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The Sinuous 1990s – The many-headed stylistic beast
Episode 3: 1990s
The 1990s spawned a wonderfully diverse and interesting selection of musical acts ranging from the heavier music of Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Jane's Addiction, Dinosaur Jr, Foo Fighters, and Nirvana to the more intellectual (perhaps) music of bands such as R.E.M., Soundgarden, The Lemonheads, The Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, and the wonderful Garbage.
The Foo Fighters
This in almost stark contrast to the music of the early 1980s, which began with a whimper rather than a bang with all of those synthy / poppy bands from the UK – sees a real return to harder rock music, to heavy guitar music, in a much more powerful and possibly closer to the 1970s in lineage way – the 90s rocked hard.
One of the main examples of a band that really, really rocked hard, perhaps the hardest, is the redoubtable Motörhead. led by the late, great Lemmy. This type of extremely heavy, extremely fast rock became one of the hallmarks of 1990s hard rock – and Motörhead – with Lemmy at the helm – definitely led the way.
Alternative Metal also sprang forth in great numbers during the 1990s, which saw many very popular bands such as Tool, Helmet, the very underrated Faith No More, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Rage Against the Machine to name but a few – representing a thriving alternative music scene with some powerful new sounds emerging.
Industrial Metal also gained popularity during the 1990s, in the form of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, and the amazing German band, Rammstein.
In the main, this was a fairly new form of music for the 1990s; although 1980s antecedents such as Killing Joke might lend credence to the notion of a fusion of metal and punk as the ingredients of this new genre – with the additional third element of electronica added in – and one of the best examples of that holy trinity of styles would be the oft-overlooked Prodigy.
The 90s also brought us trip-hop, another new genre explored by artists such as Portishead, and Björk,slow-moving beat-based electronic music.
Meanwhile, Indie Rock proponents such as Sonic Youth and Pixies rose up in the underground scene, with bands such as Pavement, Yo La Tengo, The Breeders, Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr., Guided by Voices, Liz Phair, and The Flaming Lips quickly following in their footsteps.
But for many, what kept real rock alive in the 1990s was the resurgence of rock in the United Kingdom otherwise known as Britpop – a massive phenomena in early 90s Britain – featuring a number of popular, chart-topping bands such as Blur, Suede, Pulp, Manic Street Preachers, Elastica, Supergrass, The Verve and of course, the remarkable Oasis.
These in turn provided the impetus for the success of the more provincial "Madchester" bands hailing from Manchester in the U.K., such as Happy Mondays, and The Stone Roses.
What happened after Oasis, then? – well, post-Britpop – a new batch of musical acts appeared with the likes of the Verve, Travis, Stereophonics. Feeder, with the extremely popular band Radiohead leading the way towards the latter half of the decade.
I haven't really got the space to add in all of the other genres of music that had famous 1990s practitioners, for example – over in the pop universe, such remarkable phenomena as Britney Spears, or even farther outside my own mostly progressive rock world – artists such as Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, TLC, or Robert Fripp's favourite singer, the redoubtable Whitney Houston.
The Spice Girls
I am obliged legally to mention the rise "manufactured pop" which had existed for a long, long time in one form or another, but reached a new zenith with the "creation" or rather, "fabrication" of huge stars such as the incredibly popular Spice Girls. Manufactured boy bands and girl bands proliferated to the point of total oversaturation and have lead to the kind of "X-Factor" or "Britain's Got Talent" environment we are forced to live in now.
I blame the Spice Girls for that. And the Monkees, the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds before them. Shudder.
But enough of this very incomplete list (above) of bands popular in the 1990s, which while not complete, at least gives you an idea of what kind of music was in the air during this most curious of decades – and onto my own concert experience in this new world of industrial metal and slow moving trip hop – and of course for me, eternally stuck in the music of the 60s and 70s – my "1990s Concert Experience" will be mostly comprised of the music I know and love, along with a sprinkling of newer artists to try and expand my limited range of musical interests – in every decade, I tried to attend a few "atypical" shows – shows that I wouldn't normally think about attending (such as, as noted below, "Earthworks" – or later on, "The Innocence Mission") – just to experience something new.
DAVE STAFFORD CONCERT ATTENDANCES – THE 1990s:
This year was like any other year full of exciting live concerts that I might attend, and I started out with a fairly small number of shows, mainly from artists I already favoured and had seen in previous years – but not, possibly, in their newest 1990s incarnations.
A young Todd Rundgren
These 1990s performances I witnessed included Todd Rundgren, Peter Hammill (as always, meaning a trip up to Los Angeles to see him at the famous Roxy Theatre), and the incredibly capable guitarist Robert Fripp, this time performing acoustically with the remarkable League Of Crafty Guitarists.
Also, there was at least one new excursion into a completely different kind of music than I was accustomed to – I went to see Bill Bruford's "Earthworks" live at the Royal Festival Hall in London – since I had to be there then anyway – and that was a very, very different experience musically speaking.
A young Peter Hammill
Being what I guess can only be described as "modern jazz" – I did enjoy it on a musical level, but it also confirmed for me that I am firmly rooted in the clutches of rock, pop, and progressive rock – and I don't really stray outside of that very often.
But I am glad I saw them, and it was a great venue too – always nice to attend a concert on what was then foreign soil but is now, home. Bruford and his band of stalwart jazzers put on a very respectable show – and for what it was, I did enjoy it – but – King Crimson live it was not!
Crowded House – circa 1991
1991 was a somewhat different year – which began, again, with the ever-touring Todd Rundgren (whose music, if I am honest, I was enjoying a bit less each time I went to see him) but this time, I took in Crowded House (this incarnation, with Tim Finn, band leader Neil's older brother – both alumni of the remarkable New Zealand band Split Enz – joining the band, so I got to hear the Finn Brother's amazing vocal harmonies in person) – this was and is, my favourite incarnation of this band, the "Woodface" tour and album – a fantastic show.
Another real highlight of '91 was that I finally, after many, many years of constantly missing him, finally got to see David Bowie performing live – and what a performance – with his new band Tin Machine – with the astonishingly brilliant and talented Reeves Gabrels on lead guitar – this band rocked my socks off – they were fantastic live – just plain two guitars bass and drums rock and roll.
I was kinda glad I didn't go to a "normal" Bowie concert, which would probably have been a bit like listening to a Greatest Hits compilation – seeing him play with Tin Machine was very real, very vibrant and you could see in his eyes and in the infectious grin he had on stage – that he was having the time of his life with his little rock band! It was most excellent – and, I gained a new guitar hero in Reeves Gabrels, whose career I have followed ever since – an absolutely fabulous and uniquely intriguing lead guitarist with a very personal and unmistakable style – an awesome guitarist!
1992 was an unusual "quiet year" for live shows, starting out with a very small, intimate performance by the very talented California Guitar Trio at a small bookshop – the Better World Galleria – in San Diego, California. This was at a time when I was still very involved in Guitar Craft so I am actually acquainted with the guys in the band and I think that they invited me personally to attend – so I did – and as they always do, the Trio put on an excellent performance.
The rest of the year was dominated by two very important and significant events, the first of which was seeing my third and final Beatle – Ringo Starr. In 1974, I had managed to see George Harrison at the LA Forum with Ravi Shankar, and Paul McCartney in '76 during his Wings Over America tour, but to date I had never managed to see John Lennon (I never did) or Ringo Starr – from my favourite band of all time –
Ringo Starr – White Album Sessions 1968
The Beatles. So when I had the chance to see Ringo with his All-Starr Band – who, in 1992, included the aforementioned Todd Rundgren on lead guitar – how could I say no?
Seeing Ringo live was a far, far more musical and brilliant experience than you might have thought, and with all of the other musical guests in the band it became more of a star-studded walk down several different memory lanes – the Beatles one being of course one of the most important ones. Ringo's son Zak Starkey was incredibly capable as the band's main drummer – with Ringo joining in when he wasn't busy singing or being the MC of the show.
Rundgren performed a version of his song "Black Maria" which Ringo had apparently requested as his favourite Rundgren track – while the band supported Ringo through the expected Beatle hits – including a very moving "With A Little Help From My Friends" where the crowd totally got behind Ringo when he hits the high note at the end – the crowd just went wild – and it was really, really a much better experience than I thought it might have been – thoroughly enjoyable.
So in 1992 – I got to experience the third and final Beatle I would manage to see perform live, despite that band breaking up way, way back in 1970 when I was still very young (but already a huge fan of the Beatles – even then).
