BEATLES BLOG | ADVENTURES IN COLLECTING BEATLES MUSIC

Beatles Blog | Adventures in collecting Beatles music

Beatles Blog | Adventures in collecting Beatles music

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Through rare archival footage, recordings and photographs, eye-witness accounts and expert comments, along with location shoots across India, the film brings alive the journey’s of George, John, Ringo and Paul “from their high octane celebrity lives to a remote Himalayan ashram in search of spiritual bliss that inspired an unprecedented burst of creative songwriting. It is the first serious exploration of how India helped shape the development of the greatest ever rock band and their own pioneering role in bridging two vastly different cultures”.


The Guardian newspaper wrote of The Beatles And India: “The memory of the Beatles’ relationship with India is revived in this engaging documentary, and if there isn’t much really new here, it’s still salutary to be reminded of how these four young men…used their colossal influence, greater than any politician or movie star or religious leader, to direct the world’s attention to India.”

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Now, following the release of the film, comes the original soundtrack to the film:


Not only that, there’s also a companion album called Songs Inspired By The Film The Beatles And India. This CD features interpretations by contemporary Indian artists of the songs the Beatles were inspired to write as a result of the time they spent there.


The album is evidence of the legacy of the enduring cultural and musical crossover which occurred and it features a diverse cast of Indian artists (Vishal Dadlani, Kiss Nuka, Benny Dayal, Dhruv Ghanekar, Karsh Kale, Anoushka Shankar, Nikhil D’Souza, Soulmate and many others) – each bringing their own musical styles, as well as contemporary and classical Indian influences and techniques to the record.


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The companion CD release also includes a bonus disc of the original soundtrack score to the film. The music is composed by award-winning composer Benji Merrison and was recorded at Abbey Road Studio 2 (the legendary home of The Beatles recording sessions), and also in Budapest in Hungary and in Pune, India.

Here’s Nikhil D’Souza’s interpretation of John Lennon’s ‘India, India’, a song written by Lennon and recorded in 1980 as a home demo, but not released until 2010’s John Lennon Signature Box.



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Posted in Beatles, Beatles Collecting, Beatles Music, Movies, Ravi Shankar | Tagged Beatles, George Harrison, John Lennon, Maharishi, Music, Ravi Shankar, The Beatles and India | 3 Replies
The Beatles, Get Back and London: On the Trail of a Timeless Story
Posted on November 19, 2021
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In the lead-up to the release next week of the Peter Jackson film The Beatles: Get Back, John Harris, editor of the new book of the same name, takes us on a fascinating journey to the three key locations in the making of the Let It Be album. It is delightful:


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Posted in Abbey Road, Beatles, Beatles Books, Beatles Music, Let It Be | Tagged Abbey Road Studios, Apple Records, Beatles, Get Back, John Harris, Let It Be, Peter Jackson, Studio 2, Twickenham | 1 Reply
McCartney ‘The Lyrics’ – How Many Translations?
Posted on November 9, 2021
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While looking around the web shopping for Paul McCartney’s fabulous new book The Lyrics, we stumbled across a couple of different translations, and it got us wondering how many countries were getting versions of the book in their own language?

There are of course two main English editions. The two most common of these are the US edition in the green outer box:


And there’s the UK edition – which has exactly the same content as the US, but externally is quite different in design:


Also worthy of mention is a third English language version of the book: the Limited Edition. This one is actually signed by Sir Paul. There have reportedly been just 175 copies made available worldwide, though as one reader points out there have been two different signed books with the number #95 sold on eBay. Each had a different publishing logo, raising doubt on the accuracy of “175 worldwide”. Maybe it is 175 in the US, and 175 in the UK. Either way, it comes in a distinctive bright orange box with blue lettering. The design inside is quite unique too – including the two volumes inside which are also in that distinctive orange binding:


Then we get onto the translations, and those we’ve been able to uncover (to date) all seem to have the same outer box and book binding as the US green version above.

Here is the German:


And the Dutch language edition:


Next up is the Spanish:


And close by (in terms of geography) there is the Portuguese:


There is a French language edition too, and it seems to come with an outer box re-design as well:


The Italian translation has only just been released (9 November). There aren’t any great images of how it is packaged yet – but we’ve asked one of the translators and can confirm that this is the cover:


As you can see, like the French edition, the Italians have gone for a white outer box. The translation has been done by Franco Zanetti and Luca Parasi, who is author of the highly regarded Paul McCartney reference book Recording Sessions (1969-2013).

