The website for the book Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles' Solo Careers
Hosts Ryan and Chris of the excellent McCartney podcast TAKE IT AWAY and I recently discussed THE SONGS THE BEATLES GAVE AWAY TO OTHER ARTISTS.
We play Paul and John’s unreleased demos and compare them with singles by the Stones, Peter and Gordon, Badfinger, Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer and more.
If you want it, here it is, come and get it!
Episode 22 – Songs Paul Gave Away
In the early ’60s, girls used to stand in line for three hours before the Beatles’ daily Cavern Club shows, sometimes clawing Starr’s future wife, Maureen, out of jealousy. In the late ’60s, when the group no longer played live, therewas a clique of hardcore female fans who would permanently hang around outside Apple Records or Abbey Road Studios, regardless of the weather, in the hopes of getting to chat with the Fabs. They’d come by in the morning for a while, then go to their day jobs, then return in the evening. Collectively, they were known as the Apple Scruffs.
Since McCartney lived in town, they also loitered outside his gates. “She Came in through the Bathroom Window” from ABBEY ROAD talks about when they snuck into his house and swiped some pants, which they all traded off wearing. They also took a photo, but gave that back when McCartney asked.
The Beatles also invited two of them (Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease) to sing backing vocals on the first version of “Across the Universe.” The song was given to the World WildlifeFund charity and is now on PAST MASTERS, VOL 2. One night, McCartney sang his new song “Blackbird” to them from his window.
During the early “Longest Cocktail Party” days of Apple, before all the Beatles grew to hate the legal turmoil brought on by their own label, Harrison and publicist Derek Taylor considered doing a musical about the place, at which point Harrison started composing Apple-related tunes. One of them, “Not Guilty,” would be rejected for THE WHITE ALBUM and resurface eleven years later on GEORGE HARRISON. Another was “Apple Scruffs,” which he finished for his first solo album.
While he was once sang “Don’t Bother Me” to his fans, in the early days of going solo he seemed to be trying to shore up his base with this wistful love letter. Perhaps he sensed that he’d never again experience such unwavering devotion.
Harrison’s evocative lyrics describe the Apple Scruffs waiting on the steps in the fog and the rain with flowers in their hands. His wavering voice momentarily veers toward good-natured exasperation, but the Dylanesque harmonica makes the overriding mood one of nostalgia for days already fading.
It’s time for the next installment of our year-by-year comparison. While they were in the Beatles, John and Paul attributed all the songs they wrote to “Lennon-McCartney.” But after 1963, most tunes were primarily the work of one composer or the other, who would usually sing lead on the track.
Who do you think came out ahead in the year Beatlemania broke worldwide?
John:
A Hard Day’s Night
I Feel Fine
Eight Days a Week
I Should Have Known Better
If I Fell
I’m a Loser
No Reply
You Can’t Do That
Tell Me Why
Any Time at All
I’ll Cry Instead
When I Get Home
I’ll Be Back
I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party
I’m Happy Just to Dance With You (written for George)
Rock and Roll Music (cover)
Slow Down (cover)
Mr. Moonlight (cover)
Leave My Kitten Alone (cover)
Paul:
Can’t Buy Me Love
And I Love Her
Things We Said Today
She’s a Woman
I’ll Follow the Sun
What You’re Doing
Every Little Thing
It’s For You (written for Cilla Black)
From A Window (written for Billy J. Kramer)
Nobody I Know (written for Peter & Gordon)
I Don’t Want to See You Again (written for Peter & Gordon)
One and One Is Two (written for The Strangers)
Long Tall Sally (cover)
Kansas City/ Hey Hey Hey Hey! (cover)
Both:
Baby’s in Black
Words of Love (cover)
Excerpts, videos, and more are available at http://www.1965book.com and http://www.facebook.com/1965book.
Fifty years ago, friendly rivalry between musicians turned 1965 into the most ground-breaking year in music history ever. It was the year rock and roll evolved into the premier art form of its time and accelerated the drive for personal freedom throughout the Western world.
The feedback loop between the artists and their times ignited an unprecedented explosion of creativity. The Beatles made their first artistic statement with Rubber Soul and performed at Shea Stadium, the first rock concert to be held in a major American stadium. Bob Dylan released “Like a Rolling Stone”—the quintessential anthem of the year—and went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. The Rolling Stones’ hit song “Satisfaction” catapulted the band to world-wide success. Fashion designer Mary Qaunt raised the hemlines of her skirts to above the knee, introducing the iconic miniskirt.
This was not only the year of rock as new genres such as funk and psychedelia were born. Soul music became a prime force of desegregation as Motown crossed out of the R&B charts on to the top of the Billboard Top 100. Country music reached new heights with Nashville and the Bakersfield sound and competition between musicians coincided with seismic cultural shifts wrought by the Civil Rights Movement, psychedelics, and Vietnam.
In 1965, Andrew Grant Jackson combines fascinating and often surprising personal stories with a panoramic historical narrative.