The second and final concert event for 1992 was another one on "foreign" soil, I once again found myself in London, this time at the Town and Country, for the 20th Anniversary Camel Tour.
This was the first time I got to see Camel after several missed opportunities in the previous decades – so I was overjoyed as they have always been one of my top favourite bands – and I was not in any way disappointed. Andy Latimer is surely one of the most talented of all progressive rock guitarists, and seeing him play those remarkable tunes at long last was absolutely fantastic.
Camel – circa 1972
A great show, and a great start to my experiences seeing Camel live – I was fortunately enough to live in California at the same time as Andy Latimer, so I saw the band a number of times then from Dust & Dreams on through Harbour of Tears – and then again more recently – really recently – I went to see the band performing "Moonmadness" in its entirety at the Tyne Theatre in Newcastle just last month (September 9, 2018) – and they were as absolutely brilliant as ever. The very best of prog.
1993 was a very, very unique year for me in that I saw certain groups that had such a lasting and enormous impact on me both as a listener and as a musician – it's a year like no other, when at least two of the bands I saw that year – only really EXISTED during that year – and it meant that this was a very special year indeed for live music.
The first of two concerts I attended featuring the Robert Fripp String Quintet – at the fantastic Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California – this band was absolutely unique and only existed I believe, as a live performance project – their one album is a live album.
A rare photo of the Robert Fripp String Quintet performing live in 1995
This band was really a combination of Robert Fripp on lead guitar and soundscapes, Trey Gunn (of King Crimson) on Stick, and the California Guitar Trio on acoustic guitars – an unusual musical marriage of the acoustic and electric sides of Robert Fripp.
The music that this group played was so unique and so exquisitely beautiful that I've never forgotten the beauty and heartbreak of hearing pieces like the incredible "Hope" performed live – and then, the climax of each concert was one of the most dissonant, out-there Fripp Soundscape performances ever created – the "Threnody For Souls In Torment" – I think the title says it all.
So from great beauty to great dissonance – this band could do it all, and in the space of one performance you would experience an almost bewildering array of ever changing musical beauty and emotion – as well as technical prowess so powerful as to leave you breathless – a band that you just had to see if you could – and one of Robert's best spin-off projects – perhaps the best.
My next concert for 1993 was something very, very different indeed – again, at the remarkable Belly Up Tavern – this time, it was Soukous music from the Congo (Zaire) in the person of Kanda Bongo Man – whose band is the only modern band that plays Congolese-inspired music like the music I heard growing up in East Africa.
Kanda Bongo Man – Live
I had recently been listening to quite a lot of music by this group, so when I saw they were playing live, I hastened to get tickets – and it turned out to be an absolutely awesome evening of live African music from a very, very capable band with a truly great lead singer and performer – the Kanda Bongo Man himself.
This one definitely falls under the category of "shows I would never normally attend" but as I grew up in East Africa, I have a huge soft spot for this kind of twin lead guitar based music – and the guitar playing I witnessed that evening was absolutely fascinating and very faithfully recreated the music I remembered – interlocking lead guitars not a million miles away from the sound of Fripp and Belew's interlocking lead guitars on the 1981 King Crimson masterpiece "Discipline"!!
I'm very glad indeed, that I attended this most unusual show – and I think it's definitely a good idea to occasionally go outside your comfort zone and go see a concert that you would never ever think to go see – and for me, in 1993, this was the one.
Next on my agenda was a trip up the coast to San Juan Capistrano to the renowned Coach House, to see a second, even better performance by the Robert Fripp String Quintet – and the fact that I got to see this truly magical group play not once, but twice is something for which I am eternally grateful.
As if Fripp's amazing Quintet was not enough – a unique and unusual live performance – the next thing that happened in 1993 was yet another one of a kind, limited edition short-lived musical projects – and I
Robert Fripp & David Sylvian circa 1993
am talking now about the absolutely stunning "Sylvian–Fripp" – the somewhat unlikely musical meeting of the minds of the former leader of art-rockers Japan with the Guitarist of the Crimson King.
I drove up to Los Angeles to see this one, and I remember something unusual – I went with my then bandmate Bryan Helm of The Dozey Lumps and Bindlestiff – and I don't recall that we ever went to many concerts together, but it was unusual to have another musician to discuss the music with afterwards – and we both thoroughly enjoyed this most amazing performance – the official "Sylvian-Fripp" album, which had been released some months previous to this concert – did pale justice to the monstrous force of the live performance unit – the studio album lacks quite a bit of the punch of the live outfit – and it wasn't until the live album "Damage" came out, that you could hear on record just how powerful this band was.
The songs are some of Sylvian's best, and in the live setting, they also did surprising numbers from the Gone To Earth album (that Fripp had played lead guitar on previously) or even Fripp's own tune "Exposure" – the oft-recorded Exposure that has been sung by various singers over time – and Sylvian the latest in a long line of Exposure vocalists. But the main events were some of the extended tracks where Fripp went full-frontal Hendrix Assault Guitar on us – and I will never forget the screaming, shredding blasts of amazing moving chords that Fripp unleashed on an unsuspecting audience at the Wiltern Theatre that night on tracks such as "Darshan" – that was absolutely a mind-blowing performance.
Seeing both the Robert Fripp String Quintet, and then, just a few months later, seeing the Sylvian-Fripp live concert, all in the same year, was very nearly unbelievable and the sheer virtuosity and musicianship of both of these projects involving Robert Fripp was absolutely undeniable – it changed me as a guitarist forever.
Every decade has it's truly quiet year, and this year – for the 1990s – for whatever reason – was my quietest. According to my research so far – I only attended one concert this year – but it was a most unusual one – I had been listening to a CD called "Pieces of Africa" by
Kronos Quartet so I decided to go and see them play live – a third entrant, perhaps, to the "atypical" concerts that I like to add into my schedule from time to time – one of those concerts I would not normally think about attending.
But I remember a very intriguing and very different musical experience – this group are known for their almost chameleon-like ability to move between musical styles from strictly classical to works such as the aforementioned "Pieces Of Africa" to interesting string quartet interpretations of rock music.
One standout moment for me – a real surprise – when the band suddenly kicked into an all-strings version of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" – and it sounded incredible! – it doesn't get more rock and roll than that – of course, in a strictly classical music setting! Fascinating show.
Well – the Decade Of The Fripp continues in full swing…
Soundscapes – Rack Configuration
…and 1995 started out with two shows in a row from Mr. Fripp – this time, performing his live guitar magic – the magic known now as "Soundscapes" (formerly: "Frippertronics") – I attended two identically-configured shows, one on January 27th and again on January 28th, which featured the remarkably talented and capable California Guitar Trio as the opening act, and then Fripp's Soundscape performance followed.
What is a Soundscape?, you may ask – well, Fripp states on the Discipline Global Mobile web site that Soundscapes "has the aim of finding ways in which intelligence and music, definition and discovery, courtesy and reciprocation may enter into the act of music for both musician and audience".
Soundscapes really have to be experienced live to fully appreciate their amazing sonic qualities – the recordings, which are generally speaking all live anyway – don't quite do them justice without the visual aspect of seeing Robert sending notes to different loopers
Frippertronics – The Original System Using Two Revox A77 Reel-To-Reel Tape Recorders
to do different things, playing melodies with different effects or guitar synth voices to provide musical textural variety, and also, the sound of a brilliantly-conceived stereo electric guitar system live in the room – it's an amazing immersive experience, and whether you like Soundscapes or not – they are really something to experience live.
I was lucky enough to see this remarkable show at least twice, because I'd also seen a rehearsal that year that Robert did, when I was on a Guitar Craft course, where he used the assembled Crafties (those of us on the course that year) as guinea pigs – did we mind if he tested his system? No – we did not mind. So I'd seen a similar show to these, done in the big room at Ojai, California – during a Guitar Craft course – so my own experience of Soundscapes is a bit more varied than most – and I feel very fortunate indeed to have had the additional amazing experience of seeing and hearing Robert do an entire Soundscape performance in a room in an Ojai facility.
Of course, I was also able, on that course, to get a decent look at Robert's pedal board, so when I finished the Course, I went straight to Guitar Centre and bought the same pitch shifter that RF was using – and I used that for years – it was fantastic, because of course with a little work, I could pretty much get exactly the same live two octaves up sound that he did – it sounded great. (Note: the pedal in question was the Digitech Whammy II – a great pitch pedal at the time).
