I’m entranced by this photo of the Beatles. I first found it on Stevey.com, where several commenters apparently felt the same way. It’s rare to see the world’s finest band from this angle, and as a wannabe musician myself, I always love interesting gig photography. At any rate, I realized I would love to track down the original photograph and find a print that I could frame.

Fortunately, the commenters on another site made a concerted effort to date the performance, eventually even tracking down some Youtube clips of the performance, from Paris in June 1965. From there, someone else identified the photo as coming from Paris Match — he even had a scan of the original printing. However, it was a bit beaten up after forty-three years, and too low a resolution to be blown up much.

At that point, a quick search told me that Harvard’s libraries have Paris Match issues going back to the forties. I was worried they might just be microfilm, but in act was pleasantly surprised when a librarian helping me hoisted a heavy archive box onto the counter — they’ve got the actual issues. I tracked down the image in question (contra the earlier commenter’s recollection, it was actually from the first issue in July of that year), and scanned it several ways at 300dpi. The results, along with a quick scan of the rest of the article for posterity are here.

So that’s where I am right now. Obviously, the printed photograph isn’t the best — it was reduced to dot printing, and it’s marred by some typography that, er, didn’t age well. Seeing the original confirmed for me that the photographer was one Michel Le Tac. M. Le Tac is all but un-Googleable, so I think my next step is to contact the magazine directly… Perhaps, in the end, I’ll have call to learn something about French copyright law.

Update, 03/06/2009 I heard back from Paris Match. Unfortunately, it looks like they don’t license to particuliers. There’s always the chance that I’ve misunderstood something, as our entire email conversation was conducted through Babel Fish, but it looks like I’m out of luck as a private citizen. I’m still thinking, though…

(Also, when will Ira, Georgia, and James make a record like this again? Their live shows contain almost Sonic Youth-level fuzz guitar freakouts, so I know they’ve still got in ‘em…)

I can tell from their live shows that this isn't how Ira or Georgia plays it,
but I think it gets close to the sound of both their guitars playing at once.
There's a lot of fuzzy dissonance, so don't be afraid to hit open strings if
it sounds right.

Intro

  Play this riff 6x,  |
  varying the rhythm  |
  a bit               |  Then this riff 2x
e--0--0-0-00-00-0-0------000-0-00-00-0-0-000-0-00-00-0-0-0--
B--2--2-2-22-22-2-0------222-2-22-22-2-5-777-7-77-77-7-7-7--
G--0--0-0-00-00-0-2------000-0-00-00-0-0-000-0-00-00-0-0-9--
D--4--4-4-44-44-4-4------444-4-44-44-4-7-999-9-99-99-9-9-9--
A--0--0-0-00-00-0-0------000-0-00-00-0-0-000-0-00-00-0-0-0--
E-----------------------------------------------------------

(If you have a second guitar, play the same thing higher up:

G--9----9--9-9-9--9--9--9--0-
D--11---11-111111-1111--11-9- etc.)

Then, the main guitar riff / melody (slide the single notes, vibrato
widely, and hit some open strings if you're playing by yourself)

e--------------------------------------------------------00-000-00-00-
B--------------------------------------------------------00-000-00-00-
G--------------------------------------------------------00-000-00-00-
D--7---9-4----7---9-4----7---9-12-11-9-7-7---9-4-----4-2-00-000-44-44-
A--------------------------------------------------------22-222-00-00-
E---------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                         Not really sure
                                                         about this part...
                                                         I just thrash away

Then a few verses, then the solo. You're on your own there, but you can
play either this, or the "2x" part of the intro under it. From there, just
put the parts in order.