[cq dx]

Hi:

This is not a song, but rather something that might be of
some interest or help to songwriters:

One of the most enduring writing teams of the 20th century
was John Lennon / Paul McCartney, for better or for worse,
and whether or not you are a Beatle fan or not, there are
amazing opportunities to peer into the actual workings of their
writings, moreso with this duo than any other writers that
i am aware of. For example:

There has been released over the past decade a phenomenal
amount of previously unrecorded music, versions of very familiar
pieces that demonstrate how these pieces evolved and emerged.

Some of their songs just started out as silly gags, until touched
by the hand of a master, like George Martin, their producer. Over
several takes, most of which are now available on CD, one can
actually listen to how these songs morphed from something that
was really destined for the dust bin ( as much of John's writings
actually were! ) to a timeless classis. Many of these out-takes
have snatches of conversation, like Paul discussing the chord
progression of "Yesterday", when as yet he had not even finalised
the lyrics!

Listening to these takes also can lend insight on just how many
of these songs were assembled, experimented with, and re-assembled.
Remember that this was the group that first experimented with
multitrack overdubbing technology, and much of what we do
today in the studio we owe to Apple/ Capitol's pioneering work.
And to George Martin. Magical Mystery Tour was done completely
on a cutting-edge 4-track machine. In it's entirety. What was
tantamount to today's 250 dollar/ Euro Fostex 4 track box!!
The last word in 1/4" recording in 1971 was the Teac 3340s,
recording at a whopping 16 ips from 10 inch reels! Your average
sound card and "Fruity-Loops" can do about the same from your
average PC these days!

Many of the Apple/ Capitol out takes, scrub tapes ( or as we called
them, Scratch Tracks ) of the Beatle Sessions from 1965 - 1971
have been collected and released over the past ten or so years,
including their very early Hamburg perfomances. It has been very
much an education for me, having grown up with these guys, yet
having only been exposed to their finished products. Hearing the
rough, raw, early formative takes makes me think "Man, they sound
as BAD as me!! " Which is always encouraging.

Look for these "Anthologies" in the music outlets, several have been
released in the past few years. You might find that your own helplessly
confused lines and lyrics that just don't . . . . work . . . . . might
just likewise morph, with time and effort, and help from another,
into a very nice piece, much to your amazement!

( i am not plugging their lyrical content, which at times can
get pretty smudgy, and downright nasty, and yet there are some
that i perform in concert before a church crowd that really likes
them, and even Dr. James Dobson uses some of their lyrics for
"Turn You Heart Towards Home" emphasis. )

Anywhoo, thought all this might be of interest and help to fellow writers.

-gary, who, unfortunately, never remotely sounded like any of
the fab four.

[Skeeter]

True, true. What may initially seem lousy may eventually turn into a gem. I've heard some of the Beatles scratch tracks, and it is very interesting to see how the songs progressed. The best advice is to experiment, completely tear your song apart and rearrange it, try a completely different music style, or insert a chorus of one song as the bridge to another. Give it a try!

[cq dx]

One of the amazing morphs that i had been listening
to is their 1965 release "Got to Get You Into My Life",
which started life as a rhumba! No brass, as the final
product sports, and no bridge. Many of their songs
were bridgeless, and since we can now compare their
finished work with these scratch releases, it's cool to
see how an originally stark, fairly empty piece was so
dramatically affected by the simple inclusion of a
one line bridge to break things up and make it interesting.

Also interesting to hear their very electric, very produced
piece being hammered out on a simple acoustic. I noticed
they used a capo a lot, and lot's of drop 'D'. I always
wondered what the actual studio chords to "Yesterday"
were, and i find on one scratch track Paul literally calling
out the chords and giving capoed equivalent fingerings.
(" I'm in G which would be F to you . . . " they do a lot
of talking between themselves on these takes.)

What got me starting this thread was a gift a brother
gave me, a 2 CD set of out-takes. I have heard lots
of pirated vinyl releases and half track snippets, and
in the early '90s apple released the Hamburg recordings,
plus the Parlophone mixes that were different. So i
thought i had heard just about all of them, when suddenly
i get 50 more out-takes!! All of them news to me, and
each one very revealing, when one compares them to
the finished product. It always insprires me to go back
to my own stuff with a fresh head full o' ideas.

-g.

[Skeeter]

That's pretty cool. I really wish I could have been in the studio as they were making those tracks, to see the process. How amazing would that be, to actually see the Beatles laying down some of their most famous tracks...

[bobthecockroach]

Makes me think I need to go back to mine and work on them Good stuff.