This week on #askNat, I give my best answer to a question I received a few weeks back from Andrea T. from Wilkes-Barre, PA. Andrea asks:

Over the years, I’ve heard a number of different versions of “Across the Universe.”  Do you know exactly how many versions were recorded by The Beatles?

Officially there are five versions of “Across The Universe” by The Beatles. Here is a list in order of the date they were recorded.

1. Take 2 – Available now on The Beatles Anthology 2, this version includes two guitars, a table harp and a tamboura overlaid with a flanging effect and a superb lead vocal by John. It was recorded on February 3, 1968 and marked “best.”
2. Original mono mix of the master – This is only found on The Beatles Mono Masters double CD that is packaged with the Beatles In Mono box set. Recorded mostly on February 4, 1968 with some overdubs added on February 8, 1968. There were plans for it to be a single but later Paul McCartney’s “Lady Madonna” was chosen instead.
3. Wildlife version – The same take used on the master (take 8) but with bird sound effects added on October 2, 1969 for release on the U.K. charity LP No One’s Gonna Change Our World. George Martin also sped up the pitch a half step from the original key of D. Currently available on The Beatles Past Masters 2-CD set.
4. Stereo remix of take 7 – This version was mixed for release on the CD Let It Be…Naked and pares the song down to John’s vocal and acoustic guitar, some tom-tom from Ringo, and George’s tamboura gliding in at the halfway point. The song fades with a lot of echo.
5. LP version – The mix officially released on the Let It Be album/CD is the one that Phil Spector mixed with orchestration (cellos, violas, more acoustic guitar, violins, trumpets, trombones and harp). Phil also added backing vocals from a choir and slowed down the song from the key of D to C-sharp.

Various versions of "Across The Universe" appears on these (and other) releases

Other versions/bootlegs: While only 5 official releases of this song by The Beatles exist, there are many more accounts out there from bootlegs. Most of the bootlegged versions were sourced from the film rolls that were made during the Get Back Sessions of January 1969. Specifically, in addition to the 5 official versions of the song, there are 29 others in my personal collection (and I don’t claim to have them all!). One interesting alternate mix of the song, known as the ‘Hums Wild’ version, was featured on the BROW back in January (2012). You can check that out here.

Special thanks go out to Andrea for her interesting question!

To keep #askNat alive, I’m hoping you submit your own questions! To do so follow these guidelines:

1) There is a designated form that you fill out right on the website where you can give your name, location, email address and submit your question. The form is right here and is the same form used to submit requests for BROWs (Beatles Rarity Of The Weeks), but modfied to do both BROW requests and #askNat questions.

2) If you are a Facebook user, you can submit your question right on TheBeatlesRarity FB wall at www.facebook.com/beatlesrarity. If you think about it, try to remember to flag your question with “#askNat”.

3) Similarly, if you are a Google+ user, you can submit your question on TheBeatlesRarity Google+ page at www.gplus.to/beatlesrarity. Google+ supports hashtag searchability so it will be helpful if you preface your question with “#askNat” here too.

4) For you Twitter users, www.twitter.com/beatlesrarity gets you to the right place. Post your question and be sure to add “#askNat” somewhere in the tweet.

Here are some links to Amazon to read more or purchase some of the music related to this post:

1) Let It Be – 2009 remaster of original 1970 release featuring “Across The Universe.”

2) Past Masters – 2009 remaster of original 1988 2-CD collection of non-album tracks by The Beatles, including “Wildlife” version of “Across The Universe.”

3) Let It Be… Naked – 2003 CD with stripped down versions of songs from “Let It Be” including a remixed stereo account of take7 of “Across The Universe.” Bonus CD included with chat from Get Back Sessions.

4) The Beatles Anthology 2 – 2-CD set of out-takes and alternate versions of Beatles songs between 1965-1968, including take 2 of “Across The Universe.”

5) The Beatles Mono Box Set – 2009 13-disc collection of mono recordings by The Beatles, including the original mono mix of “Across The Universe” (previously unreleased).

6) Any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Across The Universe (the ‘experimental’ take 7) Happy New Year and welcome, once again, to the Beatles...
2. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – The Inner Light (sans vocals) Welcome to this week’s BROW. By early 1968, George Harrison...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Lady Madonna (alternate take) This week BROW takes a look at the first Beatles...

The Ram remaster will be released in various formats in the U.K. today (May 21, 2012) and in the U.S. tomorrow (May 22, 2012). More info here and here.

