mysterious! The fact that they had decided to concentrate on recording was evident with their choice of instruments and the way they used the instruments In My Life has a piano solo that sounds like a harpsichord but is actually a piano! The addition of percussion was heard on tunes like Wait. I think one of the most interesting instruments used on the LP was a pack of matches and Ringo’s fingers tapping in the background  on  I’m Looking Through You

You can make a case for  See My Friends by the Kinks which was recorded after they visited India as the first Pop song to include Indian influences with the droning guitars but  Norwegian Wood is the first Pop recording to utilize a sitar.

Remember Raga Rock!  And speaking of the Kinks, a couple of friends of mine have decided to set up a Facebook page Ray Davies Deserves Knighthood that is worth checking out!

In 2003, the album was ranked number 5 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Incidentely, the real catalyst for pet sounds was the US release of Rubber Soul. Brian Wilson was quoted “I really wasn’t quite ready for the unity. It felt like it all belonged together. Rubber Soul was a collection of songs … that somehow went together like no album ever made before, and I was very impressed. I said, “That’s it. I really am challenged to do a great album.”

Yesterday and Today released June 20, 1966. My sister had the original cover! It was actually a compilation of tracks from UK LP’s Help!, Rubber Soul, and the soon to be released Revolver. It is said that the slipshod nature in which Capitol records compiled their albums irritated the group, who felt they had “put a lot of work into the sequencing” of the British versions.

Apart from the butcher cover, the album is of interest to collectors for the appearance of unique mixes of Revolver-era tracks unavailable elsewhere. Because of Capitol Records’ haste to release new product, “fake stereo” (i.e. duophonic) mixes of “Dr. Robert,” “And Your Bird Can Sing,” and “I’m Only Sleeping” were made from the original USA mono mixes made on May 1966 and were treated with a degree of compression and reverb not found elsewhere. On the stereo mix of “Day Tripper”, the guitar intro is heard on the left channel and jumps into the right channel (and has John’s extra “yeah” on the first chorus). On the stereo LP, “We Can Work It Out”‘s harmonium is moved to the center during the refrain and the bridge.

In early 1966, photographer Robert Whitaker had The Beatles in the studio for a conceptual art piece entitled “A Somnambulant Adventure.” For the shoot, Whitaker took a series of pictures of the group dressed in butcher smocks and draped with pieces of meat and body parts from plastic baby dolls. The group played along as they were tired of the usual photo shoots and the concept was compatible with their own “black humour”.^[5] Although not originally intended as an album cover, The Beatles submitted photographs from the session for their promotional materials. According to a 2002 interview published in Mojo magazine, former Capitol president Alan W. Livingston stated that it was Paul McCartney who pushed strongly for the photo’s inclusion as the album cover, and that McCartney reportedly described it as “our comment on the war”.

Capitol Records printed up 750,000 copies with the cover. Mono copies outnumbered stereo copies by about 10 to 1, making the stereo copies far more valuable today

Capitol initially ordered plant managers to destroy the covers, and the Jacksonville plant delivered most of its copies to an area landfill. However, faced with so many jackets already printed, Capitol quickly changed course and decided instead to paste this  more conventional cover over the old one. The new cover, featuring a flipped picture (John’s fringe was brushed in the opposite direction to that in which he usually wore it) of a less than content band posed around an open steamer trunk, had to be trimmed on the open end of the album jacket by about 1/8 inch to address problems where the new sheet, known as a “slick”, was not placed exactly “square” on top of the original cover. Tens of thousands of these so-called “Trunk” covers were sent out. As word of this manoeuvre made the rounds, people attempted, usually unsuccessfully, to peel off the pasted-over cover of their copy of the album, hoping to reveal the original image hidden below. Eventually, the soaring prices of Butcher covers spurred the development of intricate and complex techniques for peeling the Trunk cover off in such a way that only faint horizontal glue lines remained on the butcher cover beneath.

Let’s get to the music! Probably my favorite song on the LP is a George Harrison tune If I Needed Someone A version by the Hollies appeared simultaneously, both being released in the UK on 3 December 1965. The Hollies version appeared on a single. Most of the Hollies previous singles had been big top ten hits. When their version of “If I Needed Someone” only reached the lower half of the top 20 in the UK, they were quite critical and said had they had made a mistake recording it.  Personally, I really like this version! The Hollies If I Needed Someone

When McCartney arrived at Lennon’s Weybridge home for a writing session, he had the tune in his head, but “The lyrics were disastrous, and I knew it.” The chorus began, “You can buy me diamond rings”, a cliche they’d used twice before in “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “I Feel Fine”. Lennon dismissed the lyrics as “crap” and “too soft”. They decided to rewrite the lyrics and after some difficulty—McCartney said it was “one of the stickiest” writing sessions—they settled on the “drive my car” theme (which Bob Spitz credits to Lennon) and the rest of the lyrics flowed easily from that  Drive My Car

