SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello everyone, happy new year and welcome to the first Apple Jam of this year. I'm here with Bernardo Morales and we're going to be talking about the reissue of Revolver.

SPEAKER_02: 0:16

Indeed, we already did an episode about Revolver and there you can find out what our opinion is about the record itself and the tracks. But in today's episode, we're going to be talking about the special edition, which was released in October last year.

SPEAKER_00: 0:33

Oh, yeah. I mean, this one, the Giles Martin work on this one, a lot of people have said that he's got a subtler voice. more, you know, less showy, you know, as time goes on. And, you know, that he's just kind of highlighted things that needed to be highlighted. But one of the things about Revolver that I noticed, and it's wonderful on the new version, is just the simplicity of of the arrangements. I think the Beatles are entering here into their peak of arranging songs. And, you know, there are very few parts going on. You know, the harmonies are layered, but there are very few actual parts with the instruments. And they all shine out here with this demixing technology. So they really, you know, the arrangements are just so clear. And I love that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:27

Yeah, the demixing technology that was developed by Peter Jackson's team. Do you want to say something about that? Well, I don't know very much about it, except that it was developed for the Get Back movie that was released, was it 2021? Yeah, Christmas 2021. So that technology was developed for that, which meant that they could take one track that would have several instruments and voices, and then they could divide that into kind of individual tracks.

SPEAKER_00: 1:55

That's right. So they basically, like the Beatles had this bouncing technique, didn't they, where they would they would put, because they only had four tracks, right? Which is crazy. Four track, I think. So they'd bounce things onto one track, and then once things are on that track, you can apply EQ and volume changes to that track, but of course it affects everything together. so this demixing means that you can finally bring out an individual thing like the bass or somebody's vocal and apply eq and volume and of course panning to that separately which makes all the difference. I mean, it's just incredible in this album.

SPEAKER_02: 2:39

Yeah, just to talk about some of the tracks from the actual album before we talk about the special edition bonus tracks. I'd never heard such a well-mixed version of Taxman, I have to say. It was such a pleasure to hear it when it came out.

SPEAKER_00: 2:54

That is perfection, isn't it? Yeah. Wonderful. I mean, the bass part, obviously we knew... I think before I kind of thought that the guitar was doing the bass or something, that it was... And that's how I used to play it on guitar. But it's not. And Paul's doing this very sparse bass part that stops and then the guitar, the rhythm comes in with these stabs and you can hear it so much more clearly. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02: 3:21

Yeah, it's really good. I'll play a bit of it, if that's okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 3:26

One, two, three, four. One, two. Let me tell you how it will be. There's one for you. I don't

SPEAKER_02: 3:42

know if you noticed this as well, but you can hear the hi-hats more in this version than in previous versions.

SPEAKER_00: 3:49

The drums are all so punchy. You know, I wish... I think it's a shame that, and I guess the Beatles were trapped in their time in a way, even they were trapped in their time at this stage, because the tracks are all so short, two to three minutes. I just think a modern band could have taken this and this arrangement and just, you know, added up doubled it in length and just really played with i mean can you imagine if you just took that basic uh arrangement with the bass and drums and everything and what you could do with it what you could add with it but of course they thought well once the song's over it's all over time to fade out yeah and i just wish that this one in particular i wish it was longer yeah

SPEAKER_02: 4:33

well some of the songs here are extremely short i mean side one revolver is 18 minutes and 33 seconds and side two is six 16 minutes and 28 seconds. That's

SPEAKER_00: 4:43

really short. That is crazy. And given that this, in many people's opinion, is their best album. Yeah. Everything's short, you know. I guess they don't outstay their welcome. But for Tagsman, I could just really envisage that, you know, building up and building up.

SPEAKER_02: 4:59

I know. And imagine 16 minutes and they included Good Day Sunshine, Andrew Bird can sing For No One, Dr. Robert, I Want To Tell You, Got To Get You Into My Life, and Tomorrow Never Knows. And that was 16 minutes. that's

SPEAKER_00: 5:12

incredible

SPEAKER_02: 5:13

yeah but yeah so the sound is amazing some people were complaining about the mix of Tomorrow Never Knows because there is some panning of the effects

SPEAKER_00: 5:23

okay well I've got a bone to pick there I mean okay so again I think it's too short and I wish Tomorrow Never Knows was 10 minutes long but okay think about John's vision for the song now I remember listening to the I played it a lot of times and I played it to friends who don't know the Beatles and all that. And I've always thought it was kind of thin and reedy. I mean, it is amazing. And we talked about it before, Uncut Magazine said, one of the most striking three minutes of music ever created. I love that. But John's vision for it is amazing. this kind of psychedelic mayhem, you know, and it's not very complicated. It only has five loops, I think. In addition to, you know, the bass and drums, there's not a lot going on there. But I think the panning adds to it. I mean, that really helps, I think. And yeah, don't you? I mean, it doesn't make it more psychedelic.

SPEAKER_02: 6:29

It does. And I think that kind of, well, the track itself, the drums sound so good. And the bass as well. It's just such a full track. And I guess I'd never experienced that track in that way with the older versions. And I think that the panning adds to it. It just makes it more colourful.

SPEAKER_00: 6:48

Yeah. It's really improved. It's got a lot of... It's just got a lot of depth. It was a bit thin before. Yeah. And I don't know if you... What do you think of the mono mix of that? Because it's

SPEAKER_02: 7:01

slightly different. It's slightly different. There was one mono mix, which I think was released in the first kind of batch and in the first cut. And I think it's slightly different to the stereo version.

SPEAKER_00: 7:14

It has some of the... Just the loops are slightly different.

SPEAKER_02: 7:17

Yeah. I'd much prefer the stereo version, I have to say.

