Monthly Archives: June 2010

We’re on a roll of versions at the moment.  The last two hours are guaranteed greatness too.  Stay tuned.

Nostalgia gets a rocky ride.  In our post-modern, hyper-critical world, nostalgia is seen as an irrational and conservative force, a counter-productive waste of energy.  In this world Yesterday becomes a sappy song.  But our will to purge it seems only … Continue reading →

Just four more hours.  The quandries of the last twenty hours seem like trifles now.  I feel cleansed perhaps.  There’s a sense that a conclusion is forming.  It might not be a full stop.  It might not even be a … Continue reading →

Frank Sinitra’s favourite Beatles song was Something. He famously said it was ‘the greatest love song ever’.  He still covered Yesterday, probably more due to its instant ‘standard’ status than anything.

Jimmy Amadie Yes – it is a Yesterday cover.

If you have a moment check out Hillebrand Peerdeman’s Beatles’ cover collection.  Here are the Yesterday he has.  You’ve heard a lot of them today: http://www.beatlescovers.nl/covers/list.php?this_songID=382

Interpretations of Yesterday’s last Hmmm-Hmmmmm-Hmmmmm-Hmmmm-Hmmmm-Hmmmmm are varied.  Some use it in the same way Macca did, others finish on the Yesterday phrase, some make it instrumental.  It’s a pivotal part of the song.  The wordless resolution; expressing longing in more … Continue reading →

Wow – this one makes my ear feel like the airhole of the panpipe, and my body like the pipe itself.  This guy is literally blowing air through my body.  I feel violated.  But maybe I like it.

Panpipes AND Spanish Guitar!

I hate to bang on about Musak, as Yesterday is really above that, but I was just reading (in Brandon Labelle’s book Acoustic Territories) about how Ray Conniff used to get those smeary effects in Musak recordings.  He’d take the … Continue reading →

Hauntology and Radio Yesterday http://www.badidea.co.uk/2010/04/hauntological-happenings-at-the-wires-new-salon/ There is a ghost wandering around Radio Yesterday.  It’s entirely present, it might be the spirit of the original version, it might be something else.  It’s related to the last century, inextricably.  It’s such a … Continue reading →

Placido Domingo changes the ‘Why she had to go…’ to ‘Why he had to go…’.  Which gives the song a curious other dimension.  I like it.

This one is perfect.  It’s Musak, but slightly pissed.

Is Sir Paul listening to Radio Yesterday?

Odd Al Green meets Steely Dan version.  It’s a solo artist, can’t remember his name.  He strays further and further from the correct notes as the song goes on.  It’s fascinating.

Ray Conniff and Singers. Ray’s group were perhaps the inspiration for the Main Street Singers in A Mighty Wind.

There it is again.

There is a Yesterday backing track that seems to crop up on a lot of these versions. It starts with a flute part repeatedly playing the ‘Yes-ter-day’ ur-melody, then launches into the main song, driven along by some nice spread-stereo … Continue reading →

Thank you Phil Hollins for noticing that Radio Yesterday was also planned as a commiseration for England’s poor performance against Algeria yesterday.

If you find Radio Yesterday difficult to listen to please note John Cage’s advice: “If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is … Continue reading →

Shirley Horn. “Space is a valuable commodity in music,” Horn said. “Too many musicians rush through everything with too many notes. I need time to take the picture. A ballad should be a ballad. It’s important to understand what the … Continue reading →

Smooth Jazz Healers.  I’m listening to Radio 4 at the same time, it makes the news seem so much more OK.

It’s 16 hours in, the summit has been reached.  I have a definite sense of questing, in the Joseph Campbell mould (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces).  We’ve been lead into this world, we’ve met the monster, we’ve battled the monster, we made some kind … Continue reading →

Radio Yesterday and Resonance FM will feature on the PM Show on Radio 4 today at 5pm we have been informed. And for those of you in love with Piers Gibbon’s voice, here is his website: http://www.piersgibbon.com/ He looks as … Continue reading →

Peter from Purley – you’re absolutely right!  We’re sorry.  The original version of Yesterday was in F, Macca tunes it up to G for live concerts only.  Apologies to all of you playing along and wondering what was up. Revised … Continue reading →

It’s the Caucaus one again.  It’s a repeat, but perfectly timed. What’s your preferred instrument for a Yesterday version?  I like the clarinet personally.  It has a clean, smooth sound reminiscent of Paul’s voice on the original. We should think … Continue reading →

