By Terry Ott

First gen Beatle fans who were lucky enough to have a colour TV in the home back around 1965-6, may recall the short lived ABC Saturday morning cartoon called The Beatles.

Those that were not so lucky-and even those who were-should pick up Mitch Axelrod's excellent book, Beatletoons, The Real Story Behind The Cartoon Beatles, from Wynn Publishing.

Beatletoons, at 205 pages, and priced at $22.95 is jam packed with drawings-some in colour-and full of those interesting little factoids behind the cartoon series, as well as a well sourced history on the Fabs foray into 'toons.

Mitch gives a synopsis of each episode, with air dates, and a neat little feature called PRODUCTION NOTE, that explains some of the mistakes and boo-boos in the animation that are visible to the trained eye. (Hint: there were quite a few.)

Original sketches show how each Beatle was to have certain recognizable characteristics, but sometimes, things did not always work out as planned for the animators, and Mitch's book helps to explain why.

Axelrod has done an amazing job digging up what many Beatle fans do not even know exists, from a project that is now almost 40 years old.

Hopefully, this book will create some interest in getting Apple to consider a DVD release of the original series, something I know would warm the cockles of many Baby Boomer Fabs' fans hearts.

This is a book that many Beatle fans would certainly enjoy, regardless of their age.

Well recommended.

First gen Beatle fans who were lucky enough to have a colour TV in the home back around 1965-6, may recall the short lived ABC Saturday morning cartoon called The Beatles.

Those that were not so lucky-and even those who were-should pick up Mitch Axelrod's excellent book, Beatletoons, The Real Story Behind The Cartoon Beatles, from Wynn Publishing.

Beatletoons, at 205 pages, and priced at $22.95 is jam packed with drawings-some in colour-and full of those interesting little factoids behind the cartoon series, as well as a well sourced history on the Fabs foray into 'toons.

Mitch gives a synopsis of each episode, with air dates, and a neat little feature called PRODUCTION NOTE, that explains some of the mistakes and boo-boos in the animation that are visible to the trained eye. (Hint: there were quite a few.)

Original sketches show how each Beatle was to have certain recognizable characteristics, but sometimes, things did not always work out as planned for the animators, and Mitch's book helps to explain why.

Axelrod has done an amazing job digging up what many Beatle fans do not even know exists, from a project that is now almost 40 years old.

Hopefully, this book will create some interest in getting Apple to consider a DVD release of the original series, something I know would warm the cockles of many Baby Boomer Fabs' fans hearts.

This is a book that many Beatle fans would certainly enjoy, regardless of their age.

Well recommended.

You say you want a revolution?

I think it's time to mix some Beatles with a little politics.

1968 has been described by some historians as the year America had a nervous breakdown, played out in real time, on television.

Those old enough to remember-as well as those who are not but have studied their history books-will know that 1968 was the year of massive anti-Vietnam war protests, assassinations, and a terrible police and demonstrator riot at the Democratic convention in Chicago.

1968 was also the year the Beatles weighed in with the song Revolution, which was an obvious anthem for the year, but may also have been in retrospect a corresponding call to arms of what Richard Nixon called the great silent majority.

And while there will be no new Beatles song to rally the masses this election year, things I am reading in the papers lately have me concerned that those who protest, doth protest too much, and may end up with exactly the opposite of what they are yelling for-or against.

The New York Times reported today that a literal legion of protesters will be descending on the Republican national convention in New York City late this summer, and are promising to march and demonstrate whether the police issue permits or not. According to ther Times story, the goal of the protestors is to effectively shut down the convention. Much ugliness could follow if this comes to pass.

And filmmaker Michael Moore's latest opus, Fahrenheit 9/11, an intense hatchet job on president George W. Bush's term and handling of the "war on terror," is so polemic that I fear a backlash. And belive me, I'm no Bush fan.

Just as the vibe of general anarchy was marched to the Revolution beat in 1968 and ultimately resulted in the election of Nixon, I fear that too much "revolution" in the popular culture will result in more of the same old for the next 4 years. Maybe; maybe not.

But let's hope that Democratic nominee for president,Senator John Kerry, keeps his theme songs more along the lines of, We Can Work It Out, instead of Revolution.

According to a post on a Beatles Internet forum, Beatle Brunch told its listeners that a "source" claimed that the release of the first four US issue Beatles albums will be coming soon.