Amazon links for “Ram” packages:

1) RAM [Deluxe Book Edition] [4CD+1DVD]

2) RAM [Special Edition] 2-CD set (8-track bonus CD included)

3) RAM [Standard Edition]

4) RAM [Vinyl Edition] 2-LP set with 8 bonus tracks

5) RAM [Limited Edition Mono Vinyl Edition] – very limited mono vinyl LP

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. Additional goodies from Paul McCartney’s “Ram” related releases I wanted to make a final update to readers who...
2. Paul McCartney’s Ram gets “Deluxe” treatment by May 2012 Although it’s subject to change at this point, I wanted...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Ram mono mixes Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week…or for this...

Welcome to The Beatles Rarity of The Week. On November 20, 1976 Paul Simon hosted the Thanksgiving week episode of Saturday Night Live and recorded a few performances along with musical guest George Harrison.

With his new album Thirty Three and 1/3 due to be released in four days, George was eager to make the appearance as part of his efforts to promote it. A promo video clip was shown of George’s lead single “This Song” which had just been released on November 15th and also of “Crackerbox Palace” which would be the follow up single out in January 1977.

Not missing a great opportunity, Paul Simon and George performed a charming selection of Beatles/Simon & Garfunkel/fifties covers together. Both sat with acoustic guitars “unplugged style” before a highly responsive audience and performed these specific songs: “Here Comes The Sun,” “Homeward Bound,” “Rock Island Line” (a la Lonnie Donegan) and the Everly’s “Bye Bye Love.”

From this set, only “Here Comes The Sun” and “Homeward Bound” were televised on the show. This recording of “Homeward Bound” was included on the charity CD Nobody’s Child Romanian Angel Appeal released in 1990. In honor of a recent request, I am featuring the unreleased and untelevised performance of “Rock Island Line” for this week’s BROW. George begins with a few borrowed lines from The Beatles “Yesterday” and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the audience joins in with handclaps when he begins “Rock Island Line.” Since the recording originates from an unrestored 36 year old film source, the fidelity isn’t up to par with what most of us are used to, but nevertheless, I hope you find it an enjoyable listen.

George Harrison/Paul Simon - Rock Island Line

George Harrison and Paul Simon on SNL, 1976

Special thanks go out to Carl Quatraro for requesting a performance from this union of two great artists.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Nobody’s Child – Romanian Angel Appeal – Various – 1990 charity CD featuring Ringo Starr and the All-Starr Band, Traveling Wilburys and George Harrisons performance of “Homeward Bound” with Paul Simon from SNL.

2) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

I wanted to make a final update to readers who are awaiting the remastered release of Paul and Linda McCartney’s “Ram.” A couple of items that I did not mention in a previous post are also available with the various “Ram” packages available.

1) Vinyl single: This is a very limited addition item that was released on April 21st (2012) for Record Store Day. It is a reissue of Paul’s first single apart from The Beatles with “Another Day” on the A-side and “Oh Woman, Oh Why” on the B-side.

A listing of participating Record Store Day stores can be found here.

"Record Store Day" Another Day vinyl 7" single re-issue

2) Two digital-only bonus tracks will be available via paulmccartney.com and iTunes:

1. Eat At Home/Smile Away (Live)
2. Uncle Albert Jam

Track 1 was recorded live with Wings on August 19, 1972 at Groningen, Netherlands at Evenementenhal. The Wings line up at the time was Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell.

Other items previously mentioned include the (1) Standard album on CD, (2) Special Edition (with Bonus CD), (3) Deluxe Edition with bonus CD/Mono Album CD/Thrillington CD/bonus DVD, (4) Vinyl 2-LP set and (5) Mono VInyl.

Additional details about these formats (tracklisting, etc.) are available here.

Ram cover art, 1971

Amazon links for “Ram” packages:

1) RAM [Deluxe Book Edition] [4CD+1DVD]

2) RAM [Special Edition] 2-CD set (8-track bonus CD included)

3) RAM [Standard Edition]

4) RAM [Vinyl Edition] 2-LP set with 8 bonus tracks

5) RAM [Limited Edition Mono Vinyl Edition] – very limited mono vinyl LP

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. From Paul McCartney’s Ewe Tube channel The Ram remaster will be released in various formats in...
2. Paul McCartney’s Ram gets “Deluxe” treatment by May 2012 Although it’s subject to change at this point, I wanted...
3. Big Barn Bed (Wings on the James Paul McCartney television special, 1973) Happy 69th tomorrow for Paul McCartney! For this week’s video...