The Ur-song You’ll definitely be getting the feeling that Radio Yesterday isn’t a selection of songs anymore, it’s one huge song.  A glorious celebration of melancholic acoustic balladry.  It may even be an ur-song David Tame writes: “…in all lands, … Continue reading →

Cholo Montironi and his huge accordion coming soon:

In the past hour or so you will have heard: En Vogue (brassy) Aaron Neville (sweet) Dionne Warwick (devastating) Cilla Black (provocative) The Dream Orchestra (soporific) Dimo Dimov (I don’t know who Dimo Dimov is, nor can I find information … Continue reading →

OK – a few things.  Thanks for the comments and support you have sent into Radio Yesterday via Resonance FM.  To put your minds at rest: The playlist – Yes of course there is curatorial method in this madness, but … Continue reading →

It’s 14.20  I’ve been relaxing.  Its Saturday afternoon.  We don’t need to think to hard about this all the time.  So lie back and listen.  You think you know the song, but you don’t yet.  Just one more. This is … Continue reading →

Lunchtime Radio Yesterday. We’ve moved through banjoes, a couple of panpipes, three or four orchestras, RnB tracks, reggae and swing.  This is radio at its most diverse.  Embrace Radio Yesterday. Featuring: Rosie Gaines The Beau Brummels Bunky Green Lee Morgan … Continue reading →

Its coming up to midday, half way through Radio Yesterday.  Ed’s statement about Radio Yesterday says: “It’s a forensic examination of “variations on a theme.” It’s an homage to an enduring masterpiece. It’s an investigation into what turns a pop … Continue reading →

I’ve lost track of the artists now, I’ve ascended to the plateau myself.  It just stretches out for miles before my eyes.  Yesterday after Yesterday. Listening to Radio Yesterday for 24 hours is a little like being Herzog’s deranged penguin.  … Continue reading →

This is more like it – Kenny G.  This is how I like my instrumental Yesterday.  Balance is restored.

Bob Dylan and Yesterday He drawls the first line, the band fall in like soggy dominos behind him.  The drummer is playing a different song.  Bob keeps fluffing the timings.  The words are too simple for all his usual diiipplllooommaaat … Continue reading →

James Taylor. Signed to Apple Records in 1967.

PLUS EQUALS None of these covers could be described as cool.  Acker Bilk, Richard Clayderman, Gheorghe Zamfir, George Shearing, James Last.  Where is their music?  Where does it exist?  Who is it for?  If it’s for you let us know.  … Continue reading →

The unmistakable Acker Bilk

Je Croyais – Michelle Arnaud had the biggest hit with this French version.  She’s coming soon.  This version might be Claude Francois:

Feel free to comment and add your own views here. Is there a connection between Radio Yesterday and Alice in Wonderland? Is Yesterday a modern hymn? Were the Beatles big in Africa apart from SA? Is that F#minor drop a … Continue reading →

You’ve have been listening to Yesterday by: Ipanema Beach Orchestra Gabriel Merlino The Hit Nation Herbie Mann Heinz Schachtner Happy Voices Hannover Harmonists Greg and Junko MacDonald Gheorge Zamfir Grit vanHoog George Davidson Gary Tesca Orchestra Gabriela Vega Freddy Fender … Continue reading →

On listening: OK – I missed a couple.  I was eating and drinking. Radio Yesterday has become background.  Like John Cage said, the silence these days is traffic.  Perhaps it would take a Cageian cleft in the playlist to make … Continue reading →

The Hannover Harmonists start with the phrase I believe, I believe.  It’s a hymn. Some claim McCartney subconsciously based Yesterday the Nat King Cole song, Answer Me, My Love: And finally – another steel drum yesterday.  I keep hearing the … Continue reading →

With all the talk of existential dread and melancholia – here’s the way to sidestep that completely!  Nick the intro from Dancing Queen, add in Frankie Valli’s What A Night, squeeze Yesterday in the middle and call yourself the Gary … Continue reading →

After all the discussion (with myself) about the rite of passage aspect to the song, it feels disturbing to hear it sung by children.  Even if you imagine it’s about a dead hamster (which I did during the Kids version), … Continue reading →

It’s 9am – people are waking up.  Or perhaps going to bed.  I did an interview with the World Service yesterday and the producer Keith said it would probably be listened to by people in Nigeria.  If you’re listening in … Continue reading →

9am – my favourite Yesterday. It becomes a ancient song in this version sung by a Russian group from the Caucaus mountains, I think.  The video is heartbreaking.  What happened there?  Who is in the photograph?  Why is the whole … Continue reading →

Turkish Yesterdays. The Beatles were huge in Turkey.  Recently some 60s Turkish musicians reconvened to make a Beatles album using Turkish instruments: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BEATLES-ALATURKA-D-E-F-ORKESTRA-/280479981289 Looks good.

