Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

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hogshead of hellfire
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Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by hogshead of hellfire »

The self-appointed "Beatle experts" the Web is full of: ALWAYS love to come up with troll conspiracy theories rewriting the historical impact of the Capitol albums. Now, a lot of these people (in my research of them) are; either, 20 year-olds with Crosleys or (in the case of ESPECIALLY YouTube comments) just all-out fake influencers UMG pays to keep "the brand" in the public eye.

Aside from the fact the Capitol albums sold around 170,000,000 combined copies in North America over the period of 1964-1987; next-to all the wild tales surrounding what inspired the Butcher Cover (NOT a dig at Capitol NOR an indictment of Vietnam....just not very tactful Pop Art, which was part of Robert Whitaker's "A Somnambulant Adventure" photo session with the group on March 25, 1966 --- AND: was used to promote the Paperback Writer/Rain single in a trade ad in NME the following May): the OTHER common falsehood among the anti-Capitolists often involves THE HELP(!) ALBUM COVER.

The Capitol HELP(!) cover is merely a reflection of THE MOVIE POSTER which, since the Capitol version was presented as a "soundtrack", makes *perfect* sense.

(There was no "cash grab" plot, in this case, to re-arrange Paul and have him point at the Capitol logo; as-if to imply: "yeah: only-Capitol-has-it-and-get-it-while-it's-hot-or-something".)
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hogshead of hellfire
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Re: Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by hogshead of hellfire »

1. Dave Dexter, jr. (1915-1990...undoubtedly?, here, probably splicing together Second Album for all we know!).

2. Bill Miller (1915-2006...he "took over the Beatles' project from Dexter after the corporate pushback on the then-rumored solo Paul album" and, even though he is credited as having compiled Yesterday & Today as well as Revolver --- the guy was ALSO Frank Sinatra's personal piano accompanist for 50 years).

3. Voyle Gilmore (1912-1979...Capitol A&R producer/arranger going back to 1942 whom, turned the MMT EP's into a full album by adding the 1967 singles).
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hogshead of hellfire
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Re: Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by hogshead of hellfire »

Allan Steckler (right-hand man of Allen Klein of ABKCO; producer of special interest projects and releases while at Apple, 1969-1974, including: Hey Jude as well as the "Red" and "Blue" compilations and soundtracks).
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Lord Reith
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Re: Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by Lord Reith »

Geez they look like Mafia guys.
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datters
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Re: Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by datters »

Lord Reith wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 1:12 am Geez they look like Mafia guys.
lol And Klein didn't?
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Re: Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by Chicagofanforever 5+ »

There was plenty of those friendly types running record companies back then!
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sirpaulstarling
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Re: Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by sirpaulstarling »

While I agree with you that Dexter has wrongly been made out to be some kind of evil villain within The Beatles story, I do have to add that he wasn't exactly a secret genius or anything (same goes for all of the other Capitol guys you've posted here). They were given high quality material that would have sold millions in any type of configuration with whatever slap dash artwork they could find. I think most people (myself included) look back at what Dexter did and wonder "well why did he have to do that? there was nothing wrong with "I feel fine" or "she's a woman" etc", but of course we have the power of hindsight. Which makes it very easy to pick apart people like Dexter and say "why did you" and "what a dumb idea". He was doing what was best for the record company he worked for at the time. And clearly he did a great job. Did he do what was best for The Beatles? Probably not.
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Re: Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by bonniegreg »

Capitol engineers applied the same reverb strategy to many early Nat King Cole records when they were re-issued on LP. Probably happened to many Capitol recording artists. It wasn't something that was exclusive to the Beatles. It was a technique that somebody "upstairs" thouight would sell records.
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Re: Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by Derian the imp »

The US albums really do get too much hate.
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Megazeti
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Re: Dave Dexter DID NOT change the HELP album cover

Post by Megazeti »

Makes me wonder with all the hacking up of UK running orders and creating chopped up US issues wether they could have made the effort to issue an identical UK album.
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