Before They Were Beatles: The Quarrymen

I’ve been looking for a relevant reason to post up some demos and rehearsals from the earliest incarnation of what would become The Beatles: The Quarrymen. John Lennon put together the earliest forms of this band in March 1957 with several friends. Paul McCartney joined in October of that year, followed by George Harrison in early 1958. And ever-shifting lineup ensued throughout those years with The Quarrymen playing gigs all around their native Liverpool, changing their name several times, among them The Blackjacks, Johnny and The Moondogs (in late 1959), and The Silver Beetles (in 1960), finally settling on The Beatles in late 1960. And so it goes.

A friend forwarded me an article this weekend with the subject line, Mad cool Beatles history. Reading below, I would have to agree.

Tunes from The Quarrymen are at the end.

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Beatles club gains protected status
Fri Sep 15, 4:06 PM ET

LIVERPOOL, England – A suburban basement where The Beatles played some of their earliest gigs was given protected heritage status by the British government Friday. The Casbah Coffee Club, created in the home of original Beatles drummer Pete Best, was given Grade II Listed status on the recommendation of conservation body English Heritage. The designation means the venue, which still contains original artwork and musical equipment, is of “special architectural or historic interest” and cannot be demolished.

Best’s mother, Mona, created the club in the basement and coal cellar of her Victorian house on the edge of Liverpool after reading about the “beat” clubs popular with teenagers in London.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison — then billed as The Quarrymen — played at the club’s opening in April 1959 as a last-minute replacement for scheduled headliners, the Les Stewart Quartet.

Best later joined the band, renamed The Silver Beatles and then The Beatles. The band played the Casbah many times until the club closed in 1962. The same year, Best was replaced as drummer by Ringo Starr and The Beatles released their first single, “Love Me Do.”

The building, still owned by the Best family, features murals and paintings by members of the band and by Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia.

Bob Hawkins of English Heritage said the club was “in a remarkably well-preserved condition … with wall and ceiling paintings of spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars by original band members along with 1960s musical equipment, amplifiers and original chairs.”

“We know of no other survival like it in Liverpool or indeed anywhere else,” he said.

THE QUARRYMEN
LISTEN: Earliest known recording: Puttin’ On The Style (1957)

(From Wiki) On 6 July 1957 the band played at St. Peter’s Church garden fête. In the afternoon they played on a temporary stage in a field behind the church. After the set, Ivan Vaughan, an occasional tea chest bass player with the band, introduced Paul McCartney to John Lennon while the band was setting up in the church hall for the second set. McCartney showed the band how to tune a guitar and sang Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” and Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-A-Lula” to his own guitar accompaniment. The evening show started at 8 p.m. and cost two shillings admission. Audience member Bob Molyneux recorded part of the evening performance on a Grundig portable reel-to-reel tape recorder.

In 1994, Molyneux, then a retired policeman, rediscovered the recordings that he had made of the concert in 1957. The scratchy recordings included covers of Lonnie Donegan’s “Puttin’ On The Style” and Elvis Presley’s “Baby, Let’s Play House”. On 15 September 1994 Molyneux put his tape up for auction at Sotheby’s. The tape sold to EMI for £78,500, making it the most expensive recording ever sold at auction, but the recording quality was too poor to issue and the tape remains in the EMI archives.

REHEARSALS & DEMOS, circa 1960
01. That’ll Be The Day (Buddy Holly cover)
02. Well Darling
03. Matchbox (Carl Perkins cover)
04. One After 909
05. Cayenne (instumental)
06. Hello Little Girl
07. That’s When Your Heartaches Begin
08. Wildcat (Gene Vincent cover)
09. I’ll Always Be In Love With You
10. Some Days
11. Hallelujah I Love Her So
12. You’ll Be Mine
13. The World Is Waiting For Sunrise
14. I’ll Follow The Sun
15. You Must Write Everyday
16. Movin’ And Groovin

QUARRYMEN DEMOS IN A ZIP FILE

New(ish) video from Cat Power: “Lived in Bars”

There is a certain guilty pleasure that I derive from watching videos where everyone starts dancing together simultaneously, and seemingly in spontaneous joy. Exhibit A: Hit Me Baby One More Time (seriously, how can you not like it when all those Catholic schoolgirls start snapping their way down the hall towards you?), and Exhibit B: Feist – Mushaboom (again, irresistible dancing in the streets).

