Alan Williams: A true Liverpudlian remembers the Beatles

I "met" Alan (online, that is) in March 2011, on the 17th to be precise, which means, yes, St Patrick's day and, I'm not exaggerating, I can honestly say I had "the luck of the Irish". I remember the exact date  because to this day I still store (and treasure) each and every message (dozens of them) we've exchanged ever since since that first one. I wrote to him asking if he would give us (I mean, the group of students visiting Liverpool, my dear colleague Gregorio and myself in April that year) a walking tour of the wonderful city of Liverpool. 

Quite by chance, I'd found his name (actually something called "Redjack Tours" - which sadly, as you will find if you click on the link, is closed now) somewhere on the city's official tourist website and decided to email Alan to see if he could help us. And that's what he did, every step of the way before, during and, as far as I'm concerned, after the trip. Rather than just another tour guide, he truly became our guardian angel. I could write pages about Alan's endless, selfless generosity, his warmth and thoughtfulness for all of us, as well as his wonderful British sense of humour. Gregorio and the rest of the Armada, as he fondly calls us, can confirm every word I'm saying.

The Fab ... Three! Alan with the "Dúo Dinámico"

I wouldn't like to make this emotional, heartfelt introduction way too long. He knows how fond of him and his family (especially his lovely wife, Janet, and his gorgeous 9-month old grandson, Harrison) I have become, and how much I value his friendship even if it has been only by mail since we returned from Liverpool, though I'm sure one day soon we'll meet again, either here in Spain or back in England. 

I cannot think of a better way to end our blog for this (academic) year than by posting an entry he's sent me about the Beatles to commemorate their 50th anniversary, after I asked him if he would contribute something for our blog. Thank you so much, Alan, for doing it, but above all for being such a great human being. All of us who are lucky to know you think of you dearly.

So, without more ado, this is what Alan wants to say about the Fab Four:

Being born in Liverpool in 1956, I was only 4 years old when the Beatles started their musical career. In 1970, when they broke up, I was just 14 years old, and so I never had the opportunity to see them at the famous Cavern Club. However, having played guitar in bands from when I was 17 years old, I can truly say that their legacy in Liverpool was a vibrant music scene totally influenced by their genius, with talented people that would otherwise never have surfaced if the Beatles influence had never impacted on their lives. I am proud to be from the city of Liverpool, and it never ceases to amaze me that when I meet people in other parts of the world, and they ask me where I come from, their response is always the same. They always mention the Beatles. Such is the power of their music 50 years on. 

A few years ago I was on holiday in Samos, Greece.  Each morning I went to the local bakery to get our breakfast. On the last day, I told the lady that she needed to open a bakery in my home town, because the bread and cakes were so wonderful. She asked me where I came from, and I said “Liverpool”. Just as I said it, I heard a noise behind me, and it was the baker. He looked at me, and then started to sing …”She loves you yeah yeah yeah”. I just laughed and joined in. It seems it does not matter where you are, everybody knows Liverpool - and the Beatles.

20 years ago, my best friend was working in Latvia, and married a Latvian girl in Riga. As well as the church wedding, there was also an “official ceremony” at the town hall. When they went in to sign the papers, there was a string quartet playing. They must have known my friend was from Liverpool, and in honour of that, they started to play a Beatles' song. The funny thing was that they played “Yesterday”. The words did not quite fit the occasion – “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, but now it looks as though they’re here to stay ...” My friend and all his family were very amused by the choice of song.

So thank you John, Paul, George and Ringo, for putting my city on the world stage, and for giving me and many people like me the idea that we too could play music, the result of that being many years of enjoyment. And for the gift of your music, which has helped us all along our own “Long and Winding Roads”.

Hey, it just dawned on me that I videotaped Alan "at work" during his walking tour with us last year in Liverpool and I found just the right bit. Here he was talking to us about a famous statue celebrating one of the most famous Beatles songs, "Eleanor Rigby", which can be found in Stanley Street:

So my dear students, however much I hate saying goodbye, I guess this is the end of the 4th edition of jantigue.blogspot.com. I mean, hopefully I'll start a new one soon! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for participating, in whichever way, with me on this modest blog and indeed I wish you all the best for this next year.

