John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & Ringo Starr - Solo Ballads, Volume 3 (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's the third and last of three albums collecting ballads from the solo careers of the ex-Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. I've also finished posting a similar series of three albums of rockers from them. All of these were put together by guest poster Mike Solof. But we're not quite done. Because McCartney has been so prolific, he gets an extra album of rockers and another extra album of ballads.

Once again, pretty much everything here comes from studio albums. "Mama You've Been on My Mind" is an exception, since it's a demo version that came out as a bonus track. But Mike made new mixes of four songs. A couple of them were at my request. The thinking is some of these songs were a bit too rocking to fully qualify as ballads. So the mixes strip the songs down some more.

This album is one hour long.

31 [I Want To] Come Home (Paul McCartney)
32 King of Broken Hearts [Mike's Mix 2026] (Ringo Starr)
33 Jealous Guy [Ultimate Mix] (John Lennon)
34 Warm and Beautiful (Paul McCartney)
35 Life Itself (George Harrison)
36 Love Is (Ringo Starr)
37 Happy with You (Paul McCartney)
38 Out the Blue (John Lennon)
39 Sat Singing [Mike's Mix 2026] (George Harrison)
40 Early Days (Paul McCartney)
41 Photograph [Mike's Mix 2026] (Ringo Starr)
42 Only Love Remains (Paul McCartney)
43 Imagine [Mike's Mix 2022] (John Lennon & Julian Lennon)
44 Mama You've Been on My Mind [Demo] (George Harrison)
45 As Far as We Can Go (Ringo Starr)
46 Tragedy (Paul McCartney)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tCJixTR6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/88IHsZeczEOLSre/file

Mike Solof sure does love imagining what the Beatles would have looked like if they all were still alive. Here's another cover image Mike made using an AI program. It's in the same style as the two previous albums in the ballads series.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & Ringo Starr - Solo Rockers, Volume 3 (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's the third and last album compiling the best rockers from the solo careers of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Once again put together by Mike Solof (with some suggestions from me). 

There's one more best ballads album coming. Then, since McCartney has so much solo career, and his heart keeps on ticking, there's another album of extra rockers from him, and another of extra ballads. (On top of that, you'll also notice slightly more songs from him on these other albums too.)

Most of the songs here come from studio albums. There are a couple of exceptions though. "Soily" is a great McCartney rocker from his Wings years. He put out a live version, but no studio version. The version here is an unreleased studio take. Also, "I'm Losing You" and "Cleanup Time" were both included on Lennon's 1980 album "Double Fantasy." However, these are special remixes done by Mike. Oh, and the last song is an unusual one. "Givin' Grease a Ride" originally appeared on a 1974 album by Mike McGear, McCartney's brother. But Mike (Solof) did another edit to remove McGear and focus on McCartney's participation on it. McCartney co-wrote it, and the backing band on the recording was Wings. 

This album is 59 minutes long. 

31 Soily [Take 7] (Paul McCartney)
32 Goodnight Vienna (Ringo Starr)
33 I'm Losing You [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
34 Old Siam, Sir (Paul McCartney)
35 Any Road (George Harrison)
36 Cleanup Time [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
37 Spin It On (Paul McCartney)
38 It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr)
39 Sue Me, Sue You Blues (George Harrison)
40 House of Wax (Paul McCartney)
41 Whatever Gets You thru the Night (John Lennon)
42 Any Road (George Harrison)
43 Home to Us (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)
44 Drowning in the Sea of Love (Ringo Starr)
45 Givin' Grease a Ride [Wings Only Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Mike McGear with Paul McCartney and Wings) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nNBttgVC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/d5Oeosromzuc9dy/file

The cover is another imagines Beatles reunion image that Mike asked an AI program to make. I pointed out to him that it was odd if the crowd was behind the Beatles, but Mike pointed out it could have been a stage in the center of the crowd. 

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & Ringo Starr - Solo Ballads, Volume 2 (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here is the second out of three albums where guest poster Mike Solof gathered together ballads from the solo careers of the Beatles. 

