The Beatles

by Steve Turner

  NOT GUILTY

  Recorded during the White Album sessions in August 1968 George had already spent two months in the studio with only one of his songs – ‘ While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ – having been picked up by the group. Over 100 takes and rehearsals of this song were produced between August 7 and August 12 but for some reason it wasn’t included in the final line-up.

  The song didn’t surface until 1979 when a re-recorded version was used on the album George Harrison. Structurally the song remained the same, with the exception of the addition of the lines; ‘not guilty for being on your street/ Getting underneath your feet’.

  Around this time George explained the song as being about the problems that were beginning to affect him as a part of the Beatles in 1968: “Paul, John, Apple, Rishikesh, Indian friends etc.” Written when he was starting to be regarded as the freaky, mystical Beatle he seems to be saying, “Don’t blame me for getting you involved with freak culture. Hey, I’m not asking for too much. I just want to do my job and get a bit of respect.”

  It’s hard not to see such lines as, ‘I’m not trying to be smart/ I only want what I can get’ as a bitter comment on his inability to increase his presence within the group and become regarded as a songwriting equal to John and Paul.

  Maybe that’s why it didn’t get on the album.

  WHAT’S THE NEW MARY JANE

  “This was a thing I wrote half with our electronic genius Alex,” said John in 1969. “It was called ‘What A Shame Mary Jane Had A Pain At The Party’ and it was meant for The Beatles album.”

  Written in India when the Greek-born John Alexis Mardas paid a visit, it was demoed at George’s Esher home in May 1968. At this stage it was a little over two and a half minutes long and as the Beatles improvised towards the end of the track one of them shouted, “Ooh. What’s the news?…What are you saying? What a shame Mary Jane had a pain at the party. What’s the new Mary Jane… Oh, my God! Mary! Mary!” This gave rise to the unusual title.

  The studio version, recorded by John and George with help from Yoko and Mal Evans, went on for over six minutes with a two-minute ‘freak out’ before the final verse. The lyric remained the same as demoed in May except for the line ‘He cooking such groovy spaghetti’ which came out, whether by accident or creative play, as ‘He groovy such cooking spaghetti’.

  The syntax of the lyric is unorthodox. There is a deliberate use of wrong tenses and wrong words which suggest that John may have been imitating the way that Indians often speak English when it is their second language. The story told is either deliberate or a coded putdown of someone in Maharishi’s circle. Significantly, John had been recording ‘Sexy Sadie’ the day before.

  At the end of the recording John can be heard saying, “Let’s hear it before we get taken away”. A year later he planned to have it released as a B side to ‘ You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’ as a Plastic Ono Band single but it was pulled at the last minute. “It was real madness,” said John describing the track in 1969. “I’d like to do it again.”

  STEP INSIDE LOVE

  Cilla Black, real name Priscilla White, was a Liverpool typist signed by Brian Epstein and given a contract with Parlophone. Her first single, released in February 1963, was ‘Love Of The Loved’, an old Quarry Men song written by Paul and used by the Beatles at their Decca Records audition. Paul turned up for the recording.

  In 1964 he wrote ‘It’s For You’ for her and then in 1968, after hearing that she was to front her own BBC TV series, he offered to write the theme song for her. Entertainment shows of the time were traditionally book-ended by big band numbers but Cilla wanted to change that.

  “Paul understood what I felt,” she said. “He said to me: ‘I know what they’re doing. They’re sending you these Billy Cotton Band-type of numbers and that’s not you. You’re the kind of person that should invite people into your house. You should have a song that that starts off very quietly and then builds up.’”

  Paul did a demo of ‘Step Inside Love’ at his home in Cavendish Avenue and double tracked it with his own voice. “All he had given us was one verse and a chorus with him playing on guitar,” remembers director and producer Michael Hurll. “We played it that way for the first couple of weeks and then decided that we needed a second verse. Paul came over to the BBC Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush and sat with me and Cilla and worked on a second verse. It started off with the line ‘You look tired love’ because Cilla was tired after a lot of rehearsing and most of what he wrote related to what was going on that day.”

  The version of the song included on Anthology was captured in September 1968 while the Beatles were waiting to record ‘I Will’. Paul begins with the chorus and slips straight into the second verse which he forgets, singing ‘kiss me goodnight’ instead of ‘love me tonight’, leaving a line out and concluding with the last line of what should have been the third verse.

  ‘Step Inside Love’ became a Top Ten hit for Cilla in Britain, was released in America in May and earned her a ban in South Africa where it was considered to be a play on a prostitute’s invitation. It could have been worse. Tony Bramwell remembers that Paul’s initial idea was ‘Come Inside Love’.

  “I quite like the song,” said Paul. “It was just a welcoming song for Cilla. It was very cabaret. It suited her voice.”

