Hear the Music
“ LES FRADKIN-"PEPPER FRONT TO BACK" (RRO-1018) GUITAR PYROTECHNICS: SGT PEPPER, LES FRADKIN-STYLE This review article is concerned solely with Les Fradkin’s treatment of the various songs making up The Beatles’ celebrated ‘Sgt Pepper’ album, so let me refer you to elsewhere in the present issue of NGD for Davy’s overview of the entire contents of ‘Pepper Front To Back’ (there is a bonus track and also one of those ‘hidden’ tracks, something of a misnomer, as it is credited as a self-composition in the CD insert!). In addition, NGD Issue 75 has a review of Les’ much admired previous Beatles set, ‘While My Guitar Gently Plays’ from 2005, and offers into the bargain an extensive interview with the man himself illuminating his influences, his long-standing professional interest in the Fab Four’s music, and his working methods. This ‘Sgt Pepper’ is certainly an ambitious undertaking, essentially the product of a one-man band, as Les arranges, and performs, the entire programme, using a battery of different guitars to provide a true feast of sound for aficionado and general enthusiast alike (including Fender and Rickenbacker, akin to instruments used by The Beatles themselves for these sessions), and also, among other things, piano, mellotron and synths. With all the studio manipulation brought into play in the relentless pursuit of innovative effects and the genre-blending already well under way on ‘Revolver’, The Beatles’ album was 700 hours in the making, not least because Paul McCartney in particular, having somehow convinced himself that The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ set new standards in pop, was driven by a fierce determination to send his rivals reeling. This he did with plenty to spare. As has often been pointed out, the album taken as a whole brims with supreme self-confidence, a jubilant affirmation of The Beatles’ untouchability. The mood is carried over into these guitar performances. What for me marks out Les’ set overall and makes it so distinctive is the communication of his own enthusiasm and passion for the music. There are no half measures: these are assured, full-blooded, turbo-charged instrumental showpieces, flamboyant, even swaggering at times, incorporating a range of styles and tonalities from the Sixties and beyond: the names of both Jimi Hendrix and Brian May are present in the amplification listings side by side with that of The Ventures under guitars played. (Given the sheer number and variety of instruments employed, it would have been instructive to have rather fuller documentation, devoted to a breakdown for each of the tracks.) Les’ general approach is established in the SGT PEPPER opener which builds a revealing contrast with the original. The experimentalist Paul McCartney was out to startle from the very outset. His master of ceremonies intro, with its concert hall ambience and Edwardian trappings, was presented in the broad manner of one of the big names of the moment, Jimi Hendrix: but the really clever bit was that McCartney did not overplay his hand. He avoided an unconvincing clash of styles by toning down the trademark Hendrix abrasive chords, strident lead fills and gritty sounding vocals, making them, as one critic has described them, middleweights rather than heavyweights. In Les’ case, with no genteel announcements or Edwardian/classicising French horns to distract, the ‘beat group’ element is thrust to the fore with pounding guitars the order of the day and the result is an exhilarating rollercoaster of an instrumental. Similarly, WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS is positively anthemic, in fraught, gut-wrenching Joe Cocker territory, and has little or nothing in common with Ringo’s feel-good delivery (or that Motown feel to the rhythm guitar and springy bass-lines). With LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS there is no move to replicate the dreamlike, hypnotic ambience created among other things by speeding up certain of Lennon’s vocals and subjecting them to heavy ADT and echo; and the parping Lowry organ is represented by something rather more colourless, though McCartney’s striking bass figures are well catered for. Still, it works well as a thrusting instrumental, and the last half minute or so comes across as especially dynamic. No song on this stellar LP matched GETTING BETTER for sheer exuberance, or indeed for the deft use of an array of instruments including tamboura (George Harrison) and chiming piano/pianette (George Martin), all of them supporting lyrics as naggingly repetitious as McCartney’s later brilliant Hello, Goodbye (which had an equally adventurous bass-line). Here Les rings the changes by replacing the sharply-etched, staccato main accompaniment with a rain of solid hammer blows, to produce a gloriously swirling, melodic rocker which ends as it began with a real kick. The lyrics of FIXING A HOLE have excited much discussion, but the track is equally intriguing from an instrumental and stylistic standpoint, with its blend of blues/jazz and pure pop, and the oddball backing, the rhythm harpsichord together with the acerbic obligato lead guitar interventions followed up with an equally mordant solo from George Harrison’s Stratocaster. Les