Juanjo Diego: The Beatles by other artists

First of all, I must admit that I’m a very fond of The Beatles. I have played and sung their songs since I was a child, even when I didn’t have any English, as the sole sentences I was able to speak were “yesterday” “All you need is love”, “Yellow Submarine” and similar expressions. I don’t know what a rare confluence of time and people happened in that moment, but four young musicians, not specially gifted to play an instrument, changed the evolution of pop music and left us some of the best songs ever written. Actually, I strongly believe that the "Fab Four" are rigthfully into the history of modern music.  

However, in this entry for our blog I don’t want to talk about the Beatles themselves, but the deserved tribute that other artists have dedicated to them, including their best songs in their albums and concerts. The Beatles’ songs have lingered beyond the band, because (incidentally the title of an incredible less known song!) of the unsurpassable quality of their melodies, the beauty of the chord progressions, the lovely and sometimes naive arrangements, and the capacity of being accepted by any kind of listeners, so much so that their music has become the first multigenerational musical deal. To sum up, this is a little entry about Beatles songs covered by others. 

Let’s start! The Beatles’ songs are the most covered of all (led by “Yesterday”, with thousands of new versions) and it is indeed the band with the most “tribute bands” all over the short history of modern music (a tribute band is one that only performs songs by just one famous group, trying to imitate its sound, style, even clothing or movements on stage. Pink Floyd, Genesis, Queen or Aerosmith, among others, have tribute bands you can find frequently on tour):

Needless to say, I prefer the original act, of course. Nevertheless, there are other performers, great well-known artists in many cases, who have sung the Beatles’ songs in their own style, achieving excellent results, and showing that these unforgettable tunes are good by themselves and probably  going to be sung for years. I’ll try to show you here some highly personal recordings which connect the song to each singer’s style, giving them something special and distinctive. Some examples I particularly love (surely you can add more) are: 

1) The Beatles by the queen and the king of soul, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles no less. They are superb because they were singing as they used to do - no attempt to imitate the original at all - but simply to transform the songs into their own. The way they internalize and personalize the lyrics and melodies is incredible and perfectly matches song and singer. In fact, some people prefer these covers to the Beatles’ originals. Listen, enjoy and judge by yourselves. I just think each of them is a different performance but still one incredible song!

 

2) Ray Charles recorded other Beatles songs like Eleanor Rigby or Imagine, always with an accomplished approach. Another great multi-instrumentalist and singer, Stevie Wonder, recorded in his own funky way We can work it out, even changing the internal rhythm and musical accents of the song, in order to make it his own. Listen carefully to the singular chorus rhythm, which is awesome, isn’t it? Years later, he dared to perform it live in front of Sir Paul McCartney. Unbeatable! I can assure you that this blind musician is almost perfect, both as a singer and as a keyboard and harmonica player.

 

3) An American soul singer and a lively Welsh youngster got together to cover Hey Jude in an inviting manner. The "original version" of this cover was recorded only by Tom Jones and succeeded almost immediately. It’s full of energy and brightness and retains the strength of the original, specially the long end. Jones’s ease with any style suits Wilson Pickett’s phrasing perfectly. They are enjoying themselves and proving yet again, like in the other examples, that what is really important is the quality of the composition:

   

 Maybe you prefer Tom Jones’s solo recording (a bit longer) ...

4) I could cite many more examples, but I’ll be content with two more. First, a well-known country singer (also appreciated as an actress, though not by me!). In this case I like the traditional sound of country guitars and voices, with this special percussion, so characteristic of this kind of bluegrass music. I don’t usually enjoy this excessively dyed blonde, but I have to admit that she has many recordings that deserve recognition: Coat of many colors, Trio (with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstandt) etc. as well as at least another two (or “two other”) cover versions that I know: Peace train, originally sung by Cat Stevens, and Stairway to heaven (can you believe it?), by the one-off Led Zeppelin. Anyway, this is Dolly Parton’s rendition of Help:

 

Finally, the only cover version of a Beatles song that is probably better known than the original: With a little help from my friends, by Joe Cocker. It was first performed in the famous Woodstock festival in 1969 and quickly became #1. From then on, this fantastic artist was forced to sing this song in almost every concert, and even it was the only “original" cover version included in a musical named after The Beatles called Across the Universe. Again, this is a totally different way to sing this song, both rhythmically and stylistically, from The Beatles’. It’s for this reason that I love it:

 

Enough from me for the moment, but if you want more Beatles covers try to search for and listen to these songs: Something, by Tony Bennet, Come Together by Michael Jackson, Ticket to ride by The Carpenters, Can’t buy me love by Ella Fitzgerald, A hard day’s night by Diana Ross and The Supremes, or even Michelle by Will Downing.