This week on #askNat, I’m addressing a couple of questions I received last month concerning concerts and concerning bootleg recordings.

First off, Joe D. from North Providence, R.I. asks:

Between late 1963-1966, why did The Beatles live performances last only 30 minutes? Was it their “Being seen/not heard” theory or was it a showbiz criteria of the time? For a band who loved performing in Hamburg and The Cavern, I’ve never heard/read any definitive explanation.

In the early pre-fame days of the group, The Beatles played longer sets, wore jeans and leather jackets on stage while eating, drinking and clowning around. They often would stop songs before they were complete and change their mind on what to play, etc. When Brian Epstein took over as their manager in late 1961, he cleaned up their image and had them wear suits on stage, have a more polished stage presence including a bow after the set was over and, yes, he had them play shorter set lists that were more in line with the “professional” performers of the time.

Typically high profile rock bands of the early sixties had between 8 and 15 songs in their set lists and in those days rock songs lasted usually between 2 and three minutes. After adding in the stage banter and breaks between performances, the shows usually lasted around a half hour. This was the norm between 1963-1966.

The Beatles at Shea Stadium, August 15, 1965

The Beatles Shea Stadium, NY setlist of August 15, 1965: “Twist And Shout,” “She’s A Woman,” “I Feel Fine,” “”Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” “Ticket To Ride,” “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Baby’s In Black,” “Act Naturally,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!,” “I’m Down.”

The Rolling Stones on stage, 1965

A Rolling Stones set list from October 31, 1964 in San Bernardino, CA: “Not Fade Away,” “Time Is On My Side,” “I’m All Right,” “It’s All Over Now,” “If You Need Me,” “Carol,” “(I’m A) King Bee,” “Tell Me,” “Confessin’ The Blues,” “Around And Around.”

The Who on stage, 1965

A typical set list from The Who in 1964: “I Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying,” “You Really Got Me,” “Young Man Blues,” “Green Onions,” “Long Tall Shorty,” “Pretty Thing,” “Smokestack Lightning,” “Here ‘Tis.”

Next, Joe Garrity in Washington, D.C. asks:

Nat, why don’t you give more background info on some of the stranger Beatles releases – like bootlegs? I think the fans would love it!

I have considered covering information about bootlegs in a more specific way. I have brought certain bootlegs up in the comments following certain posts. The reasons I keep bootleg information to a minimum are (1) there are other sites already covering this quite well out there and (2), descriptions of bootlegs can get complicated due to all of the duplication. For example if I refer to a bootleg having a certain recording, there is always going to be another two or three or more with the same recording that someone may think I should have mentioned instead. I concentrate mostly on the historical aspect of where the material on the bootleg came from rather than the specific bootleg release itself, which often has inaccurate liner notes and other misinformation. Finally, avoiding a detailed focus on illegitimate releases helps keep the site out of any undesirable scrutiny from certain publishing companies and other facets of the music industry.

Having said all of this, I should also add that while I don’t write posts that provide info on bootlegs, they are still represented on the site in the way of a listing. I purposely keep this in the background but if interested in photos or track listings or information on specific tracks included in a bootleg release, anyone can look it up on the site. Of course, it is not a complete listing but only bootlegs that are in the Happy Nat collection. You can click Search Nat’s Collection in the top navigation bar of the site and arrive at a Search The Collection search engine. Un-check the “Song” box at the top and choose CDs or Vinyl (there are only a few vinyl bootlegs listed). At the bottom there is a “Release status” pop list where you would choose “Bootleg.” Click the Search The Collection button and a list of bootlegs comes up that you can click on individual titles for more info.

Special thanks go out to “both Joes” for two great questions!

To keep #askNat alive, I’m hoping you submit your own questions! To do so follow these guidelines:

1) There is a designated form that you fill out right on the website where you can give your name, location, email address and submit your question. The form is right here and is the same form used to submit requests for BROWs (Beatles Rarity Of The Weeks), but modfied to do both BROW requests and #askNat questions.

2) If you are a Facebook user, you can submit your question right on TheBeatlesRarity FB wall at www.facebook.com/beatlesrarity. If you think about it, try to remember to flag your question with “#askNat”.

3) Similarly, if you are a Google+ user, you can submit your question on TheBeatlesRarity Google+ page at www.gplus.to/beatlesrarity. Google+ supports hashtag searchability so it will be helpful if you preface your question with “#askNat” here too.