After starting the year out on the high of getting to see the Trio twice followed by Robert Fripp twice, a few months passed and then, not to my surprise, I found myself sitting at Copley Symphony Hall on June 28, 1995 – waiting for the new "double trio" version of King Crimson to take the stage – so my third Robert Fripp concert of the year and my third concert containing Robert Fripp that year – 1995 was definitely the Year Of The Fripp for me!
King Crimson – Double Trio Configuration – circa 1995
King Crimson were very, very accomplished and very, very powerful, and this was the first time I had seen this "new" incarnation – which meant it was the first concert experience of tracks such as "Dinosaur" which I thought was absolutely astonishing – and also, the beautiful side of the double trio, as represented by the very gorgeous "Walking On Air" – sung beautifully by Belew, with both Fripp and Belew playing clean, reverse guitars – a plethora of stunningly gorgeous reverse guitar sound – fantastic!
The final part of my wonderful 1995 concert experience was dedicated to a new interest I had developed in the 1990s – in a band from the East Coast of the United States called "The Innocence Mission" – I'd heard (or seen, rather?) an MTV video late one night by this band, and on a whim, I bought their first album – which I very much enjoyed. I began to follow them, and continued to buy their albums and then, logically, when I heard they were to be playing live – I went to see them.
The Innocence Mission
The band consists of a husband and wife team, who play guitars and keyboards / guitars respectively, although wife Karen Peris sings most of the lead vocals, they both sing – and the band has had various supporting members over the years – to the point where I believe they are now down to just a duo at the present time. When I saw them in 1995 – they still had a full band of drums, bass, lead guitar, and piano or acoustic guitar played by Karen Peris.
So my final concert experience of 1995 was seeing this remarkable new group playing live – and it was a revelation – the songs, some seemingly so fragile that you thought they might break while being sung – others more upbeat, but all with a lovely positive light about them. I absolutely loved their second and third albums (Umbrella and Glow, respectively) and I continued on following them for many, many years after those albums, too.
The Innocence Mission – Full Band
I am so glad I took the chance to just buy the first Innocence Mission CD sound-unheard – and I really liked it – and that really brought me years and years of enjoyment, allowing me to see this band more than once live in a concert setting, and enjoying their records throughout the 90s and beyond. A really nice way to end the year, with a tight, organised show featuring some of the most beautiful, delicate and fantastic songs – really gorgeous music – and Don Peris is a very accomplished guitarist too whose playing I also very much enjoy.
Another happy accident – and I can now proudly add this band to the list of bands that I admire and enjoy listening to…the Innocence Mission.
Although no ticket stubs survive from this year, I am aware of at least a couple of shows I attended – the first – being a second concert by The Innocence Mission – I believe this would be for their third album "Glow" which meant new songs, and new chances to
Karen Peris
see the remarkable Karen Peris sit at the piano and sing the most beautiful songs in the universe – and it was another incredible night – which ended with the chance for a brief conversation with the Peris couple – they were both really accommodating and very kind – so I had a fantastic experience at this second really quality performance by this then-up-and-coming indie band. Really enjoyable.
I should note here that both times I saw The Innocence Mission, they were accompanied by another band, called 16 Horsepower, that opened for The Innocence Mission on both occasions. They were not really to my taste, but it was interesting music – the lead singer was a kind of tortured soul (??) and his vocal approach and lyrics were provocative and interesting – so it lent some interesting contrast to the more straightforward beauty of the songs of Karen and Don Peris.
The final big musical event of 1996 for me, was a second visit from King Crimson, again, in Double Trio mode – this time, at a strange outdoor gig in San Diego at a new venue called "Hospitality Point" (i kid you not) and I was roped in – thanks to my involvement with Guitar Craft – into the job of handing out flyers to the punters as they entered the performance area.
This particular King Crimson performance was very significant to me, first of all – the band had improved and moved on since the first time I'd seen them at Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, the year before – and they had expanded their repertoire somewhat too – and that was why I particularly did not want to miss this particular show – because I had heard that they were now performing the classic King Crimson song "21st Century Schizoid Man" – so after being a fan of the band for many, many years, and seeing them play four or five times by this point – I finally got to hear them play Schizoid Man – and it was immaculate – when they got to the famous "precision" section near the end of the song – the whole band dropped down, and they played those famous precision riffs – perfectly in time, six bodies united in sound – and it really was impressive – they got the HARDEST part of one of the band's most difficult songs – exactly right – the way it should be.
I was impressed to say the least. Also had been rewarded with a back stage pass, but really didn't do much except watch Tony Levin walk past – everyone was in hiding after what was probably an exhausting show. Another great King Crimson experience – the Double Trio was loud, they were incredibly talented musicians – and for me – it really worked – I loved that version of the band – and I'm very happy not only that I got to see them play twice, but also that I finally, finally got to see the band – any version of the band – play "21st Century Schizoid Man" – live. An experience, in my opinion, well worth waiting for – after all, I'd been waiting since 1981, really – when the band first re-emerged – so just the 15 years had passed – until one version of the band finally learned the song!
This was an interesting year – and it started out with a very unusual an interesting show in a somewhat unusual venue – a guitar shop in Santa Monica, California called "McCabe's Music". "McCabe's" was well-known for their very small, intimate acoustic performances – they had a small concert space upstairs – that seated perhaps 70 or 80 people (?) and I can remember being very excited about going to a concert at this famous guitar shop – I remember I went early, so I could look at the guitars and so on – and browsed around in there for perhaps an hour – before they threw us all out so we could all come back in again for the show – or, maybe they let us stay in – I can't recall.
The artist we were all waiting to see is the very famous British musician – guitarist and songwriter Roy Harper, doing a rare appearance in California playing live upstairs at McCabe's – news of the show was just out of the blue – but I wasn't about to miss this – my first chance to see Roy Harper live.
Roy Harper in more recent times
I was not disappointed – two very good sets of amazing music later, I was stunned by the man's ability to perform these utterly unique and very specifically his songs – he writes songs like no other – many of them hard-hitting, others, the most tender love songs you might imagine – any cross-section of any dozen songs from any Roy Harper album will give you a set of songs that covers a massive range of emotion and colour and humanism and beauty.
He is a poet, writer, activist – outraged and angry peacenik – and I loved this crazy, nutty Englishman and his eccentric music – and his voice – his voice is an instrument in itself, and clever use of delay and reverb live lends itself to some stunning vocal performances along with his lone acoustic guitar – he often managed to sound like a lot more than one man with a guitar.
Those two shows are among my most prized memories – and when Roy came back after the intermission – he was noticeably relaxed, I think that the McCabe's staff had possibly supplied him with some high quality California cannabis-derived product of some kind – so the second set started out with Roy just laughing for about five minutes – and the audience laughing with him and at him – it was hilarious – and then, he turned in a performance that was even better than the stunningly good first set!
A remarkable experience indeed, and while I was able to see Roy on other occasions later on – this first time was definitely the best time – an intimate venue, and a great performance from someone who is a National treasure – there is only one Roy Harper – friend of Jimmy Page – 1960s minstrel – stoned hippie free love advocate – poet and singer extraordinaire.
Next on the agenda then, for 1997, was the first of a number of shows by Camel – the first time I'd seen them in five years – Andy Latimer was now living somewhere in Northern California, and had his new version of Camel playing up and down the California coast for quite a few years.
I think that this year would probably have been the concert for Dust & Dreams, which is a fantastic album in it's own right, and I absolutely love the music of Camel but in particular, I love the flute and guitar playing of leader/lead singer/lead guitarist Andy Latimer, and it did my heart good to see Andy doing so well, with a FANTASTIC new band – the first time I saw new bassist Colin Bass in the band – and playing fantastic new
Andy Latimer – Camel's Guitar Genius
material too – I've seen Camel four or five times now, across the years – and the performances have all been uniformly immaculate and of the highest musical quality – Andy knows how to arrange a proggy tune! So this latest new incarnation of Camel – was OK by me – and I went to see them more than once.
To this day, I would say that Camel in a way, represent what "Progressive Rock" is and what it should be – more than almost any other band. And the performance I witnessed just last month – where the band played the entire "Moonmadness" album without stopping – then, took a break, and then came out and played a LONG set of classic Camel music – and they were stupendous.
Only Colin Bass remained now in 2018, from the 1997 lineup – so they had a new drummer (Denis Clement) and keyboard player (Pete Jones) for the Moonmadness 2018 tour – and the new keyboard player Pete Jones has an amazing voice – so this new Camel, the 2018 Camel – has the best live vocal approach I have ever heard the band have!
