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The Ultimate Collection Vol. 3
YDB302 Studio Sessions, 1964
YDB304 The 3rd Recorded Hour Of The Let It Be Sessions
Disc 4 from "The Ultimate Collection Vol. 3"
...............The Ultimate Collection Vol. 3
Disc 4 from "The Ultimate Collection Vol. 3"
Total Playing Time: 64:08 1 roll 9A 16:20 Eating Sandwiches (speech) Well All Right All Things Must Pass Two Of Us Two Of Us 2 roll 10A 15:34 Two Of Us Two Of Us 3 roll 11A 15:50 Paul's Piano Tune Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On Let It Be Taking A Trip To Carolina 4 roll 12A 16:15 Please Mrs. Henry Ramblin' Woman Talking about the band (speech) I Bought A Picasso Taking A Trip To Carolina Hey Jude Thinking of all the tunes I got (speech) All Things Must Pass Ringo testing drums Third recorded hour on the first day of the Let It Be Recording Sessions at Twickenham, Jan. 2, 1969. Track 1 and 2 (Film roll numbers: 9A and 10A) first day Jan. 2, 1969 Track 3 and 4 (Film roll numbers: 11A and 12A) second day Jan. 3, 1969
The third recorded hour of Let It Be
Tracks 1 to 4, The Beatles rehearsing, chatting and fiddling about at London's Twickenham Film Studios, taped on Thursday January 2, and Friday January 3, 1969.
Saved here on the last disc on this third volume of Yellow Dog's The Beatles Ultimate Collection are those long-forgotten hours at the end of the first and the beginning of the second day of recordings for what was initially to be a half-hour TV special: `The Beatles At Work'. Dennis O'Dell (head of Apple films) suggested this documentary film to accompany Paul's refreshing idea for the boys to stage just one more major public performance. In the end, these two weeks of tiring sessions at Twickenham Studios turned out to be rehearsals for their newly-planned motion picture `Get Back', later to be re-named `Let It Be': their final LP. The planned-for live show stint was eventually agreed upon to be staged on top of their own London Apple offices, on January 30, 1969.
Filming and recording on The Beatles' ill-fated, confusing and most frustrating Get Back sessions started at London's Twickenham Film Studios in the early hours of Thursday January 2, 1969. Direction was by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, with Glyn Johns as a sound-engineer and one Tony Richmond being contracted as director of photography. The Beatles themselves operated as executive producers. In his 1971 interview to Rolling Stone, John Lennon fondly referred to these sessions as: "...the most miserable on earth". Over a period of two weeks, up to Wednesday January 15, the film crew registered something like ninety six hours of jamming, rehearsing, whistling, chatting, lunching, discussing, sometimes even playing and singing. All in all, an estimated total of some 200 to 250 songs; sometimes just a line or two, sometimes several complete run-throughs. They were dire performances, lacking any clear musical direction, mostly out of tune and time, and rarely played with any conviction. The repertoire ranges from their own new writings (Don't Let Me Down, I Me Mine, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Octopus's Garden and Let It Be), on to a rich list of old Rock 'n' Roll standards (Blue Suede Shoes, Be Bop A Lula, Bad Boy and Not Fade Away), some Beatles-oldies (Help, Please Please Me and Strawberry Fields Forever) and a collection of yet to be released solo-titles (Every Night, All Things Must Pass, Teddy Boy, Jealous Guy and Let It Down).
After two weeks at Twickenham, The Beatles moved on to recording for `Get Back' at their own Apple Studios in Saville Row. It was here that they taped another thirty hours of repertoire and staged their famed 42-minute long rooftop concert, both guesting pianist Billy Preston. Following these long-running sessions were seemingly endless months of editing and mixing by three different producers: Glyn Johns, George Martin and Phil Spector. It wasn't before some sixteen months later, some nine months after the release of the new Abbey Road LP, that the finished Get Back product finally saw the light of day: `Let It Be', an 88-minute motion picture and twelve songs, a 35-minute long LP, with first pressings housed in a deluxe cardboard box holding a 160-page color photo-book.
The greater part of the sessions at Twinkenham Studios still remains unreleased. Although parts have been made available on various underground records over the years, these have always been grabbed collections of little bits and pieces, mostly heavily edited and thus losing sight and sound of the overall unique atmosphere. With the release of these volumes of The Beatles Ultimate Collection, Yellow Dog Records is pleased to present all of the Beatles `Get Back' sessions as they were originally recorded at the time. Starting here with the remaining hour of that first and following second day, complete and unedited.