Since this is a collection of released songs, I don't have much to say. You can find more sourcing details in the mp3 tags. Also, Mike has included a list of the source albums in his PDF file added to the download zip. 

All of the songs are the official studio album versions, with the exception of "Run of the Mill," which is an unreleased demo version. However, when it comes to putting a ballads album like this Mike noticed a lot of the Beatles solo career songs tended to be more of the rocking variety. So, for five of the songs here, Mike made mixes to make these, well, more ballad-esque. Those are the ones with "[Mike's Mix 2026]" in their titles.

This album is 48 minutes long.

15 Somedays (Paul McCartney)
16 Give Me Love [Give Me Peace on Earth] (George Harrison)
17 Bless You (John Lennon)
18 Heal the Pain (Paul McCartney & George Michael)
19 Grow Old with Me [Mike's Mix 2026] (Ringo Starr)
20 Run of the Mill [Demo] (George Harrison)
21 Tomorrow (Paul McCartney)
22 Beautiful Boy [Darling Boy] (John Lennon)
23 Only You [Mike's Mix 2026] (Ringo Starr)
24 Footprints (Paul McCartney)
25 Woman [Mike's Mix 2023] (John Lennon)
26 Golden Blunders (Ringo Starr)
27 Days We Left Behind (Paul McCartney)
28 Grow Old with Me [Mike's Mix 2023] (John Lennon)
29 Just for Today [Mike's Mix] (George Harrison)
30 Jenny Wren (Paul McCartney)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1CCu6UDj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/9EfenBAkeihKu2n/file

The cover is more AI art Mike found on the Internet. He likes those more than I do. All the ones in this ballads series have the same style.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & Ringo Starr - Solo Rockers, Volume 2 (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here is the second out of three albums where guest poster Mike Solof gathered together rockers from the solo careers of the Beatles. I've already explained pretty much everything you need to know in the write-up to "Volume 1," so I'll keep this write-up short.

All the songs here have been officially released, except for "Dispute and Violence." This was a collaboration between George Harrison and Ravi Shankar that was performed during Harrison's 1974 concert tour. 

This album is an hour and one minute long. 

Note that, for this album and the others in this series and the ballads series, Mike wanted the track numbering to continue from album to album. That way, you can put them in one folder and listen to them as a single album if you want. 

15 So Glad to See You Here (Paul McCartney)
16 What You Got (John Lennon)
17 Wake Up My Love (George Harrison)
18 One (Ringo Starr)
19 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (Paul McCartney)
20 Devil's Radio (George Harrison)
21 Instant Karma [We All Shine On] (John Lennon)
22 Have You Seen My Baby (Ringo Starr)
23 Girls School (Paul McCartney)
24 Tight A$ (John Lennon)
25 Cloud 9 (George Harrison)
26 Oh My My (Ringo Starr)
27 Monkberry Moon Delight (Paul McCartney)
28 I Don't Wanna Face It [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
29 Dispute and Violence (George Harrison & Ravi Shankar)
30 Only Mama Knows (Paul McCartney)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/jjye47MU

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/L7Adyk612Rd8gDn/file

The cover image is another one Mike made using AI, imagining Beatles reunions that never happened. In my opinion, this one has a late 1970s vibe.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & Ringo Starr - Solo Ballads, Volume 1 (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Yesterday, I posted "Solo Rockers, Volume 1," featuring rocking songs from the solo careers of the four Beatles. It was created by guest poster Mike Solof. This is the exact same concept, also done by Mike, but with ballads. There are different definitions of ballads, but in this case we're talking about love songs usually done in a more mellow mode than the rockers.

For the rockers, Mike's selection of songs was pretty straightforward. But when it came to picking ballads from the Beatles' solo careers, it was harder going. He found enough for three volumes, the same as for the rockers. But in some cases, he chose to make some new "Mike's Mix" edits of songs that toned down or removed drums and some other elements to help the songs fit into the ballad mode. His edit of "Blow Away" by George Harrison on this volume is a good example. The original, which was a hit in 1979, is pretty close to a rocker. But Mike's edit transforms it pretty dramatically, and hopefully allows you to appreciate the song in a new way. 

