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Once upon a time (or maybe twice) there were four magicians; and they made wonderful music, and called themselves The Beatles. In BDJ's Cellar, their spirits roam freely, they play and mix with other music, young and old.
The premiere for The Beatles LOVE Show by Cirque du Soleil took place on June 30, 2006 in Las Vegas at The Mirage. The Beatles’ record producer, George Martin and his son, Giles Martin, were music directors for the project which resulted in a 78-minute audio collage of Beatles songs. The soundtrack includes audio snippets from 200 Beatles songs, ma…
The Long and Winding Road is a McCartney song that was mixed and produced by Phil Spector. McCartney did not like the mix, as is abundantly clear from the letter that he wrote to Allen Klein and Phil Spector. McCartney explains how he would like the Long and Winding Road to sound: - Less orchestra, and more Beatles (guitars, piano etc.) - absolutel…
Here is BDJ's remix of the 2022 Revolver SDE. All tracks are only sourced from the 2022 stereo version and the outtakes. Some tracks are similar, but subtly different; there are also some mash-ups, where there just wasn't enough material (outtakes) on the Revolver SDE. GILES MARTIN: Horrible! It doesn't sound like the 1966 original at all! RINGO ST…
Wit a voice like Freddie Mercury's, what else do you need to make music? Not a lot, just enough to support his vocals. Such is the philosophy of this remix of Bohemian Rhapsody: gone are the 160 layered voices, back is Freddie Mercury's amazing voice in your ears. Queen rehearsed Bohemian Rhapsody for 3 weeks before even starting to record it. It t…
Listen to Let It Be as you've never heard it before! After brave attempts by Glyn Johns (4x), George Martin and Giles Martin, the definitive mix of the Let It Be album has finally arrived. True to their motto of "Less is More", the BDJ engineers have taken the songs apart and put them back together - in a surprising way. Discover nuances and subtle…
The Beatles recorded this blues jam on the last day of the Get Back sessions, 31st of January 1969. In 1964 John Lennon had told an English music paper that his favourite album of the year was the great folk album, Lots More Blues, Rags and Hollers by Koerner, Ray & Glover (1963). This album contains the Black Dog Blues. Obviously, the backing trac…
The Beatles are not known as great Blues musicians. Otherwise, they are fine but the blues seems to elude them. Still, they produced a few attempts at playing an instrumental blues, including ’12 Bar Original’ (Anthology), "Flying" (Magical Mystery Tour), "Cayenne" and "Cry for a Shadow" (Anthology). These are all interesting tracks, and they demon…
The so-called Medley occupies most the Beatles' final album, Abbey Road. It is collection of Lennon and McCartney songettes, artfully strung together by arrangements of McCartney and George Martin. The whole album Abbey Road stands out for its beautiful and complex vocal harmonies, sometimes extending into 3-part harmony. We were treated to a 'voca…
The 'Moonlight Sonata' by van Beethoven was made famous by John Lennon, when he said that his song 'Because' was inspired by Yoko Ono playing this sonata backwards. While debunking this myth, I found that van Beethoven himself never referred to this composition as the 'Moonlight Sonata"; for him, it was a 'quasi-fantasie'. After van Beethoven's dea…
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is a rock song with dark, eccentric lyrics about a person named Maxwell who commits murders with a hammer, although the lyrics are disguised by the upbeat, catchy, and rather “childlike” sound of the song. Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert. However.....McCartney read the lyrics as a poem, once. Enough fo…
We all know Come Together, it is one of the most popular tracks on Abbey Road. Due in no small part to the tremendous bass line, the riffs on the electronic piano....all McCartney contributions to a Lennon song. We know that Lennon started out with Come Together as a much faster song, inspired by a Chuck Berry Song: You Can't Catch Me. We have no r…
It is the time of the year to remember those who escaped from this virus ridden Earth. We present a few of those departed who played a role in the Beatles history. Paul McCartney improvises on the piano on a theme by Samuel Barber, "Adagio for Strings'. Peter Green, guitarist of Fleetwood Mac and composer of 'Albatross' is remembered by Mac Fleetwo…
