Tag Archives: 1963

The Beatles 40 best songs: at 34 “Hello Goodbye”

February 9, 2014 Hallgeir 2 Comments

beatles-hello-goodbye

“Hello, Goodbye was one of my songs. There are Geminiani influences here I think: the twins. It’s such a deep theme in the universe, duality – man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write. It’s just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive. You say goodbye, I say hello. You say stop, I say go. I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day.”
– Paul McCartney (Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now)

So often, simplicity is mistaken for “being easy”. McCartney’s pop jewel is not easy, it is pop-music perfection. It’s infectious, catchy and clever beyond what initially meets the ear but that’s hard to pull off. Lennon was more than annoyed about this, he was angry about McCartney’s ability to churn out these perfect “pop-ditties”. It happened with this single as it had happened before with Strawberry fields/Penny Lane single. Talk about duality, Lennon and McCartney.

The song belies its simplicity, it sounds like a young man in a hurry. The “calm” lyrics and the insistent melody, it is a paradox.

It is a masterpiece!

Wikipedia:

“Hello, Goodbye” was released as a single in November 1967, and topped the charts in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Norway. The song also was a number two hit in both Austria and Switzerland.

Single by The Beatles
B-side	“I Am the Walrus”
Released	November 24, 1967
Format	7″
Recorded	2 October – 2 November 1967, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Pop rock
Length	3:27
Label	Parlophone (UK), Capitol (US)
Writer(s)	Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)	George Martin

Number of takes: 21
Oct 2, Oct 19, Oct 20, Oct 25, Nov 1 and Nov 2

Written by Paul McCartney.

“Paul marched me into the dining room, where he had a marvellous old hand-carved harmonium. ‘Come and site at the other end of the harmonium. You hit any note you like on the keyboard. Just hit it and I’ll do the same. Now whenever I shout out a word, you shout the opposite and I’ll make up a tune. You watch, it’ll make music’…

‘Black,’ he started. ‘White,’ I replied. ‘Yes.’ ‘No.’ ‘Good.’ ‘Bad.’ Hello.’ ‘Goodbye.’

I wonder whether Paul really made up that song as he went along or whether it was running through his head already.”
– Alistair Taylor (Epstein’s personal assistant and later the GM of Apple Corps.)

The Beatles – Hello, Goodbye:

“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.”
– Paul McCartney
Continue reading The Beatles 40 best songs: at 34 “Hello Goodbye” →

Beatles, List, The Best Songs

The Beatles 40 best songs: at 35 “I Am The Walrus”

February 7, 2014 Hallgeir 2 Comments

i-am-the-walrus-cover

“I am the Walrus is one of my favorite tracks – because I did it, of course, but also because it’s one of those that has enough little bitties going to keep you interested even a hundred years later”
– John Lennon (1974)

“‘Walrus’ is just saying a dream – the words don’t mean a lot. People draw so many conclusions and it’s ridiculous… What does it really mean, ‘I am the Eggman’? It could have been the pudding basin for all I care. It’s not that serious.”
– John Lennon (1980)

Wikipedia:

“I Am the Walrus” is a 1967 song by the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song was featured in the Beatles’ 1967 television film, as a track on the associated double EP Magical Mystery Tour and its American counterpart LP, and was the b-side to the number 1 hit single “Hello, Goodbye.” Since the single and the double EP held at one time in December 1967 the top two slots on the British singles chart, the song had the distinction of being at number 1 and number 2 simultaneously.

It was done in 17 takes, on Sep 5, 6, 27 and 28.

