By Terry Ott

Although this notion may set the MMs off again, I think it is worth discussing:

It has always occurred to me that Yoko Ono carries two very large and heavy crucibles upon her slender shoulders.

First as THE ONE who supposedly broke up the Beatles, and secondly, as the one who was with the lead Beatle as he departed this earth.

Talk about carry that weight; how would you like to tote those two events around for the rest of your life?

Now anyone who really trys to understand the dynamic that parted the Fabs knows that it is not so black and white about what or who broke up the Beatles, although certainly Yoko does figure large in the equation.

Still, when John Lennon was with us, the notion that Ms. Ono had wrecked the greatest show on earth would be greatly tempered by her long and fruitful partnership with John.

But when her husband was gunned down right before her very eyes, now some 25 years ago, it must have very quickly dawned on Ms. Ono that ironically, she was present when John and the Beatles seperated, and she was also right there when John departed from all of us.

I think having this history and cruel twist of fate hanging over your head would be almost unbareble, yet Yoko seems to have done the best she could under the circumstances and has carved out an interesting life in the quarter century since John's untimely demise.

And even in death, Ms. Ono has to know that perhaps the first or second line in an obit would describe her as "the one who broke up the Beatles," or something to that effect.

So, try living with all that hanging over your head, as well as trying to keep the fans happy with more Lennon product, yet at the same time protecting John's legacy.

I believe history will bear out that Yoko Ono was a very special human being, and did all she could to keep the Fabs fire burning, and in fact should be considered as the real "fifth Beatle."

A regular reader e'd me last week, warning that I may unleash yet again the hordes of Macca Madhatters who seemingly lurk all over cyberspace, waiting to pounce on any writer who dares to comment on Sir Paul McCartney.

Yes, I have had some famous feuds with some of the more venal MM shock troops over the years, but lately, I guess they have kept their bizrre ranting to themselves, or at least to their Macca worship websites.

And I must confess that I still find it hard to believe that any normal-and normal is the operative word here- fan of Macca would feel the need to attack a journalist who for the most part is complimentary of SPM, and his music.

After all, if I write anything that is not positive about John Lennon, George Harrison or Ringo Star, I rarely-if ever-get the kind of hate mail that I get from the MM nuts out there.

AbbeyRd Steve even had to get involved once when the MMs complained to him, and he looked back at the various BBs, and could find very little in the way of negative postings about Paul.

Well, well, well, can you even Imagine what those freaks are thinking?

I mean, if I said something like, "the only thing you done, was Yesterday," then maybe I'm amazed if the MMs did not protest.

Nope. Never said that Macca's stuff was Muzak to my ears, and in fact, never would complain of silly love songs.

Hell, I think you get what I mean.

Some scoundrels have suggested that the upcoming "When I'm 63 1/2 Tour" by Sir Paul McCartney is but another ageing rock star magic carpet cash in ride that frankly should not be given any notice at all.

Yes, damn those nabobs of negativity that find fault in just about anything that Dirk, er Paul does.

Pity poor SPM for when it is all said and done, after all, the worst thing He's got going against Him is that He is not John Lennon.

Would John have played Vegas with the wife and guys? Of course, we will never know, but I sure do find it ironic in that in this year of our Lord, 2005, 25 years on since Lennon was so rudely ripped from us, his old Beatles bandmate performs in a venue that is more Tom Jones/Rat Pack, than rock.

Now Macca promises a brand new show, with heretofore unperformed live Beatle and Wings classics, and for that I guess we should be thankful, sort of.

Because also of concern is the general health of our rapidly olding icons.

Just this week, the 5th Rutle, er Beatle, Pete Best, had to postpone a tour due to the seriously ill health of a band member.

So I am fearful-as I have predicted for some time now-that we may lose one of our heros on stage one of these daze, something that almost happened in Las Vegas in 2002 when the Who lost their bass player to a heart attack just hours before a performance.

Now Dirk has been a good boy for the past 20 years, chucking the smokes and meat, but hey, when ya get in yer 60s, well, ya never know when ya might be called to that great gig in the sky.

So, I give a big thumbs up to the Macca 2005 tour, and here's hoping there's enough left in the tank for when he is 64.

Love life, and all you need, is cash.

A good American friend of mine who is a big time Beatles collector, recently sent me another package of audio goodies.

Although but only 8 CDs worth of the (in)famous 80 odd discs of Yellow Dog Get Back sessions, my buddy picked some of the highlights of the sessions, and that included some stuff that I had never heard before.

