MindGoneHaywire
11-20-2003, 08:55 AM
I haven't participated actively in any group comps in nearly 3 years, so forgive me if this one has been proposed before. I was listening to a late-period Beatles comp I'd thrown together a few years ago, on which I'd inserted a couple of songs from the first McCartney LP. For years & years I'd always heard the song 'Teddy Boy,' which has rich harmonies, as something that sounded as though it had been written for Abbey Road, and probably discarded, one that didn't make the cut. When the Anthology Series came out there was a version of it tucked in amongst the Abbey Road material, so I'd guessed right. Also, in with the White Album stuff, there was an early version of 'Junk,' another from that first McCartney album. So, much like I'd always read about George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass,' and similar to Lou Reed using songs he'd brought to the VU on his early solo albums, it seemed like the Beatles had plenty of songs that never made it to Beatles albums that eventually ended up on solo recs. With this in mind, I'd slipped the McCartney versions of Junk & Teddy Boy onto this comp in amongst the White Album & Abbey Road stuff, respectively, that I placed on it. And while listening to it, the idea came to mind to try to construct a Beatles LP out of outstanding tracks from the first few solo albums.
I'd like to say that this has nothing to do with everything I've been reading about the new Let It Be, but in truth I guess it has to have something to do with it. All of the debate I've seen on message boards, I suppose, and some of the conflicting sentiments expressed in reviews. I haven't heard it, but I've had bootlegs, which basically have to sound pretty similar, from what I've read, for more than 20 years. So I have a basic idea of what it's going to sound like. Now, history tells us that the White Album was made under conditions where each member brought his songs in, and the band functioned as a backing band to 4 solo artists. Then McCartney got the bright idea to bring together a band that had been drifting apart, with the result being the forced, uncomfortable Get Back sessions that only drove the band further apart. In retrospect it's kind of amazing that they pulled it back together enough to manage to come up with something like Abbey Road.
I was wondering, if Get Back hadn't happened, if the band might have continued in the form it assumed during the recording of the White Album--each member bringing in a song, with the band just being a backing band. The Beatles were obviously never going to be as they once had been, but is it possible that they might have continued working together/apart the way they did on the White Album? What then? The Beatles probably don't break up when they did, and who knows? At this Troy is probably smirking & saying 'who cares,' but I do, I guess. I see nothing wrong with the White Album approach, so I wonder what could have been, what might have been. I never have before; they broke up, and that's that. But then I came up with an idea.
Since every Beatle except Paul employed other ex-Beatles on their own solo recordings, how about the idea of coming up with a comp consisting of the best tracks from the early Beatles solo albums? In essence, most were recorded using an approach similar to the White Album, so what's the difference? John used either George or Ringo on 3 albums, George used Ringo on 2 albums, and on Ringo's first proper pop album he used all 3 ex-Beatles. So I thought about details & parameters. If anyone has any major objections to any of these, let me know.
Like, how far past 1970 could it be for a song to qualify? I think that what makes the most sense would be to choose from both of each member's first two solo albums. The pool of albums to choose from would be as follows: for John, Plastic Ono Band & Imagine. For Paul, McCartney & Ram. For George, All Things Must Pass and Living In The Material World. And for Ringo, Beaucoups of Blues and Ringo. I know the dates aren't exactly consistent (Paul & John had each released 2 albums by 1971, while Ringo didn't come out until November 1973), but I'm not sure it makes sense any other way.
There were several 'solo' albums released prior to Let It Be. Can't say I see any point in including any of them, either. Most are not typical rock albums: Paul's 'The Family Way,' from 1967, is an instrumental movie soundtrack; John's 'Two Virgins,' 'Life With The Lions,' & 'The Wedding Album' are all mostly self-indulgent collections of nonsense sounds; and while I've never heard George's 'Wonderwall Music' or 'Electronic Sound,' I've never heard great things about either, and I would assume that if either were worthwhile they'd be discussed a lot more than they are. As for Ringo's 'Sentimental Journey,' uh, what's the point? Who has it anyway? It's actually a record I'd like to hear, but, again, nobody's ever told me how great it was, so I never really looked for it. I would, however, suggest including his country album, 'Beaucoups of Blues,' which has some really good songs on it. There's certainly one on there I would choose. The only one I think there would be a strong case for including would be John's Live Peace In Toronto, but let's face it, as good as half of that record is, it's a bunch of oldies & hits. I say no that as well.
