Denro and I have various catch-phrases we like to use, and at least a couple of them are Beatles-related quotes. One of them is, “I can say no more,” from HELP! Another is “Touring became intolerable,” from an 80’s documentary, now out-of-print, called The Compleat Beatles. Here’s the complete Compleat. The quote is at 1h 12m into the video.
http://youtu.be/DrvhyL0cIm4?t=1h12m10s
Denro pointed out that Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of the Beatles starting work in Hamburg, Germany. On August 17, 1960, a contract was signed by their agent at the time, Allan Williams, committing the boys to play until October 16. A fire-singed fragment of the contract survives. In the picture above, John Lennon watches the Beatles’ van being loaded onto a ferry in Liverpool, bound for the Netherlands, August 16, 1960.
Not too long ago, I posted an item about the fascinating work in electronic music by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The Bob Moog Foundation has an excellent article called MoogHistory Unveiled: Brian Kehew Explores 1965 R.A. Moog Co. Electronic Music Workshop.
Brian Kehew is the co-author with Kevin Ryan of the book RTB: Recording the Beatles. Interviews with Kehew and Ryan about the book can be heard on Musicians Radio…
[audio:http://www.musiciansradio.com/podcasts/mrshow_55.mp3 |titles=Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan on Musicians Radio]… and seen on Electronic Musician.
[flv:http://emusician.com/videos/interviews/Rec_the_Beatles_Interview.flv http://www.dograt.com/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/RTBeatles.jpg 480 360]
If Robbie Leff keeps pointing out videos like this fantastic Petula-Beatles mash-up, I won’t have to think up any more ideas for blog posts!
The official Beatles mash-up is, of course, the Love CD, which has me thinking of the infamous Beachles mash-up of Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper that resulted in a cease-and-desist order for its creator from Capitol/EMI.
More vis Mitch Miller, compliments of Denro:
This the 1st song from the 1st “Sing Along With Mitch” album, from 1958. The odd thing, which I didn’t realize, is that the album contains several WW II era songs!!! He knew his audience — so he did songs from their childhood, their parents’ era and their own adulthood! “Don’t Fence Me In” and “Bell Bottom Trousers” are on there, alongside “The Old Mill Stream” and “Silvery Moon”.
This was how Miller started the sing-a-long craze? But it’s such a sad song! How sad is it? It’s “Snoopy with a root beer” sad!