It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and is the Beatles’ first recording session to extend past midnight. McCartney, working closely with George Harrison, laid down the basic rhythm track, doubling similar riffing lines on bass and low guitar, as per Harrison’s suggestion. Harrison had been listening to Otis Redding’s “Respect” at the time and, as a result of its influence, “Drive My Car” has more bottom than any previous Beatles recording, mimicking the bass-heavy sound generated in Redding’s Memphis studio. McCartney played the lead guitar solo, although Harrison composed the guitar riff which underpins the verses. Harrison doubled this figure an octave lower on the bass. I also like the great piano work of Sir Paul

Nowhere Man is among the very first Beatles songs to be entirely unrelated to romance or love, and marks a notable instance of Lennon’s philosophically-oriented songwriting. A sad song indeed! Lennon said he wrote it about himself. He told Playboy: “I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then ‘Nowhere Man’ came, words and music, the whole damn thing as I lay down” McCartney said of the song: “That was John after a night out, with dawn coming up. I think at that point, he was a bit…wondering where he was going and to be truthful so was I. I was starting to worry about him”

Revolver was released August 5, 1966. The album is often regarded as one of the greatest achievements in rock music history, and one of the Beatles’ greatest studio achievements. It was released before their last tour in August 1966, but they did not perform songs from the album live. Their reasoning for this was that many of the tracks on the album, such asTomorrow Never Knows,  were too complex to perform with live instruments. They toured with Paperback Writer as their only new song from 1966, which was not on the album.

The album cover design was created by Klaus Voormann. When showing his efforts to the band and their manager, Brian Epstein, the band loved it! Voormann’s payment for the album cover was £40. For this work, Klaus won the Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts.                                          In 1966, at the same time he was designing the cover of Revolver, Voormann became a member of the 1960s band Manfred Mann. Voormann played bass for the band from 1966 to 1969, appearing on all their UK hits from “Just Like a Woman” (July 1966) through to their final single “Ragamuffin Man” (April 1969). As well, he played bass and flute on Manfred Mann’s 1968 international hit Quinn the Eskimo. After The Beatles disbanded, there were rumours of The Beatles reforming as The Ladders, with Voormann on bass as a replacement for Paul McCartney. This line-up (Voormann, Lennon, Harrison and Starr) did perform in various combinations on Lennon’s albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)  (Voormann, Lennon, and Starr) and Imagine (1971) (Voormann, Lennon & Harrison) as well as on Ringo Starr’s eponymous album Ringo, in 1973, and Yoko Ono’s Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band (1970) (Voormann, Lennon, Starr, and Ono). Starr’s album features the Lennon-penned hit single “I’m The Greatest” which is the only song in which all four musicians appear together, joined by Billy Preston.

Eleanor Rigby, one of Paul McCartney’s songs on the album, was released as a single (in a double A-side with “Yellow Submarine”) concurrently with the album. The song contains McCartney’s lyrical imagery and a string arrangement (scored by George Martin under McCartney’s direction). Martin once said his composition was inspired by the Bernard Herrmann score for François Truffaut’s film Fahrenheit 451(one of my top 10  all-time favorite movies) however, this is unlikely because the film had not yet been released. The writers of the book Recording The Beatles theorized that Martin was probably referring to the score from Psycho, which was also scored by Herrmann.

Here There and Everywhere is one of Sir Paul’s personal favourites! George Martin has also mentioned it as one of his favourite McCartney songs. John Lennon reportedly told McCartney it was “the best tune on the album” and said in his 1980 Playboy interview it was “one of my favourite songs of the Beatles.” It was ranked the 4th greatest song of all time by Mojo in 2000.

She Said She Said Lennon describes it as “an ‘acidy’ song” with lyrics inspired by actor Peter Fonda’scomments during an LSD trip in 1965 with members of The Beatles. In late August 1965 Brian Epstein had rented a house at 2850 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills, California for The Beatles’ six-day respite from their U.S. tour. The huge Spanish-style house was tucked into the side of a mountain. Soon their address became widely known and the area was besieged by fans who blocked roads and tried to scale the steep canyon while others rented helicopters to spy from overhead. The police department detailed a tactical squad of officers to protect the band and the house. The Beatles found it impossible to leave and instead invited guests including actors Eleanor Bron (who co-starred with them in Help!), Peggy Lipton and folksinger Joan Baez. On August 24 the Beatles hosted the Byrds and Fonda and, except Paul McCartney, took LSD. This was the final track recorded during the Revolver sessions, and was hastily added when the album lineup was found to be a song short. It took nine hours to rehearse and record the entire song, complete with overdubs. After the recording of the song The Beatles’ producer George Martin is reported to have said: “All right, boys, I’m just going for a lie-down.”