Lay the smack down: The Beatles challenge
 

I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about The Beatles, so here's the challenge:

Ask me something I don't know about the Fab Four. Try it. I dare ya.

* This includes legitimate trivia questions (What's Paul's middle name?)
* This includes bizarre, stupid questions (How long was John's penis?)
* This includes discussion/essay questions (What was the significance of "Hey Jude" being a 7-minute single?)

Go on, I dare ya. I double dare ya.

well let's start with the 3 gimmes you have up there...

* This includes legitimate trivia questions (What's Paul's middle name?)
* This includes bizarre, stupid questions (How long was John's penis?)
* This includes discussion/essay questions (What was the significance of "Hey Jude" being a 7-minute single?)

Ah, thank you, honorable Cynthetiq.

1) Paul's middle name is Paul.
2) John's penis was 5 inches (based on the cover of the Two Virgins album).
3) Since AM radio was based on the 3-minute single format, the AM stations were forced into a dilemma with the 1968 7:40 Beatles single "Hey Jude." Their only options included a) playing the song in its entirety, which would screw up the timing on their formats, or b) playing a chopped-down 3-minute version which fit the format but pissed off everybody who wanted to hear the bulk of the song. The majority of AM stations chose Option B, which encouraged a large number of pissed-off people to try out those new-fangled FM stations which were just starting to appear on the dial playing album-oriented rock, and were quite happy with playing the whole 7:40 original version. Therefore, the Beatles gave FM radio the first big kick it needed to steal away mainstream listeners from AM radio.

What is the most overrated Pop act of the twentieth century?

Nirvana

Why did people think that paul was dead from the abbey road cover? Did they think that the band was prophetic w/ the picture, or did they think that after paul died, they posed him like that for one last cover?

Which Beatles wife had an extra-marital affair that led to one of the all-time classic rock albums? (Name the album).

an easy one: what is the real title of The White Album?

who was the Fifth Beatle?

what (if any) albums feature Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best and Tony Sherridan?

who played with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes before joining the beatles?

Len Garry Eric Griffiths Rod Davis Colin Hanton Ken Brown John "Duff" Lowe Bill Smith Ivan Vaughan Nigel Whalley

do you have ANY idea who those people are?

Some (but not all) clues to Paul's death (which was supposed to have occurred on November 9, 1966) on the Abbey Road cover:

Paul was the only Beatle with eyes closed and with no shoes. He was also the only Beatle carrying a cigarette. And, he was out of step with the other three Beatles. The procession across the street was to represent a funeral, with John as the preacher, Paul as the corpse, Ringo as the undertaker, and George as the gravedigger. The Volkswagon parked on the curb displayed a license plate that read "28 IF" suggesting that Paul's age in 1970 (the year of Abbey Road's release) would have been 28 if he had lived. Also, the car in the road was pointed straight at Paul, representing his death in a car accident.

And the second part of your question is neither; ever since Paul's death in 1966, he was replaced by look-alike William Campbell, an Ontario police officer.

George's first wife Patti Boyd fell deeply in love with Eric Clapton, and they began having a lurid affair in the late 60's. George was unaware, and continued to invite Clapton to appear on his recordings and concerts.

Clapton and Patti had code names for each other, and her code name was "Layla." Therefore, "Layla, and Other Assorted Love Songs," by Clapton's band Derek and the Dominos was penned for Patti Harrison.

The White Album was called "The Beatles," and early pressings of the album had the original titled embossed in the lower right section.

The fifth Beatle was bassist Stu Sutcliffe, who left the group in 1961 to stay in Germany with his girlfriend, Astrid Kirchner. Astrid was the one who took the early classic black and white photos of the Beatles in Germany, and she suggested the Beatle haircut. Stu died not long after leaving the group of a brian hemmorrhage.

Although Pete Best was the drummer when the Beatles recorded back-up for singer Tony Sheridan's "My Bonnie," it happened after Stu's death.

Richard Starkey.

You got me on the last one. I do not recognize any of those names. Part of my own rules for this smackdown challenge state that I CAN NOT look up any of these answers; all the answers must come from my memory. Therefore, without looking them up, I don't know them.

Good questions, all.

What is Phil Collins connection to the Beatles?

BTW - I really like this, I hope this thread continues for a long, long time. Great idea!

Who taught John Lennon to play harmonica?

Thanks, I'm having a blast.

Phil Collins was one of the screaming kids used in the studio audience in the filming of "A Hard Day's Night." This was something I didn't know until the AFI started their push to raise money to restore classic films and they used Phil Collins to host the segment on "A Hard Day's Night." He displayed a wonderful freeze-fame of himself in the screaming thong of teens at the filming.