Marvin Gaye’s Yesterday.  It sounds similar in arrangement to Gram Parson’s She don’t you think.  He does the best of the 60s soul covers.

Ladies and Gentleman, the New World Orchestra:

This one is great – it sounds like a cassette bought with petrol tokens in 1986 that’s been on constant repeat in an East European truck cab.  What was the truck driver’s Yesterday?  A girl he picked up at Didcot … Continue reading →

Why she Had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say. I said, Something wrong, now I long for yesterday. She left, he doesn’t know why.  But he said something wrong, so maybe he does know why left?  Or did … Continue reading →

Yesterday on a slide guitar. Panpipes again. Now a waltz. I might be asleep.

Wow: “It occurred to me to have the BBC Radiophonic Workshop do the backing track to it and me just sing over an electronic quartet. I went down to see them… The woman who ran it was very nice and … Continue reading →

Wing is a curious one.  She found fame via a talent show.  She’s a cross between Clive James’ muse Margarite Prakatan, and Susan Boyle.  It’s all a bit dodgy I think.  Odd ideas about ‘the other’.

OK – we’re into breakfast Yesterday.  Breakfast radio.  Radio is intimate.  Radio breaks up the day.  Radio is someone depositing their self into your ear via their voice. http://www.slashseconds.org/issues/002/001/articles/svoegelin2/index.php Who are we listening to when we hear these songs? At … Continue reading →

Radio Yesterday is a plateau.  Somewhere above us.  Hovering.  These are some kind of notes from the foothills, from base camp. To follow the metaphor.  The enormous book A Thousand Plateaus might help us understand this process.  Gilles Deleuze and … Continue reading →

Radio Yesterday was Ed Baxter’s idea.  I had been collecting Yesterdays for a couple of years.  I guessed it had some power, it was the most covered song in history.  I was messing around with collages, installation ideas (these still … Continue reading →

Phew – I was drifting into Muggen’s nothingness. A jazzy Yesterday; it’s morning, smell the coffee, feel the muesli, we’ve got through it together.

Vishnu listening to Radio Yesterday

We’ve entered a solipsistic phase.  Nothing exists except our ears and this song.  Swaying synth strings, gated and reverbed electric piano/bells, a guitar sent to digital purgatory.  It’s a computer generated beach which looks beautiful but we try and sit … Continue reading →

With his own funny, moving cover of Yesterday.

It’s nearly six hours.  In a while we can talk about how Radio Yesterday was born.  If it ever never existed that is. Chris Farlowe.  He had the archetypal 60s career; skiffle into blues into rock and then relative obscurity.  … Continue reading →

Which makes me think the song is about the first moment you take stock of your life so far, it might happen around 22.  You leave adolescence, it’s like the Cape of Good Hope, a messy ride but you made … Continue reading →

The comedy Yesterday.  It’s Daffy Duck.  He does bring out the pathos though.  Comedy is tragedy plus time.  Or plus a duck. http://www.stuporduck.com/ Daffy Duck has been described as an ‘unrestrained ID’, suggesting he would never be unhappy.  Which is … Continue reading →

JD Smooth So, the lyrics, part two: Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be, There’s a shadow hanging over me, Oh, yesterday came suddenly. He contrasts Yesterday in the first verse with Suddenley in the second verse, … Continue reading →

(The Ebony Steelband)

One of the earliest covers was Marianna Faithful’s. http://www.mojnet.com/video-marianne-faithfull-yesterday-cover/63a60c5d191649dcfe29 She captures a similar loss of innocence.  Perhaps as she was a similar age to Macca when he wrote the song.  It works.  She also looks a lot like Jane Asher … Continue reading →

Wild Man Fisher – a kind of art-brut songwriter who was sectioned at 16 for trying to kill his mother.  He went on to record albums with Frank Zappa, amongst others.  This is Zappa’s second mention today: Zappa and Wild … Continue reading →

This is quite a tender Macca version.  Taken from his most recent live album.  His voice is a little cracked, which gives it more gravitas perhaps.  My critical facilities are jaded, it’s nearly 5am…

That last version was on/by The Brass and Percussion. It’s great; details here: http://vinylloungehut.blogspot.com/2008/08/percussion-and-brass.html Okay – the first Macca version, from Wings Over America, an epic 3-record, two hour long, Wings live album.  It features a brass section. The wiki … Continue reading →

4.30am – sun rising over London, Radio Yesterday is out there somewhere, hovering over the concrete. The view from my window, the world mediated through this song.  I feel like Fitzcarraldo playing his gramophone in the Amazon wilderness.

