Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Canada, 9-13-1969, Part 7: John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band

Okay, it's time for a big one, the pinnacle of the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival, even though it wasn't the final musical act. The star was John Lennon, supported by his wife Yoko Ono and a great band that included famous lead guitarist Eric Clapton.

This is probably going to be one of the longest write-ups I ever did, if not the longest. But I find the story behind Lennon's involvement in this concert to be very fascinating, and I hope you will too. Seriously, someone could make an entertaining movie out of this, especially if you add in the drama of how Lennon got invited to the festival in the first place, which I discussed previously. 

I think, after several decades, it's hard for anyone to imagine just what a big deal it was for Lennon to perform at this concert. He was still a member of the Beatles, though he wouldn't stay one for long (and this concert would have a major impact on that, as we shall see). The Beatles stopped touring in 1966. Since then, Lennon had only performed a couple of times. He played one song in 1968 as part of the Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus show. He performed as part of the Beatles on the rooftop of their recording studio in London earlier in 1969. And that was it for the last three years. None of the other Beatles had performed in public since 1966, and nobody expected Lennon would.

In the first album I posted from this festival, the Chicago set, I explained how the festival came to be, and how the recruitment of Lennon at the last minute saved the festival from cancellation due to poor ticket sales. Let me pick up that narrative, of what happened to Lennon after he agreed to perform in the festival, over the phone, and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, just one day before the festival was due to happen.  

The first thing Lennon had to figure out when he got off the phone was who would be in his band, especially on such short notice. His first idea was to include another Beatle, George Harrison. But Harrison turned him down, saying it would seem too much like a Beatles concert with both of them in it, and the popular demand would be that they just play Beatles songs, when he knew Lennon wanted to do something different. 

Lennon didn't push back too much on that. He knew Harrison had brought up valid points. Besides, he had someone else in mind he also was very interested in: Eric Clapton. As mentioned above, Lennon performed one song ("Yer Blues," from the Beatles' "White Album") in the 1968 Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus show, and Clapton had been the lead guitarist for Lennon then. Lennon had a very good rapport with Clapton in general at the time. In fact, during the Beatles' contentious "Get Back" sessions in early 1969, when Harrison quit the Beatles for a few days, Lennon suggested they might replace him with Clapton.

Unfortunately, the call asking Lennon to take part in the festival came at the last minute, almost literally. It was already the evening before the festival when Lennon got the phone call! Immediately, Lennon had people at the Apple Records office he was at try to call Clapton to see if he wanted to take part. The assumption was that Clapton would be willing if he could be reached, but nobody could reach him. People not only repeatedly tried calling Clapton's house in the middle of the night, but they tried calling his friends, as well as night clubs and any other likely places he could be late at night. But nobody knew where he was.

Meanwhile, Lennon had to figure out who the other members of the band would be. The choice for bass player was easy: Klaus Voormann. Voormann, a German, had met the Beatles when they were struggling and playing small clubs in Hamburg, Germany, in the early 1960s. He'd stayed friends with them ever since then, even designing the cover of their 1966 album "Revolver." He'd also become a very talented bass player, joining the band Manfred Mann from 1966 until 1969 and working a lot as a session musician. Lennon would use him a lot as bassist in future years.

The choice of drummer, though, was a very surprising one: Alan White. At the time, White was a teenager and essentially a complete known. He was drumming in the obscure band Griffin. But, by chance, Lennon and Ono attended a Griffin concert at a small club the night before. Lennon had been very impressed by White's drumming. (Indeed, White was a talented drummer who was destined for bigger things. In 1972, he would join the prog rock band Yes and stay with them for about 50 years.) 

Somehow, Lennon was able to find out the name of the Griffin drummer, then get his telephone number, and called him. But White later recalled, "I hung up on him. I thought someone was playing a prank. John Lennon's not going to call me." However, Lennon kept calling him back and managed to convince him that he really was John Lennon and he really did want him in his new band, to perform on a different continent the next day! White agreed, even though that meant cancelling a Griffin concert scheduled at the same time. "What was I going to say? No, to a Beatle? I don't think so."

Meanwhile, Lennon was desperate to get in contact with Clapton. He stayed up until five in the morning with an assistant, calling everyone they could think of, to no avail. The airplane to take Lennon and his new band to Toronto was due to fly out of London at 10 in the morning. However, around 9:30, Lennon called festival promoter John Brower from the airport and said he would have to cancel his role in the festival. Clapton couldn't be found in time, and Lennon wasn't willing to perform without him.

Brower was incredulous, and horrified. He'd borrowed $25,000 from a man named Edjo, who was the head of a biker gang, to pay the fee for the Doors to headline the festival. If the festival ticket sales bombed or the festival was canceled altogether, that biker had promised to severely beat Brower, for starters. Brower considered fleeing Canada just to save his life!

But luckily, with Lennon and others waiting at the airport, he was given the word that Clapton had been found after all. It turned out that Clapton had gone to bed early and slept during the entire search, far from his phone. A telegram had been sent to his house as part of the desperate search to find him. In the morning, Clapton's gardener saw the telegram, opened it, saw the urgency of it, and woke him up. Clapton was very willing to perform with Lennon at the festival. Still, there was no way Clapton could make it to the airport in time to catch the flight overseas. It seemed all was lost. Lennon said he would send Brower a bouquet of flowers as an apology.

Brower later recalled, "I saw Edjo [the biker gang leader] putting the flowers on my grave; everything was destroyed." He decided to try to call Clapton, now that Clapton was awake, and beg for help.

He claims he told Clapton on the phone, "Listen man, you've gotta help me. If John Lennon does not show up today, I am ruined. I have to leave my city. I have to leave my country. In fact, I'm going to come over there and move in with John Lennon, with my wife and kid, okay? You need to get him back on the phone and tell him he has to come.' Clapton started yelling, 'I don't get up at this time of the morning for anybody. Fucking Lennon gets us out here and then sends fucking flowers?'"

Clapton then immediately phoned Lennon back. Brower recalled, "He was furious. He just [told Lennon], 'What the fuck are you doing? There's some guy on the other end of the phone who is ruined if we don't go over there. He said he's going to come over and move in with you!' We later found out... that Lennon was mortified that Eric Clapton was mad at him. I mean, you just don't get Eric Clapton mad at you."

So Lennon scrambled to come up with a new plan. Arrangements were made to book a flight to Toronto that left at 3:15 in the afternoon, London time. It would be a tight schedule, but that would get them in Toronto in time to perform at the end of the festival, thanks to the time zone difference. While waiting at the airport, Lennon held an impromptu press conference, announcing to the world his involvement in the festival.

Now, Lennon had his band and the ability to get to the festival in time. But the band hadn't practiced whatsoever. They tried their best to do that during the plane flight. But it wasn't easy, because they didn't have amplified instruments, and White had to "drum" using the seat back in front of him. They could barely hear themselves over the noise of the airplane. At least they agreed on the songs they would play. However, while Lennon told the other band members that Ono would be singing a couple of songs, they didn't practice those at all. Voormann later said, "So, no rehearsal with Yoko. He kept it really away from us. He just wanted us to be surprised."

I normally don't add pictures to my write-ups, but since this one is so long, here's a photo of Lennon and Clapton trying to practice while on the plane flight. 

The drama continued when Lennon and his band arrived in Toronto. To their surprise, they were met at the airport by a biker gang led by Edjo, the same gang leader who had loaned Brower $25,000. There was a limousine waiting. Edjo and about 100 of his bikers led a motorcade from the airport to the stadium where the festival was taking place. Police joined the motorcade, redirecting traffic so Lennon's motorcade could blow through all the red lights, just as if he was a president or prime minister.

Lennon arrived at the stadium while Cat Mother was performing, and word somehow spread throughout the crowd, raising the anticipation. But Lennon and his band went to a grubby back room and essentially stayed cooped up there for a couple of hours until it was time for them to go on stage. They tried to practice some more, but they still didn't have adequate instruments to practice on. They apparently spent most of the time trying to figure out the lyrics to the songs they had chosen to sing. They wrote them all out so Lennon could read them on stage. When their performance actually began though, Lennon would forget about the notes and just winged it, except for reading the lyrics to his one new song, "Cold Turkey." 

