Another time at the immigration office

Photo by Dave Morrell 

 April 18, 1972 

Run Out Groove - A Book Review

Run out Groove by Dave Morrell is the fourth book he has written about his life as a Beatle fan inside the music business.  In this book, Dave picks up in 1980 where he has been just hired to work the rock section of Capitol Records in New York City.

The book tells of the high and low points of his job and how he was able to meet many amazing rock stars like Iron Madian, Crowded House, Great White, Duran Duran and so many more that were popular in the 1980s.

Of course, the most interesting sections to us are at the beginning, when he sees John Lennon for the last time on the streets of NYC and the work he did promoting Paul McCartney's Press to Play and Flowers in the Dirt albums.    He got to spend time with Paul during these times and has great, fun stories about hanging out with him and smoking pot with Linda!  (You gotta read it to believe it!)

I found some of the dialog of his mean bosses yelling at him to be tedious at times.   I think two chapters of this information would have been enough, and I

ended up skimming some of that part.  His bosses were really mean.  I don't think I could make it in the music business.

Dave also tells a lot about being a Beatles collector and the famous shoot he did for Rolling Stone Magazine

Run Out  Groove is a fun book to read, just as Dave's other books have been.  You get a real feel for the music business from an insider's perspective.  Make sure to add this book to your reading list during this pandemic.  It will help get your mind off all the crazy going on in the world.

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon where you can purchase this book.   I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/3uJafkR

1974: The Promotion Man NYC--a Book review

I would guess that during his life, Dave Morrell would tell the stories of working as a promotion man in New York City in the mid-1970s, and people would tell him that he should write a book.  Fortunately, Dave has written down the stories, and his second book, 1974 The Promotion Man New York City, is all about Dave's experiences working as the PR guy for Warner Brothers Records in 1974.  Dave could have called this book "Smoking a joint with the stars."  Almost every story ended up with a joint being shared from Ronnie Wood to John Lennon and half a dozen people in between.

Dave got into the PR business at a good time in American radio history, as the transition from AM to FM stations was in full swing. This book really was a glimpse into the radio and record business in 1974. Dave stood out among the other PR guys because he was young and a true fan of music. He found success with plenty of big-name artists in 1974, including Maria Muldaur (Midnight at the Oasis), Jethro Tull, and Gordon Lightfoot.    

What struck me was that no matter where Dave went, his love for the Beatles wasn't far behind.   Through his dealings with various artists for his job, he seemed to keep running into people from the Beatles world, such as Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall. From these meetings, he and his friend Ron got to experience amazing things, such as seeing rare footage from the "Get Back" sessions that didn't make it into Let It Be.

The most exciting part of the book was the time Dave spent with John Lennon.  You know that flicker Elivs badge that you often see John Lennon wearing in photos?   Well, Dave Morrell gave that badge to John himself as a birthday present in 1974!

John sporting the Elvis badge Dave gave him for his birthday 

Dave was able to sit in the studio and hear some of the records for the "Rock n Roll" album. What makes this book worth reading is the story of how he went into John and May's apartment and watched the Beatles Washington D.C. Coliseum concert with John Lennon AND what rare (at the time) song John played for him! It's totally worth reading this book—that story will knock you away!  

Dave also was in attendance during the famed Elton John Thanksgiving concert, where John made a guest appearance, and the George Harrison concert, where John's guest appearance didn't happen. 

One thing he DIDN'T mention in the book that I was expecting to read about was the first Beatlefest in New York that happened that year.  Surely Dave was there?  Maybe not because it isn't mentioned in the book.  

What I like the best about Dave's books is that when you read them, you feel like you are chatting with a friend who is just sharing amazing stories.    

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book. (Although I am not sure if anyone would want to buy it...)  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/3ToRyfH

Photographer and photo

Hold onto your hat, Mike because Dave Morrell (who is awesome and everyone needs his book, Horse Doggin') was looking through the archives of this blog and couldn't believe what he found!  

 

This is a photo that I have had on this blog for many years.   Ringo in New York City mid 1970's and a fan is taking his photo.      Well--Dave found the photo and recognized that HE is the fan taking the photo and here is his result (snapped just a few  seconds later).    I love stuff like this! 

photo by Dave Morrell

Horse Doggin' --- a book review

John and Yoko (with two other people) in 1971, around the time Dave Morrell first talked to them.

