Monday, October 26, 2009

A Bit of Beatles Clean-Up

Here are a few assorted bits of Beatles business while I listen to George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.

First off, Matthew Gallant sent me a note that he and his friends had actually designed a game around Norwegian Wood. It's quite charming and very clever, and you can see a video as well as a link for downloading the game here.

Scott Lewis e-mailed and correctly pointed out that several of the songs used on Magical Mystery Tour (including Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever) were actually recorded during the sessions for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. That's true--Paul McCartney's original concept for Sgt. Pepper wound up being heavily modified, so several songs that were orignally part of the album were held back.

Dean of Sports Game Reviewers Bill Abner sent me a link to a terrific blog about the Beatles written by the bassist of a Beatles cover band called BeatleTracks. There is an absolute avalanche of information on the band, literally weeks of good reading, so have a look if you're interested.

I'm also now reading Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles, by sound engineer Geoff Emerick, and it's excellent. This book has lots and lots of technical details about how the unique sound of The Beatles was created, so if you're interested in that aspect of their music (I am), it's a terrific read.

I'm to the point in TB:RB where I've 5-starred all but four songs on either Hard or Expert, and I think I can finish those last songs with no problem (on Hard, anyway--not sure about Expert). It's tremendously satisfying playing the drums to these songs because the beats are so seamless--Ringo never intrudes into a song, never goes off on a wild solo. And without the freestyle fill sections (an excellent design decision), I feel much more like I'm really "playing" the song.

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