Beatles 45s...PAUL ('70s)

Another Day / Oh Woman, Oh Why (Mr. & Mrs. Paul McCartney, 1971)

Give Ireland Back to the Irish / Give Ireland Back to the Irish (version) (McCartney & McCartney, 1972)

Mary Had a Little Lamb / Little Woman Love (McCartney & McCartney, 1972)

Hi, Hi, Hi / C Moon (Paul & Linda McCartney, 1972)

Helen Wheels / Country Dreamer (McCartney, 1973)

Live and Let Die / I Lie Around (McMartney, 1973)

My Love / The Mess (McCartney, 1973)

Junior's Farm / Sally G (McCartney, 1974)

Mull of Kintyre (McCartney/Laine) / Girls' School (McCartney, 1977)

Seaside Woman / B-Side to Seaside (Linda McCartney, 1977) Suzy & the Red Stripes

Wonderful Christmastime (McCartney) / Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae (J. Marks) 1979

Beatles related...GEORGE

George Harrison's solo career really began with the Indian influenced soundtrack to Wonderwall in 1968, and the electronic bipbop noodling of 1969's Electronic Sounds so when he released the massive 3-disc masterpiece All Things Must Pass in 1970 people we alternately stunned or ecstatic (that he had so much to say. Okay, it wasn't a 3-disc masterpiece, the Apple Jam stuff was essentially filler...but hey, it was a darn good album.
His links with the Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar made him aware of his first "cause" that of the plight of the people of East Pakistan or Bangla Desh. In 1971 he released the single "Bangla Desh" which carried the note "Contributions for the benefit of the homeless children of Bangla Desh can be sent to: THE GEORGE HARRISON-RAVI SHANKAR SPECIAL EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND c/o UNICEF..." He later, in the summer of '71, sponsored a concert to raise funds for this cause. The Concert for Bangla Desh was another 3-disc set of recordings from this show.

"Deep Blue" is flipside of the "Bangla Desh" single.

On the B-side of "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)", a #1 hit from 1973's Living In The Material World LP is a song called "Miss O'Dell". Chris O'Dell has since told her own story in a recent book. You heard it first on this 45.

George formed his own label Dark Horse Records with distribution on Warners. The label was named after a song, the title track to his 1974 album. This was the end of his association with Apple, EMI, Capitol, and he celebrated it with a plain white label. "I Don't Care Anymore" just about says it all.
He released a series of albums on Dark Horse, including Extra Texture in '75, 33 1/3 in '76, George Harrison in '79, Somewhere In England in '81, followed by Gone Troppo in '82 and then after a five year break Cloud Nine. With Cloud Nine he hit paydirt again with a hit single (and video) of a new rendition of Rudy Clark's "Got My Mind Set On You." "Zig Zag" was the B-side.

The second single from this album was a look back at the good old days "When We Was Fab" with "Lay My Head" on the reverse.

Other than 1992's recording of his Live in Japan tour with Eric Clapton it would be several years before another George Harrison album appeared. Brainwashed would be his swan song. We miss you George.

and Beatles related 45s...RINGO!

Ringo's solo career began with a whimper, then managed a few interesting peaks, before it fizzled out all together. Sentimental Journey was an album of standards recorded in tribute to his Mother, then a trip to Nashville resulted in the country album we'd always known he wanted. Surrounded by Nashville's best pickers, and with Pete Drake as producer, the album still has legs. "Coochy Coochy" was the B-side of the title track "Beaucoups of Blues".

1971 saw the release of a couple of strong tracks, "It Don't Come Easy" and "Back Off Boogaloo". Maybe George helped write the songs, but they're darn good radio music. Of interest is the flip-side to "Boogaloo" called "Blindman". Ringo played a Mexican bandit chief in this weird Eastwoodesque pastiche.

"Photograph" came from Ringo's best album, simply called Ringo and produced by Richard Perry featuring a bevy of friends and sessionmen, the album is one of the best solo records made by any of the ex-Beatles. And the packaging was dynamite too!

There were other tunes released on Apple, but then Ringo moved to Atlantic, where he made a couple of decent, but limited albums. This single went nowhere even though it was produced by the great Arif Mardin. But perhaps the best Ringo single is "It Don't Come Easy" with the fascinating story of his take on the Beatles' breakup on the flipside..."Early 1970".

Beatles 45s...

Lets start with this one. The flipside of "HELP!" and one of the highlights of Beatles' 45s. My recollection of hearing this for the first time is that I couldn't believe the Beatles could rock that hard for nearly 2 minutes. It is still an amazing track filled with energy, brimmming with youthful enthusiasm. Paul's "Little Richard" tribute remains one of my all-time fave tracks. The live version from Shea Stadium is good too, as is the cover version Adrian Belew did later, but for my money it's all right here, 2 minutes and 30 seconds of rockin' beauty!

"Hey Jude" backed with "Revolution" is another of the greatest singles ever released by the best band ever. Sure "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" was great, but "Hey Jude" is a watermark among songs, and history making in its length (and the fact that it got played on commercial radio.) Nowadays with subscription radio you get spoiled, turn the dial and you can listen to anything you want. Name it, it's there. Back in the day...it was CKOC (The Busy Bee) spinnin' the hits. I bought "Hey Jude" the day of release. Took it home and played it. Then turned it over and played "Revolution", back over for "Hey Jude", and over again, and so on. Til Mom said, "Enough...time to go to school." We were on shifts at the time so I didn't have to go in til after lunch! This is still one of my favourite songs, and maybe my favourite 45.

"Get Back" b/w "Don't Let Me Down" comes a close second though. Mil and I played "Don't Let Me Down" at a school talent show, on acoustic guitars, emoting like crazy. That's why the song means so much to me, I guess. A fabulous single though.

the other sleeves...

