The Beatles Backyard

[Papy Oli]

The Abbey Road Medley 
A Day in the Life
Being for the benefit of Mr Kite
8 days a week
I feel fine
Dear Prudence
Bungalow Bill
Honey Pie
Helter Skelter
Blackbird

[Karl Henning]

How could I have forgotten Eleanor Rigby?!   

PD

When I was a tike, I had a "Close-and-play" phonograph, and the single that came with it was "Yellow Submarine" b/w "Eleanor Rigby"

[Karl Henning]

That is one of the songs I don't dig much. It is just a personal preference and I am not questioning the quality of song. Others include Shes leaving home, 64, she loves you, its only love, Here there, I should have known better, your mother should know, Run for your life, etc.

Re: Penny Lane. Some people are advocating a name change of the street because is is possibly the name of a slave trader. Regardless of the fact, Paul may decide not to sing the song.

FWIW, the monaural reissue rehabilitated "She's leaving home" for me.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

My Favorite Beatles songs:

She Said She Said
Yes It Is
Hey Bulldog
Revolution
Octopus Garden
Tomorrow Never Knows
Dear Prudence
Here Comes the Sun
Only a Northern Song
Good Morning Good Morning

I forgot Good Night 😲😲 Lovely song!

As for Dear Prudence, I prefer the siouxsie and the banshees version to the Beatles.

https://youtu.be/M6rrTROoZIw

[Karl Henning]

A question just occurred to me. (I also wonder why it took so long to cross my mind.)

Do we know who played the violin/fiddle on "Don't Pass Me By"?

[Mirror Image]

A question just occurred to me. (I also wonder why it took so long to cross my mind.)

Do we know who played the violin/fiddle on "Don't Pass Me By"?

According to Wikipedia, here's the lineup:

Ringo Starr – double-tracked vocals, drums, tack piano, sleigh bells, cowbell, maracas, congas
Paul McCartney – grand piano, bass guitar
Jack Fallon – violin
The pianos were both recorded into a Leslie 147 speaker.

Personnel per Ian MacDonald and supported by Mark Lewisohn

[DaveF]

I once spent an entire 2½-hour car journey with my son, then aged 10, trying to decide what our favourites were on Sgt. Pepper (those were the days - 7 years on, he refuses to listen to anything that wasn't composed within the last 10 minutes).  The final results were Lucy in the sky with diamonds (son) and Fixing a hole (me) - a chilled-out hippie dirge versus a tightly-controlled classically-influenced ballad.

Picking ten favourites always runs the risk of missing something obvious, but here goes:

For no-one
Hard day's night
Yesterday (although I do wish someone had told Paul not to breathe between "she" and "had")
Fixing a hole
No reply
Blackbird
Dear Prudence
Here comes the sun
It's all too much
I want you (mostly for the endless play-out - I have a friend who claims to know exactly when it's going to stop - not sure I believe him).

[Pohjolas Daughter]

When I was a tike, I had a "Close-and-play" phonograph, and the single that came with it was "Yellow Submarine" b/w "Eleanor Rigby"

Well, I won't mention what my playing situation was like...lol.  But seriously, the more that I listened to "Eleanor Rigby" over the years, it really hit me emotionally....about all of the people in the world who live alone and wondering whether or not their passing means anything to anyone?  Not just that, but of living a life alone.  There are so many stories that I've heard over the years of people not knowing their neighbors, etc.,.  Are there any others here who appreciate this song?

PD

[Karl Henning]

According to Wikipedia, here's the lineup:

Ringo Starr – double-tracked vocals, drums, tack piano, sleigh bells, cowbell, maracas, congas
Paul McCartney – grand piano, bass guitar
Jack Fallon – violin
The pianos were both recorded into a Leslie 147 speaker.

Personnel per Ian MacDonald and supported by Mark Lewisohn

Thanks.