SPEAKER_00: 7:22

Yeah, I'm not... I remain to be convinced about mono. In theory, I know why mono... is good but um i think i grew up in the stereo era so so i'm not rushing out to get the mono set or anything like that

SPEAKER_02: 7:40

yeah but there are certain records of the beatles that i think sound better in mono if we talk about please please me or a hard day's night i prefer the mono mixes than the stereo mixes but that's because because of that weird because of the weird stereo and because they were recording on two track so you have all the vocals on one side and the music on another side so it's really uncomfortable to listen to And there are certain mixes which are just not very good in stereo. I don't know if you've heard the version of If I Fell that comes on the stereo version of A Hard Day's Night. Not recently. So it's double-tracked, like the intro part is double-tracked, but in the mono it isn't, and I think it just sounds much nicer when it's not double-tracked. And there is also... We'll talk about this when we do the episode on A Hard Day's Night, but Paul's voice goes towards the end of the song, and you can hear... Yeah, you do. You like that. You can't hear that.

SPEAKER_00: 8:33

One of the things I love about the Beatles. is the mistakes and I love it not just about the Beatles I like the fact that 60s records I mean one of my favourite tracks is Give Me Shelter by the Stones and again it's because one of the backing singers her voice breaks because she's so excited and that nowadays they'd say take it again you know take it again that's no good but I'd love that they leave these things in and again with Paul it's just that kind of humanises it and one of the things on this is Eleanor Bigby, one of the things I miss is on the original version, you know, when Paul's double vocal suddenly pans into mono for the verse. And it's a kind of a mistake. It's only stereo for one syllable, and then it goes into mono. And of course, that's gone now. They've ironed it out. But I love those mistakes, you know. I guess the only one I didn't like, I guess there was a dropout, wasn't there, in Paperback Writers somewhere?

SPEAKER_02: 9:38

There was, and there were two things I don't like as much. I don't like that first chord in yellow submarine

SPEAKER_00: 9:46

oh i'm trying to think about the one you're talking about okay

SPEAKER_02: 9:49

i'll show you i'll show you so the old verse let me just get the old version of revolver here okay um so the old version of revolver had here it is it just started with the vocal so here

SPEAKER_00: 10:02

you go okay

SPEAKER_02: 10:07

okay and the new version has that extra chord Here

SPEAKER_00: 10:14

you go. Oh! Yeah. You are so observant. I'd never spotted that.

SPEAKER_02: 10:24

Yeah, and it just felt wrong, that extra chord, for some reason, when I first heard the new remix.

SPEAKER_00: 10:31

I have to say that Yellow Submarine, which always was a track that I would skip, Because, you know, I mean, I liked it as a child, but I found it increasingly irritating as I got older. I think it's much better now. I like the stereo sound effects. They're real fun, right? And I think George's vocal part is very much like a kind of dirge. I mean, it's obviously it's worked out, but it's not a very good harmony. It's just monotonous. I think in the new version, they've sort of balanced that better with the other so that there's a bank of harmonies there, and I much prefer it.

SPEAKER_02: 11:09

Yeah, I still prefer the Peter Cobbin mix from the song track, I have to say. Oh, I'd

SPEAKER_00: 11:15

have to go back and check that out. It's

SPEAKER_02: 11:18

that chord.

SPEAKER_00: 11:20

Just the one chord.

SPEAKER_02: 11:22

That's interesting. But I have to say... I'm going to skip it. I'll skip the song. I have to say my favourite version of Yellow Submarine was the one that came out in the single For Real Love. when they released the anthology, and they included it in the super deluxe edition, which is the Yellow Submarine highlighted sound effects. Did you get to listen to that one?

SPEAKER_00: 11:48

That was the only one that I didn't listen to. Although I've got the single For Real Love, I should go and listen to it. Yeah, so what is it? It's just that they've brought the level of the sound effects up?

SPEAKER_02: 11:57

Yeah, it's just a little bit more kind of over the top. I'll play a bit of it. Cool.

SPEAKER_00: 12:05

And we were marched till three the day to see them gathered there. From Land O'Groats to John O'Grill, with Stepley, Dewey, Trey, to see a yellow submarine. We love it. In the town where I was born lived a man who sailed to sea. And he told us of his life in the land of submarines. so it's

SPEAKER_02: 12:42

really nice to hear all those bells on

SPEAKER_00: 12:45

i think that's the first time in my life that i've really heard that what a good idea i don't know why i didn't because i i was going through the discs and for some reason i didn't i didn't hear that one but that's lovely probably because it was yellow

SPEAKER_02: 12:56

submarine maybe

SPEAKER_00: 12:59

but i always enjoyed those sound effects as a kid and i enjoyed john's joking the sort of very English voice as well.

SPEAKER_02: 13:06

Yeah. And just to finish with a new remix, another version I don't like as much is For No One. I like the one in the older CD a little

SPEAKER_00: 13:17

bit. Oh, I love, I love For

SPEAKER_02: 13:20

No One. Why don't you like it? It's just that in the older one, because of the stereo panning, it just kind of left this kind of emptiness, this kind of space. You could hear the air and it made the song a little bit sadder. Oh,

SPEAKER_00: 13:33

I can see what you mean. Because now they've done the stereo keyboards. Yeah. And so, yeah, I see what you mean. So they've added a kind of luster to it now. They've got this clavichord in one ear and they've got the piano in the other. Yeah, it sounds more modern

SPEAKER_02: 13:50

now, which is good. I like that. I mean, probably you could argue that it sounds better, but it just doesn't add to the feeling of the song, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 13:58

I see what you mean. Yeah, because it's a bleak song, so why make it... sort of rich. One of the things I liked in the new version, possibly in the old version as well, but I noticed it much more now was the kind of tonal contrast between the kind of sharpness of that clavichord i'm not exactly sure what a clavichord is it's a kind of harpsichord but the sharpness of that and they're very soft trumpets so the the way that they can do that now with eq much better than i guess they could at the time

