Covers, part 35
The site Cover Me features the tracks of Let It Be, each done by a different band...
The Shins
KoreAm magazine directs me to Shin Joon Hyung, now 73, the "Godfather of Korean Rock." It's a fascinating story, and now there's a compilation available stateside called Beautiful Mountains and Rivers. "The anthology’s 14 tracks and 32-page liner notes detail his genre-spanning career, from his early attempts to channel Elvis Presley under the moniker Jackie Shin, the stage name he used while playing for U.S. troops in Korea; to his formation of South Korea’s first rock band ADD4 after hearing the Beatles..." ! There are Add4 tracks on YouTube (of course)—check out this one, particularly the "yeah yeah yeah"s at :39, right [...]
Rundgren v. the Beatles
Todd Rundgren and his spat with Lennon came up in the comments thread on the "Ah, Girl" post -- I wasn't aware of it until Devin pointed it out. [Particulars here: http://trconnection.com/trconn.php/article=lennon.art#lennon]. The tenor of this interchange doesn't surprise me much, and brings into focus my sense of Rundgren's animosity toward the Beatles. Rundgren seems to have a clear case of what Harold Bloom would call "anxiety of influence" where the Beatles are concerned. That is, Rundgren knows both that he's influenced by them and that he can't play in their league musically, and resents that. His references to the Beatles feel particularly pointed. Rundgren's first group, [...]
You’re an intellectual giant…
I am pro-John when it comes to that Emerson interview...but what does it mean that this Pet Shop Boys song keeps springing to mind?
Another kind of cover
Rabid Rabbit #8 (available here) features 30 different artists, each visually interpreting one song from The Beatles in a two-page format. Interesting constraint: the lyrics are not quoted anywhere. Some artists attempt literal illustrations of things described in the song; others have more impressionistic takes.Speaking of comics, which Dullblogger is going to write about Baby's in Black?(Thanks to the talented Forsyth Harmon.)
Beatles Reggae covers
One of the original Dullbloggers* and I met up last week to discuss recent doings on Hey Dullblog. He told me about an early Bob Marley cover of "And I Love Her" and Peter Tosh's take on "Here Comes the Sun." Check 'em out below--very nice! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZj741_WNb0 www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW2yivTVieU *The great Eugene, whose trivia quiz from 2008 made me laugh out loud.
Double coverage
Thanks for posting about covers, Nancy, and commenters, keep the links coming! I wasn't sure how to embed a video in a comment, so I'm putting up a fresh post. Back in high school, I became a fan of The Feelies, because they were opening for R.E.M. on the part of the tour that was passing through my town. Their debut, Crazy Rhythms, has this frenzied take on "Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except Me and My Monkey)": https://youtu.be/k5o1-HxaRFM * And when I saw them, they covered "She Said, She Said"--I'm not sure if they ever recorded it (maybe as a B-side?). [...]
A literary White Album
Highly recommended. I'm reading Joe Meno's upcoming novel Office Girl (highly recommended!), and came across this recent interview in TriQuarterly Online: TQO: [...] I'm about seventy pages into your last novel, The Great Perhaps (2009), and I've already noticed the Beatles popping up throughout.Meno: Yeah, I mean that whole book is The White Album. I wanted to do a book that had four different voices, and they all sing on that album. And they cover pretty much all of 20th century music. There's “Rocky Raccoon.” There's country western. There's “Honey Pie,” which has this kind of jazzy sound. There's “Helter Skelter,” [...]
10 Best Beatles Bass Lines?
What do you think? http://youtu.be/1JFN2B5uL3U
David Cloyd, "Dear Boy"
This cover is worth posting again!