I absolutely love the second question, because Delbert McClinton is one of the coolest people in the biz. McClinton played harmonica backup to a ton of old blues front men, and one of those songs (I think it was "Hey Baby" but I could be wrong on that) hit No. 1 in England and resulted in a British tour. It was during that tour he met John Lennon and gave him some harmonica tips that John added immediately to "Love Me Do."

damn, you are good at this!

Who did Paul dedicate P.S. I Love You to?

this is the only obscure Beatles thing i know...

who sampled "Blackbird" as part of their remake of an old rap song and what did they replace the lyrics with?

i thought of another...

in a simpsons episode, bart and milhouse break into someone's house and find their Beatles collection. a) who's house was it and b) what were the names of the beverages that bart and milhouse drank?

link the beatles to charles manson

allll you've got too.

the white album WAS called The Beatles. that is correct. but the "fifth beatle" was never stuart sutcliffe. the "Fifth Beatle" was supposed to be DJ Murray The K. of course he was NOT a member of the beatles.

MAG: How did you get the nickname The Fifth Beatle?

MTK: It was in Washington. I think it was Ringo who did it. One guy asked them some question, and they gave him a real typical Beatlesque kind of answer. They were really putting the press on. One reporter said, "Who's this fellow we see with you all the time?" They answered "Oh, don't you know him? My goodness man. That's the Fifth Beatle." That's where that was picked up. I was tagged with it after that. Then the station heard about it and started billing me on the air as The Fifth Beatle. I really didn't like it very much, but that was it.

http://beatles.ncf.ca/murrayk.html

everything else is actually quite fascinating. as for those other people i mentioned, they were members of The Quarrymen who, believe it or not, are mentioned in
the all music guide.

Here's a few

Who is Julia?

Who is Martha?

Who exploited Helter Skelter?

Which two songs were involved in George Harrison's plagiarism suit?

and finally the toughie...
what model guitar was George's favorite (hint trick question).

holy crap....I don't have a question this is just a WOW...if you aren't looking any of this up then kudos to you - you really do know your stuff!
:)

What is a "Helter Skelter"

Thought of another one - What was the last song written by Lennon & McCartney?

Okay, sorry to have taken so long to reply to all the new questions. My wife went into the hospital with pnuemonia and acute anemia this weekend and we spent our 10th Anniversary together in the ICU.

She took a blood transfusion of 4 units of blood, so she's snapping around with much more energy than ever before, and she's back home again doing wonderfully. Therefore, give a bit of slack in response timing.

I can say that after reading through the new questions, I quickly see at least one that I can't answer.

I hadn't heard of the Murray the K story before, although I am very familiar with his career. I even have a couple of albums by Murray the K (they're just complilation albums of stuff that he would have likely played, but his name and photo are on the albums).

I have a tape of an old "What's My Line" game show episode that featured Pete Best as the "Fifth Beatle," but I never considered him that. I guess I always just equated Stu with that nickname since there were five Beatles during his tenure.

You completely stumped me on The Quarrymen question. Damn good one.

My rap and hip-hop knowledge is lacking, so I'm guessing something I think I heard once; Velvet Crush. But I don't know what they replaced the lyrics with (was it a different Beatles' song, maybe "Getting Better?").


I don't know anything about The Simpson's, so you've easily stumped me on this one.

Both of these were excellent questions, and I eagerly await the correct answers.

The aforementioned White Album is the link to Charles Manson. Manson believed The Beatles were speaking directly to him through several songs on this album, including "Helter Skelter," "Blackbird," "Piggies," and "Sexy Sadie." He believed that The Beatles were giving him the clues he needed to spark the racial war that would leave all the whites slaughtered, except for him and his Family, and the surviving inept blacks would then turn to Manson to be their leader.

Therefore, when the two sets of murders occurred at the Tate Mansion and the LaBianca house, several references to these Beatles songs were written in blood by the Manson followers as attempts to spark the racial war.

Julia was John's birth mother, accidentally killed by an off-duty drunk police officer when John was 14.

Martha was Paul's sheepdog. The song "Martha My Dear" is Paul's tribute to Martha, the Sgt. Pepper album ends with a long blast from a dog whistle as a message to Martha, and Martha's taped barking can be heard in the fading seconds of "I Feel Fine."

I'm not sure what you mean by "exploited." Although Manson's connections are documented in an earlier post, it was Vincent Bugliosi (the DA in the Manson trial) who authored the book about he murders entitled, "Helter SKelter." I hope that's what you were looking for.

George's plagiarism involved his single "My Sweet Lord," released in 1970, and the Chiffons' "He's So Fine." I don't know if George actually willfully plagiarized that song or not, but musically speaking they are identical. George made many offers to settle the suit, but they were all declined, and the court eventually ruled against him.