SPEAKER_01: 14:30

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 14:30

and that's that's it's beautiful it's like a it's like a painting you know they fuss so much over the mix What did you think of Eleanor Rigby? So again, that's a kind of a bleak song. But now, again, with the orchestral panning, it's much richer. Did you

SPEAKER_02: 14:49

like that? Yeah, I loved it. It just sounds good now. I didn't think it sounded very good before. Excellent song and one of my favorite Beatles songs ever. But yeah, I think now this is the version that you want to go to if you want to listen to Eleanor Rigby. for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 15:05

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's wonderful. And I mean, I think with the new version, what I noticed most of all, I think the harmonies were really brought out so you can hear the individual voices sometimes and the harmonies are flawless. You know, they're wonderful. Like in, uh, in your, and your bird can sing or, um, here, there and everywhere. Um, just wonderful and again i go back to the arrangement like i i just wonder how much was paul or the beatles you know because we're entering sort of peak paul here right and how much was george martin you know did he write those harmonies did he just help with those harmonies because i mean they're just flawless and they're they make this record you know i know they're starting to do this on rubber so but if you compare the harmonies on something like i don't know this boy which you know that's pretty layered and everything but then compare it with here there and everywhere and it's kind of you know it's a different league

SPEAKER_02: 16:09

yeah but it's only paul right he's harmonizing with himself isn't he

SPEAKER_00: 16:12

is he i think so i didn't know that i didn't know that i always assumed it was the three of them always really wow so it's

SPEAKER_02: 16:21

possible you mean throughout the verses

SPEAKER_00: 16:26

yeah all that oh no no that's them sorry no

SPEAKER_02: 16:29

that that no that's that's um john and george yeah

SPEAKER_00: 16:33

okay yeah sorry sorry yeah because i just i just think i mean i know that they were there before and i was always aware of them but i think in this mixtape i mean i've said it before that thing i don't know who said it originally but the the beatles were i kind of quite good instrumental band but you know a first rate vocal band all right and that just comes across they were so careful with the harmony so like every nuance when you do harmonies you've got to track the nuance of the lead voice and you've got to be right next to that and you can't vary it too much when you hear rough harmonies you know what I'm talking about and here on Revolver it's just flawless

SPEAKER_02: 17:14

it's flawless and my favourite Beatles harmony kind of later Beatles actually and like not talking about Revolver just getting out of Revolver for a second is in Octopus's Garden oh

SPEAKER_00: 17:26

yeah the harmonies there are really really nice I'll have to go back to that and check it out because obviously on Abbey Road they did Sun King with That's the one with all the... What's the one on Love where they just stripped away all the instrumentations at Sun King? No, it's Because. It's Because. Because it's sort of showing off the harmonies, but yeah, it's not the only track where the Beatles are like that, because they're like that throughout their career.

SPEAKER_02: 17:59

Yeah, I think they used that version as well in the Anthology, in Anthology 3. They released

SPEAKER_00: 18:04

them without music. When we get to the outtakes, some of them are the same as Anthology 3, exactly, aren't they? Yeah, most of the good ones,

SPEAKER_02: 18:13

you could say, are the same as Anthology 3, except for perhaps a couple that hadn't been released. So let's go into that. Yeah. So there were a couple that hadn't been released before, either in Anthology 3 or in bootlegs, because there was one bootleg that was very popular called The Alternative Revolver, which I actually bought in England, like in 2002. What's the quality like on those? It's very similar, actually. But there were lots of versions that were not in that album and that were new to me. So

SPEAKER_00: 18:50

it's

SPEAKER_02: 18:50

good quality?

SPEAKER_00: 18:51

Yeah, it is. Because I always wonder with bootlegs if they've been copied and copied and copied.

SPEAKER_02: 18:56

But they were pretty good. Okay. And the first one that I never heard before was Got To Get You Into My Life, that version with the guitars.

SPEAKER_00: 19:05

Oh, that's nice, isn't it? Yeah. That's quite interesting.

SPEAKER_02: 19:09

Yeah, I'll play a bit of it. That's the normal one, right? That's the normal one, yes. Sorry, I meant... Is it this one? Let

SPEAKER_01: 19:22

me see. Oh, that's

SPEAKER_00: 19:36

great with the fuzz.

SPEAKER_02: 19:39

Yeah. And I kind of like it better than the original. Or maybe it's just because it's new.

SPEAKER_00: 19:45

Yeah, there's loads of energy there. It kind of sounds a bit busy. But with this one, again, with the arrangement, I wonder who took the decision. And I just wonder if it was George Martin to trim out all the guitar links, right? Except for the last one, you know, the da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Only the last one. Makes it really effective for it to come in once. I mean, how clever is that?

SPEAKER_02: 20:12

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 20:12

that was very clever. I wonder who thought, well, we're going to dig it all out, but we'll leave in the last one.

SPEAKER_02: 20:18

Ah, that must have been George Martin.

SPEAKER_00: 20:21

Is that the same one version that's on Anthology? I'm just asking, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02: 20:26

No, the version on Anthology was the first version, take five, which is this one. With the organ. Ah, yep. I didn't know there was John's speech before.

SPEAKER_00: 20:48

There's a lot of discussion, isn't there, about beginning with the

SPEAKER_01: 20:51

organ. Oh, here you go.

SPEAKER_00: 21:06

Right. Oh, so the fuzz guitar wasn't there at

SPEAKER_02: 21:08

all. Yeah. And that was take five. And then take eight is more similar. to the one we know, which is this. Without vocals.

SPEAKER_00: 21:31

Is that the final take, almost? I don't know, actually. What do you think of the other vocals, like, I need your love? need your love

SPEAKER_02: 21:44

i like that i like how they harmonize so i always like those different versions yeah and to be honest got to get you into my life was never one of my favorite songs from from revolver because i i never really liked the mix i like it much better now i have to say

SPEAKER_00: 21:58

yeah i wasn't sure about the the brass i mean i do like it on motown records and maybe they were trying to mimic Motown a little

SPEAKER_02: 22:06

bit.

