Happy Birthday George Harrison

In honor of what would be George's 64th birthday on February 25, I
thought it would be nice to list some of his contributions to music and
to life itself. Often overshadowed by the success of Lennon/McCartney
tunes, George fought to get his songs on The Beatles LPs and it wasn't
till the last single released that a Harrison composition was released
on the 'A' side.

- The Beatles very first studio recording was written by George "Cry For A Shadow,' chosen over selections written by Lennon/McCartney.
(Credits show written by Harrison/Lennon but was mainly a Harrison composition)

- As outspoken as John Lennon was it was George who wrote three 'social
comment' songs during the Beatles reign. Taxman, Little Piggies, I Me
Mine.

- George brought in the first outside musician to play on a Beatles
record. (other than Beatles producer George Martin) It was Eric Clapton
who played on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." George and Eric were best
of friends.

- George's first wife left him for Eric Clapton. George and Eric
remained best of friends till George's death. Eric appears on the recent CD release 'Tribute to George Harrison."

- George introduced a new sound with an instrument from India called a
sitar on the record Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) and recorded a
couple more songs with the Beatles with heavy Indian music influence.

- The Beatles were huge fans of Carl Perkins and recorded more of his
songs than any other artist. After the Beatles breakup George played
concerts with Carl Perkins and was responsible for Carl's comeback.

- The 2nd biggest selling Beatles single was "Something" written by
George. In recent interviews with producer George Martin, he admits
that he maybe should have paid more attention to George's song writing
ability.

- The first couple years after the Beatles breakup George had the best
record sales of the Beatles as individuals. His first release 'All
Things Must Pass' was a 3 LP set. Soon afterwards came the 'Concert for
Bangledesh.' This was the first 'aid' type concert by a rock artist which started the benefit concert trend.

- Ringo Starr was the only ex-Beatle to have 3 consecutive number one
hits of which he says it was due largely to the un-credited assistance
of George Harrison.

- One of the last number one hits by an individual Beatle was George's
cover of 'I've Got My Mind Set On You.' George was visiting his sister
in the U.S. before they were famous here, and heard 'Set On You,' bought
the record and took it back for the Beatles to do a version. It never
happened. Years later George worked on it and released it and it hit
number one.

- In later Beatle songs and many of George's songs he uses the 'slide'
guitar effect. Sounding different than most others, after his death his
son was asked why George's slide effects sound different than others.
He replied that most re-tune their guitars to an 'F' chord but George
played with standard tuning.

- Fans of 'The Byrds' know that guitarist / singer / song writer Roger
McGuinn plays a 12 string Rickenbacker guitar which now bears his name. McGuinn traded in some guitars in order to buy the 12 string after seeing and hearing George Harrison play one in the movie and song "A Hard Day's Night."

- Harrison co-produced and plays lead guitar on the huge hit "Day After
Day" by the group Badfinger.

- George used the 'wah-wah' effect before the infamous 'Wah-Wah" pedal
was invented. Once John Lennon turned the volume control up and down on
Harrison's guitar as he played. Later he used a volume control pedal.

- He produced many films including "Monty Python's Life of Bryan" and "Time Bandits."

- George was the most spiritual Beatle. When he learned he would die due to a brain tumor, he was totally at peace with his life, and the coming
afterlife.


Wesley Schultz

Bootleg Zone. Gone for good?!?

Anyone who's posted a boot or downloaded one from the MaccaSpan forum KNEW that Bootlegzone.com was used as a krutch to get all of out bootleg info from.

What has happened? Hackers, legal action? No one knows. It just seems odd for the
site to be shut down out of no where.

Hopefully it will be rebuilt or another site will be rebuilt in it's honer.

Original Beatles' pics accidentally end up in trash

London (ANI)- Original pictures of the The Beatles were lost forever after they were accidentally chucked in the trash.

The iconic 1963 pictures - used on the cover of the Fab Four's first official album Please Please Me - were stored in two boxes at an EMI base.

But although they were marked Not Rubbish - Do Not Remove, a cleaner allegedly admitted binning them, reports the Sun.