I'm not sure about George's favorite guitar. Since you typed in "trick question," that would lead me to guess that he didn't have a favorite. The most famous photographs show him lugging around that enormous Gretsch.

Thanks. Made my day with that one.:D

Helter Skelter is the English name for the playground equipment also known as the "slide." The opening line of the song is "When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide."

I hate to sound picky, but what do you mean by the "last song" question? The last recorded song written partially by Lennon and partially by McCartney would be "Real Love."

The last Beatles song recorded by them all together was "I Me Mine," but that one was written by George.

I think the last song the two of them actually collaborated on was either "Getting Better," "Hey Bulldog," or "All Together Now." It's easy to pick out the few full collaboration songs because they have separate chopped out parts featuring each of them singing his own part.

And the last song credited to the writing team of Lennon/McCartney and published under that name was probably something off of "Plastic Ono Band."

Hey, Craven buddy, when I re-read the thread I noticed that I skipped this question.

It was dedicated to Paul's steady girlfriend at the time, Dorothy something from Liverpool. After breaking up with her, Paul dated Jane Asher (Peter Asher's sister) until 1969 when he suddenly met and married Linda Eastman.

Part of the fun surrounding the "Paul Is Dead" stuff is that although The Beatles were able to initially fool Jane with Paul's replacement, it was Dorothy who tipped her off and wised her up that something was wrong.

Also notice that I used the phrase "steady girlfriend" in the first paragraph, because it would be the heighth of lunacy for me to suggest that these were Paul's only women. I'll bet there are several 35-40 year old children in towns like Philadelphia, Washington, Minneapolis, etc. who look amazingly like John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

Thanks for the questions, and keep them coming.

OK.. This is a bit post Beatles, after the break up, but still counts..

In the song "Silly Love Songs" Where did the words "You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs." Come from, and why?

They came as a response to John's vicious Paul-bashing single, "How Do You Sleep?" off the "Imagine" album. It's a vicious little song (that features George on lead guitar, too). My favorite line from that song is, "Those freaks was right when they said you was dead." Damn, that's cold.

John even posed himself holding a pig by the ears on the back cover in response to Paul's recently-released "Ram" album showing him holding the horns of a ram on his farm.

John essentially (through his music) accused Paul of not being able to rock anymore, and Paul answered with "Silly Love Songs," which basically says, "You're right, and so what?"

I've always noticed that "Steel and Glass" off John's "Walls and Bridges" album has the exact same melody and chord changes as "How Do You Sleep?" but I've always heard it was about Allen Klein instead of another shot at Paul.

Now, I've got to go listen to "How Do You Sleep?" again, because it's stuck in my head. Good song.

WOW! You sure know your Beatles, warrrreagl. Way to go.. You actualy threw in info that I wasn't aware of. Nice job. I'll have to try harder..

I hope that wasn't to "off topic" for being post Beatles.. But then, it wasn't Simpsons.. :p

Thank you very, very much. And no, it wasn't off-topic at all, especially considering the feud that sparked "How Do You Sleep?" and "Silly Love Songs" went all the way back to the break-up.

I am still bugged about that Simpson's question, though. I've got to learn more about that.

Wow.

First of all, hope your wife gets better - and soon.

Dorothy Rhone or Rhome was the girl.

I always thought Get Back was the last true compilation between John & Paul. Both had pieces of different songs that they put together to create Get Back.

A helter skelter is a slide but one that is a spiral rather than straight.

And you are right, that was one cold shot at Paul. I always thought this line was the coldest "The only thing you did was yesterday"

John Lennon - How Do You Sleep lyrics

So Sgt. Pepper took you by suprise,
You better thru that mother's eyes,
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead,
The one mistake you made was in your head,
How do you sleep?
Ah how do you sleep at night?

You live with straights who tell you you was king,
Jump when your mamma tell you any thing,
The only thing you did was yesterday,
And since your gone you're just another day,
How do you sleep?
Ah how do you sleep at night?

A pretty face may last a year or two,
But pretty soon they'll see what you can do,
The sound you make is muzak to my ears,
You must have learnt something all thos years,
How do you Sleep?
Ah how do you sleep at night?



I'm tapped out on Beatles stuff. Probably knew more way back when.

Damn, I miss those guys....

OK, one more. Explain the "bag".

Here's a question.. Not so much trivia though.. Did John and Paul ever make peace before Johns death?

Thanks for the thoughts for my wife. She's a walking little miracle today.

I'm always anxious to learn more about The Beatles, so I'm curious to read your thoughts about the collaboration on "Get Back." Can you tell which parts belong to whom?

