A Beatles Virtual Instrument

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:47 pm

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FTLJMSbEnn0&feature=related

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:31 pm

Tim wrote:http://youtube.com/watch?v=FTLJMSbEnn0&feature=related

Tim-- do you have the "Recording Sessions" book? If so, can you look to see if John played his Casino and George played his SG on the actual recording?

I'm blown away by the guitar sound--- so this is a bit of a need-to-know basis.

And Paul's bass is just plain fat and round in this track.

As if it weren't enough for the Beatles to just write great tunes and lyrics, they really did come up with great arrangements.

semoc niar eht nehW
sdaeh rieht edih dna nur yehT

zed · Post by **zed** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 11:10 pm

Frodo wrote:If so, can you look to see if John played his Casino and George played his SG on the actual recording? ...I'm blown away by the guitar sound...

To heck with the guitars, it's the bass that rules in this song!!!

Frodo wrote:And Paul's bass is just plain fat and round in this track.

Yeah! That's his ricky 4001 recorded using a speaker as a microphone. I expressed my shock to EastWest that they didn't try to replicate this sound in their first Fab Four offering. I think that particular bass sound is one of my absolute favorites. I often play Rain for reference when I am working on my bass tracks. That and Getting Better.

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 12:55 am

Dig the low notes (G) at the end. I wonder if that was the Bass VI, a tuned down guitar, maybe some vso too....

kassonica · Post by **kassonica** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 3:06 am

MY god 1083 replies and 12558 views and 73 pages long WHEW it makes me tired just thinking about it.

Is This a record of some kind?

Ps Never underestimate the power of the BEATLES eh even 37 years after they recorded there last note.

And the last line on the last album on the last song (well 2nd last technically her majesty is but it was put on as a joke) ,

and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make

enough said

zed · Post by **zed** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 3:43 am

kassonica wrote:MY god 1083 replies and 12558 views and 73 pages long WHEW it makes me tired just thinking about it.

Is This a record of some kind?

Heh heh. This thread is just getting started, as Frodo is fond of saying.

kassonica wrote:...on the last song (well 2nd last technically her majesty is but it was put on as a joke)...

I'm still miffed that the record label listed Her Majesty on the CD. It is supposed to be a surprise track, not an expectation. All for a publishing royalty, I presume. Can we blame it on Michael Jackson, maybe?

Sorry... I just have a bee in my bonnet about this little detail. Whenever I see the words "Her Majesty" I am reminded of this matter and feel the need to preach the wrongfulness of it to all who will listen. Okay, now we can go back to making Love...

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 5:49 am

I remember buying Abbey Road. I was on the young side to be a Beatles fan, but I had a sister 5 years older and her friends were nuts about them-- bying the US release "Meet The Beatles" and most others through "Pepper" before they pretty much lost interest.

Being hooked (and feeling quite abandoned in my Beatly addiction) I continued saving up my pennies to collect $4.99 a year to keep buying Beatles albums. Of course, by the time "The White Album" came out it was cruel poetic injustice. Here I was on my own for the first time (about 9-10 years old) and suddenly I was being hit up for whopping $8.99 for a two-disc set!! Not fair!! (It cost me 8 months worth of allowance to save up for "Concert for Bangladesh" and "All Things Must Pass".)

In any case, Abbey Road was a financial relief when it came about, being only a single LP. I don't know how many times I'd listened to it, but I remember putting it on after hearing that the Beatles had broken up a couple of years later. The phone rang during "The End" and I left the stereo running to answer it...

All that to say this-- it wasn't until that very moment when I first heard the big chord and then Paul start with "Her Majesty". I'd always stopped the LP after "The End"-- and why not? The title would suggest doing so.

I think I dropped the phone at that point. It was that one little morsel that extended the newness of the Beatles for me for another unexpected 23 glorious seconds.

So odd to look back with pride and embarrassment, knowing that I was a hopeless Beatlemaniac from the first Sullivan appearance in '64. I'd just turned 5 at the time, and thanks to AM radio I knew every lyric, every chord change, every vocal harmony to "Please, Please Me" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" at that time. (I'd been playing the piano quite eagerly for over a year by age 5.)

Hmm. "All those years ago"... and look at me now! How pathetic.

kassonica, I don't know WHAT it is, but it appears I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to find out.

If I'm dreaming, don't wake me!!

Please don't spoil my day
I'm miles away
And after all
I'm only sleeping

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 5:57 am

You're going to love this---

It's an early take of "I'm Only Sleeping"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UlYbSvrq4t0&feature=related

dogBoy · Post by **dogBoy** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:16 am

I looked at the related videos column, there are about 20 people who've covered "I'm Only Sleeping".

It's great hearing a song before its intended release, then listening to the final. Just reminds me that you have to put in the work to get it just so...i'm speaking about myself not the Beatles.

I don't if it's been mentioned early in this post, I haven't read the 71 or so pages, but, the Geoff Emerick book is a fun read.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:41 am

dogBoy wrote:I looked at the related videos column, there are about 20 people who've covered "I'm Only Sleeping".

It's great hearing a song before its intended release, then listening to the final. Just reminds me that you have to put in the work to get it just so...i'm speaking about myself not the Beatles.

And it's harder than people think, unless it's 100% natural. But even the Beatles had to work at getting it right the first time. What a long way from that early track to the final version we know today.

dogBoy wrote: I don't if it's been mentioned early in this post, I haven't read the 71 or so pages, but, the Geoff Emerick book is a fun read.