Placido Domingo sounds a little embarrased here. On the cover version:  Another curious thing is the difference between a cover version and a reproduction of a score.  Cover versions are often learnt by ear wherein the original piece is listened … Continue reading →

Anyway, back to the lyrics: Yesterday, All my troubles seemed so far away, Now it looks as though they’re here to stay, Oh, I believe in yesterday. There’s a section in a Borges story about a group of people who … Continue reading →

Elvis – “Hang loose everybody…” Not the real Elvis/Beatles. We’re in Vegas period – Elvis claimed the Beatles for his own long after they deposed him as kings of pop music.  The Beatles met Elvis in 1964 (http://www.theholidayspot.com/elvis/rendezvous.htm).  Yesterday was … Continue reading →

A lute version – but in a strange pop music live context.  The audience hum/sing along and whoop in the parts between the phrases.  They know the song, but they don’t get really involved.  The participation is at arms length.  … Continue reading →

ok – the lyrics: Yesterday, All my troubles seemed so far away, Now it looks as though they’re here to stay, Oh, I believe in yesterday. Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be, There’s a shadow hanging … Continue reading →

Incredibly we just heard the first panpipe Yesterday.  I know there are many more to come.  Now, I don’t know the history, but at some point the panpipe – the chosen instrument of a number of Gods and Goddesses of … Continue reading →

Hildegard Knef – a proto-Nico voice.  Nico should have covered Yesterday actually.  She would have killed it.  On her Harmonium. Hildegard was the first actress to appear nude in German cinema in the film, the Sinner: I don’t know why … Continue reading →

I should add that Radio Yesterday features no repeats.  So Los Rolins have slipped in through devious means.  I don’t mind.  I love that extra chorus Yes-Ter-Day-Li-Li-Li-Li.

Resonance’s own brilliant Hooting Yard Show explains more about this: http://hootingyard.org/archives/date/2010/04/page/2 It’s Los Rolin again!  These guys get around.  Where are they now?  Where were they then?  Everybody – Yes-ter-day la-la-la-la-la! You get the feeling this guy has no real … Continue reading →

There comes a moment in Yesterday listening when the boundaries start to blur, what I said before about the genre becomes the opposite.  It becomes the only song in the world.  A huge song, a world song, it might contain … Continue reading →

This guy hasn’t quite got his mouth around the song.  That Yesterday-ay-ay-ay part is a tricky one.  Different covers do it differently.  This one turns it into a la-la-la moment.  Others leave it to the instruments, some incorporate into the … Continue reading →

Long latin version. The melancholy is interesting.  Nostalgia travels…

I have to quote Pessoa at you, it’s 3am: “Time! The past! Something — a voice, a song, a chance fragrance — lifts the curtain on my soul’s memories… That which I was and will never again be! That which … Continue reading →

Great version – double bass solo on Folkway Records.  On this record:

Melancholy was seen as a physical complaint until quite recently.  It’s slipped in the backdoor these days as a form of depression, but the older conceptions of it also incorporated “every small occasion of sorrow, need, sickness, trouble, fear, grief, … Continue reading →

Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.  All the misery of country music impacted on Macca’s melancholia.  Almost too much.  What did he say when he said something wrong?  Willie Nelson probably admitting to shooting her Pa, and Merle confessed to burying … Continue reading →

That’s Macca talking – this Dutch metal version samples him.  Joke metal.  The guy does that death growl thing well though. This might be the Golden Violin, or the 101 Strings Orchestra.  It’s hard to tell. Not many versions use … Continue reading →

Susan Rafey; tears the melody apart which is welcome after two hours.  Rafey was on Verve Records.  Another dreamy, reverby version. Another oddity with the melody is a flattened fourth in that, “all my troubles” bit.  It keeps that section … Continue reading →

First reggae version – there are more.  This one doesn’t really bother with chords changes which is pretty daring.

