Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (EP)

Fat Man, 1987

An EP of group and solo goodies; the first product of Starlight Records.

Side 1:

- I Saw Her Standing There

- Johnny B. Goode

Side 2:

- Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

- Christmas Time (Is Here Again)!

- Back In The USSR

Unfinished Interview No. 2

On May 8th, 1969, BBC Radio's David Wigg went to Apple Corps to interview John and Yoko. 12 minutes of his interview was released on the 1976 LP The Beatles Tapes with David Wigg, but none of the material discussed the ostensible reason for the chat: John and Yoko's new album, released the following day, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions.

Well, here is a previously unreleased extra four minutes of Wigg's recording from that day which rectifies the problem. John seems overly optimistic about the sales potential for his experimental albums:

Scene And Heard

The Real Case Has Just Begun

Core, 1986

Yellow Dog's excellent sampler of Nagra tapes from the Apple Studio sessions, January 1969. The LP title is their mishearing of a line from Chuck Berry's "Vacation Time".

Side 1:

- Window Window

- I'm Talking About You

- Let It Be

- Piece Of My Heart

- Little Yellow Pills

- Great Balls Of Fire

- Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying

- Suicide

- Dig It

- Act Naturally

- Two Of Us

- Strawberry Fields Forever

- Oh! Darling

- Get Back

- I've Got A Feeling/Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

Side 2:

- Please Please Me

- One After 909

- Hava Negilah

- "The River Rhine"/The Long And Winding Road

- The Inner Light

- I Want You (She's So Heavy)

- Let It Down

- Dig It

- Vacation Time

- Maybe Baby

- Crying, Waiting, Hoping

- Mailman Bring Me No More Blues

I Don't Want To Go On The Cart!

In October, 1969, Paul McCartney found himself in the unenviable position of having to prove to the world that he wasn't dead. Despite being on holiday with his wife and newborn daughter in Scotland, he allowed BBC Radio reporter Chris Drake to visit the McCartney farm. The interview, conducted October 24th, was aired in fragments of different lengths on various news bulletins and programmes. Here is a composite recording of all known pieces, longer than what is included on Darthdisc's excellent Misshimmisshimmisshim set (Paul discusses some of the specific "clues"):

I'm not quite dead

Stockholm & Blackpool

Box Top, 1986

Upgrades of the 1963 Stockholm radio concert and 1965 Blackpool Night Out TV performance, both of which had appeared on earlier bootlegs.

Side 1:

- I Saw Her Standing There

- From Me To You

- Money (That's What I Want)

- Roll Over Beethoven

- You Really Got A Hold On Me

- She Loves You

- Twist And Shout

Side 2:

- I Feel Fine

- I'm Down

- Act Naturally

- Ticket To Ride

- Yesterday

- Help!

G'day Bruce!

As The Beatles pushed their way through the mob outside the Delmonico Hotel in the pre-dawn hours of August 28th, 1964, a zealous fan tore Ringo's St. Christopher medal from around his neck.

Since it had been a 21st birthday gift from his aunt, Ringo was eager to get the medal back, and WABC's Cousin Bruce Morrow and Dan Ingram helped him broadcast this plea for its return, offering the chance to meet Ringo as a reward.

It didn't take long for 16-year-old Angie McGowan to fess up, and along with a couple of friends, she was escorted up to the suite late that afternoon to meet the just-risen Ringo and bonus Beatle Paul. WABC had Cousin Brucie, Dan Ingram, and Scott Muni broadcasting live on both radio and TV to cover the exchange.

The Beatles Conquer America

NEMS, 1985

Superb compilation of Ed Sullivan Show performances, along with a Shindig and several interviews/press conferences.

Side 1:

- The Beatles Open-End Interviews

- All My Loving

- Till There Was You

- She Loves You

- I Saw Her Standing There

- I Want To Hold Your Hand

- WWDC Carroll James interview

Side 2:

- She Loves You

- This Boy

- All My Loving

- I Saw Her Standing There

- From Me To You

- I Want To Hold Your Hand

- WQAM Miami farewell

Side 3:

- Twist And Shout

- Please Please Me

- I Want To Hold Your Hand

- Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey!

- I'm A Loser

- Boys

- Fab Four On Film

Side 4:

- I Feel Fine

- I'm Down

- Act Naturally

- Ticket To Ride

- Yesterday

- Help!

