On this day, 18th August 1982, the City of Liverpool named four Streets after the Beatles: John Lennon Drive, Paul McCartney Way, George Harrison Close and Ringo Starr Drive. So yes, they became their own long and winding road!
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On 17th April 1971 all four Beatles had solo singles in the UK charts, Paul McCartney with “Another Day” (no. 11), John Lennon “Power To The People” (no. 10), George Harrison “My Sweet Lord” (no. 25) and Ringo Starr “It Don’t Come Easy” (no. 29). The most successful of the four was George Harrison as earlier in the year “My Sweet Lord” sat at the top of the chart and made him the first of the Fab Four to have a solo number one. McCartney just missed out as “Another Day” stopped at number 2. Lennon’s song peaked at number 7 and Ringo’s at number 4. Would all of these have been Beatles songs had they stayed together as a band? Who knows. Incidentally George played on Ringo’s song and Ringo returned the favour by playing on “My Sweet Lord”. Klaus Voormann played on three out of the four tracks, the only one he didn’t appear on was McCartney’s.
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Here comes Under The Covers With Mayhem Chapter 13, featuring the iconic reggae band the Paragons with Roslyn Sweat and their take on the Beatles (Paul McCartney) song “Blackbird”. Their version is titled “Blackbird Singing” and I think it came out in 1974 on the Treasure Isle label. The band formed in Jamaica the 1960s. Many of you might not realise, but Blondie’s huge 1980 hit “The Tide Is High” was originally by the Paragons. Atomic Kitten also took the song into the charts in 2002. My favourite Paragons track is probably “Wear You To The Ball”. John Holt, who went on to massive solo success in the 70s was once the band’s lead vocalist. He also wrote “The Tide Is High”. Reggaefied covers of classic songs are often good, but I believe that this cover of “Blackbird” is stunning. What do you think?
Constant readers know that my ideal cover version has a different slant from the original rather than just a facsimile-style cover. So the generic boy bands are probably never likely to feature, but you never know, right? Feel free to recommend any songs that you think should be included in Under The Covers With Mayhem. I want to stay clear of the mainstream ideally, but off-the-wall covers by major artists might work too 🙂 Finally and at last there is a playlist that collects all the Under The Covers With Mayhem tracks together. Currently fifteen songs and 58 and a half minutes of music. Check it out below.
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David Hepworth is a talented, world class music journalist. He began his career in journalism writing for the NME and Sounds (two of the classic UK music “inkies”). He joined Smash Hits magazine in 1979, and having turned it around financially and made it profitable, became its editor. He was behind the launch of a number of very successful music related magazines including, two of my favourites, Q (1986) and Mojo (1993). He has written for the UK newspaper The Guardian. He was a presenter of the long running BBC music show The Old Grey Whistle Test. He has been on other TV productions too, more of that later. Hepworth has also written some great books about music and the social history associated with it. I have read many of them; ‘Never a Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded’ (2016), ‘Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994’ (2017), ‘A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved Our Lives’ (2019), and ‘Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There: How a Few Skinny Brits with Bad Teeth Rocked America’ (2020)
Now he has a new book, ‘Hope I Get Old Before I Die: Why Rock Stars Never Retire’. This is a tome that describes rock music’s third act. This is the sense that rock and roll never died, as predicted in the fifties and early sixties, but neither did so many of the young people (mostly men) that played a part in rock’s continued longevity. Back in 1965 when a 21 year old Roger Daltrey sang a 20 year old Pete Townshend’s classic line, “I hope I die before I get old” in the Who’s biggest hit single in the 60s, “My Generation” who might have guessed that they would still be performing the song in the 21st century. Daltrey is now 81 and Townshend is 79. Hepworth was one of the anchor’s of the broadcast of Live Aid in 1985. Hepworth’s new book begins at Live Aid with the sight of Paul McCartney closing the British leg of the show. Macca was seen as the grand old man of rock. Back then he was just 43. Now, 25 years into the 21st century we have many rock stars that are way beyond pensionable age. This is definitely not something most of us imagined back in the 60s and 70s. As a result many rock stars have become a part of the establishment with many receiving knighthoods and other royal honours.
I have loved all the books by David Hepworth that I have read so far, especially this new one. I love his take on the world of music and his immense depth of knowledge of the subject. Many times I have pondered on the fact that rock stars are living to ripe old ages and still performing and producing new music. In some cases this music is the finest of their long careers. Will today’s younger rock stars last as long as the rock ‘n’ roll pension brigade? I suspect that they will and I think Mr. Hepworth believes the same. In fact he talks of the possibility of technology giving rock stars a kind of immortality. Take a look at Abba Voyage for example. If you love great music, great music writing and if you have ever pondered about how rock stars are getting so old you will love this book! Click on Diversion Books to find a place to buy it for yourself!