They even attempted – and easily pulled off – a live three part harmony – and the two part harmony singing between Latimer and the very, very accomplished new keyboard player Pete Jones was absolutely spot on throughout – raising their game as a live performance act even further. And Latimer has battled on despite ill health – the man is an absolute legend!
Fish – Marillion's Original (And Best) Singer
1997 continues with another legendary concert – the final tour of Marillion where their lead singer was still named Fish. The tour for then-new album "Clutching At Straws" – remarkably, Marillion had done the impossible by making a followup album, to their hugely successful mid 1980s album "Misplaced Childhood" that was just as good if not better – I actually prefer it – and so had upped their game musically – and I was excited to hear the band playing this new album – I'd seen them playing "Misplaced Childhood" previously when I'd seen them live in San Diego; this time, I traveled up to the old reliable Coach House, to see Fish's last stand with Marillion – of course, we didn't know it was his last tour with the band – but the writing was on the wall.
The show at the Coach House that night was absolutely amazing and I had a fantastic time – the band were so precise, and this was a great new bunch of songs – and I think their performance this year, on this tour – was miles beyond what I'd seen previously when I saw them live – and to my mind – still never exceeded by the "new Marillion" – the one with the singer NOT named Fish. That Marillion – has never quite come up with another album that thrills me as much as the brutally honest and self-examining "Clutching At Straws" does.
At one point during the performance Fish was supposed to do a costume change – but he told the audience instead – "I'm supposed to do a costume change now but I will be damned if I am going to go up and down those BLOODY stairs one more time" – to which the audience ROARED in pleased approval and Fish just got on with the next song – wearing the wrong costume – the music was all that mattered – and that was his way of reminding us of that fact.
It was a great show and I think an example of Marillion at their very best!
Finally to round out a very exciting and concert-filled year, another show by Todd Rundgren – this time, played at the smaller, more intimate Belly Up Tavern, and if memory serves me correctly, this was the year that he finally played "No. 1 Lowest Common Denominator" live – which was a song that I dearly loved from the 1974 "Todd" double LP – that despite seeing Todd several times since first seeing him with Utopia in 1977 – it wasn't until 20 years later – here in 1997 – that I actually got to see and hear him play this remarkable song.
Todd Rundgren in recent years
It was a concert for me, of mixed emotions – with highs like that, but also with lows in that some of the newer songs that Todd was performing, just didn't sit too well with me – I was losing interest in a lot of his newer music – while still very much liking and appreciating his back catalogue.
Each year, it seemed, Todd's shows more and more favoured the newer, less interesting and creative songs, and every year, the number of older, interesting, and very creative songs from his best albums, dwindled and dwindled until they became almost non-existent. There also seemed to be less and less emphasis on his substantial abilities as a lead guitarist, and more emphasis on acoustic, piano or other non-virtuoso performance material – in other words – he stopped playing guitar – or at least – cut it way back.
Later on in his career, he did somewhat remedy this by playing a lot of the older material again – and playing more guitar again – but he had long before that kinda "lost" me. This may well have been the very last time (to coin a phrase lol) I went to see Todd play – I am not sure.
At this point, the haze of time and memory, has drawn a curtain over the decade – and only a couple of glimpses of that clouded memory remain – I have only one entry for 1998, and that was for a new band – a band I had recently discovered by a most unusual method for me – I had heard their new single on the radio, and felt like I had to have that record. I never hear records on the radio. But in this case – that's actually how it happened.
K's Choice – Sarah & Gert Bettens
That record, turned out to be "Everything For Free" – a wonderful (and also somewhat bittersweet) tale of how everything is free and paid for when you live in a lunatic asylum – from the point of view of someone – an inmate – called "Billy" – as sung by Sarah Bettens – who is showing a visitor around their gilded psychologically-demanded prison and explaining how he gets "everything for free" – it's a chilling and beautiful tune with a biting, socially aware lyric – by the remarkable Dutch – or perhaps Dutch/American band "K's Choice".
I bought their brand new 1998 album – "Cocoon Crash" on the strength of hearing that one song one time driving home – and fell in love. This was to me, a fantastic find – a new band, a new sound, and a remarkable lead female singer in Sarah Bettens – with a unique and unforgettable voice – or rather, a unique brother (on guitar – Gert Bettens) and sister (guitar and vocals – Sarah Bettens) team that harmonised beautifully together.
I've never had another chance to see them perform, but I have continued to buy their albums and follow their career – this band, and in particular the string of albums they made from 1998 probably into the first part of the next decade – really resonate with me. "Cocoon Crash" is probably my personal favourite, but they have made a number of albums of equal quality – this is a talented and capable band.
The performance took place in tiny, tiny beach front club in a suburb of San Diego called "Mission Beach" – a place I lived when I was a teenager. The club was very, very small but the band rocked hard and loud, and sounded absolutely amazing – I was blown away by all of the instrumentalists, they were all Dutch except for their bass player who was American – and they played their socks off that night in that tiny place. Sarah Betten's voice – and attitude – was unique, infectious and fantastic – and when she came in on third electric guitar the additional noise and din was absolutely amazing – what a great live performance – and, from a band that was brand new for me.
The records here completely disappear for a period of time – and it remains unknown if I attended any concerts in the last year of the century or not – I simply do not know – I have so far, not found any ticket stubs or other evidence to show that I did; but should such information become available, I would of course do an update on this blog – so – with K's Choice and their amazing performance at Cane's in Mission Beach, California – this decade of concert attendances comes to a somewhat premature end – 1999's activities remain a complete mystery.
THE ATYPICALS – A QUICK LOOK
While this concludes the Performances Attended section of the blog, I want to take just a moment to list here, the "new" bands or at least – new to me – i.e. bands that were outside of my experience when I first encountered them in the 1990s – as a contrast to the many bands that I had already been following during the previous two decades.
So while it's obvious that I have a propensity for bands and artists such as King Crimson, Robert Fripp, Todd Rundgren, Camel, Peter Hammill, and any other classic Prog Rock outfits – the 1990s were, for me, also – a time of new musical awakenings – and while I have provided details of all of these artists in the section above, I thought it was worthwhile compiling a quick list of the "atypical" Dave Stafford concert attendances – those concerts that I would not normally have gone to, or, artists and bands that were either new to me or new in general – which I was encountering and having my first or nearly-first experiences with – through the auspices of seeing them perform live in the 1990s:
The Atypical Bands And Artists List for the 1990s – Dave Stafford's Concert Attendances:
Bill Bruford's "Earthworks" (representing jazz)
Kronos Quartet (representing classical + rock + ??)
Kanda Bongo Man (representing African music and Soukous in particular)
Innocence Mission (representing new music for the 1990s)
K's Choice (representing new music for the 1990s)
I was a guitarist then, and I am still a guitarist now; so it's only natural that I would follow and enjoy music by the world's most talented and capable guitarists – and the list of guitarists that I was lucky enough to see in the 1990s is a pretty staggering list of remarkable, talented musicians.
THE 1990s GUITARIST'S HALL OF FAME:
For each decade, I have created a list of the remarkably diverse and talented batch of lead guitarists I have witnessed within the bands or artists I had seen during that decade (see my blogs for the 1970s and the 1980s respectively – and near the bottom of each, you should find a list of guitarists similar to this one following).
Todd Rundgren (Solo)
Peter Hammill (Solo)
Robert Fripp (Robert Fripp String Quintet, Robert Fripp Soundscapes, Robert Fripp & The League Of Crafty Guitarists, King Crimson, Sylvian-Fripp)
Neil Finn (Crowded House)
Reeves Gabrels (Tin Machine)
Bert Lams (California Guitar Trio)
Paul Richards (California Guitar Trio)
Hideyo Moriya (California Guitar Trio)
Andy Latimer (Camel)
Rigo Star (Kanda Bongo Man)
Michael Brook (Sylvian-Fripp)
Adrian Belew (King Crimson)
Don Peris (The Innocence Mission)
Steve Rothery (Marillion)
Gert Bettens (K's Choice)
Sarah Bettens (K's Choice)
Forward still…on into the distant future!
So in conclusion – for me, the 90s were packed with many, many performances from many of my very favourite musicians – you will see the names of two in particular, cropping up again and again and again in the account above – Todd Rundgren and Robert Fripp – and in the case of Robert Fripp, during this most interesting decade, I managed to see him perform in, actually, five different groups – which is an astonishing feat in itself if you think about it. I feel very, very fortunate to have been following his career very closely at the time, and that gave me the opportunity to see him play guitar in so many different performance modes – it was simply amazing!
