Sean to play "Double Fantasy": cool or creepy?
NANCY CARR • According to this article in the New Musical Express, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon will be touring together this summer, with one of the scheduled events being the performance of Double Fantasy in its entirety. (That will be at the Royal Festival Hall in London on June 23, closing out the Meltdown Festival.) Not sure how I feel about this. [...]
McCartney’s Musical Aviary
Late at night when the wind is stillI'll come flying through your door… {Another in what is becoming a series of meditations on themes in McCartney's music. Let me know if I've missed any bird references! --Nancy} Birds and wings show up again and again in Paul McCartney's music–but only in his better music. I'll go out on a critical [...]
Ze Ramalho Covers "Another Day"
Crinsk Dee Night? Courtesy of Dusty Groove America, a great soul/funk/jazz/world record store here in Chicago, I've discovered a number of Brazilian artists doing Beatles covers. One of the most interesting albums is Ze Ramalho Canta Beatles, which includes some solo songs as well, like this version of "Another Day." Ramalho's delivery has really grown on me. And its good [...]
Analyzing the Abbey Road medley
What's the album called, again? NANCY CARR • I recently discovered the Soundscapes website, which features -- among many other things -- musicologist Alan W. Pollack's notes on the entire Beatles catalog. Not since I found George Starostin's original review website have I been so excited about a mine of musical information and analysis. The whole set of notes is well [...]
Discovered! Another bad Beatles lyric
ED PARK • We've discussed in these virtual pages the dire quality of that couplet in "She's a Woman" (you know the one), and the let's-sneak-this-in-and-move-on line in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" ("I look at my floor and I see it needs...sweeping")... This morning, I was enjoying "Baby's in Black" and was struck by: I think of her but she thinks [...]
Hooray, or uh-oh, I can’t decide
Beatle biographer Philip Norman is writing a new McCartney bio. The New York Times reports that Philip Norman has been signed to do a new McCartney bio. One part of me: all right! Other part of me: oh no. Philip Norman is an excellent writer, with a beyond-thorough grounding in the subject. There is nobody who possesses better tools with [...]
Intermission — Dylan Hicks
ED PARK • Dullblogger Devin and I share a friend in the novelist and singer/songwriter Dylan Hicks. (His 2012 book BOARDED WINDOWS also spawned an excellent album, DYLAN HICKS SINGS BOLLING GREENE—listen here.) I was poking around to find some more DH tunes, and found this charming number, "What I Want," which begins, "I just want to be the Monkee to your [...]
Recording the White Album
Rejected cover for the White Album. Find out more about it here. Over on another thread, Anonymous posted the following question, which I thought was meaty enough to merit its own post: Hey guys, this is way off topic but if you get to it I'd love to hear your thoughts. The White Album was the first major project to [...]
Getting (a bit) better — and a Minus 5 cover
The past few weeks have found us spending time and (virtual) ink on some pretty dark themes -- the Lennon/McCartney musical feud of the early 70s and Albert Goldman's resolutely dirt-seeking biography of Lennon. But hey, it's spring! Here in Chicago it's finally stopped being 30 degrees, the sun is out, some (admittedly small) green shoots are emerging from the ground . [...]