Speaking of "cold turkey," in 1969, Lennon had become a heroin addict. So had Clapton. Both of them didn't dare sneak drugs on the plane. So they were very worried about falling apart if they couldn't find some drugs in Toronto - if not heroin, then at least something similar. Soon, Lennon asked Brower, "Can you get us some coke?" Brower later recalled that he replied, "Let's get six Cokes over here right away.' I looked back at the two of them like, 'No problem. No problem,' and they just had this horrified look on their faces. They were looking at each other like 'Where are we?' And Yoko goes, 'No, coke for the nose.'"

Brower was determined to do whatever it took to make sure the festival would be a success. He remembered he had a friend who did drugs and was attending the festival. He actually arranged a stage announcement to call that friend backstage. The friend soon showed up, and was able to find some cocaine. Brower said, "I went backstage to give it to John, and I swear to God he looked at me like, 'You're Jesus and this is the Lord's water.'" Lennon made sure Clapton got some of the cocaine as well.

That problem was solved. But still, Lennon was in a bad way. He was repeatedly throwing up due to nervousness from giving his very first concert as a solo performer. He even threw up again a few minutes before getting on stage. He also was tired from getting almost no sleep, due to spending most of the night trying to find Clapton.

Kim Fowley, a famous music producer, was the emcee for the festival, so he was the one to introduce Lennon to the stage. According to Fowley, shortly before Lennon was due to go on stage, he asked Lennon how he was doing, and Lennon replied something to the effect of: "I'm terrified. Imagine if you were in the Beatles as the only band you've only been in your life. The first time you are to step on stage with people that weren't in the Beatles. You’re about to go on stage with your wife, a friend, a friend, and a complete stranger with songs you had learned acoustically on an airplane on the way over from England with jet lag. You would be terrified. Do something so the kids don't know how scared I am."

Fowley came up with an idea to boost his spirits. He remembered a scene from a movie, "Our Lady of Fatima," where a bunch of children had held candles up together, and he asked everyone to do the same, to show their support and encouragement. You can hear Fowley doing this at the start of this album. It seemed to have really helped. Lennon later commented, "They all lit candles or lights up and it was really beautiful, you know, and the vibes were fantastic."

Remarkably, it appears this was the very first time lights were held up like this at a major concert. Due to the prominence of the festival, as well as a movie documentary about it, the practice spread, and it soon became a fairly common concert ritual. So kudos to Fowley for that.

Finally, the time came for Lennon to start playing music. He and his band ran through some classic rock songs from the 1950s, which was very much in keeping with the overall theme of the festival. They also played one Beatles song, "Yer Blues." Then they played "Cold Turkey." Lennon had just written this song about his recent heroin addiction (which, thankfully he was able to kick about a year later). This was the first time it was performed in public. Lennon would release it as a single a month later, and it would make the Top Forty in both the U.S. and Britain. Then he performed "Give Peace a Chance," which he had released as a single in July.

Overall, the band sounded ragged due to lack of practice, but they made up for it with enthusiasm. Plus, they played the kinds of simple, rocking songs where being ragged actually fit. Most people in the audience, which filled the stadium by now, probably were disappointed not to be hearing Beatles classics. ("Yer Blues" was a relative obscurity.) However, it seems they were in awe to be hearing Lennon sing anything, and they were very enthusiastic overall.

Lennon later recalled, "I can't remember when I had such a good time. Yoko was holding a piece of paper with the words to the songs in front of me. But then she suddenly disappeared into her bag in the middle of the performance and I had to make them up because it's so long since I sang them that I've forgotten most of them. It didn't seem to matter."

(Indeed, Ono spent most of the first half of the set inside a big white bag on the stage floor! That was an example of her performance art that helped attract Lennon to her. Robby Krieger of the Doors, who was watching from the side of the stage, later said, "I really thought it was cool that Yoko decided to do the whole show in a laundry bag. I really gained respect for her for that.") 

Clapton also recalled, "It was really refreshing to do these songs because they are very simple and uncomplicated. John and I really love that music. That's the kind of music that turned John on initially, and it's the same for me. In fact, I could go on playing 'Money' and 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy' for the rest of my life."

So far, everything was going great. Lennon was particularly pleased at how the audience responded to his new song "Cold Turkey." He said, "The way that we got it together was like we'd all been playing together for years. Then, 'Give Peace a Chance,' which was just unbelievable."

Then it was time for Ono to sing her two songs. Keep in mind that not even the other band members other than Lennon knew what was going to happen next. For the first song, Lennon had merely told the others that he'd start playing a riff on his guitar and they should all repeat it over and over.

Nowadays, Ono is rather notorious for her screaming style. But at the time, the audience was in for a shock when she began her screaming singing. There hadn't been any concerts or albums with her singing like that, at least not that the wider public was aware of.

Voormann, the bassist, later recalled, "This scream came [from Ono]. I said, 'She must have stepped on a nail or something.' And Eric [Clapton] looked at me, 'What's this?!'" But the band gamely rolled with the punches and kept playing.

Ono's first song was somewhat palatable to the audience, since there at least was a kind of rock and roll beat to it. But her second song went on for much longer, and it was all Ono's wailing and guitar feedback. (The other band members kept rolling with the punches, with Clapton even singing some backing vocals to Ono.) Lennon said, "Yoko's first number had a bit of rhythm, but the second number was completely freaky. It was sort of the thing she did at Cambridge [earlier in 1969], but it was more like Toronto 1984."

Some people seemed to "get it," and others didn't. 

Voormann later said, "The funny thing is that when I was up there, I was behind Yoko, and I felt suddenly what she was doing. She was actually telling the people, in her way, that all those people are dying [in the Vietnam War]. Those tanks and bombs falling and dead bodies lying about. What she was doing was really, really felt like a dying bird. She couldn't have stood there and talked about it and said, 'Yeah, peace. Just think of Vietnam.' No. This was far ahead of its time. The audience didn't understand a thing."

By and large, it seems the audience was baffled by Ono's performance, but were fairly tolerant just because Lennon was involved. There was some booing, but it seems accounts of this were later exaggerated. Few people left, especially because the Doors were still due to perform next.

Lennon was encouraged by the crowd's reaction, overall. He later said in an interview, "A lot of the audience walked out, but the ones that stayed, they were in a trance, man. They just all came to the front." In a different later interview, he felt even more encouraged. ""All I can say is that there were maybe 25,000 people there and maybe 15 didn't like it. I didn't hear any booing. It's always the man from the daily paper who does!" He further added, "It gave me a great feeling, a feeling I haven't had for a long time. It convinced me to do more appearances, either with or without the rest of the Beatles. Everything went down so well."

Lennon was so excited about this concert performance that he wanted to immediately release it on album. However, his record company, Capitol Records, initially resisted the idea. "They said 'This is garbage, we're not going to put it out with her screaming on one side and you doing this sort of live stuff.' And they refused to put it out. But we finally persuaded them that people might buy this. Of course, it went gold the next day." 

The album was released later that year under the title "Live Peace in Toronto 1969," and it sold over 500,000 copies (which is gold status). This recording here is essentially the same as the official release. I'm including it so one can have the full recording and story of this festival in one place.

The songs sung by Lennon were on one side of the album and the songs sung by Ono on the other. At the time, the Lennon songs were praised by music critics and the Ono songs were panned. But interestingly, over time, some famous musicians claim they were more inspired by Ono's songs. For instance, Iggy Pop said that Ono's side of the record is "the part that stands out. The rest of it's just kinda pedestrian." Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction has made similar comments, stating that Ono's sound experiments were a cornerstone of his musical education. 

Personally, I think Ono's songs here make for an interesting listen once or twice, but it's not something I'd want to hear more often than that. Of course, you can choose to keep or delete those songs.