  LOS PARANOIAS

  This was nothing more than an extended studio joke initiated by Paul when, at the end of his bossa nova version of ‘Step Inside Love’ he announced in the voice of an MC, ‘Joe Prairie and the Prairie Wall Flyers’. John responded with ‘Los Paranoias’ which was enough to get Paul improvising a South American spoof about Los Paranoias.

  The likely inspiration was the Paraguayan group Trio Los Paraguayas led by Luis Alberto Del Parana who appeared in variety shows on British TV during the 1950s with their ‘Latin American rhythms’ and released a Best Of album in 1957.

  TEDDY BOY

  “Another song started in India,” announced Paul in 1970 when ‘Teddy Boy’ was included on his first solo album. “It was recorded for the Get Back album but later not used.” It was started during one of the Maharishi’s lectures at Rishikesh when Paul turned to John and sang the first line in his ear and was then finished in Scotland and London.

  Strictly speaking, it was never ‘ recorded’ by the Beatles because there was no final take, no mixing and in January 1969 Paul had still not completed the lyric. What is presented on Anthology is a rough sketch of a song offered by Paul in the hopes that John, George and Ringo would like it. The atmosphere is so informal that Paul laughs in parts, whistles over the unwritten patches and John can be clearly heard talking to others in the studio as he played along.

  This inconsequential tale of a boy called Ted who is told to be good by his mother is not one that would have warmed John’s heart. He once referred to Paul’s story songs as being about, “Boring people doing boring things”. This is probably why, as the song ended during this session, John picked up the rhythm on his guitar and turned it into a clunky square-dance song; ‘ Take your partners do-si-do/ Hold them tight and don’t let go’. That was his none-too-subtle comment about where ‘Teddy Boy’ fitted into sixties rock culture.

  ALL THINGS MUST PASS

  In November 1968, after finishing up his work on the White Album, George had gone to Woodstock to stay with Bob Dylan. Here he also spent time with The Band, Dylan’s former backing group, who had just recorded Music From Big Pink.

  This album was seen at the time as a reaction against the excesses of psychedelia and a return to the mainstream of American music. The bluntness of the group’s name and the rustic simplicity of their publicity photographs suggested a swing away from surrealism and a return to the roots of American culture.

  Their music was particularly appealing to seasoned musicians weary of the demands of fan hysteria. It was instrumental in the breakup of Cream, for example. “I got the tapes of Music From Big Pink and I thought this is what I want to play – not extended
solos and maestro bullshit but just good, funky songs,” he explained in 1974.

  George’s song ‘All Things Must Pass’, which he played during Beatles recording sessions in January 1969 and then recorded alone on February 25th, was an attempt to capture the feeling that the Band had captured on their single ‘ The Weight’. In fact, when George first played it through to John and Paul he openly enthused about the Band and their music.

  The lyric was based on a poem from Timothy Leary’s book Psychedelic Prayers After The Tao Te Ching (Poets Press, New York, 1966). The poem was a ‘translation from English to psychedelese’ of part of the 23rd chapter of the Tao that Leary had titled ‘All Things Pass’; ‘All things pass/ A sunrise does not last all morning/ All things pass/ A cloudburst does not last all day…’ As George was to admit; “I remembered one of these prayers and it gave me the idea for this thing.”

  Despite George’s frequent references to the song while the others were recording it wasn’t considered for either Let It Be or Abbey Road. Instead, it became the title track of his debut solo album in December 1970 which reached number 4 in the British album charts and topped the American charts.

  COME AND GET IT

  Apple Films, which was being run by Denis O’Dell, were planning a film of Terry Southern’s 1958 novel The Magic Christian and O’Dell asked Paul to do the music. Paul agreed, reluctantly it now seems, and with a shooting script in hand began to write.

  He started with a song to be used over a scene where Sir Guy Grand, the world’s richest man, (played by Peter Sellers), throws banknotes into a vat of filth and gets pleasure from seeing respectable people wallowing in slime in the hopes of grabbing some free cash. The idea came to him late at night while at Cavendish Avenue and he came downstairs and taped it in a whisper so as not to wake Linda. When he played it back the next day he believed that he had come up with “a very catchy song”.

  On July 5th, 1969 one of the Apple label signings, a group called The Iveys, gave an interview to Disc & Music Echo in which they complained of being neglected by the Beatles. Three weeks later Paul contacted the group and on July 29th he met them at their home and offered them ‘Come And Get It’ which he’d recorded alone with engineer Phil MacDonald five days previously at Abbey Road. He also suggested that they might make other contributions to the film soundtrack as he was trying to put his energies into recording the Abbey Road album.

  Paul produced the group on August 2nd, choosing Tom Evans to do the lead vocal and encouraging them to stick to the simplicity of his demo on which he’d played only piano, drums, bass and maracas. He told them that if they did it right he could guarantee them a hit and if they didn’t do it right then he’d keep it for a Beatles single. “That challenge really made us work hard,” said Evans.

