William Dart considers The Beatles – re-released with the 50th Anniversary Edition of Abbey Road; and re-imagined with Matthew Bannister's individual take on Rubber Soul.
Abbey Road Photo: supplied
There was a time when one longed to invade the vaults of more than a few record companies. To hear some of music that was being kept from us. Now, thanks to a new 4-CD set celebrating the 50th birthday of the Beatles’ Abbey Road, a door has been prised open, revealing some strangely familiar strains.
Here's the instrumental underlay for one of the John Lennon songs from the album. And the barebones counterpoint of Lennon’s guitar, Paul McCartney’s bass and George Harrison’s Moog, topped off by George Martin on electric harpsichord, is rather more than just karaoke Beatles.
And should you want to sing Lennon’s rather fanciful and heady salutes to Mother Nature...
The new Abbey Road boxed set so tempts one to zoom in on details, like a seasoned Beatleologist. There’s ample encouragement to do so too in Kevin Howlett’s track-by-track analysis, the principal lure of a handsome 101-page LP-sized book.
But back in 1969, when Abbey Road appeared, it was very much a totality, fitting in well with the lofty ambitions of so many rock musicians of those times. Producer George Martin was quick to draw parallels with the formal structures and strategies of classical music, especially in a 16-minute sequence of eight shortish songs on the second side of the LP.
In a sense, this was something of a song-cycle, waiting for composer Wilfrid Mellers to come along and give it some heavy musicological probing in 1973, in his grandly titled study, Twilight of the Gods: The Beatles in Retrospect.
The new Abbey Road set does give you two opportunities to sit down and listen to the album from beginning to end. These include a Blu-Ray disc that contains Giles Martin’s special mix with Dolby Atmos in 5.1 Surround Sound.
Only the other day, an electroacoustic composer friend sighed when I told him this, lamenting that so few of us have the equipment to enter this super HiFi world.
I’m one of the majority here, so I’ll miss out on what one reviewer describes as rich orchestral sounds swelling from the rear. But there have been changes made in the more straightforward 2019 mix, too. When you listen to this Paul McCartney lullaby, you’ll be hearing the strings in real, fair dinkum stereo.
Here’s where the fun begins, exploring just how 'Golden Slumbers' came together. The new Abbey Road package has patched together three takes of the song with just George Harrison and Ringo Starr pairing up with McCartney. It sets off with a bit a joke: McCartney breaking into a snatch of an earlier song, 'The Fool on the Hill'.
And, even more interestingly, you’re not going to hear that Joe Cocker-style vocal grit at chorus time. Here, Paul remains the eternal choirboy.
Two CDs of alternate takes and demos must be the tip of the iceberg, judging from the various versions of some songs discussed by Kevin Howlett.
We’ll stay with McCartney for the moment, and his song 'Oh! Darling', a laid-back 12/8 rock ballad written in a style that harkens back to the group’s early days at the Liverpool Cavern.
We learn from Howlett that this number took the group 24 takes, and Take 4 is the one offered here.
Towards the end of the track, you’ll notice that after McCartney has let loose with a dramatic top A falsetto, as a tribute perhaps to Little Richard, vocals move aside for some spirited instrumental chop and slice. A spoken line slips in at one point with an air of send-up to it, and the last two minutes are graced by Apple recording artist Billy Preston on his Hammond organ.
Now, we come to the final version, potentially spliced, remember, from this and 23 other available takes, revealing just how all the various elements were knitted together.
That top A is still there but in a slightly different context and, instead of Preston at the Hammond, the group keep it all in the family, with a chorus of backing vocals.
I can’t resist here throwing in another version of the song, that was released back in 1996 on Anthology 3.
And it’s radically different, particularly in the playfully shared vocals of McCartney and Lennon, ending in a coda celebrating the recent divorce of Yoko Ono. On the instrumental side, Billy Preston is on board again, but with some elegant electric piano.
Some inclusions on the new Beatles Abbey Road mega-release are for devotees only. One is a trial edit and mix of what’s described as 'The Long One' — the eight-song medley opening with 'You never give me your money' and signing off with the aptly titled 'The End'. Navigating its 16 minutes requires more time and patience than I’ve had over the past few weeks.
It’s so much easier with other tracks that make specific points in less than three minutes. Such as the string backings for a George Harrison number that, within a year of the Beatles album, would become a calling card for none other than Dame Shirley Bassey.
The title of the song is 'Something', and I’ve enjoyed surrendering to George Martin’s string orchestra, playing in the same studio that has hosted top-line classical musicians for almost 90 years.
A few of the tracks on the new Abbey Road boxed set bear no connection at all to the finished album. Their link is that they were put down during the same time frame and sometimes in the same sessions that ultimately created the LP.