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 Bluebird (Paul McCartney)
02 Never without You [Mike's Mix 2026] (Ringo Starr)
03 Here Comes the Moon [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
04 Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
05 So Bad (Lindsay Pagano & Paul McCartney)
06 I'm Yours (Ringo Starr)
07 Blow Away [Mike's Mix 2026] (George Harrison)
08 Heaven on a Sunday (Paul McCartney)
09 Old Dirt Road [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
10 Little Willow (Paul McCartney)
11 I'll Still Love You (Ringo Starr)
12 Dark Sweet Lady (George Harrison)
13 Love [Take 31] (John Lennon)
14 Baby's Request (Paul McCartney)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Hi6PcHRM

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/opD0riXacqTFSaL/file

Mike chose some more AI artwork that he found on the Internet for the cover.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison & Ringo Starr - Solo Rockers, Volume 1 (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

In the 1970s, the Beatles remained extremely popular but there was no new Beatles music to sell, so the record companies repackaged their music in different ways. For instance, in 1976, an album called "Rock n' Roll Music" was released, containing all rocking Beatles songs. And in 1977, another one came out called "Love Songs." A similar one came out in most countries but the U.S. in 1980 called "The Beatles Ballads." Guest poster Mike Solof was inspired by these albums to create similar albums, but for the Beatles' solo careers. He's taken roughly equal numbers of songs by the four ex-Beatles and mixed them together. This was enough for three albums of rockers and another three albums of ballads. 

But wait, there's more! Paul McCartney has been prolific, and stubbornly refuses to die. (Ha ha) As a result, Mike also made an extra album each just for more rockers and ballads from him. So here's the first of eight albums. We'll start with some rockers.

Note there's nothing really new here. These are just already released songs, but hopefully repackaged in an interesting way. Just like those 1970s repackaged Beatles albums. By the way, interesting fact: "Rock n' Roll Music" went all the way to Number Two on the U.S. album chart in 1976, and was only kept out of the top spot by the Paul McCartney and Wings album "Wings at the Speed of Sound." 

As usual with Mike's posts, please check out the PDF file he's included with the download zip. 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Save Us (Paul McCartney)
02 Rock and Roll People (John Lennon)
03 Horse to the Water (George Harrison)
04 You're Sixteen [You're Beautiful and You're Mine] (Ringo Starr)
05 The Mess [Reworked] (Paul McCartney)
06 Cleanup Time (John Lennon and Yoko Ono)
07 Cockamamie Business (George Harrison)
08 Lonely Road (Paul McCartney)
09 Snookeroo (Ringo Starr)
10 Cold Turkey (John Lennon)
11 Helen Wheels (Paul McCartney)
12 All Those Years Ago [Paul on Vocals, Ringo on Drums] (George Harrison)
13 After All These Years (Ringo Starr)
14 Big Barn Bed (Paul McCartney)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tuCsvKEk

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/plP5cXglEj9HZci/file

Mike is more of a fan of making new AI pictures than I am. In 1969, the Beatles played a short concert on top of Abbey Road studios in London. For this one, he asked an AI program to make an image of an imaginary Beatles reunion on that rooftop many decades later. Mike was particularly pleased at how the AI creatively added two big beer bottles at their feet. 

Various Artists - The Night that Changed America- A Grammy Salute to the Beatles, Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1-27-2014

I've posted a bunch of tribute concerts to musical greats, but I've missed this one until now. On February 9, 1964, the Beatles performed on the "Ed Sullivan" TV show in the U.S. This concert was meant to honor the 50th anniversary of that performance. It was filmed on January 27, 2014, but was broadcast nationally on February 9, 2014, which was 50 years to the exact day. The main highlight was that the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, performed separately and together. But many other big names also played cover versions of their favorite Beatles songs.

