Updated Links:
Volumes 1-3: hxxps://spaces.hightail.com/receive/1xRrGNSfDk
Double Fantasy: hxxps://spaces.hightail.com/receive/0Ny9tC76sq
Volume 1:
1. Helen Wheels - focuses heavily on Paul’s great bass lines, guitar work, vocals, and harmony vocals. A really fun track!
2. Here Comes The Sun - George’s guitar and Synth work, along with the orchestra backing, are what shines here. But the most amazing part is I’ve added back in the original guitar solo which George Martin found when remixing the master tapes for the anniversary rerelease a few years ago. This is special!
3. Crippled Inside - A great track from John with George on Guitar. So much fun! I love finally hearing some of the chatting by John that is covered up in the released version!
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - I took this from my 10 hour class I teach on the History of the Beatles (As told by John Paul George and Ringo). I focused on guest Eric Clapton’s contribution... because it’s so amazing!! As an added bonus, I brought out the hidden vocals at the end of the track.
5. Band On The Run - A Semi-Acoustic version.
6. A Day In The Life - This one took forever to put together but I love all the
hidden things that the multi-tracks revealed. One of my favorite remixes!
7. Martha My Dear - Always one of my favorite tracks! Written about Paul’s English Sheep Dog Martha. Here’s the band without the brass overdubs.
8. Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds - Very much in the same vein as A Day In The Life. Lots and Lots of work but a very fun remix to do!
9. Octopus’s Garden - A Piano and Vocals only version. Nice and Mellow!!
10. When I’m 64 - I call this my Bar Mitzvah version. A mostly instrumental with
backing vocals.
11. Monkberry Moon Delight - Suck It! One of Paul’s stranger tunes especially
when you strip off most of the music and leave just his (and Linda’s) crazy
vocals. So catchy, in its own sick way. I love it!
12. Penny Lane - I brought the woodwind, horn, and deep bass sections to the
fore. I’ve also done a new remix featuring a recently released discussion the Lads had about the mixing of the song during one of the playbacks of the song.
13. Within You Without You - A neat remix focusing on some of the different Indian instruments George selected for inclusion on the track.
14. (15) The Abbey Road Medley - My personal Masterpiece in my opinion! I spent over 70 hours creating this mix from the original multi-tracks. A totally different version than you’ve ever heard before. This version reveals so many hidden artifacts that lay buried in the original mix. I’ve also redone the ending for this volume. It originally ended with an unused complete version of Her Majesty…but for this Volume, I trashed that and added a beautiful hidden track of an extremely unique version of Because before all the overdubs. On the released version the Beatles overdubbed their harmony vocals three times to create a 9 part layered harmony. This is the way the vocals stood after the first pass with just the pure solo 3 part harmony vocals. STUNNING!
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Volume 2:
1. Maybe I’m Amazed Mike’s Mix - Semi acoustic mix
2. Oh! Darling Mike’s Mix - A fun ripping apart of the song. The backing vocals and angry piano playing are my favorite parts here.
3. Apple Scruffs Mike’s Mix - What the basic take would have sounded like with George on everything except backing vocals.
4. Hear Me Lord - Mike’s Mix - A basic and more piano focused version
5. It's So Hard Mike’s Mix - A much starker mix focusing on the saxophone played by King Curtis.
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) Mike’s Mix -This version lets the individual parts shine especially Billy Preston’s organ bits!
7. Wah Wah Mike’s Mix (ever so slightly) - A rollicking keyboard focused mix
8. Dear Boy Mike’s Mix - I let Paul and Linda’s complicated Vocals and Harmonies lead the way
9. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite Mike’s Mix - This lets you finally hear the various calliope SFX that gave this song such a wonderful circusy feel and… a super fun bass line to boot!
10. Rock Of All Ages (Badfinger w McCartney’s Piano Up) Mike's Mix - Cheating slightly on this one… Paul co-wrote, co-produced, played piano and contributed to the backing vocals on this one. Notice that the aggressive piano playing style McCartney used is similar to the one he used in Oh! Darling.