Single by The Beatles
A-side	“Hello, Goodbye”
Released	24 November 1967
Format	7″ single
Recorded	5 September 1967, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Psychedelic rock
Length	4:33
Label	Parlophone
Writer(s)	Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)	George Martin

Basically the original songtrack of I am the Walrus set to video footage from MMT and Beatles Anthology. Sharp-eyed male viewers might notice a couple of (not so small) enhancements from elsewhere in the MMT footage, and even a guest appearance by that well-known English eccentric Vivien Stanshall:

Continue reading The Beatles 40 best songs: at 35 “I Am The Walrus” →

Beatles, List

The Beatles 40 best songs: at 36 “All My Loving”

February 6, 2014 Egil

Lennon expressed his esteem for the song in his 1980 Playboy interview:

“ LENNON:”All My Loving” is Paul, I regret to say. Ha ha ha.
PLAYBOY: Why?
LENNON: Because it’s a damn good piece of work. … But I play a pretty mean guitar in back.”

The complicated rhythm guitar is probably the reason that John left the deep singing part (in the last verse) to George, he simply couldn’t do both.
Cynthia Lennon believed John wrote it for her, but in fact Paul (the writer) probably had Jane Archer in mind when he wrote the lyrics.

We should also pay attention to Ringo’s great drumming, it has a very distinct and difficult to copy, latin style. It add a sophisticated rhythm to a song that without it would much more ordinary pop/rock, this is evident on the Live at the BBC album were he plays an ordinary 4/4 rhythm. It gets a more rock’n roll feel but loses a bit of it’s uniqueness, I think.

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Country, Johnny Cash, The Best Songs

Today: Johnny Cash recorded Ring of Fire in 1963

March 25, 2013 Hallgeir 1 Comment

Ring Of Fire 1

“The song is about the transformative power of love and that’s what it has always meant to me and that’s what it will always mean to the Cash children.”
– Rosanne Cash

“Ring of Fire” or “The Ring of Fire” is a country music song popularized by Johnny Cash and co-written by June Carter Cash (wife of Johnny Cash) and Merle Kilgore. The single appears on Cash’s 1963 album, Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. The song was originally recorded by June’s sister, Anita Carter, on her Mercury Records album Folk Songs Old and New (1963) as “(Love’s) Ring of Fire”.

Anita Carter – Love’s Ring of Fire:

According to the Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 Songs, June Carter wrote this song while driving around aimlessly one night, worried about Cash’s wild man ways – and aware that she couldn’t resist him.

“There is no way to be in that kind of hell, no way to extinguish a flame that burns, burns, burns”

Not long after hearing June’s sister Anita’s take on the song, Cash had a dream that he was singing it with Mariachi horns. Cash’s version became one of his biggest hits, and his marriage to June 4 years later helped save his life. The song was maybe inspired by the poem Love’s Ring Of Fire, and it was originally recorded in a more folksy manner by June Carter’s sister, Anita, as “Love’s Fiery Ring.”/”Love’s Ring of Fire”. Cash held back on his single to give her version a chance to chart.
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Beatles, Great albums, Music Calendar

Today: Bringing It All Back Home (48) & Please Please Me (50)

March 22, 2013 Egil 1 Comment

“Bringing It All Back Home” is not included in the “Music Calendar post” … It has a separate post (part of the “Bob Dylan Albums” series):

Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home

..now let’s focus on The Beatles debut album..“Please Please Me” released 50 years ago today!

….they were a group with the luck to meet opportunities, the wit to recognize them, the drive to seize them, and the talent to fullfil them. Please Please Me is the sound of them doing all four.
~Tom Ewing (pitchfork.com)

#1 – I Saw Her Standing There

Wikipedia:

Released	22 March 1963
Recorded	11 February 1963, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Rock and roll, pop
Length	32:45
Label	Parlophone
Producer	George Martin

Please Please Me is the debut album by the English rock band the Beatles. Parlophone rush-released the album on 22 March 1963 in the United Kingdom to capitalise on the success of singles “Please Please Me” (No. 1 on most lists but only No. 2 on Record Retailer) and “Love Me Do” (No. 17).

