TRIBUTE to The Beatles

TRIBUTE to The Beatles

Basic information

Released:    February 25, 2011
Label:          Shotgun Com., Ltd. (#0016)
Length:        Seventy four minutes (exactly - see below for more)

Track listing

01. Anna (Go to him) (3:08)                                  15. Nowhere man (2:42)
02. It won't be long (2:08)                                      16. Girl (2:29)
03. Don't bother me (2:29)                                    17. In my life (2:24)
04. Not a second time (2:03)                                 18. Run for your life (2:17)
05. Any time at all (2:10)                                       19. I'm only sleeping (2:49)
06. If I fell (2:14)                                                    20. Got to get you into my life (2:27)
07. When I get home (2:18)                                   21. She's leaving home (3:03)
08. You can't do that (2:41)                                   22. Good morning, good morning (2:26)
09. No reply (2:26)                                                23. Happiness is a warm gun (2:32)
10. I'm a loser (2:46)                                             24. Revolution (3:14)
11. What you're doing (2:32)                                25. Hey Bulldog (3:05)
12. Help! (2:19)                                                    26. I want you (She's so heavy) (5:20)
13. Yesterday (2:04)                                             27. I've got a feeling (3:27)
14. The night before (2:26)                                   BT. You're going to lose that girl (2:19)

Background

Since ever, I've loved the Beatles. And I've always tried to record their songs and wanted to approach their sound as much as possible. Not that I loved the sound so endlessly but their sound is considered timeless - therefore it must be really good and if I managed to achieve it, then I myself would be really good. So I decided to record something like a 'best of'. But it's something a bit different, it's more like a best of me. You know, I didn't wanna choose the same old songs, no more Yellow submarines and Letitbes. In the end, it's obvious - I did my tribute, so I chose my favourite songs. Except for Yesterday, it was more like a must or something.

But I still put a lot of myself into it. Let's take all the songs and point out what I changed. Anna's got a flanger on the riff guitar. In It won't be long I fucked up Macca's harmony in 'you're coming home'. Not a second time is disco while If I fell is quite heavy (but it's the way the Beatles played it live). I put harmony which is lacking in the original What you're doing but is present in a version the Beatles rehearsed. It also featured an extended bridge part, which was later cut out.

There's a story behind Help!. I tried to record this song many times in the past but never really succeeded. This time I really did my best to achieve the beatle sound but I still forgot one little thing - Lennon was thumping his palm against his guitar when Harriso played the descending riff. Now I know but at the time of recording I thought it was Ringo's kick drums. I also realised that there's no guitar flange or anything at the very end, it's just the peculiar way of the Beatles humming their harmonies. I blended the strings from the album with the 'Budokan' arrangement in Yesterday, similarly to being inspired by the Wings version of Got to get you into my life.

Recording

I started recording Anna early in 2009 (originally I intended to release the album in 2010) which is approximately the time of recordind Make me!.Not very analogue sound indeed. Actually the only truly analogue recording was No reply which was recorded with my old Tesla reel-to-reel. Later I started to emulate the beatle sound this way: Record the band: drums, bass, guitar and/or piano. Then send it all to one send, compress it all together wiht a tube simulator. Do this with all the vocals and there you go! But, funilly enough, this was never done on TRIBUTE (though some songs were later remastered to sound like that).

The Beatles always tried to push their sound forward as much as possible. Among other curious things, I tried some weird compression on drums in Run for your life, recorded a distorted harmonium in I'm a loser and played tambourine with a drumstick in Got to get you into my life. In 2010, I got a real Höfner bass guitar so I could record the bass with pretty much the same sound as the Beatles did, unfortunately, Rickenbackers are way out of my league.

When recording, I used this websites to get information on personnel, tips on recording and also an overview of the band members' mistakes: Steve's Beatles Page and The Beatles Bible for the dates, alternate versions and also some funny stories and quotes about the songs.

Timing

As you might have noticed, the album is exactly seventy fout minutes long. Yes, it might have been longer or i might have made it a double album but I intended it as a download and I wanted it to be free to copy (and steal, you filthy muggles!). In order to achieve this length and preserve all the songs, I had to shorten them first. What you're doing featured the extended bridge I was talking about earlier, Help! had a slow Orbison-style intro, there were intros in I'm only sleeping and Got to get you into my life and I want you (She's so heavy) was much longer. The whole album was also sped up a bit (a common technique for the Beatles, go listen to When I'm sixty-four or Strawberry fields forever).

There is also a different version of I'm a loser and finally the complete recording of Baby's in black which didn't make it to the album at all.