The Esher Demos: The Beatles' White Album Unplugged
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 พ.ย. 2018
- The Beatles’ White Album is an icon thanks in part to its relatively raw sound. This sound started with the album’s Esher Demos, often called “The White Album Unplugged.”
This in-depth video tells the story of the demos, including where and how they were made, their previous incarnation as bootlegs, and exactly what’s included in their official release from 2018, as part of the 50th Anniversary of the White Album.
This video also includes an exclusive interview with Dr. Eddie Veale, who looked after George Harrison’s studio at Kinfauns (Esher) where the recordings were made.
Listen to The Esher Demos as part of the 2018 White Album box set available here: amzn.to/2AQLvYY
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SOURCES AND SPECIAL THANKS:
“The Beatles’ Revelatory White Album Demos: A Complete Guide” Rolling Stone. Jordan Runtagh: rollingstone.com/music/music-...
Dr. Edward Veale, designer of Harrison’s and Lennon’s home studios: va-studiodesign.com
Roger Stormo, The Daily Beatle: wogew.blogspot.com
Mitch Axelrod, co-host of the Fab 4 Free 4 All podcast: fab4free4all.com
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CREDITS:
MUSIC:
The Beatles - “Helter Skelter”
The Beatles - “Revolution”
The Beatles - “Julia”
The Beatles - “Why My Guitar Gently Weeps”
Jackie Lomax - “Sour Milk Sea”
Paul McCartney - “Singalong Junk”
John Lennon - “Jealous Guy”
George Harrison - “Circles”
The Beatles - “Polythene Pam”
George Harrison - “Not Guilty”
The Beatles - “What’s The New Mary Jane”
John Lennon and Yoko Ono - “We’re All Water”
Letter Box - “Without a Sound” (CC BY 2.0)
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
VIDEO:
The Beatles Anthology, Apple Corps Ltd., amzn.to/2JJyDGT
2018 White Album clips, UME / Apple Corps Ltd., amzn.to/2SNoai1
The Dick Cavett Show, amzn.to/2yVSpLn
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ESHER DEMOS TRACKLIST:
The tracklist of The Esher Demos, as released on the 2018 White Album box sets, is:
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness is a Warm Gun
I’m So Tired
Blackbird
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Julia
Yer Blues
Mother Nature’s Son
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Revolution
Honey Pie
Cry Baby Cry
Sour Milk Sea
Junk
Child of Nature
Circles
Mean Mr. Mustard
Polythene Pam
Not Guilty
What's the New Mary Jane
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JMJ - เพลง
The official release of the Esher Demos is the most important revelation from The Beatles since the Anthology series.
@dan cussin The White Album is a masterpiece. As much as I enjoy Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper, and Rubber Soul, I keep coming back to The White Album the most often. The Esher Demos help us peek into the creative process that brought The White Album to the world.
@@TheMaineSurveyor pl lol
yes i concur
Far, far better though. Blew my mind!
It wasn’t anything we didn’t already have available online for years. The quality is the same. Giles Martin admitted he never even knew about the Esher demos until he began the remix for the White Album. Talk about nepotism. If this guy wasn’t Sir George Martin’s son, there’s no way he’d be handling all these remixes, which are horrible
The White Album is my favourite record of all time. Caters for all tastes and a genesis of prog rock and heavy metal. On a different note, I had "Good Night" played at my Dearest Mother's funeral. I am still raw with grief. Help!
I fully agree
I think it was Ringo who said: "we were going to record 2 albums originally and call the fist The White Album & the follow up The Even Whiter Album"
It was Ringo feedbacking to George Martin's opinion that the White Album should have been a stronger album as a single LP. He said: "Yeah, we should have selled one single album. Maybe The White and The Whiter Album" that scene is in the Anthology.
I think that opinion changed because later he answered he should have taken the White Album if it were the only album he could take to a desert island.... because they are two albums. Hahaha!
Ringo has always been so witty. The most down to Earth Beatle, and the best and the most honest when being interviewed.
