Beatles Books - and everything else!
FEATURED MUSIC:
The Drop – “Hey Bulldog” (Beatles cover)
REC Cover Tunes YouTube Playlist
Nick - "Yes It Is" (a cappella)
Welcome to WEEK 265 of MUSIC is not a GENRE (Video #91 & S4Ep34)
Meet the BEATLES BOOKS ! – ASK ME WHY We Always Want More | MinaG Book Talk #3
Words words words words words words words words words words. More words more words more words. Historical profusion of words words and words words plus words words words words.
There is very little anyone can say about the Beatles that hasn’t been said before. They’ve been talked about, written about, critiqued, analyzed & dissected, loved & hated, memorialized & revitalized, covered & copied, and have influenced more musicians than even the musicians themselves realize. But do they deserve it?
If you think that question even needs to be asked, you should probably stop reading and return to whatever sick cave of self-hatred you live in. Yes, it’s possible to not be into the Beatles, to even dislike them. But no one with a working brain – and more importantly, working heart – can possibly suggest that they don’t deserve every bit of attention & praise they’ve gotten. It’d be like saying Bach was a trite & repetitive hack, or all Mozart really did was coopt other people’s ideas.
Personal opinions aside, the Beatles are objectively one of the greatest creators of music in the thousands of years of recorded history. They’ve infiltrated most cultures in ways few other creators of any art have. At this point, it’s more surprising when someone hasn’t heard of them or at least one of their songs. They just are.
This is not my definitive episode on the Beatles. In fact, I won’t be discussing much of their actual music at all. This week, my focus will be on three things:
1. The books in my collection, and the plethora of Beatles books (and movies, TV shows & other media) in general: what they contribute to the greater discussion, and what else possibly could be brought to light by new books – cuz we all know they’re coming;
2. The idea that the Beatles are more than just a band; they’re a near-universal Rorschach test, a way to suss out what kind of a person someone is based on their relationship to the Beatles. Specifically, which Beatles period resonates with you, which one defines what the Beatles are to you, can determine not just the rest of your musical taste. It can also shed light on how you see and relate to the world at large.
3. That the most valuable new thing anyone can say about the Beatles is what they think & feel. Their opinion, assessment, focus, emotion is a unique mix, no matter how much is shared with others. In fact, it’s that combination of uniqueness and commonality that does exactly what the Beatles intended: spread love & connection through music.
As a music creator, and a member of PreFab 4 – one of the better Beatles cover bands (NOT a tribute band), I count the Beatles as my favorite band, and love that I can discover more about them almost every day. That’s a hint to WHY so many books, movies, shows, covers are inspired by the Beatles. We want to feel what we felt – or what fans alive enough to experience it firsthand felt. We want to recapture & reanimate the life & magic that once was. But we can’t. Not really. Nothing we do now will ever fully satisfy that want. Which is why we always want more.
As of this date, I have recorded four (five) Beatles cover versions: “I’m So Tired”, “Hey Bulldog”, “I’ll Be Back”, “It’s All Too Much” (and that fifth sort-of-recording I did as a teen – an a cappella version of “Yes It Is”). You can find them all online - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8JJ7pHNAuqNWrZDF68XfX16tGajwLTL6 (even that fifth one if you go here: https://soundcloud.com/recarea/yes-it-is-beatles-a-cappella), but I’m going to highlight one I’ve played live the most. I produced it for a film under my production team, The Drop. It’s below and at the end of this podcast, but please go find it and all the others wherever you stream music.
The Drop – “Hey Bulldog” (Beatles cover)
What’s your relationship with the Beatles? Do you go beyond the music and consume books, movies, TV shows, and anything else? What are some of your favorites? Is there something you can say about the Beatles that you think no one else has said? Discuss dammit!
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