I have one final note to make about Lennon's performance. It seems undeniable that this was a pivotal moment in his music career and even his entire life, because it's when he fully committed to leaving the Beatles. Prior to this festival, he was drifting away from the Beatles, but he hadn't really figured out what would come next, and he lacked the confidence to leave the most famous band in the world. The success of this performance gave him that confidence.

Shortly after the concert was over,  he told his new band mates he would be leaving the Beatles. "I told Alan [White] I was leaving. I told Eric Clapton and Klaus [Voormann] that I was leaving. I announced it to myself and to the people around me. 'It's over.'" As soon as he returned to London the next day, he told his manager Allen Klein the same thing. Then he broke the news to the other Beatles on September 20th, about a week after the festival. However, they all agreed to keep that news quiet while they renegotiated their record contract. In the end, they didn't go public with the news until April 1970, but they were effectively broken up until then, with the four of them never all getting together a single time.

So this leads to a big question: would the Beatles have endured for much longer had it not been for the improbable chain of events that led to Lennon performing at the festival? My guess is maybe they would have stuck together for a few more months, but not longer than that. A break-up was in motion over many issues, mainly financial ones relating to a dispute over who would manage the band after Brian Epstein died. Plus, Lennon really wanted to go off and do his own thing with Ono, and he was just gathering the confidence to make the break. Had it not been this concert, something else would have come along soon that played the same role. (In fact, the same band with some other musicians added played another concert in December 1969, which was a benefit for the non-profit UNICEF.) And the Beatles had just finished recording the "Abbey Road" album in August, so they probably wouldn't have wanted to record a new album until well into 1970 anyway. The odds of them sticking together long enough to record another album had this festival never happened would have been extremely low, in my opinion.

This album is 39 minutes long. 

01 talk (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
02 Blue Suede Shoes (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
03 Money [That's What I Want] (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
04 Dizzy Miss Lizzy (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
05 Yer Blues (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
06 talk (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
07 Cold Turkey (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
08 talk (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
09 Give Peace a Chance (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
10 talk (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
11 Don't Worry Kyoko [Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow] (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)
12 John, John [Let's Hope for Peace] (John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JyMeVpN6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/oADkPwOhcIM78cY/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from the "Revival69" documentary. I wanted to get an image that showed Lennon and Clapton. I succeeded, but we can only see the back of Clapton's head. The white blob on the floor at the bottom is Yoko Ono inside a large bag.

The Beatles - Grugahalle, Essen, Germany, 6-25-1966

I usually don't post music by the Beatles here, even though they're my favorite musical act of all time. I generally leave that to guest poster Mike Solof, plus there are zillions of other Beatles bootlegs out there. But I'm making an exception in this case. This is a soundboard bootleg that only became publicly available in the last month or so (as I write this in August 2025). In terms of sound quality, it has to be the best of any 1966 live Beatles recording, and it sounds better than most of their other live stuff, including much of those that are officially released. 

Even if you already downloaded this elsewhere, I recommend you download this version, since it has the significant improvement of making the drumming audible.

That said, this should come with a warning, because the Beatles played raggedly in their 1966 concerts in general, and this one is no exception. The problem was, they'd been performing to screaming fans, mostly consisting of teenage girls, for three years by this time, and they were sick of it. They could barely hear themselves playing, due to all that screaming as well as very poor sound systems. So, while they still played with energy, they didn't worry about nailing their harmony vocals and being careful not to make mistakes and so on. They figured nobody would notice or care about the details. 

On the plus side, the set lists in their 1966 concerts got a lot more interesting, in my opinion. They still played a few songs they'd been playing in concerts since at least 1964, but they were also playing challenging brand new songs. For instance, "Paperback Writer" had only been released as a single two months earlier. While they didn't play any songs from their "Revolver" album, as it wouldn't be released until August, they did play a couple from their most recent album "Rubber Soul," such as "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone," as well as the recent single "Day Tripper."

The one main complaint people have had about this bootleg is the drums are very low in the mix. So I used the MVSEP program to boost the drums relative to everything else. In some places on a few of the songs though, the drums were so low that there wasn't enough there for the program to find. The only song where I didn't boost the drum volume was "I Wanna Be Your Man." Since that one was sung by the drummer Ringo Starr, I'm guessing his vocals microphone picked up a lot of the drumming too. Also, by fixing the drumming volume, one interesting thing that comes through is "Yesterday." On record, and usually in concert, it was just Paul McCartney's vocals and acoustic guitar, plus sometimes strings. But this version was arranged for a full band, including drums.

Also, "If I Needed Someone" has "[Edit]" in its title because there were some sound problems going on during that song, leading to some roadie loudly saying "One, two" in the middle of the song, probably because that person was testing if a microphone was working. So I just got rid of that jarring voice while keeping everything else the same.

This album is 31 minutes long. 

01 talk (Beatles)
02 Rock and Roll Music (Beatles)
03 She's a Woman (Beatles)
04 talk (Beatles)
05 If I Needed Someone [Edit] (Beatles)
06 talk (Beatles)
07 Day Tripper (Beatles)
08 Baby's in Black (Beatles)
09 talk (Beatles)
10 I Feel Fine (Beatles)
11 talk (Beatles)
12 Yesterday (Beatles)
13 talk (Beatles)
14 I Wanna Be Your Man (Beatles)
15 talk (Beatles)
16 Nowhere Man (Beatles)
17 talk (Beatles)
18 Paperback Writer (Beatles)
19 talk (Beatles)
20 I'm Down (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZfZcCuJD

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/bizGeJf2w0o4heY/file

It's a really lucky break that I was able to find a color photo of this exact concert. I found a bunch of black and white ones, but just one color one, but one was all I needed.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 14: Mike's Mixes (1964-2007) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

I didn't know if I would have time to post this before leaving for my vacation, but I managed to get the packing done in time. So here's another guest post by Mike Solof, another one of his great Beatles remix albums.

The last volume in this series was a bit weird, kind of Mike's B-team choices to go with unlucky Volume 13. But for this volume, he's back to his usual. 

And speaking of usual, Mike has included a PDF with detailed notes on all the songs and their edits, as he usually does. So please give that a read for more information on this album. 

This album is 59 minutes long. 

01 I'm Losing You [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon with Cheap Trick)
02 And I Love Her [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 Sour Milk Sea [Mashup Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison, the Beatles & Eric Clapton)
04 Here Comes the Sun [Mike's Mix 2025, Version 2] (Beatles)
05 You've Really Got a Hold on Me [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 What You're Doing [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
07 Got to Get You into My Life [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Rain [Take 5, Actual Speed] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 This Song Is about You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
10 I Should Have Known Better [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Any Time at All [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
12 It s All Too Much [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Yellow Submarine [Mostly Song Writing Demo] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 I'm Only Sleeping [Edit of Takes 1 & 2] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 I Want You [She's So Heavy] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 Love You To [Take 7, Rehearsal and Commercial Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Band on the Run [One Hand Clapping Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney & Wings) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fKuWH4uz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/5KP7ajM4CZ69ThF/file

The cover photo is something Mike found on the Internet, another AI-generated "what if" picture of John and Paul. 

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 12: Mike's Mixes (1963-1979) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here we go again, with another volume of "The Beatles Uncovered" by guest poster Mike Solof. We've made it all the way to Volume 12.

By now, I hope you know the drill. Once again, Mike has taken the officially released versions of Beatles songs, plus some songs from their solo careers, and heavily edited them to bring out aspects you might otherwise have overlooked. 

There's not much else I need to say, I think, except this time he really outdid himself with an edit of an early demo version of "Something," making hundreds of edits to create something unique. So don't miss that one.

As usual, if you want to know more, including editing details for each song, please check out the PDF Mike has written that's included in the download files.

