WI: Capitol kept "Butchering" the Beatles

As any Beatles fan knows, Capitol albums were markedly different from the British (and I believe, for the most part, world-wide) releases of Beatles albums. Capitol Beatles' albums rearranged the songs, taking songs from different albums and putting them where Capitol deemed fit and in whichever LP package they deemed fit, which is the biggest complaint filed against them since the Beatles prided themselves on where they put songs on a record. Capitol also refused to allow the normal 14 tracks of the British LPs, and so every American LP maxes out at 11 tracks. Capitol also put a reverb effect on every American Beatles song, as they found the British releases of them too dry for what they thought Americans would want.

After a while, the Beatles stopped paying attention to their American releases, as Capitol did whatever they pleased and the American LPs had started to become so alien from the British ones, and jumbled. With "Rubber Soul", Capitol retained most of the album as was, but still cut out tracks to limit it to 11, and also removed "Drive My Car" for the song "I've Just Seen a Face" in order to make the album more Folk. "Yesterday and Today", for example (which featured the Butcher Cover), was the high water mark to the butchering, and truly a mongrel album. As Capitol had cut out tracks from previous Beatles releases, it had many left over. "Act Naturally" and "Yesterday" (the latter earlier released as a single) were taken from Help!. "Nowhere Man" and what goes on (also earlier released on a single), along with "Drive My Car" and "If I Needed Someone" were taken from "Rubber Soul". The singles "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work it Out" were included. Capitol also heinously took three tracks from the not yet released "Revolver" album; "I'm Only Sleeping", "Doctor Robert" and "And Your Bird Can Sing". After this, the release of "Revolver" was similar to the British release, except it lacked the three tracks Capitol had taken from it for the previous release.

In 1967, fed up with how Capitol was managing their songs and records, the Beatles made it a point of their new contract that they would have oversight on how all their songs were arranged and released. So from Sgt. Pepper on, all American releases were the same as their British counterpart, save for a few specialty things from Capitol here and there such as the American LP "Hey Jude".

But what if the Beatles oversight had not been in the contract in 1967? What if Capitol had retained its ability to change, rearrange, and create Beatles albums as it saw fit?

They would have bolted and gone to another label that would have given them what they wanted. Atlantic, Elektra, Warner Brothers, Columbia - whoever would have signed the contract they wanted. It's 1967 and the Beatles on your record label means you retire early with a solid gold yacht; so you do whatever it takes to get them.

Ah, but does the Beatles jumping ship mean losing George Martin and the rest of their production crew?

That's an interesting point. I'm not sure it would though. EMI/Parolophone are independent of Capitol, so it seems like the British end would be unphased. So it seems like the Beatles could go to another American record company and, during the negotiations, contract them as distributor instead of Capitol.

There seem to be branching scenarios here; one where the Beatles abandon Capitol, thus going to another American label to distribute their materials. This is a scenario based on Capitol being militantly for their right to alter and manage the album material as they please. The second, which is more what I wanted to discuss, is Capitol keeping the Beatles and continuing to alter their albums however they please into the Sgt Pepper era and beyond. Now, Capitol was getting better late in the "Butcher period" game as Revolver and Rubber Soul were very close to their British counterparts. But Capitol was still refusing to go over 11 songs, still putting reverb on all the songs to make them "wetter" for the American audience, including single material on the album because they thought singles were the driving force of an album (which the Beatles disliked because they never included singles on an album because they felt it was like duping the audience), and would be occasionally creating mongrel albums out of the leftovers of other releases (after "Yesterday and Today" there was "Hey Jude"). So what would Sgt. Pepper sound like where Capitol could delete some songs to throw in "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane"? What would the rest of the albums end up like?

Well, to follow on that discussion, I can easily see Capitol pulling "Revolution #9" off the White Album to make space for "Hey Jude."

Joe Bonkers said:

Well, to follow on that discussion, I can easily see Capitol pulling "Revolution #9" off the White Album to make space for "Hey Jude."

Click to expand...

They'd remove quite a lot from the White album. Remember, that was a double album. With Capitol's policies, you'd see that broken up into two or three albums, and a few singles, and perhaps some songs carried over to the later Beatles albums for their American localization.

