Eight Days a Week: Inside the Beatles' Final World Tour by Robert Whitaker and Marcus Hearn

Robert Whitaker had a privelaged amount of intimate access to The Beatles. He's the photographer responsible for the infamous Yesterday and Today "butcher cover". As well as the black and white photo on the back of Revolver and the back-cover color photo for the UK compilation A Collection of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!) . Whitaker accompanied the band and documented their final tour which spanned Germany, Japan and North America.







Eight Days a Week: Inside the Beatles' Final World Tour contains many previously unpublished photographs and is an intimate view of John, Paul, George and Ringo on the road with their entourage of Neil Aspinall, Mal Evans and Brian Esptein. It also clearly illustrates just how restricted the band were as they were confined to their hotel rooms. It's a very nice document of the band with their guard down as they were just about to come off the road for good.

This is a highly-recommended coffee-table book for any Beatles fan.

256 Pages, Metro Books (2008)

Apple Records Advert April 19,1968 NME/Melody Maker

The Beatles: Rock Band Tracks Announced

The Beatles and Apple Corps have finally unveiled information on The Beatles Rock Band video game, which arrives in stores on 9/9/09 for Wii, PS3 and XBOX 360. There was a reunion of sorts for surviving members Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney at the Electronic Entertainment Expo - that's E3 to those in the know - in Los Angeles this past Monday, where the two spoke about the game. There was also a screening of the trailer for the video game as well.

Ten of the games 45 songs have been revealed:

I Saw Her Standing There
I Want to Hold Your hand
I Feel Fine
Day Tripper
Tax Man
I Am The Walrus
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Octopus's Garden
Here Comes The Sun
Get Back

Abbey Road will also be available in it's entirety for download as well.

A few of the venues where the band played were also announced (The Cavern Club, The Ed Sullivan Theater, Shea Stadium, Nippon Budokan Hall and The Apple Corps Rooftop).

And, should one feel the need, there will also be exclusive replicas of Beatle gear for purchase - such as George Harrison's Gretsch Duo Jet Guitar, John Lennon's Rickenbacker 325, Paul McCartney's Höfner bass and Ringo's Pearl kit (with the iconic custom Ludwig Beatles vanity bass drum head). And a plastic Rock Band Rickenbacker guitar is still significantly less-expensive then the real thing.

My personal wish list of songs to appear are:

Paperback Writer
Rain
And Your Bird Can Sing
Ticket To Ride
Magical Mystery Tour
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
Hello Goodbye
It's All Too Much
Help!
I'm Only Sleeping
Cry Baby Cry
We Can Work It Out
Lady Madonna
A Hard Days Night
Go To Get You Into My Life
Eight Days A Week
The Fool On The Hill
Tomorrow Never Knows (C Major throughout)
You Mother Should Know
Mother Nature's Son
All You Need Is Love
Penny Lane
I'm Down

Several of my favorite Beatles songs aren't thought of as "guitar songs" (i.e."Penny Lane" or "You Mother Should Know") but, great songs are great songs/great chord-changes are great chord-changes. Anything from A Hard Days Night to Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour would suffice. Trippy graphics and the authentic sound of a Vox AC30 combo amp would also be nice.

Paul McCartney Amazes At Coachella Festival

The tenth-annual three-day Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival took place this past weekend in Indio, California. Despite a troubled economy well over 150,000 were in attendance and well over one hundred acts performed at the multi-stage event. Some of the more notable acts that performed were Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen, The Cure, Morrissey, The Bob Mould Band, Franz Ferdinand, Paul Weller, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Superchunk, X, Fleet Foxes, Public Enemy, Joss Stone, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, My Bloody Valentine, Henry Rollins, The Killers, Perry Farrell and The Hold Steady.

While several artists impressed many, the show-stopper by all accounts was the performance by Sir Paul McCartney. It's amazing that, regardless of whether the vocals are not what they once were, the tempos have slowed down a touch - some performers continue to endear with age (Brian Wilson...Sir Paul) while many others do not. Perhaps it's the all the timeless songs under the belt, the very many achievements and countless influenced by them - there's certainly something to be said for an artist who constantly stays driven and relevant regardless of current trends.

McCartney's set included "Jet", "Got To Get You Into My Life", "Band On The Run, "Live & Let Die", "Eleanor Rigby", "Paperback Writer", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band", "A Day In The Life", "Get Back", "I've Got A Feeling", "Hey Jude", "The Long & Winding Road", John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance", George Harrison's "Something", the John Lennon tribute "Here Today", "The Fireman", "Let It Be", "Yesterday", "Helter Skelter", "Lady Madonna", "Can’t Buy Me Love", "The End", a tribute to late wife Linda (who passed away eleven years ago to the very date) "My Love" and several others.

A poignant set list to be sure. I'm glad he's still out there doing it as well as he is. I'm of the belief that there's always room for pop music legends.

The Beatles Finally Reissued

This past week Apple Corps and EMI have announced that on September 9th (get it? Number 9 - 9/9/09) they will individually release all twelve of the Beatles long-players, in properly reissued remastered-CD form. For immediate purchase initiative there will be short documentaries included with each album on the making of that particular album. As well as two box sets (one mono and one stereo) each will all sixteen discs. That's all of the original studio albums, the Past Masters set and the Magical Mystery Tour double-EP. Sixteen discs in total all with beautifully restored artwork and detailed liner-notes. The Beatles Rock Band video game will also be released for Wii, Xbox and PlayStation 3 on the same day. Digital download information will be addressed sometime in the future.

Now that's:

Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles for Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour (Originally and a "Double-EP" in the UK later a US LP)
The Beatles ("The White Album") (Two Discs)
Yellow Submarine
Abbey Road
Let It Be
Past Masters (Two Discs)

But here's the rub: no bonus tracks whatsoever. Which is a big rub indeed.

Granted the original initially released 1987 CDs sounded OK, but compared with the original vinyl releases they're pretty flat-sounding. And the fake (primitive) stereo process used in 1966 has never been corrected (for want of a better word). Not to mention a textbook example of compromised artwork. Remastering technology has significantly improved in the twenty-two years since (heck, there were big improvements five years after) the first batch of CDs hit stores. Considering there have been several fine vinyl reissues of the Beatles back-catalog one wonders what took so long for the CD reissues to take place. Virtually every other contemporary (or "contemporary" in quotes seeing as it is the Beatles) major artists of the time - The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, Bob Dylan even The Monkees to name but a few - have had their work significantly upgraded ages ago. Realistically this probably should have already taken place in 1994/1995 or so - during the great era of the BBC/Anthology releases.

The digital format has gone through various ups and downs in the past few years with the slow, niche comeback of vinyl. The preciousness of the digital medium is nowhere near that of the vinyl album. Music fans have slowly embraced this notion. Perhaps this too was sensed as well. The Beatles reissues may very well be the last large and relevant CD reissue series.

As a music fan - I seriously hope not.

Let's just hope the high-ends aren't dulled by Noise Reduction and there's no loss of dynamic range (i.e. everything in the red). The main symptom of all modern reissues. And if the recent crop of Beatles releases (Love, Let It Be Naked, Yellow Submarine Songtrack and 1) are any indication they should be amazing.