G. Harrison's "Only A Northern Song": did the other Beatles really sabotage it (random psych noise)?

Not Guilty, I know not released at the time is one of his gripe songs. Actually Sour Milk Sea too.

 

Yes. Consciousness raising, though trite and dated now, is a lot of what Sgt. Pepper's was about.

A different and better way.

John was usually authentic and transparent.

It was one of his better traits.

Paul and John never worked better together than on Sgt. Pepper's.

There's resolution to their songs.

That's why It's Only A Northern Song isn't as satisfying of a song as those that were chosen for Sgt. Pepper's.

But it's an interesting song and highlights the diversity and multifaceted nature of the Beatles.

 

People skip over "Within You Without You" ? To me the whole first half of the album is leading up to that.

 

I wrote "the premise of...", meaning "the starting point of...". I know in the end it turns out OK (at least for some of the characters), or in the case of WIM64 it is anticipated to turn out OK.

 

I thought I would see what all this sabotage was about, as I haven't played the song in ages, so I got out my Yellow Submarine album and played it, when it got to Only A Northern Song, my record player blew up! Thanks BEATLES!!!!

 

I've had sour grapes ever since I learned, there was no no OANS or Carnival. On the recent Pepper box reissue.

I paid whatever it was $125-145 for the deluxe however many discs 3 ? I was also perhaps most steamed that Apple hadn't created a new pop music video for at least one of the tunes. I was crossing those fingers hoping it would be Benefit of Mr Kite,but predicting it would be Lucy In The Sky..

When it was nothing at all I just thought what A$s h0|¢z.

The packaging is gorgeous, & the new mix of the album is decent, if not exactly great.

Everybody's different. I was gonna buy for bonus tracks, a new video ( or two ) & new edgy mix of the album. Or a new mix similar to the original, but with obviously cleaner fidelity.

I didn't really get any of those things & the fidelity improvement or clarity, is arguably better. Centered drums & 50 years of technical audio advances...

I only half regret buying it. Because one day I may start playing the numerous unfinished alternates of the 13 songs +penny & strawberry.

What I really wanted though was 4 things included

1 a remix that was totally a departure from the original album.

2 One bonus disc that had the original 13 songs + PL-SFF-& OANS with the 3 bonus songs mixed into the running order, maybe PL & SFF could have opened side 2 & OANS could have been added somewhere within the first 5-6 cuts. Obviously on CD side 1&2 don't exist anymore.

3 One or even two new music video(s) for a track(s) that don't currently have a music video. At the moment only 4 Pepper songs have a video. Day in the life, SFF, PL, & Within You Without You from Beatles LOVE in 2006.

4 At least a partial excerpt , original mix or remix of Carnival of light... A new mix highlighting 5-6 minutes of the most interesting segments would've been ok with me, if the full 13 minutes wasn't an option.

85% of fans agree maybe 95% Only A Northern Song is no Penny Lane or Strawberry Fields... But we wanted on a bonus disc. Giles Martin's response about why it's not included was just pure evasive drivel.

Yes I wanted the song included, no I'm not delusional believing OANS is one of their finest tunes, of the 16 tracks I'd rank it somewhere around 12th-14th. I do believe much of the time Harrison's tunes received less time, input & energy from Lennon & McCartney & George Martin, at least until the White album. With perhaps a few exceptions like Within You Without where Len/Mac didin't contribute, but Geo Martin did.

 

Oh christ...I walked right into that one, didn't I?

 

Good morning Arnie!

 

Even earlier good morning to you too.

 

Hell, I've been up all night as usual- stuck at work doing absolutely nothing because they are doing a system upgrade on our computers so I have no choice but to pass the time hanging out with the rest of you lunatics

 

IMO, it's a weak song, and Sgt. Pepper wouldn't be improved by removing any of the existing tracks in favor of OANS. It should have been on Magical Mystery Tour, if anywhere.

 

The best solution is to use OANS as part of a Yellow Submarine album with 11-14 songs of the period 66-68 that don't appear on another studio album. Adding Universe, Madonna, inner Light, along with OANS, Hey Bulldog etc. Creating a new full fledged album. Personally I'd use Rain & Paperback Writer also.

Having said that fans wanted a version of OANS on the recent set.

 

You've both clearly got nothing to say, but it's ok

 

My mornings are most people's nights, and vice versa...

 

Nice one

 

No way, Paperback Writer / Rain belongs in a Revolver release, like Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out on Rubber Soul, Hey Jude / Revolution on The White Album and The Ballad of John and Yoko / Old Brown Shoe on Abbey Road.
As for the other deluxe release, it's a no brainer for me:
The songs from the Magical Mystery Tour EP, All You Need Is Love / Baby You're a Rich Man, Hello Goodbye, All Together Now, Its All Too Much, Only a Northern Song, You Know My Name, Lady Madonna, Hey Bulldog, Across The Universe and The Inner Light.

 

I love Only a Northern Song. I always get a chuckle at the part when he sings:

If you think the harmony
Is a little dark and out of key
You're correct
There's nobody there

*Singing stops for a bit....*

And I TOLD you there's no one THERE

 

And my nights... well, they go on forever ...