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 Old Brown Shoe [Demo Final Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
02 Don't Let Me Down [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 I'm Looking through You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Lady Madonna [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 Run for Your Life [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 She Loves You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
07 Soft-Hearted Hana [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
08 Givin' Grease a Ride [Mike's Mix 2025] (Mike McGear & Paul McCartney)
09 Wait [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 The Word [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Old Dirt Road [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
12 I Will [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 You Won't See Me [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 What Goes On [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 The Inner Light [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 The Ballad of John and Yoko [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Maxwell's Silver Hammer [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
18 Bluebird [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney)
19 Something [Reconstructed Early Demo] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NMT37B5j

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/wqCUtOiQSe5mPiQ/file

The cover art was made by a friend of Mike's, Matt Busch. I stretched it out a bit on the top and bottom to fit the square space.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 11: Mike's Mixes (1963-2023) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here we go again. Like a dancing fool who just can't stop dancing, Mike Solof just can't stop editing Beatles songs. By now, you should know the drill. Mike takes songs by the Beatles, and well as a few from their solo careers, and remixes them in ways to bring out aspects you may not have appreciated before.

He really outdid himself with the first song here, "Run So Far." That song, written by George Harrison, first appeared on an Eric Clapton album in 1989. Then it appeared on a Harrison album in 2003. Discovering the two versions were in the same key, Mike combined the lead vocals to create a truly unique acappella mash-up, thanks to over 300 edits for just three minutes of music. Check it out! Then enjoy all the other interesting mixes.

Oh, and as usual, if you want to know more details, like what the edits are for each song, check out the PDF including in the download.

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Run So Far [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison and Eric Clapton)
02 Now and Then [Orchestra Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 Piggies [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Drive My Car [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 From Me to You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 Good Day Sunshine [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
07 Rocky Raccoon [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Rock and Roll Music [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 All My Loving [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 Norwegian Wood [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Blackbird [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
12 You Know My Name [Look Up the Number] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Yer Blues [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 Got to Get You into My Life [Band Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 Maybe I'm Amazed [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney)
16 The Long and Winding Road [De-Spectorized Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 No. 9 Dream [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
18 Maggie Mae [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/dmbRp1er

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/a1g6298C9uDpe0J/file

Mike selected the cover photo. I'm sure it's from 1969, but I don't know any details.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 10: Mike's Mixes (1963-1979) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here we go again with another Beatles Uncovered album by guest poster Mike Solof.

With this being the tenth volume, hopefully you know the drill by now. Mike remixes Beatles songs to bring out aspects that are generally underappreciated. Sometimes, he even pulls up interesting little bits that you almost certainly never even knew where there in the first place. Most of the songs here are from the Beatles, but there are a few songs from their solo careers included as well.

Also as usual, if you want to know more, check out the PDF included with the download files. Mike has written explanations of the edits for all the songs.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 I Am the Walrus [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
02 Two of Us [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 For You Blue [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Can't Buy Me Love [Take 2] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 I've Got a Feeling [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 Steel and Glass [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
07 Eight Days a Week [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Rain [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 Don't Pass Me By [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 Here, There and Everywhere [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Here Comes the Moon [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
12 She Loves You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Dear Prudence [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 My Dark Hour [Original Mix] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Steve Miller & Paul McCartney)
16 Blue Jay Way [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zU1o2nr7

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/lYmltO8gfuedMoA/file

The cover art is some art that Mike and I found while Googling about the Beatles and cats on the Internet. I don't know who originally made it. It's a parody of the "Beatles for Sale" album cover.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 9: Mike's Mixes (1964-1979) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

It's time for another volume of "The Beatles Uncovered" by guest poster Mike Solof. We've made it to Volume 9, and Mike already has two more almost ready to go.

As usual, Mike has taken some Beatles songs, as well as a few songs from their solo careers, and remixed them to bring out hidden or little noticed aspects. You probably know the drill by now, if you've listened to any of his previous volumes in this series.

I don't feel the need to say much more, because Mike has detailed notes about the edits to each song in the PDF file he's included with the download zip, just as he's done with previous volumes.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 A Day in the Life [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
02 Doctor Robert [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 If I Needed Someone [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Revolution No. 1 [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 And I Love Her [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 Every Night [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney)
07 Back in the U.S.S.R. [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 Oh, Darling [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 Faster [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
11 Good Night [Take 10 - Vocals Only Mix] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
12 Cry Baby Cry [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Come Together [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 I Me Mine [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 Happiness Is a Warm Gun [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 Scared [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
17 A Hard Day's Night [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
18 Tomorrow Never Knows [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/XTQXMfLK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/i7v7TLnEJ9v7eos/file

If you want an explanation for the, uh, rather unusual cover photo, you'll have to read the PDF file included in the download.

The Beatles - Star-Club, Hamburg, Germany, 12-1962

I've been on the verge of posting this very early live Beatles album for a few months now. One reason is the sound quality. Bluntly speaking, the sound quality is pretty bad compared to just about everything else I've posted at this blog. But the good news is, thanks to recent advancements in audio editing technology, it sounds better than it ever has before. Still, this is not for the casual fan. 

The second reason is the story behind this recording is very complicated, and I lacked the enthusiasm for a long write-up. So I ultimately decided to skip most of what I was thinking of writing. Instead, I can point you to a Wikipedia article for the short version:

Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 - Wikipedia 

But if you want to dig deeper, I've included a PDF of a lengthy but I think interesting article from Record Collector Magazine about the long and tangled story about this recording.

Before I go any further, I want to say: all hail Lord Reith! The only reason I'm posting this is because a super Beatles fan by that name has made repeated efforts to improve this recording, each one sounding better than the last. The most recent one is from late 2024 (as I write this in February 2025). All I'm basically doing is posting what he did, with minor changes. He even is the one who came up with the PDF of the article mentioned above. I've also included a text file from him that explains some more about what he did. If you want to find more of his Beatles-centric audio editing, search for his name at the Beatlegs forum. He's one of the best at this audio editing stuff, for sure.

Here's a link to that forum:

https://forum.beatlegdb.com/

Anyway, while I'm not going to write a tome about this recording, I will give the basics. As most Beatles fans know, the Beatles honed their musical skills playing in small clubs in Hamburg, Germany, from 1960 to 1962, before they became famous. This recording comes from December 1962, when they were on the brink of fame. Their drummer Pete Best had recently been replaced by Ringo Starr, who plays drums on everything here. Their debut single "Love Me Do" was released in October 1962, and reached Number 17 in the British charts around the time these recordings were made. In fact, the Beatles didn't want to play in Hamburg anymore, but they felt obliged to finish off a contract they'd signed many months earlier.

Their stay this time was relatively short. They played from December 18th until December 31st. Nobody knows the exact dates these recordings were made, except that they come from that time period. What happened was, recording equipment was set up, and every now and then someone hit the record button, and nobody kept track of details. There are three big continuous chunks, probably recorded on different nights. Plus, there are some extra individual songs recorded here and there. 

So what we ended up with was a luck of the draw thing. For instance, no recording of "Love Me Do" made it, despite that being their sole hit single at the time that they certainly must have played. And we only got a couple of originals, "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Ask Me Why." But what really makes this fascinating is the Beatles played a bunch of cover songs. Some covers made their early studio albums or singles, and some were done later at the BBC and thus recordings survived, but for many, maybe half of the songs here, these are the only Beatles versions we have. 

Note that this version isn't complete. If you want that, check out Lord Reith's version at the Beatlegs forum. I didn't cut out much, but I cut out a few songs that had sound problems, or were otherwise problematic, such as a version of "Road Runner" that barely got started and then petered out after less than a minute. I also cut out some dead time between songs when nobody was talking. But I tried to keep as much as possible. For instance, there are three versions of "A Taste of Honey" here because each one is somewhat different. One is the standard Beatles version. Another has a little-known extra verse. And another has singer Tony Sheridan guesting on it. (The Beatles backed him in the studio for a couple of songs in 1962.)

I also tried to make some improvements to Lord Reith's edits. I couldn't do much with the actual songs. But for the times between songs, I separated out just the talking (using the UVR5 program) from everything else, then lowered the volume of everything else. That helped somewhat, but be warned that the banter between songs is often unintelligible due to the poor sound quality.

Finally, I have a bit to say about the history of this recording. The actual recording was done by Adrian Barber, the stage manager of the club. Apparently, the Beatles gave approval in return for free beer! Barber then gave the tapes to Ted Taylor, the leader of the Dominoes, another band playing in the club at the time. Some other bands were recorded as well, but few people care about that since those other bands never made it out of obscurity. 

