Monday, March 18, 2013

PLEASE PLEASE ME AT 50


March 22,2013 will mark the 50th anniversary of  the Beatles' debut album Please Please Me.

Released in 1963,the album was noted to have been recorded on a 12 hour period lasting from 10 in the morning and finishing off at 10 in the evening.The Beatles were well rehearsed and of the 14 tracks from the album,eight of them were original compositions written by the band's songwriting team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney which was then noted on the album credits as McCartney-Lennon.

Recorded a month earlier on February 11,several artists marked the 50th anniversary of its recording by emulating the 12-hour recording period made by the band during that chilly month of  February 1963 .Artists include Joss Stone and Mick Hucknall who praised the Beatles' debut as a beautiful album.

John with the famous harmonica,Please Please Me sessions
The album was preceded with a single Love Me Do,released a year earlier in 1962,it was known to be the first Beatles song to gain international success.With its famous harmonica riff made by none other than John Lennon himself,Lennon usually call this wind instrument as a "mouth organ" back in the early sixties.

The 1962 single somewhat differ from the one included in the album-anyone can point it out on Paul's vocal and the drumming pattern made by Ringo Starr.The album version,however,is the most famous version that is usually heard up to this day on both classic rock and AM radios across the United States.

George Martin was reputedly unhappy with Ringo's drumming  on the 1962 single that he decided to re-record the song and hire session musician Andy White to play drums on the track.Ringo,looking a little sheepish,played tambourine as he let expert ears prevail.The result was an instant success.The single version,was included later on in the Past Masters singles compilation album together with other singles that were neither on the original 13 albums conceived by EMI in 1988.

McCartney and Lennon,Please Please Me sessions
The album's famous cover photo was taken by Welsh photographer Angus McBean at the stairwell of EMI's  London headquarters.In 1969,the Beatles' had asked McBean to recreate the photoshoot at the same venue for a supposed to be cover of the Beatles' Get Back album.Having the album retitled as Let It Be and with all the commotions going  in the band,the supposed to be cover photo was shelved and was used instead on the compilation album The Beatles 1967-1970 released in 1973.




Please Please Me went to number one in the UK charts and highlighted the rise of Beatlemania not only in the British Isles but in other parts of the world.It was unfortunate,however,that the album wasn't released in the United States where the American distributor Capitol Records failed to recognize the brilliance of the album.As to how or why Capitol altered the first seven Beatles LPs remains unclear up to this day.With several stories citing the record company maximizing its profits, hence,creating more Beatles albums will mean more sales.Sensible enough,Capitol was lambasted by the fab four themselves with the controversial cover photo of the compilation album Yesterday And Today with the band in butcher suits with decapitated dolls and chunks of meat as a protest,hereby having the nickname "Butcher cover".

The Beatles,Please Please Me sessions 1963


It wasn't until 1987 when EMI unified the catalogue and Please Please Me was finally released domestically in the US with the band's American LPs deleted and got only available in bootlegs and box sets.

[To see the story of the Beatles' original albums and how they were altered by Capitol click here ]

Please Please Me  spawned hit single after hit single including its title track.The album featured these early Beatles signature songs that defined the era of how the fab four changed the course of rock music forever: "I Saw Her Standing There","Twist And Shout" and "Boys" were not only catchy,danceable tunes but they define of how rock music was taken to another level that succeeding bands up to this day would follow in the Beatles' footsteps.

TRACK LISTING:

1.I Saw Her Standing There (McCartney-Lennon)
2.Misery (McCartney-Lennon)
3.Anna(Go To Him) (Alexander)
4.Chains (Goffin-King)
5.Boys  (Dixon-Farrell)
6.Ask Me Why (McCartney-Lennon)
7.Please Please Me (McCartney-Lennon)
8.Love Me Do (McCartney-Lennon)
9.P.S. I Love You (McCartney-Lennon)
10.Baby It's You (David-Williams-Bacharach)
11.Do You Want To Know A Secret (McCartney-Lennon)
12. A Taste Of Honey (Scott-Marlow)
13.There's A Place (McCartney-Lennon)
14.Twist And Shout (Medley-Russell)

Fifty years have passed and the album still sounds fresh as if it was recorded yesterday.The band's enduring appeal and the trend they have set for rock music has never gone obsolete. With the fab four setting up the standard for a modern day rock band,the legacy of the Beatles will continue to inspire kids and generations ahead of us.


Saturday, March 16, 2013

KLAUS VOORMANN:ONE BEATLE FRIEND

Klaus Voormann,photo from his own website
It was August 1971,a bearded man was playing bass for George Harrison's Concert For Bangladesh benefit show.As some people might ask "who's that guy playing bass?",as if he was a new kid on the block picked by George and invited him on the show.Truth is,he's been in the music scene for years and has known the Beatles even before the band rose to fame.

Klaus Voormann is a German artist,bass player and album producer.His heavy involvement with the Beatles had started way back in 1960 when the band was  playing clubs in Hamburg,Germany.As John Lennon had noted "I was born in Liverpool but I grew up in Hamburg",his early meeting with the fab four(whose drummer back then was Pete Best) would mean a long-term association that would last even after the band had already broke up:playing on  solo albums by George Harrison,Ringo Starr and doing a stint as a bass player on John Lennon's post-Beatle outfit-Plastic Ono Band.