“Andrew Grant Jackson makes a powerful case…This book is a welcome reminder of some truly great music. Recommended.”—National Review Online
“Jackson’s rapid-fire jaunt through the musical highlights of 1965—the rise of Motown and Stax Records, the early music of David Bowie, the arrival of the Bakersfield sound—is a helpful survey for readers unfamiliar with the history of popular music.”—Publishers Weekly
“Jackson presents a thoroughly entertaining romp through one mighty year in pop-music history.”—Booklist
“Lively… ackson does a solid job covering the hit-makers.”—Kirkus Reviews
“From the Beatles to the Byrds, from Dylan to the Stones, from the Beach Boys to Motown, author Andrew G. Jackson brilliantly details how the year 1965 was essentially rock and roll’s coming-out party. 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music is filled with interesting insight and analysis into how a unique confluence of cultural events helped spur many of popular music’s all-time greats to reach their artistic apex, all within one, short, action-packed twelve-month period. If you weren’t there the first time around — or even if you were — sit back and prepare yourself for one heck of a ‘ticket to ride.’”—Kent Hartman, author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret, winner of the Oregon Book Award and the Audie Award
“The Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Coltrane, The Dead, Velvet Underground, Motown … what wasn’t happening in 1965? Andrew Grant Jackson painstakingly chronicles this pivotal year in music with an eye for detail and the big picture – an exciting ride with a timeless soundtrack.” —Joel Selvin, author of Summer of Love and Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues
“1965 is a year that pop fans… revere [for] the sheer volume of innovative music and cultural transformation. A half-century on, it all remains astonishing but Jackson takes us through these 365 earth-changing days with steady hands and an addictive style. I started making a playlist almost immediately.”—Marc Spitz, author of We Got the Neutron Bomb and Twee
1965 IS AVAILABLE AT:
You might have thought the animators for the Beatles’ Saturday morning cartoon would have been at a loss for how to build an episode around Lennon’s lysergic ode to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, but you’d be wrong …
In 1967, the Beatles discussed starring in LORD OF THE RINGS. John wanted to play Gollum, mystic George was going to be Gandalf, Paul would be Frodo and Ringo would be Sam. To direct it, John contacted Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove, 2001). Tolkien himself nixed the idea, since he controlled the film rights, but it is fun to imagine what the film would have been like. The Beatles were notoriously impatient during film shoots, so doing a film with the slow-moving, meticulous Kubrick would have been one of the most fantastic films of the decade or a totally insane train wreck.
Two interesting takes on Lennon’s 1964 classic. Guaraldi of course did the music for the Peanuts TV Specials, starring the world’s biggest loser, Charlie Brown, so this was a natural cover.
The titular palace was the home of legendary comedian Lord Buckley. His manager Mr. Grief (name checked in the lyrics) showed Harrison around the grounds and inspired the track, which is on 1976’s Thirty-Three and 1/3rd. After the darkness of Harrison’s previous two albums, the song captures him trying to grow up by embracing love and laughter, helped by his burgeoning friendship with British comedy troupe Monty Python.
Python’s Eric Idle directed the song’s video on Harrison’s own eccentric estate Friar Park, with Hari doing his version of Lennon’s goonish smiles and hand gestures from the “Another Girl” segment of Help!
http://www.eyeneer.com/video/rock/george-harrison/crackerbox-palace
George hand gesture 00:25
http://www.jukebo.com/the-beatles/music-clip,another-girl,uvrms.html
John hand gestures 1:57
On November 1 1968, French director Jean Luc Godard filmed the Airplane playing a set on the roof of Manhattan’s Shuyler Hotel. The shots of passer-bys looking up at the roof recall the climax of Let It Be, which captured the Beatles’ final live performance on the roof of Apple in London on January 30, 1969.
The Airplane are a little more, shall we say, uncouth, with Grace Slick howling, “New York, wake up, you fuckers! Free music! Make some! Free love!”
Earlier in 1968, Godard documented the Rolling Stones making Beggars Banquet in Sympathy for the Devil: One Plus One.
Here are some blogs about the Airplane’s rooftop jam and its similarity to the Beatles’:
http://thisaintthesummeroflove.blogspot.com/2012/02/110168-jefferson-airplanes-short-free.html
If you’re a Beatles fan in L.A. this weekend you can’t miss the Fest for Beatles Fans – it’s like Comic-con for Beatles maniacs!
On Saturday at 2 pm I’ll be talking about STILL THE GREATEST and solo Beatles music with Beatle experts/writers Tom Frangione, Jude Kessler, Steve Marinucci, Kit O’Toole, Wally Podrazik, and Robert Rodriguez.
And on Sunday at 6 pm Tom Frangione and I will look back at all the wild highlights of Ringo’s career both during and after the Beatles in a session promoting my new book WHERE’S RINGO?
I’ll also be part of the MEET THE AUTHORS event on Friday at 5:20.
Otherwise I will be at a table in the marketplace selling my books so stop by!
There are tons of special guests, including Denny Laine, Billy J. Kramer, and Peter Asher, and events going on all weekend. Not to mention an explosion of Beatle merchandise. The link to the schedule is below.
http://www.thefest.com/2014-fests/los-angeles-october-10-12-2014/
BREAKFAST WITH THE BEATLES’ Chris Carter will be broadcasting his show live Sunday morning from the Fest.
And I can’t wait to see Eddie Deezen introduce one of my favorite Beatles movies, I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND, Saturday at 1 pm.
To see Eddie’s turn as “the greatest Beatles genius in the history of the universe!” check out this clip from Robert Zemeckis’ classic at 1:50 and 3:47.
I hope to see you!
LAX Airport Marriott Hotel
5855 West Century Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 641-5700
just two blocks from the Los Angeles airport
solobeatles 