The bag refers to several things. John and Yoko appeared in a large bag or gunny sack in Vienna while on their circus honeymoon, and many believed they made love in public while in the bag. Frequently, Yoko would appear during concerts with the Plastic Ono Band in the bag, either standing at the microphone and shrieking or laying at John's feet (and shrieking). It was part of Yoko's avant garde direction known as bagism, where the outline of the bag and the possibilities of what was inside were more important than what was actually there. Bagism was referenced in the lyrics of "Give Peace a Chance." John and Yoko also published a series of drawings and sketches (many of them highly erotic) entitled "Bag One."

As much as I despise Yoko, I still have to admit that she was quite a powerful force in avant garde circles long before she and John ever met.

Yes, they did. John gave several details of their make-up in the famous Playboy interview that was conducted with John and Yoko before his death (obviously) and published at the same time as his death.

The biggest mind-fuck in the whole interview was a juicy section where John described the many nights that Paul would show up at the Dakotas and pop in on John. It was during this time (1976) that Saturday Night Live was running the ongoing gag about promising to give the Beatles a whopping $3000 if they would reunite on the stage at SNL and sing three songs. According to John, on the night that George Harrison was the musical guest (with host Paul Simon), John and Paul watched the live episode from John's Dakota apartment. They spent the entire 90 minutes daring each other to go down to the studios at Rockefeller Center, and they actually got up to leave the apartment several times before chickening out.

Can you imagine what that would have been like if they'd strolled onstage live with George and started playing. WOW!!!

A Helter Skelter is a circular slide.

And a ridiculous question - whats the Eric Idle link to the beatles?

Many of us wished they had.. That may have, and I stress the word "may" have saved John from being killed. But we'll never know.. Thanks for the tidbit of info..

Thanks for all the heads-ups concerning the helter skelter being a circular slide. I have to chalk that one up to a missed answer, because I did not know it was particularly a circular slide.

I spent many years as a classroom teacher and college professor, so I've heard plenty of ridiculous questions. Yours ain't one of them. Eric Idle created The Rutles, which was the BEST parody of The Beatles anywhere, anytime. Also, George and Eric were connected in some way to film publications (I think George backed some Python films and other films involving Eric, but I'm totally fuzzy on those details). My post-break-up knowledge of George and Ringo is terribly lacking.


At the very least, it might have brought John out of retirement three years earlier, and who knows what would have happened from there.


I hope the rest of you are having as much fun as I am (but I doubt it). Please, keep 'em coming.

The real Paul McCartney Died? William Campbell was married to Linda McCartney aka Linda Campbell? I'm super confused. :confused: :confused:

"I'm always anxious to learn more about The Beatles, so I'm curious to read your thoughts about the collaboration on "Get Back." Can you tell which parts belong to whom?"

Ooops! I'm wrong. After a bit of googling the song was "I've got a feeling" Part by John and part by Paul. John's portion was from on unfinished song he had titled "Everyone had a hard year" Paul's was titled "I've got a feeling" Its easy to see how this song once was two.

I was watching SNL that night, back when everybody watched SNL. I remember all the rumors about the 'lads' getting back together in Rolling Stone and other forms of media. I remember all the clatter about Klaatu when they release their first album, supposedly the Beatles incognito. It messes with your mind to think what might have been, had they gotten back together.

Its hard to discount their effect not only on music but on all of culture worldwide. And to think it was over in just a flash, just 8 years.

How many songs did the group record from 1962 to 1970? I have to admit I cheated, this was on the site I found on google.

Well, I don't know where to begin. I could probably use up all of Halx's server space answering this one.

The best explanation I can come up with is that the most ingenious advertising gimmick of all time was created by The Beatles when they retreated into the studios in 1967. They created a hoax within a hoax by suggesting that Paul had died in a car crash in 1966 and had been replaced secretly by an imposter named William Campbell. Then, secret clues outlining the "hoax" was peppered throughout album covers, lyrics, recording techniques, and publicity photo shoots. However, by the time anybody began to piece together all the clues and figure it out, The Beatles were within months of breaking up. Therefore, the big rush to buy all their albums and investigate the clues came too late. The Beatles always officially denied anything about the "Paul Is Dead" stuff, but that's the only right answer anyway, if you think about it.

An excellent book exists to explain in fantastic detail all of the clues and their various meanings entitled, "The Walrus Was Paul." Also, if you type "Paul Is Dead" or "William Campbell" into a web search engine, you can find some very entertaining sites.

Needless to say, there are plenty of kooks out there who still believe that Paul is really dead, so be careful.

Hot damn, you're right! That song is clearly a collaboration. And it reminds me that "Two Of Us" from the same album is also a certain collaboration. Good, good stuff.

All my friends bought the Klaatu stuff, but I missed it somehow. I guess I didn't really want it be true.

You KNOW I can't answer this one without looking it up, so I'm conceding this one. More than 200? I think... Sneaky damn devil.

