On The Records

It’s not one of the big anniversary box sets, but A Hard Day’s Night  is getting a 60th Anniversary release on white vinyl.

The release is set for October 19th, 2024…National Album Day.  This was the first album that had all Lennon-McCartney compositions.  Here’s the tracklist.

If you were in England in 1964, this is the album you got.  Unfortunately, those of us in America got a movie soundtrack that only had the seven songs from side one.  The full lineup of songs was finally made available to everyone when the CD’s came out in 1987, and we heard what a great album it is.  The album has two #1 singles “Can’t Buy Me Love” & “A Hard Day’s Night”, two great ballads “And I Love Her” & “If I Fell”, and a couple more classics…Lennon’s “You Can’t Do That” & McCartney’s “Things We Said Today”.

The cover of the album says it’s stereo, but the press release did not mention whether it’s the new remixed stereo (like the songs from this record that are on the Red album from 2023), or the original 1964 stereo.  You’d think if it was completely remixed, they’d announce it and there would also be a CD version.  This is just a guess, but since Apple was recently working with the original mixes for the monophonic set of American versions of The Beatles’ albums, they might have also used the original mixes for this stereo album.

The new vinyl release is for anyone who doesn’t already have the album, or for those who want the novelty of white vinyl.  The rest of us are waiting (impatiently) for the Rubber Soul box set which was originally expected a year ago.  Rubber Soul may turn out to be the last Beatles album to get the full box set treatment.  Remix producer Giles Martin said Rubber Soul has enough alternate takes to justify a box set.  That may not be the case for the earlier albums.

The family of Tom Petty has been doing a great job of keeping his music alive by releasing material that includes recordings that are new to his fans.  On October 18th, 2024, a Deluxe Edition of the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Long After Dark album will be released.  Besides the original 10 tracks from the 1982 album, there are another 12 “rediscovered” tracks, including seven that have never been released.

The original album is best known for the hits “You Got Lucky” & “Change Of Heart”, along with “Straight Into Darkness”.  On the added second disc is the #1 Country song Tom Petty and Benmont Tench wrote for Rosanne Cash, “Never Be You”.  It also includes the great John Sebastian song “Stories We Could Tell”, as well as songs you may have heard on the Tom Petty box set Playback.  Those include “Turning Point” and “Keeping Me Alive”.  The seven unreleased tracks will be of particular interest to Petty’s fans.

The deluxe version comes in a 2-record set, or a  2-CD set with an additional Blu-Ray audio disc (with the same songs).

Besides the new deluxe album release, there’s a long lost film.

This is the first film from director Cameron Crowe, who eventually gave us Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire.  Heart Breakers Beach Party is not in the same league as those other two films, in fact it was only shown once on MTV at 2 A.M.!  According to the film’s trailer, it was also rejected by HBO.  The filming was done about the same time as the Long After Dark album, and includes the making of the video for “You Got Lucky”.  The film looks a little raucous, and could be fun for Heartbreakers fans.  There’s a limited run in theaters starting October 17th, 2024.  No word yet on whether it’s being picked up by a streaming service.

The release of the deluxe album and hardly-seen film are just the latest posthumous releases developed by the Tom Petty estate.  Here are the albums that have been released since his passing.

An American Treasure (2018) is mostly made up of unreleased and live versions of Tom Petty Songs.  It accents recordings other than his hits.  The standard 2-disc set has 26 songs, and the deluxe 4-disc set has 60 songs.

The Best Of Everything (2019) does a truly excellent job of putting together a double album of all the major hits and some of the significant album tracks from Tom Petty’s group and solo recordings.  A minor quibble is that the songs are not in chronological order.

Above is my 4-CD box set of Wildflowers & All The Rest (2020).  It’s a wonderful compilation of music recorded around the time of Petty’s 1994 album Wildflowers.  On the first 2-CDs are the 25 songs Tom Petty originally wanted to release as a double album.  The third CD has great demos Tom Petty recorded on his own, and the fourth CD has live versions with The Heartbreakers.  Later I added the fifth disc of alternate studio versions.  It’s all a treasure.  This collection and The Best Of Everything are the recordings most essential to get to know the music of Tom Petty.

