Beatles Red & Blue Greatest Hits Remasters Released 10-19-2010

 

The Beatles' original 1973 compilation 1962-1966 ("Red") and 1967-1970 ("Blue") have been remastered by the same dedicated team of engineers at EMI Music's Abbey Road Studios responsible for remastering The Beatles' original UK studio albums, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release. Both 2CD packages include expanded booklets with original liner notes, newly written essays by Bill Flanagan and rare photos. "Red" and "Blue" are the first Beatles compilations to be released after the band's 1970 disbandment, the popular collections each feature a selection of singles and album tracks written by the band's members.

1962-1966 (Red) Remastered
[Original recording reissued]

Track Listings:

Disc: 1

1. Love Me Do
2. Please Please Me
3. From Me to You
4. She Loves You
5. I Want to Hold Your Hand
6. All My Loving
7. Can't Buy Me Love
8. A Hard Day's Night
9. And I Love Her
10. Eight Days a Week
11. I Feel Fine
12. Ticket to Ride
13. Yesterday

Disc: 2

1. Help!
2. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
3. We Can Work It Out
4. Day Tripper
5. Drive My Car
6. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
7. Nowhere Man
8. Michelle
9. In My Life
10. Girl
11. Paperback Writer
12. Eleanor Rigby
13. Yellow Submarine


Review: By Mark Barry at Reckless Records, London (UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)  

Commonly known as the "Red Album", the 2LP vinyl set "1962 - 1966" became an instant classic when it was first released in April 1973 (as did its "Blue" counterpart "1967-1970"). When they were finally reissued onto the new CD format in 1993 however, they caused consternation because of their extortionate full price.

So is this newly remastered 2010 mid-priced 2CD reissue on EMI/Apple 5099990675225 any better - the answer is an emphatic 'yes'.

PACKAGING:
The first thing you notice is that the clunky double jewel-case of the 1993 reissue has been dumped for a three-way foldout card sleeve. The centre and right flaps picture the photograph on the inner gatefold of the original vinyl double album (St. Pancras Old Church in London, 27 July 1969, The Beatles with the public looking through the railings). It also houses the two CDs - CD1 has the full Apple label (13 tracks, 31:02 minutes) and the 2nd CD has the half Apple logo (13 tracks, 31:45 minutes). The vinyl set is yet to come, the Digital Download versions are available from 25 Oct 2010 and there's also an issue that lumps both the Red & Blue reissues together as one package in late November.

The left flap houses a new 32-page booklet. The lyrics are intact from the inner sleeves of the original album issue, there's new liner notes by BILL FLANAGAN the MTV Executive and author of "Evening's Empire" (a book on Rock in the Sixties) and there's plenty of superb colour photos from the period - it's impressively done. Downsides - some complained that the 09/09/09 card digipak sleeves for The Beatles reissues were easy to smudge once out of the shrinkwrap and worse - the inner flaps easy to tear as you removed the disc. I'm afraid these are the same. I suppose I would have been naïve of us to think that EMI would actually listen to the complaints of 2009 about packaging, but they haven't - the need for these issues to look the same as the preceding ones has overridden all considerations... Having said that, I still think they look great - substantial even...

PLAYING TIMES:
It doesn't take a particular genius to work out from the playing times provided above that this set could easily have fitted onto 1CD (and even included bonus tracks). But EMI would of course argue that this would fundamentally alter the aesthetic of the original release. At least this time, the reissue is at mid price, so we're not being charged for the privilege. I think the new price pitch makes the 'one' disc argument a mute point. Besides, I like the break, taking out the first disc and putting in the second - it's how the original 2LP issue was. And better, it doesn't actually diminish the listen, if anything it enhances it.

TRACK CHOICES:
The compilation itself is basically the A-sides of all their UK 7" singles releases between 1962 and 1966 in chronological release date order with a few key album tracks thrown in for good measure. Eagle-eye fans would therefore note that as ALL Beatles UK 7" singles for that period were issued only in MONO, so the tracks on the album should reflect that - the MONO single mixes. But EMI did nothing of the sort. In fact the original 1973 albums stated only STEREO on the labels and only the STEREO code was reflected in their catalogue numbers too. At least this time this new 2010 issue notes that Tracks 1 to 4 on Disc 1 are in MONO, while all other are in STEREO ("Love Me Do" is the album mix and not the single version). Bottom line - I would argue that accuracy's loss is the listener's gain, because the STEREO versions used here are awesome.

SOUND:
Although the compilation is copyrighted to 2010 (released Monday 18 Oct 2010 in the UK and 19 Oct 2010 in the USA), the liner notes don't try to hide that these are the 2009 remasters by the same team who did the much-praised Beatles catalogue of 09/09/09. The sound quality is fantastic - breathtaking clarity on instruments - George Harrison's sitar on "Norwegian Wood" - the string quartet on "Eleanor Rigby" and so on.

CONTENT:
But what impresses most is the actual listen itself. Even now, it's truly shocking to hear just how accomplished The Beatles were. Re-listening to each disc in straight order is a gobsmacking experience - and by the time you get to the real song-writing genius of "Ticket To Ride" and especially "Yesterday" (the song that single-handled shut all the begrudgers up) - you're left with a renewed sense of awe. "We Can Work It Out" and "Day Tripper" were a single for God's sake - not on any English album at the time of release! "Paperback Writer", "Ticket To Ride", "Michelle" - track after track of brilliance... Were they really 'this' good - and so early on - the answer is yes - and always will be.

To sum up - the sound on these new reissues is fabulous; the packaging better than the 1993 versions and each is being sold at mid-price - available in most places for less than the price of a single new album. You can't help but think that millions of people globally will take one look at these beauties on a shelf somewhere and slap them straight into their shopping baskets. And rightly so...