A further confirmation that this is the way the Italian edition is presented are the images in this advertisement that the publishers, Rizzoli Libri, was running on Amazon:


And finally, two unexpected translations – one in Finnish:


And the other in Swedish (thanks to reader Ole for sending this one in). Interesting that the front covers of the two books inside appear to have the images and super-imposed lyrics used for the rear covers of the books in the rest of the world:


Is that all? Do you know of any others?

Let us know using the ‘Leave a Reply’ link below if you have any updates and we’ll publish them here.

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Posted in Beatles, Beatles Books, Beatles Music, Paul McCartney | Tagged Beatles, Beatles Books, Book, Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, translations | 4 Replies
Dark Horse to Release Billy Idol Christmas LP
Posted on November 8, 2021
Dark Horse Records have struck again – this time with another Billy Idol release.

Just in August the label, now headed by George Harrison’s son Dhani, issued a new four-song EP by Idol called The Roadside.

Now comes a remixed and remastered version of the singer’s 2006 Christmas album, Happy Holidays. It the first time the disc has been on vinyl and streaming platforms.

As the title suggests, Happy Holidays features Idol performing a variety of Christmas classics as well as one new original called ‘On Christmas Day’ as a bonus track.

It’s available on limited edition white vinyl (now sold out):


Happy Holidays is also on standard black vinyl. It comes in a gatefold sleeve and is available now:


And it’s also available on CD:


We think it’s interesting and a little unusual that Dark Horse is taking artists like Billy Idol under their wing and are releasing a mix of new and back-catalogue music like this. Maybe it’s just not what we expected would happen when the revamp of Dark Horse was first announced. What do you think?

Just as an FYI, for Record Store Day Black Friday this year the label will be issuing another 12″ single taken from Assembly, the Joe Strummer ‘Best Of’ compilation that Dark Horse released earlier this year. It’ll be on limited edition pink vinyl with ‘Johnny Appleseed’ on the A-side and ‘At the Border, Guy’ as the B-side.

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Posted in Beatles Music, Dark Horse Records, George Harrison | Tagged Billy Idol, Black Friday, Dark Horse Records, Happy Holidays, reissue, RSD | Leave a reply
Third Man Records Release Film about the Making of McCartney III 333
Posted on November 6, 2021
Paul McCartney and Third Man Records have just released a short film called McCartney/333.


The film is a mini-documentary detailing the vinyl pressing process for McCartney III 333, the extremely limited-edition version of McCartney’s 2020 solo album, McCartney III, manufactured at the Third Man Pressing plant in Detroit.

The mini doco goes into exactly how the project first came about, and exactly how the unique records were made. It shows just how multiple vinyl copies of the 1970 release McCartney and the 1980’s McCartney II were broken down and reformed into 333 limited-edition copies of McCartney III at Third Man Pressing.

Interestingly, it is revealed that it wasn’t old, second-hand copies of the original McCartney and McCartney II LPs that were ground up as part of the process. It was brand new pressings of these two albums.

Several Third Man Records employees, including co-founder Ben Swank, are interviewed for the film alongside Beatle author and Rolling Stone journalist Rob Sheffield, all spliced in alongside footage of Paul McCartney creating the album in his studio.

Click on the image below to view the mini documentary:


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Posted in Beatles, Beatles Music, Paul McCartney | Tagged making of, McCartney 333, McCartney III, Paul McCartney, Short Film, Third Man Records | Leave a reply
Listen to McCartney Read from “The Lyrics”
Posted on November 4, 2021
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If you’re keen on hearing Paul McCartney actually reading from his new book The Lyrics, then you’ll be interested to learn that BBC Sounds in the UK has produced a short audio series called Paul McCartney: Inside the Songs.


The series features ten audio extracts from The Lyrics book, with the author himself reading aloud 10 of the entries.

Check out the Introduction here:

Then, follow the links here to listen to all ten episodes. They include songs like ‘All My Loving’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Got to Get You into My Life’, right up to ‘Pretty Boys’ from last year’s McCartney III album.

The Lyrics spans McCartney’s career writing popular music from 1956 to the present. In it he talks about his life and song-writing through the prism of 154 key lyrics.

Host of Inside the Songs, John Wilson, also interviewed Paul McCartney extensively for an episode of the BBC series This Cultural Life. You can hear that interview in full here (or just click on the image below):


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Posted in Beatles Books, Beatles Music, Paul McCartney | Tagged Beatles Books, Book, Paul McCartney, Songs, The Lyrics | 1 Reply
Grail Wings Picture Disc For Sale
Posted on November 3, 2021
It’s not often you see one of these come onto the market, so it’s worth mentioning.