@ElyC West beatlemetallica
Over 100 takes for a George song? What lousy musicians! Frank Sinatra cut most songs in one take. Sometimes up to four takes maximum. Keeps the spontaneity of performance and fresh. Over 100 takes for a song? Very amateur, unprofessional, takes up expensive studio time, drives producer and engineers nuts. Songs should be well rehearsed at home before entering a studio. Creating while in the studio is nonsense. We had to bear with nah, nah, nah, nah ,nah, nah, nah ,nah, hey Jude for over 7 minutes. What crap! Get in, get out of a song in 1+50 or up to 2+30 minutes. Say what you have to say and get out. The Animals recorded the House of the Rising Sun in one take. A Whiter Shade of Pale took about two takes, the first being the best. Gary Brooker could read and write music, as he took lessons for seven years. Matthew Fisher also studied for years.
@@thomaspick4123
Opinions and assholes..we all got em
Glad you shared your disdain. Lol
The three greatest rock groups in history, in no particular order.
The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles
in about 48 hours I'm gonna be immersed in my copy of the 6CD+DVD copy on the 'white album'... I'll come up for air in 2-3 weeks...
Same here! Hope you enjoy! I'm strangely more excited by this set than I was for Pepper.
And when you get to the bottom I'll see you again, buddy.
You're going to love it! My vinyl copy arrived Monday, the Esher demos are especially phenomenal!
@@eodomo Monday?! I'm jealous. Did you have a hookup or just get lucky with an early delivery?
FabFourArchivist Just early delivery. I ordered from their US website, and had it delivered to New England via USPS.
For me the White album has always been a classic.
When my oldest brother bought the White Album he gathered the family together to listen to it.
As a musician I LOVE the rawness ,beauty and delicate nature of the original tape. It is a instant transport to be in the room with George while a classic is born. I understand that not EVERYONE is a fan of scratchy , echoee , recordings ... but the cleaned up version is way too sanitized. It could had been recorded 5 months ago not 50 years ago. I DO hope that on 100th anniversary they will NOT have holograms of "the boys" performing the WA which you can buy for $10,000 dollars.
The Escher Demos are the rough drafts of some of the White Album songs. It shows the seeds of the songs which they expanded in the studio with the help of George Martin.
It is like hearing the White album Unplugged and I like hearing this.
Because the White Album is the greatest double album of all time! Just enjoy it!
Also several that ended up on Abbey Road. Crazy cool
Very informative and, yet, entertaining, too. The historic detail of every activity of the four Beatles remains fascinating. Thanks for your dedication.
Thank ya! Agreed. 50+ years on, there’s still so much to dig into.
Great job Lance! Very informative and smoothly delivered. I look forward to seeing more!
Thank you Jim!
Good work Lance... straight ahead, good info done with a fair amount of objectivity, thanks!
Also... nice touch, giving credits to your sources, the song lists and all the other infor you included.
This channel is the youtube channel i'm dreaming to watch since I was 13.
Great video! You take for granted nowadays the existence of demo versions of tracks, whereas these are so rare for the Beatles.
Thanks! Yeah, I wish we had more. Studio outtakes are fantastic in their own right, but home demos feel so personal.
Love this album - Back in the USSR I think was written as a counter song to the Beach Boys Californian Girls. Helter Skelter was a precursor to punk and my fav from the album(s) was Rocky Raccoon being the Beatles jab at Country and Western
"Back in the USSR" was also spoofing Chuck Berry's "Back in the USA."
I had so many bootlegs in the 70s and 80s from friends that were musicians and/or had small recording studios and amazed when they show up officially a lot were on the anthology sets, sometimes they had names like "Sweet Apple Tracks". Keep these great videos coming and Thanks!
Thanks so much for the kind words on these videos!
Your videos are great! One of the best if not the best Beatles related channels in terms of content and production value. Wish there were more!
More on the way. They take some time to put together but it’s worth it. Thanks for the kind words!
Love the videos. I'm a week away from a move, so I'm waiting to buy the new box set until the dust clears, but I can't wait.
