MLT Club Member Dan
MLT Club MemberForum Replies Created
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To me, “Dear Prudence” shows the Beatles (well, 3/4 of the Beatles) at their best. It’s John’s song, and it was recorded during one of the most turbulent parts of their career, but they manage to pull it together to produce a gentle, but powerful song. George’s lead, John’s fingerpicking, and Paul’s bassline, with the beautiful harmonies from all three, show them at the top of their game. Bonus points to Paul for showing what a talented musician he is, playing the bass, piano, and drums, plus a tiny bit of flugelhorn, on it.
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This is the original speed the guitar and drums were played at for “Rain.” The tape was then slowed down to give it a different sound. The bass was recorded over the slowed down tape, so it wasn’t quite this fast in real life. Paul (sped up or not) is a beast here, and Ringo is on fire.
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This is REALLY low-hanging fruit, especially for this group, but…
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The Mal Evans account comes from the 1975 “David Frost Salutes the Beatles” TV movie. Here’s what Mal says:
“Paul was meditating one day and I came to him in a vision, and I was just standing there saying, ‘Let it be, let it be.’ And that’s where the song came from. And it’s funny, because we were going home from a session one night, and it was three o’clock in the morning, raining, dark in London, and Paul was telling me this you know, saying like, ‘I’ve written this song,’ and he told me the instant. And he said, ‘The song was going to be “Brother Malcolm”, but I’d better change “Brother Malcolm” in case people get the wrong idea.'”
The earliest recorded run through of “Let it Be” (September 5, 1968, during the White Album sessions) has “Brother Malcolm.”
The song only really starts to take shape in the January Get Back sessions, but it’s interesting to note that Paul still sings “Brother Malcolm” off and on through January 31st, the final day of the sessions, and the day that produced Take 27A, which was the take used for both the single and album versions.
With no disrespect to Sir Paul, interviews from closer to the events in question sometimes differ from some of his more contemporary recollections. I can’t blame him; he’s one of the most interviewed people alive, and he has a tendency to revert to a couple of tried-and-true canned anecdotes when he’s asked the same questions over and over again.
The “Yesterday/Scrambled Eggs” story, the bit about John lowering his glasses and saying, “It’s only me,” in the middle of an argument, and Mother Mary telling him to “let it be” in a dream have probably featured in dozens or hundreds of interviews from the early 90s to the present.
I suspect he’s conflating an event or two, and “Mother Mary” makes a more compelling story than “Brother Malcolm,” but if that’s how he remembers it, who am I to argue?
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McCartney’s early bass lines are competent, if rather conventional roots and fifths. His work from Rubber Soul on is inspired. I might pick “Nowhere Man” or “Rain” as my favorites, but “Dear Prudence” and “Come Together” are also certainly very special.
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This is one of my favorite Beatles topics!
Up through the White Album, mono was the version John, Paul, George, and Ringo were present for the mixing of and blessed off on. The stereo mixes were done after the fact, without The Beatles’ present, and often relatively quickly and with much less care and attention. The original UK mono mixes could arguable be considered the “definitive” versions.
Some of the differences are extremely minor, and you really have to listen closely–for example, Lennon’s phrasing of the line “changed my mind” is clearly annunciated in the mono version of “Help!” while he runs it together as “changedmymind” in the stereo mix (different vocal takes were used). Many of the songs have different run times and are faded out at different points. Some have different (or absent) double-tracking, echoes, and effects.
Some of the differences are more noticeable, like Paul’s voice cracking on the word “vain” in the stereo mix of “If I Fell,” while the mono mix corrected it.
Some of the differences are very clear, such as “She’s Leaving Home,” where the mono version is sped up an entire step to F, while the stereo is slower and in E.
There are also differences between some U.S. and U.K. mixes, as well as differences between the original 60s versions, the 1987 CDs, the 2009 remasters, and the post-2009 releases.
On top of that, there are often differences even within the original 60s vinyl mixes. For example, the first 1966 pressing of Revolver has a mix of “Tomorrow Never Knows,” with somewhat differently spliced tape loops.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Dan Steciak.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by
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I was aware of some Beatle songs from my parents’ radio preferences, but I was 10 when Anthology came out, and between the TV show itself, magazine articles, albums, posters, radio spots, and media coverage, I got to experience a very tiny sliver of what it might have been like in the 60s, and I’ve been hooked ever since. It’s kind of scary and kind of wonderful that it’s now been longer between Anthology and the present than it was between Let it Be and Anthology.
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The friend Paul refers to was Maureen, Ringo’s first wife, who passed away in December of 1994.
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Great topic!
Off the top of my head, Carole King, Diana Ross, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, Petula Clark, Grace Slick, Ronnie Spector, Cass Elliott, and Judith Durham are some of my favorites.
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Just to add to the above…
Lennon’s opinions are always hard to pin down, because they would change based on his mood. As far as Paul’s songs, he did single out “Here, There and Everywhere” as one of his favorites in 1980, when he’d mellowed a bit. Paul recalls it as the only song of his that John praised to his face.
George played “In My Life” during his 1974 tour, which was the only non-Harrison Beatle song on the setlist.
Ringo has said he thinks his best drumming was on “Rain.”
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I was a couple of decades from being born…I just love 60s music.
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What a crazy, amazing album, isn’t it? A bit of everything, really, from rockers to ballads, and then the truly bizarre. It really shows some of their best songwriting, in spite of the tensions and squabbles that were starting to take over the studio.
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I absolutely loved the Get Back documentary, and I, too, have watched it several times. As someone born a couple of decades too late to experience the 60s, it was magical for me to see the Beatles being (mostly) themselves, in living color, so to speak.
And they were so young–during filming, John and Ringo were 28, Paul was 26, and George was just 25. Truly incredible.
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I don’t know how good it will be, but it will be nice to hear something new from them one last time. Nothing is officially released in the Beatle world without the approval of Paul, Ringo, Sean Lennon, and Olivia/Dhani Harrison, so at the very least, they seem to think it’s worth releasing.
I will note that George, in 1994/5, was likely the least enthusiastic about Anthology and “Free as a Bird”/”Real Love,” both in terms of working with Paul again and dredging up the past in general. It’s at least possible Anthology would not have happened if he not been in some financial difficulties. This may have soured his outlook a bit.
Of the three Lennon demos, “Now and Then” was probably the least fleshed out. The piano demo that used to float around YouTube was very, very rough, with unfinished verses and mumbling placeholders. I’m curious to see what the finished product will be. In some ways, I’m glad this waited until now, as the technology is much better than the mid-90s hardware and software that brought us the Alvin and the Chipmunks/Jeff Lynne produced version of “Real Love.”
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If you search for “Beatles reaction” in YouTube, you’ll find hundreds of videos of people in their teens and early twenties listening and reacting to the Beatles for the first time. The magic is definitely still there.
