The Styrous® Viewfinder: The Beatles

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June 20, 2024

Music Note: The Beatles ~ Yesterday & Today

Yesterday & Today by the Beatles, probably one of the most controversial album covers in music history, was released by Capitol Records on June 20, 1966, 58 years ago.

Known as the "butcher cover", it was taken by photographer Robert Whitaker and shows the band dressed in white coats and covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of raw meat. Although the photo was intended to be part of a larger work critiquing the adulation afforded the Beatles, the band members insisted it was a statement against the Vietnam War. Others interpreted it as the Beatles protesting the record company's policy of "butchering" their albums for the North American market. In response to retailers' concern over the gory subject matter, Capitol immediately withdrew the LP and replaced the cover image with a shot of the band posed around a "steamer" trunk.

the Beatles ~ Yesterday & Today
steamer trunk cover

photo by Robert Whitaker

The original LP became a highly prized item among collectors. Since some of Capitol's pressing plants merely pasted the trunk image onto the existing LP covers, the album also encouraged a phenomenon of stripping back the top layer of artwork in the search for a banned butcher cover.

Having been deleted from Capitol's catalogue in the early-mid 1990s, Yesterday and Today was reissued on CD in 2014.

Viewfinder links:

all things Beatles

Robert Whitaker

Net links:

The Beatles Bible ~ Yesterday… And Today

Beatles Music History ~ Yesterday And Today the in-depth story

Rare Records ~ The Beatles Butcher Cover – Yesterday and Today

Ultimate Classic Rock ~ When the Beatles Courted Controversy

YouTube links:

THE BEATLES – Yesterday And Today LP Mono 1966 (Peeled Butcher Cover)

The Beatles & The Butcher - The Story of Yesterday & Today

Styrous® ~ Sunday, May 16, 2021

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Robert Whitaker articles/mentions

mentions:

The Beatles ~ Yesterday & Today

Robert Whitaker

self-portrait

Photographers
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March 23, 2024

John Lennon and Yoko Ono Gibraltar postage stamps

John Lennon and Yoko Ono postage stamps - 1969

420 - 2021

photo by Styrous®

Fifty-five years ago, on march 23, 1969, Gibraltar printed but never issued a set of postage stamps that would have commemorated the wedding of John Lennon and Yoko Ono who were married in Gibraltar on March 20, 1969, and spent their honeymoon at the Hilton Amsterdam, campaigning with a week-long Bed-In for Peace against the Vietnam War.

Bed-In for Peace - March 25, 1969

photo by Gerry Deiter

On the last day of their Bed-In for Peace, John Lennon wrote his iconic anti-war song song, Give Peace a Chance. Released as a single in July 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, it is the first solo single issued by Lennon, released while he was still a member of the Beatles, and became an anthem of the American anti-war movement during the 1970s. It peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the British singles chart.

A photo exhibition and other events remembering Yoko Ono and John Lennon, The Beatles songwriter who was shot and killed in New York in 1980, are being held this week in Amsterdam to commemorate the events 50 years ago.

In 2020 on the 21st of September, International Peace Day, a film by Yoko Ono was released (link below). What ono has said about the film:

Dear Friends, In 1969, John and I were so naïve to think that doing the Bed-In would help change the world. Well, it might have. But at the time, we didn't know. It was good that we filmed it, though. The film is powerful now. What we said then could have been said now. In fact, there are things that we said then in the film, which may give some encouragement and inspiration to the activists of today. Good luck to us all. Let's remember WAR IS OVER If We Want It. It's up to us, and nobody else. John would have wanted to say that. love, Yoko Ono Lennon."

NYC International Peace Day, 21 September 2020"

Viewfinder links:

Gerry Deiter

Postal stamps on the Viewfinder

Net links:

CTV News ~ Photos of Ono & Lennon Bed-in for Peace protest Gerry Deiter

UN ~ International Day of Peace 21 September

Vanity Fair ~ Rarely Seen Photos of Ono and Lennon

YouTube links:

Bed Piece (1969) (complete film) (1 hr, 10 mins., 55 secs.)

Govert De Roos ~ John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s Bed in for peace

History Chanel ~ 50th Anniversary of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono "Bed-In"

John Lennon & Yoko Ono - 1980
photo by Kishin Shinoyama

Styrous® ~ Sunday, April 18, 2021

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December 19, 2022

45 RPMs 72: Carl Perkins ~ Blue Suede Shoes

Carl Perkins ~ Blue Suede Shoes
45 RPM record label, side 1

Seventy-two years ago today, on December 19, 1955, Carl Perkins recorded Blue Suede Shoes for Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennesee.

I was heavy into rhythm 'n blues and was intrigued by this "new" sound and went crazy over the song. When Elvis Presley later released a cover of it on August 31, 1956, I hated his version and wouldn't buy it. It is the only Presley song from his early period I don't have on 45.

This was the only Top 40 hit for Perkins on the pop charts but his influence reaches much further. He was extremely influential to other artists, including Presley, The Beatles and Johnny Cash. Perkins was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. This was the first song to hit the US Pop, Country, and R&B charts at the same time. Released on January 1, 1956, the song made a slow climb up the charts, appearing on all three in May, which is when it reached its peak of #2 on the Pop charts.