adopts a suitably dry tone for the principal lead, while the Moog Modular V is deployed to provide the kind of punchy brass sound familiar in American music-making in the second half of the Sixties. The drum programming too is effective, imparting crispness and, later on, punch. Some have been inclined to pass harsh judgement on the sentimentality that riddles SHE’S LEAVING HOME and on the lush orchestral arrangement which a Paul McCartney in a hurry elicited from Mike Leander, though the antiphonal backing vocals are certainly imaginative, if indeed they too were part of the Leander package and not McCartney’s brainchild. Mirroring the general ethos, the textures of the guitars brought into play by Les here are lush, but the overall effect is on the brash side, arguably a bit too florid in places. When John Lennon asked George Martin to contrive a ‘fairground’ flavour for BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR KITE!, the latter came up with a dazzling confection of harmonium, organ and weird tape effects to set against Lennon’s deadpan delivery. On this occasion Les shrewdly hammers home the melody and pretty well disregards the special effects, replacing the hurdy-gurdy styling which surfaces when The Beatles pitch in with their sudden change of tempo at the minute mark with an attractively lilting interlude. Here we are not so much in the boisterous fairground as in the Big Top of yore with its grand, swelling orchestral overtures. Having given George Harrison’s dismal Only A Northern Song the chop, the remaining Beatles turned their backs on WITHIN YOU WITHOUT YOU and let him get on with it. For our purposes the standard take with its tiresome finger-wagging/ mock-philosophical preaching can be disregarded, as we can compare the purely instrumental version offered on The Beatles’ ‘Anthology 2’. Les’ rendition comes over as surprisingly agreeable and restful, less obviously out on a limb than the brooding Beatle’s workout — a contrived east/west fusion of bought-in dilrubas and other exotica with an assortment of violins and cellos. This number and others like it have dated very badly indeed in my estimation, no more durable or meaningful than the short-lived craving for eastern mysticism. Instrumentally, WHEN I’M SIXTY-FOUR savours of the Edwardian music hall, but McCartney’s vocal delivery with its cute clipped tones (slightly speeded up) and air of urbane sophistication is reminiscent rather of the great Noel Coward, whom he is known to have admired. Les deals with it differently, and tellingly, presenting it as a busily buzzing instrumental and carving out the melody robustly with plenty of tricky licks thrown in, recalling in a general way the approach of Nokie Edwards, one of his mentors. There is a nice swing to it as well, with notably effective drum programming. John Lennon repeatedly expressed his exasperation at his distinguished colleague’s facination with mundane topics, and an encounter with a traffic warden on the face of it was an unpromising springboard for a song. But surely LOVELY RITA is one of Paul McCartney’s musical jokes, using the theme of ordinariness around which to build an incongruous yet sophisticated tapestry of sound: ethereal (!) backing vocals coexisting with a honkytonk styled piano solo from George Martin, Ringo playing his part but John on the sidelines using his mouth as well as comb and paper to provide extra percussive effects, perfectly assured guitar accompaniment in tandem with the curiously in your face walking bass-lines. Yet — and here is one reason why The Beatles left their incredulous rivals trailing way behind — out of all this manipulation of musical form there emerges in all its glory a great tune, one which Les turns into a real stomper, contributing an incongruity of his own with all too brief funky blues workout to bring things to a close (a variation on the original’s much discussed off the wall vamping climax, beyond the reach of meaningful imitation). GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING brings yet another striking example of the clash between form and content in The Beatles’ output around this period. Outrageously, Lennon’s sour reflections on the mind-numbing grind and torpor of everyday life is cast in the form of an out and out rocker, with members of Sounds Incorporated feeding in a blistering brass accompaniment, and a wildly convoluted pseudo-Indian Fender Esquire guitar solo in Taxman mode from McCartney, followed up at 1:26 by an awesome sonic assault from Ringo Starr at his most incandescent. There is no (mock-) Eastern orientation in the solo break of Les’ version, but in keeping with his powerhouse treatment overall it lacks nothing in drive and excitement. In my estimation this is the most outstanding adaptation in the set. It is worth noting that it is closer in approach and spirit to the bracing ‘beat group’ styling issued on ‘Anthology 2’, which seems have been long regarded as the master, before it was resolved in the end to go for a more contrived presentation with multiple overdubs. Despite the crowd murmurs and other ambient noise the SGT PEPPER REPRISE is not a musical hybrid like the opener, but, taken at a faster pace, without the churning, dragging rhythm so