"Face Dances pt2"
composed by Pete Townshend
produced by Chris Thomas
recorded by Bill Price


"Man Watching"
composed by Pete Townshend
produced by Chris Thomas
recorded by Bill Price


"Dance It Away"
composed by Pete Townshend
produced by Chris Thomas
recorded by Bill Price


"Uniforms"
composed by Pete Townshend
produced by Chris Thomas
recorded by Bill Price




"Magic Bus"
performed by Pete Townshend and Dave Gilmour and Deep End
produced by Bill Price
recorded at The Academy, Brixton, November 3rd, 1995
on the Stones Mobile with Mike McKenna
arranged by Chucho Merchan and Kick Horns

"Give Blood" [edit]
composed by Pete Townshend
produced by Chris Thomas
from the Atco album White City

My box of music...

Last night I was sitting at the computer when I noticed two cardboard boxes sort of wedged in between the desk and the wall. I knew they were there, but hadn't really paid any attention to them for quite a while. So...last night I pulled them out and went through them, and I thought I would share with my faithful reader[s] just what was there.
45s, piles of 45s. Remember them? They were the gold standard for music back in the day. You didn't need to buy everybody's albums (or LPs) when you could just get a 7" vinyl copy of the big hit (or best song) that often included an unreleased track on the B-side. Kinda like iTunes but you actually got a piece of vinyl and a nifty picture sleeve!
There were a lot of Beatles and Beatles related singles, which I'll share in a later blog. There was a big selection of Beach Boys and Brian Wilson material, some Canadian music, a few real obscurities, some Dylan, Donovan, Hollies, and more. I'll show them to you later, but right now let's look at Pete Townshend.
Just a handful but each one contains at least one song that never found official release in another format.
"Let My Love Open The Door" is taken from 1980's Empty Glass album, and has "Classified" and "Greyhound Girl" on the B-side. The sleeve notes "Two previously unreleased tracks found beneath the Eel Pie floorboards", but my favourite is the sticker on the front proclaiming "Don't pay more than 60p for this single", note...it cost me $3.49 well over 60p! But it was an import!
1982'2 All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes was the source for the next two. "Face Dances, part 2" is backed with "Man Watching" and features a sleeve showing a sad eyed Pete behind his double neck guitar on one side, and a series of Japanese faces on the other.
The picture disc was fairly pricey too. "Uniforms" on the A-side and the unreleased "Dance It Away" on the flip. Note the white socks!
"Give Blood" comes from the White City album and is backed by a live rendition of "Magic Bus" performed by Pete with Dave Gilmour and Deep End. It was recorded Nov.3rd, 1995 at The Academy in Brixton.
Just thought folks might enjoy seeing these things.
I'll be back soon with some more curios.

Happy New Year 2011!

Another new year. Whew! I have a big birthday coming up in the summer...and I'm not sure I'm ready for it!
The Christmas season is over for another year, everyone is settling down back at work. Look around at all the new sweaters, scarves, watches, and other paraphernalia and wonder if the economy can really be as bad as we're led to believe.
No recent concerts to report on. A little bit of new music, and a couple books though.
I rediscovered the Roches Keep On Doing album during the Christmas rush. Probably due to the viral video of shoppers bursting into a (seemingly) spontaneous rendition of "The Hallelujah Chorus" at a Welland shopping centre. The Roche sisters covered Handel's classic way back when, produced by Robert Fripp and it's beautiful as is the whole album. This meant though, I had to play the vinyl version. Vinyl is really making a comeback and recently I've picked up 12 inchers of Elvis Costello's new album, Roky Erickson, Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban and an EP from Laurie Anderson. What goes around comes around.
The Boxing Day sales held very little interest for me this year. Gone are the days when record stores offered such incredible deals that you would go home with bagfuls of music for $20! Nowadays it's a handful of selected bestsellers for 30% off and catalog titles maybe at a 10% discount. I recall one Boxing Day when I bought 10 albums for thirty-nine cents each! Good stuff too.
I did pick up Featuring... by Norah Jones, Odditties by the McGarrigles, West Coast Seattle Boy by Jimi Hendrix, and Aaron Neville's new gospel album. This one features Greg Leisz and Allen Toussaint and is a great return to form for Neville. Gospel recordings are popping up all over the place this year, Tom Jones' Praise and Blame and Mavis Staples produced by Jeff Tweedy are two more recent classics.
Watched a few movies over the holidays. I admit to falling asleep in the first half hour of The American but when I woke up, I really enjoyed the rest of the film. Angelina Jolie taking on the CIA and FBI and the KGB was goofy but lots of fun in Salt. More brainless fun and plenty of action was there for the taking in Killers with Kucher and Heigl. I enjoyed it!
The King's Speech featured great acting, and a fascinating true story in a stately paced film. It had to be paced slowly to enable the king to f-f-f-finish his lines! The Coen Brothers' True Grit was also filled with great acting, and beautiful cinematography. As a fan of the Duke's Oscar winning performance I have to say that Jeff Bridges had big boots to fill, and he more than filled 'em.
I read Steve Martin's new novel An Object of Beauty which I recommend as both a cautionary tale and an overview of the art world in NYC. Of course Keith Richards' Life was on my reading list, but everyone has already told you how good that was. Listen to the audiobook read by Johnny Depp! A couple Bob Dylan books kept me busy, one by Sean Wilentz and another by Greil Marcus. Both worth pursuing. Next up...a new biography of T.E.Lawrence called Hero.
Tonight? Well, I'll drown my sorrows after Team Canada's collapse in the gold medal game and watch the 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts. Sound like fun to me!