Tag: Beatles

Hear the Beatles Sing Without Music on “Abbey Road” Medley

Beatles Abbey Road Medley A recent video isolates the vocals of the Beatles on their closing Abbey Road (1969) album “medley.” The song cycle features “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry that Weight,” “The End,” and the epilogue “Her Majesty.”

I always enjoy hearing the Beatles in new ways. For great classic artists, we often get so used to hearing the songs in the same way, we lose the wonder we had for the first several times we heard the song. Hearing this medley without the music helps refresh our memory about why the Beatles were so great.

Update:  The video with just vocals is no longer available, but the video below uses clips of the vocals-only recordings to analyze what the Beatles were doing in this song cycle.  Check it out.

Other cool things about the isolated track include that you more clearly can hear what John Lennon says before the start of “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” (around 8:25). Also, when the quiet parts come up, you may test yourself on whether you remember the musical breaks.

Abbey Road was the final album recorded by the Beatles, although the earlier recorded Let It Be(1970) would be their last released. In the book Tell Me Why: The Beatles: Album By Album, Song By Song, The Sixties And After, author Tim Riley writes that side two of Abbey Road, which consists largely of the above song suite, “revives different stages of their career for a remarkable nostalgic resonance and comprises an ingenious manipulation of rock ‘n’ roll textures.” From inside the studio, though, John Lennon felt that the recording of Abbey Road was “torture.”

Now, you may return to listening to the song cycle with music.

What is your favorite part of the isolated vocal track? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The Beatles’ 1969 Rooftop Concert
  • New Beatles ‘A Day in the Life’ Video
  • Paul McCartney Carries that Weight at 2012 Grammys
  • The Latest and Last Beatles Song: “Now and Then”
  • Ringo Starr Records a John Lennon Song (with a little help from Paul McCartney)
  • The Beatles: “Blackpool Night Out” Live Performance

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Buy from Amazon

    Behind the Scenes With the Beatles on the Set of “Help!”

    Beatles Help Blu ray

    Although Help! (1965) never gets the same attention as A Hard Day’s Night (1964), the 1965 film from the Beatles is getting a special restored Blu-ray release. To celebrate, the company is giving viewers some outtakes and behind-the-scenes video on the making of the Beatles’ second film. Here is the first video.

    Help! was directed by Richard Lester, and of course it starred John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The plot involves a cult seeking a ring stuck on Ringo’s finger, and, well, there is a lot of Beatles music. Here is the second new video.

    What is your favorite Beatles movie? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The Latest and Last Beatles Song: “Now and Then”
  • Ringo Starr Records a John Lennon Song (with a little help from Paul McCartney)
  • The Beatles: “Blackpool Night Out” Live Performance
  • New Beatles ‘A Day in the Life’ Video
  • The Beatles’ “Black Album” from “Boyhood”
  • All I’ve Got Is a Photograph

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    RIP Richie Havens

    Richie Havens I just heard on the radio station WFUV that Richie Havens passed away today of a heart attack at the age of 72. Chimesfreedom previously wrote about Havens’s landmark opening performance at Woodstock when he sang “Freedom (Motherless Child).” Below is a 1971 performance of “Here Comes the Sun.”

    Last year, Havens had announced that he was stopping touring because of health concerns. At the moment, there is not much information about his passing on the Internet, but The Roots Agency, his agent, has a statement on their webpage, where they note, “Havens used his music to convey passionate messages of brotherhood and personal freedom.” He also was one of the great interpreters of great songs. For example, in addition to his Beatles interpretation above, below he covers two other great songwriters singing Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey” and Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.”

    Nobody will ever have a voice like Richie Havens. RIP.