That would be, Meet The Beatles, The Beatles Second Album, Something New and A Hard Day's Night.

I guess the timings right; all 4 LPs could be seen to celebrate their 40th anniversary this year, and God knows most fans in North America would most likely nostalgically embrace the platters they first experienced the Fabs with.

Still, I have a hard time believing the story.

I mean it makes sense from a cashing in perspective for Apple/EMI/Capitol as all that would have to be done to accomplish mega sales would be to put bonus tracks on each release, or make like the successful Beach Boys Twofers of the early 90s, and then add extra stuff.

But after all the talk now almost 20 years ago from the Beatles themselves that the UK albums were really the way they intended their records to be presented and the US albums were badly mastered and had too few tracks and all, a 180 turn seems strange.

Yet I guess if the story is true, we would be getting newly remastered/remixed versions of many of the songs for the first time on CD, which would be a good thing.

But I suppose that when Apple Corps is involved, anything is possible. Or to put it another wasy: hello, goodbye.

My good friend Marty from Texas came through large again today.

A package of goodies that I will most likely be referring to for some time, but right now I would like to concentrate on George Harrison's 1974 North American tour.

Marty sent me a very reasonable soundboard of the Harri's On Tour December 1974 Washington DC area gig.

I actually had a chance to see the tour, now some 30 years ago, when it touched down at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, shortly before Christmas. My friend had a ticket, but I didn't have the good sense and foresight to go that night, and I have always regretted it.

Although Harrison had been given a rough ride in the rock press, first with Living In The Material World, and then the '74 tour where his voice sometimes failed him, my friend loved the show, and listening to the Washington gig, I can see (hear) why.

Lively versions of well known Harrison hits and George's version of In My LIfe, plus Billy Preston make me want to shout to the powers that be: release a double CD from the '74 tour! And soon.

This year would make perfect timing, and Lord knows we can always, always, use more music from George Harrison.

What are your thoughts?

I mentioned to you last week that I would let you know when I would be returning to the airwaves with Beatle content.

Well folks, the time is near nigh.

On Wednesday, May 19, I will be guesting for an hour on Hometown Afternoon With Bob Sherwin on 900 CHML AM in Hamilton, Ontario, from 6-7PM.

You can listen in live at http://www.900chml.com

I would invite any readers who are so inclined to call in and participate in what I am sure will be a lively discussion on the Fabs.

Bob is a big Beatles fan and I will be bringing along some special treats of a rare audio variety, which I hope the listeners will find entertaining.

Topics already being considered are the "missing" Hollywood Bowl album on CD, as well as the whole issue of just when the bloody 'ell Apple/EMI are going to come up with the new digitally remastered Beatles albums, hopefully in 5.1 audio.

I look forward to a great hour, and hopefully hearing from you.

Well, the great Helter Skleter hype of 2004 has come and gone. Or has it just started?

I have just finished watching the 3 hour CBS TV movie and while I do not consider it as bad as some observers have opined, I have to say that the film was successful in perpetuating the myth that the Beatles music was responsible for the Charles Manson murders.

And I would be willing to bet that sales of the White Album will spike this week, as a whole new generation of fans leap to discover the "hidden meanings" and other such rubbish that the prosecutor of Manson's case made famous at trial and in a book, and now in this movie.

Sunday's TV movie only featured one Beatles song-Helter Skelter-in the soundtrack, although the TV Charlie Manson strums his guitar to a short version of Revolution, and a mention is made of Revolution Number 9.

The fact is that the Manson case may be the most complicated and intricate criminal case in the history of United States, and to hang such enigma at the feet of a raucous pop song seems to me to be downright silly.

I also fear that HS 2004 has played into the cult of celebrity that is so rampant in Western society at present, because what essentially has happened is that 70 year old Charlie, rotting away in jail now for 35 years, gets to starf**k the mass media one more time.

Everyone will take away something different from the film, but in my opinion it has kicked off what will sure to be a summer long rehashing of the senseless Manson murders, and the Beatle connection only makes it more attractive to the curious.

In the film, it is said that Manson believed in two things: the Bible and the Beatles. Strange isn't then that 2004 was the year of the great celluoid Jesus, He of The Passion of Christ, and now with this film the Beatles are said once again to be the soundtrackers for perhaps the most brutal murders in US history.

Charlie may not surf, but he sure knows how to sucker.