One of the most popular fans that I often get questions about is none other than Dave Morrell.  I have posted some stories about Dave on this blog, and I personally have always been interested in him and his stories of meeting John Lennon.  I think what draws us fans into Dave's story so much is that he is just a regular Beatles fan, just like any of us.  He wasn't some insider in Apple or something like that.  He was a young Beatles fan who, under some amazing circumstances, was able to bring some of the joy of being a Beatles fan to one of the actual Beatles! It is just a story that blows us all away because it is so unbelievable and yet it happened. 

Luckily for us, Dave has begun writing his stories in a new series of books. The first book, Horse Doggin': Dave Morrell Archives Volume 1, was released this summer. It begins in 1971, when Dave graduated from high school, and goes through 1973. In those three short years, Dave had more amazing things happen to him than you would imagine.

Dave tells the stories of his encounters with John Lennon in late 1971 and into 1972. These stories are similar to those on this blog, but instead of someone else writing about what happened, Dave himself tells the story. Many of the little questions I had about what happened were answered in this book because he was there.

What I liked about the book was that it was a time machine of sorts and really took me back in time to New York City in the early 1970s and what it was like to be a Beatles fan then.  John Lennon and Yoko Ono were new to the city, and fans were seeing them out and about for the very first time.  The Beatles fandom of collecting rare music and films on bootlegs was beginning to really take off and no one was completely sure what was what.   It must have been such a fun and exciting time for fans, and I enjoyed being able to appreciate that through this book.  Dave became a super collector and was getting rare Beatles materials and collectibles at every chance. 

Overall, it was an easy book to read.  There is a lot of great humor in the book, and you will laugh on several occasions.  Being a reading teacher and all, I tend to read quickly, so I was able to read this book in one sitting.  It really is a good book to add to your summer reading list and grab to take with you to the beach or to read while on a plane or car (if you can read in the car....I can't).  While a lot of the focus is on the Beatles, there are some stories about other performers in New York during the early 1970s. 

I am anxious to read the rest of Dave's books, and I am especially looking forward to Volume IV, "The Photograph Book."   Doesn't that sound awesome?    But the next volume is 1974, which is a great year for more John Lennon stories!

If you would like to buy Dave Morrell's book Horse Doggin', it is available from Amazon in paperback and on ebook.     





The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/3TBNid3

Yellow Matter Custard

In looking through the blog's stats, I noticed a large number of hits recently on a story that I had typed up from Beatlology magazine about the Beatles fan, Dave Morrell who met John Lennon in 1971 to exchange a bootleg album with John Lennon.    I decided to take another look at that amazing story.

I got my information from the "Smith Tapes" which are now available to buy on itunes, the original Beatlology article, and the book Black Market Beatles  by Jim Berkenstadt and Belmo.

The late 1960’s and early 1970’s was the beginning days of Beatles bootlegs.   According to The book, Black Market Beatles y Jim Berkenstadt and Belmo, the first Beatle bootlegs were inaudible Beatles concerts  and a few unheard studio takes.    They were many generations away from the original, but were still audible enough to recognize the music as the Beatles and were rare things that fans had never heard before. 

Historically the first Beatles bootleg was out in 1969 and was called “Kum Back.”  This record was a rough version of the Beatles Get Back album.   This album and other early releases had a very simple package.  They were pressed on heavy, scratchy vinyl with a black white front cover with the name of the album pressed on the front with a rubber stamp.    If the titles of the songs or where they originated was included on the album, the information was frequently incorrect.    Sometimes this was done on purpose so that the person who “leaked” the music did not get caught.   Most of these early pressings didn’t make more than 1,000 albums and were aimed for just the hard-core Beatle fans.

In those early days, the records were sold from the classified ads of record magazines, through underground newspapers, and mostly through mail-order brochures.   A Beatles bootleg record would cost you about $4.00 each in the early 1970’s.   

Howard Smith interviews John and Yoko

This is where Dave Morrell comes into all of this.   In 1971, Dave was a big time Beatles fan.   He had gotten into collecting these rare Beatles bootlegs.  He had a mail-order brochure for a placed called Godzilla records in California and he ordered a Beatles bootleg called Yellow Matter Custard.

Dave had what was a “phone relationship” with Howard Smith, a guy who was a radio DJ and writer for the Village Voice.   Howard Smith had interviewed John and Yoko (and George as well) and had a working relationship with John.    After Dave received the album, he calls up Howard and explains that he has some rare early Beatles recordings.   He wasn’t sure exactly when they were from, but he thought they might have been from before Ringo joined the group.   He gave Howard a list of the names of the songs on the album and asked if he would pass this information onto John Lennon and ask him what he thought it might be. 

