Tuesday, July 16, 2013

He got Ono sideboard, He one spinal cracker (The Beatles) #41 - 45 of 300ish singles

The Beatles Something/ Come Together   (Apple, 1969)

The Beatles Let It Be/ You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)   (Apple NZP 3357, 1970)

The Beatles Yesterday/ We Should Have Known Better (sic)   (Parlophone NZP 3535, 1965)

The Beatles 1 Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band 2 With A Little Help from My Friends/ A Day In the Life  (Parlophone R 6022, 1967)

The Beatles Back In The U.S.S.R./ Twist And Shout  (Parlophone R 6016, 1968)

Welcome to the batch which finds us at the end of the official UK releases in 1970 and a return to the alternate Beatle universe.

Something is of course the only George A side in the collection.

Let It Be is the version featuring Billy Preston's organ (as opposed to the George/ guitar LP version) and is not as gear.

The Yesterday, Sgt Pepper and Back In The USSR singles are ones done in hindsight. All emerged when the Beatle's singles were repacked/re-released as a box set in NZ. They sought to plug perceived gaps as neither the Sgt Pepper or The Beatles albums had songs lifted from them as singles.

Yesterday is a curious song, a Macca solo song, and not really one of my favourites. It's a weird one and great and everything but not really my cup o tea. More sloppy titling work in New Zealand to mention too, as they stuff up the B side.

Sgt Pepper as a single just feels wrong and so it and Back In The USSR feel like EMI are milking it. Make no mistake these are great songs but did we really need them as singles long after the albums had been released?

Hidden gems: Wow - Lennon's Come Together is riddled with good raunchy juju. I love the fact that Yoko tried to dampen down the sexual innuendo during the Love project with Cirque Du Soleil (as seen in the documentary All Together Now - check out the promo below at the minute mark for a sample).

She's bonkers, in denial, or both. What was she on about? This is the same woman who made a 15 minute film of Lennon's penis (Self-Portrait) and another, Film # 4, a.k.a. Bottoms. Suddenly she's all prudish on John's behalf! Come again??



You Know My Name is not quite the weirdest song the Beatles released (Revolution #9 is my vote) but it's a contender. Weird in a good way too.



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