One and one and one is three. The Analogues live. Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Saturday 28 December 2024

All good things come to an end. The Beatles in April 1970 and The Analogues in December 2024. The former created everything the latter recreated in about the same time period of ten years. The four Beatles went on to have solo careers of which two last until this very day.

In The Analogues' final show we got to hear the final two albums. First, 'Let It Be', the album that was recorded in January 1969 but discarded by the band and given to Phil Spector to finish, leading to some final overdubs lasting into early January 1970. It contained the band's final number 1 hit 'Let It Be'.

Second, 'Abbey Road', the album the Fab Four recorded later that year with George Martin, named after the street where the EMI studio is located in London. The album was released in November 1969, so about six months before 'Let It Be'. As far as I'm concerned, 'Abbey Road' is the absolute masterpiece by The Beatles and one of the best albums ever made. With side B topping that once again.

The Analogues played the albums integrally in the order of released album and in the Phil Spector version, not the 'Let It Be ... Naked', The Beatles released decades later. The contrast between the two albums of the evening is stark. 'Let It Be' is far more direct and raw. (And has these funny little ditties in between, showing musical banter from the studio.)

For me it took decades to appreciate the album. Aside from having a very low quality pressing of the album on LP, I never took to it. Partly because of the rawness of several songs. Another part was that this was the break up album and I held it against it. That I learned years and years later that in fact this wasn't the break up album at all, just released later, did not help.

What changed my opinion, is that I had to learn and appreciate first where my favourite sixties bands were coming from. I did not like the originals until way into the 00s, when I had to start listening seriously because of the band I was playing in at the time. Only then the quarter dropped, so to say. With that the musicianship in many of the songs came out and the songs themselves started to bloom. Today I can even listen to the two big Paul ballads, 'Let It Be' and 'The Long And Winding Road'. The two songs by George Harrison I've always liked. 'I Me Mine' and 'For You Blue' are just very nice songs. What I've come to appreciate truly were 'Dig A Pony' and 'I've Got A Feeling' and especially the latter, with the great electrical piano playing by Billy Preston. He was truly a fifth Beatle for a short while, playing on the roof as well. 'Get Back' was already a number 1 hit single at the time, so doesn't count.

The Analogues made all the strong elements of 'Let It Be' come out. How many people it takes to play some of The Beatles' songs! For one track only ("Winding Raod") a harpist is rolled unto the stage! Violins, cello, horns, flutes, two or three keyboards or guitars, percussion. The vintage instruments are all there and played by the band and the orchestra.

As an encore to 'Let It Be' we received the song that was played on the roof that was not on the record, but had already been released as the B-side of 'Get Back', 'Don't Let Me Down'. Another showcase of how good the band was in 1969. Again that Fender Rhodes piano played by Preston.

After the break we went straight into 'Abbey Road'. Both albums were introduced by Mark Lewisohn, the Beatle professor, one of the only persons who has heard everything that is on tape, catalogued it and writes tombs about it. He said something I did not know, that the band was not aware 'Abbey Road' was to be its final recoding album. They had discussed a next album and other plans. It just didn't happen. The band managed to do what is not given to most, he said, to stop at the top and be remembered because of that, I might add. We do not have a decline to remember.

The Analogues was a great band. What they managed to do, is point out to me how ingenious the songs on 'Abbey Road' are. How intricate the harmonies are. All through the album, they just go on and on and on, highlighting how good the three could sing (together) and how inventive they were to find all the extra melodies in their respective songs. The counter melodies that are in there, making it truly modern style classical music, if there is such a thing. Music for eternity, as is being proven slowly but surely. New generations are catching on, coming to listen to The Analogues, as that is as close one can get to hearing what happened in the studio. Not even Paul, let alone Ringo, comes close here.

We are getting fast to that point in time when all four original Beatles will no longer be alive and even many original fans are not among us any more, as they are all in their sixties and seventies by now. And now The Analogues call it quits as well. After ten years the band has completed its mission. Everything was recreated on a superb level, played several times. It's time to move on. "We will find something else to do", as musical director Bart van Poppel said. New The Beatles fans will have to find new cover bands.

In the encore we got the stand alone single 'The Ballad Of John And Yoko' that only John and Paul recorded on an April 1969 evening. Of course the single went to number 1. To my surprise, we did not get 'Old Brown Shoe', the superb B-side penned by George. With The Analogues it is hard to complain, but instead of 'Yesterday', as an encore, I had hoped to hear 'Now And Then' as the super encore to everything. 'All You Need Is Love' is a worthy ending, in these "times of trouble". The six Analogues took their final bows and left the stage. They are no more.