An album similar to the one Dave gave John (although I would think it was a black vinyl)

What songs were on Yellow Matter Custard that were so confusing to Dave in 1971?  Well the track list was: (note that some of these titles aren’t even the true titles to the songs)

-I got a woman

-- Glad all over

--I just don’t understand

--Slow Down

--Please don’t ever change

--Shot of rhythm and Blues

-- I’m sure to fall

--Nothing shaking but the leaves on the trees

--Lonesome Tears in my eyes

-- Everyone wants someone

--I’m gonna sit right down and cry over you

-- To know her is to love her

--Crying Waiting hoping

--Bound by Love

None of these songs had been heard in America before (well with the exception of “Slow Down” but this particular version hadn’t been heard).    Howard took the note from Dave with the names of the cuts on Yellow Matter Custard and showed it to John Lennon.  At first John did not think it was the Beatles, but then he figured out that it must be the January 1, 1962 Decca auditions.     When John saw this list of songs, it had been just a little less than 10 years since the Decca auditions took place.   And while ten years ago to me seems like a blink in time, it must have seemed like a whole other life to John.  So much had occurred in his life in those 10 years.     Two of the songs on that list were indeed songs that were sung at the Decca auditions (Crying, hoping Waiting and To Know her is to Love her).   None of the songs on the list were Ringo numbers and let’s all face it:  John had a terrible memory about this stuff.    Plus as you can see in this 1971 interview quote, the Decca auditions were on John’s mind

“Well, I don’t know…I can’t think what it is (talking about unreleased Beatles music).  The only tapes I know of are Hollywood Bowl, Shea Stadium and somebody that did something on us in Italy.  But it’s all the same songs over and over anyway.  There were no other German tapes that Polydor didn’t release.  The only stuff that could be would be some auditions we did for Decca around ’61 or ’62, something like that.”

As we know, on December 7, 1971, Dave met up with John at the Record Plant and exchanged Yellow Matter Custard for John’s original copy of the Butcher album, which John autographed for Dave.   It had been written (in the Beatlology article and elsewhere) that Dave gave John a tape copy of the album, but Dave himself has squashed that rumor on the comments section of another blog and said that he gave John the album and that is why John did not listen to it that night.     John took the record home and listened to it at home.   

After John took the record home and had a chance to listen to it, he contacted Howard Smith again and told him how much he enjoyed the record.   After listening to it, he was still convinced that he had the Decca auditions in his possession.   He stated that his favorite song on the record was “to know her is to love her” and that he was going to send tapes to Paul, George and Ringo to see if maybe they would like to clean up the tapes and release them!   

In February 1972, Howard Smith wrote a “Scenes” article about Dave Morrell and featured him on the radio.   He interviewed a very happy Dave on air about meeting John and Dave played some of the songs and talked about them.  They both were referring these as the Decca tapes on air.   It was shortly after this that the Yellow Matter Custard record started being released with “The Decca tapes” printed on the cover.   I am not sure when the truth about these being BBC recordings came to light.

While I have heard that John had sent a tape of the album to Paul to possibly be released in 1972, I wasn’t so sure how true that story was.   We are talking about John and Paul in late 1971.  They were in a very vicious fight.  On December 4, 1971 a very biting and mean letter appeared in Melody Maker from John and Yoko to Paul.    And yet in Hunter Davies’ The Lennon Letters appeared this nice note to Paul about the (thought of) Decca tapes.   I love how John puts War is over (if you want it).  Maybe this was a peace gesture to Paul??

The note John sent to Paul (from the book the John Lennon Letters)

And so is the story of how one Beatles fan made waves among the Beatles themselves. 

 

Dave Morrell: Part 2 - The Rolling Stone story

This is how I first read about Dave Morrell and his amazing story of meeting John Lennon.   It was in the 1984 issue of Rolling Stone magazine that commemorated the Beatles 20th anniversary of coming to America.   That issue features a lot of information about younger Beatle fans, and this story about Dave really stuck out to many people.

Photo from the Rolling Stone article

Photo Dave Morrell took of John (and a little bit of Yoko) during one of the Immigration hearings.

Beyond Beatlemania by Brant Mewborn

David Morrell will never forget the night he got to "turn on" a Beatle. It was October 4, 1974, a cool autumn evening. And there, on a bed in his East Fifty-second Street apartment, was John Lennon, sprawled alongside Derek Taylor, the former Beatle press officer, and Mike McGear, Paul McCartney's brother.