Klaus is also responsible for being the guy who had influenced the fabs by having that now famous mop-top hairdo.As German boys usually have that "bowl cut" outfit during that time,his girlfriend at the time,Astrid Kirchheer first did the now famous mop top to Stuart Sutcliffe who was then the Beatles' bass player after he saw Voormann wearing that hairstyle.Eventually,Voormann's relationship with Kirchheer would not last as she left him later on for Sutcliffe.The 1994 film Backbeat which hightlights the Beatles' life as a bar band in Hamburg portrays a young Klaus Voormann weeping after he was spurned and left by his lover Astrid.Though the film itself was marred with controversies over some "inaccuracies" with Paul McCartney even stating that he was not very much impressed with the outcome of the movie.Though no one can ever know what really happened out there on Voormann's part after Kirchheer shitted on him and left him cold for Stu,it was later claimed that the two of them remained close friends.Sutcliffe,on the other hand,died of  a brain hemorrhage in 1962 shortly after he left the band.Kirchheer went on to be a photographer and took photos of the Beatles during the early days of Beatlemania.Voormann on the other hand,had moved to England with the fab four where he shared a flat with George Harrison.

Klaus Voormann with the famous Beatle "haircut"
Voormann was said to be speaking in halting English when he first met the fabs but he learned quick and even became the bass player for Manfred Mann from 1966 to 1969.Perhaps Voormann is best known by Beatles fans as the man who is responsible for the artwork of  Revolver-the Beatles' 7th studio album known for its psychedelic rock and was ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest albums of all time.The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die along with other Beatles albums.Voormann had worked on a collage with part line drawing of John,Paul,George and Ringo.The photographs attached to the drawings were taken by Bob Whitaker with Voormann's own photo and signature attached on Harrison's hair on the cover.The album was the last to be altered by Capitol Records in the United States in the 1960s where it was released with only 11 songs--with three of its tracks removed and was included on the US compilation album Yesterday And Today hence known for its famous butcher cover with the Beatles' expressing their protest towards their American distributor.The album with its original 14 track lineup was finally released domestically in 1987 thanks to EMI's unification effort and the band's American albums by then were deleted and was available only in bootlegs and box sets.The album went to number one on both sides of the Atlantic.With its timeless appeal,the album was even parodied several times including that of the Simpsons with Homer and some of his 'friends' gracing the cover.

Revolver album cover designed by Klaus Voormann

Voormann had also worked with other bands like the Bee Gees who were then known in the 1960s as a psychedelic rock group and far from the disco trio as many young folks know them today.The album was called Bee Gees 1st and was the band's first international album after the Gibb brothers had moved back to England from Australia where they were already established celebrities.

Bee Gees 1st album cover design by Klaus Voormann
The Bee Gees by then was a quintet with the Gibb brothers Barry,Robin and Maurice plus two friends Vince Melouney on lead guitar and Colin Petersen on drums.The band then was managed by Robert Stigwood  in partnership with Brian Epstein-the Beatles' manager as to how Voormann and the Bee Gees' paths have come across.Released in 1967,Bee Gees 1st was a success with mixed reviews pointing on several US deejays and other countries mistaking it as a Beatles record.

Talking about the Bee Gees,while we were on the subject,Voormann is also repsonsible for the artwork of the band's 1968 album Idea-on its American release,the album was featured with a composite head outline of Barry Gibb's with some sites claiming it was Voormann's face on it but it was more clear that it was Barry Gibb's face outlined on the American cover.

Idea,US edition,album design by Klaus Voormann
The album was also a success for the band with the British edition featuring Vince Melouney on vocals on one track called "Such A Shame".The track,however was removed on the US album release and was replaced instead with a more catchier song written and sung by Robin and Barry Gibb called "I've Gotta Get A Message To You".

Voormann busied himself as a bass player,record producer,and session musician.When Paul McCartney first announced the Beatles' breakup in 1970.It was rumored that he will be replacing Paul as bass player for the Beatles with John,George and Ringo.Wikipedia even mentioned a group with the three remaining Beatles as the Ladders as to who or what was their source on that claim is uncertain,as it was not to be,for Lennon had said in a 1971 interview for Rolling Stone that he had already told the rest of the band that he was leaving on the fall of 1969 even before Paul announced the band's dissolution the following year.Though John Lennon was reportedly present during the early days of January 1970 during the mixing and overdubs on Let It Be,some Beatles scholars admitted of being confused on the exact date of Lennon's departure or if he really left at all.John and Yoko were said to have the McCartneys on their shit list during this time period for they are mad at Paul for saying that the band was no more when they claimed they should be the one to say it first.Linda McCartney responded on an interview for Playboy in the early eighties saying that it was madness on who's going to tell it first,even remembering that difficult time wherein she had to deal with all their problems with the Beatles.So the supposed to be supergroup of Klaus Voormann with the other three Beatles didn't materialize but instead he played as a session musician on their solo albums.He also played bass for other artists like Lou Reed,Eric Clapton,Carly Simon and James Taylor.Voormann had an international hit with "The Mighty Quinn" a 1969 song by Manfred Mann where he played flute,bass and did the backing vocals.

Klaus Voormann(left) with George Harrison,Concert For Bangladesh
He produced other records in the late seventies and early eighties including the international disco hit "Da Da Da" by the German group Trio released in 1982.In 1989,he retired from the music business and settled in Munich with his second wife and two children.

In 2003,he designed the album sleeve for the Norwegian punk band Turbonegro and has worked with artists like Wet Wet Wet and former singer of the Animals Eric Burdon on one of his recent solo albums.


In 2009,he released his first and only solo album A Sideman's Journey featuring remakes and re-recordings of his past accomplishments with other artists in the 60s and 70s.The album also features contributions by former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr along with Cat Stevens,Joe Walsh and many others.


(Right:Voormann's first and only solo album A Sideman's Journey,credited to Voormann & Friends)

Today Klaus Voormann lives in his native Germany where he spends some time painting and recording.



(c) Keith Vernon Adagio