Blue suede shoes were a luxury item in the South, a stylish footwear for a night out. Perkins never owned a pair, but Johnny Cash told him a story about someone who did.

The lyrics describe things Perkins would prefer over getting his shoes scuffed, and the list includes derelict behavior: stepping on his face, stealing his car, burning down his house and drinking his liquor. Some in the Sinatra-loving older generation were horrified, and used the song to back their case that rock 'n' roll was the Devil's music.

Blue Suede Shoes

Well, it's one for the money two for the show
Three to get ready now go, cat, go

But don't you step on my blue suede shoes
Well you can do anything but
Lay off of my blue suede shoes

Well, you can knock me down, step in my face
Slander my name all over the place
Do anything that you want to do
But uh-uh honey, lay off of my shoes

Don't you step on my blue suede shoes
You can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes
Now let's go cats (oh walk the dogs)

You can burn my house, steal my car
Drink my liquor from an old fruit-jar
Do anything that you want to do
But uh-uh baby, lay off of my shoes

Don't you step on my blue suede shoes
You can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes
Rock it

Well, it's one for the money, two for the show
Three to get ready now go, cat, go

But don't you step on my blue suede shoes
Well you can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes
Go cat uh

Blue, blue suede shoes oh baby
Blue, blue suede shoes uh ha
Blue, blue suede shoes oh baby
Blue, blue suede shoes
You do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes

Songwriter: Carl Perkins

Perkins wrote Blue Suede Shoes on a 1953 Gibson Les Paul, a solid body electric guitar; he also used it on all of this Sun recordings. The guitar was originally a Gold Top when Perkins bought it new in 1953 and after his hit Blue Suede Shoes he had it painted Blue.

1953 Gibson Les Paul

One of Perkins last appearances was with Dave Edmunds performing Blue Suede Shoes on The Jay Leno Show in 1997 (Perkins died the next year).

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A Blue Suede Shoes - 2:14

Side 2:

B Honey, Don't! - 2:48

Companies, etc.

Published By Hi-Lo Music

Written by Perkins*

Credits:

A & B: Hi Lo Music (BMI)

Notes:

Runouts are etched.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Rights Society: BMI
    Matrix / Runout (A side label): U 176
    Matrix / Runout (B side label): U 177
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout): U-176-45
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout): U-177-45

Label: Sun – 234
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single
Country: US
Released: Jan 1, 1956
Genre: Rock
Style: Rockabilly

Viewfinder links:

Johnny Cash

Dave Edmonds
Carl Perkins

Elvis Presley

Net links:

Songfacts ~ Blue Suede Shoes

YouTube links:

Carl Perkins ~ Blue Suede Shoes

Elvis Presley ~ Blue Suede Shoes

Blue Suede Shoes sheet music

Styrous® ~ Monday, December 19, 2022

45 RPMs Archive
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April 20, 2022

The Beatles & Grateful Dead ~ Breaking records after 55 years

The Beatles poster - 1966

The Beatles poster from their August 23, 1966, concert, almost 56 years ago, at Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City, went up for auction last Saturday, April 16, at the Heritage Auctions ‘Music Memorabilia Signature®’ sale in Dallas, Texas. The bids started at $115,000 and ended at $275,000 (including premium). It was a new auction record for a concert poster.

The poster came from a family that had owned the poster for the last 55 years; the family owned no other posters, and kept the Beatles placard on display, a fond keepsake from a show the family's matriarch actually attended. The family brought it to Heritage Auctions when they realized the value of it. Unlike previous Beatles-at-Shea record-holders, the one sold Saturday from the Fab Four’s final tour was untouched by conservation experts.

In the same auction, a beautifully-preserved ‘Skeleton and Rose’ poster for the September 1966 San Francisco Grateful Dead concerts sold for $137,500, a new, top result for a concert poster of the ‘psychedelic era’.

Grateful Dead poster - 1966

Viewfinder links:

all things Beatles

Grateful Dead

Net links:

Antiques Trade Gazette ~ Beatles 1966 poster sets a new high

Live Auctioneers ~ Beatles concert poster sets new world auction record

YouTube links:

Beatles Mania: A Couple's Collection

Heritage Auctions ~ The Beatles 1966 Shea Stadium NY Concert Poster

Styrous® ~ Wednesday, April 20, 2022

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December 22, 2021

Marcia Donahue ~ An Octopus' Garden in Winter

Photos by Styrous®

Seven years ago, Tom and I along with our friends from Barcelona, Ana Briongos and Toni Alsina, visited the spellbinding garden of sculptor Marcia Donahue in Berkeley on a warm August afternoon (link below).

Ana and Toni are here again for Christmas and they wanted to revisit the garden. What could be a better way to celebrate the holiday on a cold winter day? So, off we trekked to her house. Marcia was out of town but her daughter was there and the garden was open, so, we entered Marcia's fantasy world.

Toni Alsina, Ana Briongos & Tom White

Although there aren't any, for some reason, when I am in her garden, I think of the 1969 song by The Beatles, Octopus' Garden, which was written by Ringo Starr. It's a bouncy, happy song that always makes me feel good when I listen to it. It's been covered by everyone, almost, in every form imaginable, even a ukulele group (links below); now that I think about it, I wonder why Tiny Tim didn't.