As well as seeing Robert Fripp play many, many times in five different bands, I managed to see a Beatle – my third and final live Beatle experience with the great Ringo Starr – and also managed to see Todd play guitar a few times, and Camel – who I dearly love – twice – once in 1992 and again in 1997 – a very interesting contrasting experience. On top of so many Prog-based highlights, including seeing the amazing Peter Hammill performing live at the Roxy in Los Angeles at the start of 1990 – I also became familiar with a handful of new or newer groups – and three of those groups became huge favourites of mine over the years.
It was, for me, a really nice mix of shows – heavy on the things I love, and an enormous number of performances by one Robert Fripp – possibly my favourite guitarist of all time – as well as two master classes in Prog Guitar from Mr. Andy Latimer – not to mention the guitar work of Peter Hammill, Todd Rundgren and young Steve Rothery – none of those guys are exactly slouches when it comes to playing electric guitar – and then a light sprinkling of some very diverse new music – covering jazz, classical, African and new kinds folk rock or rock with just a handful of bands – the perfect mix of live concerts of both the "old familiar" and the "new exciting" shows – making for another nearly perfect decade of truly enjoyable concert attendances.
Until next time then – once again my friends ~
The 2000s – The Naughtiest Decade
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"under the influence" (beatlesque)
I wanted to take a little time to try to give some indication of the vast scope and reach of the influence of the Beatles, and in particular, their influence on other musicians. This has inspired everything from direct Beatle parodies such as "The Rutles" (featuring Neil Innes and Eric Idle) to tracks that sound very Beatle-like (such as any number of Raspberries, Badfinger, Todd Rundgren, The Move, Roy Wood, Knickerbockers, songs – and many, many others – see lists below) to whole albums of Beatles tribute (such as Utopia's brilliant and very musical Beatles spoof album, "Deface The Music", from 1980).
Even the world of jazz was invaded by the music of the Beatles, from Wes Montgomery and other guitarists of the day, inventing their own jazz versions of Beatles tracks, or someone of the stature of Ramsey Lewis, making, in 1968, an entire album of Beatles covers, all taken, amazingly, from the Beatles then-current 1968 "White Album" – in a completely unique and extremely jazz way.
Awesome inspiration, across all genres of music – the music of the Beatles actually can be called "universal" in its appeal, given the strange and disparate characters who breathe new life into a huge, huge range of covers and tributes and sound-alikes, from the very ordinary covers, to the truly bizarre spoofs, jokes and odd variations that abound the world over – everybody under the sun has had a crack at covering a Beatles song – and some go much, much further, either creating amazing near-carbon copies of Beatles songs (such as 1976's "Faithful" album by Todd Rundgren – his "faithful" version of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is exquisite) or creating music that sounds so much like the Beatles, that it is actually thought to be by the Beatles (for some unknown reason, "Klaatu" was one such band, where folk thought that it was actually the Beatles, performing anonymously six or seven years after they had broken up…but, it was not).
For my money, there are other artists who create original music that is much, much closer in content and feel than the music of "Klaatu" (but, don't get me wrong, "Klaatu" are a remarkable, very capable, and very interesting band to listen to – and, little-known fact, they are the actual authors and creators of the original version of the Carpenters' hit single, "Calling Occupants (Of Interplanetary Craft)" – not too many people know that in that case, the Carpenters were doing a cover of…"Klaatu" !
I think, though, that in many ways, that the Beatles, and to a somewhat lesser extent, The Beach Boys, had a huge influence on musicians all over the world. From Apples In Stereo to XTC, there are so many musicians, including some pretty unlikely characters, that have either covered Beatles songs faithfully (or unfaithfully in some cases), or have created either songs and/or albums of songs that mirror, mimic or even mock, the sound of the Fab Four.
I think that it's very true what they say, that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, if that is true, then the Beatles have been flattered until they are completely flat, because so, so many musicians have cited them as a major influence, and have unashamedly copied their songs, their sound, their harmonies, their guitar playing, their bass playing, their song structures and so on – and the list of people who do cite the Beatles as a musical influence is just simply too long to print in this forum.
What always surprises me is the number of extremely progressive musicians who claim a serious Beatle influence, when you listen to the music of a band like Yes, or King Crimson – you wouldn't necessarily immediately think "Beatles" – but Yes were obviously fans of the band, in the early days, they covered the Beatles "Yes It Is", and I believe that both Steve Howe and Chris Squire have said they are fans of the Beatles music. Robert Fripp has also acknowledged the influence of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" band on him upon hearing the whole album on his car radio one fateful evening, and Beatles references are embedded, sometimes deeply, into the music of King Crimson – "Happy Family" from the third Crimson album, "Lizard" is an unconcealed tale of the Beatles breakup, penned by then-Crimson lyricist Peter Sinfield.
So sometimes, there are Beatle-influenced bands and musicians, where the music made by those musicians, music sounds nothing like the Beatles to our ears – but for them, the Beatles still loom larger than life, buried deep in their internal, musical DNA – just waiting to get out, in the form of new songs that are about the Beatles, influenced by the Beatles, or simply sound like the Beatles, intentionally (usually) or not (occasionally). Perhaps yet another splinter-list should be "Songs That Sound Like The Beatles But Their Composers / Performers Did Not Intentionally Try To Sound Like The Beatles – It's By Complete Accident" but I feel that my already non-legendary non-skills as a list producer have already fallen flat, and that's too complicated for me to work out who did or did not "intend" to sound like the Beatles! I don't think I can write that list – but if you can – please do, and please send it in, and if it's complete enough, I will post it here.
Speaking now as a guitarist, I don't think I've ever met a guitarist who did not care for the guitar playing of John Lennon or George Harrison, nor have I ever met a bassist who did not respect the massive skills of Paul McCartney on the bass guitar – the absolute, indisputable master of melodic bass playing – and when I listen to Chris Squire play, I do hear echoes of Paul McCartney's style in his playing – especially the "high register" bass work. This famed skill at playing beautifully in the higher and highest pitch ranges of the bass guitar has been imitated by many, but for me, well, it's Todd Rundgren's "Determination" that showcases this technique in an incredible way (see below for more on "Determination" ).
The same can absolutely be said for drummers admiring Ringo Starr, everyone knows that Ringo is not a "flashy" drummer, he doesn't often "show off" but what Ringo has that many, many drummers do not have, is the steadiest tempo imaginable, and, a sense of when to play, and when not to – he always provides just the right amount of percussion to any given song, never overplays – just what is required. This is borne out when you hear live sessions by the Beatles, while John, Paul and George make error after error in the earliest takes of any given song, it's rare indeed to hear the almost metronome-like Starr make an error.
Even guitarists who also play bass get the whole "Paul McCartney high-register bass playing" concept, as can be evidenced by the multi-talented Todd Rundgren, from his 1978 solo album "Hermit Of Mink Hollow", there is a brilliant track called "Determination" , which not only features pitched up, trebled up, "jangly guitars" but a beautiful, beautiful, McCartney-esque bass line, that just pulls the heartstrings as it flies beneath the open chords, beginning in the high register, and then sweeping down to become a bass again – McCartney's early adoption of unusual styles such as playing bass melodically, playing bass in the very high registers, or playing bass in any number of innovative ways, not always melodic – playing with his low E string slightly detuned (as in the song "Baby, You're A Rich Man") or, playing the low E string so hard that it detunes as he plays (as can be heard in parts of the song "Helter Skelter") – has not gone unnoticed by Todd, and any number of other McCartney imitators. Speaking of McCartney imitators, Eric Carmen and the Raspberries also recognise the genius of the Beatles front line which is evidenced by songs that closely resemble Beatles songs in form and content, lyric and guitar styles.
I wish more drummers were like Ringo, well, there is one that immediately comes to mind – Zak Starkey, Ringo's eldest son. Zak is a remarkably talented drummer in his own right (I was fortunate to see him perform with an early incarnation of "Ringo Starr's All Stars" (a show which also happened to feature the above-mentioned Todd Rundgren) and, hearing Zak and Ringo Starkey nail the complex drum part of Todd's "Black Maria" live was absolutely fantastic – Zak made it his own, but carried the band of mostly older musicians, through the set with his unshakeable rhythm, and he has certainly inherited Ringo's steady hand – but Zak is also a thoroughly modern drummer, and in some ways, he goes far beyond his famous dad – which is what you might expect – I mean look at Jason Bonham, it's the same thing, drummer with a famous drummer dad, and with that burden of being the son of a legend, they try that much harder to sound unique, and go beyond the "oh, he's the son of Ringo…" or "oh, he's the son of Jason" – and I am justifiably proud of both of them, for carving their own musical paths, and not relying on "dad" for their fame or ability, but making it on their own laurels.
witnessing one of the variations of "Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band", on the 1989 tour featuring Todd Rundgren, it was remarkable to see Zak take sole control of the drums when Ringo went front and centre to sing, so for some of the classic Beatles songs that the band played, it was Zak on the drums rather than Ringo himself, but it absolutely mattered not, Zak did an amazing job on tracks like "With A Little Help From My Friends" and "It Don't Come Easy" – and at other times, father and son played together, and that was truly a joy to see – amazing !