Angel Dream (2021) is a reimagining of the motion picture soundtrack She’s The One.  Although this was a modest release, it includes some welcome previously unreleased tracks.

Live At The Fillmore 1997 (2022) is a major release of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ live performances.  The 4-CD box set includes 72 live tracks.  The band had played together for decades, and their Fillmore concerts showed how impressive they had become on stage.  While there are a lot of Heartbreaker’s songs, there’s also an abundance of unreleased covers of classic songs that the group is obviously having fun playing.

(The Heartbreakers in 1982 at the time of Long After Dark)

We can hope Tom Petty’s family will be able to continue providing fans with historic unreleased songs and alternate versions, even though we know the supply will inevitably end.  Each new release reminds us of Tom Petty’s greatness.

Extra Info:  Just so you know, there are a couple of other purchasing options.  There’s a limited edition of fancy vinyl you can find for $80 on the Tom Petty website, or if you’d like the CD set, Amazon is throwing in three stickers.

 

Fans of Neil Young realize that you never know for sure what you’re going to get with one of his albums.  By 1974 when On The Beach first came out, Neil Young had soared in popularity with the albums After The Gold Rush and Harvest.  After that #1 album in 1972, Young pivoted in 1973 to a live album of new songs, Time Fades Away.  It has its moments, but even Neil was not satisfied with it.  Then came On The Beach.

This one was a regular studio album, but it wasn’t similar to the Country Rock feel of Harvest.  It had more of a Blues Rock style with inherently depressing lyrics.  Here’s the track list, which is the same for both the original album and the 50th Anniversary version.  The release date is November 8th, 2024.

Instead of selling millions like Harvest, the original On The Beach album sold a fraction of that (about 500,000 eventually), and made it to #16 on the Billboard album chart.  Critics’ reviews were mixed at the time, but now it’s looked upon as an important step in Young’s development as an artist who explored a wide variety of musical styles.

As someone who owns most of Neil Young’s albums, On The Beach isn’t  among my favorites, but it does have one of my favorite NY recordings, “See The Sky About To Rain”.  The single from the album, “Walk On”, is also good, even though it only made it to #69 on the Hot 100 chart.  Fans of the album tend to focus on the trio of songs with “blues” in the title… “Revolution Blues”, “Vampire Blues”, and “Ambulance Blues”.

The 50th Anniversary edition comes on clear vinyl, but with no other extras.  So it’s mainly for fans who don’t own the album yet, need to replace their old ones, or simply like the clear vinyl.  The reality of this release is that Neil Young sold the rights to a lot of his music, and investors are likely looking for ways to get a return for their money.  That’s not a criticism, just financial reality.  There’s nothing wrong with consumers having choices of ways to enjoy their favorite artists.

Just for fun:  Here’s an alternate shot from the cover photo session.

Wanted to add this section from an earlier CSNY article, because there’s a song connection:  Old friends Stephen Stills and Neil Young are working together again.  Besides mixing the live recordings for the new release CSNY Live At Fillmore East, 1969 (out Nov. 8th, 2024), the two performed at the Harvest Moon charity event October 5th, 2024.

Stills & Young started their set with “Long May You Run”, and then played a crowd-pleasing assortment of songs that went all the way back to Buffalo Springfield (including “Bluebird” & “For What It’s Worth”) from the 1960s. There were of course CSNY songs, and some Neil Young classics (including “Vampire Blues” from his On The Beach album).  The two were supported onstage by bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony Logerfo.  Later they were joined by John Mayer, who had performed a solo acoustic set earlier.

And a reminder of how Stills & Young were 50 years earlier.

If you were a teenager in America in 1964, you know what it was like.  If you weren’t, the new documentary is a chance for you to learn a little more about how The Beatles quickly conquered the musical scene and culture in America..

According to reports from England, streaming service Apple TV+ will present a new Beatles documentary called 1964.  It’s set to air on Thanksgiving day, November 28th, 2024.  It reportedly includes some new interviews and archival footage.

(The picture sleeve from my copy of The Beatles first #1 in America.)