"You KNOW I can't answer this one without looking it up, so I'm conceding this one. More than 200? I think... Sneaky damn devil."

Yep, 214. I can't take credit for stumping you as I found this on a website as I mentioned earlier. I won't be back to check this thread until the weekend, hope to see it continuing. Lots of fun.

On the song Michelle, what are they chanting in the background (or is it "allegedly" chanting)?

Are there any intentional backwards lyrics on any of the Beatles albums? i.e. Audible when the record is played backwards.

Which album(if any)?

What are the lyrics(if any)?

"Michelle" doesn't have any background chanting, but I think I know what you mean anyway. On the same "Rubber Soul" album is a song called "Girl," where they chant "tit" in the background. Where the lyrics go, "She's the kind of girl who puts you down when friends are there, you feel a fool," the background vocals are saying, "tit tit tit tit tit tit....." and it sort of sounds like "doot doot doot." It was very much intentional as they were stretching their studio legs and seeing how much they could get away with.

On a related note (ha ha), the background vocals of "Paperback Writer" are singing "Frere Jacques."

And by the way, if anybody ever asks you, the French words in "Michelle" translate as "These are words that go together well."

There are two categories to this answer; regular recording gimmicks and Paul Is Dead stuff.

In the "regular recording gimmick" area, there is the single "Rain" by John. The last line of the song during the fadeout is a backwards recording of the songs's opening line "When the rain comes they run and hide their heads." Although many serious 20th Century composers had been experimenting with backwards recording for quite awhile, The Beatles were certainly the first pop act to try it. The most frequent backwards recording by The Beatles was used on drum parts and guitar solos. "Rain" was only released as a single by The Beatles, but I think it is on the "Past Masters" compilation album.

The other category involves the controversial technique of back-masking, where normal words or gibberish are sung or spoken forwards, and they reveal hidden messages when played backwards. The two most frequently cited examples of back-masking in Beatles songs are the opening chant of "Revolution 9" and the closing gibberish in "I'm So Tired." In "Revolution 9," the piece begins with a repeated chant of "Number 9. Number 9. Number 9....." and if this is played backwards, it sounds like "Turn me on, dead man. Turn me on , dead man. Turn me on, dead man." In the closing gibberish in "I'm So Tired," the backwards version sounds like "Paul is dead man. I miss him, I miss him, I miss him." Both of these songs are on "The White Album."

Nice job, warrrreagl. I think the backwards cymbal at the beginning of one of the tunes on Sgt. Pepper's was the first backwards recording in popular music.
I listened to "Revolution 9" backwards with my uncle when I was 12 and it sounds like, "Stand me up, dead man. Stand me up, dead man..." Turn me on dead man makes more sense though.

Here's my next question for you:
What exactly is it that makes "A Day in the Life" the best song
ever?
Serious question: What's the backwards sounding stuff at the end of that tune? Forwards it sounds like they're saying something about Annie Oakley.

B/T/W This thread is GREAT! I love threads that really share someone's knowledge on an interesting topic. Thanks warrrreagl.

Thanks. Actually, there were a couple of songs on "Revolver" which featured some backwards instrumentation ("Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I'm Only Sleeping"). I think these were recorded at the same time as "Rain," but "Rain" featured backwards vocals, yet was not placed on the "Revolver" album with the rest of them. And "Revolver" was released the year before "Sgt. Pepper."

I remember reading that some publication had ranked "A Day In the Life" as the Best Song Ever, but I've never seen their justification. Although I agree it is an incredible work, I think it's too subjective and futile to pick one song over all the others as the best.

It has true collaboration between John and Paul with the incredible orchestra crescendo between the sections. The orchestra was overdubbed 4 times, giving the impression of hundreds of musicians. The harmonic structure of the two pieces are G major (John's parts) and E major (Paul's parts). Normally, it would be difficult to modulate smoothly and functionally from G major to E major, but the orchestra crescendo takes care of it both times. Of course, it's the second orchestral run that leads to the marvelous E major chord that's slammed down and held forever at the end.

The "Paul Is Dead" freaks refer to the lyrics of this song as hard proof that Paul died in a car crash, although John always said it described the death of a friend of theirs who was the heir to the Guiness fortune.

The gibberish at the end was a small snippet of random tape loops that were spliced together and inserted after the dog whistle for Martha. I don't know how old you are, but on old record players, the tone arm would hit the end of an album and quickly slide along the grooves toward the center, causing the tone arm to "reject" and release another album onto the stack. The Beatles altered the pressing of "Sgt. Pepper" so that the last groove was "locked" and the tone arm would never advance toward the center and would never reject. The resulting effect is that the small taped gibberish at the end of "A Day In the Life" would repeat over and over and play indefinitely until you got up and manually rejected the album. The CD release of "Sgt. Pepper" recreated this effect by looping the gibberish together and repeating it several times.