Two generations of Starkey's, doing what they do best – playing the drums, and playing the music of the Beatles too – among other items from the various band members such as the aforementioned Todd cover – and "Black Maria" live with Zak AND Ritchie Starkey is not something I shall forget any time soon – fantastic"!
And, because it was Todd's big moment, Ringo was free to join Zak on drums, so it was the pair of them behind Todd – and you could see in Ringo's face how much he enjoyed playing the song (I believe it was included in the set list, because Ringo always had liked the song, so much so that he insisted that it be the "Rundgren" moment in the concert – it being his favourite track off of Todd Rundgren's seminal 1972 album, "Something / Anything") and Zak was just head down getting on with the drum part – and that is the only time I've ever seen the song performed with two drummers – and if those drummers are Ringo and Zak Starkey, you know it's going to go well – and it was an excellent cover, absolutely spot-on, and a real highlight of the show.
I don't think anyone can argue that the Beatles had a very, very significant influence on musicians of many generations, and new generations of players are discovering the Beatles anew even now, in 2014, and are translating their experience of hearing Beatles material into their own new "musics" – so the process continues, of hearing songs influenced by the Beatles, even in new music created by young musicians – because, in 2014, maybe they just heard "Revolver" for the first time, and it absolutely blew their minds – just like it blew our minds back in 1966 when we (now, unbelievably, now we're the "older generation"!) first heard it.
And – it's undeniable – this is unforgettable music, genius music from the writing to the playing to the singing and even to the packaging – Beatle imagery is also something that has been oft-copied, and some of their most famous album cover designs have been copied again and again by so many bands.
Some of those copies are more on the side of parody, for example, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention classic Beatles parody, made not that long after the original came out, "We're Only In It For The Money" is directly made to look like a bizarre "version" of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and in some ways, the cover is the biggest part of the joke – the music on the album (which is brilliant, by the way – one of my favourite early Zappa / Mothers records) is not nearly as important to the parody as the album design was. But the whole effect is…kind of hilarious 🙂
In particular, some of the most famous Beatles album covers, such as the "bendy" photographs of the band that graces the cover of their innovative "Rubber Soul" album have been imitated by many other bands, time and time again. Even in the earliest days, the unusual photographs of photographer Robert Freeman (as in, the classic shot of the Beatles silhouetted against a dark background) as on "With The Beatles" (UK) or it's US counterpart, "Meet The Beatles" has been copied many times over the last few decades. But revolutionary cover art is difficult to come up with, so bands just borrow from the best…The Beatles.
No article about Beatles' influence would be complete without mentioning two gentlemen from different eras of pop music, firstly, the ridiculously talented eric stewart of 10cc, who has performed Beatles songs live in concert with 10cc, and also has an undeniable streak of "beatlesque" harmony and sound on various tracks throughout the long career of 10cc – the best example is probably part 1 and part 3 of 10cc's pop opus, "feel the benefit" – very "dear prudence" if I don't mind saying so myself :-). the other gentleman in question is from a couple of decades later, from the 1990s and beyond, and that is Jason Falkner; unwilling conscript into pop genius band "jellyfish", after he escaped their clutches, went off on a very successful if low-key solo career – and again, the sound of his vocal harmonies, the beautiful chord progressions in his music tell me one thing: he, like Eric Stewart before him, is under the influence of the Beatles. Personally – I cannot get enough of the music of 10cc or Jason Falkner, two generations apart, perhaps, but, united in their love for Beatle harmonies, jangly Beatle guitars, beautiful Beatle chord progressions, and even Beatle-like lyrics.
I started out writing this edition of the Beatles' story by trying to create various lists of bands that sound like the Beatles, and then, albums inspired by the Beatles, and I was really only able to touch upon a very few – I know that I have missed out so, so many – and everyone has a different "take" on what bands sound like the Beatles, what albums are directly or indirectly inspired by the Beatles and so on.
Regarding my attempts at filling in these lists – I am ultimately not satisfied by my primitive attempts at "list-making", and in searching the Internet for valid lists of bands that sound like the Beatles, I kept finding lists that made no sense to me, personally – that would always include every big rock band of the day, so it would always be "Pink Floyd", "The Who", "Jimi Hendrix" – and I don't think any of those bands sound like the Beatles at all ! Yet, site after site would cite (ha ha, get it – site – cite) Hendrix or Pink Floyd as a Beatle sound-alike – but I cannot bring myself to agree with this, yes, Hendrix loved the Beatles, he played bit of Beatle melody in the middle of his own songs, he covered many Beatles songs – but, he doesn't really SOUND like the Beatles, does he? Maybe very vaguely, on a song like "Crosstown Traffic" perhaps – but, I'd say, if anything, that Hendrix influenced the Beatles, as much or more than the Beatles influenced Hendrix.
Jimi Hendrix sounds like…Jimi Hendrix, and no other, really – he is utterly unique. Hendrix did absolutely love the Beatles, and would indeed, often insert a perfect bar of George Harrison lead guitar, into one of his own original songs, in live performance – and then give a little laugh, like it's an "in-joke" – "here's a cool melody that I nicked off of the new Beatles disc, it's called "Revolver…".
As for Pink Floyd, it would take some real convincing for me to add them into the list – I love a bit of early Floyd as much as anyone, but I do not hear echoes of the Fab Four in their music (you saw what I did there…."Echoes"…Pink Floyd – and, it was completely unintentional!) I am afraid I just don't get it, these constant references to Pink Floyd sounding like the Beatles – maybe they are talking about the odd Syd Barrett track, I don't know, but it just doesn't seem right to me….so I did not add them in :-). Yes, the Beatles and Pink Floyd did both play psychedelic music, but it was very different in nature – so, no, I don't see the connection, musically.
So – please send in your additions and corrections to any of the lists, and I will update them periodically to reflect world opinion – I am not a Beatle expert (although I have read extensively about them, in particular, I started out years ago with Hunter Davies' remarkable biography of the Beatles; in later years, I've studied the remarkable works of Mark Lewissohn, whose "The Beatles Recording Sessions" is like the Bible, to me, one of my most cherished and most often re-read Beatles information sources).
I will read anything and everything written about the Beatles, even now – and I cannot possibly compile complete lists of the type I am presenting here, so any and all input from readers would be much appreciated – please comment, and in your comments, submit corrections or additions to any of the lists, and every few months, I will compile all of the comments and update the lists – so over time, maybe, these lists will become relatively complete – which would be great, because we would be creating a useful, accurate, and complete Beatle resource – or rather, a resource of bands and albums that SOUND like the Beatles, anyway – why not?
Meanwhile, on the subject of the Beatles music, I've been very happily really enjoying my two latest Beatle purchases: from 2013, the two-double-CD "Live At The BBC" – volume 1 (from 1994) completely remastered, and a new volume 2 entitled "On Air" which is a fantastic addition to this wonderful series – four CDs chock full of radio performances, studio out-takes, and the Beatles chattering – a fantastic Beatles music resource, of early live tracks and one demo, and at this point I say, thank God for the BBC ! Luckily, they kept all of these Beatle recordings, so now they have been compiled for future generations to enjoy.
My other purchase, "The U.S. Albums" is a 13 disc monstrosity, but hearing the albums in the U.S. running orders for the first time since I was a child, is just remarkable – even though John Lennon condemned Capitol for messing with the Beatles' carefully considered running orders, the odd, arbitrary, Capitol-created running orders are unfortunately for we Americans, what we grew up hearing, so even now, I am still startled by the UK releases – because the songs don't arrive in the order my brain expects they will. So now I have complete choice – if I want the real thing, I consult the Stereo and Mono boxes from 2009. If I want the Capitol versions – I consult the US Albums from 2014 – very exciting stuff for Beatle-maniacs such as myself 🙂
The last time I bought this many Beatles CDs all at one go, was in 2009, when the long-awaited stereo and mono re-masters appeared – and of course, that was an essential purchase. Following that, though, I am truly amazed, and at the same time, very grateful indeed, that in 2014, I can almost casually pick up 17 "new" Beatles albums – four from the BBC, and 13 from Capitol – and that just makes my Beatles catalogue so much more complete and containing even more variations on their remarkable catalogue of music – beautiful, rockin' Beatle music.