What was to later become a “British Invasion” began when American radio stations started playing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” toward the end of 1963.  They had heard about Beatlemania in England, and obtained the records from overseas.  Officially, Capitol Records realeased the single (with “I Saw Her Standing There” on the flip side) on December 26th, 1963.

For teens, the combination of those two songs was like an explosion of a completely new and energetic musical sound.  That was especially true when compared with the mostly tame Pop music of the teen idols and the left over old-fashioned singers from the 40s and 50s.

But it was a lot more than one single.

(My Beatles singles from 1964)

Before “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was released by Capitol Records, three other labels had been given the rights to Beatles recordings that had been released earlier in England.  Soon, those small labels rushed-released “She Loves You”, “Please Please Me”, “Love Me Do”, “Twist And Shout”, “From Me To You” and more.

January of 1964 also gave us two albums filled with more songs.

Both of these albums were out before The Beatles came to America, so we heard even more great songs like “All My Loving” and “This Boy”.  Beatlemania was already dominating our radio stations and turntables by the time The Beatles’ Pan Am plane touched down in New York City on February 7th, 1964.

Thousands of screaming fans greeted them, and two days later, a record 73-million tuned into the Ed Sullivan Show to see The Beatles perform in the U.S. for the first time.

We finally got to see the four young men who had already captured the musical hearts of America’s teens, and the group’s popularity soared even higher.

We don’t know how much the documentary 1964 will cover, but there were another four albums released that year in the U.S.

You can see that among the albums is A Hard Day’s Night. Somehow during all their songwriting, recording, and touring, The Beatles filmed what turned out to be a very popular movie.  It also gave us two more #1 singles “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “A Hard Day’s Night”.  In total, The Beatles had 19 Top 40 hits in 1964, and six of them made it to #1. Those are numbers very few artists have reached in their entire careers.

Let’s hope the new 1964 documentary can capture the spirit of that year.

As you’ve probably noticed, Classic Rock artists have recently been releasing old concerts, and now Crosby Stills Nash & Young are part of the trend.  Neil Young joined CSN shortly before they played four times in two days at the Fillmore East.  The four-man group had performed just two shows (including Woodstock) before appearing at the New York City venue.  There have been poor-quality bootlegs of this concert from September 20th of 1969, but now we have the quality eight-track mixing-board recordings.

Live At Fillmore East, 1969 will be released October 25th, 2024.

The 2024 mix of the album was supervised by Stephen Stills and Neil Young.  As an audio buff, Young was particularly happy with the result.  He said “It’s all analog.  The vinyl comes out just like it would have been in 1969.  It’s a beautiful thing.”

The tracks are in the same order on the records and the CD.  The acoustic set is on record one, and the electric set on record two.  The group was joined by drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Greg Reeves.  This was before CSNY released the album Deja Vu (which was March 11th of 1970).

That timing makes for an interesting concert that covers ground from Buffalo Springfield (“On The Way Home” & “I’ve Loved Her So long”) to not-yet-released songs such as Still’s  “4 + 20”, “Go Back Home” & “Find The Cost Of Freedom”, plus Graham Nash’s “Our House”.  Seven of the songs are from the original Crosby Stiils & Nash album released earlier that year.  The new live album features a 16-minute jam of “Down By The River”, a song from Neil Young’s 1969 Crazy Horse album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

Graham Nash is pleased the concert is finally being released, he said… “I remember the first Fillmore East shows with great fondness.  Hearing the music again after all these years, I can tell how much we loved each other and loved the music we were creating.”  Stills also released a statement… “The acoustic part of the show took care of itself, but now we had the equipment and Dallas and Greg and sizeable shows to do, we just went for it.  What we lacked in finesse, we made up in enthusiasm.”

One of the best aspects of this album is that old friends Stephen Stills and Neil Young are working together again.  Besides mixing the live recordings, the two performed at the Harvest Moon charity event October 5th, 2024.

Stills & Young started their set with “Long May You Run”, and then played crowd-pleasing songs that went all the way back to Buffalo Springfield (including “Bluebird” & “For What It’s Worth”) from the 1960’s. There were of course CSNY songs, and some Neil Young classics.  The two were supported onstage by bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony Logerfo.  Later they were joined by John Mayer, who had performed a solo acoustic set earlier.

