New mashup version of Sour Milk Sea

My first Ask Roger Anything came from a dear friend, ADD:

Hey Roger, I wonder if you’ve heard the new mashup version of Sour Milk Sea that takes a George Harrison demo and makes it a new Beatles song featuring all of the Fab Four plus Eric Clapton? I just discovered it yesterday, and it’s pretty marvelous to my ears, like a lost track from The White Album. Here’s a link to it on YouTube.

There’s no AI involved, and if you watch as you listen, they explain how it was assembled. Love to read your thoughts on the actual end result, as well as more generally on projects like this. I actually added this track to my Beatles playlist because I think it deserves a slot among their very best songs, even though it’s not an official release.

Hope all is well with you and yours, Roger.

Alan

Thanks, Alan. Before answering, I should provide some notes for those who aren’t as Beatles-saturated as I.

From the Beatles Bible: 

“‘Sour Milk Sea’ was one of the demo songs recorded in May 1968. Although it was an early contender for the White Album, it was eventually given to Apple recording artist Jackie Lomax,” a fellow Liverpudlian.

Song history

George noted: “I wrote ‘Sour Milk Sea’ in Rishikesh, India.. Anyway, it’s based on Vishvasara Tantra, from Tantric art. ‘What is here is elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere’. It’s a picture, and the picture is called ‘Sour Milk Sea’ – Kalladadi Samudra in Sanskrit. I used Sour Milk Sea as the idea of – if you’re in the s**t, don’t go around moaning about it: do something about it.”

Sour Milk Sea (Esher Demo). Not incidentally, here’s a list of songs from Esher, most of which ended up on the white album. 

“The Beatles never attempted a studio version of ‘Sour Milk Sea’. It was taped by Lomax at Abbey Road on 24, 25, and 26 June 1968; Harrison produced the song, with Paul McCartney on bass, Ringo Starr on drums, Eric Clapton on guitar, and Nicky Hopkins on piano…

“Lomax was the first artist to sign to The Beatles’ Apple label. ‘Sour Milk Sea’ was released as a single in August 1968, with the catalogue number Apple 3.” It only went to US Pop #117, and failed to chart in the UK. Jackie Lomax included it on his album Is This What You Want?, which only reached #145 on the Billboard charts. 

Apple singles

“It was part of Apple’s “Our first four” set of singles, which also included” The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude,’ Mary Hopkin’s ‘Those Were The Days’ [#2 for three weeks AC, #1 for six weeks AC] and the Black Dyke Mills Band’s ‘Thingumybob.’“

Something called Outfake created a previous “Beatles” version of Sour Milk Sea from “the Beatles’ demo (recorded in Esher, May 1968) and Jackie Lomax’s basic track recording (which features Paul, Ringo, George, Eric Clapton, and Nicky Hopkins, recorded at Trident Studios in July 1968).”

But, Alan, the very recent version you provided is my favorite. The vocals lifted from Helter Skelter was a great touch. The video asks who plays the organ; I don’t know, but it’s likely Nicky Hopkins or Paul. 

As all the comments noted, it should have been a serious contender for the white album, but George already had his allotment of four songs. Most people had opinions about what should have been excised in favor of Sour Milk Sea. Unsurprisingly, Revolution 9 and Wild Honey Pie are popular choices. 

As to your general question about my feelings about projects like this, I’m ambivalent. I remember the conversation about the release of The Beatles’ Now and Then. It seems that a lot of folks didn’t understand that the use of AI was merely to unearth the buried John Lennon vocal that 1995 technology couldn’t access when Paul, George, and Ringo took the tape Yoko gave them. There won’t be more Beatles songs, so it’s nice that it won the Best Rock Performance Grammy. 

But I like some mashups of what could have been, whereas others with dead people—Natalie Cole singing Unforgettable with her late dad, Nat—seemed a bit maudlin. Hologram duets weird me out.