4) For you Twitter users, www.twitter.com/beatlesrarity gets you to the right place. Post your question and be sure to add “#askNat” somewhere in the tweet.

Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

Welcome to The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. John Lennon’s White Album track “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” is the subject of this week’s offering.

John referred to the song as a pastiche, consisting of several different song fragments he had going around in his head in 1968, as identified below:

1. The first section includes a fingerpicking style of guitar he had recently picked up in Rishikesh India with the help of Donovan, played with a lilting pattern and including the line “She’s not a girl who misses much…”
2. The second section includes some lyrics supplied by Beatles press officer Derek Taylor which he came up with during an acid trip that he experienced with John (“She’s well acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane…”).
3. The third section came from a song fragment called “I Need A Fix” built around a nice and mean sounding guitar riff.
4. John follows this up with the fourth “Mother Superior Jumped The Gun” section.
5. The fifth and final section sends off the song with a doo-wop approach of singing the title with full backing vocal accompaniment from John, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. This inspiration for this section came from the title of an American firearms magazine title of Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand that John was shown by producer George Martin.

With each section comes a change in the time signature, yet despite it’s schizophrenic nature, it came together quite well and was much admired by the other Beatles. In fact, Paul McCartney mentioned in an interview that it was his favorite White Album song.

Forty-five takes of the song were recorded on September 23, 1968 and twenty-five more the following day. Take 53 was chosen as the best of these except for the final section which was edited to it from take 65. Overdubs were added from this version to create the master. If listening to the album or CD of the White Album, the edit between the takes occurs at 1:34.

For this week’s BROW, I am sharing one of the rough mix tapes that isolates one of the overdub tracks. It contains organ for the first two sections, distorted electric guitar for the third section, hi-hat and tambourine for the fourth section, and piano for the final section. These can be heard in the released stereo and mono mixes (centered in stereo) but since the organ and piano are quite buried there, I thought you may appreciate hearing these parts of the mix a bit clearer in this isolation account. As an added bonus, I’ve prefaced this with John’s acoustic guitar demo of the song recorded on May 25, 1969 while at his and Yoko Ono’s Canadian Bed-In at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. On this same day John was recording demos for his anthem “Give Peace A Chance” just one week before recording the final version in Montreal, Quebec.

A very special thanks goes out to Spike who requested this week’s BROW and waited patiently for me to get to it.

The Beatles - Happiness Is A Warm Gun

John Lennon & Paul McCartney, 1968

Extra info: The Beatles Anthology 3 includes an acoustic demo of John playing sections 3 and 4 sometime around the third week of May 1968 at his Weybridge home, Kenwood.

Credits for finalized version of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun:”
John Lennon: double tracked vocal, backing vocals, guitar
Paul McCartney: bass, backing vocals
George Harrison: fuzzed lead guitar, backing vocals
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) The White Album (Remastered) 2009 2-CD remaster of original 1968 stereo LP, including “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.”

2) Anthology 3 2-CD compilation of alternate and out-take Beatles recordings between 1968-1969, including early acoustic demo of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.”

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

Welcome to the third episode of Record Roundup! This time around the focus turns to John Lennon’s first single apart from The Beatles. Just as before I’ve put together a “mini-movie” of sorts where I will discuss some details and the historical impact of this song and it’s message. Afterwards I’ll drop it on the turntable and give it a spin just like some of used to do back in 1842. Enjoy!

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Power To The People: The Hits
– 2010 remastered hits collection including “Give Peace A Chance.”

2) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

Welcome to another go-round of #AskNat, a new series on TheBeatlesRarity where I chose one or more Beatle-related questions sent in by site-readers to give it my best answer. Feel free to join in with any added information by commenting to the post. Information on submitting your own questions is given below. Thanks are also in order here for those who have already sent in questions – so THANK YOU very much!

This week’s first question comes from one of our long time email subscribers Elliott Marx of Chatsworth California, who makes a quick point and writes:

I always found the story about rejecting Mitch Murray’s “How Do You Do It” to be suspicious. I love the premise of the band putting their foot down and purposely doing a lackluster version of the song as a protest against using outside writers. But multinational record corporations don’t listen to unproven 20 year old artists.

After famously being denied by multiple labels, it seems mind-bogglingly courageous to not just do what your told to do.