It was forty years ago today (more or less), so a good moment to commemorate Lennon's final single. Woman was chosen by Lennon to be the second single released from the Double Fantasy album. The lyrics are not among Lennon's best, but it is nicely Beatlesque that the last words are "I love you, yeah, yeah"..... The lyrics seem to be inspired by McC…
“Just Fun” is one of the very first songs written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, in late 1957 or 1958. It remained rather obscure for decades. The Beatles played a rough version during the 'Get Back' sessions in January 1969. It only lasts for 20 or 30 seconds. As part of the John Lennon 80th birthday celebrations on 9 October, Paul McCartney h…
'Her Majesty’ was first performed at the Get Back/Let It Be sessions in January 1969. McCartney brought the song to the band in Twickenham on 9 January. But it lasted until July 2nd before McCartney recorded the takes on Abbey Road that we all know and love. Or do we? Her Majesty is the least popular Beatles track on Spotify. In defence of Her Maje…
McCartney sang Yesterday accompanied by his Epiphone Texan guitar on the evening of 14th June. A score for string quartet — George Martin's first major arranging contribution to The Beatles - was over-dubbed three days later. A string quartet, in the pop world of those days, was quite a step to take. It was with ‘Yesterday’ that George Martin start…
It doesn't happen every day that you get to hear a new Beatles song; but today is that day! We proudly present the premiere (as a complete song) of 'You Won't Get Me That Way', as recorded by the Beatles on 27 January 1969 in Apple Studios, Savile Row. You Won't Get Me That Way is a swinging blues, in classic McCartney rocker style. Soulful vocals …
A three-minute sample from a tape auctioned in the '90s and purchased by the Beatles, featuring selections from various 1962 TV appearances has hit the Internet in December 2019. The samples consist of songs performed on October 17th, October 29th, and December 29th, 1962 — “Some Other Guy,” “Love Me Do,” A Taste of Honey,” and “Twist and Shout.” A…
The Abbey Road box released in 2019 marks the first time that Beatles songs are released in ATMOS format (on the Blue-ray disc). Since the 'One' DVD, all subsequent releases featured Dolby 5.1 mixes, but these were mostly rather underwhelming. But the 5.1 and Atmos mixes of Abbey Road mark a turning point; I can imagine that these mixes will become…
The vocals shine in this remix. Does Paul sing on Come Together? Sure he does, harmonizes with John during the first half of the song. In the latter half, John harmonizes with John. The vocals in the outro can be heard clearly, perhaps it was a good thing they were no so clear in 1969?
This remix just begged to be produced. The vocals from the centre channel, as pure as you can get (no reverb), supported by the (stereo) orchestra from CD3.
We scan through the channels to highlight piano, guitars, and - yes- the Moog synthesizer.
Paul playing his characteristic Piano style. The Oooh aah chorus stands out well.
George's solo guitar is right in your face, and then John joins in with his telltale "Julia riffing".
Great guitar amplifier sound, funky and bluesy shines clearly now. The Hammond Organ -- played by Billy Preston -- is super clear now! His previously buried-in-the-mix solo is fantastic. Lennon's voice rasps supercool when he comes in with "Yeeaaaaaaaah" (without the distortion that spoiled the 2009 remasters version).…
We can now fully appreciate George's singing. The Moog Synthesizer comes in with a bang, and the acoustic guitar sounds lifelike.
We scan through the channels and hear some beautiful vocals, and the Moog Synth. Still, the feeling lingers that Giles Martin could have done more with this track, e.g. separate the vocals more?
Listen to Paul's vocals up close. Double tracked. Then some honkytonk piano by George Martin. The rhythm guitar could be John,. the solo guitar probably George? Some nice aaaahh's and oooh's, followed by the countdown 1234567.
Guitars on the brink of distortion, round bass, and heavenly voices. Of course, this track was popular on Love remixes as well. In the ATMOS mix, the Spanish lyrics suddenly become intelligible!
A lot of effort has been put in this short track; instruments and vocals are distributed over all channels.
The back up harmonies are super impactful. Ringo's drumming sounds uberloud. At the very end, you can hear (Paul) speaking,apparently, Giles Martin couldn't fix this speech leakage.
"Listen to that Mal"......Doubletracked vocals by Paul.
This features great strings and horns. The backing vocals come out well, Ringo's drums pound away.
Ringo's drums sound bigger than ever before. The "Love You" chants at the end sound clearly from the rear surrounds.
