Though largely forgotten now, Liverpool quartet The Beatles were the toppermost of the poppermost in the Sixties, responsible for some of the biggest-selling singles of all time and a series of ground-breaking albums that dictated musical trends until their next LP emerged.
With those albums containing numerous potential hit singles, it was inevitable that producers and groups would wait impatiently for the latest Beatles LP to land in order to rush into the studio and clone a track with the aim of scoring a cheap hit single.
That process continued unabated for the rest of the band’s career, but the results became more interesting with the arrival of the psychedelic and progressive era, when rock started to take itself more seriously and a more self-respecting, artistic approach was called for.
Suddenly the cheap imitations were joined by more adventurous interpretations of Beatles material, including some startling re-imaginings of songs that dated back to the salad days of the Lennon/McCartney writing partnership, with early efforts like ‘Every Little Thing’ and ‘You Can’t Do That’ given radical treatments to reflect the changing musical times.
A 3-CD set, “Looking Through A Glass Onion” assembles these disparate strands into one cohesive package, with the studio day trippers, the cultural pranksters, the genre-benders, the folk club stalwarts and the hair-down-to-his-knees prog-rock brigade all grooving up slowly to the starting line.
The result is the proverbial Magical Mystery Tour, a Fab Four parallel universe, a Looking-Glass world in which ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ can be an Elizabethan garden party madrigal or a churning slice of Fudged-up sludge, where a spaced-out Duffy Power takes the lyrics of ‘Fixing A Hole’ perhaps a little too literally, ‘Penny Lane’ becomes avant-garde easy listening, the likes of Nick Lowe, Alex Harvey and Ritchie Blackmore try out early identities, and the Walrus was Lol.
Containing nearly four hours of music and a 40-page booklet, “Looking Through A Glass Onion” features 68 tracks from various UK acts, with tons of memorabilia and rare photos as well as the usual verbose smartarse annotation shamelessly passed off as informed musical commentary. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Well, almost all.
DISC ONE
1. MYSTERY TOUR – Camel
2. HELP – Deep Purple
3. EVERY LITTLE THING - Yes
4. I AM THE WALRUS – Affinity
5. LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS – Rainbow Ffolly
6. IF I NEEDED SOMEONE – The Hollies
7. TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS – The Mirage
8. IN MY LIFE – Kippington Lodge
9. YESTERDAY – Eyes Of Blue
10. FLYING – Sounds Nice
11. STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER – Design
12. HERE THERE AND EVERYWHERE – Episode Six
13. GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE – Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers
14. BIRTHDAY – Hair Rave-Up
15. ELEANOR RIGBY – Blonde On Blonde
16. DEAR PRUDENCE – Atlantic Bridge
17. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE – Jawbone
18. FIXING A HOLE – Duffy Power
19. OH! DARLING – Trucial States
20. GOOD DAY SUNSHINE – The Tremeloes
21. TAXMAN – Infinity
22. YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY/CARRY THAT WEIGHT – Orange Bicycle
DISC TWO
1. I AM THE WALRUS – Spooky Tooth
2. STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER – Plastic Penny
3. THE CONTINUING STORY OF BUNGALOW BILL – Rainbow Ffolly
4. WITHIN YOU WITHOUT YOU – Big Jim Sullivan
5. HEY BULLDOG – The Gods
6. CRY BABY CRY – Freedom
7. DAY TRIPPER – Don Fardon
8. NORWEGIAN WOOD – The Frugal Sound
9. THE TWO OF US – Penny Arcade
10. YOU CAN’T DO THAT – Andy Ellison
11. SHE SAID SHE SAID – Grand Union
12. MOTHER NATURE’S SON – Davey Graham & Holly
13. BACK IN THE USSR – Cliff Bennett & His Band
14. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS – The Young Idea
15. PAPERBACK WRITER – The Shadows
16. ONE AND ONE IS TWO – Phillip Goodhand-Tait & The Stormsville Shakers
17. A HARD DAY’S NIGHT – The Majority
18. BIRTHDAY – Trucial States
19. GET BACK – Linda Peters
20. DRIVE MY CAR – Bo Street Runners
21. MAXWELL’S SILVER HAMMER – The Good Ship Lollipop
22. THE FOOL ON THE HILL – Stone The Crows
23. I WILL – Young Blood
24. YELLOW SUBMARINE – The Hi-Fis
25. YESTERDAY – The Tomcats
26. I AM THE WALRUS – Lol Coxhill
DISC THREE
1. COME TOGETHER – Jason Crest
2. STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER – Tomorrow
3. NORWEGIAN WOOD – Circus
4. SHE’S LEAVING HOME – Big Jim Sullivan
5. EXPOSITION/WE CAN WORK IT OUT – Deep Purple
6. A DAY IN THE LIFE – Affinity
7. HELP – Andy Ellison
8. PLEASE PLEASE ME – The Score
9. TAXMAN – Loose Ends
10. GOOD DAY SUNSHINE – The Eyes
11. PENNY LANE – The Wilson Malone Voiceband
12. THE CONTINUING STORY OF
BUNGALOW BILL – Young Blood
13. I WILL – Real McCoy
14. OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA – The Spectrum
15. ROCKY RACCOON – Brian Bennett
16. DAY TRIPPER – The Ice
17. WE CAN WORK IT OUT – The Sorrows
18. I AM THE WALRUS – Octopus
19. NORTHERN MEDLEY – Hardin & York
20. GOOD NIGHT – Vera Lynn
Australia