Any love for Two Virgins?

Discuss official releases and re-issues. The only links allowed here are to the Beatles YouTube channel or other band-sanctioned platforms.
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Lord Reith
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by Lord Reith »

The biggest problem with two Virgins for me was not the audio (which I only first heard a few years ago) it was that bloody cover.

I was twelve when I got Roy car and Tony Tyler's coffee table book An Illustrated Record for Christmas. The sight of John's semi-erect policeman and Yoko's wild untamed bush was enough to cause me severe sexual trauma for several days. It wasn't like there was any warning on the book cover. The trauma only abated when a few days later I showed it to my friend and - as schoolboys do - we laughed ourselves silly over it. After that I sealed up those two pages with sellotape and they have remained that way ever since, the tape now yellowed and crusty with age.

Now, if it had been Jane Asher in the nip on that cover, I would not have had a problem with it.
tdgrnwld
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by tdgrnwld »

Kwai Chang wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 7:52 pm I love it when naivete can actually stand and balance itself as it seeks to fulfill its promise of insightful meaning and heady vanguard brilliance. This might have been a Revolution 9 reflex, satire, extension, reciprocal, square root, decoder ring, or a million other things that might get traction. But, this isn't for consumers. It's for the participants. Nobody can appreciate how this recording was foreplay only and never meant to commemorate the unbounded joy that was won in the long battles. Lennon had made emotional investments and now he's here to collect on the romantic dividends. It's not very Beatle. But, apparently it was equated to Sunrise and that's always a beautiful reward. Even an imaginary Sunrise! But, this was just too little...too late. Or, was it "too fast...or not at all?" If only Viagra had stepped in...No, I've owned may copies of Two Virgins. Beatles fans might think this harsh but, the album is the musical equivalent of a discarded condom. So what if it glows in the dark, or if one size fits all! The album should have been marketed via wall-mounted dispenser...3-pack/$1.00!
Concepts are fine, but you'll never make a living at it!
KC
KC, this is your best post yet.
rtbcIII
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by rtbcIII »

Years ago, I downloaded a fanmade something called Two Chipmunks (you can imagine).

Also seem to remember a track called "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Punxsutawney Phil in the Snow)".

A lot of people said Lennon liked to lead with his chin. That cover argues otherwise.
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by dumbchops »

I have the 3 "Unfinished Music" Ryko cds from the 90's and Two Virgins is still my favorite. I bought a vinyl copy back in the mid 80's that is no doubt a counterfeit. I've disrupted a party or two with "Cambridge '69" before. I also re-mixed a good mono fold down of "Two Virgins" into stereo a couple of years ago along with some of the other mono tracks which did make for some slightly more interesting.
My full name is Uncle Capt. "Skipper" Dumbchops and I seem to have misplaced my electric pretzel sharpener.
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by Patrick Healy »

dumbchops wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:05 am I also re-mixed a good mono fold down of "Two Virgins" into stereo a couple of years ago along with some of the other mono tracks which did make for some slightly more interesting.
Ever thought of sharing that? 8-)
Onkster II
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by Onkster II »

Lord Reith wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 10:20 pm I like it as a tape of John mucking around. But pressed up and released on record? That was pretty crazy stuff. Maybe if they'd just given it straight to John Peel and said, "Hey, here's an exclusive of us doing some music concrete. Play it on your show if you like." Since he ended up playing the album anyway, that might have made more sense.
Well, wasn't this meant to be available for $1 on Zapple? All of those pretty much fall into this category--and for a buck, the feeling-ripped-off factor diminishes considerably.

But this is what happens to you while Allen Klein is busy making other plans...
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Kwai Chang
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by Kwai Chang »

tdgrnwld wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 1:22 am
Kwai Chang wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 7:52 pm I love it when naivete can actually stand and balance itself as it seeks to fulfill its promise of insightful meaning and heady vanguard brilliance. This might have been a Revolution 9 reflex, satire, extension, reciprocal, square root, decoder ring, or a million other things that might get traction. But, this isn't for consumers. It's for the participants. Nobody can appreciate how this recording was foreplay only and never meant to commemorate the unbounded joy that was won in the long battles. Lennon had made emotional investments and now he's here to collect on the romantic dividends. It's not very Beatle. But, apparently it was equated to Sunrise and that's always a beautiful reward. Even an imaginary Sunrise! But, this was just too little...too late. Or, was it "too fast...or not at all?" If only Viagra had stepped in...No, I've owned may copies of Two Virgins. Beatles fans might think this harsh but, the album is the musical equivalent of a discarded condom. So what if it glows in the dark, or if one size fits all! The album should have been marketed via wall-mounted dispenser...3-pack/$1.00!
Concepts are fine, but you'll never make a living at it!
KC
KC, this is your best post yet.
@tdgrnwld...a belated thank you!
But what about the younger fans? The under-age Beatles fan might have succeeded in the procurement of this 'LP'(LONG PLAY)...
and when the 12" dics finally gets rubbed by a stylus...
they're liable to have expectations that will not forgive themselves. Like I did!!!
I was 16 when I finally found a used copy. As if age has anything to do with it.
The disappointment I felt as I finally realized THERE IS NO MUSIC forthcoming!
It was nearly Supreme Sadness.
Just think how this could damage a child!
KC
tdgrnwld
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by tdgrnwld »

@Kwai Chang, I don't possess your sense of poetry or humor. All I can say is that I loved Two Virgins ever since I became aware that rumors I had heard as a child about a naked photo hidden beneath the White Album's cover slick were a mangled conflation of facts about Yesterday . . . And Today and the debut of JohnAndYoko. I don't think I heard it until I was well into adulthood. While the music is inconsequential, I view it as part of a radical expansion of John's notion of what a song (or, by extension, music) can be that began around Revolver and continued through JL/YO/POB, apparently followed by a reversion to his earlier ways of thinking. It was a thrillingly fruitful exploration that gave us "Tomorrow Never Knows," "Happiness is a Warm Gun," and "The Ballad of John and Yoko" as well as "What's the New Mary Jane," "Revolution 9," and Two Virgins. I was far more disappointed in the aural contents of The Wedding Album. I think Life With the Lions holds up pretty well.
SM7609
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by SM7609 »

I got it for my 10th birthday, in 1981 (no, really - I had to call a bunch of record shops to find it. $100 1981 dollars -- and it turned out to be a counterfeit, but whatever...). Maybe it was the mystique surrounding all of those early, hard-to-find solo albums, but I always loved it. It's a super interesting audio documentary of a night that, I might argue, changed the course of music history forever. YMMV, of course.
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yymca6
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Re: Any love for Two Virgins?

Post by yymca6 »

SM7609 wrote: Wed May 24, 2023 7:13 pm I got it for my 10th birthday, in 1981 (no, really - I had to call a bunch of record shops to find it. $100 1981 dollars -- and it turned out to be a counterfeit, but whatever...). Maybe it was the mystique surrounding all of those early, hard-to-find solo albums, but I always loved it. It's a super interesting audio documentary of a night that, I might argue, changed the course of music history forever. YMMV, of course.
I bought it here in Montréal when it came out and I still have it.

The cover was kinda soft, not rigid. And it looked like this.

Front: Image

Back: Image
Yves
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