Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

They are amazing... note for note perfect. These guys are the cream of the NY session musician crop, and they do this for fun, in their spare time. As far as I know, there isn't a single Beatles song that they don't cover... and that's including Revolution #9! They've got quite a following in the NY ...

... and let's not forget that they recorded their entire first album in just eleven HOURS.

I haven't heard much lately about the book that Norman Smith was supposed to be writing. That should be fascinating. Now, if only Neil Aspinall would write his memoir!!

Mark/Lyle,

Actually, "Bulldog" was recorded in mid-February, literally the day before the Beatles flew out to India. John was still "with" Cynthia at the time, but he had already met Yoko and was clearly already thinking about her, as evidenced by the postcards he began sending her almost as soon ...

This is actually the promotional video for Lady Madonna, with Hey Bulldog superimposed on the audio track. It works, because the band were actually recording Hey Bulldog while they were shooting the Lady Madonna video! One of the fab four -- Ringo perhaps? -- was said to have commented at the time ...

Y'know, it's interesting: Yoko came off not too badly in Geoff Emerick's book. Lots of stories about how she insinuated herself into the later sessions (including the infamous bed-in-the-studio story) but overall Emerick seems pretty well-disposed towards her, saying that, in his opinion, she was ...

To me, the low voice at the beginning of Taxman sounds very much like the voice saying "one more time" near the end of Piggies, which I presume is George Harrison. The high voice definitely sounds like Paul to me... and it would definitely be in character for Paul to be saying, "Go!", urging the ...

My money is on Driving Rain.

David,

According to both Emerick and Lewisohn, only John was missing from the "I Me, Mine" session, so presumably it was Ringo playing drums.

Lewisohn also provides an interesting quote from the session tapes: Before the final take, George Harrison is heard mock-reading a formal press ...

Every memoir or autobiography is by definition myopic and subjective. But the joy of reading a good one like Emerick's is that you get an honest sense of how he viewed the world around him (which, of course, centered around the Beatles for seven amazing years), without sugar-coating.

No, Mark, that's NOT what Emerick said in his book.

He does NOT say that McCartney played drums on a lot of Beatles cuts, only that he showed Ringo the parts he wanted played on a lot of cuts. As I believe is documented pretty much everywhere, Ringo played drums on virtually all Beatles ...

... love that unbelievably hip swinging bass riff of Paul's at the end of HJ!

He looks like every generic sleazy guy you ever saw in a 70s porno film!

(Not that I ever saw any, ahem.)

The 5.1 remixes of Revolution, I Am The Walrus, and A Day In The Life (the latter mostly unchanged except for the extra clarity, volume and power of the orchestra and final piano chord) are worth the price of the double disk set alone.

Mick raises a good point, which was the importance of Harrison's background singing to the Beatles' "sound."

Those songs in which he is clearly heard doing harmonies -- Because, Help, I Don't Want To Spoil The Party, Octopus's Garden and The Word, to name just five -- have a whole new dimension ...