5 February 2012

Beatles Questions to gladden the heart (and emblister the fingers)


Still in Beatles mode, I may as well add three questions which have occured to me. No prizes or anything - only the pleasure of knowing you're really great.


1 Who said "The sitar's alright as a living, George, but you'll never make a hobby at it"?

2 Another question, this time a true or false one: Ringo's Octopus's Garden was actually written for the Hard Day's Night film when it still had the working title Eight Arms to Hold You. Is that true or is it false?

3 My final Beatles question, again true or false. Snookeroo, written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, which appeared on Ringo's Goodnight Vienna album, was not, as has been claimed, written with Ringo in mind. In actual fact it was originally intended for Max Bygraves who had commissiioned a gently nostalgiac musical set in WW2 from the talented pair and bore the original title Snoek - Ooh Er! in reference to rationing. When Bygraves went cold on the project Bernie Taupin turned in a new set of lyrics in twenty minutes - I won't say something of a marathon session for him, as that would be childish - and offered them to Ringo.

Now is that true or is it false? Here's the Ringo version, as youtube don't seem to have the original.



Oh, and here's Elton's demo of that reworked version, rumoured to have been recorded in Westminster Abbey, though that seems unlikely, to judge from the acoustics:

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