During their career, The Beatles recorded a number of songs that were never issued until much later after the break-up. Which - if any - of these do you think warranted inclusion either as a b-side or on an album? And what would you have replaced? Below I've compiled a list of songs that were fully recorded and intended to be used by themselves. I have left of the various demo's that were either produced for themselves or for other artists. I've included two songs that were released, but not on their intended albums.
How Do You Do It? (PPM) Leave My Kitten Alone (Beatles For Sale) Bad Boy (Help!) If You've Got Trouble (Help!) That Means A Lot (Help!) Wait (Help!) 12 Bar Original (Rubber Soul) Only A Northern Song (Sgt. Pepper) Not Guilty (TWA) What's The New Mary Jane (TWA) Teddy Boy (Let It Be)
I've also always thought that 'I Call Your Name' was relegated to relative obscurity on the 'Long Tall Sally' EP, and could have been included on AHDN.
I just want you to reassure him - talk to him, make him see the error of his ways. Then I'll hit him.
During their career, The Beatles recorded a number of songs that were never issued until much later after the break-up. Which - if any - of these do you think warranted inclusion either as a b-side or on an album? And what would you have replaced? Below I've compiled a list of songs that were fully recorded and intended to be used by themselves. I have left of the various demo's that were either produced for themselves or for other artists. I've included two songs that were released, but not on their intended albums.
How Do You Do It? (PPM) Leave My Kitten Alone (Beatles For Sale) Bad Boy (Help!) If You've Got Trouble (Help!) That Means A Lot (Help!) Wait (Help!) 12 Bar Original (Rubber Soul) Only A Northern Song (Sgt. Pepper) Not Guilty (TWA) What's The New Mary Jane (TWA)
I've also always thought that 'I Call Your Name' was relegated to relative obscurity on the 'Long Tall Sally' EP, and could have been included on AHDN.
Great thread, BM!
For my money, Leave My Kitten Alone is as good as any of the covers they did, with possible exceptions of Long Tall Sally, Kansas City, Twist and Shout, and Money.
BTW - In the States, I Call Your Name was not relegated to obscurity, appearing prominently on The Beatle's Second Album. (so to speak).
I love John, I love Paul, And George and Ringo, I love them all!
How Do You Do It replacing Chains If you've got trouble replacing Act Naturally That means a lot replacing Tell me what you see Wait replacing Dizzy miss lizzy Only a northern song replacing WYWY Not guilty replacing Revolution 9
How Do You Do It replacing Chains If you've got trouble replacing Act Naturally That means a lot replacing Tell me what you see Wait replacing Dizzy miss lizzy Only a northern song replacing WYWY Not guilty replacing Revolution 9
Disagree with all (except maybe WYWY, don't recognize that ...)!.
If you've got trouble has always seemed really weak to me, and I love the harmonies on Act Naturally.
Love John's screamer voice on Dizzy Miss Lizzy (sloppy bleedthrough lead guitar courtesy G. Martin production notwithstanding).
Replace Revolution #9? ... it's like replacing the Eiffel Tower or something.
I do like "How do you do it", but I love Chains ("Bop Shoo Wop, Bop Bop Shoo Wop").
Maybe I'm too much of a sucker for harmonies, and maybe too esconced in my comfort zone!
I love John, I love Paul, And George and Ringo, I love them all!
Only a northern song replacing WYWY Not guilty replacing Revolution 9
NO WAY!! I like Only a Northern Song but it can't touch Within You Without You. I think the anthology said that Northern Song was going to run between Fixing A Hole and She's Leaving Home. I can see that actually. and it's not like the album runs long so I think you could throw it on there without replacing anything. but personally, I like it where it is: not on Pepper's.
as for Revolution 9, I like it and like where it's at. but for the sake of argument, if you're going to replace it, it runs long enough to include Mary Jane and Not Guilty. but I wouldn't like that. Not Guilty isn't that good if you ask me. as for Mary Jane, and the original poster's question, I can see that as a b-side if one of the songs from the White Album was released as a single. I can see it backing Guitar Gently Weeps or something
It's great...it sold...it's the bloody Beatles' White Album, shut up
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Of the unreleased ones, "Leave My Kitten Alone" is the best of the lot, but the somewhat ramshackle playing suggests that a few more takes were in order to get it into releasable shape. The rest were quite rightly shelved. "That Means A Lot" sounds like Paul trying and failing to rewrite "Ticket To Ride," with awkward transitions and provisional lyrics sticking out: "Love can be deep inside / Love can be suicide," for example. Awkward transitions are also the problem in "Not Guilty," a song I rather like nevertheless.
"If You've Got Troubles" sounds like another of Paul's songs about Jane Asher, but it's only half thought out. I like Ringo's full throttle crash-and-burn take of it, though: he was apparently determined to either force the song to work or demolish it once and for all. He maybe manages both, I think. "12 Bar Original" is filler and altogether too much like "Green Onions." "What's The New Mary Jane" is a private in-crowd joke that's lazily performed and goes on for far too long. "Teddy Boy" is a throwaway for which a decent Beatles take doesn't exist.
Of the released songs, "Wait" and "Bad Boy" are capably done, but "Only a Northern Song" is laden with ennui and was deservedly left off Pepper.
Sorry to sound so negative about the unissued songs! I'm happy these are now available, and I do listen to them, but the decision to send them to the tape vault at the time of their making was the right one, I think.
"12 Bar Original" screams "Filler!", especially as it's the length of two songs. It might have passed for a b-side, but that's about it.
"Kitten" also seems to be filler. "Beatles For Sale" is already 1/4 covers; did they really need another one?
"How Do You Do It" is just lame, though they deliberately did it that way. Maybe if they had put some effort into it it might have gotten released, but the version that's out there was better off being shelved.
"Not Guilty" I think would have fit in quite well on the White Album. It could have replaced "Long Long Long" or "Savoy Truffle", preferably "Long...", since I like "Savoy" better! IMHO, the version that George released in 1979 is too soft and mushy.
"What's The New Mary Jane" is too "far out" to have fit on a Beatles album. B-side or Plastic Ono Band album/single yes, but not for the Beatles.
I've never been crazy about "Bad Boy" or "Wait" but as filler they're OK. (Obviously, "Bad Boy" wasn't filler but you get my point).
"If You've Got Trouble" and "That Means A Lot" could have been good songs, but they needed a lot of work to get to that point and the Fabs apparently didn't have the time/patience to complete them.
I like "Only A Northern Song" and I think it might have fit between "Fixing A Hole" and "She's Leaving Home". One George song per side would have worked. But if it meant dropping "Within You", then I'd have to keep "Within You".
Leave My Kitten Alone would have fit in on Beatles For Sale and would have been a better solution than Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, Mr Moonlight or Honey Don't imo. I Call Your Name could have been the 14th song on A Hard Days Night, never understood why it wasn't on the album. Bad Boy is an okay recording with great vocals by John and Wait was nicely redone to fit in on Rubber Soul. I'd love to hear the version they did for Help!, as I think there's worse songs on that album than Wait. The rest is forgettable and understandably rejected by The Beatles.
was junk also intended for an album like abbey road ?
"Junk" was written in India in 1968, I believe, and was first demo'd at George Harrison's house along with a lot of other White Album songs just before sessions for that album began. There's a take of it on Anthology 3. I think Paul mentioned that it was intended for Abbey Road in the interview that was issued along with the first release of McCartney, so there might have been some thought given to using it on that one, too, unless he was just mistaken.
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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.
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 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.
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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
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!
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.
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."
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