Category: Beatles

At the link is a Web site I came across by chance. [Link] It’s by a Boston area guy named Scott Wheeler, “The website of the first official Liverpool “Merseycat” musician born in the USA — on the cutting edge of a classic rock and roll sound!”

My take on Wheeler is he’s one of those Beatles fans who’s always hovered around the edges of the entertainment business, looking for a way in. He got a band together in the 60’s, worked in the radio biz, and wrote for a small city newspaper, etc. I can relate, except I’ve never tried my hand at music. Art was my forté.

Wheeler’s site is typical of someone who hasn’t yet discovered blogging software. It’s a collection of static pages that haven’t been maintained for over a year. There are a lot of dead links and missing pictures, but it’s still worth browsing because Wheeler has done some interesting things in his life, including a writing a book about someone at the outer fringes of John Lennon’s life, his uncle Charlie. [Link] One thing’s for sure — Wheeler had a better Superman costume than I did when I was a kid!

Postcript: George Scott Wheeler obituary.

Treasure in, garbage out. Apple (the Beatles’ Apple) and EMI are suing a UK cleaning service for wrongly throwing out boxes of photos in 2001. [Link] The boxes were retrieved, but having been through a compactor the photos were ruined and could not be recovered. D’oh! Why so long for this to come to light, I wonder?

In Sunday’s Boston Globe, James Sullivan commemorates the 40th anniversary of the photo shoot that resulted in the cover to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, by identifying all of the faces in the background. The online version is here, but it doesn’t include a key. The key in the print edition of the paper is small and, in my copy, off-register and nearly illegible.

I’ve made a nice, big key to the list. Click the picture above to see it. It will open a new window or tab, so you can compare it more easily to the list below. The photo is exactly 1024×768 pixels, the most common screen resolution, making it suitable for your computer’s wallpaper, if you don’t mind being unable to find anything on your desktop! Continue reading The Key To Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart

My twinster Jean spotted this eBay auction for an original 1966 LP copy of George Martin Instrumentally Salutes the Beatle Girls. Sir George as Hugh Hefner!

I can’t find reference to this record in George Martin’s autobiography, “All You Need is Ears”, nor do I see mention of Martin’s better-known instrumental recording, “Off the Beatle Track”, from 1964. The book is poorly indexed, so I’ll keep looking.

The American soundtrack to A Hard Day’s Night included instrumentals arranged and conducted by George Martin. Here’s one of them, taken from an ancient US LP. Sounds so-so.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/AHDN_Instrumental.mp3]

The year 1964 was a very good one for George Martin. Undoubtedly his best-known non-Beatles production of that year, and perhaps any year, is this one, taken from an old UK LP. Sounds super.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/Goldfinger.mp3]

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/BigTrain.flv 400 300]

In the tradition of Monty Python and the other great British comedy troupes before them, Big Train have covered the kidnapping in Iraq and subsequent release of Beatles producer George Martin.