Of the album’s fourteen songs, eight were written by Lennon–McCartney (originally credited “McCartney–Lennon”), early evidence of what Rolling Stone later called “[their invention of] the idea of the self-contained rock band, writing their own hits and playing their own instruments”. In 2012, Please Please Me was voted 39th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.

…It’s a blueprint of everything the Beatles would ever do, mixing up doo-wop, country, R&B, girl groups, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Tin Pan Alley into their own exuberant sound. John and Paul sang the openhearted originals “Ask Me Why,” “There’s a Place,” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” Ringo shouted, “All right, George!” in his gender-flipped cover of the Shirelles’ ultrafemme “Boys.” All four Beatles sang and played with total emotional urgency, holding nothing back, knowing their first shot at getting out of Liverpool could have been their last. You can hear John completely blow out his voice in the last track, “Twist and Shout.”
~Rollingstone.com

#7 – Please Please Me

Recording

In order for the album to contain fourteen songs (the norm for British 12″ vinyl pop albums at that time was to have seven songs on each side, while American albums usually had only five or six songs per side) ten more tracks were needed to add to the four sides of their first two singles recorded and released previously. Therefore, at 10:00 am on Monday, 11 February 1963, the Beatles and George Martin started recording what was essentially their live act in 1963, and finished 585 minutes later (9 hours and 45 minutes). In three sessions that day (each lasting approximately three hours) they produced an authentic representation of the band’s Cavern Club-era sound, as there were very few overdubs and edits. Optimistically, only two sessions were originally booked by Martin—the evening session was added later.

The day ended with a cover of “Twist and Shout”, which had to be recorded last because John Lennon had a particularly bad cold and Martin feared the throat-shredding vocal would ruin Lennon’s voice for the day. This performance, captured on the first take, prompted Martin to say: “I don’t know how they do it. We’ve been recording all day but the longer we go on the better they get.”

#14 – Twist and Shout

Track Listing

All songs written by McCartney–Lennon, except where noted.

Side One

“I Saw Her Standing There”
“Misery”
“Anna (Go to Him)” (Arthur Alexander)
“Chains” (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)
“Boys” (Luther Dixon, Wes Farrell)
“Ask Me Why”
“Please Please Me”

Side two

“Love Me Do”
“P.S. I Love You”
“Baby It’s You” (Mack David, Barney Williams, Burt Bacharach)
“Do You Want to Know a Secret”
“A Taste of Honey” (Bobby Scott, Ric Marlow)
“There’s a Place”
“Twist and Shout” (Phil Medley, Bert Russell)

Personnel

According to Mark Lewisohn:

The Beatles

John Lennon – lead vocals, background vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, hand claps
Paul McCartney – lead vocals, background vocals, bass guitar, hand claps
George Harrison – background vocals, lead vocals on “Chains” and “Do You Want to Know a Secret”, lead guitar, acoustic guitar, hand claps
Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine, maracas, hand claps, lead vocals on “Boys”

Additional musicians and production

George Martin – producer, mixer, additional arrangements, piano on “Misery”, celesta on “Baby It’s You”
Norman Smith – audio engineer, mixer
Andy White – drums on “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You”

Reception

Please Please Me hit the top of the UK album charts in May 1963 and remained there for thirty weeks before being replaced by With The Beatles. This was surprising because the UK album charts at the time tended to be dominated by film soundtracks and easy listening vocalists.
In 2012, Please Please Me was voted 39th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. It was ranked first among the Beatles’ early albums, and sixth of all of the Beatles’ albums, with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver,Rubber Soul, The Beatles (The White Album) and Abbey Road ranked higher.
Rolling Stone also placed two songs from the album on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: No. 139, “I Saw Her Standing There”, and No. 184, “Please Please Me”.
According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic, “Decades after its release, the album still sounds fresh”, the covers are “impressive” and the originals “astonishing“.

Full album (UK Mono) from youtube:

Other MAR-22:

Continue reading Today: Bringing It All Back Home (48) & Please Please Me (50) →

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