Just found you... fantastic, everything! Info, narration, aesthetic... will explore more later... cheers mate and thank you.
Thanks for the videos and thanks so so so so much for getting it right. That's so important. Amen!
That was EXCELLENT!!!! More! More!
Last week, and for the first time, I heard the Esher Demos. To me they were more accessible than the majority of the studio recordings. Having been a fan of The Beatles since late '62, I must confess that I have heard the "White Album" no more than 10 times, and never owned a copy until The Beatles in Mono was released.
The 50th anniversary remix sounds good, making (to me) some of the lesser tracks more acceptable. However, no amount of digital jiggery-pokery or remixes will make Revolution 9 into anything more than an overblown waste of album time as far as I am concerned.
Now, a three sided album at the time would have been something different; something The Beatles themselves would have been able to pull off with consummate ease.
Hi Mitch i loved listening to the story of the Esher demos great to hear the early versions of some of the songs before they appeared on the White Album
Great stuff. As always, thanks for posting.
Good to see your name again, George. Glad you enjoyed!
I LOVE the esher Demo's. I have the 4 lp vinyl set but am leaving it sealed.
I adamantly disagree with those that say the White Album should have been released as a single album. To me, the sheer volume of songs on that double album, which were incredibly innovative and diverse in music style is what distinguishing it as a masterpiece.
At first I thought Esher was a producer or something for The Beatles, thanks for making this cool video to clarify my doubts 😀
Giles should get an MBE for the remixing of those albums in the last few years.
Na- shoulda let it be.
Awards BS, John was right to give his back.
LOL. The remixes are garbage. Nepotism at its finest.
@@Redhotshawntexas Yeah-he's the Roger Clinton or Billy Carter of that family
@@Redhotshawntexas Who mixed those 2009 versions? Those are downright awful in digital.
Hvala lepa...Thank you sooo much ! Great again.. XXX Rone
YES!!!! Been waiting!!!
Right on, Jeff! Hope you enjoyed.
I've heard the bootlegs so many times that the higher quality and clearer mixes were almost a shock! I eventually got into the new mixes, but I noticed some differences.....some of the tracks definitely sound different and one of the main ones is that Ob La Di Ob La Da doesn't have its sick echo effect on the vocals and the anthology versions have certain overdubs and what not removed. I'll have to listen to my original bootlegs soon to spot any more differences!
Really fun hearing this. So neat. Great information. Thanks.
Hey glad you're back, missed ya 😊
"Dream sweet dreams for you. Dream sweet dreams for me." People, cherish and learn from one another another. End hate.
Well done! Great work and effort! Txs a lot….FabFourArichivist you are awsome
Thank you Frank! It’s a labor of love. :)
Great video. I was surprised that All Things Must Pass didn't show up until later, apparently. I'd love to see a video on how it was considered for both Let It Be & Abbey Road until it became a George Song.
Good to have you back
Thanks! More soon!
@@FabFourArchivist Great. By the way did you read about what musicologists have discovered about the authorship of In My Life's melody? What are your thoughts on this?
@@stevena3244 Fill me in. Is this the 'Who Wrote It? John vs. Paul' discussion, or something different?
@@FabFourArchivist Hi yes. They discovered or came to the conclusion that the particular musical structure of the melody was highly unlikely to have been written by Paul. Here is the Telegraph's take on it.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/07/29/sir-paul-mccartney-misremembers-writing-life-says-harvard-analysing/amp/
I'm just glad that it took 50 years to get this release. The Anthology albums are over 20 years old now and do not sound great.
And my guess is that neither would the Esher demos, had they been cleaned up in the 90s.
I suppose they'll sound even better for the 100th anniversary edition, but for the foreseeable future, these versions will
probably sound good throughout our lifetimes.
I seem to recall hearing one of the Beatles say the White Album was a vehicle to get a significant backlog material out of the way so the Beatles could focus on even newer material. There is a wealth of more interesting material from the Let It Be sessions I would not mind hearing from the original masters. Nice video, BTW.