Taylor tried selling the tapes to record companies starting in 1973. However, there wasn't much interest due to the poor sound quality. Eventually, a rather obscure company bought the rights to the tapes, and spent about $100,000 trying to improve the sound. They had partial success at best. The album was released in 1977 with the name "The Beatles Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962." Only 26 of the 30 different songs were included, with no duplicates. 

The Beatles then tried to sue, and years of legal battles ensued. Generally speaking, it was much like a game of whack-a-mole. Different versions of the album came out with different names and track lists in different countries, making it impossible to stop them all. In 1991 though, the massive company Sony tried to release a version. This led to more legal battles. Finally, in 1998, the Beatles won ownership of the tapes and the exclusive rights to release the material. They've just sat on them since. But after director Peter Jackson redid lots of material from the Beatles' "Get Back" sessions in 2022, he said he has the best version of this bootleg available, and he wants to use the latest cutting edge technology to make it sound truly good. Nothing has come of that since then, but who knows what the future may bring.

Anyway, if you want to know more about all that, check out the Wikipedia article above, or the PDF file included in the download. Hopefully, someday Jackson will perform a miracle on this material. In the meantime, this is the best version that's publicly available, in my opinion. 

Oh, another thing. When you listen to the vocals of the first song, you may think, "Who the heck is singing?" That's because that song, "Be-Bop-A-Lula," plus the third song, "Hallelujah, I Love Her So," were actually sung by other people and only backed by the Beatles. Horst Fascher, who sang one of those, was one of the club managers. He also was the club's bouncer and a former boxer. Fred Fascher, who sang the other one, was his brother. The Beatles relied on them for protection from unruly crowds, so letting them sing a little bit was a good way to keep them on their side.

My final comment: don't expect sonic miracles here. This is not for the casual fan, due to the sound quality. But it's fascinating if you're a die-hard Beatle fan and can handle the recording's flaws.

This album is an hour and 28 minutes long.

01 Be-Bop-A-Lula (Beatles & Fred Fascher)
02 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
03 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
04 Hallelujah, I Love Her So (Beatles & Horst Fascher)
05 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
06 Red Hot (Beatles)
07 Sheila (Beatles)
08 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
09 Kansas City - Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey (Beatles)
10 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
11 Shimmy like Kate (Beatles)
12 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
13 Reminiscing (Beatles)
14 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
15 Red Sails in the Sunset (Beatles)
16 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
17 Sweet Little Sixteen (Beatles)
18 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
19 Roll Over Beethoven (Beatles)
20 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
21 A Taste of Honey [Extra Verse Version] (Beatles)
22 Nothin' Shakin' [But the Leaves on the Trees] (Beatles)
23 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
24 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
25 To Know Her Is to Love Her [To Know Him Is to Love Him] (Beatles)
26 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
27 Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Beatles)
28 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
29 Till There Was You (Beatles)
30 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
31 Where Have You Been All My Life (Beatles)
32 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
33 Lend Me Your Comb (Beatles)
34 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
35 Your Feet's Too Big (Beatles)
36 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
37 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
38 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)
39 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
40 Matchbox (Beatles)
41 Little Queenie (Beatles)
42 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
43 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)
44 talk (Beatles)
45 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
46 A Taste of Honey (Beatles with Tony Sheridan)
47 I Remember You (Beatles)
48 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
49 Ask Me Why (Beatles)
50 Besame Mucho (Beatles)
51 Mr. Moonlight (Beatles)
52 talk (Beatles) (Beatles)
53 Falling in Love Again (Beatles)
54 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry [Over You] (Beatles)
55 Long Tall Sally (Beatles)
56 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
57 Twist and Shout (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CVJuAYuU

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/u7UoC9JNRT4FHtS/file

The cover photo shows the Beatles performing at the Star-Club at some point, though unfortunately Ringo Starr isn't included in the image. Note I used the venue's logo in the album title at the top.

John Lennon - Some Time in New York City - Alternate Version (1972)

For some reason, I've posted very little music from John Lennon's solo career so far. I have lots of albums planned, with many of them basically ready to go (minus tidying up and making the cover art). But then again, there's tons of music I plan on posting and I can't get to it all at once. But this particular album has come to the front of my posting priorities due to a song edit a friend of mine made. I'll explain more about that below.

"Some Time in New York City," released in 1972, was John Lennon's third proper solo album. His first two solo albums, "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine," were critical successes, and did reasonably well commercially. Both have made it on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 albums of all time. So expectations were high for this, his third album. But it was considered a compete bust. One reviewer at the time called it "artistic suicide." Even decades later, a reviewer for Uncut Magazine said it was "a contender for the worst LP by a major musical figure" in all of music history. That's pretty bad! Sales were so bad that Lennon was stunned and he suffered songwriter's block for about a year.

So this is an album that's ripe for an alternate version, which I'm making here. In my opinion, there are three reasons this album did so poorly, both critically and commercially. First, it was a very political album, with every original song expressing radical leftist political opinions. The general public wasn't ready for that. 

Second, it wasn't really a John Lennon album, but instead a John Lennon and Yoko Ono album. Three of the songs on the first album were written and sung by Ono, and she sang some lead vocals on some of the other songs as well. People really didn't like that, especially since many at the time blamed Ono for the break-up of the Beatles. (In retrospect, she probably played some role in that Lennon was having more fun making music with her than with the Beatles, but there were many other factors that came to a head, especially financial ones, and basically everyone in the band being sick of everyone else.)

Third, it was a double album, and while the first album was made up of conventional songs, the second album consisted of live musical jams, and it was pretty terrible. It was a lot like the third album of George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass," consisting of jams that most people played just once. Except it was even worse since while Ono sang conventionally on the first album, she did her unusual screaming style over most of the jams. For many people, it was painful and unlistenable.

So here are all the things I did to improve the album:

1) I got rid of nearly all of the second album of jams. I'm one of those people who find it painful and unlistenable. The only song I kept from it was "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)." Unlike pretty much everything else on the second album, this is an actual song. It's a cover of an obscure song by the Olympics, from 1958.

2) Speaking of that song, "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)," I'm using a version created a couple of days ago by my musical friend Lil Panda. He, like me, has been tinkering with the audio editing programs that have advanced greatly in recent years, thanks to AI technology. Both he and I had previously tried to get rid of Ono's screaming from some songs, but found it impossible. But Lil Panda figured it out: it turns out that Ono's screams are so unusual that they're interpreted by the AI program he uses as a saxophone! Unfortunately, Ono's wailing was all over this song. But the saxophone filter got rid of at least 90 percent of it. Thanks, Lil Panda! Note also, that Lil Panda used the version of this song that appeared on the Frank Zappa album "Playground Psychotics." It's the exact same performance as the one on "Some Time in New York City," recorded at a concert in the Fillmore East in New York City in June 1971, but it's about a minute longer.

3) For the first album of conventional songs, I got rid of two out of three songs that were mostly Ono's, "Sisters, O Sisters," and "We're All Water." For this album, Ono actually sings conventionally most of the time, except for about half of "We're All Water." By and large, she did decently when she stuck to conventional singing. It's a far cry from her screaming on the second album of live jams (and some of "We're All Water"). So these two songs aren't terrible. I just don't think they're that strong. Plus, let's face it, nearly everybody puts on an album like this to hear Lennon songs, not Ono songs. 

4) I kept one mostly Ono song, "Born in a Prison." I consider it the best of the Ono songs on the album. It's not fantastic, but it's as good as a couple of the Lennon ones. However, I made a slight edit. Lennon sings backing vocals on the choruses. I used the same editing tool Lil Panda used for the "Well" song to separate out Lennon's vocals from Ono's. Then I boosted his vocals some. I couldn't do more because the two voices didn't completely separate. But you can at least hear him better. That's why this is the other song that has "[Edit]" in the title.

