Our "cute Beatle" not really so cute in Vancouver. | Page 4 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

mja6758 said
Definitely Empire Stadium, Vancouver, 22 August 1964. The recording of the Vancouver concert is well known.

This is Empire Stadium, 22 August 1964:

This is The Hollywood Bowl, 23 August 1964:

 

Seems that they had a difficult time keeping a straight face no matter where they played ‘If I Fell ‘…:-)

Into the Sky with Diamonds said 
I venture to guess that if someone were to start a “Worst Beatle performance” thread, the Vancouver “If I Fell ” would win.

I’m not so sure about that, despite them cracking up in laughter, their harmonies are pretty much on and it’s an enjoyable recording.  The Tokyo 1966 version of ‘Paperback Writer ‘ is probably their “worst performance”, all three of their voices are uncharacteristically off on that performance and they can’t use the “we couldn’t hear ourselves” excuse on that show for the audience was very polite (I don’t think that the Budokan audience was even allowed to stand and shout, or risk discipline by the Military Guards).  People forget about the fact that there was a lot of controversy surrounding The Beatles using the Budokan venue for it was seen as more of a shrine for war heroes and a sacred Judo Arena, the iconic ‘Beatles Go Home’ banner shown frequently during documentaries covering the ‘Far East Tour 1966’ is actually from the streets of Tokyo where Military Students were protesting The Beatles use of the Budokan, but it’s often used for documenting the horrors of Manilla instead.  Perhaps hearing themselves while performing was what actually threw them off in Tokyo for they weren’t used to it and were listening to themselves more, rather than feeling it.  One of the performances (can’t remember if it’s the Afternoon or Evening performance) even sees one of the guitars clearly out of tune as well, you can hear an attempt to fix the string during the opening tune-up before the show begins but its clearly still not right throughout the entire performance, this particular version of ‘Paperback Writer ‘ makes Vancouver 1964’s ‘If I Fell ‘ sound like Ed Sullivan 1964’s ‘All My Loving ‘…:-) 

wetsroosa said

 

Have you heard “If I Needed Someone ” from that show or any show from their ’66 tour? George is making no effort to sound good on that song at all. Come to think of it, the only song from that tour that sounded even remotely passable was “Baby’s In Black .”

Yeah, pretty much the whole Tokyo Show, especially the performance where one of the guitars is clearly out of tune, is second-rate by Beatles’ standards.  I have heard a couple of good versions of ‘If I Needed Someone ‘ though, the San Francisco show has a pretty good performance (closer to the speed of ‘Rubber Soul ‘ as the Tokyo version is lagging in tempo), although Paul’s voice is a little too high in the mix for my liking.  I also remember another good version of the song, but I can’t remember which show it was from, it was from one of the shows that proceeded Tokyo in either Hamburg or Munich.

‘Baby’s In Black ‘ was certainly one of their better live songs during that tour, but others were consistently solid as well, notably ‘Nowhere Man ‘ & ‘I Feel Fine ‘.  If you can find a copy of the San Francisco show it’s pretty good all around, even ‘Paperback Writer ‘ makes the grade, ‘Day Tripper ‘ is the best I’ve heard it live as well.  It’s big drawback is that the audio isn’t the greatest (I’ve heard worse though) and as I’ve said, it sounds like Tony Barrow’s handheld tape recorder was situated closest to Paul’s amplifier for his voice is noticeably louder than the others (Paul fans should love that!)…:-)