The Beatles, album "Rarities"

Rare albums - Studio Parlophone - 1978
stereo: 02.12.1978

Rarities

1. 03:49 Across the Universe (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 04.01.1970

   JOHN 1972: 'One of my best songs.
   Not one of the best recordings, but I like the lyrics.'

   JOHN 1980: 'I was a bit more artsy-fartsy there.
   I was lying next to my first wife in bed, (song originally written in 1967) you know, and I was irritated.
   She must have been going on and on about something and she'd gone to sleep – and I kept hearing these words over and over, flowing like an endless stream.
   I went downstairs and it turned into a sort of cosmic song rather than an irritated song – rather than 'Why are you always mouthing off at me?' or whatever, right? …and I've sat down and looked at it and said, 'Can I write another one with this meter?' It's so interesting.
   'Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup/ They slither while the pass, they slip away across the universe.' Such an extraordinary meter and I can never repeat it! It's not a matter of craftsmanship – it wrote itself.
   It drove me out of bed.
   I didn't want to write it… and I couldn't get to sleep until I put it on paper… It's like being possessed – like a psychic or a medium.
   The thing has to go down.
   It won't let you sleep, so you have to get up, make it into something, and then you're allowed to sleep.
   That's always in the middle of the night when you're half-awake or tired and your critical facilities are switched off.'

2. 02:43 Yes It Is (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.02.1965

   JOHN 1980: 'That's me trying a rewrite of 'This Boy,' but it didn't quite work.'

   PAUL circa-1994: 'I was there writing it with John, but it was his inspiration that I helped him finish off.
   'Yes It Is' is a very fine song of John's.'

3. 02:16 This Boy (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 17.10.1963

   JOHN 1980: 'Just my attempt at writing one of those three-part harmony Smokey Robinson songs.
   Nothing in the lyrics… just a sound and a harmony.
   There was a period when I thought I didn't write melodies… that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock 'n roll.
   But of course, when I think of some of my own songs – 'In My Life,' or some of the early stuff – 'This Boy,' I was writing melody with the best of them.'

   PAUL 1988: 'Fabulous. And we just loved singing that three-part too.
   We'd learned that from: (sings) 'To know know know her is to love love love her…' We learned that in my dad's house in Liverpool.'

4. 02:37 The Inner Light (George Harrison) - 08.02.1968

   PAUL 1968: 'Forget the Indian music and listen to the melody.
   Don't you think it's a beautiful melody? It's really lovely.'

5. 02:06 I'll Get You (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 01.07.1963

   JOHN 1963: 'The B-side of 'She Loves You' was meant to be the A-side.'

   PAUL 1963: 'If we write one song, then we can get going after that and get more ideas.
   We wrote 'I'll Get You,' which is the B-side, first.
   And then 'She Loves You' came after that.
   You know – We got ideas from that.
   Then we recorded it.'

   JOHN 1980: 'That was Paul and me trying to write a song… and it didn't work out.'

   PAUL circa-1994: 'It's got an interesting chord in it – 'It's not easy/ To pre-TEND…' That was nicked from a song called 'All My Trials' which is on an album I had by Joan Baez.'

6. 02:04 Thank You Girl (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 13.03.1963

   JOHN 1980: ''Thank You Girl' was one of our efforts at writing a single that didn't work.
   So it became a B-side or an album track.'

   PAUL 1988: 'We knew that if we wrote a song called, 'Thank You Girl' that alot of the girls who wrote us fan letters would take it as a genuine thank you.
   So alot of our songs were directly addressed to the fans.'

7. 02:27 Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 04.02.1964

8. 04:19 You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 20.03.1970

   JOHN 1980: 'That was a piece of unfinished music that I turned into a comedy record with Paul.
   I was waiting for him in his house, and I saw the phone book was on the piano with the words, 'You know the name, look up the number.' It was like a logo, and I just changed it.
   It was going to be a four tops kind of song – the chord changes are like that – but it never developed and we made a joke out of it.'

