All your life
Paul McCartney performs a rare version of Blackbird in this video from 1968. http://youtu.be/3uqGCqMYaHQ
White Album Not All That, Writer Claims
Nik Cohn & Ben Ratliff DEVIN McKINNEY • Here, via Rockcritics.com, is a New York Times podcast from September, half of which is devoted to a talk between music critic Ben Ratliff and pop-crit originator Nik Cohn on the remastered version of the White Album (which Ratliff deliciously informs us is currently #16 on the LP charts, "right below Lady Gaga"). Cohn, who was the Times's London correspondent on pop matters circa 1968-70, trashed the Beatles' masterpiece in their pages (see the December 15, 1968, headline bannering this post); now he has softened somewhat, admitting subtleties and qualities precluded at [...]
Opposites
I'm listening to my iTunes's "party shuffle" function. Just now it played "My Love," followed by (as a palate cleanser?) "Helter Skelter." I submit that "My Love" is the anti-"Helter Skelter." Can anyone think of a better pair? Try 'em for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SB3x6KtNi4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fvJEpdq8a8
“Revolution 1” In The Head
If only you were here to confirm or deny... DEVIN McKINNEY • Mike asked what I thought of the “Revolution 1” Take 20 RM1, so called, that's been burning up Beatleland. I’ve been loving and chewing on this piece of mystery meat since the weekend, and at first assumed it was genuine. Why not: Remember the stripped-down masters of those four Sgt. Pepper songs that appeared almost a year ago? Those were just as crisply digitized, just as thrillingly intimate in their four-track nudity, and no one has credibly claimed they are not genuine. So I figured it was more [...]
10-minute "Revolution"
I love it when the sleeves can't keep up with the group.— MG ED PARK • Dullblog scout Eric brought this find to our attention—from EW's Popwatch: Over the past couple of days, Beatles fanatics have been chattering about an amazing outtake that recently leaked onto the Internet. The 10-minute-plus recording of "Revolution" (embedded below) offers a fascinating look at the wildly ambitious plans the band originally had for the song, eventually included in much shorter form on The White Album. "As someone who's heard, I'd say, 99.8 percent of the Beatles music that has leaked onto bootleg, this is [...]
The men from the press say we wish you success
Yes, I think they made the right choice not using this one MOLLIE WILSON REILLY • Some follow-up on the news from Rome! After Ed posted here (thanks, Ed!), I brought the news to the Catholics at dotCommonweal. That has led me to some new and interesting details I thought you all might find interesting. First of all, it's fun but not accurate to say that the Vatican has "forgiven" Lennon. L'Osservatore Romano doesn't speak for the pope -- it's just the Vatican City daily. In any case, the article itself was an arts-section essay that, as far as I can [...]