Beatles' Hollywood Bowl recordings set for reissue this fall

A cross post from The Glass Onion Beatles Journal:

The official website for the Beatles' "Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years" documentary has posted details about the reissue of the band's Hollywood Bowl recordings, which will be out this fall on CD and vinyl.

The album isn't a directed re-issue or remastering of the 1977 Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl album but a new release made from better-quality tapes of the same shows, which have been used by Giles Martin, son of the Beatles' late producer, Sir George Martin, to create a better-sounding release.

As rumored, the release includes tracks not included on the 1977 album.

Here's a look:

The Beatles’ Companion Album to New Ron Howard-Directed Feature Documentary Presents Remixed and Mastered Recordings from Three Hollywood Bowl Concerts

Apple Corps Ltd. and Universal Music Group are pleased to announce global release plans for The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl, a new album that captures the joyous exuberance of the band’s three sold-out concerts at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965. A companion to The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, Academy Award®-winner Ron Howard’s authorized and highly anticipated documentary feature film about the band’s early career, The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl will be released worldwide on CD and for digital download and streaming on September 9, followed by a 180-gram gatefold vinyl LP on November 18. The album includes a 24-page booklet with an essay by noted music journalist David Fricke, and its cover art features a sunny photo taken on August 22, 1964 by The Beatles’ then-U.S. tour manager, Bob Bonis, as John, Paul, George and Ringo boarded a chartered flight from Seattle Tacoma Airport to Vancouver, BC for their first concert in Canada.

Documenting The Beatles’ Hollywood Bowl concerts on tape was no easy feat, as producer Sir George Martin explained in his album notes for 1977’s The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl: “The chaos, I might almost say panic, that reigned at these concerts was unbelievable unless you were there. Only three track recording was possible; The Beatles had no ‘fold back’ speakers, so they could not hear what they were singing, and the eternal shriek from 17,000 healthy, young lungs made even a jet plane inaudible.”

While The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl references the long out of print 1977 album, it is an entirely new release, directly sourced from the original three track tapes of the concerts. To preserve the excitement of the shows while unveiling the performances in today’s best available clarity and quality, GRAMMY Award® winning producer Giles Martin and GRAMMY Award® winning engineer Sam Okell have expertly remixed and mastered the recordings at Abbey Road Studios, including the thirteen tracks from the original album produced by Giles’ father, plus four additional, previously unreleased recordings from the momentous concerts.

“A few years ago Capitol Studios called saying they’d discovered some Hollywood Bowl three track tapes in their archive,” says Giles Martin. “We transferred them and noticed an improvement over the tapes we’ve kept in the London archive. Alongside this I’d been working for some time with a team headed by technical engineer James Clarke on demix technology, the ability to remove and separate sounds from a single track. With Sam Okell, I started work on remixing the Hollywood Bowl tapes. Technology has moved on since my father worked on the material all those years ago. Now there’s improved clarity, and so the immediacy and visceral excitement can be heard like never before. My father’s words still ring true, but what we hear now is the raw energy of four lads playing together to a crowd that loved them. This is the closest you can get to being at the Hollywood Bowl at the height of Beatlemania. We hope you enjoy the show…”

Featuring rare and exclusive footage, Ron Howard’s The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years is based on the first part of The Beatles’ career (1962-1966) – the period in which they toured and captured the world’s acclaim. The film is produced with the full cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years touches on the band’s Hollywood Bowl concerts and includes footage of the “Boys” performance featured on The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl.

White Horse Pictures’ GRAMMY Award®-winning Nigel Sinclair, Scott Pascucci, and Academy Award® and Emmy Award®-winner Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment are producing with Howard. Apple Corps Ltd.’s Jeff Jones and Jonathan Clyde are serving as executive producers, along with Imagine’s Michael Rosenberg and White Horse’s Guy East and Nicholas Ferrall.

Following a world premiere event in London on September 15, the film will roll out theatrically worldwide with release dates set in the U.K., France and Germany (September 15); the U.S., Australia and New Zealand (September 16); and Japan (September 22). In the U.S., Hulu is the presenting partner for Abramorama’s theatrical release of the film, which will be available to stream exclusively to Hulu subscribers beginning September 17. Studiocanal and PolyGram Entertainment are also anchor partners on the film, having acquired U.K., France, Germany and Australia and New Zealand rights. For more information about the film, visit www.thebeatleseightdaysaweek.com.

The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl

1. Twist and Shout [30 August, 1965]
2. She’s A Woman [30 August, 1965]
3. Dizzy Miss Lizzy [30 August, 1965 / 29 August, 1965 – one edit]
4. Ticket To Ride [29 August, 1965]
5. Can’t Buy Me Love [30 August, 1965]
6. Things We Said Today [23 August, 1964]
7. Roll Over Beethoven [23 August, 1964]
8. Boys [23 August, 1964]
9. A Hard Day’s Night [30 August, 1965]
10. Help! [29 August, 1965]
11. All My Loving [23 August, 1964]
12. She Loves You [23 August, 1964]
13. Long Tall Sally [23 August, 1964]
14. You Can’t Do That [23 August, 1964 – previously unreleased]
15. I Want To Hold Your Hand [23 August, 1964 – previously unreleased]
16. Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby [30 August, 1965 – previously unreleased]
17. Baby’s In Black [30 August, 1965 – previously unreleased]

Hot Wheels rolls out Beatles-themed "Yellow Submarine" cars

A cross post from The Glass Onion Beatles Journal:

In honor of the 5oth anniversary of the song "Yellow Submarine" from the Beatles' Revolver LP, Hot Wheels has rolled out a series of vehicles inspired by the animated film of the same name, which came out a couple years later, in 1968.

The cars will be available in the Beatles Shop at the Hotel Mirage starting tomorrow and  in U.S. Walmart stores starting June 15.