   PAUL 1988: 'People are only just discovering the B-sides of Beatles singles.
   They're only just discovering things like 'You Know My Name' – probably my favorite Beatles track! Just because it's so insane.
   All the memories – I mean, what would you do if a guy like John Lennon turned up at the studio and said, 'I've got a new song.' I said, 'What's the words?' and he replied, 'You know my name look up the number.' I asked, 'What's the rest of it?' '…No.
   No other words, those are the words.
   And I wanna do it like a mantra!' We did it over a period of maybe two or three years.
   We started off and we just did 20 minutes, and we tried it again and it didn't work.
   We tried it again, and we had these endless, crazy fun sessions.
   Eventually we pulled it all together and I sang, (sings in jazzy voice) 'You know my name…' and we just did a skit.
   Mal (Evans) and his gravel.
   I can still see Mal digging the gravel.
   And it was just so hilarious to put that record together.
   It's not a great melody or anything, it's just unique.
   Some people haven't discovered that song yet.'

   PAUL circa-1994: 'I remember at one point we asked Mal (Evans) to shovel a bucket of gravel as a rhythmic device.
   We had a bit of a giggle doing those kind of tracks… Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) plays a funny sax solo.
   It's not amazingly well played but it happened to be exactly what we wanted.
   Brian was very good like that.'

9. 02:20 Sie Liebt Dich (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 29.01.1964

10. 03:02 Rain (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.04.1966

    JOHN 1966: 'After we'd done the session on that particular song – it ended at about four or five in the morning – I went home with a tape to see what else you could do with it.
    And I was sort of very tired, you know, not knowing what I was doing, and I just happened to put it on my own tape recorder and it came out backwards.
    And I liked it better.
    So that's how it happened.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's me again – with the first backwards tape on record anywhere… I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana… and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day.
    Somehow it got on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint.
    I ran in the next day and said, 'I know what to do with it, I know… listen to this!' So I made them all play it backwards.
    The fade is me actually singing backwards with the guitars going backwards.
    (sings) 'Sharethsmnowthsmeanss!' That one was the gift of God… of Ja actually – the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one.'

    RINGO 1984: 'My favorite piece of me is what I did on 'Rain.' I think I just played amazing.
    I was into the snare and hi-hat.
    I think it was the first time I used the trick of starting a break by hitting the hi-hat first instead of going directly to a drum off the hi-hat.
    I think it's the best out of all the records I've ever made.
    'Rain' blows me away.
    It's out in left field.
    I know me and I know my playing… and then there's 'Rain.''

    PAUL circa-1994: 'It was nice.
    I really enjoyed that one.'

11. 03:03 She's a Woman (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 08.10.1964

    JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul with some contribution from me on lines, probably.
    We put in the words 'turns me on.'
    We were so excited to say 'turn me on' – you know, about marijuana and all that… using it as an expression.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'This was my attempt at a bluesy thing… instead of doing a Little Richard song, whom I admire greatly, I would use the (vocal) style I would have used for that but put it in one of my own songs.'

12. 01:59 Matchbox (Carl Perkins) - 01.06.1964

    RINGO 1964: 'I'm featured on it.
    Actually it was written by Carl Perkins about six years ago.
    Carl came to the session.
    I felt very embarrassed.
    I did it just two days before I went in the hospital (with tonsilitis) so please forgive my throat.'

13. 02:09 I Call Your Name (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 01.03.1964

    JOHN 1980: 'That was my song.
    When there was no Beatles and no group, I just had it around.
    It was my effort as a kind of blues originally, and then I wrote the middle-eight just to stick it in the album when it came out years later.
    The first part had been written before Hamburg even.
    It was one of my 'first' attempts at a song.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'We worked on it together, but it was John's idea.
    When I look back at some of these lyrics, I think, 'Wait a minute.
    What did he mean? 'I call your name but you're not there.' Is it his mother? His father? I must admit I didn't really see that as we wrote it because we were just a couple of young guys writing.
    You didn't look behind it at the time, it was only later you started analyzing things.'

14. 02:21 Bad Boy (Larry Williams) - 10.05.1965

15. 02:56 Slow Down (Larry Williams) - 04.06.1964

16. 02:32 I'm Down (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.02.1965

    JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul… with a little help from me, I think.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I could do Little Richard's voice which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing – It's like an out-of-body experience.
    You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it.
    Alot of people were fans of Little Richard so I used to sing his stuff, but there came a point when I wanted to do one of my own, so I wrote 'I'm Down.''

17. 02:03 Long Tall Sally (Richard Penniman, Enotris Johnson and Robert Blackwell) - 01.03.1964