Concert for George

[cwsox]

I despise the fact that the American releases are not available.

 

When I listen to Intorudicng the Beatkes is as horriffic because it is not Meet the Beatles and I know what songs went where and were on that album.

 

They really screwed that all over by going with the british pressings.

 

Now: if they got smart and relaeased the American catalogue I would be ecstatic and you know damn well they would see because folks like me want to play what it was we had back then.

 

An oddity - "I Want to Hold your hand" was on Meet the Beatles. I cannot find it on a Bristish original release.

 

The American albums were the ones that marked the passagoe of our lives. To have screwed that up was so stupid from the company.

 

I never owned the veejay one but I remember it. It was little sold. But it wasx outh there, I can still picture it.

 

The American albums you listed - that is a memory rush. the Brtistish catalogue is cold.

[FlaSoxxJim]

I despise the fact that the American releases are not available.

 

When I listen to Intorudicng the Beatkes is as horriffic because it is not Meet the Beatles and I know what songs went where and were on that album.

 

They really screwed that all over by going with the british pressings.

 

Now: if they got smart and relaeased the American catalogue I would be ecstatic and you know damn well they would see because folks like me want to play what it was we had back then.

 

An oddity - "I Want to Hold your hand" was on Meet the Beatles.  I cannot find it on a Bristish original release.

 

The American albums were the ones that marked the passagoe of our lives.  To have screwed that up was so stupid from the company. 

 

I never owned the veejay one but I remember it.  It was little sold.  But it wasx outh there, I can still picture it.

 

The American albums you listed - that is a memory rush.  the Brtistish catalogue is cold.

Yep, your response exactly mirrors that of a good friend who also experienced all it first-hand. He talks about what it was like to go to the neighborhood record store the Saturday morning of a new release (Teusday release dates must not have always been the norm, huh), then going home and eating bowl after bowl of cereal while listening to the new album while meticulously pouring over the album cover and liner notes (and damn the small format of CDs for ruining album art).

 

This guy cringes at the different track sequences of the Parlaphone albums. Where I think the extra songs on the Brit Revolver are not only a bonus but integral to the album, he curses and says that stuff is supposed to be on Yesterday... And Today, because that's the way he experienced it first hand. He is as passionate about the US catalog being the way it should be as you are, and I respect the opinion because it's only though people like you and him that I variously get the first hand impression of the experience.

 

Actually a LOT of thought has been put into how the entire Beatles catalog should be released in a definitive way on CD. With the Brit albums it gets difficult because the mono releases outsold the stereo releases at least until Sgt. Pepper (versus the States where stereo versions outsold mono almost from the beginning), so there are arguments over which mixes should be released if the point is to recapture the original releases as closely as possible. Most audiophiles want to see 2 disc dual-format editions released in those instances. I personally don't give it much thought because I have most of what I want on original vinyl releases and – pops. hisses and all – that sounds as authentic as anything ever can to me.

 

My stone age Technics turntable is slowly dying however, so I may soon be in trouble.

[cwsox]

every pop and hiss and sizzle is a reminder of those days - we earned our scars! -

 

I think I really like your friend

 

I would argue that the American releases were the releases based on market numbres alone and their impact - the british releases did not have any where near the cultural effect or impact of the American releases - the American albums were the ones that were the official versions for the vast majority of fans

 

and that the selection and order is so engrained in one's memory that listening to the Bristish order is an outrage to the ear is just plain fact as your friend would agree!

 

there is no one definitive version of Mozart's Don Giovanni, for example, or even Handel's Messiah. Thre is the version that Mozart staged in Vienna, the one in Prague, the one where a few cuts were made or he reorchestarted it - for Handel it is often what cuts were made - Verdi often returned to an opera, reordeed the pasages, rewrote music, added and deleted, gave one aria to another singer, changed some of the notes to fit the range of a given singer - and if I look, I can find the various versions of all of those.

 

I would be happy to have Introducing the Beatles on cd (which i do and pisses me off every time I hear it) if I could also have Meet the Beatles on cd. Then we could have intellectual discussions on why the Carl Perkins covers essentially were released in America only on what was then EP format (two songs on a 45 side, 4 songs per 45) (and I had them all, including Anna and Chains which I don't know are available anywhere now) and why the American producers cut off a few songs per album, etc., rather than the anger one gets now in saying "that is not what it was."

[FlaSoxxJim]

Anna b/w Chains and Twist and Shout b/w There's a Place are the two original US 45s I have stored away back up in Chicago somewhere. Theu were both on the "Tollie" label, and not on Capital or VeeJay, right?

 

Anna and Chains are both readily available on the Brit-Parlaphone Please Please Me, which is essentially Introducing the Beatles with a different track order (and cooler album cover imho – that's the one of the four of them looking down from a building railing that was reused on the Capital Greatest Hits "Red" 1964-1966 double album).

[cwsox]

Anna b/w Chains and Twist and Shout b/w There's a Place are the two original US 45s I have stored away back up in Chicago somewhere.  Theu were both on the "Tollie" label, and not on Capital or VeeJay, right?

 

Anna and Chains are both readily available on the Brit-Parlaphone Please Please Me, which is essentially Introducing the Beatles with a different track order (and cooler album cover imho – that's the one of the four of them looking down from a building railing that was reused on the Capital Greatest Hits "Red" 1964-1966 double album).