- Minneapolis press conference

Hindle With Care

Maurice Hindle writes:

"In 1968, I was 23 and approaching the end of my first term at Keele University. On the afternoon of 2 December, I emerged with Daniel Wiles, a fellow student, from Weybridge railway station into the wintry stillness of Surrey's stockbroker belt, having hitch-hiked all the way from Staffordshire. We were there to interview John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

I had read about their first performance-art event together back in June, when they planted acorns for peace at Coventry Cathedral, and continued to be intrigued by the couple's exploits. Since then, John and Yoko had been getting flak in the British press. That October, they had been caught in a drugs bust at a flat in London belonging to Ringo Starr. In the aftermath, Tariq Ali's radical newspaper Black Dwarf published an angry "open letter", which accused Lennon of selling out to the establishment and claimed that the Beatles' music had "lost its bite". I felt it was time to counter the growing feeling against John and Yoko, so I wrote to Lennon, via the magazine Beatles Monthly, outlining my ideas for an interview. To my surprise, he replied.

Outside Weybridge station, a Mini Cooper with smoked-glass windows skidded to a halt, like something out of The Italian Job. In the driver's seat was Lennon, looking much as he does in the colour photograph included with the Beatles' 1968 White Album: faded blue Levi's jacket, white T-shirt and jeans, dirty white sneakers, his shoulder-length hair parted in the middle, and wearing the now famous "granny glasses". We students crammed into the back of the Mini and John drove us up the bumpy private road that led to his house, Kenwood.

In the sitting room at the back of the house, we sat down on thick-pile Indian carpets around a low table, cross-legged. Yoko said little, as we all knew this was primarily John's day - and he said a lot. Apart from a short break, when Yoko fed us macrobiotic bread and jams she had made, Lennon talked continuously for six hours."

[Source: http://www.newstatesman.com/music/2009/12/john-lennon-interview-yoko]

Here are 16 minutes of excerpts from the Hindle/Wiles/Lennon interview. Note that the traditional dating of this recording is December 3rd, 1968, not the 2nd as Hindle writes above.

Not Guilty

Yellow Dog, 1985

A couple of new acetates (the title track and "You're Going To Lose That Girl"), the Around The Beatles studio session, and a bunch of filler/outfakes.

Side 1:

- Not Guilty

- Rain

- You're Going To Lose That Girl

- Let It Be

- Paperback Writer

- Rain

- Rain

Side 2:

- We Love You Beatles

- Twist And Shout

- Roll Over Beethoven

- I Wanna Be Your Man

- Long Tall Sally

- Love Me Do/Please Please Me/From Me To You/She Loves You/I Want To Hold Your Hand

- Can't Buy My Love

- Shout!

The Lennon And McCartney Songbook

By request, here is a BBC Radio special recorded August 6th, 1966, in which John and Paul discuss their songwriting process and we hear several cover versions of their compositions. Listen out for baby Martha in the background!

The Lennon And McCartney Songbook

Nothing Is Real

NEMS, 1985

An important Beatleg in that it offered the first taste of the "Ultra Rare/Unsurpassed" cache, in the form of several outtakes of "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Side 1:

- Strawberry Fields Forever (take 2)

- Strawberry Fields Forever (take 1)

- Strawberry Fields Forever (takes 3 + 4)

- Strawberry Fields Forever (take 25)

- Strawberry Fields Forever (take 26)

- Strawberry Fields Forever (RM3)

- Strawberry Fields Forever (1971 stereo mix)

Side 2:

- Not Guilty

- I'm Only Sleeping

- Hey Jude

- Revolution

- While My Guitar Gently Weeps

- Christmas Time (Is Here Again)

Bulletin From Britain

Here is a rare interview (not mentioned in Way Beyond Compare) from around the first week of January, 1964. Reporter Jacob Defis spoke with The Beatles backstage at the Finsbury Park Astoria, during the run of their first Beatles Christmas Show. The result was aired on Bulletin From Britain, apparently a radio series produced for broadcast in UK territories such as Australia (but not the motherland).

Bulletin From Britain

Live At Teatro Adriano

1985

Still the only source for the June 27th, 1965 Rome concert audience tape.

Side 1:

- Twist And Shout

- She's A Woman

- I'm A Loser

- Can't Buy Me Love

- Baby's In Black

- I Wanna Be Your Man

- A Hard Day's Night

Side 2:

- Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby

- Rock And Roll Music

- I Feel Fine

- Ticket To Ride

- Long Tall Sally

- interview

NYPC

By request, here is The Beatles' final New York press conference, at the Warwick Hotel on August 22nd, 1966. This is a composite 22-minute recording assembled from the CD Talkology, Vol. 2, news footage, and an unreleased tape source.