"What have you got?" John asked
"I think it may be something you've never seen before" said the lanky, longhaired twenty-one year old Morrell. There was a hushed air of anticipation as Morrell and his seventeen year old sidekick, Ron Furmanek, got into action. They set up a 16-mm film projector and aimed it at the white shade drawn across the expensive penthouse windows.

The movie that unreeled seemed anything but shocking or explosive; four moptops vainly trying to outscream an army of tonsil-baring teenage girls was an all to familiar memory, and the select audience was only mildly amused. Then suddenly, something unexpected happened. As John huddled with Paul and George around one microphone, their harmonies on "This boy" soared above the pandemonium. By the time the cinematic John began belting out his plaintive solo in the song's middle eight, the ex-Beatle had jumped from the bed to sit cross-legged on the floor, gazing up slack-jawed at his younger self.

"Wow," he said, slumping backward as the lights finally went up.

The party had just begun. For the next few hours, the two Beatlemaniacs delved into their suitcase of memorabilia and regaled their hero with obscure Beatles tapes, newsreels and photographs. After they'd exhausted their supply of treasures, John turned the tables. He took the boys out onto the balcony and pointed to a spot over the skyline where he had recently sighted a flying saucer. Then leading through the rest of the apartment, he showed them his original drawings for the sleeve art of his just-released album, Walls and Bridges, before rummaging through his bedroom closet and emerging with a large envelope.

"I've lived all over," John said "I don't carry a lot of things around in a trunk. You see my walls, there are no gold records. I don't have my Beatles guitars. But I do have one thing with me." And from an envelope within the envelope he pulled an acetate of the Beatles performing "How do you do it?" It was the unreleased non-Beatles song that George Martin had the group record as a follow up single to Love me do in 1963. The public got to hear it only by Gerry and the Pacemakers because Jon came up with Please please me instead.

It was incredible," Morrell says. "John was such a Beatle fan himself that after we turned him on with our stuff, he wanted to turn us on too."

David George John Morrell (his real given name) was a pioneer in what has since become a big business of collecting Beatles memorabilia. Today the collectors can essentially be divided into three distinct groups: those with money, those without money and those to whom virtually everything the Fab Four touched is simply priceless.

The well to do group might be found on New Bond Street in London, placing bids at Sotherby's auction galleries on memorabilia ranging from a gold record of Abbey road (sold for $4000) to the nineteenth century piano on which Lennon composed "a Day in the life" ($12, 500). The primary buyers, says Sotheby's, are American, Japanese and British; the material put up for sale is often form the Beatles' friends or the odd thief. Last year, Sotheby's pulled from the auction block a gold LP for Band on the Run that rightfully belonged to Paul McCartney

The group of collectors at the lower end of the income scale can generally be found at the various Beatles conventions and festivals held each year around the US. While these fans gather to discuss the joys and minutiae of their favorite band, the emphasis is more often on commerce than commentary. What you find, for the most part, are outrageously inflated prices for items that were once available at your local Woolworth's. The by-word of these conclaves might well be caveat emptor; fraudulent pieces are said to be rampet and authenticity is often in doubt.

The final grouping tends to scorn the pretenders in the other categories. These men and women traffic in those things that were never intended to see the light of day: unreleased song and album tapes, diaries, unpublished writings and clandestine films. At times, their relentless pursuit of such things has unearthed material even the Beatles didn't know existed; at other times, their detective work has been, shall we say, extralegal. While some collect solely for the sake of collecting, others, such as David Morrell, have loftier goals: sharing aspects of the Beatles legacy with the band's millions of admirers around the globe.

You won’t' find Dave Morrell at Beatles conventions. The sort of rarities he trades in, recording demos, outtakes, recorded conversations and interviews is a highly confidential business.

"It's sort of cloak and dagger," says Dave, "but the dagger is made of rubber." Dave is more forthcoming than most collectors. Driving from Manhattan to his home in New Jersey, he launches into a dissertation that's underscored by a demo of McCartney singing "Come and get it" (a hit he composed and produced for Badfinger) blaring from the car's cassette deck. According to Dave, the sources for this kind of material are the Beatles' assistants, the most notorious being a Lenono staffer who stole some of Lennon's tapes and diaries in 1981; recording studio personnel, including some well-known producers, and even the Beatles friends and fellow artists. Like a chain letter, an item is passed from collector to collector. All this activity inhabits a rather gray legal area, but it’s done privately and not distributed in quantity for commercial gain. Unfortunately, though the copying of tapes is nearly impossible to control, so they sometimes filter down into the hands of bootleggers."

