i had thought that the 'whole album cover' album was a development of the pomo-ironic Eighties (things like Pussy Galore covering all of Exile on Main Street) that then became rife in the retromaniac 21st Century
but here's a very early example - George Benson covering, if not all, then a sizeable portion of Abbey Road in 1970
GB's tracklist
1. "Golden Slumbers / You Never Give Me Your Money" 4:47
2. "Because / Come Together" 7:26
3. "Oh! Darling" 4:01
4. "Here Comes the Sun / I Want You (She's So Heavy)" 9:00
5. "Something / Octopus's Garden / The End" 6:22
cf. Beatles'
1. "Come Together" Lennon 4:19
2. "Something" (George Harrison) Harrison 3:02
3. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" McCartney 3:27
4. "Oh! Darling" McCartney 3:27
5. "Octopus's Garden" (Richard Starkey) Starr 2:51
6. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" Lennon 7:47
Total length: 24:53
Side two
No. Title Lead vocals Length
1. "Here Comes the Sun" (Harrison) Harrison 3:05
2. "Because" Lennon, McCartney and Harrison 2:45
3. "You Never Give Me Your Money" McCartney 4:03
4. "Sun King" Lennon, with McCartney and Harrison 2:26
5. "Mean Mr. Mustard" Lennon 1:06
6. "Polythene Pam" Lennon 1:13
7. "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" McCartney 1:58
8. "Golden Slumbers" McCartney 1:31
9. "Carry That Weight" McCartney, with Lennon, Harrison and Starr 1:36
10. "The End" McCartney 2:05
11. "Her Majesty" (as a hidden track) McCartney 0:23
Well, George has the good sense to avoid that Polythene Pam etc cack
(Some people think Abbey is their best album. Some people are nuts).
Bonus bit: Frankie Howerd's turn at "Mean Mr Mustard"
for some of who only remember George Benson as a slick n meller discofunkateering hitmaker, his earlier fusion-leaning jazz guitar stuff is a surprise
4 comments:
I remember a George Benson interview on Capital Radio in London almost thirty years ago. He made plain that he didn't like doing his Abbey Road album; thought it was beneath him. Have to say that his 'Here Comes The Sun' is terrible. I believe there's a clip of him performing it on the Old Grey Whistle Test. Never mind, he gave us the great Breezin' and In Flight LPs. More broadly, there doesn't seem to have been much written about African-American attitudes to the Fab Four. I'd be glad of pointers towards any stuff.
George Clinton was a big fan of the Beatles. In fact i think he said they were his favorite group.
otherwise Lennon-McCartney songs were quite widely covered i believe. they became part of the pool of songs - contemporary pop standards - that soul artists would cover in order to fill up their LPs, back in the days when the LP was more of a second thought / quickly-done-thing off the back of a hit single.
This won't set the world alight but Charlie Hunter (also a jazz guitarist) covered Bob Marley's Natty Dread LP, tune for tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k--JfatucHY
Also, and more interestingly, there's the 2014 album Blue by Mostly Other People Do the Killing - a note-for-note reproduction of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Maybe you've written about this already Simon? It's real Retromania material . . .
Ah, but now I remember you're after early examples of the genre . . .
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