Now, it is nothing new that bootlegs of the GB sessions have been around, for some 30 years now, but never before in such great sound quality, with the annoying Nagra tape machine beeps, well buried in the mix.

If you ever get the chance to really sit down and consume these audio artifacts, by all means do so.

As John Lennon once said of the "shitty" tapes, it was the Beatles "with their trousers down."

Producer Phil Spector would go on to construct the Fabs' swan song original album from the hundreds of hours of tapes, but what makes the GB stuff so fascinating to me, is to hear how hard Paul McCartney tried to hold the band together, when, as Lennon so famously said, he wanted "a divorce."

Paul comes off sounding quite unsure of himself at times,defensive and at some points, even daft.

Once, John tells Macca to "f**k off," but quickly returns to playing, and the incident evaporates into the jam session.

Listening to these tapes, it is very obvious that by January 1969, nothing could save the beatles from break-up, not even the tour de force that would become the Abbey Road album.

It will be very interesting to see just how much of the acrimony-that never made it into the original cut of the Let it Be film-will make it into the remastered LIB flick, which, it is rumoured, may appear some time this year-but don't hold yer breath.

But for me at least, what makes listening to this sometimes borrowing and mundane material-a 5 minute segment deals with Georeg Harrison asking Mal Evans whether he can go to the local shoe store and bring back a half dozen pairs for George to try on-is that you get to be an insider, listening in on what one writer described as the "longest cocktail party."

Ah, the good olde daze, 35 years ago today.

Well, I guess this time, the boys from TOUP and I are just gonna have to agree to disagree.

Steve, one half of the creative genius that is TOUP, was nice enough to pass along a copy of the dynamic duo's latest effort,George Harrison's seminal 1970 All Things Must Pass in DTS 5.1 surround sound.

The disagreement, however, between Steve and I, is whether this latest TOUP effort is in fact as "good" as previous releases, which to my and many other ears, was very good indeed.

Steve said in an e-mail that he felt that his ATMP mix was better than anything TOUP had done, except for the White Album, which just about everyone agrees is very, very good indeed.

But that is not the way I hear it, at least this time.

Yes, a nice 5.1 soundstage has been acheived with this ATMP release, but, and there always is, I fear that too many compromises have been made with overall "feel" of the recording.

George's lead vocals are-in my opinion anyway- sometimes buried a bit in the mix and have a sort of echo-like brittleness to them, which I find distracting. Bass is also lacking in this mix, although as Steve rightly points out, the original Phil Spector production was a bit bass light to begin with.

But if a certain harshness does not bother you, then you will very much enjoy the room filling ambiance of Wah-Wah, and What Is Life, to name but a few, and a good graphic EQ may fix some of the other problems.

No bonus tracks on this releases, and wisely, the Apple jam junk has been left off as well.

Steve appeared to get a little defensive when I questioned him about some aspects of the mix, but I suppose he should get used to that, when you are fiddling with 35 year old sonic memories that millions cherish.

So, what I am saying to you dear readers, is that you should audition this TOUP ATMP and decide for yourself, rather than take my word for it, because I could be wrong.

If fact, I hope I am.

You know, I have been writing about the Beatles in one form of media or another, basically about once a week, since late 1998.

And back in the "good old days," circa 1998-2000, I had very little problem getting my stories into several major Toronto dailies.

But since 2002, it has been increasingly difficult to get editors interested in Fabs' stories, and logically, I really don't understand why- to a point.

Case in (recent) point: every paper I pitched the story of the TOUP 5.1 releases passed, and I think I know some of the not so logical reasons why.

5.1 audio continues to sort of "bubble under" the radar of most mass media, partly because they editors don't give a damn to understand it and all its wonderful possibilites, but also because -I believe- that the record companies have done a poor job of promoting, or in the Beatles case even getting into, the format.

Perhaps that is why the editors don't seem to give a crap about the great work done by the TOUPsters-www.toupltd.com-because, they may think, why should we care about a format that Apple/EMI can't be bothered with?

Of course, when you try to explain to these editors that TOUP only exsists because of the daftsters at Apple, well, they just don't seem to get it.

I find that Beatle fans are for the most part audiophiles as well, and I know it burns their butt when they go into their music store and can buy just about every major artist on DVD-A, Dolby Digital and DTS, EXCEPT the Beatles.

So to the editors-and to the fans-I say, go figure, and in the meantime, thank God for TOUP.