"It a shame, “says Dave, having switched cassettes to a very rare acoustic folk version of Lennon's "Watching the Wheels" "I hate bootlegs. It's not what collecting is about. None of us wants that to happen, 'cause then the recordings are no longer an exclusive and their quality is very poor."

Another collector, who claims he's had tapes stolen only to see them surface on bootlegs, puts it more bluntly: "Anyone who would prostitute his hobby is not a collector, he's a crook." And Dave agrees, although he says that in his discussions with Lennon, the ex-Beatle had a liberal attitude toward bootlegging and got a kick out of them. Indeed Dave maintains that Lennon was the source of a major Beatles bootleg, Get Back to Toronto. It seems he gave a journalist a test pressing of the unembellished, pre Phil Spector Let it Be LP, and it was eventually broadcast around 1970 for NY's WBAI radio benefit, which was taped off the air and bootlegged. "I think," says Dave, that Lennon felt "Well this is the Beatles raw--let the world hear it."

There have been hundreds of lesser-quality bootlegs since then, and the latest is due any day now: a pirated recording of last summer's show at Abbey Road Studios, which features a moving, acoustic rendition of "While my guitar gently weeps" and the recently discovered "Leave my kitten alone." The underground buzz credits the album to an enterprising visitor who slipped through the metal detector security with a plastic tape recorder.

Tales of such shenanigans don't really rattle Dave's antennae these days. But while unpacking trunks of memorabilia in the suburban home that was once a Beatles shrine in his more manic days, he remembers how he used to have the Beatles grapevine growing out of both ears. "I had to know about every new thing," says Dave, "and I had to get everything, one way or another."

"You've just won Mayor Lindsay's legs!" These were among the first words John Lennon ever uttered to Dave Morrell. This is important. This is history. And Dave has it documented on tape. It was the summer of '71 and John and Yoko were mystery guests on Howard Smith's call in talk show on WPLJ-FM New York. Like any fan worth his weight in Beatles bubble gum cards, Dave immediately soused out the situation, plugged in his tape machine and telephoned in to join the fun. For his effort, John proclaimed that Dave had won the aforementioned prize. Spurred on by this off the wall on the air exchange, the teenager wrote to Smith, saying he had happened on to some early Beatles recordings he wanted John to identify. The response was as swift as it was surprising. Smith arranged for Dave to play the tapes for John at the studio where he was producing the David Peel album The Pope Smokes Dope.

The tapes in question were actually cuts that Dave had recorded from one of the earliest Beatles bootlegs called Yellow Matter Custard. "You might say I bluffed my way in," admits Dave, "because it was a record that anybody could get. But I can honestly say I was the first person to play it for John Lennon. And he was totally knocked out. He identified them as the Beatles audition tapes for Decca. We later learned that they were really from BBC broadcasts of the same period. But John was so excited that he later told Howard on the air that he was sending copies to the other Beatles. He was very gung ho."

Dave had fully expected the bum's rush from Lennon. But as it turned out, Peel had to interrupt the recording sessions; as astonished Dave and his girlfriend, Mary Ellen (fellow fan and eventually wife, who married her collection to his) stayed and entertained John, Yoko, Smith and the studio staff with their bag of Beatles memorabilia. In return for Dave's tape, John sent for one of his "butcher cover" albums, which he signed for Dave with an autograph on the front and a sketch on the back. Naturally, it's the crowning glory of Dave's collection.

It was as if Dave had received the godfather's blessing. The 18 year old college dropout took this red letter event as a sign to quit his job as stock boy in Paramus and to continue his collector's quest with an added impetus, to track down artifacts and tapes that even a Beatle would find interesting.

The self-appointed scout was well prepared for his mission. Since age 11, Dave had steeped himself in Beatle lore. Whether it was the movies he shot with his home movie camera of the band's appearance on Ed Sullivan, or the photos he took at Shea Stadium (using his binoculars as a telephoto lens) he had to have it all.

These scratchy, grainy mementos from adolescence gave Dave bargaining power with the network of collectors that soon developed through his celebrity as "the world's leading Beatlemaniac" a title Howard Smith conferred upon him in an article in the Village Voice. Soon, he was overwhelmed by the hordes of Beatles freaks crawling out of the woodwork and heading his way. The weirdest case was that of a Beatlemaniac's mother who wanted to touch him because he had met John Lennon. The nicest was a precocious 14 year old named Ron Furmanek, who expertise nearly matched his own; they teamed up to spread the gospel with one of the first collectors' newsletters, Beatles for Sale. And the most intriguing response was from a mysterious man who lured Dave to Connecticut promising to screen an amazing 35mm film of the Beatles' first concerts in America. It was amazing. So was the price: 10,000 dollars for the negative, $800 for the print. Dave knew he was in over his head, but he knew he was in.

