Lazy Tortoise

When I posted about the Purple Chick Beatles discs a couple of weeks ago, I didn't realize what the "Lazy Tortoise" series was. But now that I know, I've got a lot of downloading to do!

According to a site that has Purple Chick tracklistings:
"Companions to the Purple Chick Series, the Lazy Tortoise compilations pick up the non-studio items, such as live, interviews, and home demos."

Looks like there is (or will be) about 50 discs in this series, so that will bring this complete Beatles audio project to just over 200 discs. Amazing. And of course, I must have them all.

Between the "Strawberry Lane" and "Six Plus Three" sites, I've tracked down about half of the "Lazy Tortoise" discs so far.

To make things a bit easier, here are links to individual posts at those sites with the discs:

April to August 1963

October 1963

November 1963

December 1963

From London To Paris 1964

February to April 1964

April 16-23, 1964

April 25-26, 1964

April 27 - May 30, 1964

June 3-6, 1964 - Denmark and The Netherlands

June 7-10, 1964 - Hong Kong

July 1964

Australia-New Zealand Tour Diary 1964 (4 discs)

France 1965

From Rome to Blackpool 1965

September 1965 to March 1966

From Tokyo To London 1966 (2 discs)

September 1966 to February 1967

Interviews 1968 (5 discs)

Many many thanks to "Strawberry Lane" and "Six Plus Three"! And keep 'em coming!!!

Hurricane

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More sad news - Norman "Hurricane" Smith has passed away at the age of 85.

Norman engineered all The Beatles' recordings through 1965, and had a big hit of his own in 1972 with "Oh Babe What Would You Say".

Here's a snippet from October 12, 1965 of Norman in the studio with the Beatles, while recording "Run For Your Life".

That's Norman saying "Run for your lives, you ____".

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE - TAKE 1

RIP Norman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Smith

http://www.earcandymag.com/normansmith-book.htm

Ronnie

What do Muhammed Ali, George Harrison, Tony Curtis, and Prince have in common?

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Ronnie!

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I've really been enjoying Ron Wood's recent autobiography, "Ronnie". It's a great, light read with some pretty cool stories featuring lots of Woody's famous friends.

Woody writes about when The Stones were in New York in 1977 or 1978 (he seems a little unclear about some dates) and John Lennon came over for some drugs. When they got thrown out of the hotel for making too much noise, Woody, Keith, and Charlie, with John and Yoko, "moved the party to Atlantic Records".

According to Woody, "we started jamming, and the jam was taped (it's probably locked in the Atlantic vaults these days). We were going through a songbook of early soul and early Beatles catalog. We were all singing, playing, harmonizing...". But eventually John "fell asleep" (you'll have to see the book for details), and "had to be carried out." "We carried on recording without him".

Very entertaining stuff - reserve it now at your local library!

Mike Smith

What can I say that hasn't been said over these past several days? A real shame.

If you're looking for gossip, I'm sure you can find it elsewhere. Here's some music.

Enjoy the long-out-of print "History of the Dave Clark Five" (at 256 kbps).

RIP Mike.

DC5 DISC 1:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GVTUWB6S

1. Glad All Over 2. Bits And Pieces 3. Do You Love Me 4. Can't You See That She's Mine 5. Because 6. Don't Let Me Down 7. Any Way You Want It 8. Everybody Knows (I Still Love You) 9. Any Time You Want Love 10. Thinking Of You Baby 11. Whenever You're Around 12. Little Bitty Pretty One 13. Crying Over You 14. Don't Be Taken In 15. When 16. Reelin' And Rockin' 17. Come Home 18. Mighty Good Loving 19. Hurting Inside2 0. Having A Wild Weekend 21. Til The Right One Comes Along 22. Catch Us If You Can 23. I'll Be Yours My Love 24. I Am On My Own 25. I Need Love

DC5 DISC 2:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E2ZHTDR0

1. Try Too Hard 2. All Night Long 3. Look Before You Leap 4. Please Tell Me Why 5. Somebody Find A New Love 6. Satisfied With You 7. At The Scene 8. I Miss You 9. Do You Still Love Me 10. Nineteen Days 11. I've Got To Have A Reason 12. I Like It Like That 13. Over And Over 14. You Got What It Takes 15. Doctor Rhythm 16. Small Talk 17. Concentration Baby 18. Everybody Knows 19. Inside And Out 20. At The Place 21. Best Day's Work 22. Maze Of Love 23. Here Comes Summer 24. Live In The Sky 25. Everybody Get Together

Balls

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So I'm watching "Opry Live" the other night on GAC, and they're interviewing singer Elizabeth Cook, who I've never heard of before. And she says she'll be doing a Velvet Underground song, that she learned from her "husband's record collection".

So for the next fifteen minutes or so, I'm trying to figure out what VU song this cute young country lady could possibly sing at the Grand Ole Opry. There's lots of music that could work, but there's always something inappropriate in the lyrics. I'm thinking, "There She Goes Again" is often-covered, but there's that "you better hit her" part. How about "I'm Set Free"? No, she can't sing about seeing her "head laughing, rolling on the ground".

I finally decided it had to be either "Oh Sweet Nothin'" or "One of These Days".

And of course I was wrong. They played a very nice country version of "Sunday Morning", complete with pedal steel. And after the song, she told the audience it was a Velvet Underground song, so the VU got mentioned twice on the show!

So was this the first time a Lou Reed song was played on the Opry stage? And will it be the last?

Here's a link to her CD, "Balls", featuring "Sunday Morning":

ELIZABETH COOK - BALLS