Post by Villain on May 21, 2015 11:06:28 GMT
That's a point often made about The White Album Del, but as Macca said only to plainly on the Anthology... ''it's The Beatles bloody White Album... shut up!!" For me, it's the album's sprawling nature and some of the 'filler' tracks which give it a character unlike any other Fabs LP, and some of the lesser known tracks (ie: the ones you never hear on the radio) are just as good as the more familiar ones, such as George's 'Long, Long, Long', which has a beautiful syrupy texture and feel to it. The instrumentation right across all four sides of the LP is very broad in range and feel but somehow, in the way that only the Beatles can manage it seems to become 'whole', if that makes sense. Most of the songs were written on acoustic guitars while the lads were in India with the Maharishi in February and March of '68 but the finished recordings all sound very different. Although only a nipper at the time, I have a very vivid memory of my uncle taking his newly bought White Album from its brown paper wrapping that Christmas and playing it on his old Dancette record player for the first time, the screaming jet sound at the start of 'Back In The USSR' made my little ears prick up like nobody's business! I remember him putting the free poster and four portrait prints of the band on his wall too (next to a pic of racing driver Jim Clark, quite a contrast!).
I picked 'Sgt.Pepper' and the 'White Album' as my top two but 'Rubber Soul', 'Revolver' and 'Abbey Road' came very close too. Over time though, listening to them all has become so familiar and ingrained in my mind that I hear them in different ways depending on the mood I'm in. Listening to some bootleg versions and alternative takes of certain songs also makes you see / hear them in a very different light too, as does reading about the recording process and the stories behind the songs themselves - I've heard seventeen different versions (there at least thirt five in existance) of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' which range from John's very first scratchy home tape recorded accoustic run through (complete with cock up!) to a full on freak out with very heavy drums and strings added to the mix, much heavier than the released version. The final cut of the song was put together from two completely seperate takes which were recorded at different tempos and different keys on different nights, George Martin managed to slow one version down and speed the other up to match which accounts for the strange tone of John's voice in places, for those of you who've not noticed this before, the join is about seventeen seconds in - be warned though, it will never sound the same again once you've spotted it . If you listen to the Anthology CDs with their background studio chatter it really puts you in the picture, somehow the stop / start nature of the recordings and the jokey banter makes listening to the final released versions of the same tracks that much better. It also makes you realise just how much work went into them and how history might have seemed quite different if the earlier / different takes of these tracks had been released. Although quite workmanlike in places, these Antholgy outakes are part of the Beatles magic, it's like looking into the cracks and finding more gems... all good stuff. Even the 'throwaway' stuff that was left over and used on the 'Yellow Submarine' soundtrack sounds fresh and light years ahead of what most other bands were comitting to tape at the same time, and in some cases in the same building. While the Beatles were making 'Sgt. Pepper', Pink Floyd were next door recording their debut album which sounds very dated today (but still good in places).
When the lads came back from India with their newly written songs (about thirty in all) they decided to get together at George's house in Esher and make some demos before going in to Abbey Road to start recording them properly, a bootleg exists of the tapes and while they were there a fan knocked on George's door asking for autographs and took some photos, these three candid shots with George, John and Ringo are the result...
Ringo signs his autograph for the photographer before driving the few miles down the road to Weighbridge in Mini Cooper S...
I picked 'Sgt.Pepper' and the 'White Album' as my top two but 'Rubber Soul', 'Revolver' and 'Abbey Road' came very close too. Over time though, listening to them all has become so familiar and ingrained in my mind that I hear them in different ways depending on the mood I'm in. Listening to some bootleg versions and alternative takes of certain songs also makes you see / hear them in a very different light too, as does reading about the recording process and the stories behind the songs themselves - I've heard seventeen different versions (there at least thirt five in existance) of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' which range from John's very first scratchy home tape recorded accoustic run through (complete with cock up!) to a full on freak out with very heavy drums and strings added to the mix, much heavier than the released version. The final cut of the song was put together from two completely seperate takes which were recorded at different tempos and different keys on different nights, George Martin managed to slow one version down and speed the other up to match which accounts for the strange tone of John's voice in places, for those of you who've not noticed this before, the join is about seventeen seconds in - be warned though, it will never sound the same again once you've spotted it . If you listen to the Anthology CDs with their background studio chatter it really puts you in the picture, somehow the stop / start nature of the recordings and the jokey banter makes listening to the final released versions of the same tracks that much better. It also makes you realise just how much work went into them and how history might have seemed quite different if the earlier / different takes of these tracks had been released. Although quite workmanlike in places, these Antholgy outakes are part of the Beatles magic, it's like looking into the cracks and finding more gems... all good stuff. Even the 'throwaway' stuff that was left over and used on the 'Yellow Submarine' soundtrack sounds fresh and light years ahead of what most other bands were comitting to tape at the same time, and in some cases in the same building. While the Beatles were making 'Sgt. Pepper', Pink Floyd were next door recording their debut album which sounds very dated today (but still good in places).
When the lads came back from India with their newly written songs (about thirty in all) they decided to get together at George's house in Esher and make some demos before going in to Abbey Road to start recording them properly, a bootleg exists of the tapes and while they were there a fan knocked on George's door asking for autographs and took some photos, these three candid shots with George, John and Ringo are the result...
Ringo signs his autograph for the photographer before driving the few miles down the road to Weighbridge in Mini Cooper S...