Friday, July 30, 2010

One From Column John & One From Column Paul

Back to the Beatles.

With a major hat-tip to the amazing Beatle-obsessed Hey Dullblog, here are two Beatle-related items:

A 1999 interview with Jack Douglas, producer of John & Yoko's Double Fantasy album. Among the amazing facts -- Paul McCartney called the studio during the recording sessions; he and John were planning to get together to write songs together, but Yoko made sure John didn't get the message. (This is interesting in light of another report that John was supposed to come to New Orleans to work with Paul on the Venus & Mars album in 1975, but Yoko became pregnant and vetoed the idea.)

Speaking of Paul McCartney, Geoff Geis, has put together something he calls "Fast RAM" or "Ram on 45." The concept is simple as Geis explains: "My buddy Dan C proposed that people in the era of Ram were so drugged-out that slow music appealed to them more." So he recorded McCartney's Ram album at 45rpm instead of 33 1/3. And the results are surprisingly fun and entertaining. Check it out here.

Surely this is why the Internet was invented!

Updated: Commenter David pointed out that, in the comments to Geoff Geis' blog entry, commenter Alan Benard pitch-corrected the Fast RAM to be less chipmunky. You can hear (or download) the pitch-corrected first side here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That RAM thing is great! Not since the Atlanta Rhythm Section became Fleetwood Mac has changing speed been so great for pop music!

David said...

Geis's blog has a link to Alan Benard's, where he pitch corrects McCartney's singing down 27%, making it sound less "chipmunky." Really cool! Although Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey remains my favorite track at normal speed.
http://unhealthyobsession.com/mp3/Pitch_Corrected_Ram_on_45-Side_A.mp3

Alex said...

Fast RAM -- now 27% less chipmunky!

Thanks, David.