| NOTE: If you are sampling this series for the first time, don't judge
the set by the sound quality of this volume. V2-11 sound MUCH better!
These earliest recordings have never been the best, and most seemed to
have been recorded from the AM service rather than FM like a lot of the
later ones... and usually with a mic-in-front-of-speaker recording technique.
However, I've squeezed the last scrap of fidelity out of these through
some EQ, level fixes and a little bit of noise reduction. The first two
shows had a high pitched whistle which I've gotten rid of. Traditionally,
'Dream Baby' is the first track broadcast and was listed that way by Howlett
and Lewisohn, and also appeared that way when the show was first bootlegged
on vinyl. A remark by producer Peter Pilbeam that they performed Hello
Little Girl and Memphis, and THEN Dream Baby doesn't make much sense to
me, since the announcer clearly says 'This time, John Lennon takes the
vocal lead' before Memphis Tennessee, implying that someone else had sang
lead previously. They may well have performed the songs in a different
order during rehearsal, but in my mind at least there is no doubt that
Dream Baby was the first track broadcast.
'A Taste Of Honey' is certainly from their October 29th 'People And Places'
tv appearance since, as Paul points out in the Monty Lister interview,
that show had no audience whereas 'Here We Go' did (note the distinct
absence of applause at the end of the track). You'll notice that the song
here is in a higher register than previously. The Beatles actually performed
this song in two different keys: G minor and F sharp minor. Since they
play it in the higher key on the Star Club tapes, and it sounds much more
like Paul when sped up, I have put it in the higher key. I decided to
insert it into the interview because it fits nicely in context there.
Obviously it wasn't broadcast that way.
Speaking of Monty Lister, I've included this here for its obvious historical
interest, even though it wasn't a BBC radio broadcast. Since this cd has
been allowed to underrun in case more early material turns up, I thought
I may as well fill up the void with something! People And Places wasn't
a BBC show either, but since it is often credited as being from Here we
Go I thought it best to include it. Love Me Do also seemed an obvious
inclusion since Lister introduces it.
With the March 'Here We Go' appearance, we finally come to the high quality
off-air recordings. However this still required a lot of work, being riddled
with head clogs and dropout.
The 'live' Saturday Club from March 63 is a problematic one. Orinally
we were treated to a horrible recording on vinyl in the 80s, and then
a much clearer version on the Great Dane set which was periodically interrupted
by loud buzzing noises. Ten years later Yellow Dog went through and plugged
the buzzes with bits from yet another tape, but the edits were pretty
obvious so I've tried to smooth them out a bit. Yellow Dog mistakenly
replaced 'Too Much Monkey Business' with the version from Pop Go The beatles
2 (which then got copied over to the Purple Chick set) so I've restored
the correct version from vinyl. 'I'm Talking About You' derives from a
cd called 'Deflating The Mythology' and is probably the best quality track
(where are the rest???)
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