High from spearheading a revival of Beatlemania, Dave entered a short but frenzied period of obsession that he now looks back on with something less than pride. Usually accompanied by a could Beatles pals, he'd loiter outside John and Yoko's Village apartment, waiting to exchange a few remarks with the godfather and turn him on to a new acquisition. Or, decked out with camera and tape machines, he'd play reporter and interview John as he emerged from his immigration hearings downtown. He even managed to crash the party following Lennon's One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden. Dave and Ron became more aggressive New York versions of the female "Apple Scruffs" who kept vigil at Apple's home office in London. Befriending the small, laid back Apple crew on the 41st floor of 1700 Broadway, they insinuated their way into the closest approximation of paradise they could imagine--a storage room brimming with Beatles records, tapes, films, photos and a wealth of promotional gadgets.

Things were pretty hunky-dory in fan land until one day, as Dave and Ron were boarding the elevator, Apple bound, "an arm reached in and pulled back the doors," relates Dave, "It was John with Yoko. It was incredible. We were wired to the teeth with hidden mikes and recorders and we pressed all the buttons so the elevator would stop at every floor from one to forty one! “Then they launched into their collectors' spiel. But no, John didn't need any more copies of "She loves you" in German. And no, this bootleg of "Have you heard the word" was not really the Beatles--it was a fake, a hoax. And why was the elevator stopping at every bloody floor! When it finally reached the destination, the boys didn't have the nerve to follow John and Yoko.

Dave came to a sobering realization. Among fans, there are echelons, and the fans who haunt doorways and pull elevator pranks are several notches below those who receive a special audience with their idol, something Dave had already done. Dave decided to wait for his next invitation.

It would be two years before it came. By that time, Dave was a promotion man at Warner Bros. Records. During one crazy week in October, while working with Derek Taylor on a Mike McGear project, Dave found himself with Ron in Lennon's apartment, turning him on with their latest finds. The next day Dave took a copy of the oldie "Just Because" to the Record Plant so John could learn the song's lyrics to lay down his final vocal track for the Rock n Roll album. And a few days later, as John's 34th birthday celebration, Dave gave John an Elvis button. Dave of course, can show you photos of John wearing that button on several other occasions.

I've never concerned myself with Lennon's politics or his personal life." says Dave, fiddling with the tape deck that's been blasting out one ear-opening rarity after another. "I've only concerned myself with his music. You see, everything I did to get what I have was done out of some basic instinct to preserve pieces of history. The Beatles themselves were too busy living it to collect it. And the people working for them were too careless or unorganized to realize the worth of what they were entrusted with. But the fans and collectors knew. We always knew. So I have no regrets. Now I see myself as more of a Beatles curator than a collector."

Beatles curators of Beatles archives for Beatles scholars? Dave's face is one big grin, but he's dead serious about the archives: a nonprofit collection of Beatles tapes, films, videos, photos, periodicals and documents that would be open to fans, musicologists and culture historians. For starters, he says, he could use his own collection, and he definitely has the goods. Above all, there are the tapes: priceless unpolished and spontaneous performances, like Lennon accompanying himself on guitar on "Grow old with me" (a version of which is on Milk & Honey) and "You've got to serve yourself" (never released in any form); or the approximately 80 hours of outtakes from the Let it Be movie soundtrack. To complete the archives, Dave says he'd call a grand summit meeting of top Beatles collectors and ask them to donate materials.

Obsessions do indeed shape professions. After years of hyping artists for the likes of Warner Bros, RCA and Arista, Dave has landed feet first at Capitol. It is of course, the U.S. label responsible for bring the Beatles sound to the New World for the past 2 decades and a fitting place for a grown up Beatlemaniac.

"You know," Dave says, "when Sgt. Pepper came out in '67, I was so bummed out. I couldn't deal with the fact that the Beatles were never gonna play live again, that they were wearing mustaches and burying the old moptops. I couldn't grow up. And after they broke up, I was always dreaming they'd get back together. But I finally realized how selfish that was. Now, it means more to me to talk about what kind of person John Lennon was rather than what type of shoes he had in his closest. I couldn't sit around with my collection gathering dust, with the blinds closed, shutting out reality, trying to keep time at a standstill. My windows are open."

