Does Carnival of Light *Really* exist?

That's interesting that Giles Martin leaves his laptop loaded with unreleased treasures out of his sight...wonder what Sir George thinks of that!

What are the odds that your supervisor or someone else stuck a thumb drive in the laptop when nobody was looking? Very tempting....

 

What would be the purpose of. Giles Martin having songs like COL, on his laptop unless these unreleased songs were intended for something. Simple digital safety copies could be stored elsewhere with security.

 

No, some serial killer.

Obscure 'Married with Children' reference. Sorry.

 

Maybe he just likes listening to it.

 

There has to be a few perks that go along with being the son of George Martin. I'd love to hang out with him for a day.

 

Maybe. But wouldn't that be a private laptop at home. This is a work laptop at the office with Abbey Road or video game people all over it apparently.

 

"I Was In A Room With Gilles Martin's Laptop"-- now, THAT's a song title!!

 

I just quoted a guy who's in a forum with a guy who's been in a room with a guy that had a laptop with the file on it.

 

I always found it richly ironic that George, who supposedly "hated" avant garde music (he famously called it "avant garde a clue") and was the Beatle who vetoed CoL's inclusion on Anthology...was the ONLY Beatle other than John to contribute to Revolution 9 and What's the New Mary Jane, and himself put out an electronic avant garde album on Zapple. Methinks it was more of an eff you to Paul to veto it for Anthology than any actual feelings he had toward that type of music.

 

Barcelona!

 

Well, technically, the piece is called "Untitled." A mono mix of take 1, including many overdubs, was done at the completion of the 5 January 1967 session.
The entire session ran for 13:48 and was the longest Beatles performance to date. According to Lewisohn:

"Track one of the tape was full of distorted, hypnotic drum and organ sounds; track two had a distorted lead guitar; track three had the sounds of a church organ, varioss effects (the gargling of water was one); track four featured indescribable sound effects with heaps of tape echo and manic tambourine. But of all the frightening sounds it was the voices on track three which really set the scene, John and Paul screaming deentedly and bawling aloud random phrases like "are you alright?" and "Barcelona!"

Seems quite different than Revolution #9... the music (drums, lead guitar, organ, percussion) was performed by the Beatles... there was no backwards masking (at least not mentioned by Lewisohn) either. Mark must have heard the entire session since he mentions Paul shouting up to the control room at the end of the tape. The rough mono mix was taken by Paul (presumably the tape he still has to this day) and given to the Carnival of Light organizers. Ron

 

Why would George want to express an 'eff you' to Paul at that point, when he had already agreed to participate in the Anthology project? That makes no sense. If he was that bitter, he would have opted out. Me thinks that George realized the track was crap then and age hadn't improved it.

Revolution 9 was released.....What's The New Mary Jane only was released for Anthology....and the fact that COL remains in the vault speaks for itself as to its lack of redeeming value. I bet Lewisohn is sick of people asking about it constantly. People seem to have a sense of wishful thinking about it; like it is going to be some long-lost masterpiece along the lines of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" on SMiLE. George probably did us all a favor by realizing that not every POS the Beatles taped is worth releasing.

 

Thank you for this.

 

Hypnotic drum and organ sounds. Yes, that alone gooses my interest.

Of course, I am one of a small few that really enjoys the long version of "Revolution" ( take #20 or whatever it's called) that surfaced a couple of years ago. It demonstrates how avante garde a clue the Fabs could be.

And, my wife, who doesn't say much about whatever music I'm playing stuck her head in and said " What is THAT ?" in a disgusted voice when I was listening to the long "Revolution"one night.

So I'm going to guess she will really enjoy "Carnival of Light" also, if and when I ever get it.

 

Another reason not to like Giles

 

I think if it was shorter, it may have been released. That's a lot of time for a track, that most probably won't like.
I liked the idea of using it as a B-side to one of those CD single/EPs released at the time

 

Oh, wow. I didn't know "most" people didn't like that. I love that version of Revolution. It really ROCKS in a way. I really love it. I think the long Revolution is better than both No. 9 and Mary Jane. If the choice was between one of the three avent garde pieces to be on the album, I think Revolution is the best. (Yes, I know there would have been a choice between Revolution Take #20 and Rev. No. 9 as the latter evolved directly from the former.)

I fully expect COL to be underwhelming, but I am interested in hearing it as we only really have heard that sort of thing from John during this period and I'd like to hear the one spearheaded by Paul.

 

Let's be fair--quite probably it's awful, something you might listen to only once. But still, it's The Beatles of course. In 1967. Being creative.

 

Yeah, gotta say , it sounds craptastic by these descriptions.
Not hanging out to hear it myself,at all.

 

From what I remember the reaction here to the long "Revolution" was underwhelming.

Yes, "Carnival of Life" isn't going to be breathtaking, but I want to hear it. I can always find SOMETHING that interests me in anything the Beatles have done.

I'd really enjoy hearing the music from under John's Spaghetti scene in Magical Mystery Tour as a stand alone track also. Is it great ? Of course not. It's crap as far as expecting a "song" but I'd still like to hear the whole thing clearly without voiceovers, etc.

 

I would love to hear that as well. Now that track is great I still haven't forgiven whoever did the sound mix for the latest reissue of MMT film that severely diminished that piece of music under Jessie's Dream.

 

There's a real issue with three of the Beatles' 'legendary' unreleased tracks being both so darned long - this one, the long 'Revolution', and the long 'Helter Skelter' - and (probably) not very good. I still think they should be out there, but they're never going to fit comfortably on an 'Anthology' style release, where they'd hog an entire CD. Where they really belong is as the bonus disc on a 'super deluxe' rarities package / Anthology reissue - and maybe you could bung the long 'Something' on there as well.

 

The problem, as I see it is... Apple is still thinking BIG in terms of Beatles product, things that will sell massively. Joe Casual Beatles fan would be horrified to plunk down a few bucks, crack a beer and settle in to listen to his "previously unreleased Beatles music!" and ..." Carnival of Light" comes wafting out of his speakers.

I've mentioned it before , but I wish Apple would take their cue from Experience Hendrix and release these kind of things on a boutique low key label or downloads for "us" because the public won't want them anyway. Apple doesn't want to go there though because one of Apple's problems is..there is only a finite amount of unreleased Beatles product to squeeze massive bucks out of so they treat everything like potential gold.
So, eventually we will get the Let It Be movie in a super duper deluxe edition with musical rarities and added scenes and maybe a Beatles video comp but there isn't a whole heck of a lot of "new" Beatles product of big commercial value left to exploit after that.

 

Because there are no others: Beatles practicing and rehearsing were never recorded. They only recorded actual "takes" of songs. But for this particular time, George Martin did an exception and recorded 15 minutes of the Beatles rehearsing the vocals for "Think for yourself", hoping that some part of it would provide material funny enough to be used for the forthcoming Xmas record (which was still to be made).
Enventually it wasn't used until the Yellow Submarine film, and the Liverpool Sound Collage.

It's quite possibly the only tape featuring the Beatles rehearsing in a studio.... (That and the many Nagra tapes of January 69 of course.)

 

Thereby, not making it awful.