And a reminder of how Stills & Young were 50 years earlier.

Bonus photo:  Fillmore East

More historic photos from the early years of The Quarrymen & Beatles have been made available.  In some instances the quality of the original photos is higher, and there’s been colorization of some black & white photos.  Let’s see if that’s a good thing.

The very start of the group that became The Beatles was the day Paul McCartney auditioned for John Lennon’s group, The Quarrymen.  That was on July 6th, 1957.  The above black & white photo captures that day as The Quarrymen were performing at a Liverpool event.  Also above is a recently colorized version of that photo.  In this case (even though the colorization is flawed in places), the colors seem to make the photo clearer as the teenagers appear more as individuals, rather than blending into the monochrome of the first photo.  (All photos enlarge with a click.)

This is the first public performance of Lennon and McCartney with The Quarrymen, October 18th, 1957.  I haven’t seen a colorized version of this one, probably because it’s not especially clear.

At the urging of Paul McCartney, 15-year-old George Harrison was added to The Quarrymen as the lead guitarist in 1958.  Paul was 16 and John 17.  This is an actual color photo taken by Paul’s 14-year-old brother Mike at a wedding reception March 8th, 1958.  It’s thought to be the first color photo of the future Beatles, as well as George’s first gig with the others.

The above black & white photo has been readily seen for decades, and now it has been colorized.  This photo is from Hamburg, Germany in 1960, two years before Ringo Starr joined the band that had become The Beatles.  Here the drummer is Pete Best, and the bass player (far right) is Stuart Sutcliffe.  I found a couple colorized versions of this photo, and except for the too-white drum sticks, this one is quite good.  It may not give the gritty old-fashioned period look of the black & white photo, but it better represents how the guys looked in real life.

Here are some more photos from Germany in 1960 of John, Paul and George.

You can decide which versions you prefer.

Above is one more photo comparison of The Beatles in 1960, at a Hamburg club.

In 1962, Ringo joined The Beatles.  Here they are together in the studio for the first time, recording “Love Me Do” on September 4th, 1962.

And here’s their first photo shoot shortly after that.

The debate about colorization could even be extended to the first Beatles movie.

Here’s a famous shot from The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night.  The black & white film was very popular with critics and the public.  No one wants to colorize the classic Film-Noir movies of the 1940s & 50s, but would a lighthearted musical comedy really be ruined if it could be made into a quality color version?

That might be a step too far, but if old black & white photos can be carefully and tastefully turned into color (the process is still improving), wouldn’t it make them more historically accurate?  After all, despite what old photos show, the world was never black & white.

Bonus:  Here are a couple of extra comparisons from the Hamburg photos.

And finally, here’s an extra photo of 17-year-old George from Hamburg in 1960.  Didn’t find one that was colorized, but wanted to include it anyway.

The Robert Plant and Alison Krauss tour made its way to Eugene, Oregon’s Cuthbert Amphitheater last night…August 19th, 2024.

When the two singers hit the stage at 8 PM the sun was still shining and they could see the 5,000 fans in the sold out amphitheater.  The show kicked off with three of the duo’s best tracks…”Rich Woman”, their fun remake of 60s hit “Fortune Teller”, and the first hit from their latest album “Can’t Let Go”.  Their harmony was perfect, and both voices sounded great.  It’s a wonder that 76-year-old Robert Plant (his birthday is today) still retains such a powerful, and at times subtle voice.

The much younger (53) Alison Krauss of course has one of the most beautiful voices in music, and she could also match Plant’s power.  The sound at the concert was very well-mixed, and the supporting band was everything you could want for these multi-Grammy-winning artists.

If you’re familiar with the two very successful albums by Plant & Krauss, you know their sound is unique.  Besides the standard guitars, bass & drums, they featured two violins (one by Krauss), a banjo, and mandolin.  Somehow the combination of a Bluegrass/Country artist and a Hard Rock artist works.  It’s probably based on how well they can blend their voices, along with the guidance of Oscar winning producer T Bone Burnett.

It was a little surprising how much Robert Plant dominated the music that was selected.  He had many more lead vocals than Krauss, and about one-third of the setlist featured Led Zeppelin songs cleverly arranged for these musicians…who could really rock when needed.  Plant also served as host for the evening, often with a fun touch.  Here’s the setlist (from setlist.fm, blue ink links are not active).