That 1964 episode of the "Ed Sullivan Show" was the highest rated T.V. program in the history of the U.S. up until that point. It installed a massive wave of Beatlemania in the U.S. (The wave had already hit Britain and other countries in 1963.) As I've read about the history of rock and roll, I've noticed many later stars credited this T.V. show for inspiring them to become musicians. That's a list that includes Billy Joel, Tom Petty, John Fogerty, Kenny Loggins, Bruce Springsteen, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Chrissie Hynde, and many, many more. Here's a very good article that lists many music stars and their recollections about that show:

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-ed-sullivan-rock-stars-remember/

Getting this album ready to post was a little difficult, because the applause at the ends of songs was often cut off for commercial breaks. Also, there were some non-musical sections I cut out. For instance, there were video montages of the lives of each of the four Beatles. I did a lot of work to get the songs to transition from one to another naturally, usually by adding in more applause. Comedian Eric Idle had a lot of funny things to say, but those were all lead-ups to the video montages, so that got cut as well. However, you'll note a lot of other famous non-musicians introduced some of the musical acts.

Surprisingly, not only has this concert never been officially released in any audio format, it hasn't been released on video either (although some "grey market" versions exist). The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 23 minutes long. 

01 talk (LL Cool J)
02 All My Loving (Maroon 5)
03 talk (LL Cool J)
04 Ticket to Ride (Maroon 5)
05 talk (Stevie Wonder)
06 We Can Work It Out (Stevie Wonder)
07 talk (Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne & Dhani Harrison)
08 Something (Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne & Dhani Harrison)
09 talk (Kate Beckinsale)
10 In My Life (Ed Sheeran)
11 Don't Let Me Down (John Mayer & Keith Urban)
12 Yesterday (Katy Perry)
13 talk (LL Cool J)
14 Revolution (Imagine Dragons)
15 talk (Dave Grohl)
16 Hey Bulldog (Dave Grohl & Jeff Lynne)
17 talk (Kate Beckinsale)
18 The Fool on the Hill (Eurythmics)
19 talk (Alicia Keys & John Legend)
20 Let It Be (Alicia Keys & John Legend)
21 talk (Anna Kendrick)
22 Here Comes the Sun (Pharrell Williams & Brad Paisley)
23 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Gary Clark Jr., Joe Walsh & Dave Grohl)
24 talk (Jeff Bridges)
25 Matchbox (Ringo Starr)
26 talk (Ringo Starr)
27 Boys (Ringo Starr)
28 Yellow Submarine (Ringo Starr)
29 talk (Sean Penn)
30 Birthday (Paul McCartney)
31 talk (Paul McCartney)
32 Get Back (Paul McCartney)
33 talk (Paul McCartney)
34 I Saw Her Standing There (Paul McCartney)
35 talk (Paul McCartney)
36 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Paul McCartney)
37 With a Little Help from My Friends (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)
38 talk (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)
39 Hey Jude (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/m1LQbH9L

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/IxtME1FVAp1xf6w/file

The cover image of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr is from this exact concert.

Various Artists - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Waldorf Astoria, New York City, 1-20-1988

Yesterday (January 28, 2026), Bruce Springsteen dropped a new song about the current problems with ICE in Minneapolis, called "Streets of Minneapolis." It's good to see a protest song that addresses current issues, since there haven't been many of those in recent years. (He wrote, recorded, and released it in four days!) Here's a link, if you haven't heard it already:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWKSoxG1K7w 

Anyway, I wanted to post something from Springsteen after hearing that inspiring song. However, some recent computer problems I've been having have flared up again, which means I currently can't use Photoshop, which in turn means I can't make new album covers until that's fixed. So I looked around to see if I had some Springsteen-related album ready to go, cover and all. Luckily, I did. (I have soooo many albums I could post tomorrow, if only I had the time to finish them off. Sigh!) This one doesn't have a ton of Springsteen content, but it's a really interesting (thought short) concert. So, in a way, my current computer issues have an upside in that they're getting me to finally post this.

Now, finally, to the music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame started in the early 1980s. In 1986, they had their first induction ceremony, complete with a short concert featuring some of the inductees and other famous musicians. This has become a yearly tradition. Some concerts have been a lot more memorable than others. In my opinion, the ones from 1988 and 1989 were the most interesting, with the biggest star power. I haven't collected the others (though I very may well do so with some of them in the future), but I've made albums of those two. This is the 1988 one.