  By the time ‘Come And Get It ‘ came out The Iveys were Badfinger (after John’s ‘Badfinger Boogie’). The single reached the top five and the group could no longer say they were neglected. The soundtrack to The Magic Christian contained three Badfinger songs and in a move to capitalize on this they titled their next album Magic Christian Music.

  Asked whether ‘Come And Get It’ was a veiled message to those squabbling over the Beatles for tune in 1968, Paul said; “It was just a straightforward pop song with all the old innuendoes. Come and get what?”

  DISCOGRAPHY 1967-70

  UK RELEASES

  SINGLES

  ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’/‘Penny Lane’, February 17, 1967, Parlophone R 5570.

  ‘All You Need Is Love’/‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’, July 7, 1967, Parlophone R 5620

  ‘Hello, Goodbye’/‘I Am The Walrus’, November 24, 1967, Parlophone R 5655.

  ‘Lady Madonna’/‘The Inner Light’, March 15, 1968, Parlophone R 5675.

  ‘Hey Jude’/‘Revolution’, August 30, 1968, Apple [Parlophone] R 5722.

  ‘Get Back’/‘Don’t Let Me Down’, April 11, 1969, Apple [Parlophone] R 5777.

  ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko’/‘Old Brown Shoe’, May 30, 1969, Apple [Parlophone] R 5786.

  ‘Something’/Come Together’, October 31, 1969, Apple [Parlophone] R 5814.

  ‘Let It Be’/You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’, March 6, 1970, Apple [Parlophone] R 5833.

  ‘Free As A Bird’/‘I Saw Her Standing There’/‘This Boy’/ ‘Christmas Time (Is Here Again)’, December 4 1995, Apple [Parlophone] CDR 6422

  ‘Real Love’/‘Baby’s In Black’/’Yellow Submarine’/‘Here, There And Everywhere’, March 4, 1996, Apple [Parlophone] CDR 6425

  EPS

  Magical Mystery Tour, December 8, 1967, Parlophone MMT-1 (mono), SMMT-1 (stereo) – ‘Magical Mystery Tour’; ‘Your Mother Should Know’/‘I Am The Walrus’; ‘The Fool On The Hill’; ‘Flying’/‘Blue Jay Way’.

  ALBUMS

  Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, June 1, 1967, Parlophone PMC 7017 (mono), PCS 7027 (stereo) – ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’; ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’; ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’; ‘Getting Better’; ‘Fixing A Hole’; ‘She’s Leaving Home’; ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!’/ ‘Within You Without You’; ‘When I’m Sixty Four’; ‘Lovely Rita’; ‘Good Morning Good Morning’; ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’; ‘A Day In The Life’.

  The Beatles, November 22, 1968, Apple [Parlophone] PMC 7067-7068 (mono), PCS 7067-7068 (stereo) – ‘Back In The USSR’; ‘Dear Prudence’; ‘Glass Onion’; ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’; ‘Wild Honey Pie’; ‘The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill’; ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’; ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’/‘Martha My Dear’; ‘I’m So Tired’; ‘Blackbird’; ‘Piggies’; ‘Rocky Raccoon’; ‘Don’t Pass Me By’; ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road’; ‘I Will’; ‘Julia’/‘Birthday’; ‘Yer Blues’; ‘Mother Nature’s Son’; ‘Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey’; ‘Sexy Sadie’; ‘Helter Skelter’; ‘Long Long Long’/‘Revolution 1’; ‘Honey Pie’; ‘Savoy Truffle’; ‘Cry Baby Cry’; ‘Revolution 9’; ‘Good Night’.

  Yellow Submarine, January 17, 1969, Apple [Parlophone] PMC 7070 (mono), PCS 7070 (stereo) – ‘Yellow Submarine’; ‘Only A Northern Song’; ‘All Together Now’; ‘Hey Bulldog’; ‘It’s All Too Much’; ‘All You Need Is Love’/ [Seven soundtrack instrumental cuts by the George Martin Orchestra].

  Abbey Road, September 26, 1969, Apple [Parlophone] PCS 7088 (stereo only) – ‘Come Together’; ‘Something’; ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’; ‘Oh! Darling’; ‘Octopus’s Garden’; ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’/‘Here Comes The Sun’; ‘Because’; ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’; ‘Sun King’/‘Mean Mr Mustard’; ‘Polythene Pam’/‘She Came In Through The Bathroom Window’; ‘Golden Slumbers’/‘Carry That Weight’; ‘The End’; Her Majesty’.

  Let It Be, May 8, 1970, Apple [Parlophone] PCS 7096 (stereo only) – ‘Two Of Us’; ‘Dig A Pony’; ‘Across The Universe’; ‘I Me Mine’; ‘Dig It’; ‘Let It Be’; ‘Maggie Mae’/‘I’ve Got A Feeling’; ‘The One After 909’; ‘The Long And Winding Road’; ‘For You Blue’; ‘Get Back’.

