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5.45am
10 April 2012
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Hi everyone, first time poster here.
Reading about an early Lennon-McCartney song that they gave to Billy J. Kramer in The Unreleased Beatles by Richie Unterberger encouraged me to finally start posting here. It’s called From A Window: feature=relmfu
That’s a link to a Beatles cover band’s version of the song, and personally, I really like it. Does anyone know of a recording of this song by the Beatles themselves? I haven’t found one, but I’m hoping that, just like I’ll Be On My Way, there’s a version out there somewhere.
10.54am
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1 May 2011
Offline Nothing has surfaced yet of Pauls demo but who knows whats lurking somewhere. Things do appear from nowhere at times, get sold at auction, then vanish for a time. Unless its bought by Apple or Paul when it disappears for ever.
From A Window has got a similar theme to No Reply what with seeing a face at the window against a light, there is even a pause at “your face”. Interestingly John was going to give No Reply away, i think to Tommy Roe, before deciding to make in into a beatles track. I wonder if there was a little debate going on between John and Paul considering the similarities.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
6.41pm
10 April 2012
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Good observation about No Reply . There are countless examples of that rivalry/one-upsmanship between the two of them. You’re right about John almost giving No Reply away, and what a tragedy that would’ve been! He had considered giving it to Tommy Quickly, but that might be a stage name for Tommy Roe, who you mentioned.
I was discussing this with a friend the other day….who actually owns the hours and hours of outtakes, etc. that the Beatles recorded in Studio Two? Would all that music still be housed at Abbey Road , or at Apple? I said it would probably be at Abbey Road because the physical tapes belong to EMI, but my buddy said that since it would be the “intellectual property” of the Beatles, they would own it.
7.28pm
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1 May 2011
Offline I believe the outtakes are at EMI, probably with a direct link to Apple so they know who has accessed them, when, for how long, what they did with them, and anything else remotely possible that can be thought of.
I would also imagine that Apple cannot release any of the outtakes without EMI’s permission due to contracts and a whole load of legal jargon and vice versa.
I think youre right Trevor about Tommy Quickly and that he is a different person entirely rather than a stage name. Was it Tommy Roe who sang Dizzy, later covered by The Wonder Stuff with Vic Reeves? Who is Tommy Roe?
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
8.34pm
10 April 2012
Offline I’m pretty sure he was just another typical bubblegum singer in the ’60s. Tommy Roe DID sing Dizzy, but other than that, I can’t say I know anything about his music. And of course, calling his stuff “music,” especially on a Beatles forum, is a little ridiculous haha.
9.18pm
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1 May 2011
Offline Tommy Roes name has just appeared in a book i was skimming thru, he was on tour with the beatles headlining with Chris Montez. The things that lurk and linger in the back of your mind.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
9.29am
7 November 2010
Offline Trevor Kraus said
Hi everyone, first time poster here.Reading about an early Lennon-McCartney song that they gave to Billy J. Kramer in The Unreleased Beatles by Richie Unterberger encouraged me to finally start posting here. It’s called From A Window: feature=relmfu
That’s a link to a Beatles cover band’s version of the song
Just discovered this track myself. The Billy J Kramer version is okay, but I specifically like the cover above (from The Beatnix I think) as it really helps you imagine some Lennon/McCartney harmonies. As mmm pointed out, the lyrical similarities to No Reply are so interesting, you can hear how much their songwriting progressed between the two songs (a matter of months?)
Wishful thinking and I can’t seem to see one online, but since this thread started 8 years ago has anyone seen a Beatles demo surface?
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4.43pm
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1 May 2011
Offline It’s a nice pop 1960’s song but that’s it, you can see why John and Paul would have been happy to give it away. ‘No Reply ‘ for instance is by far a superior song with a darker undercurrent in the narrative.
kelicopter said
Wishful thinking and I can’t seem to see one online, but since this thread started 8 years ago has anyone seen a Beatles demo surface?
No demo has yet surfaced.
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kelicopter"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
3.57am
6 July 2020
Offline I would say it’s a charmingly happy song (and there’s nothing wrong with that) with all the engaging innocence of that mid 1960s era, and all the delightfully naive overtones (emotional ones I mean, rather than musical overtones as such!) of true FIRST LOVE … and that in the days when it could really be that simple for a young teenager. Does anyone here also recall the beautifullly naive innocence of first love? I DO! Is it ever possible to re-capture that – as a much older man or woman… who has taken the hard knocks of love and real life, yet stiill come through the fire believing in it, and maybe one day again, finnding this (with someone new)? Perhaps. Sometimes. Once in a blue mooon. If we are lucky. Yes, a ‘For No-One’ is a page out of the school of reality, yes. So is ‘Eleanor Rigby ‘.
