50th Anniversary all things Beatles White Album

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by tinnox, Feb 8, 2018.

  1. ODIrony

    ODIrony Forum Resident

    Location:
    Danville, VA
    On the timeline ("7 years"), I think Mark Lewisohn is on target in his use of "Year One", "Year Two", etc. They were together much longer than the public (us) realized.
     
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  2. Psychedelic Good Trip

    Psychedelic Good Trip Beautiful Psychedelic Colors Everywhere

    Location:
    New York
  3. Morton LaBongo

    Morton LaBongo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manchester NH
    I'm not sure what year Lewisohn starts his count from, but I think it's reasonable to say The Beatles were around for ten years as performers. I was thinking their peak recording years (62 - 69, they probably didn't do a lot of face-to-face work in 1970 although we can assume there was quite a bit of yelling over the phone that year). They started in Hamburg in summer 1960, had their first charting single in 1961, and by the time they returned to the UK their popularity was growing rapidly enough that they could be considered "well-known" by then. And that doesn't count all the time they spent together in the late 1950s - certainly as teenagers they must have hung out at each other's houses and played quite a bit as they were learning their instruments. John first met Paul 61 years ago this month, back in 1957, that's a total of about 13 years seeing each other on a regular basis. It truly is amazing that they kept it together for as long as they did.
     
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  4. Carl Harrison

    Carl Harrison Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington
    Thanks for sharing this! I’ve been wanting to buy Ken’s book as well as glen johns nut the review state that there is hardly any Beatles content :/
     
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  5. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    Plus, it would have messed with all of the attention Paul has been receiving this summer...
     
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  6. EdwinM

    EdwinM Grumpy old man

    Location:
    Leusden
    There are recordings known as early as 1958, but it's not unlikely that most they dus was rehearsing. Some of it has shown up on Anthology.
     
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  7. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    Let's have a heavily panned White Album remix. With no centered vocals. And an outfaked franksteined analog Esher offering in glorious stereo. Oh yeah, can't forget a neo-duophonic White Album extravaganza. Magnified and full of reverb. OR...we could have the White Album products that have been sitting on the shelves for over a year. The twins of 2017 Sgt. Peppers.
     
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  8. Dinstun

    Dinstun Forum Resident

    Location:
    Middle Tennessee
    Twins? What are you talking about? :confused:
     
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  9. Beatlebug

    Beatlebug Another box set won't do any harm

    Location:
    Garswood, UK
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  10. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

    I meant very similar product offerings...almost identical to Sgt. Peppers. Same type of offerings. Same type of remix. Etc. When I hear talk that the White Album products for 2018 have been ready for a long time and maybe completed st the same time as the 2017 Sgt. Peppers products, it concerns me. Assembly line Beatles ready made for modern times...
     
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  11. DRM

    DRM Forum Resident

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  12. Kassonica

    Kassonica Forum Resident

    or a white album with 14 different mixes of revolution #9 :)
     
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  13. Carl80

    Carl80 Forum Resident

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  14. Flippikat

    Flippikat Forum Resident

    From the article: Genesis bassist Mike Rutherford said: “The White Album has never been performed as a live piece in this way before"

    Wellll... it has been performed as a live piece - most famously by Phish. Not sure if it's been covered in it's entirety by an "all star" band (Using the term kinda loosely), so maybe he has a point in that regard.

    I'm intregued to hear what they do with Revolution 9.
     
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  15. aoxomoxoa

    aoxomoxoa I'm an ear sitting in the sky

    Location:
    USA
    Roger Daltrey? That might be good.
     
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  16. Morton LaBongo

    Morton LaBongo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manchester NH
    Yeah, I was thinking that too when I read it. The Phish performance of The White Album was notable in that it even got a brief mention in the mainstream non-music press at the time as I recall. So it has been done before, maybe not by an ensemble group like this, but it's been performed live.
     
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  17. Glenn Christense

    Glenn Christense Foremost Beatles expert... on my block

    As mentioned previously in the thread, the June 2018 Record Collector has a cover story on the White Album.

