This has been an exciting couple of weeks for Beatles fanatics (everyone should be fans, we’re talking true fanatics). What, with the auctioning of the rarest Beatles album of all time last week on eBay (the bid currently stands at a shade over £6,000.00–the reserve has not been met however) and now the possible release of a “never before heard” Beatles song from 1967?
As reported by The Guardian Paul McCartney confirmed the existence of the 14-minute epic Beatles song “Carnival Of Light”. In an interview with
BBC Radio 4’s John Wilson, McCartney said: “The time has come for it to get its moment.”
The experimental 14-minute song was recorded in 1967 and was played just once in public at the 1967 London electronic music festival for which it was commissioned, but never released publicly. The Guardian calls “Carnival of Light” “a kind of holy grail for Beatles obsessives” and McCartney adds, “I like it because it’s The Beatles free, going off piste. I said all I want you to do is just wander around all the stuff, bang it, shout, play it, it doesn’t need to make any sense. Hit a drum then wander on to the piano, hit a few notes, just wander around. So that’s what we did and then put a bit of an echo on it. It’s very free.”
According to BBC News, McCartney pushed for the song to be included on The Beatles’ Anthology releases in the mid-90s, but it was vetoed by the rest of the band. According to the Guardian, the Cage- and Stockhausen-influenced tune was called “one of those weird things” by Beatles producer Sir George Martin, who recalls, “It was a kind of uncomposed, free-for-all melange of sound that went on. It was not considered worthy of issuing as a normal piece of Beatles music at the time and was put away.” Apparently, the track is a “jumble of shrieks and psychedelic effects” that “features the sound of gargled water and strangled shouts from [John] Lennon which vie with church organs and distorted guitar.” Nevertheless, Macca seems to think the time is now nigh. Wilson told the Guardian that “all he [McCartney] needs now is the blessing of Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison’s widow, Olivia.”
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