But so is – from the same era in The Beatles most creative days: Harrison’s ‘I Want To Tell You ‘, ‘If I Needed Someone ‘ and ‘You Like Me Too Much ‘; or even Lennon and Mc.Cartney’s I’m Happy Just To Dance With You ‘ (which they gave to George anyway!). Well, he was the youngest of the Fab Four – but he too lived a love life in the end which was not without pain. But it didn’t make him cynical.
Or an ‘All You Need Is Love ‘ (and George referred to that, years later, iin his tribute to John – with ‘All Those Years Ago’).
Or, come to that; Paul’s own (or Lennnon/Mc. Cartney’s, if you will) ‘And I Love Her ‘ (even though his relationship with Jane Asher – which allegedly inspired that song – was often choppy, and ended badly, as we know)… or indeed ‘Hey Jude ‘ (“Take a sad song, and MAKE IT BETTER”!!)
“Oh, I would be gald just to have a love like that”
(like the beauitiful innocence of a love that began ‘from a window’)
“Oh, I would be true… and I’d live my life for you…”
Woulldn’t you – if you ever found that again? I SURE WOULD!!
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1.25pm
14 June 2016
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meanmistermustard said
It’s a nice pop 1960’s song but that’s it, you can see why John and Paul would have been happy to give it away. ‘No Reply ‘ for instance is by far a superior song with a darker undercurrent in the narrative.
I agree. It is a nice song, but definitely lower tier in comparison to their other work at the time.
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3.21pm
6 July 2020
Offline William Shears Campbell said
meanmistermustard said
It’s a nice pop 1960’s song but that’s it, you can see why John and Paul would have been happy to give it away. ‘No Reply ‘ for instance is by far a superior song with a darker undercurrent in the narrative.
I agree. It is a nice song, but definitely lower tier in comparison to their other work at the time.
Does there always have to be a ‘darker undercurrent’ to make it a great song?
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kelicopter "And, in the end; the love you take - is equal to the love YOU MAKE!" "Nowhere Man, THE WORLD is AT YOUR COMMAND!"
7.20am
7 November 2010
Offline edwardtheconfessor said
William Shears Campbell said
meanmistermustard said
It’s a nice pop 1960’s song but that’s it, you can see why John and Paul would have been happy to give it away. ‘No Reply ‘ for instance is by far a superior song with a darker undercurrent in the narrative.
I agree. It is a nice song, but definitely lower tier in comparison to their other work at the time.
Does there always have to be a ‘darker undercurrent’ to make it a great song?
I get what you’re saying, if a jolly pop song is done well then it doesn’t need any hidden meaning, it just is a great song.
I think for The Beatles, as they grew as a band and as people, their song writing matured, instrumentation became more complex, and generally the themes became darker. Now we tend to associate the darkness with the growth, and somehow by lacking the darkness this song seems juvenile in comparison? I don’t think that’s necessarily the right way to look at it to be fair, but it’s definitely how my brain comprehends it!
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sigh butterfly, edwardtheconfessorI think it's great you're going through a phase,
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11.42am
6 July 2020
Offline kelicopter said
edwardtheconfessor said
William Shears Campbell said
meanmistermustard said
It’s a nice pop 1960’s song but that’s it, you can see why John and Paul would have been happy to give it away. ‘No Reply ‘ for instance is by far a superior song with a darker undercurrent in the narrative.
I agree. It is a nice song, but definitely lower tier in comparison to their other work at the time.
Does there always have to be a ‘darker undercurrent’ to make it a great song?
I get what you’re saying, if a jolly pop song is done well then it doesn’t need any hidden meaning, it just is a great song.
I think for The Beatles, as they grew as a band and as people, their song writing matured, instrumentation became more complex, and generally the themes became darker. Now we tend to associate the darkness with the growth, and somehow by lacking the darkness this song seems juvenile in comparison? I don’t think that’s necessarily the right way to look at it to be fair, but it’s definitely how my brain comprehends it!
A fair and even-handed response, kelicopter. I tinink we will both – courteously – agree to differ on whether there is still a place, as I beleive there is – for all the (uncomplicated) innocence of young first love to be expressed in a similarly and appropriately uncomplicated love song; whether this was written by Lennon and Mc.Cartney more than forty years ago; or indeed, by other great songwriters, even decades before that, or else by a great composer since…
and regardless of whether the songsmith(s) themselves saw fit to ‘give’ the song to someone else to record and perform, or not. I think the proof of this is that not only did The Beatles themselves go on writing songs which were more in this way (and I named a few in my original post – above – which see); but that great songwriters and performers still continue to do such numbers, brand new or old… and these are, not infrequetly, big hits which sometimes MILLIONS of people feel they can relate to. That is why they continue to buy the recordings and to want to hear the songs… in some cases, again and again and again; and never tiring of them, for some people even, it would seem.
Agreed?
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kelicopter "And, in the end; the love you take - is equal to the love YOU MAKE!" "Nowhere Man, THE WORLD is AT YOUR COMMAND!"
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