Sunday, March 19, 2017

The Dirty Mac Sessions

On December 10 1968, a link before the performance of the "Dirty Mac" band (with John Lennon on vocal/guitar, Eric Clapton on guitar, Keith Richards on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums) was recorded. The link to the performance includes John sitting on a high bench with Mick Jagger and both introducing the "Dirty Mac" and the song "Yer Blues" (from the current LP "The White Album" as it was known). Both have a deadpan mocking voice calling each other "Winston" and "Michael".
The performance itself was recorded specially for the Rolling Stones' "Rock And Roll Circus" television special. The band was warming up on the afternoon of December 11 1968 when a blues jam was captured on tape. The blues jam can be found on the vinyl LP "The Lost Lennon Tapes Volume Eight" in mono.
As far as the song "Yer Blues" is concerned, there are two takes available from the camera tapes (nagra tapes) and one take available from the four-track audio tape. Take one from the camera tapes can be found on the vinyl bootleg LP "The Lost Lennon Tapes Volume Thirteen". Take two from the camera tapes can be found on the vinyl bootleg LP "The Lost Lennon Tapes Volume Eighteen".
If you are looking for the stereo version of take three of "Yer Blues" from the four-track tape you can find it on an old bootleg LP "Not for Sale".
There is an addition to "Yer Blues" when Yoko steps up to the mic with the encouragement from John and adds her vocals to a jam that the band are performing. This has been released under two names: "Her Blues" or "Whole Lotta Yoko". This masterpiece can be found on the bootleg LP "The Lost Lennon Tapes Volume Eight" as well.
Finally, both "Yer Blues" and "Whole Lotta Yoko" along with the introduction/link were released commercially in 1996 on the video tape/CD "Rock And Roll Circus".

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