Oh, yes. Emerick and Lewissohn have come up quite often during this long discourse. In fact, I was just asking a few posts ago about some details in the "Recording Sessions" book. I may be going to one of the biggest used and new book stores in the country next week (out of town) and must make it a point to find that book. I really should have bought it the week it came out, but it was selling so well that I had no idea that it would go out of print so soon.

Lesson #1: When it comes to the Beatles, buy everything!

You can always unload on e-bay.

hearttimes · Post by **hearttimes** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:41 am

grab the book at abe.com

lowest price one is 5 bucks

i recommend the hardcover

starting at around 20

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 9:44 am

hearttimes wrote:grab the book at abe.com

lowest price one is 5 bucks

i recommend the hardcover

starting at around 20

Thanks for the tip!

kassonica · Post by **kassonica** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 3:52 pm

Frodo wrote

kassonica, I don't know WHAT it is, but it appears I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to find out.

If I'm dreaming, don't wake me!!

Well hard to say other than maybe you could recognize true genius at the age of 5 and being the inquisitive little blighter that you were, you've spend the rest of your life unlocking their genius for your own pleasure.

I'm only sleeping is one of my favorite Lennon songs.

PS recently i found a copy of the Tobisba black triangle CD mastering of the Abbey Road .

Mastered in 84 in japan from the original MASTER tapes, not EQed not compressed 1st generation the one the Beatles would have heard straight after the mix.

Now the Japanese left it this way (no EQ no COMP no LIMITING) being the Audiophiles that they are which caused a big riff with EMI and apple and it got pulled almost immediately after release in Japan.

Million dollar question how does it sound,

Well i could write millions of words here BUT.... Abbey RD is my ALL TIME FAVORITE pop album and in my top 5 list period and it does this justice and MORE.... the depth and purity of sounds is simply AMAZING and i've played it in some major studios and 100% of 'people in know' are just blown away.

I have the 1st UK pressing on vinyl and it leaves it well behind and as for the current CD's well they sound like mp's next to it.

It is considered the HOLY GRAIL OF BEATLES PRESSINGS

Google it

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:58 pm

kassonica wrote:han maybe you could recognize true genius at the age of 5 and being the inquisitive little blighter that you were, you've spend the rest of your life unlocking their genius for your own pleasure.

All I knew then and all I know now is that the music was and remains fresh, innovative, fun-- and never seems to grow old like other music of that time. I didn't know it was genius. In fact, I was constantly told quite the contrary. It was about that same time when those who didn't care for the Beatles insisted that I listened to things *they* considered to be good. I liked most everything I heard, and people introduced me to a lot of great music from jazz to classical.

Where it fell apart was when they expected other music to change my mind about how I felt about the Beatles' music.

kassonica wrote: I'm only sleeping is one of my favorite Lennon songs.

This one indeed is a standout, having some of the most haunting harmonic progressions of all their output. (That's *some of the most haunting*, before anyone picks 300 other worthy examples!! LOL!!)

kassonica wrote: PS recently i found a copy of the Tobisba black triangle CD mastering of the Abbey Road .

Mastered in 84 in japan from the original MASTER tapes, not EQed not compressed 1st generation the one the Beatles would have heard straight after the mix.

Now the Japanese left it this way (no EQ no COMP no LIMITING) being the Audiophiles that they are which caused a big riff with EMI and apple and it got pulled almost immediately after release in Japan.

Million dollar question how does it sound,

Well i could write millions of words here BUT.... Abbey RD is my ALL TIME FAVORITE pop album and in my top 5 list period and it does this justice and MORE.... the depth and purity of sounds is simply AMAZING and i've played it in some major studios and 100% of 'people in know' are just blown away.

I have the 1st UK pressing on vinyl and it leaves it well behind and as for the current CD's well they sound like mp's next to it.

It is considered the HOLY GRAIL OF BEATLES PRESSINGS

Google it

Kass--- you're talking to a Beatle fan, although this fan is not quite as lucky as you are. Anyone who owns the Toshiba version could only top it with a "first state" pressing of the Butcher Cover (one that never had a paste-over)-- especially one of 20 "Livingston" pristine never-opened BCs from Capitol's vaults. Those are pulling down over $40k these days.

I've never heard the Toshiba version, but people have been talking about it like mad. Considering the prices of some of these rarities in secondary markets, it may be cheaper for me to fly to Australia to hear it!!

I'll bring the beer.

zed · Post by **zed** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:43 pm

Hey Frodo,

I enjoyed your story about Her Majesty. I had a similar experience in my childhood, around the time I was about 12, and remember thinking that it was the absolute coolest thing that they had little surprise hiding in there... not to mention the oddness of the song, panning from one side to the other and then ending abruptly on that single note. Brilliant!!

kassonica wrote:...recently i found a copy of the Tobisba black triangle CD mastering of the Abbey Road... I have the 1st UK pressing on vinyl and it leaves it well behind and as for the current CD's well they sound like mp's next to it.

Kassonica, am I to understand that you are saying the Toshiba Black Triangle CD sounds much better than the original UK vinyl pressing?

Frodo wrote:Anyone who owns the Tobisba version could only top it with a "first state" pressing of the Butcher Cover (one that never had a paste-over)-- especially one of 20 "Livingston" pristine never-opened BCs from Capitol's vaults. Those are pulling down over $40k these days.

I thought I read that the $40k ones, (i.e. the ones which are actually the most valuable) are the butcher covers which still have the past-over and it is still UNREMOVED. Wouldn't be quite as fun to look at, but a definitely intriguing item.