[Music] New Beatles single

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

This was a lovely watch

Even if the end product isn't your cup of tea it's lovely to see how they got there and why.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

It's a bit slow and a bit dull.

Like the rest of their stuff.

I've never got comments like this.

I get if the opinion was "I find their slower stuff dull" but they did so much and were so varied that you can't simply categorise all their stuff as one type.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Have a soft spot for The Beatles as my Dad had this cassette collection

View attachment 169079

Now and Then is a little bland though, still added to my playlist anyway.

I’ve got that box. Vinyl though

 

[wellquickwoody]

Well well well, who'd have thought that after 60 years the Beatles would top the singles charts and the Stones the album chart.

The Stones have done it with a cracking piece of work though.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I've never got comments like this.

I get if the opinion was "I find their slower stuff dull" but they did so much and were so varied that you can't simply categorise all their stuff as one type.

I just don't like scouse skiffle groups much.

 

[GT49er]

I just don't like scouse skiffle groups much.

If you seriously think Help, Penny Lane, Taxman, I am the Walrus, Back in the USSR - and many more - are skiffle, Scouse or otherwise, then you must have something seriously wrong with your ears.
You might not like them, but they're no more skiffle than they are drum and bass, R'n'B or Country and Western!

 

[Zeberdi]

I just don't like scouse skiffle groups much.

Sorry but it is simply incorrect to characterise the Beatles as a ’skiffle band’!

Lots of British rock started out playing skiffle in the ‘50s/‘60s including as teenagers, McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, Van Morrison, Jimmy Page, Bowie etc - the chord structure was easy to learn (like a 12 bar blues which uses only 3 chords too - so another style young budding musicians take to in order to sound good very quickly, especially when jamming with their mates) or in the 80s punk era, grassroots urban ’music’ (that also required minimal musical input!)

But - The song Maggie Mae was one of the very few times the Beatles (or rather before they became the Beatles) did pure skiffle - which was later incorporated at Lennon’s insistence into Let it Be, admittedly without the proverbial T-chest base and washboard but skiffle nonetheless - this original version of the Vipers cover bares little resemblance however to the George Martin productions they became known and were lauded for throughout their 8 year recording career - quintessential creative and pioneering sounds which revolutionised popular music:

The Quarrymen recorded Maggie Mae


- which years later found it‘s way remastered onto the Beatles Let it Be album - but one of the worst songs they ever recorded!


NOW AND THEN is a poignant tribute to both John and George (who played guitar on this track) - so literally the last original Fab Four song we’ll ever get - for that alone, it deserves the highest respect imo - the only sad thing for me is that the production sound is too modern for me to really feel this is a Beatles recording (partly due to the AI used to clean up the demos) and partly because production sounds and speakers etc have changed so much over the past 43 years.

I liked Free as a Bird from amongst the 3 Anthology recordings but this feels more like modern day Paul McCartney to me - especially in one of the key changes McCartney cut out where John went from A minor to A major on the original demo - that for me was quintessential Lennon and I suspect McCartney cut out that key change with a view to playing this song live - he doesn’t have the same vocal range as John had (especially now he’s in his 80s! ) - but overall, McCartney and Giles Martin (George Martin’s Son) did a pretty good job of producing a 2020s Beatle version of a John Lennon 1970s song - I’m not sure Lennon would have liked the final product but that’s why they split up in the first place I guess.

But this is the version that sends shivers down my spine and makes me emotional for a lost creative master

 

[Pevenseagull]

I preferred them when they were absolutely brilliant




AND ,


Without Paperback Writer there may not have been




..which is awesome

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Cynical attempt to get a Christmas number one, or is it too early for that?

I'd rather current musicians got the exposure than these fossils.

 

[Hamilton]

They needed to pick an era in which they were going to fix it in order to be Beatlesque. Instead, it feels a little over-produced to me.

It’s ok though. Not a classic.

 

[sparkie]

I found it incredibly "mediocre" and that's being very charitable. *shrug*

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

The Stones have done it with a cracking piece of work though.