Now EMI and Apple Corps bosses are suing the cleaner's firm for £700,000, claiming they were negligent, failed to follow instructions, failed to take reasonable care and failed to properly train or supervise their employee.

The photos - showing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr leaning over a staircase at EMI's office in Manchester Square, London - were also used on the covers of The Beatles EP and the 1973 compilation Red Album.

They were among more than 450 transparencies and negatives kept at EMI's Brook Green base in West London.

The seven Beatles snaps had been taken by late photographer Angus McBean.

It says: "The Beatles transparencies were the only original material from the photography from this session and were historically important and valuable." Crystal allegedly fired the female cleaner.

Beatles Ready for Legal Downloading Soon

The Beatles songs — all of them — will be offered for downloading soon. That’s what Neil Aspinall, the head of Apple Corps Ltd. and the man who’s protected the Beatles legacy for the last 40 years — told me over the weekend.“All 13 core albums, the ones originally released on CD in 1987, have been remastered," Aspinall told me. "At some point they will all be released, probably at the same time.”But the film “Let It Be” remains in DVD purgatory, Aspinall says. The reason? “The film was so controversial when it first came out. When we got halfway through restoring it, we looked at the outtakes and realized: This stuff is still controversial. It raised a lot of old issues.”
All rock groups — all musicians and artists — should have a protector as devoted or committed as Aspinall. He’s never sold the group or their legacy out, but instead been the fierce protector for nearly four decades.
Where others might have had the temptation to just cash out and take the billions of dollars being offered for one venture or another, Aspinall has proceeded with incredible care and caution.John Lennon and George Harrison especially must be smiling at the thought of Aspinall keeping their names away from crass endeavors.It was Aspinall who guided the Cirque du Soleil project, “Love,” which is not only a hit in Las Vegas, but is a bestselling CD as well. It’s the only album that EMI Music can claim as a hit from this past Christmas.Aspinall did confirm for me that not everything from the show is on the CD. “A lot of the transitions wouldn’t fit,” he said. And there will not be a DVD of the magnificent show at the Mirage.“The Mirage doesn’t want it,” he said. “They want people to come see it.”Now that Aspinall has “won” his longstanding lawsuit with Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer), he says downloaded Beatle songs will be coming to us soon.If you missed it, Apple Records sued Apple Computer in 2002 over trademark violations after signing a 1991 agreement — and Steve Jobs paying the Beatles about $43 million.Jobs et al won, but the case went to appeal. Before the appeals court could make a ruling, a settlement was reached.The settlement didn’t address downloading. But now Aspinall says that when the Beatles songs do get put on the Internet officially, “it will be on all the services, not just one.” So all the Beatles songs will be found on iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. That’s very “PC” of him!And those 13 remastered albums? They will not include “Hey Jude,” a 1969 compilation album that Americans of a certain age fondly recall and keep in their collections on vinyl only.Aspinall said he’d kind of forgotten about it.“Do you know that Allen Klein” — who represented Lennon back then in the U.S. — “screwed that up!" Aspinall said. "He reversed the photos. The back picture was supposed to be the cover!”

Maccaspan Finetune Playlist

Beatles' Sgt. Pepper Designer Slams Apple Attitude

The designer of THE BEATLES' SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND album has slammed record company Apple for denying him copyright of the infamous image. SIR PETER BLAKE was paid GBP200 ($390) for his iconic 1967 cover creation, which features life-size cut outs of the band among an array of celebrities, but is barred from using the image on a new artistic project.

He says, "I'm doing a limited edition set of prints of the album covers I've done but Apple won't let me do Sgt Pepper. "They probably think 'Stop moaning' - but somebody along the line should have thought I deserved a share, like a bonus, or even acknowledgement that I was hard done by. "I don't blame the Beatles. I wouldn't expect them to suddenly give me a thing but EMI (who distributed Apple) should have."

George Martin said the Beatles were AWFUL!

Sir George Martin thought The Beatles were "awful" and "crap" when he first heard them perform.

The legendary performer - later dubbed 'The Fifth Beatle' - auditioned the Fab Four after they had been rejected by label Decca. And he took a lot of convincing to take them on.

