Comments on: Christmas Time (Is Here Again)

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 11:06:44 +0000

Those spoken word bits were extracts from recordings made on 6 December 1966 for the pirate stations Radio London and Radio Caroline. They weren’t on or for the 1966 fan club release.

By: André

André — Sun, 24 Jun 2018 17:49:29 +0000

Hi there, you say in this article « Towards the end of this version (the Xmas time is here again single), somewhat incongruously, some Christmas Beatle greetings from 1966 were included. ». I cannot find what you are referring to on 1966 recording…

By: Esfranck

Esfranck — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 13:43:27 +0000

That song could maybe have been a classic Christmas pop song, if they had worked more with it and released it as a single everybody could have bought.

By: Scott Geshen

Scott Geshen — Mon, 25 Dec 2017 14:39:51 +0000

I heard, among other things, “we’ve got a job to do NIGEL”…

By: Tony Littman

Tony Littman — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 10:25:50 +0000

A few corrections:
It’s “13 amp” – makes complete sense, the boys have arrived at the BBC for an audition, and it’s the voice of Mal Evans, the roadie, setting up the equipment
It’s not “Bingo, bingo” which makes no sense, it’s Ding Dong Ding
The words of the Scottish poem are
“When Christmas time is o’er (old fashioned way of saying over)
And your bonny clay is through
I’ll be bristlin’ to you people
All the best from me to you
When the beasty brangle mutton
To the heather in the glen
I’ll be struttin’ oot (out) in my tether
To your arms once back again”

By: Sgt. Pepper 67

Sgt. Pepper 67 — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 19:55:27 +0000

John played Organ in this song as well

By: Sam

Sam — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 02:52:58 +0000

The mysterious “O-U-T spells out” reappears on the song “Queenie Eye” from McCartney’s latest album “New”. Apparently it’s part of a chant from a childrens’ game they used to play in Liverpool called “Queenie Eye”.

By: Graham Paterson

Graham Paterson — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 11:43:46 +0000

A great example of the ''fun'' Beatles, epitomized by their Christmas albums. Which of course this is a great example of. John Lennon had a lot of holidays in Scotland as a child with relatives and as this recording shows, he loved doing Scottish accents.

By: treadmarkz

treadmarkz — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 14:39:39 +0000

I dont see how “they’ve” would make more sense.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 08:35:35 +0000

I disagree. It doesn’t sound like ‘amp’ to me. It doesn’t make sense in the context either (not that much of the recording makes sense!).

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:28:50 +0000

Are You 13 Amp?
The electric supply in the UK is 13 Amp
Just thought I would let you know!

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:27:12 +0000

Thanks Tim – very useful. I’m not sure about the hello before “It’s emergency!” – it sounds just like a random vocal splurge to me – but the rest I’ve added to the article.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:23:18 +0000

Here are further corrections I’d like to offer.

I always hear:
“We have been…” not “are being
granted permission, oh wise one.”
And grammatically, I would change “oh” to “O”.

There’s a typo for the fluffy room rehearsals, the instruction is to “Bring your own.”

“Well, what price have you got your eyes on” hasn’t been corrected to “prize” as discussed in previous comments.

delete the “also” from
“you have also been elected as independent candidate for Paddington”

“This round is brought to you tonight from the arms of someone new.” should be “Theatre hour is …”

There’s another “hello” before Ringo says “It’s emergency!”

I think George Martin says “They’d like to thank…” rather than just “They like…”

By: Pete McEwen

Pete McEwen — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:58:54 +0000

Fair enough.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:37:33 +0000

I’ve just listened to the 1968 fan club recording. Just before the three-minute mark George says: “Here we are again, another fab Christmas. Christmas time is here again; ain’t been around since… last year!”

That’s good enough for me. I’ll leave it as “ain’t”.

By: Peter McEwen

Peter McEwen — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 20:00:56 +0000

“They’ve” would be correct grammatically, because there have been lots of Christmas times. Why, we’ve had them since… Well you know when.

It still might very well be “ain’t.” Ringo does a version of it, which just says “Been around since…”

By: mr. Sun king coming together

mr. Sun king coming together — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 14:22:25 +0000

John Lennon wouldn’t insert some crazy religious thing in a Christmas message. Also, it sounds like Ain’t, so Joe, I think the lyrics are now right.

By: vonbontee

vonbontee — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 08:06:34 +0000

Sorry, I can’t see why a single person -such as JC – should be referred to by the collective pronoun “they”. Unless you’re talking about some kind of Father/Son/Holy Ghost deal!

By: Pete McEwen

Pete McEwen — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:52:10 +0000

Here’s my thinking:

If it’s “Ain’t,” then that simply refers to last Christmas, no big deal.
If it’s “They’ve,” then they’re talking about Christ’s birth, which gives some power to “you know when.” (makes it a little joke)

So my belief in “They’ve” doesn’t come so much from my ears, because the recording is unclear, but from the internal logic of the song.

By: Vonbontee

Vonbontee — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:46:37 +0000

Yeah, it’s “ain’t”. “They’ve” makes no sense.