ON June 30, 1968 Paul McCartney visited Saltaire to record an instrumental tune called Thingumybob, which he had written especially for a brass band to play.
Accompanied by his Old English Sheepdog, Martha, he spent a morning in Victoria Hall, and in the street, recording the track with Queensbury’s Black Dyke Mills Brass Band. The recording of Thingumybob was for a theme tune for a TV sitcom.
Now the Saltaire recording is featured in a new book taking an in-depth look at songs written by the Fab Four, never recorded or released by the Beatles, but instead made famous by other artists.
The Songs The Beatles Gave Away is by Colin Hall, who was given access to interviews he and Bob Harris, legendary music broadcaster and former Old Grey Whistle Test presenter, conducted in 2008/9 with Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Cilla Black and others. The book brings together these exclusive interviews for the first time and takes a whole new look at the Beatles’ legacy.
Writes Colin: “Throughout the Sixties it seemed everything the Beatles touched turned to gold. John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s compositional talents got better all the time, as did George Harrison’s. Every new single and album marked a startling progression that took the group and its fans in new, exciting directions.
“No group has been quite so attuned to the zeitgeist of their time. Where the Beatles went others eagerly followed. Through it all Lennon and McCartney rarely wasted a song. Tunes that somehow didn’t work for the Beatles themselves would be stored away, on tape or in the memory, to be returned to at some time in the future, more often than not to offer to other artists for whom they were deemed better suited.
“And once the Beatles were up and running, John and Paul were occasionally moved to compose brand new songs specifically intended for other artists. They were encouraged by their manager Brian Epstein, who knew this would keep the Beatles brand on the charts beyond the time enjoyed by the group’s own releases. John and Paul were well aware that the ‘pop’ scene of the late 50s and early 60s was notoriously fickle. The big ‘stars of today’ had a tendency to become the ‘havebeens of tomorrow’. Journalists would frequently pose the question of how long they thought the Beatles would last. Their replies were always modest, realistic and based on their experience of who and what had gone before. As the Beatles began to top music charts around the world, Lennon and McCartney were eager to establish their reputation as composers, so that when the bubble finally burst they could continue to earn a healthy income as writers.
“During the Sixties, many artists ‘covered’ songs written by John and Paul that the Beatles had already recorded and released, but not as singles. Beatles albums were eagerly seized upon and songs composed by John and Paul were turned into hits by acts such as Marmalade with Ob-la-di, Ob-lada and Joe Cocker with With a Little Help from My Friends.
“My focus has been those heady days of the Sixties when the 45rpm single bossed the world of ‘pop’ music and the charts. The singles featured here, however, were not ‘covers’ of Beatles. For want of a better expression, they are tunes John, Paul and George ‘gave away’. They are a separate Beatles songbook: a body of work released by other artists fortnate enough to be gifted original tunes, some composed for them, others originally written with the Beatles in mind, but not actually released by the group themselves.
“My story also encapsulates the amazing journey the Beatles made from the early days as the Quarry Men and Silver Beatles to the heady days of Beatlemania and beyond, to the years when they ceased touring.”
The book, says Colin, is about the post-war music scene: “Coming out of the deprivation and rationing of the war years, they were fuelled by an energy the like of which we are unlikely to experience again.”
In his preface, Bob Harris writes: “It was a moment of fabulous energy - a glorious Rock ’n’ Roll fuelled transition as the austere, ration-book, post-war age of the monochrome Fifties burst into the new, exciting culture explosion of the technicolour Sixties.”
The Songs The Beatles Gave Away was inspired by the 2009 Radio 2 documentary on which Colin worked with Bob Harris and his wife, Trudie Myerscough-Harris. Colin has since spoken to artists such as John Clay who played with the Black Dyke Mills Band and McCartney in Saltaire. The book is illustrated with photographs from Colin’s collection, those donated by friends and promotional photos from the period. Liverpool-born Colin is a regular contributor to music publications and in 2006 was invited by Bob Harris to contribute to Sony Award-winning Radio 2 documentary The Day John Met Paul. Its follow-up, The Songs The Beatles Gave Away, was the inspiration for Colin’s book.
l The Songs The Beatles Gave Away, Great Northern Books, £19.99. Call (01274) 735056 or visit gnbooks.co.uk
Photos: Brian Epstein: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo; Maharishi: Bob Hewitt; George Martin: Historic Collection/Alamy Stock Photo; Backstage at Delaney, Bonnie & Friends, Birmingham Town Hall, December 4, 1969. George Harrison joined them as guitarist, the first tour of a Beatle since 1966. Pic: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo; Quarry Men: James L Davis
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