The random and repeating gibberish is almost like an audio Rorschach test, because everybody hears something different. I hear something about a pussy every time I listen to it.:lol:

to the first question, a band named Dynamite Hack did a humorous cover of N.W.A.'s "Boyz N the Hood" where they (young, clean-cut white boys) do an acoustic guitar accompanied rendition of the classic.

at the end of the song, they tacked on a part of Blackbird but replaced the lyrics

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly"

with

"Punk ass trippin in the dead of night
homies score and key is gonna fly, punk ass fly"

it's a funny song, worth downloading to fully understand how it all comes together.

as for the Simpsons trivia, the house they break into is Flanders's house and the names of the beverages they drink are classic collectable sodas entitled "John Lemon" and "Mango Starr."

Tech,

I'm always anxious to learn more about The Beatles, so thank you. So far you've got the top prize for stumping me the best. It's yours unless someone can dethrone you.

Who's next?

not going to bother with a question, but another notable Beatles/Simpsons moment is that Marge is a known Ringo fan, back in the day she had painted a portrait of Ringo and mailed it to him, well she didn't hear from him for many years but in the present episode he finally wrote her back, insisting on answering all of his fan mail (piles and piles) it takes a while, but he answers everyone. he comments on how wonderful her picture is and hangs it up on his wall. it inspires Marge to start painting again.

p.s. as with most all guest stars on the simpsons, Ringo voiced himself for the episode.

I could have sworn you said, "bother with a question." It is a physical impossibility to bother me with a Beatles question.

And I dug the Simpsons info; more stuff I did not know.

i meant bother myself with posing a question i knew you couldn't answer! :D hehe j/k!

During the Get Back sessions approximatly how much time was recorded onto the 16min reels? And who was the major distributor of copies of the reels for the past years who isn't in operation anymore.

What song was recorded in a Ready, Steady, Go! video which was never realeased on any album?

What was George against doing with The Beatles but ended up doing eitherway?


That's it for now... :D


Edit: There was one question about George's favorite guitar...
I'm taking a guess here and saying that it was his 360/12 that got stolen not long after the Candlestick Park concert...
If not, then i'll say it was his Gretsch Duo Jet...

OK, tie this all together. What does the following have in common? And yes, some of it is Beatles based. If you can figure out each one of the following, then figure out what they all have in common.

Gong Bangers
A Welsh apple in the orchard
Thin white duke
Singers in a rock and roll band
More than just an assistant

George Harrison wrote "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" but wasn't satisfied with the solo...so a good friend sat in and played the solo but was uncredited on the album. Who was it?

Eric Clapton.

The vast majority of these others make for entertaining reading.

Friggen GREAT thread guys!! I'm a latecomer to the Beatles.. Well, I always loved their music (or at least what I heard of it.. mostly singles) but I was born in '77 so never saw them at their peak (or even TOGETHER). A while back my GF bought the Beatles Anthology DVDs and they sat around for a while until I watched them last week. What a fascinating story! It blows my mind to think of just how much music they created in what is a relatively short amount of time. Now I'll have to get all the albums :)

Wouldn't you know it? I usually check this Forum several times a day on the outside chance that someone has revived this thread.

Then I go out of town for a few days.

Then I get a PM from Craven Morehead telling me that I'm suddenly several posts behind.

Wouldn't you just know it?

Give me a minute, gang. On my first reading, I knew most of them, but there's one post I need to think about. Don't worry; I won't look it up...

By "Get Back" sessions, I assume you mean the recently discovered missing tapes. There were about 500 tapes recovered, which puts it at roughly 8000 minutes. If you were referring to ALL of the existing Get Back tapes, I have no clue without looking it up. But I'd be glad to know. I'm also clueless about the distributor, but I do know that Glyn Johns was the culprit in sneaking out the early dubs.

The missing release from Ready, Steady, Go! was the ultimate frat party song, "Shout!" I'm actually glad they didn't release it, because I don't think it's a very good version. I'm sure that when they were belting it out back in Hamburg it sounded a lot better.

I need more info on the George question. A hundred things are running through my head and it could be any of them.

Thanks for the questions!

Gong bangers = T. Rex
Welsh apple in the orchard = Mary Hopkins
Thin white duke = Bowie
Singers in a rock and roll band = Moody Blues
More than just an assistant = ???


But most importantly, I am unable to tie them all together and connect them to the Beatles (as a bound unit). Connecting Mary Hopkins is easy, but I have to cry "Uncle" about the others.

Dang it, Craven, this is exactly the kind of question I love, but you got me with it.:p

Okay, I gave in to temptation and looked this one up (although it doesn't count, and I'm officially on the books as being stumped).

