Pity The Beatles didn't make use of "Come And Get It" and "All Things Must Pass." I suppose "Come And Get It" was off the table because it was a bit of a dig at John and maybe the other Beatles as well, but those two songs would have made a great single of new material to go along with Abbey Road.

Quoted from Geoff

Pity The Beatles didn't make use of "Come And Get It"...

Did McCartney write that specifically for "The Magic Christian"?  If so, that might have been why the Beatles never recorded it.

Quoted from madman

Did McCartney write that specifically for "The Magic Christian"?  If so, that might have been why the Beatles never recorded it.

Not sure, really. If it was ever up for consideration, I've guessed that The Beatles turned it down because the lyrics appear to refer (or can be taken to refer) to their own internal squabbles at the time.

If you want it, here it is,
Come and get it
Make your mind up fast.
If you want it any time
I can give it
But you better hurry 'cos it may not last.

Did I hear you say that there must be a catch
Will you walk away from a fool and his money?

If you want it, here it is,
Come and get it
But you better hurry 'cos it's going fast

If you want it, here it is,
Come and get it hmmmmmmmm
Make your mind up fast.
If you want it any time
I can give it
But you better hurry 'cos it may not last.

Did I hear you say that there must be a catch
Will you walk away from a fool and his money?

Sonny if you want it, here it is,
Come and get it,
But you better hurry 'cos it's going fast.
you better hurry 'cos it's going fast.
OOHHHHHH A Fool And His Money

Sonny if you want it, here it is,
Come and get it
But you better hurry 'cos it's going fast
you better hurry 'cos it's going fast.
you better hurry 'cos it's going fast.

I think it also speaks quite directly to the story-line of the film. Yes?

I think Leave My Kitten Alone and That Means A lot should have been on the albums.(especially That Means A Lot, I love that song).  Also, they should have left Only a Northern Song on Sgt. pepper.

Upcoming interview with Paul on Radio 4's Front Row:  


Forty years on, McCartney wants the world to hear 'lost' Beatles epic
George Harrison said it was too avant-garde. Now Sir Paul says the time has come to release 1967's 'Carnival of Light'
The Guardian, Sunday November 16


For Beatles fans across the world it has gained near mythical status. The 14-minute improvised track called 'Carnival of Light' was recorded in 1967 and played just once in public. It was never released because three of the Fab Four thought it too adventurous.

The track, a jumble of shrieks and psychedelic effects, is said to be as far from the melodic ballads that made Sir Paul McCartney famous as it is possible to imagine. But now McCartney has said that the public will have the chance to judge for themselves.

'It does exist,' McCartney says on a BBC Radio 4 arts programme to be broadcast this week. Talking to John Wilson, the presenter of Front Row, the former Beatle confirms that he still has a master tape of the work and says he suspects that 'the time has come for it to get its moment'.

'I like it because it's the Beatles free, going off piste,' he adds.

In the 40 years since 'Carnival of Light' was recorded by McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon in the Abbey Road studios in London, its collection of disparate rhythms has become a kind of holy grail for Beatles obsessives. The track was put together on 5 January 1967, in between working on the vocals for the song 'Penny Lane'.

Once released it should offer proof that the Fab Four, and McCartney in particular, were much more avant-garde in their tastes than many gave them credit for. According to the few who heard the track on the one occasion the recording was played publicly, at a London music festival in 1967, it features the sound of gargled water and strangled shouts from Lennon which vie with church organs and distorted guitar.

'We were set up in the studio and would just go in every day and record,' McCartney tells Wilson. 'I said to the guys, this is a bit indulgent but would you mind giving me 10 minutes? I've been asked to do this thing. All I want you to do is just wander round all of the stuff and bang it, shout, play it. It doesn't need to make any sense. Hit a drum, wander to the piano, hit a few notes ... and then we put a bit of echo on it. It's very free.'

