1973 - Out The Blue

In mid 1973 the four Beatles gathered in a recording studio in upstate New York to record their next album making this the first Beatles album to be recorded outside of England. The location was chosen due to John's immigration problems. John had moved to the U.S. the year before and was now under threat of deportation.

1. Out The Blue
2. I'm The Greatest
3. Big Barn Bed
4. Bring On The Lucie (Freeda People)
5. Living In The Material World
6. When The Night

7. One More Kiss
8. I Know (I Know)
9. Step Lightly
10. You Are Here
11. Hands Of Love/Power Cut
12. Be Here Now

Reality Notes:

Track 2 - The most authentic Beatles song on the album. Written by John who also plays piano and sings backing vocals, Ringo plays drums and sings, George plays guitar, Billy Preston (who appears on the "Let It Be" album) plays organ and long time Beatles associate Klaus Voorman plays bass.

Track 4 - I chopped off the short spoken intro which says "Alright boys, this is it, over the hill." and saved that for later use.

Track 7 - Edited out the count in.

Track 10 - used an alternate take of this song found on the John Lennon Anthology

Track 11 - This song required the most editing. This track closes Paul's album and is part of a four song medley. I took advantage of a natural break between the 2nd and 3rd parts, discarded the first half and faded out early before the reprise of the 1st song occurs.

Track 12 - Closing the album I added 15 seconds of silence to the end of the song then added the spoken intro from Bring on the Lucie to give the album closure.

This is the album that got me started. Many years ago I made a tape containing Beatle solo songs from 1973. Inspired by the fact that 1973 was the only year after 1970 that all four Beatles released albums (Paul released Two) I thought, "what-if instead they collaborated on an album together". You can read more about it here at my other blog.