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As you might have guessed from the title of this post the theme for this years Mayhem’s 12 Days Of Christmas is, once again, the classic Christmas song “The Twelve Days Of Christmas”. What did the protagonists beau give on the first day of Christmas? It was of course a Partridge in a Pear Tree. So with a rather tenuous link, todays song is by David Cassidy and it is “The Puppy Song”. Cassidy had played Keith Partridge in US sitcom ‘The Partridge Family’ (I told you the link was tenuous). “The Puppy Song” was released as a double A side with “Daydreamer” in 1973 when it went to the top of the UK charts. This was possibly peak Cassidymania period.
Harry Nilsson wrote and recorded the song for his 1969 album ‘Harry’. The song came about after Paul McCartney asked Nilsson to write a song for Mary Hopkin in 1968 after she became one of the first signings to the Beatles Apple label. Her version featured on her 1969 album ‘Post Card’. I was never a fan of David Cassidy, but I think some of his stuff has aged well, particularly this track! There will be a playlist of all twelve songs when we get to the final one? What do you think tomorrows song will be?
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Hands up anyone who thinks that the Beatles are shite? I am kicking off this series with a piece on a crappy little beat combo from Liverpool. They are the first of rock music’s untouchable deities to be laid out on Buffy’s Butcher’s block will be the Beatles. So, let me kick off first with that shitty bad pun of a name, the Beatles? Seriously? It might have been funny for five minutes in 1962, but now it is just mega dull. But I suppose that is a reflection on the band too, maybe they did briefly show talent in the early days. Their backing on Tony Sheridan’s version of “My Bonnie” was almost as good as anything that Right Said Fred has released. As for the music, well it was mostly covers in the early days. The first two albums were 43% cover versions and 57% rip-offs from people like Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly. How did they have the arrogance and audacity to turn down that classic pop song “How Do You Do It?” A song that went on to be a huge smash for a more talented Liverpool band, Gerry and the Pacemakers. In fact, the first three singles by Gerry and the Pacemakers all went to number one in the UK. The Beatles failed to do that with “Love Me Do” limping to a lowly number 17 and “Please, Please Me” stuttering out at number 2. Their early albums were recorded incredibly quickly and that shows in how interminably bland the music is. In a similar way, their later albums took months to record and that shows too, mostly in the overproduced, overrated drivel they put out. All they have left us is a series of mediocre pop songs and plenty of album filler. If I must provide reluctant praise, it would be to long-suffering producer George Martin. He knew that he couldn’t polish a Beatles-shaped turd, but he was able to roll that turd in glitter occasionally.
Even Ringo, the second-choice drummer, (let’s face it Pete Best was far better), didn’t play on the “Love Me Do” single. John Lennon is alleged to have said that Ringo “wasn’t the best drummer in the world, in fact he wasn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles”. Apparently, Lennon didn’t actually say that, according to a number of sources, but the statement stands true, doesn’t it? The Beatles a.k.a the Floptops were just in the right place at the right time, any beat band of the early sixties could have been picked up and groomed for success like they were. The Merseys or Gerry and the Pacemakers would have been moderately better, although still somewhat shit. The overuse of “yeah, yeah, yeah” in their lyrics made it abundantly clear that they couldn’t write a decent tune to save their lives. They were basically a manufactured boy band put together by Brian Epstein. He got rid of the original drummer and made them change their appearance, dressing them in pretty little suits and promoting the Beatles’ haircut. In that sense, they were the Westlife of their day, nothing more. Like the boys from Sligo they sold millions of records based on their pretty boy looks, well excluding Ringo, he was hardly pretty was he? To be fair to Lennon in particular, he was right when he said that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. Extensive research (on Google) suggests that JC was no more than 5 feet 5 inches tall (other heights are available) while the shortest Beatle was Ringo at five feet 8 inches.
