Page 28 - the NOISE October 2013

YeSterdAY And todAY
It just entered my life randomly, with the enormous THUNK of a milestone hitting the ground. I’m holding it in my hand right now and it’s beautiful. I don’t know if I’m worthy.
When I was seven or eight years old, I talked my buddy into trading Magical Mystery Tour LPs with me. He got my almost- new copy, but I got his on the first-issue Capitol “rainbow swirl” label and I still have it.
This was obviously an early warning sign of a hopeless record junkie. As my addiction to flat black plastic discs that spin round and round grew, I slowly netted The Beatles’ U.S. albums in their original pressings.
Except Yesterday And Today. I would see a copy and think, “Nah, I’ll just wait for a butcher cover.” It was a private joke with myself. Among Beatlemaniacs, the butcher cover is the Holy
Grail, Citizen Kane, and a night with Marilyn Monroe all in one, THE most sought after collectable that exists.
Here’s the fun part: they didn’t make just three or four, they made 750,000 of the suckers. Probably half are gone forever. Much of the remainder is in the antiseptic hands of collectors, but a lot are still out there.
My butcher cover’s journey took nearly 50 years but the re- cord finally found me. And I wasn’t even looking for it.
From 1963-1966, The Beatles released seven albums on EMI subsidiary Parlophone for the British and European mar- kets. The Fab Four chose the tracklists, the cover art and the titles. The standard length was fourteen songs, and singles were never included. An LP with material available elsewhere was considered a rip-off by the frugal Brits.
In America, The Beatles’ legacy was different. Capitol, EMI’s Stateside arm, chopped up the seven U.K. records and mixed in the A- and B-sides of almost every U.S. single to create eleven albums with a standard length of eleven songs (the soundtracks had even less). Yanks accepted this as normal for frugality is not in our make-up.
None of this was done with any input from The Beatles themselves. The band complained to EMI and found that their contract gave them no control of “overseas distribution,” which included the manufacture of records. They were told
“That’s just the way it is.”
As 1966 dawned, The Beatles began work on Revolver. Their
recording budgets had expanded along with their conscious- ness, and they could afford to spend more studio time craft- ing their music when they weren’t busy touring the globe. Capitol envisioned an early summer release but were firmly told August. This put the label in a quandary.
From January 1964 to December 1965, Capitol had un- veiled a new Beatles record for the U.S. market about once every ten weeks. Now they were faced with an eight-month wait until Revolver was ready. To bridge the gap, another Fran- kenstein LP was assembled.
They encountered a slight problem: the well was dry. Capi-
the Beatles, Yesterday and Today
tol had plundered nearly all of The Beatles’ British catalog. The stray album tracks and uncollected singles only added up to eight songs, not enough to reach the magic eleven.
In Spring 1966, Capitol asked The Beatles for any finished tracks to see how Revolver was progressing. Maybe ... erm, three of them? This was not an unusual demand, and The Beatles’ management sent three rough mixes.
A short time later, Capitol requested some photo proofs of the boys to be used for Yesterday And Today, a new Ameri- can LP scheduled for release in June 1966. The group smelled something funny. When the four got a look at the album’s tracklist, they hit the roof.
Capitol, in their desperation and greed, had committed a treasonous act. Three songs were stolen from the not-yet- released Revolver to pad out the label’s sorry little odds and ends collection, another piece of shoddy product to further fleece The Beatles’ American fans.
The furious Fabs could not stop this one. The LPs were al- ready being pressed and only awaited jackets. Any recent photos would do, fellas. Perhaps something with all of you smiling?
The Beatles gave them what they wanted.
In 1965, photographer robert Whitaker was hired by Beatle manager Brian Epstein to snap promotional pictures and album covers for Epstein’s stable of artists. He had ac- companied The Beatles on tour as well. In March 1966, he ap- proached the four with a novel idea for a photoshoot.
Whitaker wanted to dress the group in butcher smocks and surround them with slabs of raw meat and decapitated baby dolls as a comment on stardom and to represent that John, Paul, George and ringo were just flesh and blood. The Beatles were intrigued. They had grown tired of posing for photos with teddy bears and umbrellas and were ready to shed their cuddly moptop image.
The outtakes from the session show the lads having a great time. The concept appealed to their dark sense of humor and some sick joking filled the air, much of it courtesy of John Win- ston Lennon M.B.E.
One shot in particular stood out: the camera caught the four of them mid-laugh and for a second they resembled the lovable young Fabs of old. Then the eye takes in the jar- ring contrast between the band’s sweet boyish faces and the bloody carnage around them.
The Beatles’ expressions are what makes the picture so dis- turbing. John and Paul chortle as if they had just been told a dirty limerick. ringo looks like he is in great pain or on the verge of tears. A sneering George Harrison holds up a baby doll head covered in cigarette burns for the gruesome final touch.
robert Whitaker had further plans for the photo (he want- ed to paint halos over the boys’ heads and make it part of a triptych) but so did The Beatles. It appeared in several British
28 • october 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us