11. My Sweet Lord Mike’s Mix - This one focuses on the George’s vocals and guitar contributions
12. All Things Must Pass Mike’s Mix - A stripped down version with a lovely mellow feel to it.
13. The Back Seat Of My Car Mike’s Mix - Just Paul’s fun and crazy vocals for most of this one.
14. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Mike’s Mix - A unique breakdown of many of the elements in the song. I dig the harmonies and awesome guitar work!
15. You Never Give Me Your Money Mike’s Mix - My favorite mix on this volume. It allows you to just hear various individual parts that Come Together (so to speak) and make the group sound so magical. Listen for John’s “BLOODY HELL,” just as the song fades out! LOL. Just Incredible Stuff!
16. Happy Xmas (War is Over) - A De-Yoko-ized as much as I possibly could version, focusing on John’s vocals, the bass and keyboards in the song. Beautiful! PLUS: Hidden Track: Imagine John and Julian Duet - A special mix (which took forever to edit and match ) of Julian’s recent version of Imagine he did as a tribute to the Ukraine, mashed up with a live version of John performing the song for Top Of The Pops, a British TV show years ago.
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Volume 3:
1. I’m Losing You: Possibly my favorite mix on the whole album. I really reduced this one down and dig how simple it is but how BADASS it sounds. I love the unexpected quiet part in the middle! A Great John Song!
2. Cloud Nine: I cut out a lot of tracks from this song. You’ll notice no drums and bass. I did that on most of my remixes. To me, it really clears out the sound and allows you to focus on so many details that were covering up. I reduced the Sax’s to just a hint here and there and really tried to focus on George’s and Eric’s echoing guitars throughout.
3. Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him: A lovely dreamy mix bringing Lennon’s vocals to the for but intertwining it with Yoko’s to continue the theme. I dig this version a lot.
4. Martha My Dear: The Beatles version minus the strings and bass. Such a lovely piano melody!
5. In My Car: Ringo shines on this with a song from one of my favorite solo albums from him called OLD WAVE. For the album he teamed up with Joe Walsh of the Eagles to help co write, produce and play guitars and add backing vocals on almost every track. Focused this one on Walsh’s guitar and backing vocals.
6. Cheer Down: My other favorite song written and (parts) recorded during the Cloud Nine sessions... but left off the album. With no drums and reduced bass, this lets Harrison’s Slide and Lead Guitars, and Lynne’s backing vocals, shine! Here’s the rest of the story from Wiki: The title of the song is attributed to Harrison's wife Olivia, who would tell her husband, "Okay, cheer down, big fellow" when he became too enthusiastic. Harrison first recorded a rhythm track for the song during the sessions for his 1987 album Cloud Nine He subsequently finished the lyrics with assistance from Tom Petty. The following year, along with "Run So Far" and "That Kind of Woman", "Cheer Down" was among the four compositions that Harrison offered to Eric Clapton for inclusion on the latter's album Journeyman. Clapton instead decided to use it for the soundtrack to the film Lethal Weapon 2, which he had been commissioned to supply, but he persuaded Harrison to contribute his own recording for inclusion in the film. This one was also produced by Jeff Lynne..so it’s kind of a Wilbury track too!
7. Cleanup Time: John having fun on this very rocking tune! Great Guitar work is brought to the fore!
8. Picture Show Life: Another Ringo track from OLD WAVE. This song has a beautiful dark mood to it that i tried to really bring out and focus on especially during the ending fade out.
9. Baby's Request: From Paul most musically varied album and probably my favorite solo album from him BACK TO THE EGG. For this one I took the original 1979 and mixed it with the newer 2021 version he included on his My Valentine album. One of my favorite mixes.
10. (Just Like) Starting Over (12' Promo): My remix of the 12” Promo Single that took the original Double Fantasy album ending, and changed it to a much more fun and unusual one. You’ll here the massive influence Elvis had on this fantastic tune. A much more acoustic based version here than the original and promo versions.
11. Got My Mind Set On You: The Classic Single...redone! No Drums and very little Sax completely changes the feel of the entire track. I made this a much more almost acoustic track. It still rocks...but in a very different way! The funky Bass by Jeff Lynne is stellar!
12. Lovely Rita: The Beatles 1967 Take 8 version consisting of Vocals, Guitars and Partial Piano. Paul’s bass work is incredible and the vocals at the end are both fun and unexpected. You’ll never know what you’ll find when you strippings away the music layered over top.