typical of Jimmy Hendrix, it is a dazzling slice of beat music in robust Beatles’ style (an earlier take on ‘Anthology 2’ with a raw guide vocal from Paul is also well worth comparing here), serving as a transition to the famous closing number, a number distanced completely from the mannerisms of the music hall and a Sgt Pepper band. Les is clearly in his element as he pounds his way from that into what has been called The Beatles’ finest single achievement, A DAY IN THE LIFE. Anything like a faithful instrumental representation of this complex composition seems hard to imagine, for much of its impact stems from the contrasting vocal deliveries: Lennon’s words are enunciated in a hauntingly detached, disembodied, elusive way, whereas McCartney’s dazzling double-time middle section, divested of tape-echo, comes over as starkly matter-of-fact. Les’ rendition treads a distinctive, and effective, path. It highlights the melodic inventiveness of the piece while building on the underlying dynamics of Ringo’s booming bass drum to produce a gloriously chiming, twangy tour de force that does justice too to the original’s two famously shattering rising glissandi from the orchestral forces drafted in by George Martin, with rasping guitars by way of climax fittingly replacing the array of pianos. In sum, it is hard to see how anyone who is both a Beatles admirer and a fan of guitar instrumentals could fail to be won over by this latest release from the Fradkin workshop. We have already had from him some material from the stellar ‘Abbey Road’ album, but it would be good to see a follow-up offering the entire set in true Come Together fashion! ” - Malcolm Campbell
— New Gandy Dancer Magazine
“ LES FRADKIN- "WHILE MY GUITAR ONLY PLAYS" (RRO-1005) Guitar virtuoso extraordinaire, Les Fradkin, performs a refreshingly breathtaking instrumental album of Beatle pop tunes on his new CD entitled "While My Guitar Only Plays." Born and raised in New York city, Les played the role of George Harrison in the original Broadway cast of Beatlemania. On this new album, almost half the tracks are Harrison compositions which is Les's own way of paying homage to the late great Beatle. The remaining album tracks has him giving the nod to the other two composers, John Lennon and Paul McCartney by including some of their great songs that have become well-known to Beatle fans. Les's cover versions of "I Feel Fine", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Paperback Writer" are filled with high energy performances with lots of interesting guitar improvisations. Any listener who plays these catchy instrumental tunes will easily come to appreciate and understand the reason why Les had been chosen for the part of Beatle George in the production of "Beatlemania." Rather than a rocker, Les chose to turn "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" into a light, graceful acoustic ballad almost like a quiet inner reflection of oneself. If this was Les's intention for the listener, then he definitely succeeded. Featured on "While My Guitar Only Plays" album is special guest Nokie Ewards of The Ventures. Between the two guitarist, they perform a very heart-warming version of "Here Comes The Sun" -- a recording that, if George were alive today, would surely put a smile on the face of the former Beatle (and sure to delight the ears of Beatle fans.) The medley that closes the album, "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" has Les and the band pulling out all the stops: THEY ROCK!!! Aided by drummer Joe Rotondo and bass guitarist Dave Stalheim, Les puts in some gutsy guitar licks. If I may use a phrase here from John Lennon, Les can easily "make a guitar speak" and then some, especially his lead guitar improvisations that trade off of each other on "The End" are simply brilliant. ” - John Whelan
“ LES FRADKIN - "PEPPER FRONT TO BACK" (RRO-1018) You gotta have chutzpa to tackle what is often considered the all-time greatest album in rock. I mean, it's one thing to cover a Beatles song, but to take on the entire Sgt Pepper album ?! No problem for Les Fradkin. He has the credentials and the chops to pull it off, which is exactly what he does on Pepper Front to Back, and then some ! The man who portrayed George Harrison in the original Broadway cast of Beatlemania! and who already has two George Harrison tribute cd's under his belt confirms himself here as one of the great guitar players of our time. Actually he had already done so on previous albums, but this time he's taking things even further. With the entire album performed on guitar synthesizer, a first for a Beatles cover album, Les brings Pepper right into the 21st century. So how does all that translate into music ? There's of course no need to introduce the songs. Like the title says : it's Pepper front to back and has All you need is love added as a bonus track. What makes this album so amazing is that you can easily compare it with the original Beatles album and Les Fradkin still comes out smelling like a rose ! From the powerful opening of the first track to his own "inner groove" sounds, Les always puts his personal stamp on each track ! While still staying fairly loyal to the original song, each song is approached with a fresh new look. It makes each and every song a pleasure to listen to for very different reasons : the "horns" on Lovely Rita, the lead and harmony guitars on She's leaving home, the Joe Cocker touch on With a little help, the "animals" on Good Morning, the "horns and strings" on All you need is love... the album is filled with all kinds of gimmicks that'll make you want to listen to it over & over again! This is an album that will absolutely thrill Beatles fans and everybody who's into guitar albums. Les has been putting out some amazing music over the past years and has been building a loyal fanbase with it. This is a perfect opportunity to discover this unique talent ! ” - Eddy Smitt