That Esher Demos album is great 👍....i had it on a German copy of A Dolls House.....it was great 👍.....now the 2018 remix is fantastic 👍...it is playing everyday
Impeccably presented! 'A+'
I cannot wait until the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road! This was a great video by the way! My Wi-fi went out in the middle of it, but luckily it came back on and I was able to finish watching.
Circles is my favourite Esher Demo. I can hear the potential of a Beatles version. I can imagine reversed guitars in it
One of the best ever...
the album that inspired what became unpluggedness
During the two weeks before the release of "The Beatles" (aka "White" LP) in the US, a local FM radio station played it all the way through, commercial free, every night during those two weeks, then on the weekends played all of it mixed with all prior "Beatles" recordings. That is how MASSIVE "The Beatles" impact. How MASSIVE they were. Between them at #1 since 1964 (in the US), and #2, was a huge gap of empty space.
And they never "peaked"; they continued to grow until they broke up.
This LP is SUPERIOR to "Abbey Road".
And as for stiff-shirted George Martin claiming it should have been a single album: BBBBBBOOOOOO!!!!!!
The esher demos are fantastic, has an indie feel to it,
Great video!
Great info !
Very well documented sir
Thanks for another video! I love the lava lamp!
Thanks! Bought it 20 years ago - still going strong!
Heyyy! Great video, worth the wait
Ah, you’re too kind. Thanks!
How brilliant and inspired to follow four albums whose covers were super colorful and expressive-- Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sg Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour-- with a double album that is pure white. Even with branding they were geniuses.
Got to know WA as an 80s kid. And still on vinyl then. It's their most diverse work. Intense, funny, emotional, some mystery, drony, hysterical, sweet, playful at almost childish level, mature themed, raw, storytelling, long, Pauls granny music, social commentary, acoustic, heavy distorted, (Beatlesesque) inventiveness, sad, happy-go-lucky, this album is almost endless in emotions.
i think part of what sustains the Beatles' legacy even after all this time is just how much was left in mystery. They're simultaneously the most researched and most mysterious band of all time. I think the fact that they comment so little on theories in all these Beatles research books is very much on purpose to keep some mystique about the whole thing.
And the amazing work of their crew, the stereo mixes are of mind blowing quality.
The demos are absolute bliss from the crown chakra
My All Time Favorite Album!!!
Great Video
Thanks Mateo!
The Quiet Beatle.
The Mystical Beatle.
The Technical Beatle.
It all adds up somehow.
he spent his time learning instead of boasting
Great vídeo. I really enjoy all The Esher demos. Again great vídeo and TH-cam Channel. I subscribe immediately 👍
I have done some writing on The Beatles. Your work is excellent!
Thanks! Interesting stuff for sure.
Glad you enjoyed it!
What a wonderful video you're awesome
If you’ve heard the demos, what’s your fave track? Personally, I’m partial to Rocky Raccoon. Those guitar licks! 🎧
@SgtPepperChannel Hahah... Can you imagine a Rev 9 demo? :D
I really like how the stereo mix of Revolution #9 pulls out some of the sound that you couldn't previously hear very clearly.
i made a short student film based on the story of rocky raccoon 😂😂😂
Great video.
Hard to. Compare albums but Beatles White album my favorite!
Mine too!
Yep
FINALLY!!!
I sub today. Great video. Luv this. Thanks
Thanks Nancy! 🙏
It's interesting how some of the officially released Esher demo's differ slightly from the bootlegs that have been around for ages with changes in vocals & instruments, which makes me wonder if the bootlegs are the actual thing and the released one has been spruced-up with flown-in bits n' bobs.
It's not greatly important but it's interesting to me (& my one other friend who likes The Beatles, ha ha!)
:-)
Esher demos are acoustic demos songs whilst making white album,. The kept only 2 to the original. Blackbird. And julia
I first heard the Esher demos when TH-cam was new and people posted their collections of Beatles bootleg recordings
I couldn't take my eyes off that lava light. I was hoping that glob would separate before the video ended.
