Saturday, February 18, 2017

The Beatles' Sixth Christmas Record

Usually the Beatles would be together in the studio to record their annual Christmas flexi discs for the Fan Club but this would be the first time that the Christmas messages would be recorded separately. Most of the tapes were probably recorded in early November 1968. The tapes would be co-ordinated by a radio DJ Kenny Everett and edited and presented as a whole piece.The recordings were produced as follows: Ringo's contribution was from his home; Paul's contribution was probably recorded at Trident Studios in London where he was working the Mary Hopkin LP for Apple; John and Yoko recorded their contribution at John's Kenwood attic studio and George recorded his contribution at Nat Weiss's apartment with Tiny Tim at the end of November.
The flexi disc starts with Ringo's greeting, Paul's ditty about the old and new year and then John and Yoko's poem "Jock and Yono" with Yoko playing piano and John reciting the poem. George then gives a greeting along with Mal Evans who also greets the fans. It's back to Ringo for an introduction to Paul's acoustic/vocal contribution and then back to John for his second poem entitled "Once Upon A Pool Table" with some eerie effects on his voice. Finally, we go back to George who introduces Tiny Tim who plays his version of "Nowhere Man" and is thanked by George. An orchestra IV-I outtro  and the final drumbeat of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" completes the disc.
Interestingly, there are two unedited versions of the John and Yoko poems which were aired on the "Lost Lennon Tapes" and can be found on the bootleg CD "The Ultimate Beatles Christmas Collection".

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Life With The Lions Project

Between November 4 and November 25 1968, Yoko Ono and John Lennon were at the Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital in London, UK due to complications whereby Yoko would require an emergency blood transfusion. The couple were holed up in a hospital room for three weeks where unfortunately, Yoko had a miscarriage.
During this time, John had brought his acoustic guitar and recorded some material for an upcoming John/Yoko experimental event. Included in the collection is "No Bed For Beatle John" with Yoko reciting newpaper headlines and articles relating to recent Beatle activities.This would appear on the John/Yoko LP "Life With the Lions" opening side two. This is followed by a baby's hearbeat and then two minutes of silence. Finally, the last track  "Radio Play" is a radio dial being "played" by John whereby he would turn the dial and get a millisecond of sound from the radio - back and forth.
A medley of songs was also recorded for a flexi disc issued with "Aspen" magazine #7 including the titles : "Song for John/Let's go On Flying/ Snow is Falling All The Time/ Mummy's Only Looking For her Hand In the Snow". There is also a John and Yoko duet guitar/voice rendition of  "Don't Worry Kyoko" as a bonus track on the CD "Wedding Album" version recorded during this time. Also included as a bonus track on the CD "Wedding Album" is another piece from this time frame entitled "Mulberry" consisting of Yoko mouthing the words in her various styles while John plucks at a guitar.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

The Paul/Donovan Tape

At the end of November (probably the 22nd) 1968, both Paul McCartney and Donovan appeared at Trident Studio in London to work on Apple artist Mary Hopkin's LP eventually entitled "Postcard". The reason for the session seems to be that they were looking to cover an original song written by either of them in recent times.
Paul McCartney and Donovan both are playing together on acoustic guitars. Paul sings a song entitled "How Do You Do" which remains unreleased in commercial form. Paul also performs the current "Blackbird" for Donovan with Mary Hopkin joining in here and there. A third "Paul" song is introduced as "Heather" which is a musical nursery type song probably played to Linda's daughter for her entertainment.
Donovan plays "The Unicorn" which sounds like it's a very recent idea of a song. He also plays his current US single "Lalena" for Paul. Donovan completes the titles with three children's songs entitled "Mr. Wind", "The Walrus and The Carpenter" and finally "Land of Gisch".
As a side note, Mary Hopkin covered some tunes featuring both Paul and Donovan on acoustic guitars notably "Voyage of the Moon" and "Lord of The Reedy River" and the Donovan composition "Happiness Runs".
All of these acoustic tunes can be found on the vinyl bootleg "No.3 Abbey Road NW 8" although ironically none of it was recorded there, but at Trident.