Articles
January 3, 2011
Yesterday, a tribute to the Beatles is billed as the world’s most authentic Beatles tribute band. Their act could more accurately be described as Beatles impersonators who play live Beatles covers.
Myself having been born after the break-up of the Beatles, seeing the real thing would have proven a bit difficult so checking out the world’s best Beatles tribute band had always been on my list of things to do.
Well, as luck would have it, I can finally scratch this one off my list. I had the pleasure of catching Yesterday, a tribute to the...
November 17, 2010
Beatles Rock Band helped to make 2009 a great year for the Beatles and their legacy. They were named the biggest selling artists of the decade and the launch of "The Beatles: Rock Band" on September 9, 2009 for PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 introduced the group to a whole new fan base. To top off a stellar year, the game received great reviews from critics and loads of enthusiasm from the public. More than half a million units were sold in the first month alone.
For those who haven't heard, Beatles Rock Band is a music video game that...
November 17, 2010
Title
Album
Year
Recorded
A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night
1964
Ed Sullivan Theater
And Your Bird Can Sing
Revolver
1966
Budokan
Back in the U.S.S.R.
The White Album
1968
Abbey Road Studios
Birthday
The White Album
1968
Abbey Road Studios
Boys
Please Please Me
1963
Cavern Club
Can't Buy Me Love
A Hard Day's Night
1964
Ed Sullivan Theater
Come Together
Abbey Road
1969
Abbey Road Studios
Day Tripper
Single
1965
Budokan
Dear Prudence
The White Album
1968
Abbey Road Studios
Dig a Pony
Let It Be
1970
Rooftop Concert...
March 20, 2010
The Beatles recorded an improvised jam session called "12-Bar Blues." Lennon and McCartney frequently commented that they enjoyed covering songs that were basically "12.bar blues" in structure and chord progression. Most guitarists learn about the "12-bar blues" early on in their studies of the instrument. This article describes what the "12-bar blues" is all about and how it relates to the rock and roll era, which the Beatles enriched and then changed forever.
"The Blues" come from African-American roots in the deep South of the US, notably...
March 20, 2010
Question: What does the refrain in Girl (John Lennon's ballad on Rubber Soul) have in common with classics like Blue Moon and Heart and Soul, and with many hits from the 1950's such as Silhouettes on the Chaise, Teen Angel, All I Have to Do Is Dream, Duke of Earl, Earth Angel, Donna and Stay? Every Breath You Take by the Police and countless other songs display the same characteristic.
Answer: They all use a chord progression called "the ice cream changes." During the 1950's, this sequence was so common that some musicians still refer to it...
January 23, 2010
If I were to ask you "Quick think of the best Beatles album..." Sgt. Pepper, Revolver, Abbey Road, The White Album or Rubber Soul would be the first out of your mouth. Magical Mystery Tour would probably be way down the list. Agreed, the film to which the album was devoted was interesting, but wasn’t exactly great cinema, and the cover of the album is pretty hokey (the German and UK versions were even hokier). What’s more, Magical Mystery Tour was the only album put out by Capitol that is today considered an essential Beatles studio...
January 23, 2010
It was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. I love the album so much. I've just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life ... I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album ... I love the orchestra, the arrangements ... it may be going overboard to say it's the classic of the century ... but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways ... I've often played Pet Sounds and cried. I played it to John so much that it would be difficult for him to escape the influence...
January 23, 2010
Last row:
Sri Yukteswar Giri (Hindu guru)
Aleister Crowley (occultist)
Mae West (actress)
Lenny Bruce (comedian)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer)
W. C. Fields (comedian/actor)
Carl Gustav Jung (psychologist)
Edgar Allan Poe (writer)
Fred Astaire (actor/dancer)
Richard Merkin (artist)
The Vargas Girl (by artist Alberto Vargas)
Huntz Hall (actor)
Simon Rodia (designer and builder of the Watts Towers)
Bob Dylan (singer/songwriter)
Second row:
Stuart...
December 25, 2009
Who wins the record-sale wars of the ’00s? The battle comes down to the Real Slim Shady, the Fab Four, and a perhaps less fab boy-band fivesome.
According to Nielsen SoundScan (via USA Today), Eminem garners the top overall prize for album sales over the last ten years with 32.2 million copies sold, despite having a five-year gap in studio albums between 2004’s Encore and this year’s Relapse.
The Beatles, however, come in a close second with 30 million, and earn the single-album ticket to ride; their greatest-hits compilation 1, released in...