Jump to content

User:Meaigs/Forthlin Road Tapes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Forthlin Road Tapes
home recording by
The Beatles
Studio20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool
GenrePop, Rhythm & Blues, Rock ’n’ Roll
Label

The Forthlin Road Tapes (also known as The Braun-Kirchherr Tapes) are private recordings by The Beatles, performed at Paul McCartney's childhood home on Forthlin Road, Liverpool, in April and June/July 1960. These are the only known recordings with their bassist Stuart Sutcliffe at the time.

20 Forthlin Road, View of the terraced house
Plaque on terraced house
Grundig tape recorder TK20 manufactured 1958

At the beginning of 1960 Stuart Sutcliffe joined the group, a permanent drummer was not found until August 1960 with Pete Best. In April 1960 the group called itself the Silver Beetles, in July 1960 they renamed themselves The Silver Beatles. From August 1960, the group removed the Silver suffix in the name and henceforth called themselves The Beatles.

In April 1960, The Beatles, consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe, recorded several tracks on a Grundig TK 20 tape recorder at the McCartney family home at 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool. The tape recorder was borrowed from a neighbor of the McCartneys, Charles Hodgson. Some sources mention that Paul McCartney's brother, Michael McCartney, contributed some percussion by banging on a guitar case. According to Paul McCartney's recollection, the recordings took place in April 1960 in the McCartney family bathroom.

Paul McCartney said of this in a 1994 interview with Mark Lewisohn: "Sometimes I would borrow a tape recorder, a Grundig with a little green eye, and we would kind of go to my house and try to record things [...] But they were very much home demos. Very bad quality."

Further recordings were made in June or July 1960, again at McCartney's family home. Several copies were made of the tapes. A friend of the Beatles from Hamburg - Hans-Walther Braun -, Astrid Kirchherr and Charles Hodgson received tapes. It is not clear which songs were on Charles Hodgson's tape. The Hodgson tape is believed to have contained three songs from Kirchherr's and eleven songs from Braun's tape. In addition, there are said to be recordings of the songs Ask Me Why, When I'm Sixty-Four and Winston's Walk on Hodgson's tape, but these were not released legally or on bootleg. So it remains speculative whether the recordings exist.

Astrid-Kirchherr-Tape (Recorded April 1960):

  1. Instrumental #3
  2. Instrumental #4
  3. Instrumental #5
  4. Cayenne
  5. Instrumental #6
  6. Instrumental #7
  7. Well, Darling
  8. I Don’t Know
  9. Instrumental #8

Hans-Walther-Braun-Tape (Recorded June/July 1960):

  1. Hallelujah, I Love Her So (version 1)
  2. Hallelujah, I Love Her So (version 2)
  3. One After 909 (version 1)
  4. Movin’ ’N’ Groovin’
  5. Ramrod
  6. Instrumental #1
  7. You’ll Be Mine
  8. Matchbox
  9. I’ll Always Be In Love With You
  10. The World Is Waiting For the Sunrise
  11. That’s When Your Heartaches Begin
  12. Instrumental #2
  13. Wild Cat (version 1)
  14. One After 909 (version 2)
  15. Some Days
  16. You Must Write Every Day
  17. I’ll Follow the Sun
  18. Hello Little Girl
  19. Wild Cat (version 2)

On January 6, 1967, part of I'll Follow the Sun was played on German television in the program "The Beatles Zeiten in Hamburg". The source came from Hans-Walther Braun's tape. According to Braun, after the song had been broadcast on television, he was offered 10,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around €20,280). In the mid-1970s, Astrid Kirchherr was offered 50,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around €73,160) by a recording company, which she rejected. In 1994 Astrid Kirchherr gave her tape to George Harrison.

In the late 1970s, probably in 1977, Kirchherr and Braun gave their tapes to Frank Dostal, a former member of the Rattles and Beatles acquaintance. Dostal technically revised both tapes in the Teldec studios in Hamburg and made three copies of the entire recordings, which he gave to Braun and Kirchherr; he kept a copy for himself. In 1977, EMI offered Frank Dostal 200,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around €264,950) for his tape, and he too rejected the offer.

The existence of the tapes became known to a wider audience when Philip Norman published them in his 1981 book Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation. Norman wrote in his book, "The beats rise, their voices blend, and for a moment they are recognized for what they have become."

At the end of the 1980s, the recordings were first released on bootlegs and became available for purchase. The bootleg vinyl album The Quarrymen at Home was released in Germany in 1987, followed by the double vinyl album Liverpool May 1960. The bootlegs contain all of the recordings from the tapes held by Astrid Kirchherr and Hans-Walther Braun. With the bootleg release, it was now audible that the sound quality was poor and that the individual songs were partly improvised. Because the Beatles recorded the recordings in mono, the individual instruments "smudged" into one another. In addition, some songs were recorded with clipping and background noise can be heard. The songs of the bootlegs were underlaid with reverb, among other things, the speed is too high, and some of the instrumental versions were artificially lengthened. Bootlegs with unedited material were released only in 2007.

Charles Hodgson's grandson, Peter Hodgson, found the Beatles tapes in his grandfather's estate and sold them to Paul McCartney in March 1995. These recording tapes are intended to be the basis for release on the Anthology 1 compilation album.

