Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Discussion. What Can We Expect?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Mark Fricke, Sep 25, 2018.

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  1. Colocally

    Colocally One Of The New Wave Boys

    Location:
    Surrey BC.
    50 threads about how Giles is hurting the heritage of The Beatles.
     
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  2. Marsh1

    Marsh1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    I’ve developed a real affinity for George and Paul collaborations; on either’s songs for that matter. Often gets overlooked. Listen to that bass line and vocal double in Only A Northern Song for instance. Pure Fab that is.
     
  3. Octavian

    Octavian Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisiana
    Funny how it seems Paul tried to contribute to George’s songs much more than John, yet George usually sided with John.
     
  4. planckera

    planckera I Hate Hate

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
    ...or took it out?! :yikes:

    ;)
     
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  5. dewey02

    dewey02 Forum Resident

    Location:
    The mid-South.
    I think you are giving Johns too much of a "get out of jail" card on this.

    I would guess that the Beatles didn't give him direction to find the worst takes and rehearsals and make an album out of them. And then when they said no, and to do it again, (and again) they didn't tell him to use the same lousy takes. Sure, they probably said they wanted an album true to their original goal, to have stuff recorded with no overdubs, but not something that would deliberately highlight the worst takes.

    I agree completely with brainwashed and others. Who knows why he originally selected the lousy takes. But then he was just lazy when creating the subsequent album remixes as he never selected much better takes when they were clearly available.

    The blame belongs to Johns, and to no one else. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
     
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  6. Monasmee

    Monasmee Forum Ruminant

    Location:
    Albuquerque NM
    Seems Johns chose the worst takes with intention. Otherwise, what would motivate a producer to choose the inferior takes so consistently?

    Doesn’t sound like laziness to me, unless he was inexperienced. More like a guy committed to artistic choices that didn’t work, almost like an audition.
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2019
  7. Simon A

    Simon A Arrr!

    Johns wanted a producer credit for the planned Get Back album and Lennon wouldn't hear of it. Maybe Glyn's choice of cuts for the album dud not help this.
     
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  8. FredV

    FredV Senior Member

  9. Monasmee

    Monasmee Forum Ruminant

    Location:
    Albuquerque NM
    Fascinating. Hmmm.... So with no producer credit in sight Johns sabotaged the project as an excuse to leave?
     
  10. paul62

    paul62 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Down to Earth
    Glyn didn't get a producer's credit for "Their Satanic Majesties Request", either: he disparaged that LP in his book (and didn't really say much more about the LP). It's possible he was embittered by that experience and fully expected to be given the producer credit for the "Get Back"/"Let It Be" LP. It is an interesting coincidence that each band made their LP under difficult circumstances.
     
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  11. Bern

    Bern JC4Me

    Location:
    Allegan, Michigan
  12. Simon A

    Simon A Arrr!

    Oh, that's not what I was implying as I really think Johns was under the impression that he'd work with The Beatles like he'd done with The Stones and then get a producer credit. I think Lennon saw the gig as simply being the engineer.

    I've always liked the first version of the Get Back album. I bought a CD boot in 1989 and I loved the rawness of it all. I could understand why it was not released as is. I play it more often than Let It Be and Let It Be Naked.
     
  13. Isaac Azimuth

    Isaac Azimuth Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY
    Thank God! It wasn't "lost," it just wasn't good enough.
    There's an obvious reason why they didn't include it in the original mix - it's pedantic, one element too many, and not very "musical," either - not in THAT context (OK, flame away)
    And I'd bet that it was Harrison himself who, experiment tried, made the final decision.

    Just because something wasn't used then doesn't make it desirable now, even 50 years on.
    (and I'd be the first to want a truly lustrous "lost" track added to a mix!)
    Jeff
     
  14. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    It always bothered me how John blatantly copied Let It Be and released it as Imagine.
     
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  15. MPLRecords

    MPLRecords Owner of eleven copies of Tug of War

    Location:
    Lake Ontario
    A terrific choice!

    A horrible choice!
     
  16. Monasmee

    Monasmee Forum Ruminant

    Location:
    Albuquerque NM
    Thanks for clarifying.

    And thanks Bern for posting the video that really helps.

    Sounds like Johns had good intentions going for that basement tapes approach and the fab’s response was “well maybe not that loose” to paraphrase a few.
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2019
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  17. soniclovenoize

    soniclovenoize Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
    In what way?
     
