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(c) Ian Hammond 1999
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The Star Club (2) 

You're at the Star Club for one of the final extended shows the
Beatles will ever give. Suitably refreshed after a break, the band
take to the stage again. They're in a pensive mood as George and Paul
gather at a mike to handle the harmony in the first song.


16. To Know Him Is To Love Him JP) 3:00
It took a listening to the Decca cut of this song to convince me that
it really is Lennon singing. He's deliberately thinning his voice.

Listen to the end of the first verse and the second verse to see how
well a single mike can record a rock band when they play a little
softer. I love this track.

Rococo fifties rock harmony, sung in tune without any monitors. The
guitars make little concessions to the soft mood, an idea they
returned to on the White Album. McCartney's booming bass and the drums
provide depth beyond the call of duty.

I think was George who said they first learned this material when they
played afternoon shows in Hamburg, the idea being that they didn't
want rock before breakfast.

Extended applause with acknowledgement from Paul and John.



17. Little Queenie (P, JG) 3:50
One of the few Chuck Berry songs Paul gets to sing. A pair of verses
and a link lead to the chorus. The drum groove changes in the solo.
The song repeats. And repeats again, making it the longest performance
for the evening.

Solid applause.



18. Falling In Love Again (P) 1:56
The original Marlene Dietrich version has such wonderful German
lyrics, but our wide eyed Paul makes up for this. Now, what happened
to that Scottish lady...

Don't you love the metallic sound of the opening, with John chording
and George playing the tune. Harrison's fills are chunking, but played
with great nuance. 

I hear a key change for the solo, which is very well worked out. The
harmony behind the closing verses is so simple and so rock. I can see
Marlene every time I hear this track, as could their sentimental
audience. 



19. Sheila (G) 1:53
Tommy Roe did this track, but George does it as a Buddy Holly thing,
powered by Ringo's Peggy Sue drum part, which is about all we hear
on the verses. The solo consists of a short section of drums. After
another bridge, Paul (at least) begins to add spot harmony.

I don't hear a bass. And the crowd sound particularly appreciative.
Perhaps Macca and some others helped on percussion.

Nice lick at the end.



20. Be Bop A Lula (Horst) 2:22
This is sung by the waiter. Well, that's their story anyhow. The band
nicely waits while singer adds the odd beat here and there in the
breaks. The worked out solos sound a bit different to George's usual
style. Another guest? Do I hear a tambourine?

The crowd love it. Get's the best applause of the evening. Maybe
that's why Paul prompts for Halleluja.  



21. Halleluja I Love Her So (??) 2:10
Another guest spot with a tight little four piece all the way over
from Liddypool. Great backing and a wirey little solo. This is a
different singer, and my guess it's the guest guitarist. The band
match this lad with Jazz in his eye, with an overcooked ending.

Compare this to the fifties home recording of them on a couple of
guitars. Harrison said that they were just some hopeful kids before
they went to Hamburg. They're sure a tight little combo on this
number.

It also goes down well with das publikum. I'm not sure it's quite what
Ray Charles had in mind.



22. Ask Me Why (J, G+P) 2:25
A second Beatle original! A slightly different arrangement to the
album version. One hears how strong the live-performance was factored
into their early writing. The harmony is spot on. The backing rocks
more than the record.

The reception to this Beatle original is luke-warm.



23. Red Sails In The Sunset (P) 2:00
Like Your Feets To Big, or My Bonny, this is rock version of an
evergreen. Loose and tight at the same time, like stovepipe pants and
wind-filled shirt. Dedicated to their favorite barmaid, Bettina,
enunciated by that loony Lennon in his most fiendish voice.

Okay, it's a dorky song, but the layed-back jaunty 12/8 is great
vehicle for a solid groove, beginning with the Gattling-gun opening.

Listen to Lennon's triplets in the rhythm part. After the short solo
the band speed up with a short ska section, returning to a relaxed
chorus with Paul crooning. A second solo leads to total ska and scat
from an absent-minded McCartney before a final chorus. It makes me
feel all scatological.



24. Matchbox (J) 2:32
What is Perkin's Matchbox other than a really deep groove? It's the
rhythm guitar, with a great resonant sound, that sets the massive
limbering, lumbering beat before the other instruments join in. A
great meditation that provides a the gravitational constant of the
performance.

Hear the solo snake its way up out of the fabric to laying gold
embroidary on top of the seething beat. Starr is pure soul. Macca lays
deep carpet. The whole thing captured on a single mike.

Another verse leads two more solos which just cook. It doesn't get
better than this over Macca's great walking bass, with Lennon
switching to a rock riff backing.

A return of the first verse closes it. Basic drill. Pete Best used to
sing it. It would have been the song I got up to dance to. 

I remarked a few weeks back that I considered swampy to be a precise
musical direction. This song is a great example. Some Elvis tracks get
this sound. Creedence came close at times but it was J J Cale who
packaged it in the seventies in songs like Crazy Mama and After
Midnight.

The song is assigned to Lennon but it doesn't sound like his voice.



25. I'm Talking About You (J) 1:49
Great opening lick to another great backing. The bass riff, doubled by
a guitar, drives the song, leaving Starr free to thump without having
to hold the beat. You can hear the guitars really well when he stops
every so often. 

The call is in the high part of Lennon's range. Two verses and a solo,
another verse and a solo, and a premature end to one of the less
typical Chuck Berry songs. I'm not sure if it's George or John playing
the lead.

Jungle juice.



26. Shimmy Shimmy (JPG) 2:13
"Shitty shitty... down Mexico way". This is kind of crap they did at
the Decca audition: happy, snappy, crappy. Well, it's nice and manic
and wakes the boozed audience up. That can be necessary sometimes. Is
this what Klaus Voormann heard when he first saw the Beedles?

Two verses lead to some oddly sculptured solo work. Back for a chorus
and verse. Whistling and Manic-Macca takes us into the final solo,
where somehow it all comes together: for a few brief moments. At 2:10
the whole kit and kaboodle collapses under its own weight.

I reckon I can hear our George singing on this party piece too.



27. Long Tall Sally (P) 1:40
Macca's totemic Little Richard raver. A couple of verses, John's solo,
another verse, George's solo, total chaos and stop. Pant, pant, pant..

There's a beautiful moment at the end of the second verse at 0:26
where the guitars drop out almost completely just playing two soft
chords. Lennon typically takes the first solo of this song. A short
verse later Harrison takes his, beginning with a savagely majestic
climb. 

The rest is total mayhem until we all succumb at 1:40. Note that in
the frenetic chaos Starr is bashing out those incredible eighths in
the bar. Virtuoso rock that you might find hard to match.

Mach shau.

28. I Remember You (P, JG) 
The Australian Frank Ifield had a couple of international hits in the
early sixties with these lonesome cowboy ditties which the boys
perform with a perfunctory backbeat and up-you-nose harmonica from
Lennon. Now Frank has a web site.


There are three additional tracks which I have only heard in passing:

29. Reminiscing (G)
George Harrison takes a Buddy Holly track.

31. Red Hot
The only version of this song has a talk-over by George. 

30. Hully Gully
This egg is sometimes slipped in the nest. But it's not the Beatles.



Time to go home. You see Horst talking to Mal as you leave. A car has
just picked up Astrid, Klaus, John and Paul. Ringo's gone off with
some of Rory's mates. And George? Isn't that the Scottish lady with
him... his eyebrows have been at work again... 


A priceless evening in wintery St Pauli.


I'll come back with some reflections in The Star Club (3)