SPEAKER_00: 22:07

But it's funny, I can take the brass on Savoy Truffle because I think they, again, compressed it a lot or something. I wasn't sure about it here, but I'm used to it now. But I can see that that guitar one is really exciting. That's a nice version.

SPEAKER_02: 22:23

Yeah. Another song, moving on from Got To Get You Into My Life, that I'd never heard was all the different versions of Love You Too.

SPEAKER_00: 22:33

Yeah, well, that's one of the... It really transforms, doesn't it? Because the first one is really basic, isn't it? Yeah, the first version is just him on guitar. It kind of sounds like nothing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:45

Sorry? The first version is just George on guitar.

SPEAKER_00: 22:48

Yeah, and it kind of sounds like nothing. And I think Paul is attempting a harmony at some point in one of the versions, maybe the first one. And then the second excerpt has George practising... The sitar, that's really interesting because you can hear him kind of sighing and working really hard at it. And I have to correct my error because the last time that we talked about Revolver, I said that there were uncredited Indian musicians playing here, as they were on Within You, Without You. And I had no idea that George was doing this by himself. Oh, is he? Yes, George! I had no idea. I thought, this is George playing. And there may be other musicians as well, but he's playing the lead sitar and you can hear him when he's playing it. You can hear he's kind of mouthing the vocals a little bit and you can hear that he kind of has the whole thing in his head. It's really interesting.

SPEAKER_02: 23:51

Yeah, it's true. It says here, I'm on the Wikipedia article of the song, and in the personnel section, it says, George Harrison leading backing vocals, acoustic guitar, sitar, rhythm guitar, fuzz tone, and lead guitar.

SPEAKER_00: 24:03

Yeah, there you are. Because I thought, you know, of course, you're mucking around with the sitar and all that, but I didn't realize that, you know, you can really hear the effort. And listen carefully, you can hear him sighing and kind of just getting into it. So, you know, that's... it's cool you know i i really didn't think that he was doing it

SPEAKER_02: 24:23

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 24:23

i

SPEAKER_02: 24:24

really like the acoustic version as well

SPEAKER_00: 24:29

well i mean the acoustic guitar go and play a bit

SPEAKER_02: 24:33

okay sorry let me just find it first here it

SPEAKER_00: 24:44

goes yep One, two, three, four. Each day just

SPEAKER_01: 24:58

goes so fast I turn around, it's past You don't get time to hang a sign on me love me while you can for i'm a dead old man

SPEAKER_02: 25:24

so if they had developed this idea of this song kind of acoustic guitar i think it would have been more popular maybe oh you think on acoustic guitar

SPEAKER_00: 25:37

yeah maybe yeah it has that very nice uh sort of um typical george rhythm sort of lagging a bit behind the beat yeah it's nice uh of course you know the lyrics have been ridiculed elsewhere so uh now i'm gonna do that but was it a spelling mistake or did a joke love you too i don't know actually i

SPEAKER_02: 26:06

don't know

SPEAKER_00: 26:08

i just wonder like i'd love you too i'd love you too i don't know

SPEAKER_02: 26:13

Yeah, no idea why he called it that.

SPEAKER_00: 26:18

Yeah, anyway, I think I got the feeling that, I just got the feeling that, you know how George was done down a bit and this whole thing about calling it Granny Smith and then elsewhere when they're doing I Want to Tell You and John's like, what's it called? And then, you know, so like Granny Smith 2 and all that. And you just, there's just this feeling that he's the underdog really, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 26:42

And he's very strange because he did Taxman for this album, which is, I think, one of the best songs on the album.

SPEAKER_00: 26:51

Yeah, and one of the best songs that he ever wrote.

SPEAKER_02: 26:54

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 26:55

for sure. Remember, Paul did the lead guitar solo there. Yeah, that and the bass. That's got to annoy you, right? Yeah, I'm

SPEAKER_02: 27:04

sure. But if you think about it, other than Taxman, I mean, John's contributions to the album, other than Tomorrow Never Knows, John's contribution wasn't amazing on this album, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00: 27:18

Well, one of the things that I read somewhere is that, I mean, they're entering a period of change here where Paul's really stepping up to... be the mainstay of the band and John's running out of not running out of material running out of steam we certainly have some highlights on this album but he's not he's not generating material at the same to the same extent either on this or Sgt Pepper you know so he's I don't know why retreating into a different kind of life and he's not quite so on fire

SPEAKER_02: 27:54

yeah because if you think John's songs are I'm Only Sleeping She Said, She Said, And Your Bird Can Sing, Dr. Robert, and Tomorrow Never Knows. And Rain, of

SPEAKER_00: 28:07

course.

SPEAKER_02: 28:07

Let's not forget Rain. Well, that's the single, right? Yeah, so we've got to talk about that, though. Yeah, very interesting. The fast version? Have you heard it? The actual speed version. I'd never heard that before. I

SPEAKER_00: 28:24

didn't realize that they'd slowed it down for the one that originally got

SPEAKER_02: 28:29

released. I'm not convinced that all the instruments were played at that speed.

SPEAKER_00: 28:34

It just sounds like they're on speed. I mean, it's just incredible. Yeah, you're probably right.

SPEAKER_02: 28:44

Yeah, I'll play a bit of it. It does sound sped up. I don't know if it's because I'm so used to the actual version of the song that I just feel like this wasn't played.

SPEAKER_00: 29:10

Maybe. So apparently, it was a sonic experiment. They knew it was going to be slowed down, and they just did it like that. I mean, it does sound really, really manic, and it must be the fastest Beatles song ever, right? Yeah, it must

SPEAKER_02: 29:26

be. But I'm not convinced that Ringo played the drums so perfectly at that speed.

SPEAKER_00: 29:31

That's what people always comment on. So basically that Ringo's drumming, things don't benefit from being slowed down ever. Vocals, drums, anything. And his drums are incredibly accurate. So perhaps he drummed

SPEAKER_02: 29:49

along with the

SPEAKER_00: 29:49

slower ones.

