Category: Music

Prue Bury, by Ringo Starr

It’s Easter, and a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely and wonderful Prudence Bury. As promised, here is a very special picture of Prue. It was taken by Ringo Starr on the set of A Hard Day’s Night.

The caption reads, “This gorgeous girl is Pru Berry. She plays my girlfriend in our movie. Too bad it’s only make believe!” Amen to that! Ringo was actually paired with Tina Williams for the famous hair-combing publicity photos, and Prue was with Paul. She was 22 at the time, and Prue says of this portrait, “I love it, I look grown up!!” (Oh, the lure of evil ciggies to make one appear grown up!)

Prue had told me that Ringo was “snap-happy” with his camera during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night, and she said that he had taken some snapshots of her. (The sequence where Ringo went “parading” around town was built around him taking pictures.) Prue and I have been wondering if Ringo’s pictures had appeared anywhere, and the answer is yes. They’re in Ringo’s Photo-Album, published in 1964. Hover over the image below to see the back cover.

I have scanned the entire magazine and it’ll be featured later. My thanks go to noted Rock journalist Marcus Gray, for finding this treasure. I’ve seen many Beatles-related items, but I’d never spotted this one before. Marcus is the leading expert on The Clash, having written two books on the legendary British Punk Rock band — one a comprehensive and authoritative biography, the other a definitive study of their landmark album London Calling. Having been a Clash fan myself, I have both tomes and they are in my must-read stack. Marcus is also, to his credit, a Prue fan.

Pretty ballerina

This Easter Sunday is Prue Bury’s birthday, and for it I’ll be posting a very special photograph of her, taken by a Beatle on the set of A Hard Day’s Night. Prue’s on the right in this photo, age 17, at the Royal School of Ballet in London.

In 1958, Antony Armstrong-Jones, later titled the First Earl of Snowdon, was appointed the court photographer for the Royal Family. That same eventful year, Armstrong-Jones took this portrait of Prue.

Prudence Bury, age 17

Soon afterwards, Prue would meet Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon, and be a witness to, and a part of, the start of what later came to be known as Swinging London.

http://youtu.be/uyIZtrvzGEM

That’s Entertainment!

I dropped off some friends at the Worcester, Massachusetts airport today, and on the way back home I stopped at Paul Howley’s super-duper store, That’s Entertainment, to spend some of my unexpectedly big tax refund. I was very pleased to see LP copies of Bob Dylan: In Concert, Brandeis University, 1963, so I bought one of those. I was equally inspired when I spotted The Beatles Box of Vision, an item I’ve been tempted to get many times, but had never managed to pull the trigger until today.

Both of my new acquisitions exceeded my expectations, which were high to start with. Dylan’s concert was recorded well, especially considering when it was done, and the LP sounds great. This is Bob Dylan at the height of his early folk period, with his politics freshly awakened by his passionate girlfriend, Suze Rotolo.

Although the Beatles Box of Vision came out with the remastered CD’s in 2009, my idea was to use it to dress up the original CD’s released nearly 25 years ago. Well, that’s what I did, and I’m very pleased with the results. The only problem is, I’m missing a couple of the discs, so now I’ll have to get those or forever be bugged by the empty slots in the sleeves.

One of the more interesting Beatles reissues is Yellow Submarine Songtrack, which is in the picture. This must-have CD offers a generous sampling of tracks that weren’t only remastered, they were remixed. In terms of sheer sound quality, they’re noticeably superior to the 2009 remastered stereo master tapes, and they’re proof that the Beatles catalog will need yet one more release.

Hawks vs. Hunks

In the post right before this one, while discussing the composer Leroy Shield, R. Crumb said that he prefers Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks to the Dutch dance band The Beau Hunks. Let’s do a comparison. First, the Nighthawks…

http://youtu.be/P8y_AglUPR8

… and now the Beau Hunks, with the same three tunes by Leroy Shield.

[audio:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Apr/26+Look+at+Him+Now.mp3,http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Apr/02+Beautiful+Lady.mp3,https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Apr/05+Bells.mp3|titles=The Beau Hunks – Look At Him Now,The Beau Hunks – Beautiful Lady,The Beau Hunks – Bells]