Track 1 (Roll 9A): Roll nine of the Twickenham `Let It Be' sessions, taped at 6:35 p.m., starts with George spreading around sandwiches. Following the dinner break, it's George again taking the lead in Well All Right, an original by Buddy Holly. "Do you want to do another one?", John asks and it's straight into an early rendition of All Things Must Pass. Next is Paul introducing his newly-composed tune of Two Of Us: "Just for the time being, when it goes funny I'll give you a wink and do four in a bar, cause that'll fit. It goes sort of like into a waltz..." Tuning up for Me Oh My On The Bayou: Wink. An absolutely unique piece. And when the others mess up on tuning-in: "No, just straight, it goes to B-flat, D-minor, G-minor. A-minor, stay on A-minor. Middle 8, B-fiat: Wink." We're on our way home, da da da da. "It goes into waltz, it just changes from four to three. We'll go from the beginning, try to catch it each time."
Track 2 (Roll 10A): And so the practice on Paul's Two Of Us continues... "Whenever it goes We're On Our Way Home, we just gotta learn, it's supposed to be in harmony." Singing it all four joined together: We're going home at night. Following a humorous count-in from Paul, it's from the start again. Two Of Us take how many, we've already lost count. "Instead of singing those bits I'll try and rhythm it. Middle eight now and don't stop there, keep going on. Three harmonies." You and me Henry Cooper, Henry Cooper, on our way home. Cha Cha ooh. John asking: "Do you want me sing in the melody then?", with George adding "Tell me when it's the last one, second after the second middle eight." Paul slipping away on the lyrics. "When you're playing on a guitar you can't hear it change beat really, so it's like four in a bar. Right, do it from the beginning again." Two of us all night long... 26 take #1. Then concentrating on his own bass part: "I can't see the bass anywhere in it, I'll just vamp straight on one note." You and me have memories...
Track 3 (Roll 11A): And so a new day begins, the second day of shooting at Twickenham. 29 take #1, 10:55 a.m,, says the film crew. Paul opens on piano with an early-morning improvisation, since then listed as Paul's Piano Tune. A marginal part of this enjoyable solo was edited into the finished `Let It Be' movie. Meanwhile, one by one, the other three have arrived. Paul, still leading on piano, now in a Fred Astaire tap-dance boogie style leads them into his version of Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On, a special, lowered tempo, early-morning version. Next is a very early, maybe even the very first, version of Let It Be, becoming instrumental half way through. "Well, sing us a song", says George. Cut cameras now. Time to read through the new issue of the Beatles Monthly Book. "Good this month? Looking at the pics, I'm getting older and older..." Into an absolutely unheard Ringo original called Taking A Trip To Carolina (On An Ocean Liner).
Track 4 (Roll 12A): Roll twelve starts with George's version of friend Bob Dylan's Please Mrs. Henry. "Did you play those tapes of Dylan's?" asks George. "No, neither one I've played", says Ringo, reading on in the new issue of the Beatles Book. "Did you read this bit by Mal?" Tuning up for another Dylan tune: Ramblin' Woman. The official Beatles fan club. "It's just so sort of daft. The steadiness. Even if we're all in prison, they'll still be coming up with things like Hello, the boys are sending their big Hi to all the Beatle persons. Ringo, who's doing time with the mail bags says: `It's fab in here.' Thanks for the cards, thanks for the guitar." Then talking on about Ringo and writing. A song called I Bought A Picasso. "I really do get fed up with it, I can't fit it in with my playing, that's the only thing about that, it's too fast for me." Paul giving Richie a hand on the piano and together joining in on another version of Taking A Trip To Carolina (On An Ocean Liner). "The words are not very good, Carolina is negative." Finishing his cup of coffee, it's George, Paul and Ringo chatting on about Wilson Pickett's version of Hey Jude. George: "Thinking of all the tunes I've got, they're all slowish. I've got that Taxman part two, Taxman revisited five years strong. That could be nice, but it should be like a very sad type with strings and such. So far there's just a couple that I know I could do live with no backing and that was one of them." Then into another version of All Things Must Pass: "It'd be nice if you could give me some drums..."