“Which Beatles Album Is Actually Their Best?”
DEVIN McKINNEY • For the enjoyment of anyone with the requisite interest and 45 minutes, here's myself and a friend, music writer Tom Kipp, debating the question at the Experience Music Project Pop Conference, EMP Museum, Seattle, this April 20 past. Can anyone here guess which album I picked? That's bon vivant Sean Nelson as our m.c., and H. B. Radke running [...]
Time-Lapse Photography
Eagle-eyed commenter Sonia posted this picture set regarding an earlier post, but I found it so striking, I wanted to give it a full post. David Bailey took the ones on the left. Anybody know who took the second set? John and Paul and John and Yoko
Tributosaurus plays the White Album live
RAWRRRR, it's the White Album This past Friday Tributosaurus did the entire White Album live (well, with one exception, to be explained in a bit) -- and what a show! Say what you will about this being the "tension album," or about editing it down to one disc, a la George Martin's recommendation (and we have on this blog, oh [...]
Anybody else share your love?
The Beatles are my ultimate "fave rave," as they might say on Ready Steady Go; their stuff has always, and probably will always, sound just right to me. (There are pictures of me circa 1970, a 1-year-old freaking out with pleasure over "Back in the USSR," which proves two things: a) It's not just nostalgia, I have always genuinely LOVED Beatle music; [...]
Sean to play "Double Fantasy": cool or creepy?
NANCY CARR • According to this article in the New Musical Express, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon will be touring together this summer, with one of the scheduled events being the performance of Double Fantasy in its entirety. (That will be at the Royal Festival Hall in London on June 23, closing out the Meltdown Festival.) Not sure how I feel about this. [...]
McCartney’s Musical Aviary
Late at night when the wind is stillI'll come flying through your door… {Another in what is becoming a series of meditations on themes in McCartney's music. Let me know if I've missed any bird references! --Nancy} Birds and wings show up again and again in Paul McCartney's music–but only in his better music. I'll go out on a critical [...]
Ze Ramalho Covers "Another Day"
Crinsk Dee Night? Courtesy of Dusty Groove America, a great soul/funk/jazz/world record store here in Chicago, I've discovered a number of Brazilian artists doing Beatles covers. One of the most interesting albums is Ze Ramalho Canta Beatles, which includes some solo songs as well, like this version of "Another Day." Ramalho's delivery has really grown on me. And its good [...]
Analyzing the Abbey Road medley
What's the album called, again? NANCY CARR • I recently discovered the Soundscapes website, which features -- among many other things -- musicologist Alan W. Pollack's notes on the entire Beatles catalog. Not since I found George Starostin's original review website have I been so excited about a mine of musical information and analysis. The whole set of notes is well [...]
Discovered! Another bad Beatles lyric
ED PARK • We've discussed in these virtual pages the dire quality of that couplet in "She's a Woman" (you know the one), and the let's-sneak-this-in-and-move-on line in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" ("I look at my floor and I see it needs...sweeping")... This morning, I was enjoying "Baby's in Black" and was struck by: I think of her but she thinks [...]