Cat Power is sexy but borderline weird (in a strangely good way). Here is her newish video for the song “Lived In Bars” off her wonderful album The Greatest – which is being reissued by Matador with three different covers. She completely rocks the hot little white dress in this video (although I would dissent on the backwards baseball cap) and gets the whole strange bar crowd dancing:

There’s a nice, tiny little sly reference to her album (“The Greatest”) with the sweatshirt she covers up with at the end of the video when she lays on the couch. If you look closely, it says Cassius.

Sneaky Cat Power.

Who?

New songs (!!!) from The Who off of Endless Wire (Oct 31), their first studio album in 24 years, streaming here. The songs are called “It’s Not Enough” and “Tea & Theatre.” At first listen these tracks sound anthemic and dramatic (especially the first one), and concert-ready.

And if you are going to be following their upcoming tour in support of the album, here’s some good news:

THE WHO TO LAUNCH A NEW SIRIUS CHANNEL
Starting September 21st, WHO fans can keep up with the band’s every move on a 24/7 Sirius Satellite Radio station. They’ll broadcast nightly performances from the North American tour, as well as previously unreleased live shows, interviews and backstage reports from guitarist Pete Townshend and his partner, singer/songwriter Rachel Fuller.

“This is the most exciting thing I can imagine . . . our own radio channel, straight to our fans,” Townshend said in a statement via Sirius. “I’m completely revved about this.”

Apparently, Roger Daltrey wasn’t as enthusiastic about the webcasts portion, which the band reportedly curtailed at his suggestion.

Brand spankin’ new from Paul Westerberg: Open Season Soundtrack

Paul Westerberg‘s re-entry into the world of film soundtracks is greeted ’round these parts with open arms and happy ears. Following his stellar contributions to the Singles soundtrack (Cameron Crowe’s 1992 film about the music scene and dating life in the Emerald City of Seattle, and one of my favorite soundtracks ever) Westerberg has dusted off his movie-musicmaker and done pretty much the whole soundtrack for the new Sony Pictures animated film Open Season.

I’ve read (possibly exaggerated) accounts that for the movie Singles, Westerberg locked himself in a hotel room and emerged twenty minutes later with the classic track “Dyslexic Heart.” Open Season by comparison took quite a bit longer. Westerberg says, “Singles took about two weeks [total], while Cameron Crowe sat there and sorta encouraged me along . . . This project took two-and-a-half years.”

Thanks to the music elves, I’ve got the new song for ya. I can’t think of a better way to kick off a Friday.

I find the new track very enjoyable – the opening is fantastic vintage Westerberg, with a similar feel to tunes like “Be Bad For Me” or the recent ‘Mats track “Message To The Boys.” The lyrics are admittedly a bit simplistic, but I don’t listen to him to discern the meaning of the universe or anything, so this will do just fine. ‘Mats bassist Tommy Stinson adds background vocals and wields the thunderstick for this song, as well as one other track called “Right To Arm Bears” (ha ha).

Love You In The Fall – Paul Westerberg
(Savefile link, open in a new window)

The soundtrack is out on Lost Highway on Sept 26th, and their website has streaming audio for two other tracks: “Meet Me In The Meadow” and “I Belong” (which Pete Yorn also covers as a reprise on the soundtrack). Also, they actually have a MySpace (hey, who doesn’t these days?) where you can stream these tunes as well as the danceable track “I Wanna Lose Control (Uh Oh),” an original composition by the Sacramento (Calif.) band Deathray. The film also includes the Talking Heads song “Wild, Wild Life” — a tune that I’ve found somehow everyone can sing, despite not really knowing what David Byrne is going on about.

Westerberg worked with a variety of old friends and new ones on this project, recording demos of the songs in his home basement studio, as well as in New Hampshire, Los Angeles, and finally finishing up back in Minneapolis. “So you get a little bit of everything on this one,” he says, “The old band feel but we’ve also got the new buddy feel. And the best part is it all sounds like it came out of the same garage.” The tracks were produced by Westerberg friend & collaborator Kevin Bowe, who has the following to say about the experience: “I hesitate to use the word ‘produce’ because you don’t produce this guy. You press record, duck and pray.”

A Beatle in your mailbox

(n.b. – I am hoping that maybe one of my fantastic British readers will take the time in January to send me a postcard with one of these bad boys affixed to the right corner, and subsequently make my day?

You guys get the best stamps. I bought some which artfully illustrated vegetables yesterday.)

From the news reels:

September 13, 2006
LONDON — The Royal Mail is saluting the Beatles in January by releasing six commemorative stamps illustrated with memorable album covers.

