DAY TRIPPER - SPANISH BEATLES EP

Artist: The Beatles.  Title: Day Tripper.  Label: Odeon. Format: 7" EP.  Country: Spain. Cat. No.: DSOE 16.685. Year: 1966.

Today's offering is this 1966 Spanish issued EP from The Beatles.  Side One opens up with Lennon's drug related/inspired "Day Tripper"; which was the top side of the original double A Side. And shows the boundaries being pushed both lyrically as well musically - just check out the guitar work in particular.  Next up is what was the flip side on the original UK and US single (and perhaps also elsewhere in the world) - "Can Work Out"and another of McCartney's songs about his partner/girlfriend of the time Jane Asher.

Side Two opens with a belter of track in the form of the hammond driven wownesss that is "I'm Down".  It has to be one of the best of McCartney's Little Richard inspired tunes - and of course originally seeing the light of day on the flip side of the 'Help' 45.  The final track is the obligatory Ringo track that usually best avoided on Beatle LPs (sorry to all the Ringo (don't call me by me stage name) Starr fans - but it does tend to be true) in this case the version of "Act Naturally" that surfaced on side two of the 'Help' LP.

I've included a scan of the rear of the sleeve - and you can see that the spanish translation of the titles are included (which should've also been mentioned in connection with the Mexican EP in the previous post).  And Odeon also list all the other Beatles EPs they'd already issued up to this point.

GEORGE HARRISON - DON'T BOTHER ME - THE MEXICAN BEATLES EP

1971 Mexican EP from the Fab Four released on Apple.  Cat. No. EPEM-10536

This is a bit of a good one - Mexican Beatles EP, which I picked up from the Oxford branch of Our Price on a school trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford - and what caught my eye was that all four tracks showcase George Harrison as singer and writer.  Plus how well these four - one from 1963 the remainder from the 1965/66 period work as a set.

First up is George's debut composition to make it onto tape (that's if you discount the instrumental co-written with John Lennon 'Cry For A Shadow' recorded in Hamburg and released on Polydor as a B Side) "Don't Bother Me" from the Beatles 2nd LP 'With The Beatles'.  And it pretty much sounds like George's first use of the trusty Rickenbaker - it's subsequent use being a major influence on the Byrd in particular.  Next up is the downright brilliant opener to 'Revolver that is "Taxman"- here in the generally better known stereo version - how you tell this apart from the mono version being is that here you get the taxman Mr Wilson - taxman Mr Heath - whereas the mono doesn't has and a noticeably different guitar solo, in both cases courtesy of Paul McCartney.

Side Two gives you the 2 George Harrison songs from 'Rubber Soul' set.  First up the very Byrds-styled "If I Needed Someone" - complete with the David Crosby styled harmony vocals from from Lennon & McCartney.  The connection being reinforced so when you consider that the Hollies covered this, and Graham Nash's subsequent involvement with David Crosby.  Also I seem to remember the legendary John Peel rating the Hollies version as being one of his personal favourites .  The proceedings are rounded off with another good one in the shape of "Think For Yourself"- McCartney on fuzz bass, and a definite move in the direction of psychedelia.

FRENCH MARVIN GAYE SLEEVE

Part of the thing about being a vinyl collector is the cuiros that get thrown up by overseas issues of singles - and generally you tend to find that Europe's one the best motherlodes.  Mainly because most singles in Europe were issuing picture sleeves for singles long before their UK counterparts.

As a taster here's the French issued sleeve for Marvin Gaye's seminal 'What's Going On' - somewhat different to the covershot of Marvin in the rain with his leather coat that is more familiar image (and dare I say more in keeping with the mood of the album).





More of these as and when. But in the meantime - enjoy!

STATESIDE CURIOS - PT.2

A couple more of these vinyl oddities I've accumulated over the years.

First up this 1973 US single from Steppenwolf - a reissue of the downright brilliant 'Born To Wild' with the equally fab 'Magic Carpet Ride' on the flip.  The band's stuff was normally on the following labels -initially RCA Victor, then Stateside-Dunhill then Probe and finally ABC in the UK.  And RCA and then ABC in the US.  So just what is this doing on Roulette is a complete mystery to me - Canadian perhaps?  If anybody out there has any clue I'd be interested to hear from them.

The second selection for today is this 80's reissue of two classics from The Shangri-La's.  On the A Side the rather wonderful 'Remember (Walking In The Sand)' and 'Give Him A Great Big Kiss' on the flip.  It's issued on the golden oldies Collectables imprint - and has their catalogue number - but the label is Sun!  Strange but true!

More of these in due course.

STATESIDE CURIOS

Hi for Feb 2011 - and this is the first of what will become a regular feature - the overseas issues on labels you don't quite expect.  And for starters here's a pair of singles released on EMI’s Stateside label that you don’t normally see.  

Firstly from 1968 The Small Faces’ ‘The Universal’ which I’m guessing is either from Australian or Singapore.  However the Singapore EMI pressings that I’ve come across have manufactured in SEA at the bottom of the label - so my money’s on it being an Aussie release.  Why Stateside?  Immmediate in the UK was distributed by EMI and it wasn't licensed for overseas use - hence Stateside.

The second is this dutch pressing of T.Rex’s ‘Get It On’ as found in a street market in Amsterdam a couple of years ago.  Again it’s going to be the licensing for Bolan’s label Fly which meant that it was issued on Stateside for the Dutch.