I've loved re-hearing these classic Beatles songs in this beautiful sound quality - I really have - and despite some minor packaging quibbles - the 2010 version of the "Red" album is wholeheartedly recommended.

1967-1970 (Blue) Remastered
[Original recording remastered]

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Strawberry Fields Forever
2. Penny Lane
3. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

4. With a Little Help from My Friends
5. 1. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
6. A Day in the Life
7. All You Need Is Love
8. I Am the Walrus
9. Hello, Goodbye
10. The Fool on the Hill
11. Magical Mystery Tour
12. Lady Madonna
13. Hey Jude
14. Revolution

Disc: 2

1. Back in the U.S.S.R.
2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
3. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
4. Get Back
5. Don't Let Me Down
6. Ballad of John and Yoko
7. Old Brown Shoe
8. Here Comes the Sun
9. Come Together
10. Something
11. Octopus's Garden
12. Let It Be
13. Across the Universe
14. The Long and Winding Road

Review: By Mark Barry at Reckless Records, London (UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)  

This review is from: 1967-1970 (Blue) Remastered (Audio CD)
Commonly known as the "Blue Album", the 2LP vinyl set "1967 - 1970" became an instant classic when it was first released in April 1973 (as did its "Red" counterpart "1962-1966"). When they were finally reissued onto the new CD format in 1993 however, they caused consternation because of their extortionate full price.

So is this newly remastered 2010 mid-priced 2CD reissue on EMI/Apple 5099990674723 any better - the answer is an emphatic 'yes'.

PACKAGING:
The first thing you notice is that the clunky double jewel-case of the 1993 reissue has been dumped for a three-way foldout card sleeve. The centre and right flaps picture the photograph on the inner gatefold of the original vinyl double album (St. Pancras Old Church in London, 27 July 1969, The Beatles with the public looking through the railings - it's the same photo on the "Red" album). It also houses the two CDs - CD1 has the full Apple label (14 tracks, 51:15 minutes) and the 2nd CD has the half Apple logo (14 tracks, 48:43 minutes). The vinyl set is yet to come, the Digital Download versions are available from 25 Oct 2010 and there's also an issue that lumps both the Blue & Red reissues together as one package in late November.

The left flap houses a new 32-page booklet. The lyrics are intact from the inner sleeves of the original album issue, there's new liner notes by BILL FLANAGAN the MTV Executive and author of "Evening's Empire" (a book on Rock in the Sixties) and there's plenty of superb colour photos from the period - it's impressively done. Downsides - some complained that the 09/09/09 card digipak sleeves for The Beatles reissues were easy to smudge once out of the shrinkwrap and worse - the inner flaps easy to tear as you removed the disc. I'm afraid these are the same. I suppose I would have been naïve of us to think that EMI would actually listen to the complaints of 2009 about packaging, but they haven't - the need for these issues to look the same as the preceding ones has overridden all considerations... Having said that, I still think they look great - substantial even...

PLAYING TIMES:
Unlike the "Red" issue which could easily have fitted onto 1CD (and even included bonus tracks), as you can see from the playing times provided above, it would not have been possible with this set. Anyway - EMI would of course argue that a single CD issue of this most `iconic' of double albums would fundamentally alter the aesthetic of the original release. At least this time, this 2CD reissue is at mid price, so we're not being charged for the privilege of separation.

TRACK CHOICES:
The compilation itself is basically the A-sides of all their UK 7" singles releases between 1967 and 1970 in chronological release date order with a few key album tracks thrown in for good measure. Eagle-eye fans would therefore note that up to and including "Get Back" - ALL Beatles UK 7" singles for that period were issued only in MONO ("The Ballad Of John & Yoko" was their 1st STEREO single in the UK). So the tracks on the album should reflect that - the MONO single mixes. But EMI did nothing of the sort. They're all in STEREO (there's 4 MONO on the "Red" set) and i would argue that accuracy's loss is the listener's gain, because the STEREO versions used here are awesome.

SOUND:
Although the compilation is copyrighted to 2010 (released Monday 18 Oct 2010 in the UK and 19 Oct 2010 in the USA), the liner notes don't try to hide that these are the 2009 remasters by the same team who did the much-praised Beatles catalogue of 09/09/09. The sound quality is fantastic - breathtaking clarity on instruments - the piano and guitars on "Lady Madonna", the jet screeching in at the opening of "Back In The U.S.S.R", the brass on "All You Need Is Love", Billy Preston's superb keyboard work on "Let It Be", the wonderfully loose live feel of "Don't Let Me Down" (best B-side ever?) - and so on.

CONTENT:
But what impresses most is the actual listen itself. Even now, it's truly shocking to hear just how accomplished The Beatles became during this ludicrously productive period. And diversity of writers crept in too. There's the 4 Harrison gems "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Old Brown Shoe" and the magical double of "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun", while Ringo gets the witty "Octopus's Garden". Leaving the rest as Lennon-McCartney originals. And what an embarrassment of riches they are...

7" perfection comes twice - "Strawberry Fields Forever" b/w "Penny Lane" and arguably the greatest single ever released - "Hey Jude" b/w "Revolution" (melodious Paul on the A with rockin' blistering John on the B). Most bands would kill a close relative to get anywhere near this level of genius. And by the time you get to the ballads at the end of Disc 2 - "The Long And Winding Road" and "Across The Universe" - adjectives begin to fail you... Were The Beatles really 'this' good - the answer is yes - and always will be.

To sum up - the sound on these new reissues is fabulous; the packaging better than the 1993 versions and each is being sold at mid-price - available in most places for less than the price of a single new album. You can't help but think that millions of people globally will take one look at these beauties on a shelf somewhere and slap them straight into their shopping baskets. And rightly so...

I've loved re-hearing these classic Beatles songs in this beautiful sound quality - I really have - and despite some minor packaging quibbles - the 2010 version of the "Blue" album is wholeheartedly recommended.