The set includes ran image of “With the Beatles,” released in 1963, which was the group’s second album. In the United States, it was the first Beatles album to be released and was titled “Meet the Beatles!”

Others in the series include “Help!” (1965), “Revolver” (1966), “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967), “Abbey Road” (1969) and “Let It Be” (1970).

(Waaaiiiit for it . . . )

“Please Mister Postman (alternate take)” – The Beatles

Pete Yorn Nightcrawler: Bonus tracks

Pete Yorn put out a slew of bonus tracks with various retailer versions of his new disc Nightcrawler (which is growing on me quite nicely, thank you). According to a recent interview on Brooklyn Vegan with the Yornster, here is the logic behind such a move:

“These days, in order to boost get good placement in stores, you usually throw in a bonus track exclusive, which at first I was hesitant to do because I thought it was just going to piss off my fans—you know, making them buy the record again to get a track. But we did the exclusives and then I just started encouraging the fans to download the extra tracks for free on my website. For people who’ve never heard of me before, then the better store placement means they’ll see my record and maybe get turned on to my stuff. “ –Pete

Eh, well, because most of you are not going to scurry about town to your your various retailers (or scour the web other than stopping here at your friendly PY source) to find these extra tracks, Bryce and I are conspiring to make it easy on you and bring you all the goods.

He gave me first dibs on which tracks of the seven I wanted to post, and these two are my favorites:

“Old Boy” – Pete Yorn
(from the Circuit City version of Nightcrawler)
I love the bass line in this one, just all over the place in a great way.

“Baby, I’m Gone” – Pete Yorn
(from the Best Buy version of Nightcrawler)
I had heard earlier live versions of this song and hoped that it would be a real rocker. The studio version ended up being much more restrained, with a classy synth-percussion throughout. It’s still a great song.

To get the other 5 bonus tracks [“Shallow (Friends)”, “Go With It”, “The Party”, “Top Of The World”, and “Can’t Hear Anyone”], visit Bryce’s blog. He’s also got some Keane, Coldplay, and Red Hot Chili Peppers b-sides, if that’s your groove.

I’ve also added links to an older post with the other two podcasts that are now available regarding the making of Nightcrawler. I find it very interesting to hear Pete talk about the creative process behind his music.

Finally, here is one more bonus track that I really liked off Yorn’s last album Day I Forgot (the Japanese import version) – Thanks to Kraig’s blog:

“Drive Away” – Pete Yorn
Just over two-minutes, a fast and furious driving song. Head out on the highway.

The Great Facebook Freakout of 2006 (but hey, it’s giving me good free music)

So all you college kids (or slightly-out-of-college kids who worked at a university, like me, and thus have access) who are on Facebook, perhaps you’ve seen the Apple Students Group that gives you a 25-song sampler free each Monday? The first week I saw was electronica, most of which was drivel, but last week’s (“alternative”) and this week’s (“rock”) have some decent free tracks in them. I don’t know if there is a hidden catch somewhere, but if you join up (assuming you are already part of the Facebook cult) you can get free songs like:

“Another One Goes By” –
The Walkmen (from A Hundred Miles Off)

“Crawl” – Pistol Star
(from the album of the same name)

“The Man Who Came To Stay” – Babyshambles
(even though Pete Doherty is disintegrating before our eyes, and is a total disaster, some of his music still strikes me the right way) (b-side from Down in Albion)

“Fall At Your Feet” – Magnet
(from The Tourniquet)

“Letters (Acoustic)” – Stroke 9
(from Cafe Cuts: A Collection of Acoustic Favorites)

“Devil” – Stereophonics
(from the Live From Dakota album)

There are also great free tracks from Fuel favorites Brandi Carlile, The Black Keys, Rocky Votolato, Pete Yorn, and The Format.

I thought it was actually really, really funny last week how Facebook singlehandedly caused more political action among college students than the last three election years combined: If you read the articles (or blog articles), Facebook decided to incorporate a new “news feed” into each users homepage and a “mini-feed” into each users individual profile which shows EVERYTHING you’ve done on Facebook since mid-August (unless you manually remove it).

Within a day or two, over 40,000 (!!) college students had joined the official petition to Facebook to remove the data or to give students greater controls over what information was released, as well as hundreds of smaller protest groups. The one I chose was “DAMN Imma need 4 Facebook to Stay out My Business!! Mini-Feed My Ass,” because a) it made me laugh and b) the one I wanted to start was actually too long of a title for Facebook.