Having been a great Stones fan in the 60s and early 70s, I was distinctly underwhelmed by the single - just noisy and unimaginative.

 

[Bob!]

Cynical attempt to get a Christmas number one, or is it too early for that?
.....

Yeah, about 8 weeks too early

 

[FamilyGuy]

Meh. A bit too Lennon rather than the Beatles.

I believe that'll be because Lennon wrote it and that the base recording is of him singing it alone.
The rest was added recently.

 

[Mellotron]

f*** it - this is great. I'm a biased fanboy so whatever, but it's really grown on me after multiple listens.

The melancholy Lennon demo, brightened by Macca's sheen. A ghostly Harrison slide solo from the vaults.

Yes, if I could change anything I would make the production a little less "impressive", so it fits more in with classic Beatles. It does sound a bit like ELO. But hey.

Still enjoying it though. Eff the haters

 

[Binney on acid]

Lennon would be turning in his grave.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Sorry but it is simply incorrect to characterise the Beatles as a ’skiffle band’!

Lots of British rock started out playing skiffle in the ‘50s/‘60s including as teenagers, McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, Van Morrison, Jimmy Page, Bowie etc - the chord structure was easy to learn (like a 12 bar blues which uses only 3 chords too - so another style young budding musicians take to in order to sound good very quickly, especially when jamming with their mates) or in the 80s punk era, grassroots urban ’music’ (that also required minimal musical input!)

But - The song Maggie Mae was one of the very few times the Beatles (or rather before they became the Beatles) did pure skiffle - which was later incorporated at Lennon’s insistence into Let it Be, admittedly without the proverbial T-chest base and washboard but skiffle nonetheless - this original version of the Vipers cover bares little resemblance however to the George Martin productions they became known and were lauded for throughout their 8 year recording career - quintessential creative and pioneering sounds which revolutionised popular music:

The Quarrymen recorded Maggie Mae


- which years later found it‘s way remastered onto the Beatles Let it Be album - but one of the worst songs they ever recorded!


NOW AND THEN is a poignant tribute to both John and George (who played guitar on this track) - so literally the last original Fab Four song we’ll ever get - for that alone, it deserves the highest respect imo - the only sad thing for me is that the production sound is too modern for me to really feel this is a Beatles recording (partly due to the AI used to clean up the demos) and partly because production sounds and speakers etc have changed so much over the past 43 years.

I liked Free as a Bird from amongst the 3 Anthology recordings but this feels more like modern day Paul McCartney to me - especially in one of the key changes McCartney cut out where John went from A minor to A major on the original demo - that for me was quintessential Lennon and I suspect McCartney cut out that key change with a view to playing this song live - he doesn’t have the same vocal range as John had (especially now he’s in his 80s! ) - but overall, McCartney and Giles Martin (George Martin’s Son) did a pretty good job of producing a 2020s Beatle version of a John Lennon 1970s song - I’m not sure Lennon would have liked the final product but that’s why they split up in the first place I guess.

But this is the version that sends shivers down my spine and makes me emotional for a lost creative master

Never try and reason with a superfan

 

[Zeberdi]

Never try and reason with a superfan

uh - no reasoning required - I’m a music fan - and the Beatles can not be characterised and dismissed as a skiffle band. Period. Whether you hate them or love them!

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

I don't CARE if you don't like it or that your hot take is that "it would have sounded better when they were all alive" instead of compiled over 3 different decades via differing forms of recording methods, or 'less modern' if it was recorded in the past. The music video just adds to it. Cheesy? Hell yes. But lovely.

 

[stewart12]

I don't CARE if you don't like it or that your hot take is that "it would have sounded better when they were all alive" instead of compiled over 3 different decades via differing forms of recording methods, or 'less modern' if it was recorded in the past. The music video just adds to it. Cheesy? Hell yes. But lovely.

I see it as a bit of a love letter from two blokes to their two lost mates. Being blokes they can't do that sincerely without a bit of silliness and humour but it's clear that they mean it. A lovely way to close the epic story of The Beatles. I hope Paul and Ringo can put their feet up now