You can get the Red one here:
http://juliocmail.blogspot.com/2008/04/beatles-red-album-1962-1966-1973.html

You can get the Blue one here:
http://juliocmail.blogspot.com/2010/10/thebeatles1967-1970remastered-2010.html

Candlestick Park - San Francisco - 08-29-1966 - The Last Beatles Concert

August 29, 1966 marked the date of the last show of Beatlemania. It was the beginning of a hot, wet and windy evening in a stadium. Candlestick Park was the venue for the Beatles' last appearance before a live audience. It was the end of the third and troubled American tour with the Beatles tired of hysteria and threats, since months before John Lennon dared to say that Beatles were more  popular than Christ.  American Conservatism muzzled them until the last show and John, Paul, George and Ringo took the stage for short 28 minutes of music knowing that this was the last of an era. Nobody knew what would be after that, but they were sick of airplanes, hotels, and wherever they went it was crazy. Not even Brian Espstein attended the last show.

Below are cover scans of a widely available bootleg CD of the concert.

 

by JPGRles

August 29 2010 marked the 44^th anniversary of the last Beatles concert. EVER!

August 29 1966 saw the most famous pop / rock n roll band in history perform to 25,000 screaming fans at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. This was just over half capacity at 42,500 and whole sections of the park were unsold. Only a few years earlier and it would have been standing room only and unthinkable. WHY was this?
Here is a quote from George Harrison at the end of the last Beatles concert at Candlestick park which may give a clue.

“We’d done about 1,400 live shows and I certainly felt that was it…it was ridiculous , and it felt dangerous because everybody was out of hand and out of line. Even the cops were out of line…we’ve got to stop this…we’ve got to pack this in”.

Hindsight is a great thing

“Twenty-four thousand screaming fans couldn’t be wrong. But what they didn’t realize on that late August evening was that the Beatles didn’t want to be there, that the band couldn’t hear itself enough to sing on-key, and that this would be the last Beatles concert ever.”

The last Beatles concert only lasted for 33 minutes. There were technical problems and the Fab 4 could not even hear their own voices and consequently sang off key the whole time.

At this point only the iconic foursome and a few insiders knew this would be the last Beatles concert (maybe THEY didn’t even know the tag “EVER”)?

Candlestick Park circa 1966 (Wikepedia)

Did You Know

• With the lack of sales the promoters made a loss. The Beatles received 65% of the gross takings of the concert while a further 15% went to the City of San Francisco – Leaving only 20% for Tempo Productions who promoted the last Beatles concert.
• The ticket machines could not process the oversized tickets so they needed to be processed by hand.
• Paul McCartney asked Tony Barrow (Press officer) to record the performance and bootleg copies were made. One problem was the tape ran out, and the last song of the last Beatles Concert was not recorded in its entirety.
• John strummed the intro guitar notes of “In My Life” just prior to leaving the stage.
• The famous stadium which housed the last Beatles concert in 1966 was later renamed 3Com Park then Monster Park. However in 2008 it was formally renamed once again to Candlestick Park.

Their last performance however was years later on January 30 1969. It was the now famous concert on the rooftop of the abbey Road Studios where they performed songs from their albums Abbey Road and Let it Be Albums and is immortalized in their film “Let It Be”
“They just came to the place, screamed like crazy and had a good time. You have to remember we were only on for 30 minutes” Ringo Starr on Shea Stadium concert 1965

You can listen to the entire concert digitally remastered here:



Check out Last Beatles Concert at Candlestick Park Videos.

You can get it here: http://octaner.blogspot.com/2009/03/final-tour-disc-2.html


Source: http://whenthelastbeatlesgone.com/2010/09/last-beatles-concert/

John Lennon 70th Anniversary Collection - to be released 10-05-2010

Tracklisting and artwork revealed for Gimme Some Truth

Sweeping Catalogue Initiative Overseen by Yoko Ono and EMI Music Commemorates Lennon's 70th Birthday.
EMI Music has unveiled the complete tracklists and cover art for a broad selection of remastered John Lennon albums and new collections to be released on CD and digitally on 4 October (5 October in North America). Announced last month, EMI Music's global John Lennon 'Gimme Some Truth' catalogue campaign is being overseen by Yoko Ono and commemorates the music legend's 70th birthday on 9 October, 2010. Featured in the sweeping initiative are eight remastered John Lennon solo albums and new titles including Double Fantasy Stripped Down, Power To The People: The Hits, Gimme Some Truth, and the John Lennon Signature Box.

For the first time, Lennon's classic solo albums and other standout recordings have been digitally remastered from his original mixes. Double Fantasy, 1980's GRAMMY Award winner for Album of the Year, will be presented with a newly remixed 'Stripped Down' version produced by Yoko Ono and Jack Douglas, Lennon's original co-producers for the album. Some Time In New York City has been restored to include the six 'Live Jam' recordings featured on the original album.

The deluxe 11CD and digital John Lennon Signature Box includes 13 previously unreleased home recordings, and Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, and Julian Lennon have each written personal essays for the lavish collection.

The cover art for the new titles includes original drawings by Sean Lennon for Double Fantasy Stripped Down, while the cover of 1974's Walls and Bridges is restored to its original artwork.

John Lennon's life and music will be specially feted this fall with a variety of commemorative releases and events around the world. Please visit www.johnlennon.com for official announcements and updates.

And from www.consequenceofsound.net

The Beatles once asked us if we’d still need them when they’re 64. Only two of them made it that far. We still need Paul McCartney. We still smile at Ringo. But with George Harrison and John Lennon gone, the best we can get from them is reissues and remixes of their timeless work. In time for what would be his 70th birthday in October, the ex-Beatles’ solo albums are to be remastered and released.