Martin says, "They were pretty awful.

"I wasn't impressed with their music. They were crap. I saw them in the Cavern after I signed them and they could hold an audience. What made me sign them was their charisma.

"They had this wonderful quality that when you were with them, you felt enriched by their presence and, when they left you, you felt diminished. There weren't many people who do that collectively."

The Beatles - Love or Hate it!

SOUNDS FAMILIAR By BABY GIL

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Purists may howl that this is not the way the Beatles intended these songs to be heard. But nobody really knows that for sure and Martin is probably the closest we can get to knowing how those boys felt about their music.


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The Philippine Star

Two years ago the famous performing troupe, The Cirque du Soleil decided to come up with a show using the music of the Beatles. Fine. Might make something interesting on stage with Lucy sailing through the sky with diamonds and dancers traipsing through an octopus garden. But no great shakes really. Everybody uses Beatles these days and we have the authentic, the bootleg and the horrendous like The Beatles Go Reggae available in the market. But the Cirque, in keeping with its top-notch reputation, wanted something truly special and called in George Martin to work on the old recorded tracks of the Beatles and come up with a soundtrack.

Now Martin is no ordinary producer. Way back in the mod ’60s, he was the guy who helped John, Paul, George and Ringo put together their famous albums. Martin helped shape Beatles music and we all know nothing was ever the same again. I do not know how long it has been since he tinkered with Beatles tracks in the studio. Probably 40 years or more. But it must have felt like Christmas morning when he got the offer from the Cirque du Soleil. He was given access to all the original Beatles tracks and clearance to do what he wanted with them. Wow!

The show entitled Love opened last June in Las Vegas. Lucky you if you caught the show at the Mirage. Those who did not, even the big Beatles fans just wrote off Love as something too way off their reach. Then something extraordinary happened. Somebody listened to the Love soundtrack made by Martin and his son Giles and told friends about their incredible experience. Those friends told others and others.

The combination of the familiar melodies, the sound of the Beatles and the work Martin did to rearrange, remix, cut, strip, splice and meld the old tracks has resulted in something incredibly exciting. Love became a must for all Beatles fans, music lovers and those interested in recording technology. Junk the Cirque du Soleil! All you need now is the CD, a player and your imagination.

Love is one case where you have to bless technology, both old and new. The old one because it wonderfully preserved the Beatles recordings. The crisp vocals, the energy of a young band and the feel of genius at work, daring conventions and breaking down limitations are all there. And this is despite the fact that most of those songs were recorded live on a single track.

As for the new, the unique takes on these old songs would never have been possible without the latest equipment. Martin probably had the time of his life creating a mind-blowing medley of For the Benefit of Mr. Kite, I Want You and Helter Skelter, using Blackbird to put a new spin to Tuesday or Julia for Eleanor Rigby or simply enhancing the originals.

Purists may howl that this is not the way the Beatles intended these songs to be heard. But nobody really knows that for sure and Martin is probably the closest we can get to knowing how those boys felt about their music. I’ve listened to Love several times and I love the fact that everything sounds new again. I am also happy to find proof for what I have always believed, that George is every bit as great a songwriter as John and Paul. His Something and While My Guitar Gently Weeps are two of the best cuts in the album. As for Ringo, Martin made full use of his drums from start to finish and he is very good.

Sgt. Pepper album sign by a 4 Beatles plus more up for sale

The John Galt Gallery Presents "The Tom Fontaine Collection" February 9th from 6 to 10pm; February 10th from 2 to 10pm. Tom Fontaine, one of the world's foremost collectors of rock & roll and movie memorabilia is sharing his collection with the public. Items include: Grammy Guitar signed by several artists including Paul McCartney, 1970 Fan Club Beatles Poster signed by John Lennon at the Helping Hand Marathon in May 1975, Sgt Pepper LP cover signed in Centerfold by all 4 Beatles, Elton John’s 1970s performance outfit , signed items by Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper(The Day The Music Died), and much more. For more information call 773-404-8000. 5% of all sales will benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation of Illinois with a $5,000 minimum guaranteed contribution by Tom Fontaine himself.