1988 was a really big year for the Hall of Fame, because their rule is that artists are only eligible for induction 25 years after their first record (be it a single or album). And when they were making their decisions in 1987 for this ceremony, that meant they were looking at the artists who put out their first records in 1962. It just so happens that was the first year of recordings for the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Beach Boys! Those are three of the biggest and most influential musical acts of all time. The Drifters and the Supremes were inducted that year as well, plus some non-performers, like Berry Gordy.

The induction ceremony had a lot of intrigue and drama in it. The Beatles are arguably the biggest (and best, IMHO!) musical act ever, so they were the main focus here, even overshadowing Dylan and the other very big names. Since John Lennon was assassinated in 1980, he was represented by his wife Yoko Ono, and his sons Julian Lennon and Sean Lennon, and each of them gave short speeches. Ex-Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr were there, and also gave speeches. 

However, the big no-show was Paul McCartney. He was in the middle of a lawsuit still connected to the break-up of the band back in 1970, so he felt he couldn't attend due to that. He put out a statement: "I was keen to go to and pick up my award, but after 20 years the Beatles still have some business differences which I had hoped would have been settled by now. Unfortunately, they haven't been [settled], so I would feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with [Harrison and Starr] at a fake reunion." 

It turns out the lawsuit, which involved the division of profits from record sales, was settled a year later. So that was unfortunate timing as far as this concert goes. But at least that opened the door to the "Anthology" collaboration between the ex-Beatles a few years later.

Normally, when I post albums like this, I skip long speeches and focus on the music. But I'm making an exception here. I didn't include all the induction speeches, but I thought the ones relating to the induction of the Beatles and Dylan were important enough to include. They're all together at the beginning of this album, and they are about 19 minutes long in total. If you don't want to hear them, or just hear them once or twice, there's still about 40 minutes of music after that.

A big element of the drama involved Mike Love, a member of the Beach Boys. Love is one of the most notorious assholes in rock and roll, something I've discussed in other posts. But he really outdid himself this time. He appeared to be drunk, and used his induction speech to insult various famous musicians in the audience. This led to a funny quip from Dylan during his acceptance speech: when he listed people he wanted to thank, he thanked Love for not mentioning him in his speech!

Anyway, there are lots of interesting stories about what happened during this event. But instead of trying to summarize them all here, I'll just point out to an article from Rolling Stone Magazine that does a good job:

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 

I've also posted a text file in the download zip that has the text to that article.

Regarding the music here, everything was professionally recorded, so the sound quality is excellent. However, I found the lead vocals were rather low in most of the songs, so I boosted that up with the help of the MVSEP program. Also, there was a problem in the performance of "Stop in the Name of Love." Mary Wilson of the Supremes was asked to sing the song (since Diana Ross was another prominent no show). But it was clear for this songs, as well as all the other songs, that there hadn't been any practice beforehand, so everyone was just winging it. For the first chorus at the start of the song, Wilson sang the song in one key, while the band (or at least most of it) played in another key. That sounds pretty painful to my ears. So I erased that, and patched in a chorus from later in the song. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

Oh, also, during all the talking between songs, where band leader Paul Shaffer was trying to direct things, one or more people on stage kept playing guitar so loudly that it nearly drowned out what anyone was saying. So for most of those tracks, I used MVSEP to lower the volume of the guitar enough to make the talking more audible.  

The songs "I Saw Her Standing There" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" were officially released on the compilation album "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Volume 1: 1986-1991." Everything else here remains unreleased.

By the way, when it comes to the song list below, I only listed the name of the main lead singers. For all the songs, there was one of the most amazing gatherings of musical talent ever seen on one stage together. But it's next to impossible to figure out who was on stage doing what, other than the lead vocals. So that's why I kept the credits in the titles relatively simple. 