Nearly 30 years after Lennon’s untimely murder, on Dec. 8th, 1980, a 11-CD John Lennon Signature Box set will be released, packed with new editions of his studio efforts, according to the LA Times. Additionally, Capitol and EMI are putting out a four-CD Gimme Some Truth box set with “thematically linked songs on each disc and a 15-song compilation Power to the People: The Hits.

What’s more, Lenonon’s last album, 1980’s Double Fantasy, will be completely stripped down, remixed and remastered. They estimate it will be similar to the treatment given to The Beatles’ album Let It Be…Naked which was a cleaned up version, with Phil Spector’s trademark wall of sound taken off. Reactions to that album were mixed, but Yoko Ono insists this album is worth the remix.

In a statement, Yoko Ono said,

“Double Fantasy Stripped Down really allows us to focus on John’s amazing vocals. It was [while] working on the new version of this album that I was hit hardest emotionally, as this was the last album John released before his passing.”

All of the releases will be available on CD as well as digitally on October 5th in North America and October 4th for the rest of the world. No word on whether the releases will also be out on vinyl, or whether bonus tracks will be released for the original albums. We imagine they’ll have bonus tracks. We still need John at 70.

Source: http://consequenceofsound.net/2010/09/02/john-lennons-gimme-some-truth-set-includes-unreleased-songs/
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POWER TO THE PEOPLE: THE HITS [CD; Digital]
1. Power To The People
2. Gimme Some Truth
3. Woman
4. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
5. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
6. Cold Turkey
7. Jealous Guy
8. #9 Dream
9. (Just Like) Starting Over
10. Mind Games
11. Watching The Wheels
12. Stand By Me
13. Imagine
14. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
15. Give Peace A Chance

POWER TO THE PEOPLE: THE HITS (EXPERIENCE EDITION) [CD/DVD]
CD
(tracklist same as above)
DVD
1. Power To The People
2. Gimme Some Truth
3. Woman
4. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
5. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
6. Cold Turkey
7. Jealous Guy
8. #9 Dream
9. (Just Like) Starting Over
10. Mind Games
11. Watching The Wheels
12. Stand By Me
13. Imagine
14. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
15. Give Peace A Chance

GIMME SOME TRUTH [4CD; Digital]
Working Class Hero
1. Working Class Hero
2. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
3. Power To The People
4. God
5. I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die
6. Gimme Some Truth
7. Sunday Bloody Sunday
8. Steel And Glass
9. Meat City
10. I Don't Wanna Face It
11. Remember
12. Woman Is The Nigger Of The World
13. I Found out
14. Isolation
15. Imagine
16. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
17. Give Peace A Chance
18. Only People

Woman
1. Mother
2. Hold On
3. You Are Here
4. Well Well Well
5. Oh My Love
6. Oh Yoko!
7. Grow Old With Me
8. Love
9. Jealous Guy
10. Woman
11. Out The Blue
12. Bless You
13. Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)
14. My Mummy's Dead
15. I'm Losing You
16. (Just Like) Starting Over
17. #9 Dream
18. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)

Borrowed Time
1. Mind Games
2. Nobody Told Me
3. Cleanup Time
4. Crippled Inside
5. How Do You Sleep?
6. How?
7. Intuition
8. I'm Stepping Out
9. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
10. Old Dirt Road
11. Scared
12. What You Got
13. Cold Turkey
14. New York City
15. Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)
16. Borrowed Time
17. Look At Me
18. Watching The Wheels

Roots
1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
2. You Can't Catch Me
3. Medley: Rip It Up/Ready Teddy
4. Tight A$
5. Ain't That a Shame
6. Sweet Little Sixteen
7. Do You Wanna Dance
8. Slippin' and Slidin'
9. Peggy Sue
10. Medley: Bring It On Home/Send Me Some Lovin'
11. Yer Blues (Live)
12. Just Because
13. Boney Moronie
14. Beef Jerky
15. Ya Ya
16. Hound Dog (Live)
17. Stand By Me
18. Here We Go Again

JOHN LENNON SIGNATURE BOX [11CD; Digital]
Original Albums [digitally remastered]
- John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
- Imagine
- Some Time In New York City
- Mind Games
- Walls and Bridges
- Rock 'n' Roll
- Double Fantasy
- Milk and Honey

Home Tapes
1. Mother
2. Love
3. God
4. I Found Out
5. Nobody Told Me
6. Honey Don't
7. One Of The Boys
8. India, India
9. Serve Yourself
10. Isolation
11. Remember
12. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
13. I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die

Singles
1. Power To The People
2. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
3. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
4. Cold Turkey
5. Move Over Ms. L
6. Give Peace a Chance

ORIGINAL ALBUMS (REMASTERED) [CD; Digital]

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
1. Mother
2. Hold On
3. I Found Out
4. Working Class Hero
5. Isolation
6. Remember
7. Love
8. Well Well Well
9. Look At Me
10. God
11. My Mummy's Dead

Imagine (1971)
1. Imagine
2. Crippled Inside
3. Jealous Guy
4. It's So Hard
5. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die
6. Gimme Some Truth
7. Oh My Love
8. How Do You Sleep?
9. How?
10. Oh Yoko!

