Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
24 Jun 2021 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: beatles, oh darling, paul mccartney
Answer by Peter Levy:
To record the vocal for this song, Paul went into the studio each day for a week and recorded exactly one take of the lead vocal. It’s such a strenuous song to sing that he couldn’t try two times in the same day.
He also said at the time (when he was in his mid-twenties) that he could have nailed the vocal five years earlier. So he’s had trouble with the vocal from the very start.
I think that’s why he didn’t sing it in concert – it’s too hard.
These days he has trouble with a lot of vocals that he used to easily perform in concert, so it’s fair to say that he never will perform “Oh! Darling,” unless he changes the arrangement so it fits his range.
Answer by Jay Snead:
t’s a killer song to sing the way it was sung on the album. This was really hard for Paul to record even when he was 27 and on the top of his game.
If he did it early in a set, it would ruin his voice for the rest of the show. if he sang it last, he might not have the voice to pull it off.
He has an enormous repertoire and can afford to leave Oh! Darling alone.
Answer by John Nowman:
Paul went into the studio every day – over days and days in order to get his vocals sounding hoarse, which is the effect he wanted and had to nail the vocals, when finally put down, quickly before his voice let him down due to strain and effort. Lennon had similar vocal problems with Twist and Shout early in their career, as the track was left until the end of the recording session, where he had to produce the vocals in one go to prevent damage to his his vocal chords, He did it in 1 and 1/2 takes, I believe. Listen to the track and see how hoarse his voice actually was after a full day recording vocals for the LP they were working on – at this moment early in their career time and money were not a luxury then. On Revolution Lennon lay on his back for hours prior to singing the vocals allowing fluid to enter his lungs for the right sound effect. Hope this helps.
Read more: (5) Why has Paul McCartney never performed Oh! Darling live? – Quora
15 Jun 2021 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: beatles, lennon, lennon/mccartney, mccartney, songwriting
The songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney deservedly has hallowed status on the basis of the many classics the Beatles themselves recorded.
But as songwriters they remain perhaps under-appraised even so, considering their many other, lesser-known songwriting credits on hit songs they gave to others to perform–songs which might have added to the Beatles’ own lengthy list of hits had they chosen to release them themselves.
Paul was particularly active in promoting other fledgling acts by giving them hit songs, even though his compositions at the time were still credited to the Lennon/McCartney team. One such example is “Goodbye“, which he gave to an 18-year-old Mary Hopkin, and which was a #13 single in America (#2 UK) Here’s Mary’s recording:
…and Paul’s demo version:
Hopkin’s debut album was produced by McCartney and featured the massive worldwide hit “Those Were The Days”.
The sixties hit duo Peter and Gordon’s first three hit singles were all penned by Lennon and McCartney, although if you listen to Beatles demo versions you hear Paul singing the lead vocals, a pretty sure sign (judging from the Beatles’ catalogue itself) that he was at least the primary and perhaps sole writer of these songs also:
“A World Without Love“, a number 1 hit in 1964, almost certainly would have topped the charts in Beatle-recorded form as well. It’s a British Invasion classic:
(Peter Asher is the Austin Powers-looking gent at left)
Here’s the Beatles’ demo version:
The other two Peter and Gordon hits written by the Beatles:
“Nobody I Know” (#12 US hit):
…and “I Don’t Want To See You Again” (#16 US):
Another British Invasion act, Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas, were produced by George Martin and recorded many Lennon/McCartney songs. Bad To Me (below) reached number 1 in England (#9 US) and its sound is pure 1964 Beatles.
The “J” in Billy J. Kramer, by the way, was the suggestion of John Lennon, who thought it gave Billy a tougher image. (Lennon also gave the band The Cyrkle its name. Maybe Beatle-influenced band nomenclature is an article unto itself…)
“I’ll Be On My Way”, “I Call Your Name”, “I’ll Keep You Satisfied”, and “From A Window“, all recorded by the Dakotas, were Lennon/McCartney songs. And their recording of George Harrison’s “Do You Want To Know A Secret” was also a number 2 hit in the UK.
Badfinger, who, like Mary Hopkin were signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records, had their career jump-started in 1969 when Paul McCartney gave away another (#7 US) hit, “Come And Get It“.
Beatle fans who’ve never heard the demo will find that Badfinger pretty much stuck to Paul’s blueprint:
This is by no means a complete list. It’s merely meant to point out that Lennon and McCartney weren’t just hitmakers as Beatles. From the mid-60’s through the early 70’s their songwriting was here, there and everywhere.
04 Jun 2021 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: the beatles
Photograph: All rights reserved/Paul Saltzman
(via The Guardian) by Andrew Male
In 1968, Paul Saltzman was a lost soul. The son of a Canadian TV weatherman, he was working as a sound engineer for the National Film Board of Canada in India when he received a “Dear John” letter from the woman he thought was going to be his wife. “I was devastated,” he says. “Then someone on the crew said: ‘Have you tried meditation for the heartbreak?’”
Saltzman went to see the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – the founder of transcendental meditation – speak at New Delhi University. Emboldened by promises of “inner rejuvenation”, Saltzman then travelled to the International Academy of Meditation in Rishikesh. It was closed, due to the arrival of the Beatles.
As explained by Paul McCartney in the Beatles book Anthology, the exhausted group, still coming to terms with the suicide of their manager Brian Epstein in August 1967, had arrived in Rishikesh with wives and girlfriends to “find the answer” through the teachings of the Maharishi, whom Paul, George and John had first encountered at a lecture at the London Hilton. “There was a feeling of: ‘It’s great to be famous [and] rich,” said McCartney, “but what it’s all for?’”
31 May 2021 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: bob dylan
(via Stereogum) by Ryan Leas
In the almost 60 years since Bob Dylan released his debut album, countless words have been spilled on his singular legacy. There are books and movies and over half a century’s worth of music journalism trying to dissect the mystery and pin down the multitudes. College courses unpack his lyrics. A Presidential Medal Of Freedom and a Nobel Prize and who knows how many other honors mark Dylan’s towering, seismic presence as not just a musician but a cultural and literary icon of the American Century. All of which is to say: You and I both know about Bob Dylan, and there’s little I could say to celebrate his 80th birthday that hasn’t been said many times before.
Instead, we chose to celebrate the occasion by surveying a vast array of musicians on their favorite Bob Dylan song. (Technically, there are picks from 86 musicians here, but we didn’t want to wait another six years to publish this. Consider it a bonus.) Below, you’ll find singer-songwriters working in a tradition most obviously indebted to Dylan, but you’ll also find young country stars and ascendent art-rockers and jazz boundary-pushers. You’ll find David Byrne writing an essay about one of Dylan’s most recent songs, and you’ll find David Crosby remembering the first time he saw Dylan play in the Village, and a whole lot more. All spoke to Dylan’s incomparable influence, the way he kicked open some kind of door or another no matter what form an artist works in. We were excited and stunned by all the thoughtful responses we received for this project, and we think you will be too. Happy birthday Bob Dylan!
Read more: Best Bob Dylan Songs According To 80 Musicians (stereogum.com)
Every Moment Has A Song 