SPEAKER_02: 29:50

Maybe. And the bass is a similar thing. Like if you listen to the bass, it's really fast, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 29:56

Yeah, the bass is crazy. It's a superhuman bass. Then quote from Ringo. I was possessed. It's interesting on this whole album, actually, Ringo, and you can hear it on She Said, She Said as well, like he's really stepping up I know she said it was the last track that was recorded, but you can hear that he's really trying to, I mean, he's aware that the others are being inventive and creative and so on, and he is too. Like, you know, she said, she said, really complex drum patterns, and, you know, I'm just, I don't know, I've got musical friends who slag Vingo off and say that he can't drum, but, you know, at this stage, he was really, really part of the band developing, getting better, as a musician and you know obviously rain is a kind of tour de force especially at that speed

SPEAKER_02: 30:51

Yeah, I agree with you. I think Ringo was an essential part of the Beatles, and I think he was a very good drummer. And if you'd had a different drummer, it would have sounded different.

SPEAKER_00: 31:01

Yeah. What else do you like from the outtakes?

SPEAKER_02: 31:07

From the outtakes, from CD2, let's see what else. We have the And Your Bird Can Sing versions. You have Take Two Normal and the Take Two with the Giggling, which was released also in Anthology at the time. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 31:21

so I always wonder why they left the tape running for that. I mean, it's great that they have it.

SPEAKER_02: 31:27

Yeah, but then you have take two, which sounds really good. And then you have the version with the giggling, which sounds as if the giggling had been overdubbed.

SPEAKER_00: 31:35

Yeah, well, I think that take two is... I think that they've got a backing track there and they're going to put the vocals on top of that. So I think it's okay. I know there's basic vocals on there. I don't know if they're about to be removed, if they guide vocals or something like that. So they've obviously got something that they're working with. But why somebody didn't say start again, lads? Maybe the engineer had gone out of the room. Who knows? But it's kind of become a classic in its own right because I've heard on Normal radio shows, not Beatles special shows, just like regular radio shows, I've heard them be like, okay, now we're going to hear Andrew Birkin sing, anthology version, because people like the laugh.

SPEAKER_02: 32:21

Yeah, it just sounds very authentic. And it's the Beatles having fun in the studio, I guess. So people like that. I like that. I think it's nice to have. But again, it wouldn't be my go-to version of Andrew Birkin sing. I would go to the normal version. yeah but it's nice but it's nice to have

SPEAKER_00: 32:38

what do you think did we i'll play a bit of

SPEAKER_02: 32:40

it i'll play a bit of it

SPEAKER_00: 32:41

yeah go on

SPEAKER_02: 32:45

yeah okay

SPEAKER_01: 32:53

so there you

SPEAKER_02: 33:10

go

SPEAKER_00: 33:11

when your bike is broken yeah i wonder if they'd been um doing something like yeah I wonder what they were up to maybe one of the things that another song that people have commented on and I have to refer people to I Am The Egg Pod which is the other Beatles podcast of course on the Yellow Submarine original work tape I can't remember who the guest was but they had They said this whole thing about it being a bit like Plastikonoban and how it had come from John's soul, something very plaintive, something very lonely about his father. I never thought of that. And then how Paul McCartney... I think it's the first one, the first one, yeah. I'll play

SPEAKER_02: 34:29

a bit of it.

SPEAKER_01: 34:38

In the place where I was born No one cared, no one cared And the name where I was born No one cared, no one cared And the town where I was born No one cared, no one cared If you wanna

SPEAKER_02: 35:09

So that was the songwriting work tape part one, and part two is with Paul.

SPEAKER_01: 35:18

Do you want to start it again? No, you do it, then I'll just play. No,

SPEAKER_00: 35:24

no, no.

SPEAKER_01: 35:25

You'll never hear it.

SPEAKER_00: 35:28

No, but you know how to sing it. Oh, yeah, okay. It's just critical, the mic. Can you read that? Yeah, I can read it okay now, Paul. Right. You can play on your track and I'll play on

SPEAKER_02: 35:43

mine. It's so nice to hear them kind of chatting. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01: 35:49

I like that too.

SPEAKER_00: 35:53

Oh, that's got a rhythm change as well.

SPEAKER_01: 35:55

One, two, three, four.

SPEAKER_02: 36:25

i don't know if you agree but i kind of like this version better it sounds a bit more folky

SPEAKER_00: 36:30

it's it is a really a different um it's a different rhythm all together and you get a sort of you get a look into the heart of the song there don't you and uh how they took that kind of bass metal and kind of you know transformed it through doing it again and again in the studio

SPEAKER_02: 36:49

yeah and it went from that to this

SPEAKER_01: 36:59

So now this is

SPEAKER_02: 37:11

take four before the sound effects, right?

SPEAKER_00: 37:13

That's speeded up as well. Is it sped up? Oh, listen to Ringo's voice.

SPEAKER_02: 37:19

But is it sped up or is the actual version sped down?

SPEAKER_00: 37:25

It could be. It sounds like it could be sped up. It's very hard to tell because they were sort of playing around with that. Yeah. And then you have. What did you think of?

SPEAKER_02: 37:35

The version with the extra chord that I love. Yeah. With that extra chord. Come on, take it off. Yeah, take

SPEAKER_00: 37:49

it

SPEAKER_02: 37:49

off.

SPEAKER_00: 37:49

what did you think of um it's interesting i thought with she said she said did you like that the original demo

SPEAKER_02: 37:58

yeah i did that had been released in that um revolver album i'd got in london um so that was going around for years

SPEAKER_00: 38:05

had it so one of the things i noticed about this um and it's only john who really does this is that the the rhythm is quite erratic and it follows the prosody technical word of what he of what he wanted to say and that carries across to strawberry fields so the kind of the way that he um is working out strawberry filters isn't that much later again he's being very loose with the rhythm of a pop song and he's following the rhythm of uh speech Yeah, and then, of course, they pack it into a pop song eventually. But yeah, so John's way of writing really comes from this is what I want to say. Yeah, and I think

SPEAKER_02: 38:54

there was a funny line as well. He says, and you're making me feel like my trousers are gone.

