Why do I have to explain what sound is? I mean, we all
sit by the sea and listen to it. But do we say, 'This sea
is good because it's reminiscent of childhood experience
when we were at the seaside' or 'It's like your mother's
water' or anything like that? People just lie in fields
and listen to birds and nobody says a thing
- John Lennon |
||
Lots of people have asked us what we enjoyed best...
concerts, television or recording. We like doing stage
shows because it's great to hear an audience enjoying
themselves. But the thing we like best... is going into
the recording studio to make new records... What we like
to hear most is one of our songs ... taking shape in a
recording studio and then listening to the tapes afterwards
to hear how it all worked out
- Paul McCartney |
||
Larry King - By the way, with The Beatles, did usually the music come first, then the lyric, or the lyric then the music or all together? Paul McCartney - All together. All together, yeah. That's.. I only once or twice wrote words and then put a tune to it. That hardly ever happened Larry King - Usually it's music, right? Paul McCartney - Music, yeah. You normally start with a kind of a guitar or something, like dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum. Then you go, lub-dee-bah-bah, doe bee-do-dah-be-doo-dah-doo-be-dah. And you're this and you kind of go, doe-be-doo-dah-bah..'Picks up the rice in the church'. What am I saying? 'Picks up the rice.' Oh, well, well, that's an old lady. - Paul McCartney responding to SpinalCracker's question on Larry King Live, June 12th, 2001!!! |
Welcome to the Internet Beatles Recordings Index, currently in it's third(!) phase of development. This is an ongoing project and user input is welcome as this is meant to draw from everyone's knowledge.
***I am in debted to Maxwell for his design ideas and corrections to factual errors, specifically musical ones.***
As a collector and fan of Beatles music, I often wished every album had everyone credited as some other albums always seemed to do. Thanks to Mark Lewisohn's published output, we have a guide to all of those recording sessions. Excellent though the work is, there are still missing bits of information that, maybe in time, we can all piece together. However, based on his work, I have been able to piece together a "database" (if you will) of contributors to a recording. It is now possible to tell on how many occasions a particular musician was used, for example, or which engineer was on hand for which recording sessions.
For each song the Beatles commercially released between 1962 and 1969 there is a page here that has a "Producer" section, an "Engineer" section, a "Session Musician" section, a "Musical Context" section and a "Lyrical Context" section.
In this web site the Beatles themselves are placed in the same heap as everyone else that contributed to a recording that was eventually released, since their importance to these recordings is obvious and has been well documented everywhere. What can you glean from these pages? Well, to start you off, in which songs does the harmonica appear? In which songs does George Harrison play the violin? In which songs did Norman Smith act as producer?
This is also a cross-reference of musical and lyrical context. In which songs do the Beatles reference death in their lyrics? In which songs does the introduction differ from the rest of the song?
This is a site where, for instance, you can see how many songs John Lennon played lead guitar on, who was the engineer for "Hey Jude" or what the heck an Arabian bongo is.
You won't find me critiquing someone's contribution or making fun of anyone who's contribution has attracted scorn in the past. I make no attempt at playing the critic and I don't play favorites. I merely relate facts and facts, as everyone knows, are in the public domain. Additionally, I list out, as plainly as possible, all of my sources. If you spot a mistake, or happen to know that one particular thing is untrue, please E-mail me with the reason you believe a mistake has been made and I will correct it and credit you for it!
Yes, song lyrics are here (as in other Beatles web site). My goal is to try to include guitar chords for everyone. (THAT will keep me busy for a while so updates to lyrics without chords will be as I get to them.) Keep in mind that they're only guitar chords and while correct in the sense that they're the right chords, there may be melodic interludes present in the recording or a passage being played on a piano that cannot be accurately represented without musical notation. While I could do that, I'm working for free here, so take the chords in the spirit that it is being given, please. Speaking of guitar, what happens if you click on an instrument mentioned on one of the recordings pages? A chronological listing of appearances of that instrument in these recordings. (and, if I've gotten to it, a brief essay describing the instrument, it's origins and place in the musical world).
This site has already been designed to display various facts such as trivia relating to songs, to individuals, stories relating how the songs were composed, recorded and how they fared in the UK and US charts, where and when they were performed live as well as biographical information on contributors where available. In fact, some are already on-line.
and more... Look for them!
Alan Pollack's "Notes On" Series is also provided on this site as an additional reference.
This site details all recordings released between 1962 and 1970 by EMI Records.
New to this revision is a section on live performances. This is now complete. I look forward to corrections and additions from all of you.
Already it's a monster of a site, but I'm not finished with it, yet. In fact, I suspect there will ALWAYS be room for improvement. Development on this site will be an on-going thing for as long as there is interest in it. Please sign the guestbook and let me know what you think about this site!
Please enjoy this site and let me know if you find it interesting or useful by E-mailing me at .
"This site is humbly dedicated to the memory of John Lennon, whose originality and genius inspired generations, to the memory of George Harrison, whose discipline, musicianship and spirituality led a generation to a new self-awareness and showed, by example, empathy towards the plight of others and, finally, to the memory of Brian Epstein without whom the world might never have known of the Beatles."
SpinalCracker - Webmaster