I tried to call my honey. . .

Boys will be boys. Paul and John clowning in their undies ca. 1960-61.

It seems like many early rock and roll songs dealt with some guy trying to get in touch with his girl via the telephone, to greater or lesser degrees of success. And so it is with the tune Buzz Buzz a Diddle It by Freddie Cannon, who is best known for his tune Tallahasee Lassie. Cannon had a string of hit singles and albums from the late 1950s though the early 60s, including a #1 album on the British charts in March 1960.

So, naturally, the Beatles knew his music and added Buzz Buzz a Diddle It to their early sets in Hamburg and Liverpool in their continuous quest for new material. Several years ago, guitarist Eddie Angel, of Los Straightjackets, also recorded the tune on his CD "Eddie Angle Meets the Beatles", a must-have for any fan of the Hamburg-era Beatles. You can hear the original version by Freddie "Boom Boom" Cannon by clicking on the highlighted link above. Enjoy!

Flashforward to 2010. . .

My band THE INDRAS played last night to an appreciative crowd at a local bar. In the spirit of the Hamburg and Liverpool-era Beatles, we were loose and had some fun with the audience at various points during the evening. Our three sets of 70+ songs lasted just over four hours and included classic Hamburg-era tunes like Nothin Shakin', Slow Down, Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, and Lucille plus slower songs like Anna, and Baby It's You. People got up to dance at several points and even sang along. It's always surprising to find how many apparently young people know the words to these old tunes! And hey, check out our Facebook page and become a fan of THE INDRAS while you're at it.

Crackin' Up. . .

George, John, Pete, and Paul with one of their Hamburg pals -- ex-boxer, notorious bouncer, and club manager Horst Fascher, ca. early 1962.

Not me, but the song! The Hamburg-era Beatles covered a number of Bo Diddley tunes during the long hours they logged onstage in the clubs of the Grosse Freiheit and along the brighter, busier Reeperbahn between August 1960-December 1962. One of those songs was the delightful Crackin' Up from 1959. As always, click on the previous highlighted link to hear the song.

Covered by various artists over the years, including the Rolling Stones, a version of this was recorded later in 1987 by Paul McCartney and appears on "The Complete Russian Sessions", which makes me speculate if he was the Beatle who sang this half a century ago in Hamburg. Anyone know for sure? Please leave a comment with the answer.

Hamburg Fatigue and the Blues. . .

Here's an informal photograph of Stu Sutcliffe and John Lennon, hunched over his guitar in the foreground. Given their clothing, which I've noticed in a few other pictures, my guess is this shot was snapped sometime in the spring of 1961 at the Top Ten Club on the Reeperbahn. Now, are they playing a slower tune here, or just so worn out and bedraggled that they had to sit on their amps?

Virtually every chronicle of the Beatles' time in Hamburg mentions their heavy playing schedules, their rather wild life offstage, and the incredible fatigue the guys dealt with on a daily basis. Most nights (early mornings actually), worn out by hours of playing and boozing already, the Beatles filled their last set of the night with slower, more obscure B-sides and bluesy numbers picked up by watching, jamming with, and learning from fellow countryman Tony Sheridan.

One tune that a slightly tipsy young drummer from a rival Liverpool band, some guy named Richard Starkey, used to request after his band wrapped things up was 3:30 Blues by Duane Eddy. Be sure to click on the highlighted link to hear the song. Pretty easy to close your eyes and imagine a few dancing couples and some hard cases still at the bar of Hamburg's Top Ten Club at around 2:00 am as the Beatles cranked it out sleepily from the stage.

Indeed, my own band The Indras used to include this tune in our third set last year, which drunken guys inevitably loved swaying to by themselves or in small groups as we wound down for the night. Not always the most lively or electric audience to play for however!

Ain't She Sweet?

Astrid Kirchherr and Stu Sutcliffe in an interesting self-portrait. Kind of easy to see why Stu fell heavily for Astrid, and all the rest of the Beatles were so enamored of her. Not exactly a beauty, but there's just something about Astrid. . . some indefinable, enigmatic quality. . . even in a 50-year-old photograph.

One of the tunes covered by the Beatles in Hamburg was the old pop standard Ain't She Sweet, which they usually played straight (re: like a fairly slow ballad). However, when the Beatles committed the song to tape during their June 1961 sessions backing Tony Sheridan, they played the song much more up tempo, kind of like a march, to paraphrase John Lennon, which undoubtedly went over well with German audiences and listeners at the time.

In any case, it's very easy to close your eyes and imagine seeing the Beatles onstage in a crowded, smoky German club while listening to this tune. And the bass line is especially strong for such an early recording of the band. An solid indicator of how innovative a bassist Paul McCartney was destined to become. Click on the highlighted link above to hear the band play the Ain't She Sweet.

What'd I say?

Here is an undated photograph of The Indra Club on Hamburg's Grosse Freiheit, right smack in the St. Pauli district. This is the far end of the street, three or four blocks off the wilder Reeperbahn, so the fact that things look kind of , well, quiet in the photo is understandable.

One of the absolute most blow-out tunes the Hamburg-era Beatles included in their setlists was What'd I Say by the late, great Ray Charles. Click on the previous highlighted link to hear the original version of it from 1959. The song itself was based on an extended jam that Ray and his band shaped into more formal tune during rehearsals for a show during a stay in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania earlier that year.

While a recording of Tony Sheridan singing What'd I Say exists -- which may or may not feature some of the actual Beatles backing him, depending on which chronicle you read -- sadly, no recordings exist of the Beatles singing it themselves. And by all accounts, the tune was a showstopper for them in Hamburg, according to Paul McCartney's remarks in the Anthology coffee table book. The band would often stretch out What'd I Say to 30 minutes or more, filling both time and whipping up the audiences in the Indra, Kaiserkeller, and later the Top Ten clubs into an absolute frenzy. Now THAT would have been something to see!