SPEAKER_00: 38:59

That's right. You're making me feel like my trousers are torn.

SPEAKER_02: 39:05

So I'll play a bit of it.

UNKNOWN: 39:08

Hello?

SPEAKER_01: 39:12

I know what it is to be sad. And it's making me feel like I've never been born. is

SPEAKER_02: 40:02

it like my trousers are torn yeah i always heard my trousers are gone i

SPEAKER_00: 40:09

just i love all that kind of rhythmic experimentation i think john really lost that like uh i mean it carries on for a bit and then i i think that he you know by the 70s he's much in much more solid one two three four i i i love that rhythm there that he's got do you think paul sort of didn't like this song or maybe he was tired i had a cold or something because this is one of the ones where the bass kind of doesn't stand out and paul only does the bass which is unusual uh and some i think some people thought that paul wasn't there at all

SPEAKER_02: 40:46

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 40:47

maybe so anyway you know he sat back yeah

SPEAKER_02: 40:50

yeah maybe it is true that it is one of his weakest contributions to to the album um you can even yeah he he even tried harder with yellow submarine um but it's true yeah

SPEAKER_00: 41:02

yeah you know it's it's as if he wasn't there but he clearly was there you can hear it's paul and you can hear them even you know talking about him

SPEAKER_02: 41:10

yeah according to ian mcdonald um paul didn't play on this song

SPEAKER_00: 41:15

yeah so and he's wrong because you can hear them talking

SPEAKER_02: 41:18

yeah and then kevin howlett um then kind of said that he did

SPEAKER_00: 41:23

yeah he did but he wasn't on form

SPEAKER_02: 41:27

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 41:28

it's true yeah what do you think of uh just any of the versions of paperback writer

SPEAKER_02: 41:35

yeah well i i don't think they had i think that's one of the songs that they actually didn't have um they didn't play many takes If we listen to takes one and two, the backing track, it sounds almost like the master. Yes. Which is incredible, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 41:52

And it came quite early on, didn't it?

SPEAKER_02: 41:54

Yeah, I'll play a bit of takes

SPEAKER_00: 41:56

one and two. Go on, play a bit of one of the early ones, yeah.

UNKNOWN: 42:02

Okay, let's try it. The right ball is on.

SPEAKER_02: 42:25

Of course there is no bass, because Paul overdubbed it later.

SPEAKER_00: 42:30

Yeah. It's a fantastic track. I love the way that drum just comes in a bit early.

SPEAKER_01: 42:38

Boom!

SPEAKER_00: 42:39

And then off goes the track. I love that. And... Apparently, nobody knows who plays guitar on the final version, whether it's Paul or George. Nobody really knows because two of them are playing together. I think John and Paul played together on the first one.

SPEAKER_02: 42:56

Yeah, I think it sounds like Paul to me. Yeah. Ian

SPEAKER_00: 43:03

McDonald said, I quite like this because it's all throughout this album. cannabis-induced fascination with getting the maximum out of one chord. You know, because that happens on, you know, obviously, Tomorrow Never Knows and Love You Too and this one. Yeah. Yeah. And just really, really successfully, when you hear the stripped-down version, you can hear how simple the riff is. Yeah, it's only two chords, right? It's G and C. Right. And when you hear the full version, it's just like... just great one of the best riffs from the 60s i'd say i think they were influenced by things like satisfaction and all that when they were doing this

SPEAKER_02: 43:47

yeah it says here mccartney stated that he played the song's opening riff on his epiphone casino guitar and photos from the recording session seemed to be consistent with this so

SPEAKER_00: 43:57

right yeah so perhaps he he did it on that and uh one of the things that ian mcdonald said he's very critical oh he was very critical i should say but uh that it was a kind of faux 60s lyric. So the Kinks were having hits with, you know, their little sort of set piece things, vignettes about 60s life. And this is kind of the Beatles' almost kind of replying to that and trying to get in on that. So, Ian McDonald says, it doesn't really tell you much about 60s life. It's more like about the Beatles kind of trying to fit in with that trend. Of course, they did it so well later. They did. And Sunny Afternoon actually came out, I think it was number one when they were recording this, Sunny Afternoon by the Kings. And one of the bass... one of the tracks the bass is just like sunny afternoon i'm not sure which one when i was listening to this i heard it and i just thought wow that's the same base

SPEAKER_02: 45:04

yeah well it's i mean they were listening to a lot of stuff and and i think the beatles weren't weren't shy um about kind of stealing things from other bands No, of course. You can hear Bob Dylan's influence a lot on Robert Soul. Yes. But yeah, this new stereo version is again the go-to version, the one on disc five. This version of Paperback Writer is so well mixed. It's going to be the one I go to if I want to listen to this

SPEAKER_00: 45:33

song. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Do you think that was the best Beatles single, and if it is, is it the best single of all time? I don't know if

SPEAKER_02: 45:50

it's the best single of all time, but it is amazing. It's a double A-side, right?

SPEAKER_00: 45:54

Yeah, yeah. It's I'm Only Sleeping, that's the one where the bass melody, I wonder exactly the recording date and when the kinks hit was, so the doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, is very much like Sunny Afternoon. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 46:11

There is a great version of I'm Only Sleeping as well here in the outtakes. Is it take two? I'll play a bit of it.

SPEAKER_00: 46:19

The kind of rehearsal? The first one is just with the vibraphone, the lovely vibraphone, and then take two is the rehearsal.

SPEAKER_02: 46:26

Yeah, I'll play take two, a little bit of it.

SPEAKER_00: 46:31

Take two.