Some Time In New York City (1972)
DISC ONE
1. Woman Is The Nigger Of The World
2. Sisters, O Sisters
3. Attica State
4. Born In a Prison
5. New York City
6. Sunday Bloody Sunday
7. The Luck Of The Irish
8. John Sinclair
9. Angela
10. We're All Water
DISC TWO
1. Cold Turkey (live)
2. Don't Worry Kyoko (live)
3. Well (Baby Please Don't Go) (live)
4. Jamrag (live)
5. Scumbag (live)
6. Au (live)

Mind Games (1973)
1. Mind Games
2. Tight A$
3. Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)
4. One Day (At A Time)
5. Bring On The Lucie (Freda Peeple)
6. Nutopian International Anthem
7. Intuition
8. Out The Blue
9. Only People
10. I Know (I Know)
11. You Are Here
12. Meat City

Walls and Bridges (1974)
1. Going Down On Love
2. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
3. Old Dirt Road
4. What You Got
5. Bless You
6. Scared
7. #9 Dream
8. Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)
9. Steel And Glass
10. Beef Jerky
11. Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)
12. Ya Ya

Rock 'n' Roll (1975)
1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
2. Stand By Me
3. Medley: Rip It Up/Ready Teddy
4. You Can't Catch Me
5. Ain't That A Shame
6. Do You Wanna Dance
7. Sweet Little Sixteen
8. Slippin' And Slidin'
9. Peggy Sue
10. Medley: Bring It On Home To Me/Send Me Some Lovin'
11. Bony Moronie
12. Ya Ya
13. Just Because

Double Fantasy Stripped Down (2010) / Double Fantasy (1980)
Stripped Down
Original Album, Remastered
1. (Just Like) Starting Over
2. Kiss Kiss Kiss
3. Cleanup Time
4. Give Me Something
5. I'm Losing You
6. I'm Moving On
7. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
8. Watching The Wheels
9. Yes, I'm Your Angel
10. Woman
11. Beautiful Boys
12. Dear Yoko
13. Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him
14. Hard Times Are Over

Milk and Honey (1984)
1. I'm Stepping Out
2. Sleepless Night
3. I Don't Wanna Face It
4. Don't Be Scared
5. Nobody Told Me
6. O'Sanity
7. Borrowed Time
8. Your Hands
9. (Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess
10. Let Me Count The Ways
11. Grow Old With Me
12. You're The One

Source: http://www.beatles.com/#/news/Tracklisting_and_artwork/

You can get them here:
http://rockermusical.blogspot.com/2010/10/john-lennon-gimme-some-truth-box-set-4.html

also here: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://flacworld.com/809-john-lennon-gimme-some-truth-4cd-2010.html&prev=http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch%3Fhl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8%26q%3Djohn%2Blennon%2Bgimme%2Bsome%2Btruth%2Bdownload%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN%26start%3D90

Macca's meltdown: The inside story of the marriage that cost Sir Paul £24m and almost destroyed him

By HOWARD SOUNES
Last updated at 1:07 AM on 14th August 2010

• Comments (76)
• Add to My Stories

She could hardly fail to catch his eye.

In a translucent red top that revealed her large breasts, she was what Paul McCartney might once have termed ‘a right little raver’.

He watched spellbound as Heather Mills, with a flirtatious toss of her thick blonde hair, strode confidently across the stage of a London awards ceremony in May 1999 to introduce a woman who’d shown fortitude in coping with the loss of her limbs.

Bitter end: Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills seemed in love, but their relationship disintegrated when her raunchy past was exposed

It wasn’t immediately obvious that Ms Mills was also wearing a prosthetic leg.

‘Who’s that?’ asked Sir Paul, who was waiting to deliver an award himself.

He was told that the woman who had made such a strong impression on him was a 31-year-old model who’d lost her leg in a road accident and now raised money for her charity.

Days later, Heather found a message on her answer machine: ‘It’s Paul McCartney here. I’d like to talk to you about the charity work.’

They met at his London office, where Paul presented the Heather Mills Trust — which she hadn’t yet registered with the Charity Commission — with a cheque for £150,000.

As she left that summer day, Heather noticed Sir Paul was admiring her backside. He hadn’t looked with lust at a woman since his wife’s death from breast cancer just over a year before.

Back then, he’d been in a very sorry condition, wandering about his estate and talking constantly about Linda.

‘Paul was just haggard. I mean, he sat there like an old man, lost,’ says Linda’s friend, the TV writer Carla Lane.

Now, however, he told himself that Linda wouldn’t mind about his feelings for Heather. He convinced himself that his dead wife was sending him messages via the wildlife on their Sussex farm.

‘There were strange metaphysical occurrences that seemed to mean something. Animal noises. Bird noises.

‘You’d ask yourself a question under the stars and, like, there’d be like an owl in the valley going whoo-whoo-whoo,’ he revealed later.

In short, he was set on dating Heather Mills — a decision that would one day cost him dear.

Like Paul, she came from a northern working-class family, but her background was troubled.

'The more you met (Heather), the more you knew she was a nutter'

At 14, she claimed in her autobiography, she’d run away from home. She’d started sleeping rough and mixing with drug addicts, rent boys and prostitutes.

Then she got a Saturday job with a jeweller, from whom she stole — resulting in a probationary sentence for theft. Next, Heather strayed into the fringes of the sex industry, finding employment at around the age of 16 as a waitress in a Soho hostess club.

A failed marriage and a career in glamour modelling had followed. The exact details are slightly mysterious.

Her ex-husband Alfie Karmal says: ‘It was difficult to believe anything she said, as I caught her out lying to me so often.’  

Still, whatever her short-comings, she was able to yank Sir Paul McCartney out of his grief. Quickly disposing of her fiance Chris Terrill (to whom she’d got engaged after a ten-day romance), she joined the Beatle for his annual vacation on Long Island in America.

By the time they returned to the UK, they were inseparable. Paul was so happy, she noted, that he was literally dancing down the street, like his hero Fred Astaire. For Halloween, he arranged a tryst with Heather in a London hotel, filling their suite with lanterns.

And for New Year’s Eve, they went to his house on Merseyside where Heather met the rellies, as Paul called his Liverpool family.  

The rellies, however, looked upon her askance. ‘I went in the kitchen for some reason. Seated at a table, in white faux fur and a white Cossack fake fur hat, is this very glamorous-looking blonde,’ recalls Paul’s cousin Mike Robbins.