I have a question for you, in case you might know the answer! These fascinating demos feature all guitars and vocals double tracked and panned left-right. That makes them sound somewhat modern to me, but I assume originally they were originally doubled just in order to be a mono performance. Is that safe to say? And now they are released this way for further quality improvement?
Good question. There's no clear-cut answer here - Apple or Giles Martin haven't said much about the technical aspects of the Esher tapes. But my hunch is similar to yours. We *do* know that George Harrison mixed (folded?) everything to mono for the reference tapes for the other guys, so it's not like stereo separation was near and dear to them for the demos. I bet they just wanted a fatter sound than solo acoustic performances, on top of easy double-tracking (at home no less!) still being a bit of a novelty.
As for modernity... Just like a 2018 remix sounds 'fresher' than original mixes, personal taste and technical changes will always come into play when playing with sound. Unless Paul or Ringo or the Lennon/Harrison estates chime in on a mix - and I hear they rarely do since they trust Giles & Okell - it's really left up to the producer's ears. And since we've rarely heard them in stereo (master tapes, etc.), why not? :)
@@FabFourArchivist Awesome, awesome! Thanks for your take on it, glad we're on the same page. To me the doubling makes it sound like something indie-rockers would do several decades later (ex. Bon Iver), so that's fantastic to me. Another example for the argument could be Happiness Is A Warm Gun. I was always a fan of the demo version on Anthology, which happens to be (I believe) the exact same as the LEFT side of the new demo release we just got. Anyways, thanks for the great video!
Got the super deluxe on spotify and I tell you now it's fuckin awesome👍👌👌
I've got that Jackie Lomax album and have always loved Sour Milk Sea. It sounds like a Beatle song just not the vocals.
Thanks for the Beatle lesson Lance...Have the deluxe addition coming my direction, Because...I need a fix cos I'm going down...down to the bits that I left uptown now.#9#9#9#9
Niiiiice. Hope you enjoy it, Michael!
I had this in grade school.....i had the esher Demo....on a import from Germany....it was called A DOLLS HOUSE.....i cannot believe that Capital didnot Release this back than...I would of sold millions....this is the greatest Beatles album. Right Up There with with the Beatles and Rubber Soul !!!
Tomorrow! ❤️❤️
Update: TODAY. :)
Great job 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻❤️❤️❤️
Fifty years and counting. The Beatles' music is still causing aftershocks and Beatlemania has influenced and still does influence original music. The Beatles became a band without a genre. They spliced genres, they played with form and structure, they treated music like a fun toy intended to help human beings understand themselves and other human beings and not some set of commandments. From the moment they had license to be more creative they rose to the challenge. They used a unique blend of their musical powers and musical intuitions to create an audience so big they could get away with anything, in the end nobody but one of four guys could say no to the other three because, when united, nobody not even George Martin could keep saying no to all four. This lack of artistic control over the band was widely regarded to have peaked with Epstein's death and more than one analyst claimed the end of all artistic control over the band produced their worst album, the White Album.
Today it is much more easy to identify the White Album as their most ambitious album of all than to fall for the crap said about it by some overly influential music historians.
The Beatles took on their own fans. Our own musical likes and dislikes are not their problem so they threw down a gauntlet to Beatles fans: _here's everything, we can do any genre whether you like or hate it. How you like us now?_
There are four songs I just don't like on the white album. That's not a problem of the album, that's a direct and predictable consequence of cramming so many genres on one record and I know that I am getting those four songs anyway but it's the rest of the songs on it that range from _solid_ to _'I cannot live happily unless I hear this song semi-regularly'._ Do we enjoy every dinner we ever eat, do we like every song played on the radio, do we like the weather every day? There are songs I don't like on most albums from most musicians and yet people expect The Beatles to always defy gravity here and never produce a single song they don't personally like. To me that feels like the whole point of making this raw sounding feast of genres and so on, it forces everyone to find stuff they don't like and to shut up and accept that even the best things in life have parts you might not like. That's also the ultimate expression of artistic freedom, _here's a song you won't personally like but we're playing it anyway because fuck you, someone else has this song as one as their favourites._
I would also suggest it is the Beatles album which ripens best over ever longer periods of time and precisely because it messes with musical form and structure and plays with so many musical genres. And perhaps because it didn't fit in its own time so well it is doing better today.