Some people say that a measure of success is all their number one records, 17 UK number one singles, and 11 UK number one albums (plus another 4 if you count compilations and archive issues) for example. But Westlife have had 14 UK number one singles and 9 UK number one albums, 11 if you count compilations. So, on that basis, I should add that I believe Westlife are absolute and utter shite, the Beatles are a few number ones better than Westlife. But simply put both acts are steaming piles of number twos! George Harrison convincing the boys to let him use a sitar on some songs probably explains why he was not given the opportunity to write more Beatles songs. The sitar in rock music? What a waste of overindulged, egotistical effort. Then there is the infamous “concept” album, ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, if I linked the last three bowel evacuations I did it would be more of a concept and frankly would probably sound better. As for ‘Abbey Road’, well firstly what a lazy fucking title that is, and secondly it was filled with half-finished sketches of songs and a huge plagiarism of Chuck Berry by John Lennon in “Come Together”. And what about the so-called “White Album”? A double album with 30 tracks, ridiculously overlong, and where the hell was the quality control on track selection. “Glass Onion”, “Piggies” and “Don’t Pass Me By” should have been expunged from tape never to be heard again. The sonic dirge/ soundscape that is “Revolution 9” is easily the best track the Beatles ever recorded, largely because it doesn’t feature any of them and is just a bunch of insane randomly recorded sounds and words.
If you must listen to the Beatles, why not go with a facsimile from the 90s, at least you would be listening to something slightly more modern, albeit an even more shitty band than the Beatles, ladies, and gentlemen I give you Oasis. Let me finish by saying that if you have bothered to read this far you either agree with me or your head is about to explode with steam-fuelled anger and you are already typing me a message from “Angry of the Shires” telling me I am wrong. Well, you’re too late, all that remains of the Beatles is their blood on my butcher’s block. But they have provided several tough and bordering on rancid steaks and cutlets for local butcher’s shops!
I have many more rock deities on my list, and I would love to hear who you would like me to take apart next! In the meantime please remember that “all you need is love” Buffy Frobisher Smythe Esquire xxx
Written by Buffy Frobisher Smythe.
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Many of you, I am sure, are aware that Paul McCartney recently played a gig at the iconic Liverpool venue the Cavern. The original Cavern is seen by many as were the Beatles were born. The Fabs played nearly 300 shows there. Click here to read the write-up in the Guardian. Whilst this show in itself is historical with Macca playing to a small crowd in his home city of Liverpool, (he also played the same venue in 1999) this is not the Cavern of old.
In 1973 the original Cavern Club was subject to a compulsory purchase order by British Rail. The warehouses that sat atop the club were demolished and the rubble was used to fill the famous cellar club. But it sounds like Sir Paul played a stunning set of nearly thirty songs, including 13 Beatles tracks, 6 from the Wings catalogue and many more. Were you there? If you were I would love to interview you for this blog.
The full set list, preceded by a band jam, was;
All photos were sourced via Google. If they are your pictures I would be happy to credit you on the post, or remove them.
Former mop top and wings man Sir Paul McCartney was given a special gift when he played in Amsterdam recently. A Tulip that has been developed and grown in his honour. It took twenty years to create the red and white bloom. It’s botanical name is Tulipa Paul McCartney. I wonder if they tried to grow one in ebony and ivory colours?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h85OGkCaKIg
Only two more sleeps, wow that’s gone quick hasn’t it? Winter solstice is over for another year and the days are getting longer again, well in the northern hemisphere at least. Any how that means that it must be December 23rd and day 23 of this years Advent Calendar blog post. Regular readers will have quickly worked out that the 23rd letter of the alphabet is ‘W’. This years subject is the ABC of British bands and for today I have chosen a band who once recorded a true Christmas classic, ladies and gentlemen please welcome Wizzard to this years advent calendar posts!
Roy Wood, the founder of Wizzard was also a leading light in the Move and co-founder along with Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). After the first ELO album Roy was moving apart from jeff Lynne both personally and musically. he left the band to form Wizzard and the The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits says, ‘Wizzard was Roy Wood just as much as Wings were Paul McCartney‘. Given that Jeff Lynne clearly wanted to be in the Beatles maybe there are some parallels.
The band had six UK top ten hits from 1972 to 1974, including two number ones with “See My Baby Jive” and “Angel Fingers (A Teen Ballad)”. Both of those songs hit the top spot in 1973, “See My Baby Jive” was also number one in the Irish chart. Many people probably only know Wizzard for the rather excellent “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” a song which only reached number 4 in the UK on its initial release in 1973. It has re-entered the top 50 ten times since then, obviously every Christmas time. On that Christmas single the band are credited as Wizzard featuring vocal backing by The Suedettes plus The Stockland Green Bilateral School First Year Choir with additional noises by Miss Snob and Class 3C. Whatever happened to Miss Snob?
Their first two albums made the UK album top 30 in 1973 and 1974. “Wizzard Brew”, number 29 in 1973 and “Introducing Eddy And The Falcons”, number 19 in 1974. Roy Wood is a multi instrumentalist who plays keyboards, horn, cello, guitar, bass and bagpipes. he also wrote some songs that were dedicated to his one time girlfriend, Lynsey De Paul, one of which, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Winter (Looney’s Tune)” reached number 6 in the UK singles charts.
