- From Faith Current: “The Sacred Ordinary: St. Peter’s Church Hall” - May 1, 2023
- A brief (?) hiatus - April 22, 2023
- Something Happened - March 6, 2023
The Joshua Liquid Light Show, invented by artist Joshua White, was a psychedelic staple at New York’s iconic Fillmore East in the late Sixties. White and his colleagues would project their work on 30-40 foot screens behind bands like Jimi Hendrix and The Who, improvising in time with the music.
I’ve found one of their Shows on YouTube, which I’m pasting below. This work is now part of the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
It is a real shame that the Beatles didn’t return to touring; their post-Pepper music, plus proper mic-ing and amplification, plus bigger venues, plus an older fanbase, plus this kind of stage effect, would’ve been incredibly powerful. And with where Paul was creatively from late ’66 to mid-’69, it’s not impossible that there would’ve been a definite Cirque du Soleil aspect to their shows, as well.
I think, had Magical Mystery Tour been packaged and shown differently — as the first midnight movie, shown on college campuses and in hip neighborhoods — it would’ve received better reaction, and Paul would’ve kept going in the Pop Art direction he’d been moving. It is not impossible that this could’ve been the Beatles’ way forward. It’s a direction that has a place for Paul, John, AND Yoko. Yoko’s aesthetic simply couldn’t mesh with that of the Fabs as a rock band — but as a multi-media experience, it would’ve been easy to see her involved.
Related posts:
Yet more banging on about Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles Writings of Joshua Glenn: “I’m Only Slacking”
Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney (Take 1)
I have an admission…
Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney (Take 2)
Starostin on "Magical Mystery Tour"
If you just hang around long enough, everything’s a masterpiece
Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney (Take 3)
The Beatles Writings of Joshua Glenn: “The Argonaut Folly (Pt. 3)”
I’ve got a love-uh-ly bunch of coconuts
The Beatles Writings of Joshua Glenn: “Origin of the Pogo”
Let It Be: A Missed Opportunity