  Live At The BBC, November 30, 1994, Apple [Parlophone] CDPCSP 726 TC (mono) – ‘From Us To You’; ‘I Got A Woman’; ‘Too Much Monkey Business’; ‘Keep Your Hands Off My Baby’; ‘I’ll Be On My Way’; ‘Young Blood’; ‘A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues’; ‘Sure To Fall (In Love With You)’; ‘Some Other Guy’; ‘Thank You Girl’; ‘Baby It’s You’; ‘That’s All Right (Mama)’; ‘Carol’; ‘Soldier Of Love’; ‘Clarabella’; ‘I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)’; ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’; ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’; ‘To Know Her Is To Love Her’; ‘A Taste Of Honey’; ‘Long Tall Sally’; ‘I Saw Her Standing There’; ‘The Honeymoon Song’; ‘Johnny B Goode’; ‘Memphis, Tennessee’; ‘Lucille’; ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’; ‘Till There Was You’; ‘A Hard Day’s Night’; ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’; ‘Roll Over Beethoven’; ‘Things We Said Today’; ‘She’s A Woman’; ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’; ‘Lonesome Tea
rs In My Eyes’; ‘Nothin’ Shakin’’; ‘The Hippy Hippy Shake’; ‘Glad All Over’; ‘I Just Don’t Understand’; ‘So How Come (No One Loves Me)’; ‘I Feel Fine’; ‘I’m A Loser’; ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’; ‘Rock And Roll Music’; ‘Ticket To Ride’; ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’; ‘Kansas City/‘Hey! Hey! Hey!’; ‘Matchbox’; ‘I Forgot To Remember To Forget’; ‘I Got To Find My Baby’; ‘Ooh! My Soul’; ‘Don’t Ever Change’; ‘Slow Down’; ‘Honey Don’t’; Love Me Do’.

  Anthology 1, November 21, 1995, Apple [Parlophone] CDPCSP 727 – ‘Free As A Bird’; ‘That’ll Be The Day’; ‘In Spite Of All The Danger’; ‘Hallelujah, I Love Her So’; ‘You’ll Be Mine’; ‘Cayenne’; ‘My Bonnie’; ‘Ain’t She Sweet’; ‘Cry For A Shadow’; ‘Searchin’’; ‘Three Cool Cats’; ‘The Sheik Of Araby’; ‘Like Dreamers Do’; ‘Hello Little Girl’; ‘Besame Mucho’; ‘Love Me Do’; ‘How Do You Do It’; ‘Please Please Me’; ‘One After 909’; ‘Lend Me Your Comb’; ‘I’ll Get You’; ‘I Saw Her Standing There’; ‘From Me To You’; ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’; ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’; ‘Roll Over Beethoven’; ‘She Loves You’; ‘Till There Was You’; ‘Twist And Shout’; ‘This Boy’; ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’; ‘Moonlight Bay’; ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’; ‘All My Loving’; ‘You Can’t Do That’; ‘And I Love Her’; ‘A Hard Day’s Night’; ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’; ‘Long Tall Sally’; ‘Boys’; ‘Shout’; ‘I’ll Be Back’, ‘You Know What To Do’; ‘No Reply’ (Demo); ‘Mr Moonlight’; ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’; ‘No Reply’; ‘Eight Days A Week’; ‘Kansas City’/‘Hey! Hey! Hey!’.

  Anthology 2, March 18, 1996, Apple [Parlophone] CDPCSP 728 – ‘Real Love’; ‘Yes It Is’; ‘I’m Down’; ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’; ‘If You’ve Got Trouble’; ‘That Means A Lot’; ‘Yesterday’; ‘It’s Only Love’; ‘I Feel Fine’; ‘Ticket To Ride’; ‘Yesterday’; ‘Help!’; ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’; ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’; ‘I’m Looking Through You’; ‘ 12-Bar Original’; ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’; ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’; ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’; ‘Taxman’; ‘Eleanor Rigby’ (Strings Only); ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ (rehearsal); ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ (take 1); ‘Rock And Roll Music’; ‘She’s A Woman’; ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (Demo); ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (Take 1); ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (Take 7); ‘Penny Lane’; ‘A Day In The Life’; ‘Good Morning Good Morning’; ‘Only A Northern Song’; ‘ Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! (Takes 1 and 2); ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!’ (Take 7); ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’, ‘Within You Without You’ (Instrumental); ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (Reprise); ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number); ‘I Am The Walrus’; ‘The Fool On The Hill’ (Demo); ‘Your Mother Should Know’; ‘The Fool On The Hill’ (Take 4); ‘Hello, Goodbye’; ‘Lady Madonna’; ‘Across The Universe’.