Cyril Stapleton – a star in that odd post-war period where pop music was the BBC Show Band. Cyril went on to be head of A and R at Pye Records.  There is a connection between Pye and the Beatles, … Continue reading →

More on that later… Strange psuedo-latin version with clarinet. When helping Radio Yesterday with this project I listened to Yesterday for days on end.  After a while you forget it’s the same song.  It becomes an odd kind of genre.  … Continue reading →

In the Golden Bough, hoary old armchair anthropologist Sir James Frazer examines sympathetic magic.  This is a supernatural process were enacting something on an object that resembles something else has some kind of power over that something else.  Voodoo is … Continue reading →

The Bar-Keys – one of the Stax records house bands.  They do the Los Rolins trick of throwing in a new section.  You can almost hear their teeth grinding as they stroll through their pedestrian soul-version, then suddenly wigging out … Continue reading →

So, after selling a million copies in the USA, Yesterday became the most played song on American radio for the subsequent eight years.   It must have been in these years the song gathered it’s moss, so to speak.  Vietnam, the … Continue reading →

If you’re listening to Radio Yesterday, and you find this blog, drop us a line.  You could even send a song request, I’ll pass it on to the station, you know the rule though. Mellow jazz.  A genre that levels … Continue reading →

Emoting.  Lots of singers use the relative simplicity of Yesterday, both its lyrics and melody, to show off their range of ticks and trills.  It seems to suit a lot of voices.  Macca’s melodies are simple but they always jump … Continue reading →

Whistling.  Jackie And Roy.  They do that close harmony soft singing for the bridge.  That kind of singing/nonsinging was another Musak innovation, masterminded by Ray Conniff. George Mrdgichian Turkish/American Oud player. Israeli singer Esther Ofarim.  Came tenth in the 1963 … Continue reading →

Spanish Yesterday.  Radio Yesterday have lots of non-English versions of the song.  I must say thank you to collectors Hillebrand and Herb for their help in sourcing these. Here’s Hillebrand’s amazing website: http://www.beatlescovers.nl/ Nancy Ames – using the dream-reverb motif … Continue reading →

The chord sequence is interesting.  It sounds very simple, a simple melancholic acoustic ballad.  But it immediately drops out of it’s tonic.  You get G for one bar, and then Macca drops you into an emotional chasm by using F#minor.  … Continue reading →

Here’s the chords if you want to play along with Radio Yesterday: G F#m Yesterday, B7 Em Em/D C All my troubles seemed so far away D G G/F# Now it looks as though they’re here to stay Em A7 … Continue reading →

Close harmony Yesterday by The Persuasions, a group who owe their career to Frank Zappa.  He heard them singing via a phone conversation and immediately flew them to LA to record an album.  Years later they recorded a Frank Zappa … Continue reading →

More Musak, you can see why John Cage wanted to compose a piece of uninterrupted silence and sell it to the Musak Corporation. Studies in the 60s showed that people spent more time in shops when soft, slow music was … Continue reading →

The rest of the band (John, George, Ringo, you know em) didn’t really like the new song.  It wasn’t very Beatles-y at all.  It was sequenced into Help! and possibly forgotten about.  But, quietly and immediately, it began to work … Continue reading →

Epic smooth/modern jazz version by Entusijazzme.  Jazz musicians definitely took yesterday under their wing(s).  Radio Yesterday features a lot of jazz versions. Macca recorded Yesterday in two takes on June 14 1964, not long before his 22nd birthday.  Take two … Continue reading →

Treorchy Male Voice Choir – nice version.  Brings out some nice harmonies don’t you think?  The melody allows that. Before the Beatles recorded it Chris Farlowe was offered the song, but he refused it for being too soft.  He did … Continue reading →

Macca had the song in reserve for a while.  He’d bother the other Beatles with it in rehearsals, “Scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs!”. (Yu Xibin, one of many instrumental versions.  The melody and the lyric are so recognisable, there are some … Continue reading →

A little background to the song.  Wikipedia describe it as a melancholic acoustic ballad, which makes it sound incredibly simple (perhaps it is that simple). The story goes, Paul MacCartney was staying over at Jane Asher’s house in Wimpole Street, … Continue reading →

Vicki Brown.  First wife of Joe Brown, mother of Sam Brown.  I saw Sam Brown do a gig in a cave in Cornwall once.  She didn’t play Yesterday. Followed by Worldwide Success.  Where are they now? Harpist Sylvia Kowalzcuk: http://www.harpistsylvia.com/

The speakers are crackling, I’m tuning in, it’s midnight… A warm-sounding voice. Radio Yesterday. Ladies and gentleman, its Yesterday by Richard Clayderman. Listed in the Guiness Book of Records as the ‘most popular pianist in the world’, it seems apt … Continue reading →

Radio Yesterday will start broadcasting in 10 minutes.  I will be here to offer comment, give information and perhaps even learn from the most popular song in recording history… Oh, and happy birthday Macca!

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