Recent Beatles-related thoughts, several of which came "this close" to being posts on their own, but none of them ever quite came together...
Cirque du Soliel's Beatles Love was the highlight of last month's Vegas trip. Lavish costuming and performance, incredible sound-scape. It kicked Blue Man and Zumanity's asses. The show also caused me to become aware of a number of details in the music, and lives, of the fab four that I'd overlooked before. We had expensive seats right down in the middle of the theatre-in-the-round, but they were worth every penny.
I've been on a real Beatles kick ever since the Vegas trip. Actually, it goes back further than that. Last year we took a vacation to visit friends in Chicago, and spent a couple nights playing Rock Band and Beatles Rock Band. Somewhere in the midst of focusing intently on the bass riff in Hey Bulldog, a switch flipped in my head, and I've had Beatles on the Brain ever since. The Love show just cemented this path. Lately I decided to round out my collection, picking up the very uneven Anthology albums and a few early albums that I was previously lacking. Even scored a copy of Let It Be (the movie) at ComicCon.
Speaking of Love... the album developed for the Cirque show continues to amaze me. It's an album of remixes, medleys, and mash-ups of the Beatles, by the Beatles. Made from original Beatles recordings, and then remixed by their former producer George Martin. A few of the tracks are arguably "un-necessary", but on the whole the album is mind-blowing. My favorite 3 minutes out of the 90 starts with the opening chord of Hard Day's Night over the drum solo from The End which then folds into the guitars and lyrics of Get Back backed up by the orchestral swells from A Day In The Life. That rolls seamlessly into the main lyrics of Glass Onion supported by individual sounds and instrumentation plucked from Hello Goodbye, Strawberry Fields, Eleanor Rigby, Things We Said Today and Penny Lane. *shudder* Love is beautiful, breath-taking madness, and the best tracks are when it embraces that madness fully.
If mash-ups like that are your cup of tea, it may be worth a few minutes to download the "Everday Chemistry" album at www.thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com. Every song is a blend of tunes from the fab formerly four's solo careers, mixed together into something new. As if an album fell through from a parallel world where they didn't break up, and bounced ideas off each other for an extra decade or so. Not near as polished (or jaw-dropping) as Love (in fact, I'd start with the second track), but it's pretty catchy for a free download. As a quick trip through the mis-matched drivel on YouTube can show you, a really good mash-up takes a lot of finesse. You can't just grab two songs at random and play them simultaneously in hopes they'll meet in the middle.
Meeting in the middle. It's kinda fun how things like this bounce around in your brain and all the world zeroes in. Seems like everywhere I go lately, there's Beatles music playing. I'm in this little Lennon-McCartney microcosm.
Yesterday there were half a dozen high school kids on the bus talking about how much they love the Beatles, how they are so much better than all the crappy pop music of today. Synchronicity aside, it gave me some fleeting hope that maybe the younger generation isn't doomed. Once the thought passed through my head though, I felt really old.
About a week ago, I actually got into a Beatles vs Elvis argument. I didn't realize such arguments actually still happen. Or ever did. I thought they were just a myth, a thing that didn't ring true enough to make the final cut of Pulp Fiction. I mean, to me the answer is obvious, but as Jake is fond of saying "what the thinker thinks, the prover proves"... whatever the heck that means. Arguing Beatles vs Elvis made me feel old, but not as old as the guy I was arguing with. :)
7 comments:
For the last week or so I've been thinking I should give Sgt. Pepper's a re-listen. After reading your post I figured that was my cue to do it now!
Initial response: I was so incredibly lucky that my first listen was an original vinyl pressing on a top notch stereo system. This mp3 bullshit I'm listening to right now has no heart.
...original vinyl pressing...bla bla bla...
Hipster. ;)
Okay, now it's my turn to sound pretentious. I'm going to speak what is now doubt heresy to some.
While I appreciate Sgt. Pepper's cleverness, innovation, and for it's profound effect upon music... the way it opened the floodgates and transformed rock forever... while I "get" and admire all of that, I don't feel that it's actually the Beatles' best album.
Sgt. Peppers is by turns too sappy, and sometimes it tries too hard. It's very self-aware. They're changing music forever, yes, but they know it, and they want you to know it, too. They push just a little further than is needed at several moments, to stress the point. It's like Sgt. Pepper's winks at the camera after every joke.
For those reasons, for me, Abbey Road has always been their best album. Coming well after Sgt. Pepper's, it was too late to be the catalyst of world-wide change, so it rarely gets the attention or tribute Pepper's does.
Regardless, I feel Abbey Road is the fully matured example of the artists at the top of their craft, and finally confident in their work. The artistry is just as strong, but less gimmicky or saccharine.
The side B super-medley of Abbey Road achieves the same "concept album" goal that Sgt. Peppers did, but does it more organically, and without relying on the musical equivalent of forced perspective. At the same time, the superficially sappy tracks have a hidden menace when you dissect the lyrics, which helps keep them from seeming as quaint or dated.
The clever parts seem to me less coerced, and less self-conscious. Either you get the joke or you don't, and by this point the artists no longer feel they have to beat you over the head with it if you missed it. They only wink at the camera just once on the whole album, while taking the encore that is Her Majesty. By contrast, Side A's abrupt mid-bar drop-off leaves most first-time listeners wondering if they've been victim of a tech failure.
Compared to the confident self-assured mastery of Abbey Road, it's almost like Sgt. Pepper's has a laugh track.
Now, for individual "best song", I actually prefer a handful of tracks off the White Album, Magical Mystery Tour, and various singles from around that era.
As complete albums, though, the collections many of my favorite songs come from are inferior to Abbey Road. Those discs are the product of confident artists, but ones who are too confident, and in need of a good editor to keep them on task and draw out the thesis statement of each volume.
Of course, had George Martin (or someone else) been bold enough to reign them in and actually be the editor they "needed" during that era, we wouldn't have the genres of Punk or Heavy Metal today (or many other genres that followed), so perhaps I should cut the boys a break. Sure, they were all over the map, but the world is a far better place for their meandering.
And one more comment, while I'm thinking out loud...
As I stated, I often feel that Sgt. Pepper's context has elevated it beyond what it deserves based upon the actual merit of some of the individual songs. Despite that feeling though, I sometimes wish it's impact had resulted in a bit more emulation down the road. Pop music of today could certainly benefit from incorporating a few more symphonies and sitars.
In my defense, the comments above, including the heretical "Sgt. Pepper's context has been elevated it beyond what it deserves" was made on day 5 or 6 of a 6-continuous-day string of insomnia.
About 5 minutes later I'd convinced myself that "Octopuses Garden" was secretly about the same topic as "Don't Fear The Reaper". I started composing an epic post about the hidden meaning, but stopped when the sun came up and my wife got out of bed. Bless her.
Excuses, excuses...
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