 

Most of mine only feel like they do sometimes

 

Well the first part of you're suggestion works, if you opt for the non LP singles & "B" sides to the corresponding album. Hey Jude/Revolution = White Album, & I Feel Fine/She's A Woman = Beatles for Sale & Paperback Writer/Rain = Revolver & so on.

I gather the 2nd part of you're suggestion. Is to take 9 out of the 11 Mystery Tour tracks, ( skipping SFF & PL ) & add the 4 Yellow Sub tracks + 4 more 67-68 tracks. For a new expanded 17 track Mystery Tour album.

Many fans have suggested both parts of you're suggestion over the years, & or slight variations of it. I suppose it's as valid as any other opinion.

There's a lot of different ways to go. To begin with many deep fans don't necessarily like the original expansion of Mystery Tour from double ep to full album. Many aren't happy with past masters or Anthology or Rarities.

My suggestion certainly trashes the USA Capitol Hey Jude/Beatles Again compilation. Can't be helped. That album is kind of an abomination to begin with.

Of course neither I or almost anybody else, expects Apple to correct any discography blunders, that have come to light, with hindsight over the years.

Yesterday & Today & The Beatles 2nd Album are good compilations by USA Capitol, except they took too many tracks & lifted them from the UK editions. They gave USA fans an extra " studio like " album in both 64 & 66. They could be redone using just singles, b sides, outtakes etc. But Mystery Tour Capitol hit the nail on the head. Although why they used SFF & Penny Lane instead of say It's All Too Much I'm not sure..

My suggestion doesn't mess with any studio album except Yellow Submarine. But it only has 4 new songs. I'm just taking other early 68 songs & adding them to get a full album, much like Capitol did to get a full album with MMT.

Now we can debate whether Paperback Writer & Rain from April 66, should be included in that hypothetical "Full album" Yellow Submarine. Without them it gets harder to reach a full 11-14 new songs... & This thread is about OANS not an expanded YS album. However it's worth talking about & does involve OANS.

1. Yellow Sub ( alternate remix mash up- Geo Martin's classical style orchestration with Ringos vocal & a little of the band in places..

2. Lady Madonna

3. Inner Light

4. All Together Now

5. Hey Bulldog

6 Across The Universe

7. Only A Northern Song

8. Christmas Time is Here Again ( music only no dialogue)

9. Paperback Writer

10. Rain

11. Yellow Submarine reprise

12. It's All Too Much

That's an album that expands the discography & replaces the 4 song original that everyone could buy & be happy for $16-18 USD. So obviously it won't ever happen. It still works without Rain-Paperback, but then you have to sub in You Know My Name or Not Guilty or something like that, or just add them anyway. It includes all 4 singing lead 3 songs each from Lennon McCartney & Harrison, 1 Ringo, 1 entire group, nothing from another album, everything recorded within a 2 year span. It won't happen, it would make people happy & be inexpensive. Never happen.

Yours is worse a 17 song Mystery Tour removing SFF & PL. Unlikely at best.

 

I've got a question about the version of "It's Only a Northern Song" that's on my copy of Yellow Submarine. Rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd piggyback on this one, which I hope is OK.

My only copy of Yellow Submarine is nothing even remotely special, just a late-70s purple label US Capitol LP. What I'm hearing is a wildly unbalanced stereo mix of "Northern Song." The right channel is significantly louder, fuller, and bassier than the left, and it sounds awful as a result. But it's the only song on this album to sound that way. The other tracks all sound fine - there's the usual weird, hard stereo panning you typically hear with stereo mixes of this era, but they all at least sound balanced. But "Northern Song" is so lopsided and messy that I have to hit the Mono button on my receiver, and then it sounds perfectly normal. (Interestingly, when I play the other tracks on this record in mono, they don't sound quite right, like the vocals recede too far back in the mix, etc., but not "Northern Song.")

So, do I have a defective pressing? Does "Northern Song" sound this unbalanced and terrible on other pressings too? Has anyone else encountered this? I'd kinda like to find an LP where this track sounds normal and balanced.

I found some more recently remastered versions of this song on youtube and they all sound totally fine and balanced.

(FWIW, I think it's a wonderful song!)

 

"Only a Northern Song" is great, experimental, weird, dark psychedelic vibe, and it should have been on Pepper instead of "When I'm 64," which could have been a b-side.

 

Until the Yellow Submarine Songtrack came along in 1999, there was no true stereo version of the song, owing to the unusual situation of the master being on two separate tapes. They fought though a manually-intensive sync process and made a mono mix, but they walked away from doing it again in stereo. Hence, all stereo versions (until 1999) are fake stereo, sounding much as you described.

The Songtrack is digitally sourced, where syncing up tracks is oh-so-easy, hence the real stereo.

If Apple ever gets the idea to cut new stereo AAA mastered vinyl, the problem of OANS awaits them. Deferred for 50 years and counting.

 

Like many, I don't hear the sound collage as sabotage, I think it's brilliant just like the rest of the '66/'67 sound experiments are brilliant. What I do lament is that Paul's bass line gets lost in the mix ~ especially in the instrumental final go-round. Love when he hits the melody notes where the "only a northern song" lyric would be : )

Should've been on Pepper, and at LEAST should've been re-added to the last reissue along with the singles. Absolutely lame that it wasn't.