5) I used a live version of "Luck of the Irish." To be honest, I made the alternate version of this album years ago, except for the two recent song edits mentioned above, so I have long forgotten why I chose that version. I listened to both this live version and the studio version again today, and I didn't see much difference at all. Both versions have lead vocals by Lennon and Ono in different parts, and even Ono sang very competently in a live setting. In case you're curious, this version was recorded during a concert/rally on behalf of political activist John Sinclair (who was imprisoned at the time), that took place University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in December 1971.

6) For "Angela," I used the "Ultimate Mix" that came out on the archival album "John Lennon: Gimme Some Truth" that was released decades later. It brings up organ playing that was completely buried in the original album version, and it has less reverb on it.

7) Finally, I added the song "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" to the end of the album. This was a hit single that was released in December 1971, about six months prior to the release of this album. It was only a minor hit in the U.S. because it was released very late in the holiday season. But it was held back a year in Britain to maximize Christmas sales, and it made it to Number Four in the singles charts there. Since then, it has become a Christmas standard, being rereleased many times, and going back into the charts many times around Christmas. It has been widely covered as well. Being a classic, hit song, it really elevates the whole album, and ends it on a high note. Note that the 2005 reissue of the album included it at the end as well.

8) All the other songs are the same versions as on the original "Some Time in New York City" double album.

Ultimately, only so much can be done with this alternate version. This album is still a step down from the greatness of "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine." Some of the songs are a bit slapdash and generic musically. There was nothing I could do about the radical leftist political content, since that's a key part of every song. (Even "Happy Xmas" has an anti-Vietnam War message woven into it.) But being a political progressive myself, I'm in pretty close agreement with most of the political sentiments expressed here anyway. Lennon was going through a political phase and got a little carried away with his enthusiasm at times, but I think most of his political points have been proven right with the passage of time. 

Consider, for instance, the song "John Sinclair," complaining about how Sinclair got sentenced to ten years in prison for being caught with two joints of marijuana. Not only was Sinclair released early due to political pressure (and largely due to Lennon's high-profile involvement, it seems), but now marijuana is legal in half of the U.S. states as I write this in 2025, and medical marijuana is legal in many more. The ten-year prison sentence seems absurd in retrospect.

This album is 40 minutes long. The original double album version is 90 minutes long.

01 Woman Is the Nigger of the World (John Lennon)
02 Attica State (John Lennon)
03 Born in a Prison [Edit] (John Lennon & Yoko Ono)
04 New York City (John Lennon)
05 Luck of the Irish (John Lennon & Yoko Ono)
06 Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Lennon & Yoko Ono)
07 John Sinclair (John Lennon)
08 Angela [Ultimate Mix] (John Lennon & Yoko Ono)
09 Well [Baby Please Don't Go] [Edit] (John Lennon with Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention)
10 Happy Xmas [War Is Over] (John Lennon)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WAUDdste

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Dhlj0Bk5HcZ5Ofv/file

For the album cover, I wanted something similar to the official cover, but different. Luckily for me, the cover was done in the style of a newspaper front page, with song lyrics instead of articles. There were two newspaper pages included in the album art to get all the lyrics, so I just kept the title parts and used lyrics from the second page for the rest. 

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 8: Mike's Mixes - The Acoustic Abbey Road (1969) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

It's time for another guest post by Mike Solof. This one came out of a recent discussion I had with him. I told him that it's always been a wish of mine to have all acoustic versions of all the Beatles albums, much like the acoustic demos to Beatles made for the "White Album." Mike basically responded "Say no more!" and whipped up an acoustic version of the Beatles' classic 1969 album "Abbey Road." If you like this as much as I do, please encourage him to do others.

To make this, Mike used only the exact versions of the songs on the official album, no alternate versions. But interesting things are brought to light by stripping instruments away. If you want to know more, I suggest you read the PDF Mike included in the download file. He gives an explanation for what he did to every song. 

This album is 43 minutes long. Note the original "Abbey Road" is 47 minutes long. This is shorter mostly because several minutes at the end of "I Want You" weren't included, since there was nothing really acoustic about them.

01 Come Together (Beatles)
02 Something (Beatles)
03 Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Beatles)
04 Oh, Darling (Beatles)
05 Octopus's Garden (Beatles)
06 I Want You (Beatles)
07 Here Come the Sun (Beatles)
08 Because (Beatles)
09 You Never Give Me Your Money (Beatles)
10 Sun King - Mean Mr. Mustard (Beatles)
11 Polythene Pam - She Came In through the Bathroom Window (Beatles)
12 Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight (Beatles)
13 The End (Beatles)
14 Her Majesty (Beatles)

https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/SZDdBte1ee

I came up with the idea of the album cover. Since this is an acoustic version of "Abbey Road," I thought it would be fun to change the iconic cover of the album to have the Beatles carrying acoustic guitars. Before, that just would have been a fun thought, but with the advances in AI art, it's actually doable. I used the free program Krea AI to make a bunch of variants of the cover, then picked the best bits. Then I used Photoshop to add in just those bits to the original cover.

And by the way, speaking of covers, if you open Mike's PDF, you'll see an alternate version of this with McCartney wearing giant sneakers. I made this as a joke after Mike jokingly complained about McCartney having bare feet. Mike liked the image so much that he wanted to use it for the actual cover, but cooler heads prevailed.

Various Artists - Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music, Radio City Music Hall, New York City, 10-2-2001

I don't know much about why this particular John Lennon tribute concert happened when and where it did, with these musical artists taking part. I did find one mention that it was part of a series of tribute concerts shown on TV by the TNT channel. I do know that there are a lot of excellent performances here by talented and famous musicians. This was broadcast on TV at the time. I suspect it was edited down for television from a longer concert, because there's basically no moment wasted here, with tight edits from song to song.

Given this was a tribute to John Lennon, some key musicians were missing. Most importantly, the three other ex-Beatles Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, as well as Lennon's musically successful son Julian Lennon. But his other (much less commercially successful) son Sean Lennon did take part. In turns out the timing was pretty terrible, because George Harrison was dying of cancer and only lived one more month. 

Also, the timing was strange because this took place only three weeks after the 9/11 terror attack, with the nation still in shock. I'm sure that was hanging over this, though it wasn't directly mentioned.

As far as I know, everything here remains officially unreleased. I don't believe it's been shared as music files anywhere on the Internet either. I happened to randomly come across a video of it on YouTube. The sound quality was excellent, so I converted it to audio and chopped it up into individual mp3 files.

Normally, these kinds of concerts with lots of different acts are a mixed bag, with winners and losers. But in this case, nearly every performance here is a winner, in my opinion. The only rendition I don't like is "Imagine," a great song but way oversung by Yolanda Adams. Maybe it's because the songs are so great that artists rise to the occasion. For instance, I'm not a fan of Dave Matthews at all, but I was impressed with his version of "In My Life" here. 

The transitions between songs was done in a rather unusual way for this type of concert. Usually, one would expect an emcee introducing the artists performing each song. But there was virtually none of that here. In fact, basically the only between song "banter" here at all are recordings of John Lennon's voice from when he was alive in the 1960s and 1970s. (He was assassinated in 1980.) It worked surprisingly well for me. Weirdly, just about the only exception was Cyndi Lauper, who introduced her performance with some comments.

The sound quality was great overall. There was just one bummer: the last song faded out before it was over. I suspect the time limit for the TV came to an end, so the music went on as long as possible before the cut off moment. The fade out happened in the middle of a chorus. I extended that a bit by patching in an earlier chorus so now at least the fade out happens just after that chorus finishes.

By the way, right after I posted this, I found out a little more information about it. The TNT channel did some other tribute concerts in the years before this (Burt Bacharach's "One Amazing Night" in 1998, which has been officially released, 1998 for Johnny Cash, 1999 for Bob Marley, 2000 for Joni Mitchell, and 2001 for Brian Wilson. The 2001 I've posted here, and I'll try to get to the other unreleased ones. The series seems to have ended after that, though, as the TNT network changed its programming focus in mid-2001, according to Wikipedia. Beck and Marc Anthony were supposed to headline this concert, but didn't do so for some reason.