McCartney had been commissioned to create a piece for an electronic music festival at the Roundhouse Theatre in north London by his friend Barry Miles. The event, the Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, was organised by International Times, an underground newspaper. Many in the audience had no idea they were listening to a new Beatles track. Other performers included Delia Derbyshire whose work at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop included jointly creating the theme for Doctor Who.

McCartney, who this month releases his third experimental album of new work under the alias the Fireman, regards 'Carnival of Light' as evidence of how musically adventurous he has always been. For the three other Beatles the track was just an oddity. George Harrison dismissed it as too weird. But McCartney is hopeful it can now be released with the agreement of the group's estate.

'It will help reaffirm McCartney's claim to have been the most musically adventurous of all the Beatles,' said Wilson this weekend. 'He told me he would love to release the track. All he needs now is the blessing of Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and George Harrison's widow Olivia.'

The piece was inspired, McCartney says, by the works of composers John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In his book Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, author Mark Lewisohn - who was played the track in 1987 - describes 'distorted, hypnotic drum and organ sounds, a distorted lead guitar, the sound of a church organ, various effects (water gargling was one) and, perhaps most intimidating of all, Lennon and McCartney screaming and bawling random phrases including "Are you all right?" and '"Barcelona!".'

Beatles fans came close to hearing 'Carnival Of Light' in 1996 when it was considered for inclusion in the exhaustive Anthology compilation. 'We were listening to everything we'd every recorded,' McCartney says. 'I said it would be great to put this on because it would show we were working with really avant-garde stuff ... But it was vetoed. The guys didn't like the idea, like "this is rubbish".'

McCartney revealed that George Harrison disparaged sonic experimentation as 'avant-garde a clue'.

Sir George Martin, the Beatles producer who oversaw the track, has described it as 'one of those weird things'. 'It was a kind of uncomposed, free-for-all melange of sound that went on. It was not considered worthy of issuing as a normal piece of Beatles music at the time and was put away.'

Coincidentally, McCartney played some of his Fireman compositions at the reopened Roundhouse venue last year during the Electric Proms. 'With the Fireman you're in disguise,' he told Observer Music Monthly. His pseudonym may have been taken from the lyric of 'Penny Lane' where a fireman 'rushes in from the pouring rain' and could also be a nod to his father, Jim McCartney, a firewatcher on the Liverpool docks in the Second World War.

• John Wilson's interview with Paul McCartney can be heard on Front Row, Radio 4, on Thursday

Cheers Geoff.

Oh, Paul. *shakes head and sighs*

did i really read that??  

Quoted from freakchic9

i don't understand how If You Got Troubles was rejected. i have the Anthology CDs and that song is on it. i personally have a love for that song.

I like it too. Besides 'If You Got Troubles', 'Not Guilty' is the only other one I think should have been included. 'Teddy Boy' works alright on 'McCartney' (I like the harmonies), but it definately was a filler for a Beatle album.

Geoff, so sorry, I didn't realize that you had posted The Guardian article here.  I think you beat me to it, but if I had known that earlier I wouldn't have posted that same article over in the News thread!

Quoted from This Boy

That Means A Lot, I love that song

I've always loved "That Means A Lot"; it's most likely my favorite "throwaway" Beatles song.  I don't know if it would've been a big hit or anything, but the harmonies and the tender melody are breathtaking.  I wish it would have been accepted for an album.

I love "Junk," too.  I wish Paul would have done a better job with the lyrics, but the melody is wonderful.  I know he released that later in his solo career but I wonder if it could've fit into one of their last Beatle albums.

Quoted from Penny Lane

Geoff, so sorry, I didn't realize that you had posted The Guardian article here.  I think you beat me to it, but if I had known that earlier I wouldn't have posted that same article over in the News thread!

No problem; we've got a decent discussion going on it, which is all that matters. It's happened before and the replies can be merged.  

By the way, the interview is scheduled for broadcast on Radio Four's Front Row at 1915 GMT on Thursday, which I think (?) is 2:15pm Eastern Time in the US. Streaming audio should be available some time after that. I'll be interested to hear whether it's the interviewer or Paul who brings up "Carnival Of Light."