Hard Day’s Night-Live At Shea Stadium-Lennon is talking jibberish into the mic before they start because George is having equipment issues. Probably switching to the Rickenbacker for that opening chord. It would be easy to say that the band is on auto pilot here, but who can really blame them. They can’t hear themselves, the fans cant really hear anything and it’s just a circus act by now. Even with all that , it’s a miracle how they hold it all together. Note how Paul is booing themselves after the song ends.
Day Tripper-For me anyway, this is when they ceased to be a fad. They were churning out amazing singles prior to and up to this point, but this tune propelled them into another stratosphere. Just unbeatable.
Maybe Baby-From The “Get Back” sessions, where the band runs through just about every song they know at half speed. They appear to be having fun, but we know better don’t we?
The Night Before-Album track from Help! As close as they ever got to coasting during these days.
Here There And Everywhere-According to rock historian Timothy White, directly influenced by The Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” . The story he tells is of Bruce Johnston playing an acetate of their new album for Paul and John in a hotel room in England while the Beach Boys were on tour over there. Paul wrote this a couple of days later, as legend has it.
Eight Days A Week-Wickedly intelligent production choice to do a fade in at the intro. It really heightens the anticipation. Lennon shredding on lead vox. Brilliant walking bass by Paul.
If I Needed Someone- This may not be the best example of three part vocal harmony by them, but it’s most certainly top five.
What You’re Doing -Great, great falsetto by Paul on the middle 8. These guys wrote fantastic bridge bits.
Dear Prudence-unreleased mix-Some subtle differences here. Lennon’s vocals are either double tracked or bathed in reverb, perhaps both. Interesting oddity, but overall a good decision not to use it.
Julia -Demo version – The lyrics are pretty much done even at this early stage.
Taxman-George is getting represented very nicely on this shuffle set. That’s Paul on the lead guitar, though.
Piggies-Demo version- “Pork Chops” would later be substituted for “bacon”.
Think For Yourself-More George-I swear this is at random.
Tomorrow Never Knows-I posted about this earlier on another shuffle. An absolute masterpiece of tape editing, ideas coming to fruition and the use of the studio as an instrument. “Anthology” DVD has a great section on how this track was done. It was on Youtube but it seems to have been taken down. Crude tape loops were fed into the tape machine and once they were recorded onto the master they were then faded in and out on the mixing board. They literally had people standing on the other side of the room holding pencils with the tape loop wrapped around it on one side, feeding into the tape machine on the other.
Hava Nagheela-More “Get Back” session tom foolery
Act Naturally-again live at the Big Shea, second time around I believe. Hilarious how Ringo comes in flat at the outset. He’s actually singing flat all over the place. Nobody really gives a shit tho’. John and Paul don’t even bother to sing along.
I Feel Fine- If anybody ever tells you Ringo can’t drum, play them this song. Magnificent work on the ride cymbal. Listen to him pound the snot out of the snare after the instrumental break. Paul’s voice absolutely soars on the high harmony part.
Helter Skelter-Paul invents heavy metal
Rainy Day Women #12 and #35 Yep, more “Get Back” sessions. They just turned on the tape and hoped something good would happen. This was not one of those moments.
Please Mr. Postman- Cover of the song by The Marvellettes. Most of the white kids in the USA had never heard the tune. Ringo is swinging here, big time.