The UK online second-hand store eil.com currently has a Wings Back To The Egg vinyl picture disc for sale. This super-rare, 1979 UK original promotional-only picture disc is an exclusive in-house edition here conceived by Paul McCartney’s company MPL Communications for distribution only to friends, family and label executives, and was never made available for retail sale.

Widely believed to be limited to just 200 copies, or fewer, this example comes from the archive collection of a retired music industry executive.


The picture record displays the same image on both sides. Only the printed matrix number at the end of the perimeter text differs from side one to side two. Here’s the rear cover:


It is a genuine original and near impossible to find, and comes with a cool £1,995.00 price tag. (That’s US$2,720.00, or around $3,640.00 Australian dollars).

Find out more at eil.com where there’s more detailed info and pictures.

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Posted in Beatles, Beatles Music, Paul McCartney, Wings | Tagged Back to the Egg, Beatles, Beatles Collecting, grail, MPL, Paul McCartney, picture disc, Rare, Wings | Leave a reply
Origins of the ‘Revolver’ Cover Art
Posted on October 29, 2021
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This collage detailing the source photos for Klaus Voormann’s legendary cover image for the Beatles’ 1966 release Revolver has been doing the rounds for a while but its worth returning to because it is awesome:


(Click on the image to enlarge) Those pictures with yellow circles are still being sought after. If you know, contact us in the comments section below.


There’s a great article on the genesis of the cover here. “Revolver was the first Beatles’ album that truly marked out the four distinct personalities of the group. Voormann’s illustration captures the band perfectly. Looking at it, you can see that the group is made up of four unique individuals, but they are also connected by kinship, a friendship and an affinity for one another. It is the perfect summation of the band’s relationship at that point in time.”

UPDATE: Thank you to reader Angel who sent us a link to the Dutch magazine Furore and the information that they did a major article on the Revolver cover. It really looks good.

For those interested the exact magazine issue is Furore No 22, from January 2012. and it appears that back-issues are still available to be purchased.

They pitch it as “an exhaustive ten-page story describes the genesis of Klaus Voormann’s iconic cover design of The Beatles’ Revolver album, now fifty years ago, and traces the source of each photograph used therein.”

You can see a teaser graphic on Furore’s back-issues page for the larger article that’s inside the magazine. It gives a hint of the detailed info they provide on the origins of the photographs that Klaus Voormann used. Here’s that teaser image:


Click on image to see a larger version.

And here are two pages from the article itself:


Again, click on the image to see a larger version.

Also, on Revolver, we’ve just discovered the very good I Am The Eggpod podcast. You really should have a listen. Check out the latest episode where host Chris Shaw and songwriter and musician Andy Bell discuss the1966 masterpiece.

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Posted in Beatles, Beatles Music | Tagged Album covers, Beatles, cover art, Klaus Voormann, Music, Revolver | 3 Replies
Paul McCartney – ‘Grandude’s Green Submarine’ Book and Audio Book
Posted on October 18, 2021
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Two new McCartney items to add to the collection today.

Paul McCartney has written another children’s book. It follows on from his Hey Grandude!, kids story released in 2019.

This one is Grandude’s Green Submarine and once again the story has been illustrated by the talentented Canadian artist, Kathryn Durst.

And, as with the previous title, there’s also a separate audio book on CD – with McCartney not only reading his story but also providing the original music. This is along similar lines to the Hey Grandude! audio book, but the music is different and its played by him and band member, Paul ‘Wix’ Wickens.

Firstly, here’s the book cover, front and rear. It’s a large-format hardback with a protective dust jacket:



Just like the Hey Grandude! book, if you take the dust jacket off, there’s a completely different cover design underneath, front and rear:



The design of the book is stylishly done and has lots of nice touches. Here are two pages from inside to give you a feel for the contents:



And this is the audio book CD, which has Paul himself reading the book. Penguin Books has once again packaged this up nicely in a gatefold cover with a decent booklet. The CD takes all the elements from the book and carries them through the whole design. Here’s the front cover:


And the rear:



They’ve gone to some trouble, making it a gatefold:


And here’s the booklet containing the credits (and two biographies):






(As usual, click on the images to see larger versions)


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Posted in Beatles, Beatles Books, Paul McCartney | Tagged Beatles Books, Children's Book, Grandude's Green Submarine, Hey Grandude, Paul McCartney | 1 Reply
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