Julie Covington sings
The Magic Wasn't There

by Clive James and Pete Atkin.

We discovered in October 2022 that Julie released two different versions of this song from her 1969 Abbey Road sessions. The 1971 LP version on Columbia SCX 6466, (The Beautiful Changes), familiar from the See For Miles and Cherry Red CD re-issues, features a vocal take and an instrumental mix different from the version on the 1970 single, Columbia DB 8649: note the variation in Julie's phrasing and the tympani over the intro on the single version.

What you're hearing now is a pseudo-stereo composite we've created to help you hear the differences: the single is in the left channel and the LP in the right. The LP version also employs increased compression of the dynamic range, but we've compensated for that to emphasise the other differences.
LYRIC:
With just a word, a single sign of care
With just a touch, I could have been beguiled
But circumstances never smiled
Because the magic wasn't there

Who was it then, the poet who once said
"How beautiful they are, the trains you miss"?
So time can't put an end to this
I have the memory instead

          These nothing scenes are still experience
          You even weep for what did not take place
          Events that don't occur are still events
          Some people vanish with a trace

With just a word, a single sign of care
With just a touch, I could have been beguiled
But circumstances never smiled
Because the magic wasn't there

With just a word, a single sign of care
With just a touch, I could have been beguiled
But circumstances never smiled
And now what never happened drives me wild
Because the magic wasn't there
The magic wasn't there
The magic wasn't there