Ha! I just knew that Sir Paul McCartney (Macca to me, mate) was reading Beatle Bits and taking my advice.

Readers with a memory longer than a jellied eel pie will recall that I have advised the Macca Man to once and for all do away with the silly nonsense of Charles Manson and Helter Skelter by performing the seminal 1968 White Album tune, during SPM's Summer Tour '04.

Well! According to AbbeyRd's link to a Macca-mad site, the contributor swore that Paul was overheard rehearsing HS at the London Millennium Dome just last week.

Pure vindication for all the slings and arrows I have received over the last 6 months or so from many a Macca Madhatter, who claim that I dislike their deity. Which is, of course, total rubbish.

Now that it is known that SPM consults BB before he does anything, maybe they will give me a friggin' break.

With a little luck...

Regular readers of this space may recall that about a month ago, I raised the issue of the new CBS TV movie entitled, Helter Skelter, and how it may in turn raise issue and or ire with Beatle fans who don't want to see any connection whatsoever with mass murderer, Charles Manson.

Well, if an excerpt of the new HS movie shown on Inside Edition is any clue, the Beatles and their music figure large in the 3 hour film, to be broadcast on Sunday May 16.
(Inside Edtion is hot for this film, as they followed up their inital report with what they called "exclusive" never before shown footage of Manson victim Sharon Tate's screen test for Valley Of the Dolls.)

The TV Manson is shown witealllllllly reallllllllly missed him, him, HIM, a lot. Especially since he didn't even go. And because it felt weird to dance with someone else. And because I bought that dress for his-and-my "future" prom a long time ago. And while my friends are bodacious, I think I'm still sad, especially in light of the past month's events.

And then he saw my pictures and didn't even tell me I looked pretty.

If you really want to know.n't even tell me I looked pretty.

If you really want to know.

Got a slightly strange e-mail the other day from

A newcomer to one of the Beatles Internet forums asked recently where he could find the 27 minute version of Helter Skelter.

As many Beatle fans consider this to be-in what is fast becoming a well-worn phrase-the Holy grail of Beatle recordings, there were a few guffaws all around. Silly boy, don't you know this recording is unattainable?

Locked away at Abbey Road Studios, and said to only exist outside of there, in the hands of the songs composer, Sir Paul McCartney.

Evidently, when John Barrett was busy dubbing (just about) everything else at Abbey Road back in the early 80s, he took a pass on the 27 minute HS, and so we can only surmise from brief descriptions what it is like.

But if memory serves, I believe Beatles recording session archival author Mark Lewishon though the 27 minute HS to be rather raucous. I think John Lennon said in 1968 that the Lads had been "mad" on the night the long take was done. Whatever, it is quite amazing that no purloined copies of HS27 have made it out.

However, the true believers should steal themselves for the possibility that the Holy Grail may turn out to be the Tiresome Turkey, or some other such animal.

The version of HS on Anthology 3 was a rather plodding, bluesy number, rather than the all-out raver that the released mono and stereo versions are.

And also don't forget that the average Beatle fan does not give a considered crap about Helter Skelter in any form, let alone a version that requires a half hour of their time.

Still, as one who does give a crap, I'm looking forward to one day hearing it.

If I live that long.

It has been some 5 months now since I completed my 5 year run of The Fab Four Find of the Week on radio here in southern Ontario.

And frankly I have missed it.

Missed playing all those "rare" Beatle and solo Fab tunes and weaving a little story around them, and of course the great feedback I got from so many listeners.

Well, it looks like if all the stars align and planets don't collide, I will be back on the air soon-and if, when and where I will let you know well beforehand.

But in any event, it will be my intention to occasionally talk to Beatles fans from around the world on the program, and get input from them any number of Fabs' topics.

So if any of you out there feel that you have a unique Beatles story or perspective, I would love to hear from you.

For instance, anyone who was at an original Beatles concert circa 1962-66, or at a John Lennon event or George Harrison gig, I would sure like to hear from you.

All you would have to possess is a story and a will to tell it, and things would be Fab, for sure.

So zap me an E, and we'll see what happens.

Got a well wrapped package today from my good friend John in NYC.

And in that package was something that I had been angling for, for some time now.

Living In The Alternate World, a pretty much self-explanatory title for you George Harrison fans out there.

The complete Living In The Material World album,-plus the non album B side, Miss O'Dell-albeit in a form that I had never heard before, LITAW is a very telling recording.

