After a certain amount of shuffling, a strictly American Rarities appeared in early 1980. Rather than replicating the British one exactly, Capitol went all out with a unique cover, tons of uncommon photos, fairly accurate liner notes, and even a clean reproduction of the so-called butcher photo. A big deal was also made of the return of the “rainbow” label. All this nicely frames the music within, which combines tracks and takes never before available on a Capitol LP, along with more subtle mix variations.
Side one begins with the elusive “Love Me Do” with Ringo on drums—so elusive, in fact, that the recording had to be taken from an old record. “Misery”, “There’s A Place” and “Sie Liebt Dich” made their first Capitol appearances, and in stereo to boot. “And I Love Her” features two extra repeats of the riff at the end from a German mix. “Help!” appears as the British mono single with a faster lead vocal. “I’m Only Sleeping” comes from the British mono Revolver with alternate guitar effects. “I Am The Walrus” combines two unique versions, incorporating extra beats after “I’m crying” from the US single and two extra intro riffs from the British stereo version.
“Penny Lane” was first heard as a mono DJ copy on your AM radio with a trumpet tag at the end; this version is in stereo with those extra notes tacked on. “Helter Skelter” and “Don’t Pass Me By” are markedly different mixes from the mono White Album; “Helter Skelter” also does not fade back in here. The B-sides “The Inner Light” and “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)” finally surfaced on LP, as does the original version of “Across The Universe” with vocals by two Apple Scruffs and bird sound effects. To round it all off, “Sgt. Pepper Inner Groove” is the two seconds of gibberish that was looped on the first British copies of that LP to be heard ad nauseam.
All in all Rarities is a fairly listenable set, with tracks that many casual fans hadn’t heard before. Of course, it sold well, and also fueled the fires of collectors looking for anything and everything from the vaults. While many of the songs would be included in the standard CD canon, it’s doubtful that all of these alternate mixes will ever be available again officially.
The Beatles Rarities (1980)—3½
Current CD equivalent: none
I was lucky enough to win this LP from yet another radio station contest. ( I even won three fresh cheesecakes. Those were the days.). I thought that this was a lot of fun. Random thoughts:
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to figure out why George Martin thought that Ringo was inadequate as a drummer. The drumming on the single isn’t all that different, or better, on the album. As the “Anthology 1” take proved, he was certainly miles ahead of Pete Best.
The first big find for me was “There’s A Place”, long lost since the days of the Beatles’ cartoon. This song can still move me sixty years later.
I wouldn’t have minded if the extra bars on this version of "And I Love Her" had become standard.
You can tell the difference between the single and album versions of “Help!” by the ways John sings the phrase “changed my mind”.
Of course, it was cool to have a stereo version of “I Am the Walrus”, even if only two minutes are in true stereo. Through headphones the transition, occurring when the radio static comes in, is jarring. We’d have to wait a long time for a better mix.
I heard this version (in mono) of “Penny Lane” at least once of the radio. I guess some DJ’s hung on to their old promo singles.
Another big find is “The Inner Light”. It’s such a beautiful song. I wonder what an arrangement with all Western instruments would sound like. Sy, twelve string acoustic, Hammond organ, flute, oboe and bongos. No one on YouTube seems to have come up with this idea. Of course, the song would sound even better in stereo.
On the other hand, this version of “Across the Universe” is the WORST to be released. John blamed Paul, but I think the culprit is George Martin. The only occasion when he botched a production. The mix is substandard, the backing vocals are TERRIBLE, and the sound effects were a bad idea. Way too loud. I can understand why they gave it away. I am sure it helped the World Wildlife Fund make a lot of money; otherwise, it’s not worthwhile.
I found the cover odd. Bleak and gray, with a cover photo that looks like it was taken with a cheap Instamatic. A very rare shot of Paul looking dour. I like it. The Beatles themselves strongly disapproved of this release, so it’ll never appear digitally legally. That is too bad for the fans.
This was the first "new" Beatle album I purchased in real time. I only had a scratchy 45 of "You Know My Name" so this was an upgrade. Half of the album is now official, albeit in box sets for the mono versions. And the packaging, though odd, at least was more exciting than the British version.
DeleteMy favorite part of that song is when "Denis O'Bell" is introduced and then starts crooning in a stereotypical lounge lizard voice to scattered applause when the audience recognizes his big hit. Hilarious.
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