Happier times: Sir Paul and Heather Mills announce their engagement in 2002

He extended his hand, but the blonde didn’t shake it and seemed to want to stay in the kitchen rather than join everyone else in the living room. Mike assumed she was ‘one of Paul’s brief bits of crumpet’.  But, he adds, ‘the more you met her, the more you knew she was a nutter’.

Clearly, Paul didn’t think so. Nor did he seem bothered by the stories now emerging that suggested Heather had been a party girl who kept company with rich Arabs, including the Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. Why did Paul invest such trust in a self- publicising minor celebrity with a dubious past?

Mike Robbins thinks he knows the answer: sex. Paul had been in a monogamous relationship for almost 30 years and then along came a busty blonde who may have had a certain expertise in the bedroom.

‘I’m being crude now, but he was c**k happy. He confused sex with love,’ says Mike. ‘He couldn’t tell the difference.’

Another way to look at Paul’s relationship with Heather is to consider that, like John Lennon, he’d spent his adult life being venerated by almost everybody he met.

Indeed, both Beatles had become so famous, so rich and so powerful that they were inevitably slightly monstrous.

And they were only comfortable with women who weren’t overawed by their fame.

When Heather admired a beach house near Hove in Sussex, Paul lent her £800,000 to buy it. By then, nearing 60, he also delighted in arranging romantic surprises — so he flew with her to India for her 33rd birthday and took her shopping in Manhattan on Valentine’s Day.

'You know when a woman loves a man she’s with and there was no love there. Everyone could see it'

Not everyone believed she was equally smitten. Anthony Smith, president of Magdalen College, Oxford, who had them both to stay several times while Paul was writing a choral work for the college, says: ‘You know when a woman loves a man she’s with and there was no love there. Everyone could see it. Everyone around them.

‘You could just see it, you could feel it, and he didn’t, or he’d convinced himself that because he was a good man — which he is, an extremely morally motivated person in all things, I think — he felt he ought to love her. That’s my theory.’

Among Sir Paul’s friends and associates, the consensus was that Heather was trouble. The musician Eric Stewart of 10CC was so concerned about his old friend that he wrote a letter to Paul, warning him about Heather.

He didn’t get a reply, nor could he get through to Paul on the phone. ‘It was like he was trying to sweep out anybody who knew him and Linda together.’

When Paul introduced Heather Mills to Tony Bramwell, another old friend, the former Beatles employee recognised Heather as a girl who used to hang around the London club scene. ‘Heather looked at me in horror,’ Bramwell says, ‘knowing I’d been in the clubs when she was slapping around looking for a rich man.’

Unwilling to spend time in his company, she announced: ‘There’s nobody interesting here — I’m going shopping.’ Paul followed her meekly.

Bramwell concluded that Heather was every bit as horrible as he’d always found Yoko Ono to be.

Glamour model: Heather's raunchy past came back to haunt her after she married Sir Paul

That summer of 2001, Paul dropped down on his knee at a hotel in the Lake District, gave his girlfriend a sapphire and diamond ring and asked her to marry him.

When she said yes, he burst into tears. In the new year, he bought her more jewellery, gave her a joint Coutts credit card and advanced her £150,000 to decorate her new house near Hove, writing off the original £800,000 home loan as a gift.

He then embarked on a spring tour of North America, with Heather in tow. Photographs suggest they were the image of happiness at this time, but away from the cameras there were ugly scenes.

In mid-May, when the tour reached Florida, Paul and Heather had checked into the Turnberry Isle Resort and Club in Miami. In the early hours, hotel guests awoke to hear Paul shouting: ‘I don’t want to marry you. The wedding’s off!’

Heather’s engagement ring was then apparently flung from their hotel window. The next day, hotel staff hired metal detectors to find it.  

However, the relationship was patched up in time for a lavish 2002 wedding in Ireland.

There was no sign of Paul’s son James or his adoptive daughter Heather, both of whom were understood to be against Dad’s second marriage. Most of the other rellies turned up, but their enjoyment of the big day was tempered by suspicions about the bride.

‘By then the family knew — my family are not dopey — this was a wrong’un,’ says Mike Robbins.

Afterwards, Paul resumed his North American tour and Heather did a TV interview with broadcaster Barbara Walters.  

‘I am married to the most famous person in the world and that is very unfortunate for me,’ said the new Lady McCartney, making it clear she didn’t like her charity work being overshadowed.  

Indeed, she seemed to find her husband generally annoying. ‘This is a man who has had his own way his entire life,’ she told Walters.

Volatile: Despite putting on a happy appearance, the couple's marriage was marred by rows

‘When you become famous at 19, it is sometimes hard to listen to other people’s opinions.’

The interview allegedly led to a spectacular argument with Paul — one of a series that would eventually lead them to the divorce courts.

Heather complained to him that Walters had raised some of the less flattering stories about her early life. But he apparently dismissed her concerns, saying she was in a mood. 

Heather decided he was drunk. According to her account in the divorce documents: ‘[Paul] grabbed [Heather] by the neck and pushed her over a coffee table. He then went outside and in his drunken state he fell down a hill, cutting his arm.’

Still, Heather’s experience didn’t put her off chat shows: she appeared repeatedly on Larry King Live in the months to come, facing increasingly tough questions about her past.

That December, Paul gave her a cash gift of £250,000 — which she used to help buy a £450,000 flat in Hammersmith, West London — then set up a £360,000-a-year allowance for her. Meanwhile, more people were starting to talk.

A childhood girlfriend disputed details in Heather’s memoirs about the two of them being held prisoner by a paedophile. She sued Heather and won compensation.

Charles Stapley, effectively Heather’s stepfather, likewise disputed Heather’s story of running away from home at 14.

‘She did go and sleep in the back of a truck with a chap who worked on the dodgems, but that was just at weekends,’ he said, describing Heather as a ‘damaged personality’.

The Clapham jeweller who’d employed Heather as a teenager alleged that she stole far more than she’d admitted — including gold chains worth £25,000. ‘She virtually plundered the shop,’ he said.  

