Love is All You Need

With a little pastiche thrown in at the end.

Because technology.

That's...... What I Want

Compare and Contrast:

Retune, Rethink, Refocus

Happy New Year.

Come Together Mashup

Presented without comment:

How Much Do I Love This?

A lot.

Just a freaking lot.

Full Speed Ahead

Many more of them live next door...


If I ever have billions of dollars, I'm going to spend a healthy chunk of it hiring my favorite musicians to recreate my favorite albums live.





You might say that this would be incredibly self-indulgent.

And you'd be right.




But think how much fun it would be.

RIP Tony Sheridan

To call him the "one-time Beatles frontman" is stretching the facts a bit...



... but Tony Sheridan certainly does loom large as an early collaborator.



RIP.

Boxing Day Go Here, Read This, Listen to That, And Watch This Other Thing

Sometimes you box the day, sometimes the day boxes you.

Steven, from Stevenology 2.0, reports from the Graham Parker & The Rumour show in Santa Cruz.

Holly from The Song in My Head Today hips us to my new favorite Atheist Christmas song.

Hey Dullblog re-re-re-examines Magical Mystery Tour with links to a slate review that includes a link to the following "new" (or at least new-ish)documentary:

Watch Magical Mystery Tour Revisited on PBS. See more from Great Performances.

Miles Away

No Don't Shake Me

Why, yes. I'd love to go out drinking with you starting at 1am.

Except.

I'm not 22 anymore.

(And, to be honest, didn't do that even when I was 22.)

In fact...

To be honest...

The More Famous Song Mentioning Peter Brown

Christ! You know it ain't easy.

A double-whammy for Christian grammarians -- taking the Lord's name in vain and using "ain't" unironically.

Day in the Life Surprise Ending

Yeah, might have seemed a bit too hippie-ish.

Still... this ending is appropriately cool.

You Say It's Your Birthday

Sir Paul McCartney turns 70 today.



I'm just gonna let that idea sink in for a while...

Happy Birthday

Funny, you don't look 45

Happy Birthday, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released 45 years ago today after almost 5 months of recording.

And even if there are parts of it that haven't aged well (and there certainly are), the amazing accomplishment of this record is hard to calculate.

And it was recorded on four-track.

And mixed lovingly down to mono.

Do You Know Now, Mister Show?

Attracts Me Like A Pomegranate

The Beatles working out an arrangement and the words to "Something."

I want to hear the alternate-universe version with the cool harmonies this hints at (around 1:20 to 2:00).



"Just say whatever comes into your head each time, 'Attracts me like a cauliflower,' until you get the words."
-- John Lennon




A promotional film for this song, directed by longtime Beatle confidant Neil Aspinall, features separate footage of each of the four Beatles (with the four Beatle wives). The musical closeness and shorthand in the session is nowhere to be seen in the clip, which hints that the band had basically already broken up (but couldn't yet be bothered to let anyone know).

And Transmit Thought Energy

The public scoffed "It's far too crude."

By 1976, music fans were desperate to think the Beatles had gotten back together.

How desperate?

This desperate.



If all of this seems silly now (and it does), it was a big deal back then.

And, if you were a fairly good Canadian pop band desperate for publicity of any kind, why wouldn't you be happy about something this completely and totally ridiculous?

Continuing the Trend

Money for Rope

From the Let It Be sessions, the Beatles doing "Gimme Some Truth":



And the finished version from John Lennon's Imagine album a couple years later:



And here's a Beatles attempt at a Paul McCartney song:


And McCartney's version from Ram:


And, while we're at it:



And a cover by Billy Preston (who played on the Beatles version):


And George Harrison's version from 1970 (the visuals are a bit over-the-top on this one):


And finally a snippet from 2000 (in the same garden with the same gnomes):

All My Little Plans and Schemes

Compare and Contrast

While I'm on a John Lennon kick, here are three versions of his song "Real Love" (originally "Real Life").

This is an early demo that appeared on the John Lennon Anthology collection:


And here's a more polished acoustic guitar version from the Imagine movie (1988):


And here's the version the surviving Beatles tarted up for the Beatles Anthology project in 1995:

Foolish Things

Now all I need is a hill...

Some Kind of Happiness is Measured Out in Miles

Don't look at me, man. I've already got grandchildren!

The PowerPop blog recently lamented that there haven't been more cover versions of the Beatles' "Hey Bulldog."

Just to remind you, that's the one that goes like this:



So in the interest of not wanting the week to actually start yet, here's a few cover versions.

Ween live in 2006:
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The French band Les Shattels:


Cyndi Lauper (she's still so unusual) at a John Lennon tribute concert in 1990:


Dave Matthews:


Toad the Wet Sprocket (listen to the intro on headphones):


The Crash Kings:


Miles Kane:


And Elvis Costello with the Fab Faux -- embedding's disabled on this one, so you have to click here.

Red Hot

You ever wake up from a dream where multiple versions of the same song are dueling for your attention?