tags: Apple Records, Badfinger, Bill Elliot & The Elastic Oz Band, Billy Preston, Black Dyke Mills Band, Brute Force, Chris Hodge, Dan Walters, Doris Troy, George Harrison, Hot Chocolate Band, Jackie Lomax, James Taylor, John Lennon, KUMONgA, Lon & Derrek Van Eaton, Mary Hopkin, Paul McCartney, Radha Krishna Temple, Ronnie Spector, The Beatles, The Brown Hornets, The Iveys, The Sundown Playboys, Trash
Come and Get It:
The Best of Apple Records
In 1968, The Beatles formed Apple Corps. Ltd., a new home for the records, and of the amazing and strange records of their contemporaries.
Recently released is Come And Get It: The Best of Apple Records a record that can only be described as mis-titled. This is definitely not the best of Apple, as it doesn’t feature The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” or Lennon’s “Mother.” Instead it could more aptly be titled “Assorted Single, and such.”
Though The Beatles, as a cohesive unit, do not grace the record, they are still in sight. The album features Lennon/McCartney compositions such as “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight”1, “Thingumybob”2, Lennon’s “Give Peace A Chance”3, “God Save Us”4, and more George Harrison songs than you can shake a stick at.
The Beatles don’t sit back comfortably only in the role of songwriter. The legendary band also often produce, or perform with their labelmates. The genres are never a pre-defined thing, going from Francophone hillbilly5 to shmaltz6, soul7, gospel8 and much more.
It’s pretty easy to list all the brilliant on this record, “Those Were The Days,” “Carolina In My Mind,” “Maybe Tomorrow,” “Sour Milk Sea,” “New Day,” “Come And Get It,” “Try Some, Buy Some,” “Ain’t That Cute,” “Govinda,” “Saturday Night Special,” and “Day After Day.”
There’s also a lot that can be described best as… interesting. The Lennon/McCartney9 composition “Thingumybob” would not sound out of place as the backing music for a Looney Tunes cartoon. There’s Brute Force’s comedy song “King of Fuh,” who apparently was “called the Fuh King;” Lennon must have chosen this one.
The only thing bad on the record is Hot Chocolate Band’s reggae cover of “Give Peace A Chance.”
While a lot of this appears on other newly remastered Apple discs, it does feature a lot of material only previously available on singles.
Grit
by KUMONgA
While this might only be a three-song demo, I feel I must give it some space on this here blog. KUMONgA is a new band featuring Dan Walters, who used to be in The Brown Hornets, a pretty damn good band. While The Brown Hornets were a lot more punk, KUMONgA is a bit more focused on soul rock; to the point where the opening track has definite Rolling Stones vibes, specifically “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” The other two tracks continue on this theme, creating a rather cohesive and easily digestible three songs. I’m not sure if the title Grit is a reference to their dirty soul sound, or if it’s to display an affection towards the Liberal Party of Canada.
Looking forward to potential live KUMONgA shenanigans.
- Performed by Trash [↩]
- Performed by The Black Dyke Mills Band [↩]
- Performed by Hot Chocolate Band [↩]
- Performed by Bill Elliot & The Elastic Oz Band, listeners will hear Lennon count in. [↩]
- The Sundown Playboys [↩]
- Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were The Days” [↩]
- Jackie Lomax [↩]
- Billy Preston [↩]
- Really Paul. [↩]
While Lennon’s relationship with Alfred Lennon, his father, is the main crux of the story, there’s a lot of stuff which doesn’t really relate to the relationship of the Lennons. The main problem with the film is that John Lennon is an adult by the time the film starts, and while he carries a lot of resentment and hatred towards his father, who left him as a child, he’s still an adult. An adult dealing with the betrayal of his parents doesn’t come near the interest of a child. That’s where Nowhere Boy succeeded, and Lennon Naked failed. However, there is a great way to succeed with this same story, and unfortunately, the film makers did the same thing John Lennon did… ignored Julian Lennon. While John was dealing with the hurt caused by his father, he was doing the same thing to his son Julian.
On the plane ride home from Vancouver, I decided to have a go at their in-seat entertainment system. I found in there a film called Nowhere Boy. It’s apparently a prequel to Backbeat, which is about the friendship of a young musician named John Lennon and a painter named Stuart Sutcliffe. Who would’ve thought that mostly unnoticed film would need a prequel was a bit nuts, but it was surprisingly good.