|
Post by Windy Miller on Jan 17, 2016 21:33:37 GMT
Hello Goodbye
Written by: Lennon-McCartney Recorded: 2, 19, 25 October, 2 November 1967 Producer: George Martin Engineers: Ken Scott, Geoff Emerick Released: 24 November 1967 (UK)
"Hello, Goodbye" - The Beatles' final single of 1967 was their first release after the death of Brian Epstein. It was backed with "I Am The Walrus", to the displeasure of John Lennon, who considered his song to be the superior of the two. Lennon later dismissed "Hello, Goodbye" as "three minutes of contradictions and meaningless juxtapositions".
On 10 November 1967, The Beatles assembled at the Saville Theatre in London, formerly owned by Brian Epstein, to make three promotional film for "Hello, Goodbye".
In the first film, The Beatles wore their Sgt Pepper costumes to perform in front of a psychedelic backdrop. A cutaway featured the group wearing their collarless suits from 1963, and some local dancers donned grass skirts for what was termed the 'Maori finale'.
The second film was also a performance, although The Beatles wore their everyday - though still elaborate - clothes. In this version Ringo Starr's bass drum carried the familiar Beatles 'drop-T' logo, whereas in the first one it had been absent.
The third clip was made up of outtakes from the first two, plus footage of John Lennon performing the Twist.
Version one was shown on The Ed Sullivan Show on 26 November, and again the following night on ABC's The Hollywood Palace. In Britain, however, the material fell foul of the Musicians' Union ban on miming in television performances, and the films were never shown at the time.
The quality of the video in this restored clip is totally amazing :-
|
|
Del Boy
Moderator
Posts: 9,870
Online Status:
|
Post by Del Boy on Jan 18, 2016 7:44:15 GMT
Amazing stuff, great quality.
I love both songs but i'm inclined to agree with Mr Lennon on this one.
|
|
|
Post by John Steed on Feb 2, 2016 21:02:31 GMT
Great stuff Windy I love "Hello, Goodbye" and "I am the Walrus." I am hard pushed to say which I prefer as I really do like both tracks.
Steed
|
|
Villain
Director
Nine Elms, 1970, looking for the loot...
Posts: 1,280
Online Status:
|
Post by Villain on Feb 3, 2016 11:42:04 GMT
Great stuff Windy I love "Hello, Goodbye" and "I am the Walrus." I am hard pushed to say which I prefer as I really do like both tracks.
Steed I like both songs too, ''Hello Goodbye'' has the same warmth to it that ''When I'm Sixty Four'' and ''Your Mother Should Know'' have, but ''I Am The Walrus'' always hits the right spot. Imagine hearing it on the radio for the first time in 1967 alongside the likes of Val Doonican and Eglebert Humperdink! Villain
|
|
|
Post by Windy Miller on Feb 4, 2016 17:09:34 GMT
Great stuff Windy I love "Hello, Goodbye" and "I am the Walrus." I am hard pushed to say which I prefer as I really do like both tracks.
Steed I like both songs too, ''Hello Goodbye'' has the same warmth to it that ''When I'm Sixty Four'' and ''Your Mother Should Know'' have, but ''I Am The Walrus'' always hits the right spot. Imagine hearing it on the radio for the first time in 1967 alongside the likes of Val Doonican and Eglebert Humperdink! Villain Radio listeners in 1967 preferred Engelbert Humperdinck buying "Release Me" in sufficiently large numbers to keep "Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields Forever" away from the No. 1 spot, breaking the band's four-year run of chart-topping singles. I prefer "I Am The Walrus" to "Hello Goodbye". "Hello Goodbye" is a great pop song but there's not a lot of substance to it. I like the deep meaning lyrics in "I Am The Walrus", which was banned by the BBC when released for being "pornographic". The walrus is a character from Lewis Carroll's poem The Walrus And The Carpenter, from the book Through The Looking Glass. Lennon later realised that the walrus is the bad guy, and attempted to correct the error in the song "Glass Onion", where he sings, "The Walrus was Paul".