Most damaging was the testimony of two women associates of Adnan Khashoggi, who spoke of Heather enjoying the high life with rich Arabs in London at a time she’d claimed to be working as a swimsuit model in Paris.  

Again, Heather was upset, but Paul seemed indifferent.

Sir Paul fell for Heather after losing his first wife Linda to cancer

‘An argument ensued in the  bathroom during which [Paul] became angry and pushed [Heather] into the bath,’ according to the divorce papers.

When Paul’s tour moved on to Hamburg in Germany, he introduced Heather to his old friends Horst Fascher and Astrid Kirchherr, whom he had met there when touring in the early Sixties. Astrid didn’t warm to her.

She reflects: ‘He was so protected by Linda, and surrounded with her love and care, that he was like an unborn baby towards women and Heather could just roll him around her fingers . . . She turned out to be a bitch.’

Few people were able to be candid to Paul’s face, of course. His children had tried to tell him what they thought of Heather, but he didn’t want to know.

In the summer of 2003, Paul took Heather to his U.S. holiday home in Long Island. Another big row allegedly ensued, this time over his pot-smoking.

As her divorce petition states: ‘[Heather] asked [Sir Paul] if he had been smoking marijuana. He became very angry, yelled at her, grabbed her neck and started choking her.’

Despite apparently being at each other’s throats, Heather fell pregnant a few months later.

Back on Paul’s Sussex estate, the month before she gave birth, they allegedly had another row which resulted in broken crockery, glasses and lamps. A mark on the wall also indicated that Heather had thrown a bottle of ketchup at her 61-year-old husband.

After their baby Beatrice was born in October 2003, Paul renewed his efforts to make the marriage work. But more problems arose because Heather wanted to establish herself as a media personality in the U.S., while he wanted them to live as a family in the UK.

Few people were able to be candid to Paul’s face, of course. His children had tried to tell him what they thought of Heather, but he didn’t want to know

Heather had other complaints.

Paul, she claimed, didn’t want her to breastfeed Beatrice, saying ‘they are my breasts’ and ‘I don’t want a mouthful of breast milk’.

She also resented having to cook for him every night, as his mum and Linda had done. Plus she liked to get up early, but he slept late, and wanted her beside him when he woke.

Another bone of contention was Paul’s Manhattan townhouse, which was partly used by his music publishing business. Heather made it clear she had her eye on space downstairs as a private office, but he refused to let her have it.  

When he ‘reluctantly agreed to provide her with alternative office space in the city’, according to the divorce papers, Heather told Paul that the office, a 20-minute walk away, was too small and too far away. 

She refused to use it and he called her an ‘ungrateful bitch’. Some may think he had a point. In 2005 alone, he’d given his wife jewellery worth £264,000.

Yet like Oliver Twist, Heather always wanted more. In November, she emailed Paul Winn, Paul’s accountant, asking him to pay £480,000 into her NatWest bank account so she could clear a mortgage for that amount on her Hammersmith flat.

She asked for the money twice, but didn’t receive it — for the very good reason there was no mortgage on the flat (a situation later characterised in court as verging on the fraudulent).

Just before the final break-up, Heather tried again to extract cash from Winn to clear what she now claimed were four loans on the Hammersmith property, totalling £450,000.

Seven weeks after the accountant had knocked back this latest request, on April 25, 2006, the couple allegedly had an explosive argument which ended with Sir Paul pouring the remainder of a bottle of red wine over Heather.

According to the divorce papers: ‘[Sir Paul] then reached to grab [Heather’s] wine glass and broke the bowl of the glass from the stem.

‘He then lunged at [her] with the broken, sharp stem of the wine glass, which cut and pierced [her] arm just below the elbow and it began to bleed profusely. He proceeded to manhandle [her] . . . screaming at her to apologise for “winding him up”.’ (Paul strenuously denies these allegations.)

Days later, after less than four years of married life, they separated.

Not long afterwards, a 1988 German sex manual emerged in which Heather was pictured nude and semi-nude, simulating sex acts with an equally bare male model.

Then even more explicit pictures were uncovered, showing her with her legs splayed.

Such was the sorry state of Paul’s private life as he reached 64 — immortalised in his song When I’m 64, in which he’d imagined an uxorious old age, scrimping and saving to make ends meet.

Media target: Heather, pictured speaking outside court after her divorce hearing, compared herself to Princess Diana

In fact, he had a net wealth of approximately £387 million, making him one of the richest entertainers in the world, but a marriage that had crashed and burned.

For his divorce case, he adopted a policy of dignified silence, while his estranged wife compared herself to Princess Diana and wailed: ‘I’ve had worse press than a paedophile or a murderer and I’ve done nothing but charity for 20 years.’

Her popularity plummeted, reaching its nadir when TV presenter Jonathan Ross described Heather as such a ‘f***ing liar [I] wouldn’t be surprised if we found out she’s actually got two legs’.

Having parted company with her lawyers, she decided to represent herself, asking the judge for a £125 million settlement.

But Mr Justice Bennett disagreed, ruling that Paul should pay her £16.5 million in cash and other assets, meaning that she left the marriage with a total of £24.3million.

Despite winning this vast sum, Heather was furious. In the closing moments of the case, she tipped a jug of water over the head of Paul’s lawyer, Fiona Shackleton.

Her woes multiplied when Mr Justice Bennett’s judgment was made public against her wishes.

‘I am driven to the conclusion,’ he wrote, ‘that much of her evidence, both written and oral, was not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid.’

He noted that she’d made ‘untrue and distorted allegations’ against Paul — and ordered that neither of them should disclose any further details to the media.

This was a severe blow to Heather. Unable to say anything of substance about her famous ex-husband, and with plenty of money to spend, she soon faded into semi-obscurity. And in the two years since the divorce, she has employed a succession of public relations consultants, who have found themselves hard-pressed to improve her image.