It was going to be called, “To Your Face I’m Totally All ‘The New Facebook Mini-Feed Sucks!’ But Secretly I Have Been Checking Facebook Even More Than Ever, Dammit.” If you’re honest, you would have joined it too.

Also, definitely check out the “New-Facebook-Is-Creepy Mix” because, as Taylor says, stalking is only fun when you have to work for it.

Jesse Malin’s new album to feature Springsteen, Ryan Adams & a Replacements cover

From today’s news:

Boss and More Guest on Jesse Malin CD
09/13/06

“Jesse Malin has just finished recording his third record titled Glitter In The Gutter, to be released in early 2007 on Adeline Records/East West. This album follows his two previous critically acclaimed releases: 2004’s The Heat, and 2002’s The Fine Art of Self Destruction. Glitter In The Gutter was recorded in various studios over the summer in Millbrook, New York; North Hollywood, CA; and in Jesse’s native borough of Queens, New York.

Guests on the album include a special vocal performance by Bruce Springsteen, Chris Shifflett of the Foo Fighters, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, long time pal Ryan Adams as well as members of Jesse’s own touring and recording band “The Heat.” Many of the songs on the new album were written on electric guitar in Jesse’s basement rehearsal studio in New York City over the past year.

After working up demos of the songs, Jesse chose to work with producers Rob Caggiano and Eddie Wohl of Scrap 60. The album will include an intimate acoustic version of The Replacements‘ classic ‘Bastards of Young.’ CD will hit stores in early 2007.”

I love that title, Glitter in the Gutter. Can’t wait to hear it. He’s got a handful of shows coming up, mostly East Coast. Tomorrow night (9/13) he headlines one final show at The Continental in NYC, on 9/19 at the Barnes & Noble (!!) in Union Square, 10/1 in Ringwood NJ, 10/12 at the Tin Angel in Philly, 10/14 at the Club Cafe in Pittsburgh, and 10/18 at Schuba’s in Chicago.

Here’s the original ‘Mats track that he covers on the new album, if you don’t have it:

Bastards of Young – The Replacements

And I wrote about some demos from the new album (the fabulous “Black Haired Girl” and “Don’t Let ‘Em Take You Down”) in this post.

The irresistible Feist on The Black Sessions, Paris 2004

If I had to choose between living in Italy and living in France, I’d always said Italy for sure (you know, just in case someone ever asked me, I needed to be prepared). But then you look at something like The Black Sessions (broadcast on Radio France) and it is *almost* enough to change your mind.

A play on the name of the host, Bernard Lenoir (get it? Le noir?), The Black Sessions have brought hundreds of great musicians from all over into Studio 105 in Paris to lay down lovely sets in front of a live audience. It’s kind of like their answer to KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, except sometimes longer (up to an hour), and minus Nic Harcourt’s charmingly accented questions. The sessions are often released in limited-edition CDs (promos, included with magazine, etc) so these excellent quality sets have their way of seeping out to the fans worldwide.

[Previously on Fuel: Eels, Black Session 2000]

On March 3, 2004 the irresistably lovely Ms. Leslie Feist stopped by The Black Sessions and spent 45 minutes charming the crowd with her fantastic vocal styling and sexy, intelligent, refreshing songs. The Kinks cover is absolutely ace.

01. Gatekeeper
02. Leisure Suite
03. Mushaboom
04. One Evening
05. Lover’s Spit (Broken Social Scene cover)
06. Let It Die
07. When I Was A Young Girl
08. Lonely Lonely
09. Fool Proof (Ron Sexsmith cover)
10. That Girl (Kinks cover)
11. Intuition
12. Now At Last

FEIST BLACK SESSIONS AS A ZIP

If you’ve never listened much to Feist before, this set is a superb live introduction. Most of these tracks are on her 2004 solo debut CD Let It Die, and this year she released the Open Season disc of remixes (both on Arts & Crafts). I read this charming quote from Feist about the remix album:

“At first I didn’t really understand what remixes were. If I squinted into the air I knew I could hear old songs with added beats piping out of radios, but I didn’t know why or how that happened . . . It was so bizarre and exciting to hear a song that we had so carefully dressed, be undressed and re-addressed, and put into clothes it would have never thought to wear on its own.”

Check out songs from & commentary about her Open Season disc here.

And rumor has it that Feist’s new album is due in January. Hurrah! Feist makes my short list of female musicians that I would like to somehow inhabit for a kickass week or two, just to see how it feels to be that rad.

“The church door’s thrown open, I can hear the organ’s song. But the congregation’s gone.”

