VIDEO'S OF THE WEEK - The Beatles solo special

[Niels (Mod)]

Video's Of The Week - The Beatles Solo SpecialTHE BEATLES SOLO

The members of The Beatles have all made some great music after the breakup, even Ringo. I'm not as much a fan of the solo-work, though, as I am of The Beatles. These video's are not really my favorites of the solo-work either (maybe except the George-track sung by Jeff Lynne). I just felt like posting these video's here and now, since I'm reading the best book, I've ever read about the Beatles at the moment: "Paul McCartney - Many Years From now". It's as close, as you can get to an autobiograhy by McCartney, and the author was also a part of "the swinging London"-scene around that time. A few interesting new information appears in the book, like I didn't know, that it was Lennon, that was responsible for the piano-intro to "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da"? MccArtney says, that, that piano-riff practually made the song, and I always though, that Lennon hated that kind of songs, and called it "McCartney's Granny-songs". Whereas "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is as much McCartney's song as Lennon's. I WAS going to post Beatles-video's, but I guess, that will be some other time. Here's some video's and songs from after the break-up:

JOHN LENNON - SLIPPIN' AND SLIDIN'

"Slippin' and Slidin'" is a R&B / rock 'n' roll song first performed by Little Richard. The song is credited to Little Richard, Edwin Bocage (Eddie Bo), Al Collins, and James Smith.Rock 'n' Roll is the sixth studio album by John Lennon. Released in 1975, it is an album of late 1950s and early 1960s songs as covered by Lennon. Recording the album was problematic and spanned an entire year: Phil Spector produced sessions in October 1973 at A&M Studios, and Lennon produced sessions in October 1974 at Record Plant Studios (East). Lennon was being sued by Morris Levy over copyright infringement of one line in his song "Come Together". As part of an agreement, Lennon had to include three Levy-owned songs on Rock 'n' Roll. Spector ran away with the session recordings, later being involved in a motor accident, which left the album's tracks unrecoverable until the beginning of the Walls and Bridges sessions. With Walls and Bridges coming out first, featuring one Levy-owned song, Levy sued Lennon expecting to see Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll album.The album was released in February 1975, reaching number 6 in both the United Kingdom and the United States, later being certified gold in both countries. It was supported by the single "Stand by Me", which peaked at number 20 in the US, and 30 in the UK. The cover was taken by Jürgen Vollmer during the Beatles' stay in Hamburg. It was Lennon's last album until 1980: With no recording contract obligation, he took a hiatus from recording to raise his son Sean.

PAUL McCARTNEY - UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY

"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" is a song by Paul and Linda McCartney from the album Ram. Released in the United States as a single on 2 August 1971, but premiering on WLS the previous week (as a "Hit Parade Bound" (HPB)), it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 4 September 1971, making it the first of a string of post-Beatles, McCartney-penned singles to top the US pop chart during the 1970s and 1980s. Billboard ranked it number 22 on its Top Pop Singles of 1971 year-end chart. "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" is composed of several unfinished song fragments that McCartney stitched together similar to the medleys from the Beatles' album Abbey Road.

RINGO STARR - YOU'RE SIXTEEN

Ringo Starr's version of this song was released as a single in the US, on 3 December 1973, and in the UK, on 8 February 1974. In January 1974, the song, taken from the album Ringo, hit number one. The latter performance reunited Ringo Starr with his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney. McCartney is credited on the liner notes of the album Ringo as having played the solo on a kazoo. But reviewer Michael Verity has quoted the song's producer, Richard Perry, as revealing it wasn't actually a kazoo. “In fact, the solo on ‘You’re Sixteen,’ which sounds like a kazoo or something, was Paul singing very spontaneously as we played that track back, so he’s singing the solo on that. In any case, Starr's version remains one of the few #1 singles to feature a 'kazoo-sound' solo. Harry Nilsson sang backing vocals on Starr's version. BTW, can you recognize the girl in the video? I couldn't find the "full" video on Youtube, unfortunally.

GEORGE HARRISON - WHEN WE WAS FAB

"When We Was Fab" is a song by George Harrison, released on his 1987 album Cloud Nine. It was also issued as the second single from the album, in January 1988. The lyrics serve as a nostalgic reflection by Harrison on the days of Beatlemania during the 1960s, when the Beatles were first referred to as "the Fab Four". Harrison co-wrote the song with Jeff Lynne, who also co-produced the track. The recording references the psychedelic sound that the Beatles had helped popularise in 1967, through its use of sitar, cello, and backwards-relayed effects. Harrison's former bandmate Ringo Starr is among the other musicians on the track. The single was accompanied by an innovative music video, directed by Godley & Creme.

CONCERT FOR GEORGE - GIVE ME LOVE

Concert for George is a 2003 British documentary film directed by David Leland that covers the events of the Concert for George, a tribute concert for George Harrison held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 29 November 2002. A benefit for Harrison's Material World Charitable Foundation, the all-star concert took place on the day of the first anniversary of his death. It is one of my absolute favorite music-DVD's. I especially love this version of "Give Me Love", but there's also great performances of "Beware Of Darkness", "Isn't It A Pitty" and "Something" among others. If you haven't seen this DVD, do youself a big favor, and see it. Appearing in the concert are for example Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Billy Preston, Tom Petty and Monty Python.