Of course, any woman who married Paul was always going to have a near impossible task: living up to his first wife, Linda, whose image as the ultimate earth mother was only enhanced by her untimely death from breast cancer in 1998.

However, as we will see on Monday, when Linda first came into Paul’s life she was far removed from the maternal vegetarian campaigner who was to become almost as famous as her husband.

Far from it. She was a single mother who made a living photographing rock stars who she then often slept with — one friend dubbed her a ‘groping groupie’.

And long before she met any of the Beatles, she decided she liked the look of the baby-faced one. From then on, Paul McCartney was her number one target.

Extracted from Fab: An Intimate Life Of Sir Paul McCartney by Howard Sounes, published by HarperCollins on August 25 at £20. © Howard Sounes 2010. To buy a copy at £18 (p&p free), call 0845 155 0720.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1302966/Maccas-meltdown-The-inside-story-marriage-cost-McCartney-24m-destroyed-him.html

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1302966/Maccas-meltdown-The-inside-story-marriage-cost-McCartney-24m-destroyed-him.html#ixzz124eGE1bW

Paul & Ringo Appear at Mary McCartney Book Launch

With A Little Help From His Friends: Paul McCartney reunited with Beatles bandmate Ringo at book launch

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 11:57 AM on 22nd October 2010

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He Loves You: Sir Paul and Ringo pucker up for Mary McCartney's book launch

There's nothing like kissing and making up in the Rock and Roll world, but it seems the two surviving Beatles may be taking it a bit literally.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were reunited once more by McCartney's daughter Mary, who was launching her new photograph book From Where I Stand.

The mini reunion comes days after McCartney, 68, discussed the rift that tore the Beatles apart in the press.

He said: 'Personally it was a nightmare. It was really difficult, because I knew I didn’t hate them, but I knew we had to save The Beatles, and I was the only one who was going to do it - because the three of them were just sending it down the chute.'

All is clearly forgiven now though, as the two looked closer than ever at the book launch, which was also attended by a pregnant Stella McCartney, Starr's wife Barbara Bach and his daughter Lee Starkey.

Mary has worked as a photographer for 15 years, and launched From Where I Stand at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London - where the images were displayed exclusively.

Speaking about the book's images, Mary said: 'I wanted to pick shots that stand alone.

'I like the photographs of other people that inspired me to be a photographer that make me think: "Who was that person? Where was this picture taken? What was the feel behind it? What the emotion behind it?"

Call: The two Beatles talk on the telephone, looking closer than ever

Fab Five: Lee Starkey, Ringo Starr, Mary McCartney, Barbara Bach and Stella McCartney pose for pics at Mary's book launch

'Those are the things that intrigue me and drive me as a photographer.'

Despite growing up with one of the world's most celebrated and popular icons, Mary revealed that she used to find Paul's constant desire to play his music 'annoying'.

She said: 'It was like: 'Dad will you stop playing guitar? We're trying to watch EastEnders - that's just annoying.'

However she did admit he's 'pretty good' now.

Mary was photographed as a baby on the reverse sleeve of McCartney's debut solo album in 1970.

From Where I Stand: Sir Paul's daughter has been a professional photographer for 15 years

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1322780/Paul-McCartney-reunited-Ringo-Starr-book-launch.html#ixzz13HQ9ltQR

Ed Sullivan Shows DVD Reissue

Ed Sullivan Shows DVD Go On Sale

September 13th sees the UK release of the Complete 1964-65 Ed Sullivan Shows Starring the Beatles at a bargain price of only £11.19. In the USA, the set is being released on September 7th, at $11.99. This digitally remastered two disc edition runs to over four hours, complete with all the four appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964 and September 1965. All together 15 songs were performed live by the band during these shows, including: "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Help" and "Yesterday" and it's now available to view with a brand new 5.1 surround soundtrack and carefully restored video. This special new package also includes an exclusive original Ed Sullivan Show ticket replica from The Beatles 1st appearance and approximately 13 minutes of additional footage. The added material, rare Beatles-related gems from other Sullivan shows, is placed at the end of each disc. Among them is a brief London interview with The Beatles by Sullivan which has not been seen since the day it originally aired on May 24th 1964; a 1966 black-and-white commercial for Beatles dolls introduced by Sullivan in colour; and the host reading a 1967 telegram from The Beatles congratulating him on the renaming of the studio to "The Ed Sullivan Theatre".

"We used the full extent of today’s technology," says Andrew Solt, Executive Producer and CEO of SOFA Entertainment, which purchased all 1,050 hours of "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1990. "The quality is better than it ever was, in fact, better than when the shows aired, especially visually. For example, the February 16 performance was from Miami’s Deauville Hotel, not from a studio. The quality of the tape image was very fragile. We went back and improved it frame by frame."

The set includes the following Beatles performances:

Show #1 – aired Sunday February 9, 1964

• All My Loving
• Till There Was You
• She Loves You
• I Saw Her Standing There
• I Want to Hold Your Hand.

Show #2 – aired Sunday February 16, 1964

• She Loves You
• This Boy
• All My Loving
• I Saw Her Standing There
• From Me To You
• I Want To Hold Your Hand.

Show #3 – aired Sunday February 23, 1964

• Twist And Shout
• Please Please Me
• I Want To Hold Your Hand.

Show #4 – aired Sunday September 12, 1965

• I Feel Fine
• I’m Down
• Act Naturally
• Ticket To Ride
• Yesterday
• Help!

A similar set was released in 2003, but the footage has apparently been remastered on the new set and there is the additional 13 minutes. There will also be the option to play a mono audio track or a 5.1 surround remix.
This looks to be a fantastic set, especially for those who didn’t pick up the earlier, far more expensive release, like we did.