However, just as one example, it was Jeff Beck who started playing the "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" riff that led to that song being played, right when it seemed everyone was leaving the stage. Some of the others who were on stage at least part of the time but don't get mentioned in the song titles include: Neil Young, Paul Simon, Johnny Moore, Joe Blunt, Clyde Brown, Tom Fogerty, Les Paul, Arlo Guthrie, Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Little Richard, Peter Wolf,  Dave Edmunds, Jeff Lynne, Julian Lennon, Sean Lennon, Little Steven, and Clarence Clemons.  

This album is an hour and six minutes long. 

01 talk (Mick Jagger)
02 talk (Ringo Starr)
03 talk (George Harrison)
04 talk (Yoko Ono)
05 talk (Julian Lennon)
06 talk (Sean Lennon)
07 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
08 talk (Bob Dylan)
09 Twist and Shout (Johnny Moore)
10 All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan with George Harrison)
11 talk (Paul Shaffer)
12 I Saw Her Standing There (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
13 talk (Paul Shaffer)
14 Stand by Me (Ben E. King & Julian Lennon)
15 talk (Paul Shaffer)
16 Stop in the Name of Love [Edit] (Mary Wilson)
17 talk (Paul Shaffer)
18 Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Hound Dog - Honey Hush (Elton John)
19 talk (Paul Shaffer)
20 Barbara Ann (Beach Boys)
21 talk (Paul Shaffer & John Fogerty)
22 Born on the Bayou (John Fogerty with Bruce Springsteen)
23 talk (Paul Shaffer & John Fogerty)
24 Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan with Bruce Springsteen)
25 talk (Paul Shaffer)
26 [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction (Mick Jagger with Bruce Springsteen)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SpmdHRju

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/yv9ChPKPJqpFcYT/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From right to left: Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and Mick Jagger.

Ringo Starr & Friends - Ringo at the Ryman, Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN, 1-14-2025

Just a few days ago, a commenter (Brett Allen) suggested that I post the "Ringo at the Ryman" concert, which was broadcast on TV in early 2025. I had never even heard of this, but I went to check it out. I discovered this was a really excellent suggestion, so here it is already. Thanks again to Brett for making that suggestion.

In January 2025, Ringo Starr released a studio album called "Look Up." It was the first album since his very first solo album in 1970 that had a overt country sound to it. For his supporting musicians, he picked some of my favorite currently performing musical acts, like Larkin Poe, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and Alison Krauss. They appeared for this concert (minus Alison Krauss), plus some other very well chosen guests, like Jack White, Sheryl Crow, and Rodney Crowell. I'm especially gratified to see the prominent role Larkin Poe had. I've been promoting their music for a long time now. It's nice to see them gradually breaking into the major leagues, despite the lack of obvious hit singles or hit albums, but just from building up a following through touring and being really talented.

Oddly, though, two famous guests only appeared on stage to help with the singalongs on the last two songs: Emmylou Harris and Brenda Lee.

Out of the four Beatles, Starr was the one most influenced by country music. This concert was meant to promote his latest studio album, for sure. But it also showed the country influence in his earlier works, including many country-influenced country songs. Starr sang and/or played drums on some of the songs. But for a majority of the songs, he let the guest stars sing lead vocals. About half of the time, he wasn't even on stage.

I was able to find a video file of this concert. Then I converted it into audio format and broke it into mp3s. So I don't think this has been shared as an audio bootleg until now. The music is all unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long.