[Scott]

SLIPPIN AND SLIDIN ... To bad its a cover.  The story you posted is more interesting than the tune though.  Spector is still a mess of a human being!  And I do love some solo Beatles work, specifically Harrison and McCartney's efforts, Lennon was spotty for me as well and this is a great  example of why.  The Double Vision album is simply a mus have only because of its significance and the tune he wrote on it are actually pretty good, its the mixed in Yoko tunes that taint it...

UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY ...  As a kid we always got a kick out this tune.  The butter wouldn't melt so we put it in the pie/little little get around/hands across the water...water.  hahaha...  Anyway, later in life the album RAM became far more mature and better than this silly tune (not knocking it, its still a fun tune).  There are so many better choices for his early solo work though this was fun to hear again.

YOU'RE SIXTEEN ... Im going to guess who the girl is and say Princess Leah (AKA Carrie Fisher)?  Pretty sure Im right, but please confirm.  I heard somewhere that Ringo was actually the most successful solo Beatle for some years after they split.  Again, someone please confirm, but could swear that was a fact for at least the first few years.  Fun tune!

WHEN WE WAS FAB ... Fun video, here again there is so many better Harrison tunes to pick from, but you nailed the context of the post with this one.

GIVE ME LOVE ...  Probably one of my top 3 favorite Beatles solo tunes and Ive seen the Concert for George.  Touching ...

Great post, probably my favorite so far, even though I think you may not agree with that.

[Niels (Mod)]

I think my "introduction" to Beatles-solo came around 1975, where Lennon's version of "Stand By Me", McCartney's "Listen To What The Man Said" and Ringo's version of "You're 16" were played a lot on the radio.

I'd never heard "Uncle albert" until pretty recently, so that's kind of why, I posted it. Also because it has a "Beatles-vibe", I think. 

Yes, it's Carrie Fisher. Regarding Ringo being the most successful Beatle, I can only speak of personal experience: I remember, that he was a lot on the radio and on the news around 74-75, and I think, that he was the first beatle I thought of like: "What's the fuss about? This "old" bearded man, with not very good songs?".

"Great post, probably my favorite so far, even though I think you may not agree with that."

Hmmm? I don't know, if I agree, if it's your favorite so far?!

[RJhog (Admin)]

Lennon - Never heard this song.  As a matter of fact, Lennon is the only Beatle that has zero albums in my collection.  Nada.  No greatest hits or anything.  The Beatles as a band also did quite a few covers, so an album of covers is no surprise.  The back story you wrote is funny.  Sounds like a silly movie.  The video is pretty basic, but cool to see.  Especially toward the end when Lennon's mouth is moving but there is no actual singing.

McCartney - Probably the best known song here for me.  I never realized it was an amalgamation of different bits of songs that he put together.  It sounds somewhat progressive due to all of the time changes.  It's a good song.  The video is kind of weird.  The first half is some sort of concept video, while the second half is photos.  The photos in the second half are quite cool.

Starr - Cool song.  I've heard this one many times as well.  This was almost one of the albums in my current series for AOTW, but I never got around to buying it so it's a no go.  The album Ringo also has the song Photograph on it, which is my favorite Ringo tune.  He seems to be the least talented songwriter of the four, and probably has the most unique voice.  But he's fun, you can tell.  The video is okay.  I wonder if the girl (whom I have no idea who she is) is just sixteen?  I doubt it.

Harrison - Definitely the most Beatlesque track here.  Is that really Ringo in the video?  I can't tell for sure.  Someone resembling Paul (though I'm pretty sure it's not him) is playing bass briefly in the video.  I think I've heard this song before, it does sound a bit familiar.

Lynn - It's funny, because I still hear Beatles or post-Beatles solo tracks that I didn't ever realize were so.  This is one of them.  It's a very good song, but I didn't even realize it was a Harrison tune.  Lynn sounds very good on it.  Dig that slide solo too.  Nice pick.

This was a good post Niels.  I don't own much solo stuff from these guys.  The only one I own multiple releases from is Paul, and less than a handful of those. 

[Niels (Mod)]

It's kind of funny, because The Beatles, both as a group but also "solo", was very, very good at playing/recording covers, but nobody can cover The Beatles better than the Beatles themselves. Another reason, why they are the best band ever.

Ringo was definitely the least talented writer The others used to laugh at him, when he presented "his" songs to them. I also think, that if Harrison hadn't been in the same group as McCartney/Lennon, he wouldn't in the end had developed in to a good song writer. He wrote the best songs on Abbey Road.

Yes, It's Ringo in the video. Good video from the 10Cc-dudes. As we all know, the walrus was Paul.

Does that mean, that you don't own "All Things Must Pass"? Big mistake!

[RJhog (Admin)]

Nope. Doesn't mean that.