Then he pauses, with a quick glance down and smiles, "But I'll probably die with my Beatle boots on."

Dave Morrell Part 1: John's butcher album

One  of the first fan stories I recall hearing when  first became a Beatles fan in the 1980's is also one that is hard to believe.   But it did indeed happen!   It is the story of a teenage Beatles collector in the early 1970's named Dave Morrell.   I found this article about Dave's butcher cover album that was once owned by John Lennon, in the September/October 2003 issue of Beatlology magazine.  It was written by Paul Garfunkel.  

The question that comes to my mind is why did Dave make a tape copy of the bootleg album that he bought from the company in California?   I know it was rare, but it couldn't have been THAT rare if he ordered it through a mail order.  Why didn't he just buy a copy for John?   It seems like he was being a tad bit sneaky.  But then again I am insanely jealous of this guy, so I cannot say.

Dave meets Paul in 1986 and asks him to sign the album

John's doodleo n the reverse of the butcher jacket

Yoko Ono with Julian, Sean and Dave

John Lennon’s Butcher Cover

By Paul Garfunkel with Bruce  Spizer

In early 1971, Dave was working in the Paramus Mall for a department store called Bamberger’s in their jewelry department.  It was during this time when he had his first encounter with John Lennon.  After this one particular evening he knew it would be impossible to go back to work the next day and tell his co-workers that he had actually spoken with John Lennon on the radio the night before.  So, he decided not to go back there anymore and quit his job. 

During this time, John and Yoko were regular guests on a popular radio show hosted by Howard Smith on WABC-FM.  One night they were on the radio wit him, but they did not identify themselves as John and Yoko.  They were really “on” and John was being very humorous, using different dialects and really acting it up.  He was in top form that night when he started taking phone calls from listeners.  He wasn’t promoting anything, just acting crazy.

John and Yoko had been on the show a few times by this point, and this particular night they just started talking funny.  John was speaking in his regular Liverpudlian accent though he didn’t talk about anything that identified him as John Lennon.  Anyway, Dave wanted to call the station to try to get on the radio, hoping that John Lennon would pick up the phone and he would get to speak with him.  Dave also wanted to make sure that his friends listening at home would know that it was him if he did get through.  So he came up with a plan.  He would say, “Dave Marrell is the Great White Wonder,” firstly because he wanted to get his name on the radio and, secondly, he wanted a connection with the Bob Dylan bootleg of the same name.  To this day Dave does not know why he chose that phrase, but at the time, it seemed like the right thing to have ready to say if John picked up the phone. When John picked up the phone, he played along beautifully.  He told Dave, “Oh, could you say it a little bit slower please.”  So Dave said it again, “It’s Dave Morrell, the Great White Wonder.”  John again asked, “Could you please say it again, just a little bit slower please.”  This went on several more times, and then John said, “I think we’re almost there, just once more a little slower.”  So he did it again even slower, and John finally said, “Thank you, you’ve won Mayor Lindsey’s leg!”  Hung up the phone and went to another caller.  That was Dave’s first conversation with John Lennon.

Dave had been collecting Beatles records for a long time.  He had recently received a flyer in the mail from Godzilla Records in California.  Inside the flyer was a listing of bootleg albums.  Records featuring the Rolling Stones “Liver Than You’ll Ever Be,” Dylan’s “Great White Wonder” and the Beatles’ “Yellow Matter Custard.”  This album listed fourteen Beatles songs, all of which he had never heard except for “Slow Down.”  Dave ordered the bootleg album.  When it arrived he put it on his turntable and was amazed that it really was The Beatles singing these songs.  Here were more  than a number of songs that few people had ever heard.

Dave then wrote a letter to New York Disc Jockey, Howard Smith, asking him that when he sees John Lennon to ask him about these songs.  When Dave came home from school a few days later, hismom said, “Howard Smith called for you.”  Howard Smith, who also wrong for the Village Voice, was returning Dave’s phone call.  Dave was overwhelmed.  Dave called him back and said, “hi, it’s Dave Morrell.”  Smith answered, “I got your letter.  I showed it to John and he wants to meet you.  Can you come over?”  Dave said “yeah!” and jumped in his car to pick up Howard in front of the Village Voice and they drove to the Record Plant.

