Paul McCartney performed on Saturday Night Live on Saturday. He and his band (minus Abe, plus Chad Smith and Ingrid Michaelson) played a couple of songs, two of which the television audience got to see, plus a few post-episode songs for the studio audience. First, “Days We Left Behind,” from Macca’s forthcoming album, The BoysContinue reading “McCartney on SNL”
Category Archives: Beatles
Battle of the Beatles #1s
Two #1 hits, head to head. George Harrison’s 1970 hit “My Sweet Lord” versus Paul McCartney’s 1973 hit “Band on the Run.” Which of the two is the better song? Let’s start with Harrison. A straightforward paeon to Krishna, bolstered by Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” provided by Derek and the Dominoes, backing vocals byContinue reading “Battle of the Beatles #1s”
“Creep,” by the Beatles
Imagine the Beatles had recorded Radiohead’s “Creep” in 1969. The result would have sounded a lot like this: Yeah, I can totally hear John and Paul recording this instead of “The Ballad of John and Yoko.” When the harmonies kick in, it’s perfect! And then it would go straight to #1 for a fortnight.
Wooly Beatles
What if “Wooly Bully” had been covered by the early Beatles? I’m down with this. 🦣🦣
A Beatles Bearbrick
Much as I love the Beatles, I do not need to spend $185 on Medicom’s Beatles Anthology Be@rbrick… Yeah, I like Klaus Voormann’s artwork for the Anthologies. But, I really do not need that. Nice. Don’t need.
A Silly Walk Across Abbey Road
My Facebook feed — and yours, too, I’m sure — is filled with ads for bootleg, unlicensed t-shirts and has been for at least three years. I was going to write “months” there instead of “years,” but I remember that, when I was in Chicago on business in 2017, I saw someone wearing an unlicensedContinue reading “A Silly Walk Across Abbey Road”
Revisiting a Beatle-Esque Christmas
About two years ago, thanks to the Things We Said Today podcast, I learned of an album of Beatle-esque Christmas music, the Abbey Road Xmas Ensemble’s A Christmas Tribute to the Beatles. (There’s also this one, The Liverpool Christmas Band’s Beatle-esque Christmas, which looks like it’s the same material, but with karaoke versions of theContinue reading “Revisiting a Beatle-Esque Christmas”
An Unsatisfying Star Wars Salute to the Beatles
We need to talk about Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about and haven’t read vearious articles about it (like NPR‘s or Slate‘s), PLSDSP is an album that retells the story of Star Wars using the music of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. TheContinue reading “An Unsatisfying Star Wars Salute to the Beatles”
Happy Xmas (War Is Over) — An Unappreciation
I was driving into the office yesterday morning, and I heard “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” on the radio. I’m going to level here. “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” is garbage. Maybe that’s overstating it, but not by much! The lyrics are uninspired, if not outright trite, and they barely even fit the melody. (LennonContinue reading “Happy Xmas (War Is Over) — An Unappreciation”
Live at the Hollywood Bowl!
I was never optimistic about a CD release of the Beatles’ Live at the Hollywood Bowl album for a number of reasons — the Beatles themselves weren’t fans of it (they didn’t have any right to veto the release at the time), and George Martin wasn’t happy with the sound quality of the recordings. ThisContinue reading “Live at the Hollywood Bowl!”