UNKNOWN: 46:35

Take two.

SPEAKER_01: 46:43

Listen

SPEAKER_02: 46:49

to the bass. It's

SPEAKER_00: 46:52

crazy.

UNKNOWN: 46:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 46:56

The tax man's taken all my dough and left me in his daily home. Definitely. That's a little influence. how do you like the mono mix as well like the the mono mix of that uh did you notice any differences the the rm1 mono mix

SPEAKER_02: 47:19

um is that for i'm only sleeping yeah i haven't heard it actually it's one of the ones i've

SPEAKER_00: 47:25

okay so it's just uh it's it's pretty similar but those you know those backwards noises that come in at just the right point uh they're a little bit They have a little bit more of those, and they're sort of more accentuated, so it sounds a little bit like a precursor to Tomorrow Never Knows. They were really getting into that at that point. It's pretty similar overall.

SPEAKER_02: 47:48

Okay, this one is slightly longer, the mono mix. The version on the record is three minutes, and this is three minutes and seven seconds.

SPEAKER_00: 47:57

Seven seconds? Wow, I wonder where they got those from. Maybe at the end?

SPEAKER_02: 48:00

Yeah, it's the same with Baby Back Writer. The stereo version is 2 minutes 59 and the mono version is 2 minutes 26. 26

SPEAKER_00: 48:10

and 29? No,

SPEAKER_02: 48:10

26 and 59. Sorry, no. No! No, no, no, sorry, sorry. 18 and 26. Sorry. The stereo version... There

SPEAKER_00: 48:17

is a track on here where there's a whole... I think it is... Maybe it is I'm Only Sleeping. So there's a track here where they cut out a whole... Oh, it's Dr. Robert. It's the well, well, well. So they cut out a third iteration of well, well, well. So that, yeah, they actually cut it out to shorten it.

SPEAKER_02: 48:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 48:42

They shouldn't have been shortening things. They should have been

SPEAKER_02: 48:44

lengthening things. I know. It's crazy. Then another one I really love from the outtakes is Here, There and Everywhere, Take Six. Yes,

SPEAKER_00: 48:54

yeah, that's beautiful. It's so raw. It's so raw,

SPEAKER_02: 48:56

yeah. Can you play something? Yeah, it's similar to the one that came in the Real Love single, which was, I think, a combination of Take Six and Take Seven, but here we only get Take Six, which is great.

SPEAKER_00: 49:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 49:08

One, two, three. To lead a better life I need my love to be here Here Making each day of the year Changing my life with a wave of hands Nobody can deny that there's something there

SPEAKER_00: 49:45

So, yeah, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. I was having a conversation recently with my friend in Toronto and talking about, you know, who would be the best songwriter of all time. And I said, Paul. He said, no, Paul B. Wade. And he made me guess for a little while. And then I said, Bob Dylan. And that's what he was thinking. And I know that Paul... is, you know, can be weaker on lyrics, although we have some good examples here like Paperback Writer and Eleanor Rigby, and we have him entering his lyrical peak, I guess, in the late Beatles years. But melodically, you know, here, there, and everywhere, It's just stunning. I mean, he'll be remembered as this incredible melodicist. And you can hear that is just with the guitar. There's nothing else there before they arranged it at all. And it's just wonderful.

SPEAKER_02: 50:46

Yeah, I think that's the song. That's his favorite Beatles song, Paul has said in interviews. I think because John gave him a compliment. He said that

SPEAKER_00: 50:55

he really liked it. John liked it as well. And then again, I'm really curious about the arrangement. Who did the... on the lead guitar. Was that

SPEAKER_02: 51:06

Paul or was it George Martin? It sounds like George Harrison might have played that part. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 51:12

I wonder who wrote it, though. Who wrote it? I wonder who said, you know what we need there? Let's just embellish it with that. Because it's not all the way through, but again, it just makes it.

SPEAKER_02: 51:23

I wouldn't be surprised if it had been George. I mean, he came up with that dun-dun-dun-dun, and I love her as well.

SPEAKER_00: 51:30

If it was George, then that just... you know raises his stock doesn't it if he can do things like that because it's so tasteful rather than you know i want to be on all the way through this track you know just it's just there and it it does what it does and it fills that gap perfectly it's a beautiful even on the final version it's sparse um of course it's drenched in harmonies but the arrangement is very very lovely and and i kind of agree with paul it's definitely was definitely one of his peaks I mean it's definitely one of the top 10 Beatles tracks but I mean it's got a lot of competition

SPEAKER_02: 52:09

yeah and you were talking about Paul as a songwriter yes I think he's a great songwriter but he's got some really dodgy lyrics as well I don't know if you've heard the song Press which was released in 86 I

SPEAKER_00: 52:21

don't even know that album

SPEAKER_02: 52:23

yeah well that was the main single and I always remember these lines it said like Oklahoma was never like this never like this it was never like this ever like this so say was it ever like this

SPEAKER_00: 52:36

okay was oklahoma ever like that well gee paul i don't know

SPEAKER_02: 52:42

yeah it's just crazy so it feels like this one i don't like person

SPEAKER_00: 52:47

the one that's difficult for me is at the end of egypt station there's the whole thing about the captain of the ship and all that and then there's the whole thing about the will of the people and that's kind of a misstep because of populism isn't exactly what paul thinks it is you know it's kind of a naive lyric it's the will of the people man you know so yeah he's not he's not a great lyricist but i mean He is the greatest melodicist. There's nobody in his league. So that's why he's got a claim to be the greatest songwriter of our age. Well, and he's written very

SPEAKER_02: 53:27

good lyrics as well, but he's written really bad ones too.

SPEAKER_00: 53:32

If only we could have the lyrics of Dylan and the music of Paul. The Beatles are the closest. Yeah, they never

SPEAKER_02: 53:39

collaborated. I think it would have been nice to get a collaboration.