Then there's the makeup of the album. I propose that it would make sense to have five songs each by John & Paul, three from George, and two from Ringo. We could each vote on, say, our top three from each, and tabulate it. I also think that including one of the two 'new' songs from the Anthology would be good, too. Actually, I'm not big on 'Free As A Bird,' but I think 'Real Love' would fit in quite nicely. Maybe we could vote on one of the two, or just a yes or a no to including either. If one of those were included, it would come out to 16 songs, which I think should fit comfortably on a comp. Actually, we could do more--say, 6 each for Paul & John & 4 for George--but personally I'm more interested in the idea, the spirit, of constructing a faux Beatles album than just filling up a CDR with extra songs to pad out a comp.
So: provided this has never been done before (if it has, I sure missed it), what do you think? I'll hold off on my choices until I see whether or not there's enough interest to put this together. If there's not, I'm most certainly going to do my own version. So please do let me know what y'all think of this.
I'd like to say that this has nothing to do with everything I've been reading about the new Let It Be, but in truth I guess it has to have something to do with it. All of the debate I've seen on message boards, I suppose, and some of the conflicting sentiments expressed in reviews. I haven't heard it, but I've had bootlegs, which basically have to sound pretty similar, from what I've read, for more than 20 years. So I have a basic idea of what it's going to sound like. Now, history tells us that the White Album was made under conditions where each member brought his songs in, and the band functioned as a backing band to 4 solo artists. Then McCartney got the bright idea to bring together a band that had been drifting apart, with the result being the forced, uncomfortable Get Back sessions that only drove the band further apart. In retrospect it's kind of amazing that they pulled it back together enough to manage to come up with something like Abbey Road.
I was wondering, if Get Back hadn't happened, if the band might have continued in the form it assumed during the recording of the White Album--each member bringing in a song, with the band just being a backing band. The Beatles were obviously never going to be as they once had been, but is it possible that they might have continued working together/apart the way they did on the White Album? What then? The Beatles probably don't break up when they did, and who knows? At this Troy is probably smirking & saying 'who cares,' but I do, I guess. I see nothing wrong with the White Album approach, so I wonder what could have been, what might have been. I never have before; they broke up, and that's that. But then I came up with an idea.
Since every Beatle except Paul employed other ex-Beatles on their own solo recordings, how about the idea of coming up with a comp consisting of the best tracks from the early Beatles solo albums? In essence, most were recorded using an approach similar to the White Album, so what's the difference? John used either George or Ringo on 3 albums, George used Ringo on 2 albums, and on Ringo's first proper pop album he used all 3 ex-Beatles. So I thought about details & parameters. If anyone has any major objections to any of these, let me know.
Like, how far past 1970 could it be for a song to qualify? I think that what makes the most sense would be to choose from both of each member's first two solo albums. The pool of albums to choose from would be as follows: for John, Plastic Ono Band & Imagine. For Paul, McCartney & Ram. For George, All Things Must Pass and Living In The Material World. And for Ringo, Beaucoups of Blues and Ringo. I know the dates aren't exactly consistent (Paul & John had each released 2 albums by 1971, while Ringo didn't come out until November 1973), but I'm not sure it makes sense any other way.
There were several 'solo' albums released prior to Let It Be. Can't say I see any point in including any of them, either. Most are not typical rock albums: Paul's 'The Family Way,' from 1967, is an instrumental movie soundtrack; John's 'Two Virgins,' 'Life With The Lions,' & 'The Wedding Album' are all mostly self-indulgent collections of nonsense sounds; and while I've never heard George's 'Wonderwall Music' or 'Electronic Sound,' I've never heard great things about either, and I would assume that if either were worthwhile they'd be discussed a lot more than they are. As for Ringo's 'Sentimental Journey,' uh, what's the point? Who has it anyway? It's actually a record I'd like to hear, but, again, nobody's ever told me how great it was, so I never really looked for it. I would, however, suggest including his country album, 'Beaucoups of Blues,' which has some really good songs on it. There's certainly one on there I would choose. The only one I think there would be a strong case for including would be John's Live Peace In Toronto, but let's face it, as good as half of that record is, it's a bunch of oldies & hits. I say no that as well.
Then there's the makeup of the album. I propose that it would make sense to have five songs each by John & Paul, three from George, and two from Ringo. We could each vote on, say, our top three from each, and tabulate it. I also think that including one of the two 'new' songs from the Anthology would be good, too. Actually, I'm not big on 'Free As A Bird,' but I think 'Real Love' would fit in quite nicely. Maybe we could vote on one of the two, or just a yes or a no to including either. If one of those were included, it would come out to 16 songs, which I think should fit comfortably on a comp. Actually, we could do more--say, 6 each for Paul & John & 4 for George--but personally I'm more interested in the idea, the spirit, of constructing a faux Beatles album than just filling up a CDR with extra songs to pad out a comp.
So: provided this has never been done before (if it has, I sure missed it), what do you think? I'll hold off on my choices until I see whether or not there's enough interest to put this together. If there's not, I'm most certainly going to do my own version. So please do let me know what y'all think of this.