McCartney Orchestral Stuff

Hmm. Not sure why Carnival of Light is being mentioned. It was a Beatles improv track, of course. I don't think it's been bootlegged, has it? And Liverpool Sound Collage is mostly tape collage stuff.

One that I'd really like to hear is the Thrillington album--an all instrumental version of Ram (I don't know if it's "orchestral," but I think it uses Classical instrumentation). The album was released under a pseudonym in the late '70s. I think there was one CD issue of it somewhere in the world once, but I've never seen it.

I saw copies of Thrillington on CD at Amoeba the other day that looked legit. For some reason I passed, but I don't think I will if I see it again. It's got the Swingle Singers on it...

Liverpool Sound Collage isn't that inspired, just stacks of loops being turned on and off, but it's not as terrible as I thought it would be either. Was worth four dollars.

After all these years I've never heard "Carnival of Light" (I'm not on soulseek).

I got to listen to the Thrillington CD in a record store a few years ago. I was (and am) a huge Ram fan and expected to like it a lot (I like orchestral versions of pop songs). Short version: didn't like it much and passed. I'd probably buy it if I found a copy for $8 or so, but I remember it being surprisingly boring.

"Carnival of Light" is meant to be arse isnt it?

Ah, I think I must have been mistaken as to "Carnival" -- Uncut had a bit on it last month, and I think I mistook what it was.

I downloaded Thrillington -- I wouldn't pay top dollar for it, but it has its moments to be sure. The Swingle Sisters' take on "Dear Boy" made it on to my friend's wedding reception mix, actually...

sold. although simultaneously frightened.

pissy song for a wedding reception, btw, nice one

Thanks — though it's a capella and wordless, which made it an easier one to sneak past them.

As I'm re-reading the bit on "Carnival of Light" in Uncut, it says that it's a collage collaboration between Macca and George Martin. That sounds more like "Revolution 9" than improv...

I don't think that's accurate, actually. Here's the description in Barry Miles' Many Years from Now:

"The Beatles under Paul's direction freaked out at Abbey Road, producing an expiremental tape just under fourteen minutes long. the tape has no rhythm, though a beat is sometimes established for a few bars by the percussion or a rhythmic pounding on the piano. There is no melody, though snatches of a tune sometimes threaten to break through. the Beatles make literally random sounds, although they sometimes respond to each other; for instance, a burst of organ notes answered by a rattle of percussion. The basic track was recorded slow so that some of the drums and organ were very deep and sonorous, like the bass notes of a cathedral organ. Much of it is echoes and it is often hard to tell if you are listening to a slowed-down cymbal or a tubular bell. John and paul yell with massive amounts of reverb on their voices, there are Indian war cries, whistling, close-miked gasping, genuine coughing and fragments of studio conversation, ending with paul asking with echo, 'Can we hear it back now?' The tape was obviously overdubbed and has bursts of feedback guitar, schmaltzy cinema organ, snatches of jangling pub piano, some unpleasant electronic feedback and John yelling, 'Electricity.' There is a great deal of percussion throughout, again much of it overdubbed. The tape was made with full stereo separation, and is essentially an exercise in musical layers and textures. It most resembles 'The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet,' the twelve minute final track on Frank Zappa's Freak Out album, except there is no rhythm and the music here is more fragmented, abstract and serious. The deep organ notes at the beginning of the piece set the tone as slow and contemplative."

Kudos for typing that out, Tim...

At any rate, I'd like to hear it — it's contemporaneous with Freak Out, actually.

Thrillington was available on CD in Spain about nine years ago, if that helps. I could never be bothered with it, for better or for worse.

ian mcdonald had his say on it in 'revolution in the head'.
it's still on sale in MUSIC ZONEs country wide that book for less than a fiver. worth anybody's money that, cause as i've said many times before on ILM it's fckng mint.

And for those of us who've never been able to track it down, what did Ian Mac say?

There's also that Ian Peel book The Unknown McCartney, which, I think, has a section on Thrillington.

Oh, right — that came out last (or this) year, right?

I remember reading "Carnival of Light" was taped either in late '66 or early '67, around the time they started on Sgt. Pepper. It actually ended up as the soundtrack to some avant garde London 'happening' that year and was never released since then.

It's one of the Holy Grails of Beatles bootlegs, along with the 27 minute version of "Helter Skelter" and the complete first take of "Revolution"...

Yeah, that's a recent book. I've only looked at it in the store.

By the way, I recently got an old double LP vinyl bootleg called The Lost McCartney Album, which is supposedly the original double album version of McCartney II. Pretty great--people would have had less inclination to dismiss that album as lightweight whimsy or whatever if they had been confronted with the full scope weirdness of the original double album version.

Wow, really? What's on it?!?

Is it this?

McCartney, Paul
The Lost McCartney Album
Disc 1
Front Parlour
Frozen Jap
All You Horse Riders
Blue Sway
Temporary Secretary
On The Way
Mr. H Atom
Summer's Day Song
You Know I'll Get You Baby
Bogey Wobble
Disc 2
Darkroom
One Of These Days
Secret Friend
Bogey Music
Check My Machine
Waterfalls
Nobody Knows
Coming Up

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

It's got those two really minimal long tracks that were on B-sides of the singles for that album--"Secret Friend" and "Check My Machine." Plus...

* Longer versions of "Front Parlour" and "Frozen Jap"
* A track called "All You Horseriders" (Paul shouts instructions to horse riders over synth backing for 3:45)
* Two tracks called "Blue Sway" and "You Know I'll Get You Baby"--I'm forgetting what this one sounds like. They're both experimental tracks.
* A track called "Mr. H. Atom"--This is a cool one with Linda singing lead on just one repeated line: "Mr. H. Atom lives in a flat on the male side of town" plus spoken bit by Paul. Said to be about the theory of the difference in the number of atoms determining gender outcomes in fertilized human eggs.
* An instrumental called "Bogey Wobble" ("Bogey Music" companion piece)
* Also, "Summer Day Song" was, it is said, originally an instrumental. This album has the instrumental version.

Pretty awesome, needless to say. Funny that McCartney II is often considered one of his worst albums--I wonder how the general perception over the years of him might have changed if he had released this version of Mccartney II in 1980 instead.

I'll try to pull it down. I dunno -- I've always really liked McCartney II, as have most Macca nuts, as far as I know. "Summer Day Song" has always sounded (to me, anyway) like he'd been listening to Eno's Before and After Science...

so, there's no way to find carnival ? damn...
i've just lost my faith in the IT...