Dave brought a chest full of Beatles memorabilia for John to check out.  It was an amazing experience for Dave to go through this wooden door, knowing that John Lennon was on the other side – something most people could only dream of.  John was very warm and friendly, rushed out, put out his hand and said, “Welcome.  How are you doing?  Listen, have a seat.”

Dave sat in front of the board, so he had to watch John Lennon through this glass reflection behind him.  David Peel’s session wasn’t going well.  Peel actually had the sheer audacity to say to John, “I don’t’ have the music for the next song,” and Lennon said, “Oh, for crying out loud, go get it!”  And sent him home in a cab.  John then came into the studio, sat down at the piano and trying his best to play “In my life” while Dave was watching through the glass.

John then came into the booth, sat down by Dave and asked, “What have you got here?”  Dave opened up the chest which was full of Beatles stuff.  The first thing Dave pulled out for him was a bubblegum trading card with a picture of what The Beatles would look like without their hair.  He cracked up when he saw it and said, “Oh, you’ve got to show this to Yoko.  This is so funny; I look just like a Japanese man!”  Dave very enthusiastically leaped out of his chair, ran to the door and went to see Yoko.  He told Yoko, “John wanted me to show this to you,” at which point she said, “Oh, give it to me,” ripped it out of his hand, autographed the front of it and handed it back to Dave very quickly.  She barely even looked at it.  Dave went back into the studio.

Dave then showed John his copy of the album “Best of the Beatles” on Savage Records.  The cover was a picture of the Beatles taken by Astrid Kirchherr in Germany.  The album was not in fact by The Beatles, but rather songs by Pete Best’s band – and Best’s head is circled on the cover.  Upon seeing it, Jon flipped out and whipped it across the room like a Frisbee, where it hit a wall and bend the cover.

At this point John turned to Dave and said, “You know, I really want to get those tapes that Howard said you have.”  Dave had dubbed the “Yellow Matter Custard” album onto a 7 ½ “reel to reel tape, so he would not have to hand John the actual bootleg album.  John offered his Sgt. Pepper costume in trade.  Dave realized that he was just this kid from Kearny, New Jersey, who had no business being with John Lennon in the first place.  He would probably never see John again so it seemed really unlikely to get his Sgt. Pepper outfit, which John would have to retrieve from storage in England.  Dave said to him, “Actually I collect Beatles’ records and the one that I’m missing is the Beatles “butcher” cover.  Dave had remembered an article in the Newark Star Ledger that he had read, in the Arts and Leisure Section of the November 7^th edition, in which the contest of John’s apartment were described.  It mentioned that a butcher cover was up on the wall.  “I’d really like to have that.”  Dave said.  John replied, “No problem.”  John picked up the phone and told one of his assistants to bring it over to the studio.  A few minutes later the assistant arrived with the record.  John drew a big cloud on the front of it and signed it, “to Dave from John Lennon December 7, 1971.”

The story of his butcher cover album could have ended with this, but the same ambitious spirit that got Dave and John together persisted in the years to come.  Dave became a fixture at Apple where he met Ringo and got him to sign the butcher cover.  While still in his teens, Dave got into the music business and landed a job at Capitol Records.

In the summer of 1986, Dave was working promotions for Paul McCartney’s Press to Play album marking Paul’s return to Capitol Records.  At a press junket at Radio City Music Hal in New York City, Dave got Paul to sign the butcher cover as well.

This particular record is a blank jacket with a stereo ‘butcher” slick affixed to it.  The cover’s seam has been split almost all the way around – the condition it was in when given to Dave.  The back cover is adorned with a drawing of what appears to be a farmer and his dog standing in the path of the setting sun.  John incorporated tears and stains into the artwork.  The record is a stock east coast mono record with the letters VIP on the left-hand side of side 1.

While it is not known when, how or from whom, John got the cover, it is almost certain that the cover was prepared by a Queens Litho employee. IN 1966, when Capitol recalled the butcher cover, Queens Litho was ordered to destroy all unused butcher slicks it had printed.  Although the company dutifully destroyed hundreds of thousands of slicks, it kept a few hundred.  During the next couple of years, these slicks were given out to employees, customers and friends of employees until one weekend the remaining supply disappeared.

A small number of slicks were attached to blank covers as souvenirs.  These blank back butcher cover jackets were not authorized by Capitol and were not packaged with a record.

As for the tape copy of “Yellow Matter Custard,” John had a few acetates pressed.  John mistakenly thought the songs were from the Decca audition although the recordings were actually BBC radio show performances.  He sent one of the acetate copies to Paul.