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

[Egg_Crisis]

Just to clarify though for those of us coming to this late: "Note that any patches contained in later volumes have not been applied and need to be done by you. The exception is V24 where you do not have to do anything."

What does this refer to? Are there patches for earlier volumes contained in later ones? If these links are finished and comprehensive what does this comment mean? Help appreciated!!

It just means they were uploaded when they were released, and yes the later ones contain patches for the earlier ones. To have them already patched would have required them to be uploaded again. Just download them and apply the patches when you find them.

[Ziggy C]

Just to clarify though for those of us coming to this late: "Note that any patches contained in later volumes have not been applied and need to be done by you. The exception is V24 where you do not have to do anything."

What does this refer to? Are there patches for earlier volumes contained in later ones? If these links are finished and comprehensive what does this comment mean? Help appreciated!!

It just means they were uploaded when they were released, and yes the later ones contain patches for the earlier ones. To have them already patched would have required them to be uploaded again. Just download them and apply the patches when you find them.

This project was launched and boom, there it is. Some of the folders in the later volumes have additional materials with specific designations for earlier volumes. Volume 24 is the video volume; a large folder of mp4 and mkv files. Volume 24 is current and, when downloaded as is, needs no further modifications.

-Z

[Nowhere Man9091]

Now that we’ve all had a listen to tremendous upgrades from Lord Reith..is it just me, but in my head i can still hear where all the glitches, drop outs and other crappy noises were on those original BBC bootlegs from the 70’s.

Same here. When I taped the songs ‘only’ from The Beatles at the Beeb radio show in the UK (it was 2 hours long and I only had a 90 min tape) I accidentally pressed record during the solo of ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ when I was trying to listen to it a few months later (I’d forgot to remove the 2 tabs on the top of the tape that stops you recording over it). For years I had to put up with a couple of seconds of silence until I got the track on one of TR Service collection of bootlegs a few years later.

Even today, when listening to the same song, I can hear exactly where I pressed record back when I was 13 years old and am still surprised when the sound doesn’t disappear!

You know what this means….we wore out those tapes playing over and over back in the day

[Lord Reith]

Thanks again guys. I always appreciate your comments. Feedback is an invaluable part of the process.

Now to the questions...

Thanks again,

is it correct now the "3 by the beatles" is redunant and is included in the update to v14?

Well the thing is that was restored by someone else and while I think they did a good job (the raw tape actually just sounds like the old tape on first listen) I like to restore things myself, so I did my own work on it. Distortion was quite a big problem with the tape and I was able to reduce it considerably but in the end it's a compromise between distortion and clarity. As you boost the clarity, the distortion becomes more problematic. I hope I got the balance right. If you compare, say, I Should Have Known Better to I'm A Loser (from a transcription disc) from that same volume then there's not that much difference. The only drag is that now when the old tape comes back in again for "Boys" the drop in quality is hugely noticeable! Pretty damned fortuitous though that this tape contained the best three tracks from the show: two with no other BBC version and TWST which knocks the Top Gear performance into a cocked hat. Ten years ago these would have made nice additions to "On Air". What we really need though is for that session tape to turn up in good quality... surely it is out there somewhere, possibly with more of the same!

Absolutely brilliant LR. Definitive. Thank you completely.

I missed most of the set (with Covid) and was wondering if anyone was planning on putting up comprehensive links with the patches? I’ve started going through the thread but I’m a bit confused.

Anyway - this is MASSIVE! Thank you again for curating this masterful set

The link in the first post returned yesterday. But it doesn't have the patches applied. You need to do that yourself (there's only three or four).

So this is it, right? I will miss the regular offering of new and improved BBC tracks. I'm still taking my time getting through all this. I had never spent much time with the non-music stuff, but it is interesting. I listened to Juke Box Jury this morning. What an uncomfortable position to put musicians in.

We will a be waiting for the next tape that appears out of nowhere.

The spoken word stuff is some of the best they ever recorded. And it covers most of the big events of their early career, in real time. I think we are very lucky to have it. A lot of it is funny too.

I was thinking the same myself. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more updates not too far in the future.

Life itself is an update... there is always more to come.

PS. I Should Have Known Better (split vocals), that track really amazes me !

Great vocals from John. His voice is so pure.

What does this refer to? Are there patches for earlier volumes contained in later ones? If these links are finished and comprehensive what does this comment mean? Help appreciated!!

In some of the final volumes are included odd minor upgrades for earlier volumes. We're only talking three or four songs.

Now that we’ve all had a listen to tremendous upgrades from Lord Reith..is it just me, but in my head i can still hear where all the glitches, drop outs and other crappy noises were on those original BBC bootlegs from the 70’s.

Ha ha! That can happen to me too. To this day I still expect the volume to go up at one particular point in "Nothin Shakin" (after the line "I grab my baby try to give her a squeeze") simply because that's how I first heard it on "Air Time/Silver Days" 42 years ago.

When I taped the songs ‘only’ from The Beatles at the Beeb radio show in the UK (it was 2 hours long and I only had a 90 min tape) I accidentally pressed record during the solo of ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ when I was trying to listen to it a few months later (I’d forgot to remove the 2 tabs on the top of the tape that stops you recording over it). For years I had to put up with a couple of seconds of silence until I got the track on one of TR Service collection of bootlegs a few years later.

