It is time for the BDJ Christmas special. We continue the tradition of setting a gospel to (Beatles) music. In previous festive seasons we released musical version of the gospels of Matthew (http://bdj.podomatic.com/entry/2010-12-11T08_26_46-08_00), Luke (]http://bdj.podomatic.com/entry/2010-12-19T07_00_16-08_00), the infancy gospels of Thomas (http://bdj.podomatic.com/entry/2011-12-09T11_37_24-08_00) and Syriac (http://bdj.podomatic.com/entry/2012-12-11T15_00_00-08_00), and Morgan Freeman (http...
Dec 23, 2013•12 min
A nice quick mash-up of two percussion driven tracks. I Can Bet is form Macca's latest, "NEW", and One Night in Bangkok features in the musical Chess, of course.
Oct 18, 2013•3 min
From McCartney's latest album, "NEW", just out, this remix of I Can Bet. A throwaway album filler to my ears, but makes for a nice sing along.
Oct 16, 2013•3 min
Friday 10 January 1969: The Beatles were at Twickenham Film Studios. After breaking for lunch, however, George Harrison walked out of the studio. The remaining three Beatles carried on rehearsing without Harrison. Lennon sang Maxwell's Silver Hammer in an exaggerated German accent. Here, we remixed this take with the backing of the Abbey Road version, recorded 6 months later. The song was written in October 1968, intended for the album The Beatles, but missed off due to time constraints. Lennon ...
Jun 29, 2013•4 min
"Commonwealth" was recorded January 9, 1969, at Twickenham Film Studios, London, England, during the "Get Back/Let It Be" rehearsals. The lyrics are improvised, as well as the instrumentation, with Paul McCartney ad-libbing on lead vocals, and John Lennon ad-libbing a backing vocal ("yes"). It was never officially released on either a solo Beatle album or as a cover version. The session was captured on film as well, showing how Lennon enjoyed himself, sitting on an amp with Yoko Ono. The film sh...
Jun 16, 2013•4 min
Working Class Hero" was released on John Lennon's first post-Beatles solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. He set the song to the same folk-blues acoustic guitar pattern Bob Dylan had used for his 1964 song "Ballad of Hollis Brown". of interest is the rhythm of the song; in typical Lennon fashion, the rhythm is quite complex, alternating between 12/8 and 7/8; just try 'counting' along..... John Lennon rehearsed this song with Elephant's Memory for the One to One concert at Madison Square Gar...
May 30, 2013•5 min
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was written by George Harrison, first recorded by the Beatles in 1968 for The White Album. The song features Harrison on his J-200 acoustic guitar (the one Dylan holds on the cover Nashville Skyline?) and - possibly his Fender Telecaster. Lead guitar is by Eric Clapton on his Gibson Les Paul, nick-named 'Lucy'. Harrsion acquired Lucy from Clapton in August 1968, so Clapton 'borrowed' his old guitar to record WMGGW in September. Lucy shipped from the Gibson factory ...
Apr 07, 2013•5 min
Beware of Darkness was written by George Harrison and originally released on his 1970 solo album All Things Must Pass. The melody of "Beware of Darkness" is complex and original.The melody of the verses incorporates a pedal point on the key of G major and moves to G sharp minor, an unusal progression, very much the essence of "Harrisongs". The nearly chromatic melody of the verses contrasts with a more standard rock melody in the middle eight. Musicians on the song include Harrison, Eric Clapton...
Mar 24, 2013•4 min
#9 Dream" was written by John Lennon and first issued on his 1974 album Walls and Bridges. It was released as the second single from that album months later. Lennon liked the string arrangement he wrote for Harry Nilsson's rendition of "Many Rivers to Cross" from the album Pussy Cats so much that he decided to incorporate it into the song. Here, we isolated the instrumental of the song, enhancing the string section. Sing along, y'all !
Feb 23, 2013•5 min
There are numerous gospels, and only 4 have been included in the Bible. We have already set 2'Bible' gospels to music in The Cellar, and 2 ancient 'other' gospels. This is the most recent gospel, in fact it is only a few days old !