Telling in that listening to it quickly reveals that George was not firing on all cylinders like he was so obviously 3 years earlier with All Things Must Pass and which came through loud and clear on The Making of All Things Must Pass and Songs For Patti discs.

At the risk of doing you in with acronyms, I think that LITAW shows that LITMW is the album that could have been (near) great, but got lost along the way-for whatever reason. (it goes without saying that the songs were not of the caliber of ATMP to begin with.)

Even 31 years after the fact, I can still recall the anticipation building in the spring of 1973, when Rolling Stone magazine announced that there would be a new George Harrison album come summertime.

And when the single Give Me Love-which is included on LITAW without its signature lead guitar line- appeared in the late spring and shot right to number one, the Beatlemania-related pump was mighty primed. But Living In The Material World-described eventually by Rolling Stone as "Give him dope, give him hope," was a pious and preachy and introspective work that the public could not warm to like it had the more openly spirtual ATMP.

But if you think LITMW was cloying and overwrought, wait until you hear the versions of LITMW songs on LITAW. Except for take 2 of Be Here Now which is quite nice, the alts on the Alternate World sound, well-sorry, lame. Especially the vocals, although there are some nice variations on the arrangements that maybe George should have left in for the completed album. (Also, be forewarned that many of the album cuts on LITAW are instrumental only, and the overall sound balance on the disc is a tad dull.)

Yet LITMW remains my second favorite GH effort, and listening to LITAW just makes me hope that we will see a remastered edition of LITMW with (many) extras sometime in this decade.

Whatever else you do with your money this merry month of May,make damn sure that you save $20 for the MOJO Special Limited Edition, The Beatles, Classic, Rare & Unseen magazine, which bills itself-correctly I think- as "The Ultimate Beatles Picture Gallery."

In the 40 odd years I have been a Beatle fan, I have seen some pretty amazing photographs of perhaps the most photographed human beings in history. But this MOJO issue not only provides numerous pix that I have never seen before, but there are also rare and seldom scenes shots that are plenty redeeming.

Although all of the photog's work featured in MOJO is outstanding, I would like to draw your attention to Bob Whitaker, who took the infamous "Butcher" photograph in 1966.

Bob tells MOJO that it was "crap" that the idea for the Butcher shot came from Capitol's "butchering" of the Fabs' UK albums for their US release. Rather, he says, the Butcher shoot evolved from many political and philosophical discussions Bob had with John Lennon from 1964-6.

So as great as the pictures are in the MOJO special, the accompanying text is just as revelatory in that it fills in many spaces and corrects many misconceptions about the Beatles and their times.

But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and one shot of George Harrison in full grin shows not only how poor the National Health dentistry plan must have been, but also how much work was required to make it right.(George's dentist in 1966 was the one that turned the Fabs on to LSD.) Yes, the Beatles were human as well, bad teeth and all.

140 pages and 138 photographs make this an absolute must-have for Fabs' fans.

And so it is with the utmost recommendation that I direct you to the May MOJO special.

I would like to do a little journalistic rant today, because I think many worthwhile stories about the Beatles are going unreported in Canadian newspapers.

Case in point: the Beatlemania Shop in Toronto, Ontario has set up a great Beatles cartoon art exhibit for May 1 with 100 pieces of Fabs' 'toon stuff from both the 1965 ABC Beatles Saturday morning series, as well as the Yellow Submarine movie.

The animator, Ron Campbell, who worked on both projects, will be in store to answer questions and if you have a chance to get out and see this exhibit, I think it would be worth your while.

And yet not one of the 4 major dailies in Toronto were interested in a story on the art exhibit, even though I have been writing about the Fabs for most of those papers in question since 1998.

Maybe the Yellow Submarine theme has been over exposed in the last 5 years or so, but the ABC Fabs' cartoon series is mostly a little known relic of the days when Beatlemnia ruled, now almost 40 years ago.

I remember that when the ABC series premeried, I and most of my frineds were disapointed that it was not the Beatles own voices employed in the show. In fact, I seem to recall that we all thought the thing was pretty lame.

At the time, the cartoon escapades may have been too juvenile for the rapidly maturing first gen Fabs' fans like us-all of 10 or 11 years old!

But now, with the tremendous value of hindsight, the whole project takes on a much more interestingly nostlagic hue.

Too bad a bigger audience in the Toronto area won't know about it.