According to Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool, his city’s artists can claim more UK number one singles per head of population than any other city in the world. There have been 57 so far, including 17 from the Beatles. Let’s stick to cities and not smaller towns and villages though, otherwise Westlife might put Sligo on top of the list with their 14 UK number one singles. Incidentally I wonder how many number one singles London has had? Or any other city for that matter.
Joe was writing in Q Magazine to counter London Mayor Boris Johnson‘s ridiculous claim that London ‘made’ the Beatles. Surely it was Liverpool and possibly a degree of Hamburg that ‘made’ the Fab Four? What do you think of Boris’ comments? I think he is a complete arse!
Here are those Liverpool acts and their UK number ones;
14 March 1953 : Lita Roza – “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?”
25 January 1957 : Frankie Vaughan – “The Garden of Eden”
14 February 1958 : Michael Holliday – “The Story of My Life”
29 January 1960 : Michael Holliday – “Starry Eyed”
7 December 1961 : Frankie Vaughan – “Tower of Strength”
11 April 1963: Gerry and the Pacemakers – “How Do You Do It?”
2 May 1963: The Beatles – “From Me to You”
20 June 1963 : Gerry and the Pacemakers – “I Like It”
8 August 1963: The Searchers – “Sweets for My Sweet”
22 August 1963: Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas – “Bad to Me”
12 September 1963 : The Beatles – “She Loves You”
31 October 1963 : Gerry and the Pacemakers – “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
28 November 1963 : The Beatles – “She Loves You”
12 December 1963 : The Beatles – “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
30 January 1964 : The Searchers – “Needles and Pins”
27 February 1964 : Cilla Black – “Anyone Who Had a Heart”
19 March 1964 : Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas – “Little Children”
2 April 1964 : The Beatles – “Can’t Buy Me Love”
7 May 1964 : The Searchers – “Don’t Throw Your Love Away”
28 May 1964 : Cilla Black – “You’re My World”
23 July 1964: The Beatles – “A Hard Day’s Night”
10 December 1964 : The Beatles – “I Feel Fine”
22 April 1965 : The Beatles – “Ticket to Ride”
5 August 1965: The Beatles – “Help!”
30 September 1965 : Ken Dodd – “Tears”
16 December 1965 : The Beatles – “Day Tripper”/”We Can Work It Out”
23 June 1966: The Beatles – “Paperback Writer”
18 August 1966: The Beatles – “Yellow Submarine”/”Eleanor Rigby”
19 July 1967 : The Beatles – “All You Need Is Love”
6 December 1967: The Beatles – “Hello, Goodbye”
27 March 1968 : The Beatles – “Lady Madonna”
11 September 1968 : The Beatles – “Hey Jude”
11 December : 1968 The Scaffold – “Lily the Pink”
23 April 1969 : The Beatles with Billy Preston – “Get Back”
11 June 1969: The Beatles – “The Ballad of John and Yoko”
30 January 1971 : George Harrison – “My Sweet Lord”
3 December 1977 : Wings : “Mull of Kintyre”
20 December 1980 : John Lennon – “(Just Like) Starting Over”
10 January 1981 : John Lennon – “Imagine”
7 February 1981 : John Lennon – “Woman”
24 April 1982 : Paul McCartney with Stevie Wonder – “Ebony and Ivory”
14 January 1984 : Paul McCartney – “Pipes of Peace”
28 January 1984 : Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “Relax”
16 June 1984: Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “Two Tribes”
8 December 1984 : Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “The Power of Love”
9 March 1985 : Dead or Alive – “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”
15 June 1985: The Crowd – “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
29 August 1987 : Ferry Aid – “Let it Be”
20 May 1989 : Various artists – “Ferry Cross the Mersey”
22 July 1989 : Sonia – “You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You”
26 May 1996 : Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds – “Three Lions”
14 June 1998: Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds : “Three Lions ’98”
March 26 2000: Melanie C featuring Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes – “Never Be the Same Again”
August 13 2000: Melanie C – “I Turn to You”
February 4 2001: Atomic Kitten – “Whole Again”
July 29 2001: Atomic Kitten – “Eternal Flame”
January 20 2002: George Harrison – “My Sweet Lord”
April 28 2002: Sugababes – “Freak Like Me”
August 18 2002: Sugababes – “Round Round”
September 1 2002 : Atomic Kitten – “The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)”
October 19 2003 : Sugababes – “Hole in the Head”
September 30 2007 : Sugababes – “About You Now”
Christmas number one 2012 : The Justice Collective – “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 