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Classic Rock fans will be happy to hear the news that a song recorded by George Harrison and Ringo Starr while the Beatles were still together is finally seeing the light of the rock ‘n’ roll world. While the late 1990s and early 2000s saw a great deal of unreleased Beatles music issued as part of the Anthology Series and BBC radio shows, it’s been awhile since Beatles fans have heard anything that they have actually never heard before. Even with the Anthology releases, a good portion of that material had been bootlegged over the years. This new lost gem for the most part has never been heard by anyone outside of the small inner Beatles circle.
The song entitled ‘Radhe Shaam,’ is not a Beatles song, but rather a piece of music written by Suresh Joshi. The song was found in a loft in Birmingham during lockdown . It featured Ringo Starr on drums, George Harrison on guitar and Aashish Khan on vocals. From the songs opening guitar riff and drumming, it’s very easy to tell that this is indeed Ringo Starr and George Harrison. While the song itself is nothing special, it the guitar work by George Harrison on the songs that will make Beatles fans go nuts. George Harrison’s signature licks are all over it. Additionally George Harrison had the liberty on this track to take an extended solo that he rarely got the chance to do on Beatles songs. He is so loose on this one and you can just feel his spirit and soul really enjoying playing on this track.
Ringo Starr is also letting loose on the recording, The song also features backing vocals on the recording that are distinctly Ringo Starr.
The song was originally recorded in 1968 at Trident Studios in the city of London. At the time the Beatles were still together. When you think back at the songs that the Beatles were releasing at this time period like “Hey Jude,” one can easily hear why they did not release ‘Radhe Shaam,’ at the time. It’s just not that good of a song, Although the reasons given for not releasing the song at the time also had to do with the impending breakup of the Beatles and it didn’t feel like the right time to release the song. Although legal issues and so much more probably had a lot to do with it. Still, if it were a fantastic song that they thought would have made millions of dollars, it would have been released. They would have worried about everything else later on,
Despite the song’s weakness in its song structure, the performance of the late George Harrison on the recording makes this long lost find a glorious early holiday present for Beatles fans and pretty much all music fans. It’s just something that we all need now in this pandemic and political mess we are all living in. According to Suraj Shinh who was the producer on the song, its is exactly the right time to release the song because ‘Radhe Shaam,’ “is all about unity.” It’s something we all need right now. like the Beatles once sang “All We Need Is Love.”
Long Lost Ringo Starr & George Harrison Recording Found article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2021
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