On top of that, how did Murray write a song that was so incredibly early-Beatles-esque before the Beatles had even made a recorded impact? I think HDYDI is a great, light weight pop tune. But it really does have many Beatles trademarks within it. Perhaps they arranged the known version to suit their style. Otherwise, it seems that elements of their sound preexisted.

This is a lot of language to simply ask – what is the true story behind that song?

Well, Elliott, the true story goes like this.

The Beatles first EMI recording session on June 6, 1962 convinced producer George Martin two things. First drummer Pete Best was unsuitable for studio purposes (the group took care of this by replacing him with Ringo). Second, none of the material offered by the group, original compositions or covers, was strong enough for a debut single. Martin took this problem into his own hands by searching for a promising new song from London’s talent pool of songwriters. Meanwhile, across town, composer Mitch Murray watched as his new song “How Do You Do It” was demoed by Barry Mason (with instrumental accompaniment by the Dave Clark Five), offered to singer Adam Faith, and turned down. Murray and Mason next brought the demo acetate to EMI’s resident rock producer Ron Richards, who convinced publisher Dick James to purchase the rights to the tune. The acetate sat in Richards’ office until sometime after The Beatles June 6 session, which Richards and Martin co-produced. Both producers agreed that the song might be suitable for the Beatles’ style and mailed a copy to Liverpool so the band could learn the song in time for a session planned for September 4, 1962.

So The Beatles were put in the ironic position of having to rearrange a song performed by future chart rivals, The Dave Clark Five, and there is evidence that they tried out their new arrangement during July and August performances at The Cavern. The response must not have been good enough to give them confidence in the song (based on their recorded performance). They clearly wanted to make it on their own terms rather than become known for parroting the corniness of “professional” song writers. But with no original songs to draw from and cautious at the possibility of upsetting the big-time producers who presumably knew what made a big hit (what they wanted more than anything), The Beatles finalized an arrangement of the song with their new drummer Ringo in the last weeks of August. At the September 4 session, after some rehearsals and Ringo proving his drumming skills, they nailed a recording of “How Do You Do It” in one take. Handclaps were added as the only overdub. Satisfying Martin and Richards, they moved on to recording their own “Love Me Do,” which took 15 takes and although recognized as being superior to Pete Best’s efforts, caused George Martin to have second thoughts on Ringo’s drumming. Holding off on a final decision as to which song was the most worthy to be the debut single, Martin mixed both songs and had a mono acetate made. By the following session on September 11, Martin had declared “Love Me Do” more suitable for The Beatles style and “How Do You Do It” was placed in the vault and forgotten until long after the session tapes had been destroyed. Gerry and The Pacemakers, however, ended up recording the song and taking it to #1 in the U.K. for 3 weeks. For the Beatles September 11 session, professional drummer Andy White was brought in to try a recording of “Love Me Do” with him. For more on that see last week’s #askNat article here. Additional information about “How Do You Do It” was featured in this BROW post.

George Martin's original 1962 acetate for "How Do You Do It"

Stacia in Minneapolis, Minnesota asks:

What’s a couple of your favorite bootleg discs?

Well, Stacia, that one is a bit tough for me to answer in terms of any “specific” titles. A look through the inventory section of my site here will show that I do have a lot in my personal collection but I guess it all is too dependent on what I happen to be in the mood to listen to at any given time to make a list of certain ones. I will say though that I am quite fond of many of the CDs out on the “Purple Chick” label, because they are very complete series-type sets that are as complete as possible for a specific period, tour or session instead of being a confusing “hodgepodge” of various recordings. For example there is even an 80+ disc set of the entire Get Back sessions of January 1969 (the set is called A/B Road). All the good and all the bad in one set. It’s quite exhaustive for a casual fan, but for a completeist, such as myself, it is a good thing. Of course I invite anyone reading to list their favorite Beatle bootlegs (and why) in the comments section below.

Thank you Elliott and Stacia for two very good questions!

References used in this post include John C. Winn’s Way Beyond Compare and Bill Harry’s Beatles Encyclopedia.

To submit your own questions to #askNat follow these guidelines:

1) There is a designated form that you fill out right on the website where you can give your name, location, email address and submit your question. The form is right here and is the same form used to submit requests for BROWs (Beatles Rarity Of The Weeks), but modfied to do both BROW requests and #askNat questions.

2) If you are a Facebook user, you can submit your question right on TheBeatlesRarity FB wall at www.facebook.com/beatlesrarity. If you think about it, try to remember to flag your question with “#askNat”.

