Harry And His Box Set (V1, 2, 7, 10, 12, 15, 14 update.)

[Spaniard in da Works]

The Beatles would be mostly playing the same things we already know, but not very well. In small place like the Cavern and Hamburg, the force of their personalities was likely very powerful. They were brash and funny. They played with energy. They had a lot of talent. It would be very fun to SEE those Beatles. But I am guessing that a recording would be disappointing.

Great point. Conceded!

[[flabbyroad]]

Someone almost ruined I Saw Her Standing There for me by pointing out the marked similarity to When The saints Go March In. But I think I'm over that now, thank God.

ha! i probably would have burned at least one more lifetime before spotting that one.

It's only the contour of the melody that is the same, but it's definitely there. When The Saints was the song Paul learnt on trumpet so it would have been deeply ingrained in his psyche. Actually ISHST is one of the few songs where we are aware of probably all the influences that went into its creation. As well as the similarity to When The Saints, there is the bass line pinched from I'm Talking About You, and the lyrical theme of a 17yo girl at a dance borrowed from Little Queenie. And the "we danced all night" part referring to Paul's trip to a London nightclub with his girlfriend. And of course the beauty queen bit. And to boot we have an unformed early version with harmonica and a complete session tape! I'd say we know more about this song than any other L&M number!

And I forgot to say, we have a photograph of them finishing it off at Paul's house.
Man, you could make an entire 60min documentary about this one song.

maybe it's a stretch too far but i hear a faint echo in the lyrics where the melodic resemblance is strongest: the "another"/"that number" off rhyme.

No, I think that is quite reasonable and further suggests that ISHST is subliminally based on Saints.

i'm still thinking about that. are you aware of this version of "saints"? (see also BEATFILE BFP210CDR: "mccartney III extras")

Not sure were the info comes from ( and if it is right) but Lennon's contribution :

Vernon Girls - You Know What I Mean ( Whacker) , B side of Lover Please

fl

Don't hope I ruined any thing....

[Lord Reith]

Not sure were the info comes from ( and if it is right) but Lennon's contribution :

Vernon Girls - You Know What I Mean ( Whacker) , B side of Lover Please

fl

Don't hope I ruined any thing....

I'm too scared to listen! One of The Beatles great talents was their ability to improve other people's songs. They turned a lot of B grade B sides into terrific tracks. Likewise I think they could take other people's basic ideas for songs and come up with much better songs derived from those because they were more imaginative and had better ideas. I think most of those early songs perhaps began life with the words "Hey, let's write a song like (insert random song title)". No one writes in a vacuum and there's nothing wrong with that because we like songs that are similar to what we know already but are just that little bit different to it. If the song is too radically different to what we are used to, we tend to reject it.

It's a pity that 10-inch albums weren't really a think anymore by 1964 - Beatles For Sale might have worked better in that format, with just the 8 originals 'undiluted' by the cover versions. Or maybe a double EP (3 years before MMT).

I think the covers don't really work on BFS but if they'd waited another 6 months trhen the songs would have sounded dated next to their 65 songs. They moved so fast. I tend to skip the covers when playing BFS.

I know, that's precisely the reason I'd like to know what It was like.
If you were, say, a fan of Robert Johnson, and heard that his records were acoustic Delta blues all the time only because that's what his label wanted him to record and that live he actually played a lot of pop and country backed with local musicians, wouldn't you be curious?

Oh don't get me wrong, I AM curious.

I would love to hear Robert Johnson play different material, because I assume he would play it well.

The Beatles would be mostly playing the same things we already know, but not very well. In small place like the Cavern and Hamburg, the force of their personalities was likely very powerful. They were brash and funny. They played with energy. They had a lot of talent. It would be very fun to SEE those Beatles. But I am guessing that a recording would be disappointing.

Yeah, I can imagine sort of what it might have sounded like but what I can't imagine is all their wit and humour and spontenaity, all the interactions with the audience and their on stage antics and all that went with it. That would have been a huge part of it. I think a recording would probably be disappointing, but actually BEING THERE would be a different kettle of fish entirely. Their in-person charisma and magnetism would be overwhelming. But Polydor and Decca whether we like it or not is actually what they sounded like. That is their sound. They may be turned down a bit but it's not like they turned into an entirely different group for one day. Add a bit of volume and a lot of hijinks and you've got what they sounded like in the clubs.

[jackb]

about Vol. 12 - track 26 The Public Ear:
At the beginning of the credits, is that Ringo reading a list of names? Are those names of people who appeared on the show? Then when George comes in saying something like "this is the last programme," that transition seems pretty abrupt. Are we missing some dialogue or was that how the broadcast sounded?

So many questions, but inquiring minds want to know, Jack

[slane]

I'm too scared to listen! One of The Beatles great talents was their ability to improve other people's songs. They turned a lot of B grade B sides into terrific tracks. Likewise I think they could take other people's basic ideas for songs and come up with much better songs derived from those because they were more imaginative and had better ideas. I think most of those early songs perhaps began life with the words "Hey, let's write a song like (insert random song title)". No one writes in a vacuum and there's nothing wrong with that because we like songs that are similar to what we know already but are just that little bit different to it. If the song is too radically different to what we are used to, we tend to reject it.