Even today, when listening to the same song, I can hear exactly where I pressed record back when I was 13 years old and am still surprised when the sound doesn’t disappear!

He he. That never happened to me thankfully - I always knocked out the record tab after taping something! I heard a story about a guy who was copying a rare video for someone else and set up the two vcrs as you did back then, pressed "play" on one and "record" on the other and went off to make a coffee. I'm sure you can guess what happened next... yes, he had pressed record on the wrong one and obliterated the first ten minutes of his precious tape. Ouch!

That Antiques Roadshow clip is great. Who thought a fretless guitar was a good idea? No wonder John (and then George) gave it away!

I could never understand what the hell John was playing in that interview! I thought that the speed of the tape was funny and that is why it was so wobbly. To my knowledge they never actually used that fretless guitar on a record, and no wonder. A fretless bass is bad enough... fretless guitar? Torture.

The Billy J Kramer version of My Babe sounds as if it was recorded after Mick Green jumped ship from Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. Compare the Johnny Kidd tracks on HAHBS08 with the Dakotas tracks on the new HAHBS14. Also check out The Pirates (minus Johnny Kidd) version of My Babe on YouTube. Good stuff.

Yes, it does sound very like the Pirates guitar. Very hard sound. The clean tone of electric guitars at the time forced some guitarists play far more aggressively to try and get more balls into their act. The Hollies, The Who and the Easybeats went down that road too. Lots of fast bar chord playing, double stop solos and the like. I'm glad George avoided that though, because once the distorted guitar sounds started coming in around 1966, that kind of playing suddenly sounded very dated.

[Lord Reith]

And is it just me, or is Soulfull Dress the most boring song ever?

Those four guys sure made great music, but I'm not sure I'd have wanted to listen to their record collections.

[Ziggy C]

What I find is a gas from time to time is to listen to some of those albums that came out in the 50's from one- and two-hit wonder bands like The Monotones, Danny & The Juniors, The Big Bopper, The Silhouettes, etc.

Several songs on their album have the sound and feel of the one hit song. But not quite good enough. For example: Pink Petticoats, Big Bopper's Wedding, and Little Red Riding Hood all have the trademark laughs or spoken comic asides, or Helloooo Baby's. etc. as does Chantilly Lace. But Chantilly Lace was the hit that packaged all of it in the right proportions. Same thing with The Monotones and Danny & The Juniors albums. Collections of songs, several of which have the same essential chord changes, but not quite as impactful as the one hit song. And there are also songs which are like sequels to the hit song. Reading The Book Of Love. Back To The Hop.

Once in a while I'll break out and listen to a more comprehensive collection from Billy J Kramer, The Hollies, or Pretty Things. I can never make it all the way through, though.

But you'll never here any of those deeper cuts on the radio.

[Lord Reith]

I've lost track of all the songs I've heard where bad production or a poor performance have ruined what might have been a hit. The Beatles were very very lucky to get the team they did. The other British producers at that time were egomaniacs who added strings, girl choirs, Latin beats and gimmicky crap to everything. I could well imagine Please Please Me coming out on another label and being laden with strings and a calypso beat or something. George Martin and Norman Smith both had good taste, and Martin was smart enough and humble enough to concede that these four guys had terrific ideas and were mini-producers in their own right.

Then there's the other end of the spectrum: production that is way too timid. Records that should be popping don't go anywhere because the man in charge didn't get the performance required, or didn't know how to capture the sound of the group properly. That is actually far more common. So many records just sound bland and derivative but with a good producer could have been great. A lot of the records The Beatles covered in 1962-3 were pretty ropey. The Beatles injected far more imagination and life into them than the original artists did in many cases. Try listening to the original versions of some of the stuff they did in hamburg or the BBC - a lot of them are just plain embarassingly awful. It speaks volumes for their musical sensibilities that John and Paul were able to spot good songs lurking in some of these throwaways and B-sides. The majority of other bands would have heard those same records and never thought of them as being worth covering.

[tymime]

That Antiques Roadshow clip is great. Who thought a fretless guitar was a good idea? No wonder John (and then George) gave it away!

I could never understand what the hell John was playing in that interview! I thought that the speed of the tape was funny and that is why it was so wobbly. To my knowledge they never actually used that fretless guitar on a record, and no wonder. A fretless bass is bad enough... fretless guitar? Torture.

That particular guitar does show up on Helter Skelter and Warm Gun, actually. I don't think it made any further appearances after that though.

[jpgrcat1960]

1968-06-06 Kenny Everett had John playing a fretless guitar

[Spaniard in da Works]

Several songs on their album have the sound and feel of the one hit song. But not quite good enough. For example: Pink Petticoats, Big Bopper's Wedding, and Little Red Riding Hood all have the trademark laughs or spoken comic asides, or Helloooo Baby's. etc. as does Chantilly Lace. But Chantilly Lace was the hit that packaged all of it in the right proportions.

And it's not like The Big Bopper was a one trick Pony songwriter: he wrote White Lightning for George Jones.