01 Matchbox (Ringo Starr with Jack White)
02 talk (Ringo Starr)
03 It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr with Sheryl Crow, Mickey Guyton & Molly Tuttle)
04 talk (Ringo Starr)
05 Time on My Hands (Ringo Starr)
06 talk (Molly Tuttle)
07 Octopus's Garden (Molly Tuttle)
08 talk (Jack White)
09 Don't Pass Me By (Jack White)
10 talk (Ringo Starr)
11 Thankful (Ringo Starr with Larkin Poe)
12 Honey Don't (Billy Strings)
13 talk (War & Treaty)
14 Without Her (War & Treaty)
15 talk (Sheryl Crow)
16 I Don't Want to Spoil the Party (Sheryl Crow with Molly Tuttle)
17 talk (emcee & Sheryl Crow)
18 Boys (Ringo Starr with Molly Tuttle, Sheryl Crow & Larkin Poe)
19 Have You Seen My Baby (Jamey Johnson)
20 talk (Mickey Guyton)
21 You Don't Know Me at All (Mickey Guyton)
22 talk (emcee)
23 Act Naturally (Rodney Crowell & Sarah Jarosz)
24 talk (Larkin Poe)
25 I Wanna Be Your Man (Larkin Poe)
26 talk (emcee)
27 What Goes On (Billy Strings & Molly Tuttle)
28 talk (Ringo Starr)
29 Look Up (Ringo Starr with Molly Tuttle)
30 Photograph (Ringo Starr with Billy Strings)
31 talk (emcee)
32 Yellow Submarine (Ringo Starr & Everyone)
33 With a Little Help from My Friends (Ringo Starr & Everyone)
34 talk (Ringo Starr)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7TRMtQ7z

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xe1onLDARTa363m/file

The cover photo is from the encore at the end of this exact concert. I can recognize some of the people, but not all of them. From left to right: unknown, Molly Tuttle, unknown, Jack White, Ringo Starr, Rodney Crowell, Brenda Lee (in front of Crowell), Rebecca Lovell and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe, Emmylou Harris, Mickey Guyton, unknown, and Billy Strings. There were a few more people standing on each side that got cropped out, or otherwise everyone would have appeared considerably smaller.

Note also that I made some edits in Photoshop to the crowd at the bottom of the picture. In the original, a couple of people were holding their cell phones up high to take pictures, and I found that distracting. So I pasted in heads of more random people (taken from parts of the image cropped on either side) to cover up the cell phones.

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 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.

Ringo Starr - PBS Soundstage, Genesee Theatre, Waukegan, IL, 6-24-2005... and More (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's a Mike Solof guest post that puts the spotlight on Ringo Starr. This album got started when I was discussing Starr's solo concerts, and Mike expressed how much he enjoyed the two solo tours when Starr had the Roundheads as a backing band. Most of this is based on a 2005 Soundstage concert that got turned into an official video and album. But Mike added a bunch of unreleased songs from a 1998 tour that didn't get played on the 2005 tour. 

The result is kind of the ultimate Ringo Starr solo concert where he's the sole star, as opposed to his many "All Starr Tours" where he's shared the spotlight with other stars.

As usual with Mike Solof posts, see the included PDF file for more details, as well as photos.

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long.

01 With a Little Help from My Friends - It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
02 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
03 Octopus's Garden (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
04 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
05 Choose Love (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
06 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
07 I Wanna Be Your Man (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
08 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
09 Don't Pass Me By (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
10 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
11 I'm the Greatest (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
12 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
13 Give Me Back the Beat (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
14 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
15 Memphis in Your Mind (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
16 Photograph (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
17 Never without You (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
18 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
19 Back Off Boogaloo (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
20 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
21 Boys (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
22 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
23 Yellow Submarine (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
24 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
25 La De Da (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
26 I Was Walkin' (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
27 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
28 Love Me Do (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
29 King of Broken Hearts (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
30 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
31 What in the World (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
32 talk (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
33 Act Naturally (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
34 With a Little Help from My Friends (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yWZHZaat

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/lAnARpYEyHj5ec9/file

The cover photo is from an appearance on the "Good Morning America" TV show in 2005.

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 - Prince's Trust Rock Gala, Wembley Arena, London, Britain, 6-5-1987

I just posted the Prince's Trust concert from 1986. This is the 1987 concert. It's the same basic idea, but many of the songs and performers are different. Both are very worthwhile listens.

Like the 1986 concert, this one started with some newer musical acts. With the benefit of hindsight, some were good choices, and others... not so much (cough cough, Curiosity Killed the Cat and Go West, cough cough). But if you don't like all the artists, that's okay, because none of the first few acts lasted more than a single song.