Even though I didn’t personally know anyone affected by the attacks five years ago on September 11th, it was personal. I grieved that morning as I woke up early to a phone call and stared in disbelief at the TV, as if I knew each person killed or trapped, burning or jumping. I watched the first tower fall, then the second, and all I could think about was all the firefighters and police officers who had rushed in to save people they didn’t even know. As I watched the towers fall and the massive dust clouds rise, I felt like I was going to throw up in the face of such unabashed evil.

Ten days later all the major U.S. television networks aired the America: A Tribute To Heroes telethon to raise money for those left behind in the wake of the attacks. It had some stellar, simple, heartfelt musical performances that touched me, and today I wanted to share.

My City Of Ruins – Bruce Springsteen
This was the first song of the program, and for me it just cracked open wide all the emotions that many of us were feeling in the days following the event. As many times as I listen to this song, which Bruce penned in the year before 9/11 about the deterioration of Asbury Park, New Jersey but that fits unbelievably well in this context, it still gets me. There are few who can pen a lyric of loss like Springsteen. In addition to the haunting imagery of the words in the title of this post, there’s also this line, which comes after a wheezing, lonesome, wrenching harmonica solo: “Now there’s tears on the pillow, darlin’ where we slept. And you took my heart when you left . . . “ The simple chord progression there on the last six words is heartbreaking — how do I explain that? Just listen.

As Bruce performs this, he stares off into nothing as if seeing the images from the last week and a half play over in his mind. At times his lips curl in an angry defiance, a rebellion against the destruction. And I’ve always thought that the way he furiously sings “Come on, rise up” over and over almost seems as if he is willing the dead to come back, the towers to rise. It reminds me of the futility of the lyrics in the U2 song “Wake Up Dead Man.” As Bruce nears the end of the song, his determined pleas to rise up take on an air of resignation as he stares off into the blackness of the studio.

This song turned up the following year on Springsteen’s stunning disc The Rising, along with many other songs he penned about the losses on 9/11. Hands down the other track on there that is the most devastating is “You’re Missing,” about a house and a family waiting for someone to come home (who will never come home). Lyrics like, “Coffee cup’s on the counter, jacket’s on the chair, paper’s on the doorstep, but you’re not there” and this, the clincher: “Morning is morning, the evening falls, I have / too much room in my bed, too many phone calls . . .”

Peace On Earth/Walk On – U2 (VIDEO)
I was deeply touched by the show of solidarity and understanding from Irish boys U2 to their American friends with this song. The whole All That You Can’t Leave Behind album makes me think of the period following 9/11, probably due in part to this performance. I just watched it again tonight on DVD and my eyes well up when the gospel salvation of the “Halle-halle-lujah, halle-halle-lujah” addition kicks in, and then the tears tend to spill over when Bono starts shouting, “See you when I get home! I’ll see you when I get home, sister!” I also appreciated Bono’s confidence in delivering the lyrics about what they can’t steal from us.

There Will Come A Day – Faith Hill (VIDEO)
Whether you like country or not, you have to listen to this because it ain’t country, it’s some gooood gospel. I love this song as Hill performs it, with a full, enthusiastic backing gospel choir. The video always strikes me moreso than listening because it is hard to stay blue when you see the choir wiggling and shaking their arms in unison, jumping on their tiptoes in anticipation as the song nears it’s moment: “Song will ring out down those golden streets, the voices of earth with the angels will sing (pause) – HALLELUJAH!” Chill-inducing.

Imagine – Neil Young (VIDEO)
Young sits in front of the grand piano with his cowboy hat and sets into Lennon’s chords that somehow always evoke this sense of sadness and a weight of longing in me. Even though I’ve always found the utopian/socialistic lyrics of this landmark tune to honestly be a bit stupid (if there’s nothing that you feel is worth dying for, then what of value do you really have?), that melody always gets me, and Young turns in an impassioned and delicate performance here.

The Long Road – Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready & Neil Young (VIDEO)
This is such a simple song, and so lovely, really. From Pearl Jam’s Merkinball EP (1995), I love the different melodies and harmonies that Vedder rotates each time he approaches the refrain “I have wished for so long, how I wish for you today.” Neil only comes in vocally on the final refrain and response, “We all walk the long road.”

Finally, two songs that were not on the telethon but that could have been if I were programming it:

My Blue Manhattan – Ryan Adams
(from Love Is Hell, check out rbally’s live R.A. post)

America The Beautiful – Ray Charles


Walk on.