Publication

[edit]

The following tracks were officially released on the album Anthology 1 in November 1995:

Hallelujah, I Love Her So

[edit]

Hallelujah, I Love Her So is a 1956 composition by Ray Charles, released as a single A-side that same year. The song was part of the Beatles' live repertoire between 1960 and 1962. In April 1977 the live album Live! at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962, which includes a version sung by Horst Fascher.

The bootleg version of the song is 2 min 26 s long, the anthology version was cut to 1 min 13 s.

You’ll Be Mine

[edit]

You'll Be Mine is a short song by Lennon/McCartney from the early days of The Beatles. It's a humorous parody of vocal jazz group The Ink Spots. Paul McCartney sings in a deep baritone, interspersed with shrill falsetto backing vocals from John Lennon. The text cannot be fully understood due to the poor sound quality.

The bootleg version of the song is 1min 45s long, the anthology version was edited to 1min 38s.

Cayenne

[edit]

Cayenne is an instrumental song composed by Paul McCartney alone. In the booklet accompanying the compilation album Anthology 1, the time of composition is identified as the end of the 1950s. The bootleg version of the song is 2min 20s long, the anthology version was cut to 1min 14s.

Entire track list of recorded songs

[edit]

The following list of tracks is arbitrary and does not reflect the exact chronology of the recordings.

Nr. Song Author Lead Singer Note Date Length
01 Instrumental 1 Lennon/McCartney Instrumental April 1960 5:16
02 Instrumental 2 Lennon/McCartney Instrumental April 1960 6:22
03 Instrumental 3 Lennon/McCartney Instrumental April 1960 2:52
04 Cayenne McCartney Instrumental detailed note above April 1960 2:20
05 Come on People / An important Number Lennon/McCartney Instrumental April 1960 7:25
06 I Don’t Need no Cigarette Boy (Improvisation) Lennon/McCartney Instrumental April 1960 5:33
07 Well, Darling Lennon/McCartney Lennon/McCartney An early Lennon/McCartney composition that was not used in later years. April 1960 4:49
08 I Don`t Know Lennon/McCartney Lennon/McCartney An early Lennon/McCartney composition that was not used in later years. April 1960 5:34
09 Hallelujah, I Love Her So (Version 1) Ray Charles Lennon/McCartney detailed note above June/July 1960 0:19
10 Hallelujah, I Love Her So (Version 2) Ray Charles McCartney detailed note above June/July 1960 2:26
11 One After 909 (Version 1) Lennon/McCartney Lennon/McCartney The song was recorded by The Beatles on March 5, 1963 and January 1969. The first release was in May 1969 on the album Let It Be. June/July 1960 2:22
12 One After 909 (Version 2) Lennon/McCartney Lennon/McCartney see version 1 June/July 1960 1:30
13 Moovin’ and Groovin’ Duane Eddy / Lee Hazlewood Instrumental Moovin' and Groovin' was released as an A-side single by Duane Eddy in 1958. June/July 1960 1:46
14 Ramrod Al Casey Instrumental Ramrod was released as a single A-side in August 1958 by Duane Eddy. June/July 1960 2:07
15 Instrumental 4 Lennon/McCartney Instrumental June/July 1960 7:07
16 Instrumental 5 Lennon/McCartney Instrumental June/July 1960 9:10
17 You’ll Be Mine Lennon/McCartney Lennon/McCartney detailed note above June/July 1960 1:45
18 Matchbox Carl Perkins Harrison Matchbox was recorded by The Beatles on June 1, 1964 and appeared on the EP Long Tall Sally. June/July 1960 1:05
19 I’ll Always Be in Love with You Ruby/Green/Sam H. Stept Lennon I'll Always Be in Love with You was released by Kay Starr as a single B-side in 1953. June/July 1960 2:24
20 The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise Gene Lockhart / Ernest Seitz Harrison (?) The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise was released as a single A-side by Duke Ellington in 1950. June/July 1960 2:32
21 That’s When Your Heartaches Begin Fred Fisher / William Raskin / William Hill McCartney That's When Your Heartaches Begin was released as a B-side single by Elvis Presley in 1957. It was originally composed and recorded by Shep Field's Rippling Rhythm in 1937, followed by Ink Spots in 1941. June/July 1960 1:17
22 Wildcat (Version 1) Aaron Schroeder / Wally Gold McCartney Wildcat was released as a single A-side by Gene Vincent in 1959. June/July 1960 1:20
23 Wildcat (Version 2) Aaron Schroeder / Wally Gold McCartney see version 1 June/July 1960 2:22
24 Some Days McCartney Lennon/McCartney An early Lennon/McCartney composition that was not used in later years. June/July 1960 1:33
25 You Must Write Every Day McCartney McCartney An early Lennon/McCartney composition that was not used in later years. June/July 1960 2:23
26 I’ll Follow the Sun Lennon/McCartney McCartney The song was recorded by The Beatles on October 18, 1964. It was first released in November 1964 on the Beatles for Sale album. This version has a different bridge. June/July 1960 1:39
27 Hello Little Girl Lennon/McCartney Lennon/McCartney The Beatles recorded Hello Little Girl on January 1, 1962 during the Decca Audition. It was first released on November 21, 1995 on the album Anthology 1. June/July 1960 1:47
[edit]

Sources

[edit]
  • Richie Unterberger: The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film. ISBN 0-87930-892-3, Seite 6–10
  • Booklet from CD Anthology 1, S. 8

[[Category:1995 albums]] [[Category:The Beatles]]

Retrieved from "http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=User:Meaigs/Forthlin_Road_Tapes&oldid=1118417459"