The Beatles, one feeling

Elena Herrero says:

Love, love me do 

You know I love you 

I'll always be true 

So please 

Love me do 

Yes, it was 1962 and this is the way a group of four Liverpudlians sounded for the first time in the British radio stations; at that time, they were trying to get into the world of music while people were already starting to think: where the heck did these long-haired boys come from with that sound that had never been listened to before? But what people did not know yet was that those four youngsters were going to change their lives, their state of mind, their way of thinking and dressing, or even the way of combing themselves. After the hardships of the Second World War, The Beatles were going to change everything, to raise a great smile on each face of every inhabitant of the world through their wonderful songs, by penning some excellent lyrics. They were the band who wrote sad love lyrics, like in “For No One”, which doesn't end up sounding completely sappy.

 

I can almost say that they conquered the world without realizing, and the following generations were - and still are - marked by them, since they wrote the new "laws" of music, by revolutionizing it and creating their own style while shaping people’s way of thinking in every corner of our planet. But how? By changing their styles, always experimenting on new things ... other singers and bands went mad whenever The Beatles produced something new. My parents got me into their music, so I daresay that I have loved the famous group since I was three. You may say I´m a dreamer, but I would give anything to travel back in time, just to see and listen to the greatest band live! Songs like Hey Jude, Let It Be, All you need is love or Something mean something very special to me.

I am so pleased to know that this feeling will last a lot longer, I mean, being a fan of the “Fab Four”, transmitting a message of peace and love. All you need is love, this is the best influence they left in our hearts.

No doubt, The Beatles are one of the greatest rock groups in history *; I really believe they are. No music band will manage to reach them … EVER. What they represent only happens once ..., and it already happened.

This is my "Beatles' 50th anniversary" small tribute. I hope you folks enjoy it!

Rosa Cuesta says:

My first memories of The Beatles go back to the late sixties, when I was only a little girl aged five or six. At the time I loved going to the facilities of the telephone company, where some operators sitting in a row answered whoever picked up a phone. I really enjoyed listening to those ladies say “What number, please?” while they played with the telephone wires. At the same time the operators used a radio with The Beatles’ songs and I learned to hum some of them, like “A hard day’s night” or “Yellow submarine”. 

I was fifteen or sixteen when some Beatles’ records were revived. I remember listening to them for most of the day so I became a big enthusiast of the Fab Four. I greatly enjoyed singing the lyrics, even if I did not understand them. I was a teenager, the time of my first love and my romantic feelings arose thanks to their music. My favorite songs were “And I love her”, “Yesterday”,” Michelle” “In my life”…, which, even if you did not understand, made you feel a lot of emotions. 

The Beatles wanted to change the world, firstly by fighting against the conventions of the time, showing a great joie de vivre, and later by declaring themselves against war and for freedom.

Eventually, I lost the habit of listening to their music, but maybe this Beatles’ anniversary and these wonderful memories have made me recover the pleasure of listening to the amazing band again. Not only were The Beatles incredible but also an icon of a generation that wanted to change everything.

Rosa sent this pic: The Beatles in Spain back in '65 ... Ole!

Great stuff, girls! I cannot think of a better way to kind of say goodbye to summer on our blog. Now, I'd just like to add one more thing, a 15-minute excerpt (subtitled in Spanish) of a fantastic DVD collection which I recommend if you're a lifelong Beatlemaniac, called "The Beatles Anthology". This is part 1, how it all began 50 years ago. You know, to me it's just "moving" to listen to their voices (those lovely mild Scouse accents!) reminiscing the early years, especially when you realise that John and George are not around any longer ...

Deep Purple's Made in Japan: 40 years on

Almost 40 years ago, in December 1971, American rock guitarist Frank Zappa was in the middle of playing with his backing band, The Mothers of Invention, a gig at the Casino in the Swiss city of Montreux. That infamous night, “some stupid with a flare gun, burned the place to the ground” … well, I think some of you may have heard the story before!