The more surprising was the fact that the show opened with The Young Analogues, four young guys who played early Beatles hits, to great enthusiasm of the audience. With all the studio albums in mind, I almost forgot about all those great hits that made the band in the first place. That success allowed the band to do whatever it wanted to do in its final years. No one questioned their musical wisdom for a second. Besides that, the suit and tie guys in the industry had no clue, with one exception, George Martin. He deserves this credit for posterity as well.

I want to thank The Analogues in my parting message on their years. Ever since 2017, I have reported on the shows I visited with great enthusiasm. On the one hand, I thank them for the experience but on the other and more importantly, your shows have brought me back to my first musical experience and being a fan before I knew what being a fan was. I had started to take The Beatles for granted, as something from the past, eclipsed by The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd and all that came after. No longer. The Beatles are the best band ever, period. Thank you, The Analogues, for reminding me! A big chapeau from,

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

Gerry Marsden (1942 - 2021)

On 3 January it became know that Gerry Marsden, singer of the legendary  had past away after a short illness. This sad event led to a short digital conversation for three.

Gary, 4-1:

Gerry Marsden, the lead singer of Gerry and the Pacemakers, known for hits including You’ll Never Walk Alone and Ferry Cross the Mersey, has died at 78 after a short illness.

Mark, 4-1:

Yes very sad news, Gary - and so unexpected. A very sudden illness apparently. He regularly cropped up on TV programmes about the history of music in Liverpool. For me an especially poignant passing because Gerry and the Pacemakers headlined the first pop concert I went to in 1966 in Shrewsbury. I was 9 or 10 and it must have been shortly before the group broke up after the string of hits ended and the Merseybeat boom had become a distant memory. I well remember the thrill of Gerry's shiny Gretsch guitar flashing on stage.

I have the How Do You Do It e.p. with Gerry posing on the steps of St.George's Hall in Liverpool (photo attached). That was the song The Beatles were asked to record by EMI in 1962 but the lads stood their ground and rejected it in favour of Love Me Do. It's quite a catchy lively number but you can hear on Anthology 1 that they don't exactly sound that thrilled with it. 

When eventually The Kop choir reconvenes on the Anfield terraces, I expect there will be a moving tribute with the song Gerry Marsden will be best remembered for. You'll Never Walk Alone was an obscure movie soundtrack song originally. Johnny Mathis released a version shortly before Gerry and the Pacemakers hit version. Mathis was a much more sophisticated vocalist with ballads than Gerry Marsden with his limited range. However, Gerry made it much more of a song for the people as demonstrated by the Liverpool fans picking up on it as their eternal anthem. It is an example of the revolution in popular music that the Merseybeat groups led by The Beatles heralded: Mathis was suddenly old hat and his records didn't chart anymore. 

A Kop Choir rendition is briefly heard by the way at the end of Fearless on The Pink Floyd's album Meddle which I think is their most enjoyable album. There's some great guitar playing by David Gilmour on Fearless as well.  It's a great track to play LOUD!

 

Wout, 4-1:

Marsden's death made the 8 o'clock news, though with a very brief item. Despite knowing that his hits kept up with The Beatles' first hits until that band obliterated the whole Merseybeat competition from 1964 onwards, somehow I pack in Gerry and the Pacemakers with my parent's generation. Just like I did Trini Lopez, who passed away in the fall of 2020. The music never really appealed to me either. It was to neat, to fine groomed. Like 'Ferry Across The Mersey'. 'How Do You Do' is more like it, but his voice? No, that was never really for me. I wonder whether Marsden's fame would have been half as big without The Beatles kicking off the Merseybeat?

His huge hit was made more famous here by the singing cranedriver Lee Towers, who scored his best known hit in 1976 with 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. Being a supporter of Feyenoord, then Feijenoord, he somehow managed to make that song a club anthem, sung at least once during and before the match and performing live in the stadium before important games. Being a regular over the past years, I will own up that it is not as impressive as Liverpool's rendition. That honour will have to go to the club's foremost anthem, 'Hand In Hand Kameraden'.

That few years in age does show, Mark. My favourite Pink Floyd album will always remain 'Wish You Were Here', followed by 'Dark Side Of The Moon' and 'The Wall'. The difference between 'Meddle' and 'Wish You Were Here'? Four years!

 

And Johnny Mathis? He's 85 now and seems to have stopped recording in 2015 at the age of 80, spanning a 59 year long recording career. The list of (compilation/live/Christmas) albums and singles on Wikipedia is sheer endless. The reason I mention it, is that he scored a huge here in 1978 together with Deniece Williams called 'Too Much, Too Little, Too Late. The rest all passed me by I have to admit.

 

Gary

Mark

Wout