[Karl Henning]

Well, I won't mention what my playing situation was like...lol.  But seriously, the more that I listened to "Eleanor Rigby" over the years, it really hit me emotionally....about all of the people in the world who live alone and wondering whether or not their passing means anything to anyone?  Not just that, but of living a life alone.  There are so many stories that I've heard over the years of people not knowing their neighbors, etc.,.  Are there any others here who appreciate this song?

PD

Yes, indeed.

[DaveF]

... the more that I listened to "Eleanor Rigby" over the years, it really hit me emotionally....about all of the people in the world who live alone and wondering whether or not their passing means anything to anyone?  Not just that, but of living a life alone.  There are so many stories that I've heard over the years of people not knowing their neighbors, etc.,.  Are there any others here who appreciate this song?

PD

To my ears, it's a great song given a terrible performance - that monotonous rubato-free thudding accompaniment, Paul's rushed and uninvolved delivery of the lyrics (great lyrics - "Wearing the face that she keeps in the jar by the door" - brilliant).  Sadly, the recording on Revolver is the only one I know (there's a strings-only take on one of the Anthology albums, but that goes at the same relentless pace). Clearly they couldn't perform it live.  Slowed down a bit, to give Paul time to breathe and to allow the strings to sound a bit less like they're chopping wood, it would have been perfect.  I find the slightly distanced, cinematographic approach works well in For no one (but then I would say that; that's my favourite song not only on Revolver but on any Beatles album), but not in Eleanor Rigby. 

[Karl Henning]

I think the non-involved delivery makes for light-footed dramatic irony. I actually find it part of the track's power. Your
"chopping wood" criticism stands ... likely stems from having a string quartet try to sound like a pop group, rather than being themselves.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Interesting comments regarding Eleanor Rigby.  I wonder if part of the fast/"rushed" to DaveF was done on purpose...thinking here of them thinking that there are so many many people who live alone/are lonely/are ignored by society/have few if any friends that the list could go on and on.  For me, the pace that it's at, leaves me breathless and feeling rather stunned...and makes me think.

PD

[SimonNZ]

McCartney does another not very different version in the Give My Regards To Broad Street film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3rG4vm06kE


Looking into other versions I see that I'd forgotten that Aretha Franklin did one

and hadn't previously lnown that Joan Baez did one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q51A0k-VcbU

[steve ridgway]

The only one I get to hear comes up occasionally on the web radio -

I Drive - Classic Rigby, Parts 1 & 2 (1972)

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's any good.

[DaveF]

The only one I get to hear comes up occasionally on the web radio -

I Drive - Classic Rigby, Parts 1 & 2 (1972)

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's any good.

Au contraire, it's absolutely brilliant and deserves an immediate cross-posting on the LvB thread.

The version from Give my Regards... has the same timing, to the second, as the one on Revolver, yet manages to sound more relaxed and spacious.  Something to do, perhaps, with the strings being a bit more recessed and less aggressive.

The problem is mine alone, I'm sure.  Maybe because Rigby gets all the recognition and praise when my favourite on the same album is almost completely ignored.  I also worry about the "Fr. Mackenzie" story - do priests really compose sermons that won't get delivered? (Or delivered in a completely empty church?) The priests I know are always enormously grateful for the odd bit of solitude away from their parishioners that they can manage to find.  Perhaps things were different in the '60s.

[steve ridgway]

Maybe because Rigby gets all the recognition and praise when my favourite on the same album is almost completely ignored. I also worry about the "Fr. Mackenzie" story - do priests really compose sermons that won't get delivered? (Or delivered in a completely empty church?)

Tomorrow Never Knows is the only Beatles song I actually love but must have influenced a tremendous number of experimental / industrial artists. Priests nowadays must surely compose sermons a few days in advance only to receive a day or two's notice that churches are closed again. I guess they'd just save them for later though.

[Karl Henning]

Separately:

https://www.youtube.com/v/u3wFv_UO_50

[Pohjolas Daughter]

McCartney does another not very different version in the Give My Regards To Broad Street film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3rG4vm06kE

Thanks for the link to the McCartney video clip; really enjoyed that! 

PD

[Karl Henning]

Not sure how I feel about this "Now and Then" jiggery-pokery.