The Beatles Never Broke Up
09/09/09 was a special date for the Beatles. Not only did we get their re-mastered albums (in mono and stereo versions) and the Beatles Rockband game but, according to the website http://thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com/ , we also got a new Beatles album. Do yourself a favor and read the story behind the “new album” and then read the equally out there FAQs. As ridiculous as this story is it is fun to believe that there is someone out there crazy enough to have believed that he traveled to another dimension…and his sole focus in this alternate reality was the Beatles. I guess if people can believe in creationism there’s no reason why they can’t believe in a world where the Beatles never broke up, their 12th album sounded a helluva lot like Wings mashed up with solo John and George, the CD format “never caught on” and cover bands were outlawed.
This raises the question “If the Beatles never broke up does that mean Sir Paul would never write and record the title track to the “Spies Like Us” soundtrack? If so, that is a world I don’t want to be a part of.
I considered this story to be a fun quirky piece of original storytelling…until I saw he lifted the main constructs from “The Twelfth Album“, a short story published eleven years ago. I guess if you’re going to create a killer Beatles mash up CD you might as run the gamut of plagiarism and steal a back story to go with it.
Download this mash up if you love the Beatles/Post Beatles. It’s a good listen and it is always fun to hear treasured songs reinvented. Just ask GirlTalk.
Deltron 3030 Recommended:Metric ‘Fantasies’
What do you get when you take Jenny Lewis, remove the ginger hair and skin and add some synthesizers? You get Emily Haines and Metric. She’s part of the Canadian Indie pop rock brat pack, which really needs a clever name by now. I’m taking suggestions. Emily Haines is a workhorse. She splits time with Broken Social Scene and Metric while guesting on albums by Stars and The Stills. After two solo acoustic albums she’s re-joined her Metric mates to return to do what they do best: hooky new wave pop rock.
In “Gimme Sympathy” she asks a deep deep philosophical question that has tortured mankind since the early 60’s: “Who would you rather be The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?”
Feels like a no brainer to me: The only way I’m picking the Stones is if its a battle between Ringo Starr and Charlie Watts. Watts always looks pissed off and annoyed to still be touring. I’ve always liked that. His face screams, “I’m 70 for f*cks sake, why am I still behind this bloody kit!“. A famous anecdote relates that in the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Mick Jagger phoned Watts’ hotel room in the middle of the night asking where “his drummer” was. Watts reportedly got up, shaved, dressed in a suit, put on a tie and freshly shined shoes, descended the stairs and punched Jagger in the face, saying: “Don’t ever call me your drummer again. You’re my fucking singer!” There’s no shot Ringo would ever punch John or Paul.
Advantage: The Stones.
Highlights: “Help I’m Alive,” “Gimme Sympathy,” “Twilight Galaxy”
Catch them on tour in June:
June 8th, 2009 in Los Angeles at the Wiltern (tickets)