|
|
|
Post by Superclassic on Feb 4, 2016 18:10:52 GMT
'Hello,Goodbye' IMO was one of the Beatles' best singles.Complete guff by Lennon,saying it was a song of contradictions or whatever he said,it's a fantastic pop song.Of course it's all contradictions,that's the point of the song.Lennon (and Harrison & Starr)all had a major problem with Paul after the band split,and possibly with good reason.But there was a lot of rubbish spoken on Lennons' part about all things Beatle,and that was probably one of them.If I remember rightly,a lot of 'Hello,Goodbye'' was written at Pauls' house in Cavendish Avenue with Beatle aide and trusted friend Alistair Taylor.Paul and Alistair sat at opposite ends of a piano,hit random notes and called out the opposite to what the other was saying,e.g 'black/white,up/down,left/right......hello/goodbye'.This was done as an exercise after Alistair Taylor had asked Paul how he wrote songs;Paul said he'd show him how easy it was to write.
It's a bit rich really,Lennon saying that about Pauls' song.John always freely admitted that 'walrus' was complete nonsense writing,saying something along the lines of "if Dylan can get away with writing nonsense lyrics then so can I".Although 'Walrus' is a great song,it was nowhere near as commercial as 'hello,goodbye'.Also more superb drumming by Ringo on 'hello,goodbye'.Very under-rated.
|
|
Villain
Director
Nine Elms, 1970, looking for the loot...
Posts: 1,280
Online Status:
|
Post by Villain on Feb 4, 2016 19:34:02 GMT
'Hello,Goodbye' IMO was one of the Beatles' best singles.Complete guff by Lennon,saying it was a song of contradictions or whatever he said,it's a fantastic pop song.Of course it's all contradictions,that's the point of the song.Lennon (and Harrison & Starr)all had a major problem with Paul after the band split,and possibly with good reason.But there was a lot of rubbish spoken on Lennons' part about all things Beatle,and that was probably one of them.If I remember rightly,a lot of 'Hello,Goodbye'' was written at Pauls' house in Cavendish Avenue with Beatle aide and trusted friend Alistair Taylor.Paul and Alistair sat at opposite ends of a piano,hit random notes and called out the opposite to what the other was saying,e.g 'black/white,up/down,left/right......hello/goodbye'.This was done as an exercise after Alistair Taylor had asked Paul how he wrote songs;Paul said he'd show him how easy it was to write.
It's a bit rich really,Lennon saying that about Pauls' song.John always freely admitted that 'walrus' was complete nonsense writing,saying something along the lines of "if Dylan can get away with writing nonsense lyrics then so can I".Although 'Walrus' is a great song,it was nowhere near as commercial as 'hello,goodbye'.Also more superb drumming by Ringo on 'hello,goodbye'.Very under-rated. Good point about Lennon's approach to 'nonsense' lyrics, the beginnings of his writing ''I Am The Walrus'' happened in his back garden during the Summer of '67, the lines about ''sitting in an English garden'' and ''waiting for the van to come'' were just that, he was sat around in the garden bored out of his head with old school chum Pete Shotton trying to think of something abstract to write at the time. Off in the distance he heard a van driving down the road at the end of his drive near Weighbridge and that was all he needed to get the song going. Other lines came from a conversation between the two of them about the silly 'Alice in Wonderland' style poems that John used to write when he was at school, he was using them as inspiration which is one reason why ''I Am The Walrus'' sounds so surreal. The line about 'semolina pilchards' came from John and Pete remembering the horrible school dinners they were forced to consume! Villain
|
|
|
Post by Windy Miller on Mar 9, 2016 8:54:10 GMT
A Day In The Life
It’s impossible to summaries "A Day In The Life" into just a few words - it’s just too huge, so sorry this is such a long post.
