The Beatles Star-Club tapes - Mark Lewisohn (I am the EggPod Podcast)

No. There are 3 TV appearances on the tape, there are no pictures from it except blurred instamatic shots taken from a TV screen at home

 

Thanks - I couldn’t fathom why his glasses were on!

 

They were on because they helped him see.

 

I've heard Lewisohn talk about this. Can't remember the exact podcast, but he sounded pretty angry, even after all these years. He said George accused him of being a bootlegger right in front of a group of other people, and added that he thought of suing George for slander. I remember him saying something like it was a "rotten thing to do" on George's part. He even said people like Neil Aspinall went to bat for Lewisohn, but that George -- who previously had a good relationship with Lewisohn -- had his mind made up that Lewisohn was a bad guy.

I think in the same podcast, he also said that he'd like to do a fourth book that would bring the Beatles story right up to the official dissolution in 1974, but that he wasn't sure he'd have time for it.

 

Yes, that’s it. I couldn’t remember who stood up for Mark. I’d like to listen to that show again but I can’t find it.

 

That seems quite likely to me - it did come out in 77 IIRC.
These are certainly yet another set of lyrics that John is singing here. I guess made up on the spot german(-sounding) gibberish.
I am german but I can`t make out much except of "Lebenstraum" (Lifetime-dream) and "Schweinehund" (swine, literally swine-dog), the later said to be the one german word every Nazi in a foreign movie has to utter and thus the first german word foreigners of that time learned.
The whole thing sounds eerie and reminds me of the title-song from "The man in the high castle" somehow. And there seems to be talking in the background (or was there talking overdubbed for LLT and then stripped back again from the bootleggers?).
Anyway, quite a gem in a way!

 

I can confirm this is correct

 

BTW, has it ever been determined why Twist And Shout is not listed in the contents of the original tape, but was on the 1977 LP?

 

Hi, Richard Moore here, co-writer of the Record Collector articles with Hans.

We'll probably never know. The original tape is in very poor condition and can't be played without it falling apart. The safety dubs made in 1976 don't include the song, but it's of course possible that the song was on it's own somewhere on a tape track which was mainly blank (not all of the 4 tracks were full) and this wasn't originally copied to the safeties. Perhaps it was discovered late in the day and not copied to the safety, only to the multitrack they were using to 'reprocess' the sound. This is all just guesswork though. Needless to say the safety copy has been checked by owner Larry Grossberg and does not contain Twist and Shout. Unfortunately after 40 years he could not remember exactly where it came from and there is nothing in his notes from the time.

Just in case you guys would like to see the articles Hans and I wrote as they appeared in Record Collector, PDF's of both parts (including all photos!) are on my website here:- http://mint-audio-restoration.co.uk/press-articles/

Richard

 

George swapped spirituality for slander. Pity that he couldn’t walk the talk by picking on Lewisohn.

 

I've had an email from someone who has been led to believe by someone I have a copy of the full star club tape and thought I was offering a download on my site for it.

Just in case someone from this site has managed to get the wrong end of the stick. Neither Hans or myself have a copy of the safety reels. The download is for our article only.

Richard

 

No Beatles and no English, but this little film about the Star Club is very interesting none the less...
Star-Club - Das Ende

 

I think what's more of a factor is that he felt Mark was favoring Paul. He always seemed to have his antennae up for such things. Isn't that why he reportedly vetoed "The Long and Winding Road" as the title for what eventually became The Beatles Anthology?

 

Sorry for straying beyond the Star Club topic here but for once I agree with the oft-curmudgeonly George: "The Long and Winding Road" would have been a lousy, overly sentimental name for the Anthology project.


I consider The Beatles to be a mercurial, intense Rock band... almost supernova-like... constantly evolving, ever-growing.


A song with a title and overall sound which conjure up visions of mellowness and serious hangtime in a senior rest home, are considerably off the mark.


"Revolution" is the more exciting and only appropriate title for Anthology, rather than that old windbag road apple thingy.




For the sake of full disclosure: I do dig Paul's tune, both naked and Spector-ized versions... a very lovely, mature piece of songcraft.

 

I was going to strongly disagree with you up until your last sentence. But, I'm on board with Revolution. Great idea!

 

I'll still strongly disagree with @HoundsOBurkittsville - I love the title...but I tend towards the overly sentimental!

Revolution's not a bad idea though....

 

Some interesting writing from Lord Reith on these tapes:

"There's been a lot of dispute over the years about whether Taylor or Adrian Barber made these recordings. Taylor gives a perfectly sensible explanation that he bought a tape recorder at the Berlin radio Show in 1962 and had Barber suspend a microphone from the ceiling and feed it to the recorder beside the stage. That way each band could record themselves if they wished. There was only one tape, a quarter track reel with four separate recording tracks. The recordist would select one of two tracks, or could turn the tape over and select from two more. Indeed the tape is a higgledy piggledy of partial sets that have all been recorded over one another, and not the complete sets Barber said he recorded. Furthermore I have seen a lengthy document from Barber who explains how "he recorded" the tapes and it is clear from what he says that whatever recordings he is talking about, they are not the ones we know of. The recordings he refers to seems to have been made long after The Beatles had already left Hamburg, when he began improving the sound system and recording bands for archival purposes. He even accuses Taylor of stealing the Beatles tape, which is pretty silly considering Taylor actually owned it. His memories come across as very vague, confused and jumbled, unlike Taylor who has a clear memory of the events and whose version was verified when the original BASF tape finally surfaced recently. The tape was auctioned and the contents fully detailed in Record Collector."

 

Nice to have confirmation about what years the next book will involve. Seems like Mark has moved forward a bit in his work? I never remember him being so sure about it before. His weariness about having to get a move on seemed a little concerning too, but maybe that was just his mood after the Innes news.

 

@nikh33 a question for you. It seems like you know Mark Lewisohn. In this podcast when he's talking about Til There Was You and he says it's John taking the piss out of Paul during the song, it sounds to me like it's Ringo doing it and I say that because it really sounds like Paul says, "Stop that Ringo." Can you or anyone confirm either one?

 

The raw original tape of the star club exists?

 

Great articles. Cheers

 

Frankly I think the whole thing should be released. The audio quality is generally no worse than some of the tracks on Anthology 1.

Plus I agree that the performance showcases their excellent ability to play almost proto punk, which is fairly incredible in 1962.

 

Slightly diverting from the particular subject at hand, but I'd like to say that I enjoyed the Lewisohn epsiode so much, I've been spending the last week or so absolutely devouring your back episodes & blooming loving them!

The great thing is, it doesn't even matter what the music is being discussed - in fact, some of the best episodes have been the more ignored solo albums - but there's such an atmosphere of warmth, knowledge & humour that you bring to the proceedings, that really draws the guests in & lets them take off in whatever flights of intellectual fancy they get into.

Great work, highly recommended & a plea, if I may - can you have Nicky Campbell or Iain Lee on at least once a month please??!

 

The usual references to punk are off the mark and mean nothing except as a justification for the crappy sound and crappy playing (people who know nothing about punk think inferior musicianship is a hallmark of the genre). Punk didn't exist in 1962. The Beatles had no influence on punk. They played Chuck Berry numbers. Chuck Berry had an influence on punk via bands like New York Dolls.

 

WEll...there's 'bad attitude on stage'....
THAT'S kind of 'punk'.........right?