    Here are a couple of semi interesting factoids I've taken from the article:

    The number of songs available for recording :

    35 :
    George , May 22nd.

    30:
    20 written in India, 10 since they got back to London. Paul, June.

    Speculating over how many days the Esher tapes were recorded this quote is presented as a possible clue:

    "We had hoped this time to do a lot of rehearsing before we reached the
    studios rather than rehearse actually on the instruments, but as it happened, all we got was one day."
    Paul, June.

    How many songs will make the album?

    "We might record all 30 songs and pick 14 or so for an album, or it could turn out to be two albums or a three pack.
    We just don't know until we are finished."
    Paul, June.


    A double album with 24 tracks
    Derek Taylor, end of September

    27 tracks.
    Melody Maker October 27th

    31 tracks.
    George Harrison, early November

    Per George Harrison, the album was originally intended to have clear see through vinyl but "when the record company said they couldn't do that we decided to have a white record with a white sleeve but they wouldn't even do that ...
    I can't understand how we could have been so weak-willed."
    George, In Fifty Years Adrift.

    Besides the coffee cup stain cover idea, impregnating it with apple pulp was also considered.

    There were four sets of the first twenty numbers made so there isn't just Ringo's A0000001, etc.

    (Anyone interested in the White Album numbering story should pick up this issue)

    Ken Scott said anytime you work with anyone on a two week project the artistic temperament comes out now and again so when the Beatles were in there for six months that's going to happen several times .
    To make sure he wasn't looking back through rose colored glasses he checked with John Smith, and Chris Thomas and they all said the same thing "We had a blast: It was amazing."

    And, we know we have to take Geoff Emerick's recollections with a salt shaker not just a grain of salt, but he says there was a demo of "Goodnight " that Ringo took home and practiced to and the demo was played a couple of times in the studio .

    He says it's a shame this tape has been lost to the world because John's vocal was "tender and gorgeous"and even though it was one of Ringo's better vocals he didn't do the song justice compared to John's version .

    I know Ringo had a house fire years ago, but when he and Barbara went through his archives to find things to auction off fairly recently it would be wonderful if he stumbled across that tape again.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2018
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  18. jeighson1

    jeighson1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ann Arbor, MI
    What was the 31st track???

    What's The New Mary Jane?
    Not Guilty?
    Can You Take Me Back?
     
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  19. BuCo

    BuCo A guy who can't have enough Super Deluxe box sets

    Location:
    New York City
    I’ve heard that they removed WTNMJ? at the last minute when the White Album master was assembled, evening out the number of tracks to 30 and partially satisfying George Martin’s desire to consolidate the track listing. NG was never truly considered after it was mixed for mono, and CYTMB? never was considered more than a 30 second song fragment.
     
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  20. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    That's what I think as well. During that marathon 24 mixing session most likely either Paul or George Martin -or both- point blank told John, "You can have either 'Revolution 9' or 'Mary Jane' on the album, but not both." And John opted for "Revolution 9" before going home and getting busted by Sgt Pilcher and his band of merry men...
     
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  21. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    A shame John's demo of "Good Night" has been lost
     
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  22. EdwinM

    EdwinM Grumpy old man

    Location:
    Leusden
    We have a band here in Holland called the Analogues that played the entire album note by note using the original instruments. Even had a mellotron restored. Added Visuals and it sounded great. For revolution 9 they simply made their own simular sound collage accompanied by a great video by a Dutch artist. They simply placed a tape recorder on stage and left for 9 minutes
    Here some examples



    Savoy Truffle
     
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  23. Josip

    Josip Forum Resident

    Location:
    Croatia
    If it was recorded in Abbey Road, than it's probably somewhere in the vaults...

    They would take acetates home, but the master stays locked! :)

    If it was recorded at home, it's a different story...
     
  24. PIGGIES

    PIGGIES Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I'd like to hear more of the rehearsal version on Anthology 3 - just Ringo with piano accompaniment.
     
  25. Ern

    Ern Senior Member

    Location:
    Portugal
    There's also Ringo on vocal with John on electric guitar accompaniment.
     
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