3) Similarly, if you are a Google+ user, you can submit your question on TheBeatlesRarity Google+ page at www.gplus.to/beatlesrarity. Google+ supports hashtag searchability so it will be helpful if you preface your question with “#askNat” here too.

4) For you Twitter users, www.twitter.com/beatlesrarity gets you to the right place. Post your question and be sure to add “#askNat” somewhere in the tweet.

To read more or purchase music related to this post check out these Amazon links below:

1) Anthology 1 – 1995 2 CD set of Beatles out-takes and live recordings from the earliest years up to 1964. Includes “How Do You Do It” from September 4, 1962 EMI session.

2) Past Masters (Remastered) – 2-CD 2010 remastered set of Beatles non-album tracks including “Love Me Do” single version with Ringo Starr on drums at the same session that “How Do You Do It” was recorded.

3) Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. The Beatles spent much of their day on January 25, 1969 recording George’s Harrison’s fun little twelve bar blues ditty “For You Blue.” Along with a lot of practice rehearsals in between takes, they recorded twelve proper takes on that day and it was the only day they worked on the song throughout the rest of the their time working as a complete band. George plays acoustic guitar while singing the vocal in a corner of the room while Ringo Starr steadily delivers the drumbeat. Paul McCartney played piano on the track with paper laid across the inside of the piano to give it a less dominating sound. John Lennon brings the track to life with the lap steel guitar accompaniment which he plays using a shotgun shell as a bottleneck.

The version of “For You Blue” that we hear on the Let It Be album is take 7, however George rerecorded his vocal track nearly a year later on January 8th, 1970. A cleaner sounding mix of this same take and newer vocal was also used on 2003′s Let It Be…Naked.

This week’s BROW treats us to an alternate version prepared for use in the Let It Be film. This is actually an edit created from three other takes recorded on Jan. 25, 1969, including the main part of the song coming from one take previous to the one on the album (i.e. take 6). Although a verse was trimmed off of the end, an extended instrumental intro is created by editing in part of the instrumental break from take 9.

The Beatles - For You Blue

George Harrison recording "For You Blue", Jan. 25, 1969

Extra info: “For You Blue” had a working title of “George’s Blues (Because You’re Sweet And Lovely).” When Phil Spector remixed the song for inclusion on the Let It Be album, he added a spoken introduction by John Lennon taken from dialog recorded at Twickenham Studios in early January where John says “Queen says no to pot-smoking FBI members.”

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Let It Be (Remastered) – 2009 remaster of original 1970 LP, featuring “For You Blue”

2) Let It Be… Naked 2003 CD with special “stripped down” versions of the Let It Be album without the Phil Spector mix on the original 1970 release, and featuring “For You Blue”.

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

For those of you who are fans of the Beatles Rarity Of The Week (i.e. BROW), I wanted to point out that an audio podcast version of the BROW is now readily available for you to listen to whenever you like. This podcast version of BROW is called BROWcast and is the same BROWcast that has been featured on Fab4Radio. If you would like to check these out and haven’t heard them on Fab4Radio yet, or simply would like to listen to them again, or on your own preferred time, then read on.

Currently, the first four BROWcast episodes are streaming at thebeatlesrarity.podomatic.com and a new one will be added each week (usually on Tuesday mornings).

Listening to BROWcast on Fab4Radio

The Fab4Radio player is in the lower right sidebar of any page on this site. Of course it is also at Fab4Radio.com. Just click that play button to listen. The BROWcast is heard on Saturdays and Sundays immediately following Dennis Mitchell’s Breakfast With The Beatles program (in the U.S. usually between 11:35 and 11:45 am ET/8:35 and 8:45 am PT). Episodes are also placed in light rotation at random times throughout the week.

Subscribing to BROWcast

Using iTunes:

itpc://thebeatlesrarity.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

Click the above feed link and Itunes should immediately take over and begin downloading an episode. To get the others, right-click or click a drop-down menu (depending on which version of Itunes you have) and choose “show all available episodes” or similar verbiage.

Other readers:

If you want to set up a subscription to have the podcast automatically download to your own reader that is not Itunes (Winamp, Juice, etc.), then you will need to consult the instructions for your specific player and use the RSS feed:

http://thebeatlesrarity.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

More information about listening and subscribing to podcasts can be found here.

Finally, I would like to give a great big THANK YOU to my friend Mike Myers for his artistry on the “Nat-man theme” used in the BROWcast. Those “Savoy Truffle” horns make my day!

Happy Nat
thebeatlesrarity.com

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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