So we've gone down an alternative path this time, a path taken by the many, many musicians who revere the Beatles, and admire their music enough to copy it exactly, partially, or, some aspect of Beatle music has entered into their own songs, anything from a guitar riff to some high register bass work of a melodic nature, or a steady Ringo Starr back beat – so sometimes, you may have a completely unique song, but there is a section of it that REALLY recalls the Beatles very strongly – so, five percent of the song is 98 percent Beatle-like – but, the REST of the song is not !
As a musician and a guitarist, I do hear a lot of these "stand-alone" Beatle moments, it might be a few bars of music in a Jason Falkner or Michael Penn pop song that strongly remind one of the Beatles, or just a 10 second passage in a song on the radio – you hear "Beatlesque" bits of music almost every day, and I am often fascinated by them, sometimes, you work in your mind to try and figure out which Beatles song or songs is being referenced – sometimes it's obvious, sometimes, it's impossible to determine – but you do know, just by hearing, when something has the quality of being "Beatlesque".
Lists Of Bands That Sound Suspiciously Like The Beatles
Bands Or Artists That Always Sound Like The Beatles:
The Rutles
Bands Or Artists That Often Sound Like The Beatles:
Badfinger – an Apple band
James McCartney – son of Paul McCartney
The Move – featuring Roy Wood
Raspberries – featuring Eric Carmen
The Swinging Blue Jeans
Bands Or Artists That Occasionally Sound Like The Beatle
The Bears – featuring Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew (ex-King Crimson) – solo artist
Electric Light Orchestra – featuring Jeff Lynne
Jason Falkner (ex-Jellyfish) – solo artist
Dhani Harrison – son of George Harrison
Jellyfish – featuring Jason Falkner
Julian Lennon – son of John Lennon
Jeff Lynne – Electric Light Orchestra – Harrison's producer / member of Traveling Wilburys
Aimee Mann – solo artist
Bob Mould (ex-Husker Du) – solo artist
Nazz – featuring Todd Rundgren
The New Number 2 – featuring Dhani Harrison – son of George Harrison
Andy Partridge (ex-XTC)
Michael Penn – solo artist
Michael Penn & Aimee Mann – couple (they did an incredibly lovely cover of "two of us" – gorgeous track)
Todd Rundgren – solo artist
Teenage Fanclub – Scottish pop band
Utopia – featuring Todd Rundgren
Roy Wood (ex-Move) – solo artist
XTC – featuring Andy Partridge
Bands That Sound Suspiciously Sort Of Like The Beatles
Oasis – (in their dreams, anyway!)
Albums That Are Directly Inspired By The Beatles
Fresh – Raspberries – 1974
Faithful – Todd Rundgren – 1976 (all covers album, including Beatles covers)
The Rutles – The Rutles – 1978
Archaeology – The Rutles – 1996
Deface The Music – Utopia – featuring Todd Rundgren – 1980
We're Only In It For The Money – Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention – 1968
– visual parody of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Well-Known Known Admirers Of The Beatles – Musicians
Jon Anderson (ex-Yes)
Adrian Belew (ex-King Crimson)
Eric Carmen (ex-Raspberries)
Robert Fripp (King Crimson)
Liam Gallagher (ex-Oasis)
Noel Gallagher (ex-Oasis)
Steve Howe (Yes)
Eric Idle (ex-Rutles)
Graham Gouldman (10cc)
Jimi Hendrix (may he rest in peace)
Neil Innes (Rutles)
Aimee Mann (solo artist)
Michael Penn (solo artist) – brother of Sean Penn
Todd Rundgren (solo artist) – w/Nazz, Utopia
Chris Squire (Yes)
Eric Stewart (10cc)
Alan White (Yes)
Please – agree or disagree with my choices; send in additions, recommend deletions, recommend changes – and if there is enough input, I will periodically re-published updated versions of any Beatles lists that have appear in this blog series based on your input.
Meanwhile, maybe there are some artists noted here that you were not aware of, that have obviously studied the music of the Beatles and learned from it, and I am always happy to listen to any musician or band that sounds like the Beatles – so, if I have missed any truly obvious ones – please let me know, and again, I will update the list, too.
Happy listening – the influence of the Fab Four runs deep, traverses the entire globe, and only seems to be on the increase over time, as successive generations re-discover their music (often prompted by their parents, but still…) and then integrate parts of it into their own new kinds of music – a process that I hope goes on forever.
Nothing would make me happier, "in the year 2025" (another 60s pop joke for the older folk in the audience!!), let's say, to hear a brand new song on the radio that sounds very original, but, completely Beatlesque at the same time – that would please me no end, because we then will know – young people are still listening to the greatest rock band that ever was – the fabulous Beatles – and they rock!!
I don't know about you, but I am definitely under the influence of the Beatles – always have been, always will be – my favourite band from childhood, the first band I truly appreciated, and in actual fact, I literally "grew up" with them and their music, it's a joy to still be listening to them now, in the year 2014, and feeling just as happy about it as I first did back in 1963, when I must have heard them on the TV, on the Ed Sullivan show – being only five then, I don't directly recall it, but as it was repeated on TV every year or more often every year thereafter, I feel like I do remember it – and I do remember their later TV appearances directly.
What a remarkable group, and what a remarkable influence they've had on a remarkably talented group of very respectful and creative musicians – my peers I am proud to say, who also "grew up" with the Beatles. There's no better way to end up "under the influence…"
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learning the beatle repertoire…
After a childhood dominated by the Beatles (I only had four long-playing vinyl LPs – all by the Beatles!) and their music, when I returned from Africa in 1971, armed with a rudimentary, self-taught knowledge of the guitar, one of the first things I did, was seek out other musicians to work with. it came as no surprise, somehow, that we already had something in common – we all loved the songs of the Beatles, and in almost every band I was ever in as a young teenager, we tried to learn Beatles songs – with varying degrees of success, I must hasten to add.
Two early bands, both joined when I was still in Junior High School, provided the vehicle – and I was one of the few who purported to play lead guitar (and I could, but, very, very haltingly, and, very, very slowly, and…not very well at this point in my life, age 13 – 14) I was "in" – it's difficult to recall, and in fact, I have no idea what the name of either of these bands are, but for the sake of reference, I will call them the "Mike Lewis Band" and the "Stafford / Monaco" bands, respectively, because those were the alleged "leaders" of the two budding beat groups 🙂
There is even a recording of the "Stafford / Monaco" band, an amazingly good cassette tape (considering the age and the quality of the tape – recorded by my older brother John on a poor quality 120 minute tape, no less) of a live performance, where we tackle some Beatles numbers, and I even have a go at singing John Lennon's "Imagine" – the verses only, no bridge 🙂
This is a perfect example of great enthusiasm for the material, from a group that did not have the chops or ability to play the songs particularly well – but – we were all just thirteen, so, I don't really expect much out of either of these bands, to be honest! So if a few of our songs were missing bridges or the odd verse, it's just the way things worked out…
I think the "Mike Lewis Band" was the first band I was in, Mike was a gregarious, friendly bass player / acoustic guitarist who spent his entire life forming bands, writing songs, and playing in bands – he was determined if not incredibly talented. I remember though that he and I did reach some dizzy heights, such as our attempts to play the beautiful acoustic guitar balled "Julia" from the Beatles "White Album" – I am happy that there is no tape of that ! But we even took turns singing the verses, so we could do the overlapping vocal bit – very sophisticated. But – "Julia" was not part of our repertoire, Mike and I would tend to play acoustic guitars just for fun, playing the songs of the day, and singing, and I can remember we learned and played "The Needle And The Damage Done" by Neil Young, which was also very popular at the time.
In the "Mike Lewis Band", we started out as a three-piece band; I think, with Mike Lewis on bass and lead vocals, Mike Brooks on drums, and myself on lead guitar. Then Mike announced that he was going to bring around this amazing pianist that he knew of, to see if he would join our band. That was when I first met Ted Holding, who later on, would become my very best and dearest personal friend, but at this point in time, Ted was quiet, unassuming, with his long, straight blond hair hanging in his face – but when he sat down at the piano – it was a different story.