    What is your favorite Richie Havens song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Jeff Buckley’s Interactive Video for “Just Like a Woman”
  • Ruben “Hurricane” Carter “in a Land Where Justice Is a Game”
  • Bobby “Blue” Bland Was All Right With Me
  • Tony Sheridan and the Beatles
  • Got My Mind Set on George Harrison
  • One Degree of Separation Between Bob Dylan & Twilight Zone: Bonnie Beecher & “Come Wander With Me”

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    John and Yoko Interview September 9, 1971

    Lennon interview

    On September 9, 1971, the day John Lennon’s album Imagine was released, journalist and radio personality Howard Smith had one of several conversations with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  The conversations in their St. Regis Hotel room in New York City covered a variety of topics.

    In this newly released excerpt prepared for Salon, Lennon and Ono talk about their relationship during this interview that precedes a later period of separation. Both Lennon and Ono respond to questions such as whether it is possible for people to be “too close.”

    Of course, much of the conversation also drifts into the other Beatles. In particular, Lennon discusses how his song “How Do You Sleep?” on his new album is a response to Paul McCartney’s song about him, “Too Many People” from Ram (1971). [2019 Update:  Unfortunately, the excerpt is no longer available online but below is what is apparently the complete interview.]


    Salon has an interesting article on the background about how the tape was found, as well as other information about the recordings.

    What do you think is the most interesting part of the Lennon-Yoko interview? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The Latest and Last Beatles Song: “Now and Then”
  • Ringo Starr Records a John Lennon Song (with a little help from Paul McCartney)
  • New Beatles ‘A Day in the Life’ Video
  • The Silly Girl of The Beatles’ “Martha My Dear” Was a Dog
  • “A Really Big Shock”: McCartney on Hearing of Lennon’s Death
  • The Beatles’ “Black Album” from “Boyhood”

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Tony Sheridan and the Beatles

    51BIVQ1ow1L._SY300_ Tony Sheridan, a British singer-songwriter forever linked to The Beatles, passed away on February 16, 2013 at the age of 72 in Germany. While Sheridan recorded through his later years, he is best-known for his brief work as lead singer on what was essentially the first album by the Beatles.

    Sheridan knew the Beatles when they consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best. And he worked with them through Sutcliffe’s and Best’s departure and Ringo Starr’s arrival in 1962.

    In 1961, a German producer signed Sheridan and the Beatles as the back up band. Under the name Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, the group recorded nine songs in 1961-1962 with Sheridan singing on seven of them. According to Sheridan’s website, the reason they used “Beat Brothers” instead of “Beatles” is because the latter name did not translate into German “except as a slang term for the male sex organ.” Sheridan also claimed that he brought Ringo to the Beatles too.

    When the first single “My Bonnie” was released in Liverpool, fans mobbed record shops. The reaction to the single with Sheridan led one record store owner to seek out the Beatles. That record store owner, Brian Epstein, would then go on to manage the Beatles as they rose to super-stardom. Here is “My Bonnie”:

    In this 30-minute video, Sheridan looked back on his experience with the Beatles and on music in the early 1960s:

    After the Beatles went on to massive fame, Sheridan continued to perform, and in the 1960s spent a lot of time entertaining troops in Viet Nam. For his devotion to the soldiers, the U.S. Army made him an honorary captain. Sheridan also met Elvis Presley when Elvis was stationed in Germany.

    The Beatles themselves maintained a friendship and fondness for their one-time front-man, whose last album was 2002’s Vagabond. Paul McCartney had nicknamed Sheridan “The Teacher” because of how he influenced the band by introducing them to R&B artists like Little Richard. Similarly, Ringo Starr once said he learned from Sheridan “all I know about rock and roll.” So, while Sheridan may not be a household name, he is certainly an important part of the history of rock music.

    What is your favorite Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The Latest and Last Beatles Song: “Now and Then”
  • Ringo Starr Records a John Lennon Song (with a little help from Paul McCartney)
  • New Beatles ‘A Day in the Life’ Video
  • The Beatles’ “Black Album” from “Boyhood”
  • All I’ve Got Is a Photograph
  • Hear the Beatles Sing Without Music on “Abbey Road” Medley

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)