This album is an hour and four minutes long.

01 Imagine (Yolanda Adams & Billy Preston)
02 talk (John Lennon)
03 In My Life (Dave Matthews)
04 talk (John Lennon)
05 Revolution (Stone Temple Pilots)
06 talk (John Lennon)
07 Dear Prudence (Alanis Morissette)
08 Across the Universe (Moby, Sean Lennon & Rufus Wainwright)
09 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
10 Strawberry Fields Forever (Cyndi Lauper)
11 talk (John Lennon)
12 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Marc Anthony)
13 Mother (Shelby Lynne)
14 Instant Karma (Nelly Furtado & Dave Stewart)
15 Jealous Guy (Lou Reed)
16 Nowhere Man (Natalie Merchant)
17 Come Together (Craig David)
18 talk (John Lennon & Sean Lennon)
19 This Boy (Sean Lennon, Rufus Wainwright & Robert Schwartzman)
20 Julia (Sean Lennon)
21 talk (John Lennon)
22 Give Peace a Chance - Power to the People (Everyone)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16651268/VA-2001CmeTgthrANghtfrJhnLnnnRdioCtyMsicHllNwYrkCty__10-2-2001_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. I had a choice of different photos. I went with this one, which shows the Stone Temple Pilots performing in front of a giant screen showing a psychedelic rendition of John Lennon.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 7: Mike's Mixes (1962-1987) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here we go again, with another Beatles Uncovered album by guest poster Mike Solof.

Once again, by now, hopefully you should know the drill, if you're familiar with the previous volumes in this series. So I don't see the need to say much more. Mike has extensive comments in the PDF file that's included in the download zip. I encourage you to check that out.

However, I will comment that, this time, there's a particular focus on early Beatles songs, with almost half of the songs from 1962 to 1964. And Mike put in a truly remarkable amount of time making a special version of "Hey Jude," which draws on three takes the Beatles did for a 1968 TV, which resulted in lots of little differences compared to the version everyone is familiar with.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Hey Jude [Mike's Mix 3] (Beatles)
02 Love Me Do [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
03 Nobody Told Me [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
04 This Is Love [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
05 If I Fell [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
06 All Things Must Pass [Mike's Piano Mix 2] (George Harrison)
07 You Can't Do That [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
08 Tell Me Why [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
09 Dear Yoko [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
10 Breath Away from Heaven [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
11 There's a Place [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
12 Twist and Shout [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
13 Isn't It a Pity, Version 1 [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
14 If Not for You [Mike's Piano Mix 2] (George Harrison)
15 Can't Buy Me Love, Take 2 [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
16 I'd Have You Any Time [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
17 P.S. I Love You - Besame Mucho [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EcRPE2K1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/JNBYfORDKJZ6teG/file

Once again, the cover art comes from some interesting Beatles artwork Mike found on the Internet. This one bears a close resemblance to the "Keep On Truckin'" guy from the 1970s. (If you don't know what I mean, look it up.) In March 2025, I upgraded the cover image with the use of the Krea AI program.

The Beatles - Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, Britain, 4-4-1963

Here's something that's pretty amazing, if you're a Beatles fan. I'm writing this in December 2023. Back in September, there were some articles in the mainstream media about a recently discovered bootleg recording of a 1963 Beatles concert at the Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, Britain. Here's one such article. I suggest you read it to be familiar with what I'm talking about:

The Beatles Stowe School Concert Is Unlike Any Other Show in History (thedailybeast.com)

I'll explain more about the story behind this concert and how it got recorded in a bit. But first, I want to say that I tracked down that recording after reading about it, and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed, due to poor sound quality. Amongst many other problems, the vocals were so low that they often couldn't be heard at all. I tried my best to fix things with my limited ability using the artificial intelligence based audio editing programs that have come out in recent years, but the recording was too poor to be salvageable. I didn't even bother keeping a copy of the concert in my music collection, because it wasn't worth hearing for me.

Or so I thought. Enter Lord Reith. He's someone who has been editing and improving Beatles recordings for years. I don't know if he's a magician or what, but what he did with this Stowe School bootleg is nothing short of miraculous! There are still some problems, which I will get to in a bit, but he's completely transformed the sound quality, making it almost sound as good as some soundboard recordings. In particular, he did wonders to make the vocals audible. So, in my opinion, this has gone from not worth listening to more than once (if that) to being one of the most interesting and listenable live Beatles recordings, period. If you're a fan, and you can tolerate some sound quality issues, definitely give this a listen.

Now, let me explain a bit more about what this concert is and why it's so unique. Again, I highly recommend you read the above newspaper article, but in case you don't, here's a short summary. At the time of this concert, the Beatles were right on the cusp of being big stars in Britain, but they weren't quite there yet. They'd released their first single, "Love Me Do," in late 1962. It made the Top Twenty in Britain, which was a good start. Then, in January 1963, they released the single "Please Please Me." It reached Number One in most British charts. In late March 1963, they released their first album, also called "Please Please Me." That would go on to be a huge hit, staying in the Top Ten of the charts for over a year, which would set a record for the next fifty years. Then, only one week after this concert, the single "From Me to You" would be released, and that would be another Number One hit in Britain. 

So, mere weeks after this concert, Beatlemania hit Britain in a big way, just as it would hit the U.S. in early 1964. From that point on, pretty much all Beatles concerts would be short, a half an hour or less, and so filled with screams from overexcited girls that one couldn't really hear the music. If you're heard live Beatles recordings, then you know it's usually a pretty rough listening experience, due to all that screaming and cheering.

Previously, the Beatles had spent a couple of years in Hamburg, Germany, honing their music skills by playing in small clubs. There are some rough live recordings from that, and they're very interesting, but they consisted almost entirely of cover songs. 

This recording is unique, however, in part because the Stowe School is very unusual. In 1963, it was only for boys aged 13 to 18. As you can see from this photo, it was only for the children of the elite. It looks less like a high school and more like a palace! The Beatles were booked to perform there months before the concert date, when their fame was a lot less. But they upheld their agreement and played there in April 1963 anyway. Not only that, but they played for over an hour, instead of the mere half hour or less they were already doing for screaming fans in other shows. 

But what's really great is, because the audience considered entirely of boys, and well-behaved upper class boys, no less, there was no screaming. According to articles I read, most of the boys in the audience hadn't even heard of the Beatles yet, so they weren't swept up in any hysteria. The Beatles played virtually all the songs from the "Please Please Me" album, plus "From Me to You" and its B-side "Thank You Girl," despite the fact those last two songs still hadn't been released. Yet they also played a bunch of cover songs that they'd done in Hamburg. This is probably the last time most of those covers were played by them in concert, as they switched to doing very short concerts consisting entirely of their best known songs. So this is the one and only concert recording with a mix of the "old" Beatles of Hamburg cover versions and the "new" Beatles with their remarkable original songs. How lucky we are that one of the boys in the audience snuck in a tape recorder and recorded it.

So that's the good news. The bad news is, even after Lord Reith's miraculous transformation of the recording, there still are sound quality issues. The biggest problem is the banter between songs. There was a lot banter, between almost all the songs. Unfortunately, the recording of those bits were very quiet, way more quiet than the music. So I suspect there just wasn't much there on the recording for Lord Reith to work with. I took his version, with the banter way down low, and boosted the volume of those bits so the banter can be clearly heard. But unfortunately, all that means in that quiet jibber jabber is now louder jibber jabber. I've included a couple of extra text files. One of them is a list of all the changes Lord Reith made to make this listenable. The other is a transcript of what he and other die-hard Beatles fans have managed to figure out from the banter. If you read that as you listen, you can catch most of it. But otherwise, the talking is pretty hard to understand, other than the occasional phrase.

Due to this seemingly unfixable problem, I'm posting two versions of this album. One contains the banter and the songs, and the other one contains just the songs. I much, much prefer the music only version. The banter is interesting to hear once or twice, but beyond that, it drags down the overall recording. So maybe you'll want to download both, and listen to one version and then the other.