To my mind, one of the all-time classic live hard rock recordings. That’s the simplest, perfect way I can think of to describe one of my cult hard rock albums ever, Deep Purple’s legendary “Made in Japan”. And the reason why I’m writing these lines on the blog is that today DP’s fans across the world, including myself of course, commemorate its 40th anniversary.

The classic album cover

The oddity of Made in Japan is that the album wasn’t even supposed to happen.  Let me explain: legend has it that Deep Purple had released a fantastic, commercially successful album, Machine Head, a few months earlier, in March 1972 to be precise, and the promotional tour for the record had brought the English rock band to Japan. The Japanese branch of their music label in those days, Warner Brothers, had been urging Deep Purple to come up with a solid live album, but apparently this did not interest the band much. As the unbearable pressure increased, they eventually decided, yet quiet hurriedly - and unwillingly - it seems, to mix some tracks from the material they had recorded live during their sold-out Japanese gigs in Osaka and Tokyo on three consecutive dates, 15, 16 & 17 August 1972. So, in December that year, the band - at long last, thank God! – agreed to release Made in Japan, yet only in the namesake country initially. DP made a demand to own all the album’s master tapes to ensure that it would not be released anywhere else but in the land of the rising sun. 

Luckily enough, the album became a huge success in Japan overnight, so Warner Bros approached the band in an attempt to get their permission to sell the album worldwide.  This probably would have never happened had it not been for the insistence of the band’s keyboard player, Jon Lord, who loved what he heard on the record. Incidentally, Jon died barely a month ago, so he’ll be sorely missed in this celebration, being one of the founding members of the band.

Anyway, as DP decided to finally release the album, there was a small drawback.  They had another record ready for the market, titled “Who Do You Think We Are”, so Warner Bros quickly released it in February and Made in Japan in April. 

As some of you might know, Made in Japan features the classic Deep Purple (famously known as “Mark II”) line-up: along with the afore-mentioned Jon Lord, the rest of the band then consisted of guitar wizard Ritchie Blackmore, the amazing Ian Gillian on vocals, super-fast drummer Ian Paice and, last but not least, the dark but always efficient Roger Glover on bass.

Deep Purple's classic line-up. Left to right: Lord, Blackmore, Glover, Gillan & Paice.

It contains, arguably, some of the best music the band ever did: instantly recognisable rock classics such as ”Smoke on the Water,” ” Lazy,” ” Space Truckin’,” ” Highway Star” etc. are all found in this legendary album.

Needless to say I’ve got many of DP’s records, including of course Made In Japan (in fact on cassette, vinyl and CD!) and have been lucky enough to see the band live, actually twice here in Salamanca, the second alongside my son, who is now a keen guitarist himself and a diehard fan of the band too. And though sadly Ritchie Blackmore, one of my guitar heroes, wasn’t in the line-up, I absolutely loved those gigs. Both occasions were pretty special to me since I was brought up on rock music, and no doubt Made in Japan will always find a fond place in my heart.

Unfortunately, Made in Japan was never videotaped – such was the lack of interest by the band in what they were about to produce, unaware of the piece of music history they were actually playing – so I’ve only been able to find some alternative clips which are closely reminiscent of what they performed during those glorious Japanese gigs.

Though surely not as famous as "Smoke on the Water" or "Highway Star", the raw, emotional intensity of "Child in Time and the rhythm-and bluesy feel of Lazy have always made them two of my fave tracks. Besides, these two YouTube videos feature the songs live and were recorded in Denmark, if I'm not wrong, during their Machine Head Tour, roughly at about the same time as Made In Japan.

Boy, do I love Ian Gillan's manly voice - and those high-pitched screams pierce my heart, ha ha!

And scream Mr Gillan does too in his powerful rendition of "Child in Time". I know that many people are usually put off by the often scruffy aesthetics and pounding sound of hard rock bands, but this is , still today, heavenly music to my ears, sheer energy. 

You know folks, I'll turn 50 soon so these fond memories of my long-gone teenage years really feel so nice!

LONG LIVE DEEP PURPLE AND MADE IN JAPAN!!