Jan 12, 2013•4 min
A great void in the early life of Jesus is filled up by The Syriac Infancy Gospel (also called Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Savior (AGIS)), dating from the 4-5th century. In none of the gospels in the New Testament is any mention made of the childhood of Jesus. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, more rapidly than satisfactorily, pass over the period intervening between His birth and ministry. The non-canonical Infancy Gospel of Thomas tells about the deeds of Jesus in his early...
Dec 11, 2012•44 min
Was PSY inspired by Hold Me Tight when he composed Gangnam Style ? Probably not, but it is not impossible........
Dec 02, 2012•3 min
"It's So Hard" is still one of the tracks of Imagine from which just 1 alternate take exists : a take without the saxophone of King Curtis. Lennon and Curtis probably met around the Shea stadium concert, where Curtis was one of the warm-up acts, and Lennon called him in for this track. On Imagine, the saxophone is mostly buried in the mix. In the outtakes, we can hear King Curtis riffing away. Since it's a warmup, some King Curtis riffing are more "free stile", ad-lib than the official version. ...
Nov 28, 2012•2 min
On June 24th 2012, Muhammad Mosry was elected president of Egypt. Earlier, on May 1st, Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi introduced this Muslim Brotherhood Presidential Candidate to his followers. Before Mosry took the stage, Higazi outlined his polcies, which I translate here (repeat each sentence multiple times): "The dream of the Islamic Caliphate is being realised thanks to Mosry and his Muslim brothers. Our great dream, the United States of Arabia, will be restored, Allah willing. The capital o...
Jun 24, 2012•7 min
This is the latest - and probably last - installment of our effort to set Lennon's poetry to music. The National Health Cow is one of Lennon's best known poems, at least two recordings of him reading it survive. The NHC features in A Spaniard in the Works, a book from 1965 by John Lennon. The book consists of nonsensical stories and drawings similar to the style of his previous book, 1964's In His Own Write. The poem follows a pattern that is found in many of Lwennon poems; a creature is describ...
May 26, 2012•2 min
The Luck Of The Irish was inspired by a protest march in London that Lennon attended in August 1971. He began writing the song three months after. This remix is based on an acetate of an uknown take, recorded towards end 1971. Nice melody, but lyrics are way over the top.
May 18, 2012•3 min
Written about the prison riot of September 1971 in which at least 39 people died, Attica State was included on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album Some Time In New York City and released in June 1972. The song was composed on 9 October 1971, John Lennon's 31st birthday. That night a party and jam session took place at a Syracuse hotel room. Lennon and Ono were joined by Klaus Voormann, Allen Ginsberg, Jim Keltner, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and others. A series of demo take...
May 11, 2012•3 min
"Not a Second Time" is a song by John Lennon performed by The Beatles on their second United Kingdom album, With The Beatles. Lennon said he was "trying to write a Smokey Robinson or something at the time.The song was recorded in nine takes on 11 September 1963. Robert Palmer covered the song, and I heard him (Robert...) play it Live in Amsterdam in 1980-something. Sweet memories ! Here's Robert's arrangement, with John's vocals.
Apr 26, 2012•3 min
"Here Comes the Sun" is a song by George Harrison from The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road. Harrison, McCartney and Starr recorded the rhythm track in 13 takes on 7 July 1969. The following day he taped his lead vocals, and he and McCartney recorded their backing vocals twice to give a fuller sound. A harmonium and handclaps were added on 16 July. Harrison added an electric guitar run through a Leslie speaker on 6 August, and the orchestral parts (Martin's score for two piccolos, two flutes, two ...
Apr 20, 2012•3 min
All Things Must Pass is a triple album by George Harrison, recorded and released in 1970, the first solo work from him since the break-up of The Beatles in April that year. Johnny's Birthday was recorded in August 1970 with Ringo Starr and presented to John Lennon on his 30th birthday. (Based upon “Congratulations” - Bill Martin/Phil Coulter, new lyrics by Mal Evans, Harrison, Eddie Klein). On the record, the tape speed is constantly varied, sresulting in shifting pitch and tempo (probaly to avo...
Apr 13, 2012•35 sec
Lennon made it no secret that many (all?) of his songs were inspired by music he hard heard. This goes for the riff of I Feel Fine, the intro of Instant Karma, Come Together... and for most of Happy Xmas. Here, the inspiration derives from Stewball, an English traditional. Stewball was perfomed by man artists (such as The Greenbriar Boys, Lonnie Donnegan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Guthrie), but the version by the Hollies (1968) appears to be the one for Lennon. Here's a mash-up of those 2 ve...