There were fewer big name artists in this concert than the 1986 one. Plus, the entire concert was about half an hour shorter. (If, in fact, this is the whole thing - I'm not entirely sure.) But on the other hand, the finale was probably even more impressive. I'll get to that in a minute.

First though, I want to point out that, like the 1986 concert, for many of the songs, there was a backing band made up of many stars. I don't know which songs exactly, because I can't find the full video of this concert on YouTube. But, for instance, when Ben E. King sang his song, his backing band included Phil Collins on drums, Midge Ure on rhythm guitar, and Eric Clapton on lead guitar.

But the big deal was the finale. In the 1986, the biggest star was ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. But the 1987 concert outdid that by having two ex-Beatles performing together: George Harrison and Ringo Starr! Harrison's appearance was a particularly big deal because he hadn't performed in concert since his 1974 tour (other than a couple of brief appearances in the finales of other artist's concerts). 

I randomly stumbled across a description of the concert's finale in a 2015 article in Guitar World Magazine. Here it is:

"On June 5, 1987, three of the five original musicians who appeared on the classic Beatles 'White Album' track 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' reunited to perform the song live at the Prince's Trust Rock Gala in London's Wembley Arena. George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton were joined in an all-star U.K. band, including Elton John, Phil Collins, Jeff Lynne, Ray Cooper, and... well, if you're wondering who that understandably happy bassist is, it's Mark King from Level 42. Harrison, Starr, and Clapton last performed the song live 16 years earlier at the Concert for Bangladesh in New York City. What most interesting about this performance is the fact that A., the normally Strat-happy Clapton is playing a beautiful Gibson Les Paul, just as he did on the original 1968 recording, and B., the also-Strat-happy Harrison joins Clapton in the extended guitar solo at the end of the song. The two guitarists trade solos and feed off each other's energy, and their intertwining lines are often pretty damn cool."

In addition to that, someone, I'm guessing Clapton, played a guitar solo for "With a Little Help from My Friends," a song that normally lacked any solo. It's a shame that Jeff Lynne apparently didn't sing any of his Electric Light Orchestra hits. But he sang backing vocals on all three of the Beatles songs at the end. Given that Lynne is a huge Beatles fan, this must have been the closest he ever got to a fantasy of being a part of the Beatles, getting to sing with Harrison and Starr, with Clapton on guitar for good measure!

This album is an hour and 45 minutes long.

01 Running in the Family (Level 42 with Eric Clapton)
02 If I Was (Midge Ure)
03 Misfit (Curiosity Killed the Cat)
04 Don't Look Down (Go West)
05 Invisible (Alison Moyet)
06 Through the Barricades (Spandau Ballet)
07 [Something Inside] So Strong (Labi Siffre)
08 Run to You (Bryan Adams)
09 Hearts on Fire (Bryan Adams)
10 Somebody (Bryan Adams)
11 talk (Dave Edmunds & Bryan Adams)
12 The Wanderer (Dave Edmunds & Bryan Adams)
13 talk (Eric Clapton)
14 Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)
15 Behind the Mask (Eric Clapton)
16 Stand by Me (Ben E. King)
17 talk (Phil Collins)
18 Reach Out, I'll Be There - I Can't Help Myself - Same Old Song (Phil Collins & Paul Young)
19 You've Lost That Loving Feeling (Phil Collins & Paul Young)
20 talk (Elton John)
21 Your Song (Elton John)
22 Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (Elton John)
23 talk (George Harrison & Ringo Starr)
24 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (George Harrison & Eric Clapton with Ringo Starr & Jeff Lynne)
25 Here Comes the Sun (George Harrison with Ringo Starr & Jeff Lynne)
26 With a Little Help from My Friends (Ringo Starr with George Harrison, Eric Clapton & Jeff Lynne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yC99REnb

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/rwyDnqLhR52PzFZ/file

I searched the Internet pretty thoroughly for a color version of the group photo from this concert. All I could find was a black and white version. I tinted it blue. 

In 2026, I colorized the photo, with the use of the Ask Gemini program. Damn, AI capabilities are getting scary good. It improved the image quality as well. 

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.