a post about Les Beatles

There’s been a big hoo-har this week about the new Beatles box-set – They’ve cleaned up all the albums and taken out all the extraneous sounds and pops and clicks and bum notes (i.e. everything that gave the songs character and charm). The back catalogue is now sterilised and polished and made far too shiny and new for the digital generation. In about 10 years time they will probably add noise and vinyl hiss to all the master tapes so that they can re-package them again and sell them to everyone who already has them, claiming that they now have all the analogue warmth of the original reel-to-reel tapes just as they were first heard in Abbey Road studio 1.

[image from Sun boiled Onions by Vic Reeves]

Did you know that back in the times of Les Beatle-mania, Liz Brady entertained The Fab Four? She flirted with them and they played along, she taught them some cute chat-up lines en Français and they dutifully bleated them back: a quartet of mop-topped Mersey-beat parrots. Ringo thumped out a beat on the table and a Pastis-fuelled sing-along was recorded. The boys had picked up a few tips to woo all those sweet mademoiselles they would meet as they toured around the French provinces. And Liz had a baudy little call-and-response number for her next single. They bid her adieu and trooped off in their Beatle-boots. She never saw them again.

In the cold light of day, it would appear Mlle Brady was duped by a gang of faux-Scouse chancers. Those comical accents are more Marx Brothers than Mersey Beat, and the hooky John Lennon just had to get the last word in “Soww Lanng Leeeez!”

Liz Brady – Un Garçon Dit a Une Fille
[this was re-released on Girls In The Garage Volume 10 - Groovy Gallic Gals!]


Pssst! Don’t tell Paul, but Françoise Cactus loves Ringo, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! It’s understandable, Françoise plays the drums. Ringo plays the drums too. Françoise thinks they could connect over rhythm methods. Just don’t tell Paul, he says Ringo’s not even the best drummer in The Beatles.

Stereo Total – Ringo, I Love You

Pssssssst! Definitely don’t tell Paul, Françoise loves Yoko too.

Stereo Total – I Love You, Ono
[buy Stereo Total: iTunes | Risi-Bisi Popshop]