SPEAKER_00: 53:42

Yeah, with the Beatles we get some really superb music and we get them trying very hard to write good lyrics because they're in competition with one another. And then Eleanor Rigby, perhaps Paul's best lyric.

SPEAKER_02: 53:57

Yeah, for sure. That is probably his best lyric, hands down.

SPEAKER_00: 54:01

But John was cooperating. I know Paul's like, oh, it's my lyric, it's my lyric. But, you know, wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door, I don't know, it could be John. I'm wondering if he had a bit of input there.

SPEAKER_02: 54:13

Yeah, who knows. For No One also is a good lyric on this album.

SPEAKER_00: 54:18

Oh, For No One is fantastic. That's just fantastic. And it's very restrained, isn't it? Yeah. Because it could be, oh, they've broken up and it's so sad. None of that is sad. So it's a very tasteful

SPEAKER_02: 54:33

lyric. Yeah, and just the way it ends, kind of hanging on that chord. Yeah. Yeah, it's very sad.

SPEAKER_00: 54:39

And there's a little bit of pre-chat there, which is nice in the version here. And Ringo's like, shall I even play? And Paul's like, yeah, yeah, play.

SPEAKER_02: 54:47

Yeah, let's play a bit of that.

SPEAKER_00: 54:49

And you can do karaoke to it.

SPEAKER_02: 54:52

I'm trying to find it. Is it on CD3?

SPEAKER_00: 54:55

It's on the Outtakes disc 2.

SPEAKER_01: 55:05

one two three four

SPEAKER_02: 55:49

Sounds really nice.

SPEAKER_00: 55:50

I'm so glad they included that because it's one of the best examples. Beatles are really well known for those descending chord progressions. Sometimes with the vocals ascending and the bass line going down, down, down. And that's a great example. It's lovely to hear it without the vocal.

SPEAKER_02: 56:09

Yeah. Hey, so we thought that we wouldn't be able to talk for an hour about the outtakes and it's already been an hour.

SPEAKER_00: 56:18

Just about? Has it been

SPEAKER_02: 56:19

a whole hour? It's been an hour and one minute, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 56:22

Can you believe it? Wow, so we can talk. This is Beatles train spotting. We

SPEAKER_02: 56:28

haven't talked about the mono versions and we have talked about disc five, which is the singles.

SPEAKER_00: 56:34

I can't comment on the mono versions because I haven't heard them yet. That's the one thing I haven't heard. Like, I've got to be... somebody's got to convince me about why mono is better i'm really all about stereo

SPEAKER_02: 56:49

yeah i guess that mono is better in some of the older records because of the weird stereo that they have and also because the beatles or the mixes weren't meant to be played on um or the beatles

SPEAKER_00: 57:00

yeah but it's interesting some of these uh like i don't know even some of the simpler the less kind of standout tracks like if you listen to the new mixes of I Want To Tell You for example not the strongest track or Got To Get You Into My Life it's just like they were made for stereo it's just like they were made for that environment

SPEAKER_02: 57:26

but that's also because probably we've always heard them in stereo but if you were growing up in the 60s and you had the mono version surely you'd go and you'd prefer those versions

SPEAKER_00: 57:37

I mean mono is apparently very punchy And, you know, I think the problem with stereo is, I mean, it's something to do with the bass. And if you put all the bass in one speaker, it's going to sound imbalanced and all that. But with mono, obviously, the bass has to come out of both speakers exactly the same. which now they always do in stereo mixes, but not in the 60s. They'd often put the bass in one ear. And I noticed with these modern mixes, the bass is never in one ear. But I always quite like that, you know, listen to Let It Bleed and the song Let It Bleed and a whole lot of Beatles tracks and bass is over to one side. Why not? It can be anywhere. But now, like bass is always in the middle, drums are always in the middle.

SPEAKER_02: 58:24

Yeah, it's true. I don't know about the mono ones. I'd like to get a copy of like a 60s copy of Revolver in mono and compare it. And see it, yeah. But then apparently if you want to play mono in a stereo hi-fi, you would have to do some kind of weird connection with cable so it's actually true mono.

UNKNOWN: 58:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 58:46

I can't be bothered

SPEAKER_00: 58:49

to do that. No, no. Life's too short to do that. So just to finish off with Bernardo, which track here could you not live without? Would it be Tagsman, Tomorrow Never Knows, Here, There and Everywhere or something else?

SPEAKER_02: 59:04

For

SPEAKER_00: 59:05

me it would be Here, There and Everywhere.

SPEAKER_02: 59:07

It would be Here, There and Everywhere. Take seats. How about you? Here, There and Everywhere.

SPEAKER_00: 59:11

such a romantic yeah possibly that but possibly taxman there's something about the harmonies and taxman like just i think it's superb so i don't know one of those two yeah or eleanor rigby

SPEAKER_02: 59:29

but in this version we only have the instrumental right in the in the um outtakes

SPEAKER_00: 59:34

oh with the outtakes ah okay with the outtakes um yeah maybe you're right it was the arctic's here there and everywhere they're nice they've they've included a good selection here so it's well worth getting it's probably not quite as exciting as the white album or um abbey road but there's a lot here really nice

SPEAKER_02: 59:56

yeah um i'm really curious to see what they're going to do with rubber soul which i would guess is going to be the next re-release

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:03

I hope so. I hope it's Rubber Soul. And that's probably the one that we're going to talk about next on the podcast, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:11

Probably next week. Cool. All right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:13

Yeah. Well, it depends on your availability, but either next week or the week after that. We

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:19

will do Rubber Soul. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:21

Great.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:21

It'd be nice to revisit that too. For sure.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:25

Yeah, it was really nice to be back. It felt like that. It was? Yeah, like we hadn't done an episode in what, in over a month? Let's

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:34

try and make it more regular.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:36

Yeah, for

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:37

sure. Great to talk to you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:40

Likewise. Speak to you soon.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:42

See you next time.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:43

Bye.