Here's a look:

 

The Beatles and Muhammad Ali

A cross post with The Glass Onion Beatles Journal:

Sad news today about the passing of the great Muhammad Ali.

The fighter, like the Beatles, was an icon of the 1960s and both entered the public consciousness at around the same time.

The group and Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, met and posed for a series of publicity pictures in February 1964 in Miami, as Clay trained for his triumphant fight against Sonny Liston and the Beatles appeared a live broadcast of "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Here's a look back:

Meanwhile, in 1966 .... John Lennon and Jesus

Our Glass Onion Beatles Journal blog, today, takes a look at the news article that contained John's Lennon's controversial remark about the Beatles being more popular than Jesus. Interesting to read in its original context, which you can do at the link.

The article by journalist Maureen Cleave was published 50 years ago today.

Today's Best Picture Ever: Paul McCartney

"Rubber Soul" - and me - at 50

A cross post with our sister blog: The Glass Onion Beatles Journal.

The Beatles' Rubber Soul is one day older than me. Or two days younger, depending on how you count.

I was born on Dec. 4, 1965, which seems like an astoundingly long time ago. In Britain, Rubber Soul was released the day before, on Dec. 3, while in the U.S., where I'm from, it came out Dec. 6.

In any event, this album is what the world sounded like when I entered it, and I've always thought that was pretty cool.

If we're entitled birth albums as well as birthstones, I'll claim this one.

There was plenty of other great music in the air back then, as well.

The #1 song on the Billboard charts that week was "Turn, Turn, Turn," by the Byrds. James Brown was at #5 with "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by James Brown. Marvin Gaye was at #8 with "Ain't That Peculiar." And the Stones were bubbling up at #11 with "Get Off My Cloud."

Not that infant me was aware of any of this. Growing up, my parents didn't even play rock'n'roll in the house unless it turned up on the radio. They were of an older generation, which was cool in a way, as it left me to discover this music largely on my own.

An older cousin introduced me to the Beatles with The Magical Mystery Tour at age 8 or 9 and I bought my first Beatles album not long afterward - the oddball compilation double-LP, Rock'n'Roll Music, released 1976.  After that, I got Yesterday and Today followed by Revolver and then Rubber Soul. And then all the rest.

These were all the American Capitol versions of the Beatles' albums, of course, which meant that the song lineups differed from the band's Britain.

Capitol was so greedy for Beatles product that they created numerous albums that never existed in the Beatles' own country. The label stole songs from single releases and EPs, cobbling together unimaginatively titled collections like The Beatles' Second Album, Beatles '65 and Beatles VI. Little attention was paid to how songs were sequenced and, even worse, Capitol slathered numerous tunes with heavy reverb, making the Beatles sound like they were singing in a cave.

Still, these were the Beatles albums that Americans grew up on, at least until the CD era when the British albums and track listings became canon.

It was Capitol's version of Rubber Soul that blew Brian Wilson's mind and spurred him to make Pet Sounds, which, in turn, inspired the Beatles to create Sgt. Pepper. So you can't complain too much.

And, as far as the aberrations go, the Capitol Rubber Soul wasn't terrible.

While the Beatles' official version was an eclectic mix of power pop, folk and soul influences, the American Rubber Soul was assembled to cash in on the the then-trending American folk rock craze. It was largely acoustic, dropping "Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "What Goes On" and "If I Needed Someone" and bringing on board "I've Just Seen a Face" and "It's Only Love," which were then unheard-in-America tunes from the British version of Help!.

It all works quite well. I even enjoy the false start that Capitol left on "I've Just Seen a Face." Leaving in a mistake like this seems like something the Beatles might have done intentionally on this album, which sees them stretching out and taking more control in the studio, exploring more mature themes in their lyrics and incorporating unusual instruments, such as sitar on "Norwegian Wood,"and varied sonic textures. This is where the Beatles started to grow up.

These days, I'll take any Rubber Soul that comes my way: American, British, stereo, mono. And all variations are easy to find, whether on CD or vinyl.

Whatever you're preferred edition, I hope you'll join me in giving it an anniversary spin this week.

Rubber Soul, British back cover

Rubber Soul, American back cover

The Beatles restored "We Can Work it Out" promo film

This is from the Beatles 1+ video collection, out this week. You can see a lot more previews from the release on our sister site, The Glass Onion Beatles Journal.

More transistor radios: The Beatles and Pepsi

Following up from yesterday's Pop Focus feature on transistor radios, here's a look at a radio familiar to anyone who's seen Albert and David Maysles' great documentary about the Beatles first visit to the U.S.

In the film, there are various scenes of the band, particularly of Paul McCartney, listening to American radio for the first time via a radio shaped like a Pepsi vending machine.

The story is that there were four of these radios awaiting the Beatles when they checked into their hotel suite. The band can be seen in the Maysles' film listening to one of them while traveling around New York via limousine. The band all gets a kick out of hearing their own music - and the antic announcements of New York's over-the-top DJs - over the air.

Here's what one of the radios looks like up close.

New Beatles collection pairs #1 hits with restored 1960s promo films

Among other things, the Beatles pioneered the use of video to promote their music.

Back in the 1960s, long before MTV, the filmed several entertaining and innovative film shorts to share their latest music on television.

The shorts appeared on British TV, on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and elsewhere.

Now, after two days of teasing the project with a myserious countdown video that popped up on YouTube, the news is out. The Beatles have remixed and remastered their best-selling compilation of number one hits, 1, and paired it with DVD/Blu-ray disks featuring the promo videos and additional video content.

The details and some additional teaser video is all up at our sister site, the Glass Onion Beatles Journal, here.

Fab Friday: Vintage Beatles pics

See more Fab posts at The Glass Onion Beatles Journal!