Anna, Chains, Misery, and a 4th song (it will come to be) were a 4 song 45 released in 1964 on I think Swan but I could be wrong - if it was a VJ release it had a black label instead of their usual yellow

 

the evil woman that divorced me has it and I am not calling her to get all the info

 

it was very sad but I could not bring myself emotionally to break up the beatles collection and I let her have it (other than wonderwall) the b****

 

on the other hand she has undoubtedly taken care of that collection far far better than she did her children or husbands 1-5 (she is now on 6)

[FlaSoxxJim]

Was the fourth song A taste of Honey? I vaguely recall that as a B-side release from the Introducing/Please Please Me sessions, but I can't recall if it was a Brit or US release.

[southsider2k5]

I think I fiound it on cd - I have vinyl but can't play it - why of all the albums is that the hard one to find on cd?

The way I found it was on an import CD that had it Hey Jude and Abbey Road on it. I found mine on EBay.

[cwsox]

Was the fourth song A taste of Honey?  I vaguely recall that as a B-side release from the Introducing/Please Please Me sessions, but I can't recall if it was a Brit or US release.

and bingo that is it, Taste of Honey

 

ss2k4 - I just got min eon ebay too - I have a sneaking suspicion it is a homemade cd but then I paid $4.95 so I am not expecting much - if anyone ever finds it on a real cd, please grab it and I'll pay you for it!

[cwsox]

I am watching the dvd - has both the full length concert and the theatrical release -

 

and some great interviews

 

really brings home the incredible range and sheer quality of George's work - I always forget the Taveling Wilbury's stuff myself - the absolute creative genius behind what the Quiet Beatle did all those away - and his importance to Monty Python -

 

 

trying to work on an important paper for me too but I keep getting focused on the dvd

[FlaSoxxJim]

I am watching the dvd - has both the full length concert and the theatrical release -

 

and some great interviews

 

really brings home the incredible range and sheer quality of George's work - I always forget the Taveling Wilbury's stuff myself - the absolute creative genius behind what the Quiet Beatle did all those away - and his importance to Monty Python -

 

 

trying to work on an important paper for me too but I keep getting focused on the dvd

Seeing you noted the George/Python connection, I assume you are a Rutles fan? With the exception of This Is Spinal Tap, there has never been such a well done rockumentary sendup. And Neil Innes' songs are just supurb.

 

The George/Python connection helped launch Terry Gilliam's directing career as well. Handmade Films, producers of Time Bandits, was a project George backed and financed.

[cwsox]

I was never a Python fan -

nor Rutles fan -

 

 

but I knew George had saved Life of Brian when the studio backed out last minute

 

 

I cannot express all I feel watching the concert -

 

 

when George died I was doing a paper for a masters class in education and I think the paper was due a day or two after George's death - it was on all kinds of stats stuff and journal research but was submitted with a cover sheet of homage for George - how I worked that in I cannot recall but it was an A paper when I got was graded -

 

I put away a lot of my emotions on things like this and then it catches up to me - watching Dhani play throughout this thing, hearing Paul sing All Things Must Pass, watching Clapton so movingly play While My Guitar Gently Weeps - the fact the George ever forgave Clapton at all - Dhani referring to Uncle Ringo - too much emotional resonance for me over too many years - this really is the music of my life and I've been following it for 40 years now, that is a lot of life and a lot of memories - a lot of memories I forgot I had and they keep flooding me now in waves -

 

and then I hear the words to Isn't it a pity and I just get overwhelmed -

[FlaSoxxJim]

Isn't It a Pity and Give Me Love are my two favorite George solo offerings.

 

I don't think George would have easily forgiven EC except for the fact that Patti screwed around on and eventually left him too and put him through way more pain than even George went through. EC's Wonderful Tonight is one of those songs nearly everyone interprets the wrong way, as it was really about Eric being at rock-bottom and just going through all the motions in life when he and Patti were falling apart.

 

Did you see the Rutles tv special from 1978 or did you first hear the songs out of context? I have never encountered a Beatle fans as to-the-bone as you that did not adore the "All You Need is Cash" special for the loving homage it really is. Knowing the Beatle legacy and lore as well as you do, how can you not watch that special and not be blown away by how well they nailed it on so many different levels.

 

"Their legendary debut album took 45 minutes to record, their second one EVEN LONGER..."

 

"Then there was the Fifth Member of the Rutles - Zeppo, who couldn't play a note but knew how to have a good time, which in Hamburg at the time was much more important."

 

"If you listen to the track backwards it supposedly says, 'Stig has been dead for ages and ages... honestly'. And the most telling evidence is at teh end of the track Nasty is heard to say 'I buried Stig,' but in fact what he really says is 'e bure stigano,' which is vary bad Spanish for 'Have you a water buffalo?'."

 

John Belushi as Ron Decline?

 

Bill Murray as Bill Murray the K?

 

Good stuff, give it another try if you get the chance.

[cwsox]

I actually never heard the Rutles in any way at all. May be undiscoved love of my life. Those years (77-79) were very busy for me in other ways,finishing sem, CPE in Ann Arbor, ordianation, first call, changing parishes, getting married, adopting chlldren - missed a lot of things then not on top 40 raido which is all I had in the car.

 

Float some things my way please and lets see what it does for me.

[southsider2k5]

and bingo that is it, Taste of Honey

 

ss2k4 - I just got min eon ebay too - I have a sneaking suspicion it is a homemade cd but then I paid $4.95 so I am not expecting much - if anyone ever finds it on a real cd, please grab it and I'll pay you for it!

CW is this the one you got? It is the sameone I got.