The Beatles First Live Radio Broadcast with Pete Best

They would've made nice tracks on the "Baby It's You" single (at least the ones that didn't already have a counterpart on the BBC album).

 

Historically interesting, but I can understand Apple's reluctance to release the material. A competent performance but not a tour de force, and it sounds like it was recorded over the phone onto an acetate made of felt.

 

Pete Best's involvement might be part of the reason, as I believe they'd have to give him a cut (like they did with the recordings he played on Anthology 1).

Oddly they released "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" with poor sound quality (although it's a great performance and deservedly belongs on there).

 

I'm listening to this and I just don't hear where Pete Best is as terrible as some say?

He's not off beat or anything, the only thing I hear is that he has a different style than Ringo.

The major difference I hear is that Ringo brought much more energy and a harder rockin beat.

 

I suspect (but don't know for sure) that if they wanted the 1962 BBC recordings out, they would have stuck them on Anthology 1. Pete was already on it, so he already got a cut, and there were other BBC recordings on that album (one from the radio, others from TV). I take them at their word that the 1962 recordings just don't come up to a releasable standard. "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" isn't stellar, but it's better than the 1962 tracks, and I think their feelings toward Pete have softened enough that they wouldn't keep his recordings in the can out of spite or a desire to avoid paying him. They can certainly afford to give him a cut.

 

Ah yeah, the early version that didn't survive the years, among the early version of 'P.S. I Love You'.
Fortunately the 'Love Me Do' and 'Besame Mucho' recordings from the same session are on Anthology 1.

 

here we go again another Pete Best bashing...
thanks for the link...I enjoyed it.

 

Historically significant I'd say. Which is why IMNSHO, it should be released.

 

but it's cool to hate Pete...I always wondered if Pete sang better than Ringo? Well I guess that wouldn't be to difficult to do...

 

It's moreso that Pete really has only one style. A lot of his drum tracks are fine and competent, but they all sound the same.

 

"High praise, indeed"

 

so does Ringo...

 

Whoa, George getting some use out of that Duo Jet whammy bar on "Ask Me Why." I believe he was using a different guitar by the time the "Live At The Starclub In Hamburg" version was recorded.

 

This was probably recorded by someone who was a technical type person, and knew how to do a "direct" recording by tapping the volume control of their tube radio and feeding it into the line input of their tape recorder.
Most people simply held the tape recorder microphone up to the speaker, resulting in a crappy sounding recording, that also picked up the room sounds.

 

I'd love to love Pete's playing. I do love that Knock On Your Door single his group did in the mid-'60s! He is better on the June appearance. All I could youtube find is this bit and it's very muffley sounding (the one I'm used to is a bit staticy so maybe they tried to get that out and got this?)



Oops... sorry, all this time I didn't realize the first post had this session with the first one... d'oh! Well, different sound to this one so I'll just leave it.

 

Chuck Berry's lyric on Memphis, Tennessee is: "'Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall".

I always hear Lennon saying, "Small Coat took the message and he wrote it on the wall"!

Ha, who the hell is "Small Coat"??


These do sound pretty good, but "Ask Me Why" does have some speed problems.

 

I don't think they necessarily had to give him money for Anthology. I think they chose to do so. And at this point, these recordings have passed into public domain in Britain the EU anyway.

Even if they did feel they had to pay him, it seems unlikely that would be an obstacle to releasing something they really felt was worthy of release. The sound quality is awful, so it really doesn't seem like we need to look further for an explanation for this not being released.

 

Ask me Why ..shines.

 

I think you may be earing George using his whammy bar to slightly drop the pitch of his guitar and then restore it as a speed problem. That was part of the performance, though it is an odd choice.

 

The Beatles really do sound great here! Too bad they are almost drowned out by that threshing machine.

 

Absolutely nothing new here.. all of this has been available for ages so I have no idea why anyone would start a thread about it. It also surprises me the lack of knowledge supposed "huge" Beatles fans have about their music and career when all you need is a handful of books to gain all this knowledge. I guess it's a new breed of "unknowledgeable" fans just seeking the spotlight

 

He’s certainly giving his Bigsby a good workout. I’m fairly sure he used the Duo Jet all the way through until mid-63(?) when he got his first Country Gent?

 

Guitarman is right. George didn't get his first Country Gentleman until summer 1963. The Duo Jet is the guitar on the Star Club and Please Please Me album.

 

Is the June 62 Ask Me Why available ? Does it still exist

 

The EMI session doesn't exist but going from Norman Smith's comments in Tune In, it's probably for the best!