There's one other big problem. The tape in the tape recorder only lasted for about sixty minutes. The recorder was up at the stage and the boy who recorded it was sitting in the audience, so when the tape ran out, there was no way for him to flip it over and keep recording. Thus, the end of a second version of "I Saw Her Standing There" was cut off, plus all of the last two songs, "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Long Tall Sally." Most of the second version of  "I Saw Her Standing There" survived, and luckily it happened to be the only song played twice. So I patched in the ending from the first version earlier in the show. But the last two songs are lost.

And there's one more lost song. Right before that second version of "I Saw Her Standing There," the Beatles played "Money (That's What I Want)." Unfortunately, there's only about twenty seconds of this on the recording, and then it gets replaced by the hit version of "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen! Probably what happened was that the boy who recorded it accidentally recorded that song off the radio over the Beatles concert. I removed the snippet of "Money" and the little bit of banter before it, because it's frustrating to get only such a short part of that. 

Furthermore, note that even after all of Lord Reith's edits, there were still some problems with the vocals. I used UVR5 to boost all the vocals a bit. I think that helped to make the singing easier to hear. But some songs are better than others. For "Matchbox" in particular, only bits and pieces of the lead vocals can be heard. I figure that's because that song was sung by Ringo Starr, the drummer, and maybe he was sitting back and too busy with drumming to keep his mouth near the microphone all the time. (That reminds me: there are no lead vocals from George Harrison because he was recovering from a cold.)

If you want to know even more about this remarkable concert, I recommend this link:

The Beatles concert at Roxburgh Hall, Stowe School in Buckingham on Apr 4, 1963 (the-paulmccartney-project.com)

It includes lots of great photos and stories. You can learn the whole story of how this bootleg came to be recorded and then rediscovered decades later. It's really interesting stuff, if you're a Beatles fan. That also includes a transcript of the banter between songs.

Here's the track list to the version that includes the banter. This version is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Beatles)
02 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
03 Too Much Monkey Business (Beatles)
04 talk (Beatles)
05 Love Me Do (Beatles)
06 talk (Beatles)
07 Some Other Guy (Beatles)
08 talk (Beatles)
09 Misery (Beatles)
10 talk (Beatles)
11 I Just Don't Understand (Beatles)
12 talk (Beatles)
13 A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Beatles)
14 talk (Beatles)
15 Boys (Beatles)
16 talk (Beatles)
17 Matchbox (Beatles)
18 talk (Beatles)
19 From Me to You (Beatles)
20 talk (Beatles)
21 Thank You Girl (Beatles)
22 talk (Beatles)
23 Memphis, Tennessee (Beatles)
24 talk (Beatles)
25 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)
26 talk (Beatles)
27 Twist and Shout (Beatles)
28 talk (Beatles)
29 Anna [Go to Him] (Beatles)
30 talk (Beatles)
31 Please Please Me (Beatles)
32 talk (Beatles)
33 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)
34 talk (Beatles)
35 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
36 talk (Beatles)
37 Ask Me Why (Beatles)
38 talk (Beatles)
39 Till There Was You (Beatles)
40 talk (Beatles)
41 I Saw Her Standing There [Edit] (Beatles)

And here's the link to the version with the banter:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RqK9Aoq6

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/ZJ2vjwIBlYO5yRK/file 

Here's the track list for the version with only the music. This version is 50 minutes long, eight minutes shorter than the other version.

01 I Saw Her Standing There (Beatles)
02 Too Much Monkey Business (Beatles)
03 Love Me Do (Beatles)
04 Some Other Guy (Beatles)
05 Misery (Beatles)
06 I Just Don't Understand (Beatles)
07 A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Beatles)
08 Boys (Beatles)
09 Matchbox (Beatles)
10 From Me to You (Beatles)
11 Thank You Girl (Beatles)
12 Memphis, Tennessee (Beatles)
13 A Taste of Honey (Beatles)
14 Twist and Shout (Beatles)
15 Anna [Go to Him] (Beatles)
16 Please Please Me (Beatles)
17 The Hippy Hippy Shake (Beatles)
18 I'm Talking about You (Beatles)
19 Ask Me Why (Beatles)
20 Till There Was You (Beatles)
21 I Saw Her Standing There [Edit] (Beatles)

Here's the link to the version with no banter, and only songs. 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/jQXFfpAb

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/02ggG53jP4MyIFd/file

Again, especially if you're not a die-hard fan, I recommend just getting the music only version.

For the cover photo, I used one of the photos from this exact concert and colorized it, using the Palette program. You can see a larger and uncropped version of the original black and white photo in one of the above article links.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 6: Mike's Mixes (1964-2013) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

It's time for another one of guest poster Mike Solof's collections of his unique edits of Beatles songs. 

By now, hopefully you should know the drill, if you're familiar with the previous volumes in this series. So I don't see the need to say much more. Mike has extensive comments in the PDF file that's included in the download zip. I encourage you to check that out.

However, I will say one more thing. I can personally attest to the struggles Mike went through to make the Ringo Starr and George Harrison duet of "It Don't Come Easy" included here, since he kept me abreast of changes as he made them. He probably pulled out most of his hair on that one. Luckily, he gets paid the big bucks for making these edits... Not! So drop him a thanks if you like the album, 'cos it takes a lot of work to make these versions.

This album is one hour long.

01 Save Us [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney)
02 If I Needed Someone [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
03 I'm Stepping Out [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
04 It Don't Come Easy [Mike's Mix] (Ringo Starr & George Harrison)
05 Hello Goodbye [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
06 Devil's Radio [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
07 Baby, You're a Rich Man [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
08 House of Wax [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney)
09 Maxine [Mike's Mix 2] (Traveling Wilburys)
10 Oh Yoko [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
11 Because [Mike's Mix - Paul Left, John Center, George Right] (Beatles)
12 Someplace Else [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
13 You're Mother Should Know [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
14 Only Mama Knows [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney)
15 When We Was Fab [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
16 Run for Your Life [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
17 Slow Down [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
18 New [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney & AI John Lennon)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KEyKZBYE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/AnBwQGkvLQZoDIY/file

I don't know the details of the cover photo of the Beatles, since Mike picked it. But just going off the styles and haircuts and such, I'd guess it's from 1966. In March 2025, I upgraded the cover image with the use of the Krea AI program.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 5: Mike's Mixes (1963-1987) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Guest poster Mike Solof strikes again, with another volume of his unique mixes of Beatles (and solo careers) songs.

This time around, there's a wide range of music, dating from the early Beatles back in 1963 all the way to solo career songs from the 1980s. If you want to know more, check out the PDF file included with the download, as usual for Mike, with explanations about the edits for all the songs.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 That's What It Takes [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
02 Uncle Albert-Admiral Halsey [Mike's Mix] (Paul McCartney)
03 Watching the Wheels [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
04 Beware of Darkness [Mike's Mix 2] [Instrumental] (George Harrison)
05 Michelle [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
06 You Won't See Me [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
07 Magical Mystery Tour [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
08 The Inner Light [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
09 Beautiful Boy [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
10 I Want to Hold Your Hand [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
11 All You Need Is Love [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
12 Wreck of the Hesperus [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
13 Think for Yourself [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
14 With a Little Help from My Friends [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
15 Woman [Mike's Mix] (John Lennon)
16 The Fool on the Hill [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)
17 Across the Universe [Mike's Mix] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/B7RTEqED

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/YShiu3Xy8wi1XrM/file

The cover photo looks to show Paul McCartney and John Lennon in the late 1970s. However, is not real, meaning it's a mash-up of two photos created by someone and posted on the Internet. Originally, there was a photo of Lennon with his wife, Yoko Ono, from the late 1970s. But someone pasted over McCartney from a different photo also taken in that time period. I had some issues with this version, most especially that the lighting on their hair didn't match, so I made some edits in Photoshop to at least make the fake look more plausible.

In March 2025, I improved the image quality with the use of the Krea AI program.

That said, it is known that McCartney and Lennon did hang out together from time to time in the late 1970s, especially whenever McCartney was passing through New York City, where Lennon lived. So this photo could have happened.