Category: Beatles

My sister Jean pointed out a photograph I didn’t recall seeing before, of Peter, Paul, and (the recently departed) Mary with the Beatles. The date was April 17, 1964, and the place was a posh club in London called Les Ambassadeurs, where some scenes in “A Hard Day’s Night” were filmed.

It must have been a brief meeting, because the shooting schedule was so hectic that even Ed Sullivan was given the bum’s rush. An interview in the club’s garden that he filmed for his variety show lasted only a minute and a half. But for his trouble Sullivan was sent an exclusive preview clip of the movie, that didn’t make the final cut, of the Beatles performing “You Can’t Do That.” I posted it over a year ago, at this link.

Geoff Emerick with his Grammy for engineering “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

Why all the talk these many years about “Sgt. Pepper” in mono? Here’s an A/B comparison. Both of these 90-second excerpts from “She’s Leaving Home” are in mono, but one of them is the original 1967 monaural mix from the new CD set, and the other has been folded into mono from the 1987 stereo CD.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/ShesLeavingHome_SMAS.mp3]
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/ShesLeavingHome_MAS.mp3]

Would the Beatles have succeeded without Brian Epstein? Yes, I think so, because talent will out, but without Epstein their story would not have turned out the way it did. I really don’t think Brian exploited the Beatles financially, but it does seem that he could have been tougher in some of his business negotiations with others.

Last year, Epstein’s copy of his contract with the Beatles was put up for auction, and it sold for $211,000. It’s dated October 1, 1962, a few days before the release of “Love Me Do.” It’s been said that the contract was actually drawn up on January 23, but as far as I can determine, that was a different document, in whole or at least in part. Ringo’s name can be seen, and he didn’t join the band until August. Either way, Epstein didn’t actually sign a contract with the Beatles until October 1.

I would be interested in seeing the entire text of the document. It reportedly gives Brian’s percentage as 25% of the gross, and Paul McCartney confirms that amount in “Anthology.” Yet because of the fantastic success of the Beatles, there were some in the business who assumed Brian was taking advantage of them above and beyond what was agreed upon. Brian denied that, as seen in this brief video clip.

[MEDIA=61]

In 1964, Brian made an appearance on the American TV game show, “What’s My Line.” The host, John Daly, refers to Epstein as “Barry,” and Brian makes a rather quiet correction.