Apr 13, 2012•3 min
“I Need You” was recorded on February 15th at EMI Studio Two. Both George and John played acoustic guitar, Paul played bass and Ringo played drums. Five takes of the song were recorded before everyone was satisfied, “take five” being deemed as best. This ended the night at 10:30. The next day, February 16th, 1965, they recorded all of the overdubs to “I Need You.” First on the agenda was for George to record his lead vocals and then double-track them. The double-tracked take also included Paul h...
Apr 06, 2012•5 min
Another installment of the BDJ Upgrade series. A new version, produced from the stereo and mono tracks of the Remasters. Instead of the orginal vocals-right/backing left stereo, we now have a balanced stereo spectrum + a bass line with real oomph !
Feb 24, 2012•2 min
On the afternoon of 6 July 1957 the Quarrymen skiffle group played at the garden fete of St Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool. In the band were John Lennon (vocals, guitar), Eric Griffiths (guitar), Colin Hanton (drums), Rod Davies (banjo), Pete Shotton (washboard) and Len Garry (tea chest bass). Their repertoire consisted mainly of Skiffle songs; skiffle blossomed in England, just before Rock &R oll replaced it from 1958 onwards. They played various Lonnie Donnegan songs,interspersed with ...
Feb 05, 2012•10 min
In 2010, BDJ's Cellar presented 2 special Christmas Podcasts; one based on the Nativity story in the Gospel of Matthew, the other on Nativity according to the gospel of Luke. This left us in a predicament for 2011: the other 2 gospels in the Bible (Mark and John) don't speak about the birth of Jesus, so we ran out of Nativity stories. Or did we ? For 2011, we resorted to ancient texts, which were - for good or bad reasons - not included in the Bible. Nonetheless, these texts originate from the e...
Dec 09, 2011•23 min
I still find JFK an inspirational speaker. Listening to his inaugurational speech, delivered on the steps of a snow covered Capitol, it struck me that his words appear to be so relevant to the world of today; the overthrow of (mostly secular) dictators in the Arab world, to be replaced by ? We don't know yet, but could very well be military or religious dictatorships. But as JFK says; "those who ride the back of the tiger, often end up inside !".
Dec 03, 2011•3 min
Victor van Kampen is a guitar virtuoso, now living in the Netherlands. Vic released a number of CD's (go out and buy'em !), but is yet to make the big time. He's about my age, so he should get a move on... Hence this plug: Vic plays the Beatles, I believe these tracks unreleased so far. Did some mastering and fussing about, that's all. Vic not has great technique and tone, he also makes the songs his own. Track listing: I Feel Fine; I'll Follow The Sun; Blackbird; Here There and Everywhere; And ...
Nov 29, 2011•27 min
In the summer of 1966, the Beatles scored a No 1 with a double A-side single. On one side was "Yellow Submarine", and on the other there was "Eleanor Rigby", a sombre song with string backing about lonely people. It featured Eleanor Rigby, who sat by the window, and Father McKenzie, who may or may not have been the priest who officiated at her funeral, to which nobody came. Paul claimed that he had originally considered calling her Daisy Hawkins, although it is difficult to see how "Daisy" could...
Jul 02, 2011•3 min
A nice instrumental track of "Oo You" appears on the new "McCartney" Deluxe as a bonus track. This instrumental track is called "Don't Cry Baby" on it; im the blurbs, it is labelled as an 'outtake', why is a mystery. Anyway, it is rather simple and straightforward, so we did a little mash-up. Oo You is based on a guitar riff,, much like several of Lennon's songs (I Feel Fine, Day Tripper etc.). Hence, we selected a Lennon song, from roughly the same era as Oo You.
Jun 17, 2011•4 min
This song was recorded on 11 February 1963 in ten takes. There's a Place was first released as a track on Please Please Me. It's release in the US came a year later on the legendary Vee-Jay album “Introducing…The Beatles,” released on January 6th, 1964. The second US release was as a single, which wasn’t released in Britain, as the flip side to “Twist And Shout.” This single was released on the newly formed Vee-Jay subsidiary Tollie Records in late February of 1964 as a way to capitalize on thei...
Jun 02, 2011•2 min