13. Oh My Love: One of John’s most beautiful and heartfelt ballads. This version comes from a bootleg called Yin And Yang. One of my favorite boots of John’s stuff that was ever released. I stripped away the vocals to allow the tender guitar and piano playing (both by John) to rightly take center stage.
14. Photograph: A tune written by George for Ringo. No demo has ever been found… so I took the George’s harmony vocals that were deeply buried and reversed them with Ringo’s lead vocals as much as I could. I also stripped away a lot of other instruments to better hear George’s lovely acoustic guitar playing. I nudged up the piano and strings a bit too!
15. Just For Today: This one blew me away when I reduced it to just george’s vocals and harmony’s and his slide guitar. Such a touching song about battling addiction.
16. 3 Legs: A bluesy instrumental mix from Paul’s RAM album
17. That's What It Takes: I dug the vocal harmonies on this one so I really brought those to the fore. I removed all the drums again and left a muted bass line. And now you can really hear Clapton’s awesome Guitar solo with crystal clarity. This was the only time in the entire album that I kinda added something that wasn’t originally there. During the fadeout I doubled up on the vocals because although George only did that one time...I loved it so I copied this section and had him do it a couple of times at the very end.
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Lactation #9 - A Double Milk Fantasy
1. (Just Like) Starting Over (12' Promo): My remix of the 12” Promo Single that took the original Double Fantasy album ending, and changed it to a much more fun and unusual one. You’ll here the massive influence Elvis had on this fantastic tune. A much more acoustic based version here than the original and promo versions.
2. Cleanup Time: John having fun on this very rocking tune! Great Guitar work is brought to the fore!
3. I’m Losing You: Possibly my favorite mix on the whole album. I really reduced this one down and dig how simple it is but how BADASS it sounds. I love the unexpected quiet part in the middle! A Great John Song!
4. Beautiful Boy: I upped the Harmonies, lost some of the main vocals to give it an even mellower Caribbean feel then on the album…and made it acoustic.
5. Watching The Wheels: I actually did this 2 ways but picked the solo piano version for here for an intimate finished demo kinda feel. (the other was the Bass version…also very cool!) I love the jazzy ending!
6. Woman: Ok… here’s a Bass version LOL with extra harmonies from a later remix added back in.
7. Dear Yoko: Just a fun tune here for the folks back home. I bumped up all the buried harmonies, left the wonderful harmonica track and basically made it a much more acoustic deal.
8. Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him: The original version was a solo Yoko track but I found A lovely dreamy mix with Lennon’s demo vocals buried in the background… so I brought those up and intertwined them with Yoko’s to continue the half awake, half not semi conscious theme. I dig this version a lot.
9. I’m Stepping Out: Love the driving guitar and bass in this one. This was a fun one to mix…lots going one while still retaining an overall mellow feel.
10. I Don't Wanna Face It - Rockin tune. I dropped most of the vocals to focus on the great backing on this one. Love that guitar!
11. Nobody Told Me: Why are there Nazi’s in the bathroom just below the stairs? Most similar to the released version but I made this a bit more acoustic by leaving out most of the drums except for fills.
12. Borrowed Time: Upped the guitars bass and Congo’s at times for that wonderful Caribbean feel again.
13. Forgive Me My Little Flower Princess: Love the beat of this one… so tried to leave in parts to focus on this aspect of the song. Pretty guitar at the end.
14. Grow Old With Me: I remember the first time I heard this… I’m not crying…you’re crying. This one took a lot of work and not only from me. My friend and fellow mixer extraordinaire Lord Reith did amazing things to the demo version of John’s song to bring it up to the beautiful sound quality you hear here. I isolated that and moved it onto right channel, the more piano focused channel, of the orchestral mix. This is the way it should be on the album…they just didn’t have the tech to pull it off back then.
15. Help Me to Help Myself: Another interesting creation. John’s demo he recorded during the Double Fantasy sessions mixed with a backing by the Beatles Tribute band Apple Jam which features drummer Alan White (Yes, John Lennon, George Harrison). The original demo version was released on the 2000 re-release of Double Fantasy as a bonus track. I took the vocals and removed the heavy reverb from the original…and reinserted them back in.
Hope you enjoyed these! More to come!
-RubberSolof