Just a guess on Pepper. Since they didn't add the singles onto either Revolver or Rubber Soul, my guess is that SFF and Penny Lane do not appear on a butchered Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band. No songs from Revolver or before would appear either, since they were more or less dealt with in Yesterday and Today. Based on what they did to Revolver, my guess is that Pepper is like this

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help From My Friends
3. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. She's Leaving Home
7. Within You Without You
8. When I'm 64
9. Lovely Rita
10. Sgt. Pepper Reprise
11. A Day in the Life

The removed songs probably end up on the American Magical Mystery Tour. Flying is cut and "Baby You're a Rich Man" is left to wallow in B-side obscurity.

1. Magical Mystery Tour
2. Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
3. The Fool on the Hill
4. Bluejay Way
5. Your Mother Should Know
6. I Am the Walrus
7. Hello Goodbye
8. Strawberry Fields Forever
9. Penny Lane
10. Good Morning Good Morning
11. All You Need is Love

Here's where the fun really starts. The White Album. Each album will be cut to hold eleven songs. And we are probably talking about a delayed release for the second one. Capital would be inclined to release Obladi Oblada as a single rather than an album track. Let's say they pair it with "Savoy Truffle." I have no idea what they'd really cut, so I'm going to try to play editor here. The songs I cut are just guesses and don't reflect my attitude towards the songs: With that said along with Capital's follow up to Hey Jude, my namesake track, "Wild Honey Pie", "Rocky Raccoon" and "Piggies" are cut from the first album.

1. Back in the USSR
2. Dear Prudence
3. Don't Pass Me By
4. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
5. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
6. Happiness is a Warm Gun
7. Martha My Dear
8. I'm so Tired
9. Blackbird
10. I Will
11. Julia

On to the second Album. Cut are Lennon's "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey" and "Revolution 9" Savoy Truffle, the B-Side to the earlier Obladi Oblada release is also cut replaced by "Piggies" (They might be inclined to cut Revolution #1 entirely but bear with me.)

1. Birthday
2. Yer Blues
3. Mother Nature's Son
4. Sexy Sadie
5. Helter Skelter
6. Long Long Long
7. Revolution #1
8. Piggies
9. Honey Pie
10. Cry Baby Cry
11. Good Night

That leaves, my namesake track, "Wild Honey Pie", "Rocky Raccoon" "Why Don't We Do it in the Road" "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey" and "Revolution in Capital's vault.

They probably try to hobble together an album with that material sometime in 1969. They probably leave off Get Back and Don't Let Me Down in anticipation of the Get Back release which never comes.

1. Ballad of John and Yoko
2. Old Brown Shoe
3. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
4. Rocky Raccoon
5. Hey Jude
6. Glass Onion
7. Why Don't We Do it in the Road?
8. Revolution
9. Revolution #9

Then we get to Abbey Road

Oh Darling, Because, "Sun King", Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam, and Golden Slumbers are cut.

1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell's Silver Hammer
4. Octopus's Garden
5. I Want You
6. Here Comes the Sun
7. You Never Give Me Your Money
8. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
9. Carry that Weight
10. The End
11. Her Majesty

On Let it Be, they can just cut "Maggie Mae" and "Dig it" for an eleven song track.
Capital is left with the cuts from Abbey Road and Let it Be, without anything to do with them and no prospect for a future album they release a weird compilation entitled "Because"

1. Can't Buy Me Love
2. I should Have Known Better
3. Paperback Writer
4. Rain
5. Because
6. Sun King
7. Mean Mr. Mustard
8. Polythene Pam
9. Maggie Mae
10. Dig It
11. Golden Slumbers

Let It Be/Get Back would offer interesting prospects to Capitol:

• First, Let It Be/Get Back and Abbey Road were essentially apart of one giant project. Get Back were sessions to produce an album which failed. After the failure, they moved on to Abbey Road and shelved the former project, but also took some of the songs they had first worked on for Get Back and done them for Let It Be. So what Capitol could do is take both Let it Be/Get Back and Abbey Road and do what they did on their first two American releases, and mix them all up on two releases, but two releases made up of both albums.
• Second, there were a lot of songs done for Let It Be/Get Back that were never ever released officially. Hundreds of hours. The released "Let it Be" was basically a cobbling together of what was considered the better of these. However, Capitol could delve into all these hundreds of hours and release a few albums out of them if they wanted to.