Category: Beatles

Brunch with the Beatle Years

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s hoping for a good 2010. There were highs and lows in 2009, with the low being my wife’s illness, and the high being contacted by Prue Bury.

Two syndicated radio shows I listen to are The Beatle Years and Beatle Brunch. Both programs are carried in Boston by WODS-FM, Oldies 103. If you click the link below you’ll find six months of shows available for streaming, and you can even download them. Elvis fans will find something there, too.

http://www.wods.com/Oldies-On-Demand-Audio/4334827

A particularly good example is the most recent Beatle Years installment that’s been posted. From November, 14 — “Works in Progress.”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JAN/BeatleYears_14Nov09.mp3]

Beatle Brunch from November 8 also has excellent alternate takes of songs.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JAN/BeatleBrunch_8Nov09.mp3]

Touring became intolerable

It’s safe to assume that any Beatles documentary without Beatles music is unauthorized. Some of them have an interesting clip or two. One of the worst I’ve seen is “Beatles Biggest Secrets.” Don’t bother. A BBC DVD called “Unseen Beatles” is pretty good. The use of Classical music is odd and unnecessary, but the narrative is strong, because it does a good job of explaining why the Beatles had to quit touring. I’ve spliced together a couple of minutes from “Unseen Beatles” about the aftermath in America of Lennon’s infamous Jesus quote.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/UnseenBeatles.flv 512 384]

The guy telling the story about the show in Memphis is Barry Tashian, of the legendary Boston garage band, The Remains, who were on the Beatles’ final concert tour.

Tashian recounts the summer of ’66 in his excellent book, “Ticket To Ride: The Extraordinary Diary of The Beatles’ Last Tour.” I scanned Tashian’s journal entries for the Memphis show.

There’s a movie about The Remains called “America’s Lost Band” that I hope finds its way to DVD. Here is a preview with related clips.

Let’s finish with “Why Do I Cry,” by the Remains. We’ll never see another time like the mid- to late-60’s, folks!

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/DEC/WhyDoICry.mp3]

Monkees do Beatles

Today, former Monkee Peter Tork is at the BEATexpo Beatles show in Connecticut. Last weekend, along with Mickey Dolenz, Peter was at the SuperMegafest show in Framingham, MA, west of Boston. Peter took the stage Saturday night, first solo and then backed by a local Monkees tribute band called Loose Salute, named after a Mike Nesmith album. Mickey joined Peter during the concert to do a set, and here is Mickey’s entrance…

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/NOV/MickeyPeter.flv 512 384]

Denro was quick to point out to me that Mickey was stretching the truth about hearing “Oh, Darling!” at Abbey Road studios. Mickey hung out with the Beatles at EMI in ’67, but there’s no way he was there two years later. I’d neglected to swap the nearly-full SDHC card in my camera, so I missed the rest of the song, but somebody else who was there has posted the whole thing.

Tech note: That thin column in the middle of the stage is probably a Bose L1 speaker. The Bose corporate headquarters is right behind the Sheraton hotel where the convention was held.

The Beatles on Record

The History Channel is showing “The Beatles on Record,” an official Apple Corp. documentary. It’s sort of a mini-Anthology, focused solely on their studio work. Parts of it appear as the mini-documentaries on the remastered Beatles CD catalog. For a knowledgeable Beatles fan there’s nothing new in “The Beatles on Record,” but the movie clips are in the best possible quality, and there are some fun studio audio outtakes.

If I’d been paying better attention, I would have noticed that back in September somebody posted the program as it had appeared on the BBC. The American version is exactly 45 minutes without commercials, whereas the British version is a smidgen under one hour. Once again we Americans get an abridged version of a Beatles product! When will it end? I’ve collected the parts into a single YouTube player. It’s window-boxed within a letterbox, but the quality is otherwise excellent.

For comparison, here’s how it looked on the History Channel. This segment covers the middle period, from “Beatles for Sale” through “Sgt. Pepper.” Along the way, the title of Engineer was passed from Norman Smith, whose stint ended with “Rubber Soul,” to Geoff Emerick, who took over the console starting with “Revolver.”

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/NOV/BeatlesOnRecord_03.flv 512 384]

Prue Bury at the Beatles Weekend, Ouistreham

I had told Prudence Bury-Fuchs a while ago that she should be prepared to sign autographs at the Beatles Weekend in France. Prue thanked me for the thought, but she sincerely doubted that anybody would ask her!

Hi Doug,
You were right, I did not stop signing autographs. People were “thrilled” to meet me!!! So it was most enjoyable. You will have to organise a “Beatles Weekend” across the pond!

Prue Bury at the Beatles Weekend, Ouistreham

Prue Bury on stage at the Beatles Weekend, Ouistreham

Of course I was right! Who wouldn’t be thrilled to meet her? In flawless French, Prue had no trouble charming the audience.

Prue must be the last person with a legitimate connection to the Beatles to make a first appearance at a fan event. I don’t have experience organizing shows, but now that Prue has come out of hiding from Beatles fandom, it is indeed time for her to make an appearance stateside, as well as in her native England, of course.

This is Prue with a gent named Yvon…

Prue Bury with Yvon at the Beatles Weekend, Ouistreham

…and here she is with a fan named Jean-Claude. You lucky guys!

Prue Bury with Jean-Clause at the Beatles Weekend, Ouistreham