— Rockofages.com
“ LES FRADKIN: "WHILE MY GUITAR ONLY PLAYS" (RRO-1005) Les Fradkin has a new CD out, called While my guitar only plays. As you can guess it's not only a tribute to George Harrison, it also has all Beatles covers. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much of a fan of this type of album, but this is one that will REALLY surprise you. In the first place because it's an all-instrumental album, which kinda takes away the urge to compare to the Beatles' original. And with Les' guitar very much taking the lead part in all the songs, you tend to concentrate on that. But there's so much more...there's bits of mellotron, percussion, guitar layers...they all contribute to the fact that this album is a unique listening experience. Each song has its own character, sometimes close to the original, sometimes taking on a life of its own. But Les always makes them his own, not in the least because of his unique guitar sounds. Just listen to that guitar solo in the Abbey Road medley !! In short, this is a CD I can strongly recommend !! ” - Eddy Smitt
— Rockofages.com
“ LES FRADKIN: "WHILE MY GUITAR ONLY PLAYS" (RRO-1005) I first heard this album on Archer's 'Breakfast With The Beatles' show and was amazed how Les Fradkin had duplicated the exact sounds of the lead guitar trade-offs in 'The End.' Then, when I got to listen to the CD, I was further impressed by Fradkin's unique interpretations. The moody, soulful 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and the extra-jangly version of 'And Your Bird Can Sing' are truly phenomenal. Plus, the first cut I heard The Mountain radio station play, 'Here Comes The Sun,' features Nokie Edwards of the Ventures. I'm not usually a fan of Beatles covers, but this album really stands out. ” - Damien Eldridge
— CD Baby
“ LES FRADKIN: "WHILE MY GUITAR ONLY PLAYS" (RRO-1005) The local Breakfast With The Beatles show on The Mountain (in Denver, Colo.) has softened me up to cover songs with its special features, but as a die-hard Beatles fan I usually won't go out and buy any, but Les Fradkin's CD has changed all that. When I first heard him duplicate the lead guitar effects on 'The End' I rushed to CD Baby and got the CD and, wow, it is great. His guitar and synth (which I usually don't like, but Fradkin takes the classic mellotron route) breathe new life into these songs, especially 'And Your Bird Can Sing' and 'Here Comes The Sun.' No one will ever surpass a Beatles original, but Fradkin does the best re-interpretations I've heard since Aretha Franklin's 'Let It Be.'. ” - Jim Reiley
— CD Baby
“ Most Helpful Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Beatlemania' original "George" plays early Beatles by "George" April 5, 2009 By Daniel S. Sullivan Les Fradkin was chosen from 2000 guitarists back in 1976 to play "George Harrison" in Beatlemania. Thirty years later, he re-visits the 1963-1966 songs of his mentor.Les' forte intstrumentally is his usage of the Rickenbacker electric 12-String guitar, which permeates this collection with it's jingle-jangle sound.Other than some help from other musicians on a few tracks, Les plays and sings just about everything on this album. His producing and engineering skill are quite evident with the sonic balance of all vocals and instruments.The Tracks:"Taxman" opens the album with some edge and Les' solo reminiscent of the original."If I Needed Someone" sparkles with clarity on both the vocals and the outstanding multi-tracked 12-string."You Know What To Do" is perhaps the standout track on the album, because Les took a "lost" song that never got past the demo stage and fleshed it out with nice harmonies and a rock-a-billy 12-string hook. Well done."I'm Happy Just To Dance With You", "I Want To Tell You", "Do You Want To Know A Secret" and "Think For Yourself" are spot-on covers of the originals.If you had Les' arrangement and the Beatles' vocals combined for "I Need You", you would have had a monster hit."You Like Me Too Much" rearranges all the piano parts of the original into electric 12-string riffs-clever.If there is a weak spot on this collection, it would be "Don't Bother Me". Les eschews the electric samba feel of the original for an acoustic arrangement that doesn't really fit the feel of the album, but is still mildly interesting.The album wraps with the title cut "Love You To". Les' use of 12-string in place of sitar gives it an "east meets west feel.All-in-all, Les' tribute to George Harrison does the music much more than simply justice- it's a labor of love.I recommend it heartily.” - Daniel S. Sullivan