In Eugene they shifted their first hit single “Gone Gone Gone” to be the second and final song of the encore. 

Alison Krauss of course had some great lead vocals (such as on “The Price Of Love” & “Trouble With My Lover”), and she also provided many excellent harmony vocals and significant violin parts throughout the evening.  The innovative arranging included two violins substituting for Jimmy Page guitar leads on some hard-rocking Led Zeppelin favorites.

The concert by the two stars lasted about an hour-and-a-half, and they “batted a thousand” with the songs they performed.

Fans of their music can be sure that they present a concert worthy of all those Grammys they’ve won.  Here are a couple more photos from the end of the show.

There are other articles on the site about Alison Krauss (including close-up photos from her 2011 concert in Bend, Oregon), and about the recordings of Plant and Krauss.

The historic Concert For Bangladesh from 1971 has been back in the news since it was finally added to streaming services.

George Harrison had long been friends with sitar great Ravi Shankar of India.  When Shankar asked Harrison for help after the Bangladesh Liberation War and torrential rains & flooding had devastated the country, Harrison put together the first major humanitarian concert.

George called on his friends for help…Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston and Ringo Starr.  The Beatles were in the middle of their breakup lawsuit, so no Paul McCartney.  John Lennon said he’d do it if Yoko Ono was included, but George said no.  After about three months of planning, the concert was scheduled for August 1st, 1971.  There was  a rehearsal on July 31st, and then an afternoon performance and an evening show on August 1st.

After an introduction and a performance on sitar by Ravi Shankar, the Rock show kicked off with some George Harrison songs… “Wah Wah”, “My Sweet Lord”, and “Awaiting On You All”.  Those were followed by Billy Preston playing his hit “That’s The Way God Planned It” (a nice version), Ringo Starr with “It Don’t Come Easy” (he flubbed some lyrics, but sounded good), and Leon Russell joined George for “Beware Of Darkness” (one of the best tracks).

Just like on the studio version, Eric Clapton played lead guitar on Harrison’s Beatles song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (a strong performance, especially by George).

Leon Russell had been on tour with his band & vocalists, and he brought them all along for a stirring in-the-groove medley of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” & “Youngblood”.

Next, George Harrison played an acoustic version of “Here Comes The Sun” with the group Badfinger, who Harrison was producing at the time.  Here’s Badfinger’s Pete Ham with George during the concert.

“Sun” was played a little faster than the original, and Pete Ham did an impressive job on the intricate guitar part.

Then it was the Bob Dylan show.

Dylan has five songs in a row on the Concert For Bangladesh album.  He chose songs from much earlier in his career, and his whole set was a concert highlight..

George Harrison then finished the concert with “Something” and the song he’d written to help publicize the problem in Asia, “Bangla Desh” (which was the original spelling of the country’s name).

When the album came out in December of 1971, it was a 3-record set, and the lid of the box had this cover.

Besides the vinyl, there was an album-size booklet with excellent photos.  I no longer have my records and booklet from 1971, but I did find this shot of some of the pages.  You can click & zoom for a closer look

The photos are really good, like this one of Dylan, and the one of Clapton he later used for an album cover.

Despite some early problems sorting out the finances, many millions of dollars have been going to Bangladesh over the years, and the concert raised awareness for the serious problems there.

Musically, it’s a good album to stream.  I admit I skipped the long spoken introduction and 16-minute sitar performance, but the rest of the performances are really good, even with some typical minor errors you get with live performances that aren’t overdubbed.  Here’s the full lineup of songs now on streaming.

George Harrison deserves a ton of credit for convincing the artists to perform (for free), for dealing with the various labels to make it happen, for working to make the finances come out so the money actually made it to Bangladesh, and for paving the way for future charity concerts.

Paul McCartney has released the film One Hand Clapping.  Fifty years ago, in August of 1974, Paul McCartney & Wings filmed the documentary.  The video was of the band recording live in Abbey Road Studios.  The audio album of the sessions came out this past June.  The 67-minute film was released on September 26th, 2024, with limited screenings in theaters.