Playing favourites, I’m grateful to hear Paul McCartney in this home demo of a number that he’d written for one of the Apple label’s brightest young stars, Mary Hopkin. Recorded in just one take, it’s infectiously spontaneous, with delightfully disconcerting rhythmic shifts. A guileless spot of scat singing is pretty much on the mark; a later touch of soulful vocalese considerably less so.
It’s pretty fair to say that Matthew Bannister, of Sneaky Feelings fame, is one of this country’s staunchest Beatles fans. And it’s more than just for their songcraft reflected in some of Bannister’s own writing.
Six years ago, he released what could have been a minstrel’s folly — a one-man re-jig of the group’s Revolver album, titled Evolver. In which the song 'Good Day Sunshine' was an Kiwi as can be.
Now Bannister has turned his sights to the Beatles’ 1965 album, Rubber Soul, retitled Rubber Solo. The original is one of the band’s best. As John Lennon later said, “Finally we took over the studio and were more precise about making the album, cover and everything”
This resulted in 35 minutes of pop perfection, with 14 songs including such classics as 'Norwegian Wood', 'In my Life', and 'Nowhere Man'.
And 'Michelle', a love song from the Parisian boulevards that Bannister can’t resist toughening up, as if preparing us for James Bond sitting in a café two doors up the street. And being an instrumental, there’s none of the whimsical shift between French and English lyrics.
'Michelle' isn’t all played like a theme looking for a 007 movie. Just before the end of the song, there are a few bars of prettiness. But for those who like wallow in the nostalgia of song like 'In My Life', Bannister will have none of it. With harmonies pared back to bare basics, this John Lennon song sounds as if it might have been written by George Harrison, complete with what sounds like a sitar in Bannister’s one man band.
Matthew Bannister has immense fun with the 14 songs of Rubber Soul.
When he does tackle a George Harrison song such as 'If I Needed Someone', the Indian somehow merges with an Aegean dance, although I suspect that Zorba the Greek might have got into a bit of a tangle with Bannister’s teasing time signatures.
As for the blithe, no-me worry lad of the Beatles’ original 'You Won’t See Me', Bannister, with drawn-out snarling chords and flickering bass, turns it into something altogether more sinister and brooding.
There are moments of unexpected darkness in Matthew Bannister’s Rubber Solo, but it’s so fascinating to see how he gets right under the skin of the songs themselves, performing some astonishing alchemies.
And be warned – his deceptively casual and dispassionate 'Norwegian Wood', complete with criss-crossing metres and eccentric scansion, should come with an ear-worm warning.
Music Details
'Song title' (Composer) – Performers
Album title
(Label)
'Because (Take 1) (Instrumental)' (Lennon, McCartney) – The Beatles
Abbey Road Anniversary Edition
(Apple/Universal)
'Because' (Lennon, McCartney) – The Beatles
Abbey Road Anniversary Edition
(Apple/Universal)
'Because (vocal tracks)' (Lennon, McCartney) – The Beatles
Anthology 3
(Apple)
'Golden Slumbers' (Lennon, McCartney) – The Beatles
Abbey Road Anniversary Edition
(Apple/Universal)
'Golden Slumbers (Takes 1-3)' (Lennon, McCartney) – The Beatles
Abbey Road Anniversary Edition
(Apple/Universal)
'Oh! Darling (Take 4)' (Lennon, McCartney) – The Beatles
Abbey Road Anniversary Edition
(Apple/Universal)
'Oh! Darling (final)' (Lennon, McCartney) – The Beatles
Abbey Road Anniversary Edition
(Apple/Universal)
'Oh! Darling (with Yoko)' (Lennon, McCartney) – The Beatles
Anthology 3
(Apple)
'Something (Take 39)' (Harrison) – The Beatles
Abbey Road Anniversary Edition
(Apple/Universal)
'Serenade in E Minor, Op.20' (Elgar) – London Phil Orch/Boult
Elgar: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 etc
(EMI)
'Goodbye (home demo)' (Lennon, McCartney) – Paul McCartney
Abbey Road Anniversary Edition
(Apple/Universal)
'Good Day Sunshine' (Harrison) – The Beatles
Evolver
(Powertool)
'Michelle' (Lennon, McCartney) – One Man Bannister
Rubber Solo
(Powertool)
'In My Life' (Lennon, McCartney) – One Man Bannister
Rubber Solo
(Powertool)
'If I needed someone' (Harrison) – One Man Bannister
Rubber Solo
(Powertool)
'You won't see me' (Lennon, McCartney) – One Man Bannister
Rubber Solo
(Powertool)
'Norwegian Wood' (Lennon, McCartney) – One Man Bannister
Rubber Solo
(Powertool)