Like 'Ill Be On My Way - let's take the chord progression of the verse of Crying Waiting Hoping (in the same key even) and then use the intro of Don't Ever Change (or more accurately the middle eight which is in the same key as IBOMW) as an intro. And voila!

I noticed that when I was trying to learn the Beatles At The Beeb songs on guitar way back then (those three songs almost followed one another on the broadcast).

Or how do you finish And I Love Her when it's without a middle eight and guitar riff (as heard on Anthology 1). Well, that Honeymoon Song has quite a similar feel - let's appropriate the guitar riff from the middle eight... and actually those middle eight chords in THS would fit nicely too. Again, they're even in the same key. And the BBC version of AILH highlights the similarity.

[Lord Reith]

about Vol. 12 - track 26 The Public Ear:
At the beginning of the credits, is that Ringo reading a list of names? Are those names of people who appeared on the show? Then when George comes in saying something like "this is the last programme," that transition seems pretty abrupt. Are we missing some dialogue or was that how the broadcast sounded?

So many questions, but inquiring minds want to know, Jack

Questions are okay. That's what I'm here for.

The Public Ear was a magazine programme of current events and people, so each programme had a number of features. So George and Ringo are just reading out the credits that would normally be read by the continuity announcer.

The Beatles segments were interspered by some of their records, but the reason the jump from Ringo to George sounds so abrupt is just because there's a big change in sound quality. The off air tape just continued on in bad quality. There was no gap between the two.

[Lord Reith]

Like 'Ill Be On My Way - let's take the chord progression of the verse of Crying Waiting Hoping (in the same key even) and then use the intro of Don't Ever Change (or more accurately the middle eight which is in the same key as IBOMW) as an intro. And voila!

I noticed that when I was trying to learn the Beatles At The Beeb songs on guitar way back then (those three songs almost followed one another on the broadcast).

Yes, I noticed the pinch from DEC to create the intro for IBOMW too back in 1982. And I'll Be On My Way is actually a lost Buddy Holly number as you say. I would guess that is one of their older songs that got revived, like I'll Follow The Sun. Not too sure about the dodgy "golden rivers flow" line though... that sounds like a schoolboy pisstake - literally! It sounds like they are trying not to laugh when they sing that line.

The falsetto ending to Misery sounds like Del Shannon's "Wah, wah, wah, wah, wannnderrrr" to me.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand is almost To Know Her Is To Love Her changed to 4/4 and sped up. Similar chord structure on "Oh yeah I'll tell you something, I think you'll understand" to "To know know know her is to love love love her". And This Boy as a whole is kind of a rewrite of To Know Her Is To Love Her... same three part harmonies, same 6/8 time signature and same transition to high drama for the bridge.

Do You Want To Know A Secret has some similarities to Cliff's "Summer Holiday" with the doo-dahh-doo bits.

She Loves You always sounded a bit like Noel Noel" the Christmas carol to me. "You think you lost your love, well I saw her yesterday" has a similar melodic contour to "The first noel, the angels did sing".

Maybe I'm imagining things ha ha!

[Lord Reith]

This is an update of V14. Thanks to the generous donation of a new off air tape of From us To You, three of the Beatles tracks (I'm Happy Just To Dance With You, Things We Said Today and I Should Have Known Better) have been substantially upgraded. Also heard for the first time in 60 years are some tracks by other artists in the show and a Beatles request for Sugar Pie DeSanto. I love Billy J's cover of the rocked-up blues classic "My Babe". The Animals' rough and ready cover of "House Of the Rising Sun" is another highlight. If the tape had only gone on ten minutes longer it would have caught their one and only recording of "My Favourite Things" (yes, the Julie Andrews song). Can't even imagine what that might have sounded like! And while The Overlanders may not be everyone's cup of tea (sounding uncannily like The Folksmen from A Mighty Wind) the ditty "Settle Down" has become a bit of an earworm for me. Hell, it's stuck in my head as I type this (STOP!!!) Anyway this is surely one of the most interesting tapes to turn up in the last few years and all our thanks go to the guys who rescued it.

As usual you can listen either to the Fabs-only version or the complete version by means of two different playlists. If you're putting the files on your phone you don't need to do ANYTHING. The metatags will automatically make sure everything ends up in the right place.

Attached as an extra is one of the FUTY session tapes, in abysmal quality. I have also replaced the extracts on the main volume because this source does not have noise reduction (thanks to the late great Eddie Suarez).

Also included are some other things including yet another version of the continuity sheet to account for this updated volume and the fact that I somewhow managed to spell "Brian Matthew" wrong some 40 times.

Yes, all you need for a good night in. So "settle down" and get some listening in. Yeeha!

https://tinyurl.com/exp-21st-march

[BTL1210]

Many thanks M'Lord for the update to Vol.14 ...... AWESOME stuff indeed ....

[TELEGRAM SAM]

Outstanding! Magnificent! Thank you so much.