The original project was shot on videotape, but has been restored (as best you can with old video) to 4K for this release.  This new documentary has additional unreleased footage of Paul McCartney performing “Backyard Sessions” on acoustic guitar.  Besides some of his own songs, he plays Rock & Roll classics like “Twenty Flight Rock” and songs by Buddy Holly.  Included is the unreleased song “Blackpool”.

1974 was a time when the Wings album Band On The Run was #1, and there are five songs from that album performed live in the studio.  Here are the songs as they appear on the double CD album.

The audio quality is high, and the band’s playing is very good…quite similar to their performances on the 1976 Wings Over America tour album.  The three Beatles songs you see on Disc 2 are just Paul rehearsing at the piano, and are short segments.

There were two new members of Wings, Geoff Britton on the left, and Jimmy McCulloch on the right.  Paul, Linda, and guitarist Denny Laine had recorded the Band On The Run album and needed the new drummer and additional guitarist for concerts.

The film has an introduction by Paul McCartney, and features previously unseen Polaroid photos from 1974.

No word yet about when One Hand Clapping might be available for streaming or on DVD.  Normally, screenings are a way to have a theatrical release prior to a film appearing on a streaming platform.

Extra:  For more information and my review of the album One Hand Clapping, here’s the link.  https://ontherecords.net/2024/06/lennon-mccartney2024-releases/

Since we can no longer see Pink Floyd or The Beatles, the vacuum has been filled for many years by “tribute” bands.  Are they good, or are they poor substitutes?

This week, The Australian Pink Floyd Show came to our hometown, Eugene, Oregon.  The closest we came in the past to seeing Pink Floyd was a concert by Pink Floyd leader/songwriter Roger Waters and his touring band.  Waters and his band played all of The Dark Side Of The Moon album, and many of the other major songs by the band.  And of course we’ve seen Pink Floyd’s concert films.  So how did Aussie Pink Floyd stack up?

The show was extremely impressive!  The musicianship was top notch, and the light show and other visuals were fantastic!  The enthusiastic crowd at The Hult Center applauded as well-known songs started, and then again after musicians nailed some of the extensive instrumental solos.  All of us knew we weren’t watching Pink Floyd, but this was a real celebration of their music.  We attended with our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson…three generations of Pink Floyd fans.

As the band played “Wish You Were Here”, the circular screen showed photos of Pink Floyd, but most of the film and photos they showed were clever in that they were reminiscent of visuals that Pink Floyd used, but were originals.  The band was obviously willing to spend significant money to provide us with a Floyd-worthy show.  Here are some more of my concert photos.

Maybe the best compliment Aussie Pink Floyd ever received is that Pink Floyd lead guitarist & lead vocalist David Gilmour once hired them for one of his birthday parties.

The band had a giant inflatable of the bug-looking teacher from The Wall, but instead of a flying pig, Aussie Pink Floyd gave us a fun bouncing kangaroo.  There was also a twist on the famous Pink Floyd prism…this one looked like Australia.

We can listen to Pink Floyd on our home systems, but when we want to feel the bass instead of just hear it, it takes a concert.  The sound was perfectly mixed, loud but clear, and the vocals could be heard above the instruments.  If The Australian Pink Floyd Show has a concert near you, treat yourself.

Ten years ago, a Beatles tribute band came to Eugene.  Some friends of ours knew we were Beatles fans and invited us to go with them.  I was hesitant.  My concern was that it would be something like those not so good Elvis imitators.  But, we went to see the band Rain.

Unlike Aussie Pink Floyd (who didn’t try to look anything like the members of Pink Floyd), Rain did their best to look like The Beatles, changing their looks through the different eras of the band.  The surprise to me was how good the musicianship was.  Rain did a great job of playing The Beatles’ hits, plus their costuming and staging were impressive.

Probably what won me over the most was when Rain did something The Beatles never did.  In the middle of all those sets of Beatles eras, the musicians grabbed acoustic guitars and played an acoustic set of Beatles songs with their own arrangements…a nice original touch!

Okay, it wasn’t as good as when we saw Paul McCartney at Arrowhead Stadium, but a talented tribute band can provide a fun evening of the music fans love.