Stripes
Who took this photo?
What do you want to hear?
Randy Bachman unlocks the secret of that most enticing of opening chords... Randy reveals how he was invited into Abbey Road Studioes by Giles Martin, son of the famous Beatles producer George Martin. Martin told Bachman he had all the Beatles source tapes saved onto a computer running Pro Tools. The master of the tapes then asked, "What do you want to hear?" Thankfully, Bachman asked himself one of the most famous mysteries in all of the Beatles songwriting history: What the hell did they all play on the opening chord in "A Hard Days Night?" (Via Dylan Hicks on FB) http://youtu.be/gwfH9oAiPH0
Isn’t it good?
I should (clone myself and) reread Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood, possibly my favorite of his books. The blog Night RPM (Linden Park) translates, in two parts (1 and 2), Murakami's afterword to the book. Here's a nice bit: The first part of Norwegian Wood was written in Greece, the second part, in Sicily, and the final part, in Rome. There weren’t tables or chairs in the cheap hotel room that I rented in Athens. So I went to a taberu (* bar) every day, repeatedly listened to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on my Walkman about 120 times, and wrote [...]
"All Together Now"
Via WFMU's Twitter feed: Every Beatles song played at once, the longest starting first, all of them ending at the same time. [Update Dec 2014: somebody took down the track, probably Apple. But here's the same sort of thing, courtesy of YouTube.] http://youtu.be/uPbU46DkQOo
Just wanted to bring this to readers’ attention…
An anonymous poster (tell us who you are!) left a comment on my post of Juliette Tang's John-Yoko restaging pic: I hope this is not too far off topic, but so often we concentrate on the legend of John Lennon without considering what he physically did as a performer. I came across this video, How To Play Guitar Like John Lennon: https://youtu.be/lRZDf3FryLw Perfect if you plan on joining the cast of Beatlemania, or if you just want to appreciate the techniques of the world's most underrated guitarist. The affable, edifying instrumentalist is Michael Sokil ("MJ Sokes"). Our anonymous poster also brings this [...]
The Ballad of…
From Juliette Tang—check out her pitch-perfect photos of books.
Double coverage
ED PARK • Via Douglas Wolk on Twitter: "Alvarius B. covers You Only Live Twice, arranged/recorded to sound EXACTLY like John Lennon's White Album demos." http://youtu.be/ilI2jS2WkWc [MG update July 2014--The produced track has been taken down, but I've pasted a live version below. You'll get what Ed was talking about.] http://youtu.be/OjYj9r6jL9I
No jacket required
During this period he met Paul McCartney, who hired him to design the cover for the Beatles’ next album. Surprisingly, Mr. Hamilton proposed an all-white jacket. “To avoid the issue of competing with the lavish design treatments of most jackets, I suggested a plain white cover so pure and reticent that it would seem to place it in the context of the most esoteric art publications,” Mr. Hamilton told Rolling Stone in 1991. —NYT obit for Richard Hamilton
"Dear Boy"
David Cloyd covers Paul's "Dear Boy." What do you think?
I just noticed Ringo putting his hand over his face
I am pro-Yoko, more or less, but this did make me laugh: —"If Famous Photographs Were Off By One Second," Cracked.com