Yep I just invested heavily in some good headphones and ended up w a decent DAC and amp too and out of everything and I mean everything on Spotify (at "Extreme OGG") that I've heard so far after 3 months listening nothing touches the production on this album. Not even eighties stuff where each track cost more than a house to produce. And not remasters either. It's like I'm in Abbey Road with them. Great on my Sennheisers even greater on my older Grado SR225's. I'm shocked to the core, because a recording of this age shouldn't sound so good, right?
@@DC-js4gk I suspect it sounds so fresh even in careful dissection because it was recorded so very well in the first place and because there was also good preservation of the master recordings. Add to that the capabilities of finely tuned noise filters to remove trace noise, hum or hiss without removing much else and you have the power to take the Esher demos and make them into a perfectly respectable bootleg. What really stands out in even the bootleg type recordings when there's no real pressure to get it right, they still do. Aside from being master songwriters they were also great musicians.
A DAC is on my wish list! Which one did you get?
Great comment, Bart. I agree that this album in particular ripens well over time. But it’ll never rot. 😬
It's just too bad that their music will be lost after you and I are dead. Kids today don't care, and after a few generations, they won't know. There won't be anyone around who remembers real music anymore.
I still have the White Album that I bought in 1969,
Awesome! Still in good shape?
I have not played it for a long time. I may get a new belt for my turntable and then play the album.
It was played quite a few times. I tried to save vinyl by not letting another to fall on a moving disc.
Of all the songs on the Esher demos, I was most disappointed by "Sour Milk Sea". For the officially released demos, they (apparently) used a different take. The version available on the bootlegs was great, it just needed a bit of tidying-up.
This is cool
I've heard a lot of (what i consider to be ridiculous, but at least 'unnecessary') criticism of Giles and the concept of altering in any way the original recordings, and i'm sorry but i trust his ears as much as i ever trusted George's, and i think he has a fresh, modern sense of how hearing/listening have evolved over the last 50 years or so. I don't know why people have to think of it as someone 'replacing' the original. You're not being 'unfaithful' to the originals... can people not handle the diversity? are they not thrilled at the surprise of discovering tiny little augmentations/revelations through the remixing process? it's not a replacement. it's a supplement. And a welcome one that i will gladly indulge in whenever it's offered if i trust the person at the headphones/controls. It's the spice of life, people!
Very interesting!👍👍😎
Back in the old days I thought that the Esher demos just had them sitting around the house with a tape recorder.
Honestly, it wasn't too far off from that! That's why I appreciated with Eddie Veale clarified that George's Esher "studio" wasn't much more than a tape machine in the lounge.
FabFourArchivist tbh
Albun blanco influencia pura para un generacion de buen gusto algo para siempre lleno de experimentación letra y sonidos
That is all well and good but your lava lamp is the real highlight of this video.
Like the Get Back film - the Esher demos show the band united and jovial - not at each other’s throats
What surprised (and disappointed) me about the Esher Demos was the totally different version of "Sour Milk Sea". The version on the bootlegs just needed to be tweeked a bit - otherwise, it's a great track. The one that officially came out is a completely different recording. One of (what I consider is) the low-spots of the 50th anniversary reissue.
interesting stuff
The Esher demos were all on the Purple Chick complete White Album sessions.
that is obviously not official, which is what he said in the video..
Beatles Unplugged.
Finally a TH-cam channel that I can spam on all day long
Spam? Hope you mean binge. :-)
They are the kinfauns demos
What does George have to say about the Esher recordings.... someone should ask.
That nigga dead bro
The Beatles come closest to the meaning of timeless in human history.
That title goes to Christ.
Cool well Done
They were not made at friar park right?
Genio malllll