Trident Recording Studios? Is that it?

Tony Visconti ties it all together.

Tony produced T. Rex, David Bowie and the Moody Blues and was married to Mary Hopkin and later on May/Mae Pang (who was more than just an assistant to John Lennon).

Ah, good one.

*in my best Johnny Carson voice* I did not know that.

Good grief, Lennon. May Pang? I mean, really. May Pang??!!?? Could he have picked anyone uglier for an "assistant?"

When I typed in T. Rex, Bowie, Mary Hopkins, and Beatles into my search engine, I got this site for a recording studio called Trident.
http://www.pulse-disco.co.uk/recording_studio.htm

Since this is my thread, I'm allowed to go off-topic slightly. Here's a bit of personal Beatles trivia that I posted on another thread about concerts. I'm sure you've all probably read it before, but I couldn't resist.

This was my response to a lucky dog who got to see The Beatles in concert in Memphis in 1966.


<<**huff puff huff puff*

*fuming with anger, resentment, awe, envy, and respect*

The Beatles. You got to see the frickin' Beatles. I bow to your greatness.

There was a radio station in Montgomery, AL called WBAM back then, and the owner owned stations in Memphis, Birmingham, and Jacksonville, FL, also. He had booked The Beatles to play in his four towns during that 66 tour. My folks were all set to buy us tickets, and our whole family was going to go.

And then Lennon had to open his big fat mouth. And then Birmingham started burning records. And then, as if by magic, Birmingham and Montgomery were dropped from the tour (although Memphis and Jacksonville remained). My folks didn't want to make the drive that far, so I never got to see them.

Dang it.>>


By the way, that radio station owner did manage to book some pretty great bands back then. He would create tour stops in those four cities, and many of the touring artists would converge on Montgomery for the same night. They were called Big Bam Shows (in honor of the Montgomery radio station, WBAM). All these acts would take the stage for one or two songs and then the next act would follow. It was fantastic. My father took us to one of those shows and we were able to see Paul Revere & The Raiders, Dave Clark Five, Swingin' Medallions, Classics IV, and Herman's Hermits all in the same night.

Okay, the commercial is over. Now, it's back to the Beatles Challenge.

Read the 'about' section on his website

http://www.tonyvisconti.com/index.htm

I think you will really like the last part. Tony is one guy that can truly say he was there. And has been for a long long time. Great career.

gimme the dude playin' the organ/synth on the roof top of abbey roads studio?

*i know .....eaaaasyyyyyy*

great thread to man.lots 'o fun readin' this stuff.

thanx eh

Are there any Beatles songs out there that, to this day, remain entirely unreleased and have never been heard by anyone outside the band?

Just cause I think that if new Beatles material were released today, it would create a hell of a stir.

Really freakin nice warrrreagl!

That would be none other than Billy "Will It Go Round In Circles?" Preston. Those organ solos really wail in those sessions, too. The Beatles were always on their best behavior whenever a guest artist was in the studio with them, so having Billy Preston around was like salve on a wound for those final sessions.

And speaking of Billy Preston, when his hit "That's the Way God Planned It" was first released, I could have sworn he was singing "That's the Way, Goddamn It!" I keep meaning to submit this one to the mondegreen people,, but I keep forgetting.

I would have to say, "Hell, yes." Without knowing any titles, I know of several snippets of songs that made it onto albums without the entire song getting through (Wild Honey Pie from the White Album, for example). Also, on Anthology 3 is a bit of a song called What's the New Mary Jane.

My best guess is that Paul, George, and Ringo listened exhaustively at the mountains of tape before agreeing to re-record Real Love and Free As a Bird (having decided that the other unreleased material was somehow not up to snuff).

Dear Sir (or Madam), the honor is all mine. Really.

Glad to see another Beatle fanatic around. Great job so far on all of the answers.

These two should be no challenge for you, but I submit them anyways.

Who is singing backup on "Back in the U.S.S.R."?

What singnificanct first does the band "Badfinger" hold in the recording industry?

here's my question:

where was i, when i was in the same room as the 4-track they used to record Pepper, while some old left-handed bass player dude was playing me his (as yet, unreleased) new album, towards the end of '88 ?

i'll buy you a bottle of Bacardi, if you can answer that one ;)

I'm pretty sure "The Fifth Beatle" is keyboardist Billy Preston....not whoever you said (Stu Sutcliffe, I think you said...I'm too lazy to go back and look...LOL).

I guess there are two "Fifth Beatles"....

Who was the Walrus?

I've never seen it written anywhere about the backup singer on "Back in the USSR," but my ears have always told me it was Yoko. And I feel pretty confident about that.