We have all now bought the 50th Anniversary Abbey Road box, and explored the 3 CD's. CD's 2 and 3 contain the outtakes, and these are interesting. With a little critical look, the outtakes would have fitted on a singe CD, which makes the harvest of new outtakes for Abbey Road rather meagre. Therefore, we decided to produce more outtakes, by cleverl…
We have all now bought the 50th Anniversary Abbey Road box, and explored the 3 CD's. CD1 is Giles Martin's remix of the album; I suppose it is intended for the younger generation, and I'm perfectly happy with the 1969 mix...... CD's 2 and 3 contain the outtakes, and these are interesting, although quite a number of them were already available in go…
Having to fulfil a three-picture deal that John, Paul, George and Ringo had with United Artists, Brian Epstein had been looking for one last project to make the third film (after A Hard Day’s Night and Help!). The group had no interest in making another movie, however. They weren’t fans of films after making Help! Plus, they had started work on the…
On Thursday, 30 May 1968, George Martin and The Beatles started to work on their next album, following Sgt Pepper. As the session got underway on 30 May, Lennon debuted a new song that would come to be known as “Revolution 1”, a standout composition from the Esher demos. With Martin and a whole array of people up in the booth, The Beatles perfected…
In 2018, we again had to say Goodnight to a few famous names in Beatles history. The best known casualty is Geoff Emerick, so we begin and end this 'in memoriam' mix with Geoff. Second to be heard is Tony Calder, the music manager who promoted the Beatles’ debut single Love Me Do, died on 2 January at the age of 74. The British record executive, pr…
Keyboard player Billy Preston is another excellent candidate to be called the Fifth Beatle. In April 1969 the Get Back single was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston", as was its b-side, Don’t Let Me Down. Along with Tony Sheridan, he was one of just two non-members to receive top billing on a Beatles single. On the Beatles albums ‘Let It B…
This Harrison composition has a recording history that is far longer than the song itself....it was written during the All Things Must Pass period as "Whenever", after which it was copyrighted with the title "When Every Song Is Sung". Harrison originally intended the song for Shirley Bassey, who had a hit in the summer of 1970 with a cover version …
The BDJ engineers at North End Music Studios seized upon the opportunity to release a new Beatles EP, in Dutch. Two Ductch authors, Bindervoet and Henkes, have just pulished a book (Alle 214 Goed) in which they translate the complete Beatles oevre. Some of these songs were performed in a podcast (Fab4Cast 96) by famous singer/songwriter Yorick van …
Bart Huges, a former medical student from the University of Amsterdam and the grandfather of modern trepanation, recounts meeting with John Lennon in the 60s. Huges, already having bored a hole into his own skull with a basic drill, was approached by Lennon who told of his desire to open up his own “third eye”. Huges advised that Lennon needed no s…
A great fan of the Cellar, P.R. Lee alerted me to the similarities between two McCartney songs: Mumbo, and Get Back. In particular, some early versions of Get Back have a more improvised character, resembling the mumbo-jumbo of Mumbo. Mumbo was recorded on July 25th, 27th, 28th & August 1971, and appeared on Wild Life. The song is credited to Paul …
Much has been said about the Rolling Stones vs. The Beatles. Which one was the better band, the most innovative, the loudest, the most anti-establishment? No need to enter hat discussion here. For a recent talk, listen to this podcast: http://beatlesfanclub.nl/fab4cast-90-the-stones-the-beatles/ (in Dutch). Although the Beatles launched the Stones’…
I'm always thrilled when I discover where the Beatles found inspiration for their songs. And sometimes that inspiration bordered on infringing other's rights: examples are Harrison getting in trouble for My Sweet Lord vs. She So Fine, Lennon angering Chuck Berry's lawyers over Come Together, and McCartney....... It seems that I don't have an exampl…
Who was the Fifth Beatle? There are a lot of candidates for this honorary title: some consider themselves the fifth Beatle, others could qualify through their merits for the Beatles. That's why we highlight a potential Fifth Beatle: Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Purdie has clearly put his name forward with his bold statements: - "I overdubbed the drummi…
Here's a different (new!) mix of Getting Better. This song was featured (of course) on Sgt Pepper, following Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds. Getting Better is mostly a Paul song, although Lennon contributed significantly to the lyrics and the vocals. On March 9, 1967, recording started at Abbey Road studios. They first recorded the 'rhythm' tracks, …
Harry Bannink (1929 – 1999) was a Dutch composer, arranger and pianist. he had an amazing output: he wrote over 3,000 songs! He wrote music for several Dutch musicals, Dutch TV-shows (including "Ja zuster, nee zuster"), and a weekly (!) children's TV show. If only the Beatles had written songs at the same rate as Bannink, then we would have another…
It appears as if we hear more and more Beatles tracks when I go to see a movie. Just went to see/hear McCartney sing Maggie Mae in Pirates of the Caribbean. But while settling in for the movie in the theater, a trailer was shown for the new movie "Justice League Come Together": Come Together, covered by Gary Clark Jr and Junkie XL. And then a comme…