  18. brainwashed

    brainwashed Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    Glyn Johns was suppose to compile an album with no overdubs. That is the only thing he did as specified. He wasn't told to select inferior takes, aborted takes or one's with unintended feedback. His compilations were vetoed 3 times. Even after provided the newly recorded I Me Mine and told by Paul to drop Teddy Boy... he STILL kept the aborted version of I've Got A Feeling, the mediocre. at best, version of Don't Let Me Down and the absolutely abysmal Save The Last Dance For Me/I'm Ready. I call that lazy in any book. Ron
     
  19. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    Play Let It Be and Imagine at the same time and you’ll see what I mean.
     
  20. soniclovenoize

    soniclovenoize Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
    They are both piano songs in C. That's the only similarity I hear.

    Maybe you could explain?
     
  21. dewey02

    dewey02 Forum Resident

    Location:
    The mid-South.
    Funny, isn't it, Ron? Some of us see it one way, but others defend John's to the hilt.

    No one could be proud of having included that clip of (ahem) music that was played during the interview as being on a Beatles album. And what I got from the interview was that it was Glyn Johns' idea to include those half baked songs on the album, not any direction from the Beatles. And he admitted that the band immediately rejected his initial mix upon first hearing it. Yet, he continued to include that crap in subsequent mixes.

    That interview clip only verifies that John's himself is to blame for the rejection he got from the band. He is the one who was going for a basement tapes approach, and admittedly he couldn't pull it off. And later, he says Lennon showed him the entire pile of recordings to mix an album from. Did he search through for decent takes? No, he pretty much just continued to use his previous lousy takes.
     
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  22. Brian from Canada

    Brian from Canada Forum Resident

    Location:
    Great White North
    Ron, what proof do you have that – while Johns was working on it – Get Back was going to be the final version of the material and that's that?
    What if Johns got the impression that the rooftop performance was disliked heavily by a band member or two and decided not to use that to avoid upsetting them?
    Or, what if Johns got the impression that the rooftop was a bad run through for a still desired return to the stage at a later time, and so a live recording of the new material could come from that?
    It might explain the choices of incomplete "I've Got A Feeling" and different take of "Don't Let Me Down," especially since these were the behind-the-scenes on the final versions which would likely (or in the case of the latter, definitely) be released separately.

    As for the medleys, they featured heavily in the rehearsals as The Beatles tried to dredge up old material to fill the set list.
    I don't think he was far off from including one or two he liked best.
    Spector himself included "Maggie Mae," which is an off the cuff ditty with just about the same musical value – only it references Liverpool.
    I wouldn't put it past one of The Beatles to have said something along the lines of "what about an oldie?"
    Or, Alan Klein suggesting it as hopes for the later album to follow.

    What is clear is that Johns needed all four to sign off and not all four did.
    It's possible one was the holdout — and I think it wasn't Paul simply because of the timing: if the album was delayed, it would give Klein more ammunition to use for a larger contract.
    Once the contract was signed, it was too old for whoever objected, as The Beatles tended to always look forward, letting unfinished tunes pop up only when they needed to fill a solo LP or the song was too good to leave undone.
     
  23. Brian from Canada

    Brian from Canada Forum Resident

    Location:
    Great White North
    I responded earlier before I saw this posting.
    Anthology 3 includes a take of "Let It Be" in which Lennon realizes immediately after they weren't supposed to track and dub it.
    Johns took that too literally, while Lennon wanted some sort of improvement over what was recorded.
    It's Lennon who clearly didn't like what came out of Get Back because it wasn't up his standard, and he does have a point about a great amount of the material.

    Johns was foolish for trying to wow Lennon when he wasn't going to — plain and simple.
    But Lennon then didn't look to McCartney for approval when he handed it over to Phil Spector for handling either.
     
  24. paul62

    paul62 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Down to Earth
    They are both instructional or directional songs, one saying "let it be, there will be an answer" the other saying "imagine all the people, living life in peace". Both songs are sombre but offer some measure of hopefulness.
    I was thinking the other day that The Beatles could have chanted "Give Peace A Chance" as an overdub on "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" for a cool Christmas '69 goodbye single. Shame they didn't think about doing something like that!
     
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  25. dewey02

    dewey02 Forum Resident

    Location:
    The mid-South.
    You REALLY believe that Paul McCartney (or George or Ringo) thought Johns' 3 attempts at the album were good enough to put out? What evidence do you have that only John didn't like it?

    As we say in American and Canadian baseball: 3 strikes and you're out! Johns had his three strikes.
    Perhaps Spector didn't hit a home run, but at least he got the album on the bases even if it was with a bunt.
     
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