However, I don't feel confident about the Badfinger question. Were they the first non-Beatle act from Apple Records to have a hit single?

maybe Paul produced their album. or something.

I have no answer for you. Not even a guess.

Now that's an excellent question.

First of all, since John wrote the song entitled, "I Am the Walrus," then you'd have to conclude that John was the walrus. However, in the lyrics for John's "Glass Onion," he clearly states, "The walrus was Paul."

And then you have to consider who is actually wearing the walrus costume on Magical Mystery Tour. Most people believe it is Paul, because the walrus costume was the only black one. However, in one of the inserted photos from Magical Mystery Tour, there is a photo of the Beatles playing outdoors with little eggmen surrounding them, and some policemen standing atop a wall in the distance. Clearly, the figure playing the drums must be Ringo. The remaining three costumed Beatles are a right-handed guitar player, a left-handed guitar player, and a piano player in the walrus costume. Since the left-handed guitar player HAS to be Paul, then the walrus must be either John or George. Since George was never photographed performing on the piano, I'd have to say that John was the walrus.

If you listen close enough you can hear a few members of the Beach Boys singing the backup "oohhhs" on "Back in the U.S.S.R."

Quote:

However, I don't feel confident about the Badfinger question. Were they the first non-Beatle act from Apple Records to have a hit single?

You nailed it on the head!!

Great job.

OK... I think I MAY JUST HAVE YOU on this one...

Which Beatle wrote "I Saw Her Standing There" and WHAT AGE WAS HE when he wrote it (NOT when he recorded it)?

NOT EVEN CLOSE. it is murray the K. bleh.

Actually, I've always felt the "Fifth Beatle" was George Martin.

But, I agree that Murry the K was the originator of the phrase.

Ever since I read your response above I've wondered about your opinion of May Pang but since this information is off the top of my head I haven't had time to research it until tonight. From what I recall May Pang is very attractive. So I did some googling and came up with some very interesting results.

First read May's bio
http://www.maypang.com/maybio1.htm

Then look at her picture
http://www.maypang.com/mayf.htm

Pretty, isn't she?


BTW - I found a great website
http://www.beatlesagain.com/breflib.html

Wouldn't you know it? I felt confident about one answer and completely guessed the other, and I got it backwards.

Thanks for the tip about the Beach Boys, and I'll keep listening.

I may be missing the "significance" of the alarm clock, but I always thought it had a dual meaning. First, to signify the "waking up" portion of Paul's middle verse, and secondly, to signify that Paul was "killed" early in the morning.

The only Sgt. Pepper cover parody of which I am aware/own is Frank Zappa, but I'd love to learn about any others.

Several people were airbrushed out of the final release of Sgt. Pepper due to EMI's nervous feelings about the appropriateness of some of the characters. I think John's entire list was excluded (Jesus, Hitler, and Ghandi), although Ghandi was included in the photo shoot and airbrushed out later. Also, there was an actor who demanded a fee for his likeness and he was airbrushed out, too (can't recall his name).

There are two schools of thought about the Butcher Baby cover. One direction says that the Beatles created the cover as an editorial comment about how the American subsidiary Capitol Records was treating their music like meat on an assembly line. It was an album only released in America, by the way. The other direction says that it contains several early clues to Paul's gruesome death in a fiery and decapitating car crash. Either way, the cover was redressed immediately prior to release, although many copies simply had the new cover glued atop the old. The original Butcher Baby covers are some of the most valuable Beatles memorabilia out there (I've only seen one copy in my life).

I guess to each his own, my friend, but I still find her terribly unappealing.

The easy part is that Paul wrote it. What age was he? Many of the songs that were recorded in 1963-1964 were written during their earlier Hamburg-Liverpool days and stockpiled, so my educated guess is that Paul was 18-19 years old when he wrote it.

OK, you got the Paul part right, but in a little tidbit I heard on the radio the other day, he wrote it at the age of 14, as a matter of fact.

I admit, that's a bit of a toughie... I'll have to compile another one for later.

I'll be damned, as I'm reading this, guess what Beatles song is playing? "I Saw Her Standing There" :)

I also recall hearing that Paul was very young when he wrote this song.

The questions are getting much tougher. I'm breaking out in a sweat, now.

An easier one, to cool the sweat.

What was the name of John Lennon's band when he asked Paul to join him?

No rest for the wicked, because this question is not as easy as it seems.

The quick answer to this is The Quarrymen (named after John's school), but I'm not sure about the historical accuracy of this answer. I think John and Paul played together as the Nurk Twins the year before John formed The Quarrymen. Once The Quarrymen had been formed, John invited Paul to re-join him in the new band, and it was at this time that Paul brought George along.

My wife sent me a great article yesterday on Pete Best, and I realized as I read that article how very little I knew about the early days.