The climax of their masterpiece Sgt Pepper, “A Day In The Life” found The Beatles at the peak of their creative powers. An astonishing artistic statement that broke boundaries. It’s as fresh today as it was when written and produced in 1967, and is a lasting tribute to the band that will be enjoyed by generations to come.
A Day In The Life was inspired by a series of disconnected events that entered John Lennon's consciousness: the death of millionaire socialite Tara Browne, his own appearance in Richard Lester's film How I Won The War, and a council survey that found 4,000 holes in the roads of Blackburn, Lancashire.
The middle section ("Woke up, fell out of bed") was an unfinished song fragment written by Paul McCartney, its practical earthiness providing a perfect counterpoint to Lennon's daydreaming. The reference to having a smoke, along with the refrain "I'd love to turn you on", led to the song being banned by the BBC.
The final verse was taken from the Daily Mail's Far and Near column. "There are 4,000 holes in the road in Blackburn, Lancashire," it read. The Albert Hall was the institution named as the building best to house 4,000 holes. It’s just a nonsense verse, but the songs unforgettable defining lyric.
The Beatles began recording A Day In The Life on 19 January 1967. While recording A Day In The Life, The Beatles knew that something would have to fill the sections after the "I'd love to turn you on" lines. They had their assistant Mal Evans count out 24 bars, with Lennon's piano notes climbing with each number. To mark the beginning of the middle eight an alarm clock was sounded; although intended to be temporary, it worked well with Paul McCartney's middle section, especially when the lyrics were written, and so the counting and alarm clock were kept in the final version.
McCartney also had the idea of filling the gaps with an orchestral build up. Forty musicians were employed, and the passages were recorded four times via two synced tape machines - the first time such a feat had been achieved.
10 February was the day the orchestra recorded the climactic instrumental passages. George Martin conducted the orchestral glissandro, having previously written a musical score for each instrument. Martin had written down the lowest note in each instruments range, and at the end of the passage, the highest note of which the instrument was capable. When it came to the recording, Martin instructed the orchestra to slide very gradually up the scale, also telling the woodwind section to take a breath whenever they found it necessary. The musicians wore evening dress, along with fancy dress items including red noses, bald wigs and novelty glasses. Erich Guenberg, leader of the violins, wore a gorilla paw on his bow hand. Friends of The Beatles, including Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Mike Nesmith and Donovan were present for what was intended as an event.
The song was finally completed on 22 February, when the final crashing piano chord was recorded. This took nine attempts to get right, and was overdubbed three times with more pianos and a harmonium played by George Martin. It lasts for forty-two seconds.
A recording of the orchestral parts was filmed, but the resulting footage remained unseen until a short passage appeared in the Anthology series. The hidden recording is now available on-line, and here it is, in splendid High Definition :-
George Martin: 3 January 1926 - 9 March 2016
|
|
Villain
Director
Nine Elms, 1970, looking for the loot...
Posts: 1,280
Online Status:
|
Post by Villain on Mar 9, 2016 12:10:07 GMT
Excellent post Windy and a fitting tribute to George Martin's wonderful contribution. The Anthology version of 'A Day In The Life' is very spooky with Lennon's 'Sugarplum fairy, sugarplum fairy' vocal intro, well worth a listen. Villain
|
|
Villain
Director
Nine Elms, 1970, looking for the loot...
Posts: 1,280
Online Status:
|
Post by Villain on Mar 9, 2016 19:39:55 GMT
Tara Browne carshed his Lotus Elan into the back of a parked MkIX Jag in December '66, swerving to avoid another vehicle, sadly, with the Lotus having a glassfibre body he didn't much of a chance - when John wrote his first draft of 'A Day In The Life' these are the photos he was looking at in the newspaper he was reading... ''I read the news today oh boy...''The clever mix of the macabre and trivial is one of the things which makes it such a great song. Villain
|
|