Ted had the voice of an angel, a far, far better voice than Mike (which I am sure didn't please Mike too much) – but, Mike was smart enough to know that bringing in someone of Ted's calibre truly strengthened the musicality of the band, so he set aside any feelings of inferiority – he had such bravado anyway, that he would probably never admit that Ted was miles beyond us all in terms of ability and talent. Ted on the piano – even at age 13 ! – was a revelation, and as we grew up together in the early 70s, I was privileged to watch Ted graduate from pop music, Beatles music, on through (of course) Elton John, and then, onto prog: learning the music of Genesis, ELP and so on, on the piano. I watched, I imitated, I begged him to teach me songs – so really, my own keyboard ability came along in leaps and bounds directly as a result of working with Ted – may he rest in peace.
I don't remember that the "Mike Lewis Band" played a lot of gigs, although we must have played some, I'm really not sure – I remember practicing in the back bedroom at Mike's parents' house, spending a lot of time there either with the band, or working with Mike on new repertoire for the band. And that would have included some Beatles covers, although with this band, since it's the farthest back, I literally cannot remember a single song that we actually played – the memories are gone, I'm afraid.
But – I do remember the "Stafford / Monaco" band a bit better, partially because of the taped show, and because it was later – I don't know what happened to the "Mike Lewis Band", but I ended up joining up with this kid Rick Snodgrass, and many an hour was spent at his parents' house, learning songs and working out our repertoire. I brought along one of my new pals, who lived in my neighbourhood, around – our drummer (who also sang) – the very talented Brian Monaco.
Our set list included everything you would expect from a cover band in 1971: the Beatles (of course!), Creedence Clearwater Revival (of course!), the aforementioned John Lennon (and our half-cover of "Imagine"), and Santana, that kind of thing. For a band whose four members age was all exactly 13, we were remarkably accomplished. In those days, as was always the case in the early days of most bands it seems, there was a shortage of bass players – so we just didn't have one. To compensate for this, we went from a standard two guitars and drums to a really confusing three guitars and drums – but somehow, we made it work – Rick brought in a friend of his on third guitar, so we had one rhythm guitarist (Rick) and two lead guitarists (myself and Tommy). Rehearsals could be a real row if we weren't all in tune !
Excerpts from this rare concert are available on the pureambient blog companion page, where you can actually hear the "Stafford / Monaco" band's primitive renditions of Beatles and other popular songs of the day – here are the tracks that have been uploaded so far (the rest will probably not be uploaded – but maybe someday), but even this partial set list is stacked very, very heavily in favour of our favourite band – the Beatles:
Stafford / Monaco Band Live At Johnson's, 1971
3 Back In The U.S.S.R. – drums & lead vocal, Brian Monaco
7 Imagine – (the verses only, no bridge) – guitar & lead vocal, Dave Stafford
9 And I Love Her – (Instrumental Version)
10 Born On The Bayou
13 Gentle On My Mind
16 Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – drums & lead vocal, Brian Monaco
17 Honey Don't – acoustic guitar & lead vocal, Rick Snodgrass
20 Twist And Shout
22 Evil Ways
Tracks 1, 9 & 16 – Lennon / McCartney
Track 7 – Lennon
Track 10 – Fogerty
Track 13 – Hartford
Track 17 – Perkins
Track 20 – Medley / Russell
Track 22 – Henry
Now, one shouldn't approach this as a great musical tribute to the Beatles or any of the bands we covered, we were very, very young, very inexperienced, but I will say, we were enthusiastic, and Rick's parents were endlessly supportive, too, giving us advice, listening, and making suggestions – it was a very positive experience overall. What we lacked in experience and proficiency, was made up for by our burning desire to play the music that we loved – and, in later years, when I was in my late teens, I did participate in Beatles covers that sound much, much better than these very primitive versions, with typical very-old-cassette bad sound quality. When I hit 19, 20 – I was playing in cover bands, and playing Beatles songs, reasonably well, every night for a couple of years.
But – learning these songs – what a struggle it could be ! I think what amazes me most about the the "Stafford / Monaco" band' set list is the fact that we tackled two very musically complex tracks; one from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and one from the "White Album" – which, for a group of 13 year old boys, was incredibly ambitious. I am especially proud of Brian Monaco, for his remarkably accurate drumming and his lead vocal on the rather difficult to play "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". I only wish the guitars were even close to the original – they are not ! But Brian's performance of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" is really remarkably good, all things considered.
The earlier Beatles tracks and covers that we did, were not much easier to learn – I do recall that our instrumental arrangement of "And I Love Her" – an early favourite track of mine, was especially arranged by myself for the band, and we worked very, very hard to be able to perform this song as well as we did on the cassette. Of course, the straight-ahead rock numbers are a little bit easier to learn, the bread and butter of every cover band that ever existed – "Honey Don't" featured Rick, while "Twist And Shout" was another Monaco lead vocal – a real rocker!
The inclusion, oddly, of Glen Campbell's huge hit, "Gentle On My Mind", is down to Rick, who was a huge fan. While it's not a track I would have picked – it actually works quite well.
Santana, of course, were huge at this time, so our final track of the evening, "Evil Ways" – again, featuring the unstoppable Brian Monaco on drums and lead vocal – made good sense.
There were several Creedence numbers in the set, of which "Born On The Bayou" was one of the most popular, this band had just skyrocketed to fame, and every band of teenagers with guitars was learning this now-classic piece of rock music – ourselves included. This was one of the first proper "lead solos" I learned – two notes of it, anyway.
I cite these two bands as the earliest examples of myself learning Beatles music, a process that began when I was 13, and continues to this day (I recently recorded, but did not release, a live cover of "I'm So Tired" on piano – piano and voice) – and I plan to work on the track until I do get a releasable version – so even now, in my mid-50s, I am STILL learning, playing and singing songs by the amazing Beatles. As I got older, my ability to play the guitar improved somewhat, and by age 16 0r 17, I could do a much better job of covering a Beatles tune than my 13 or 14 year old self could – that's for sure! By age 19, I could confidently reel off a three part Beatle medley that was part of the repertoire of another band I was in – Slipstream.
By the time I was 20 or 21, I had learned so much from the remarkable Ted Holding, that my piano playing skills were way beyond what they had been – which of course, opened up opportunity to learn Beatle songs on the piano, too – a whole new world of songs.
So where did this go next? Time passed, school went on, friends, and fellow musicians, came and went – in fact, for example, I was in many, many different bands formed by the also-unstoppable bass player Mike Lewis – we remained friends, and he would pretty much bring me into every band he formed for a number of years (whether I really wanted to be in that band or not, sometimes!). Some of these, unfortunately to my ever-lasting shame, were Christian rock bands – a place that neither Ted nor myself belonged or felt comfortable in, but – we did it for our friend, Mike. Later on, in high school, we teamed up with a new rhythm section, Mitch and Kent, and that was yet another Christian rock band, with the horrific name of "Soul Benefit" (and we could not play soul at all, so a complete misnomer) – but, Ted and I did it for our friend Mike, and, to play with superior musicians – Mitch played bass far better than Mike, so Mike switched to acoustic guitar/lead vocal/rock star, and Mitch took over the bass parts, Kent, the drums. We were together for a couple of years, needless to say, except for "fun", we didn't cover the Beatles in those two bands 🙂 I do remember us playing "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple really, really loud one night rehearsing in a church!
Mike had a system, he really, really needed Ted's talents on piano and vocals, so in order to convince Ted to join whatever crazy band Mike was forming this week; Mike would first get me to agree to be in the band, and then, we would work on Ted, get him to come along, and then, and only then, things would start to sound really good. Ted's ability on piano absolutely took off; he progressed far beyond his years, and his voice also just got better and better. To be frank, he made Mike look pretty bad, and his piano playing was far, far beyond any of us – we were not as skilled on our chosen instruments.
The years after Junior High school are more of a blur, for my 14th year on the planet, I would have been moving on from those earliest bands into more sophisticated bands, and while I still worked with Mike Lewis on his many projects, I began to work more directly with Ted Holding, who happened to also love the music of the Beatles. I began to hang around at Ted's house, and we worked on music incessantly – all the time, for hours and hours and hours, usually just the two of us– I would play bass, or guitar, or even organ – and Ted would play the piano. We would sing Beatles songs – Ted singing lead, me attempting harmonies – and it was just fantastic fun.
This became several different bands, some quite imaginary, like "Ted & Dave" (also known as: "Holding & Stafford") and others more substantial, like "Ted & Dave & Rick & Jennings" (also known as: "Holding", "Stafford", "Corriere" and "Morgan") – I was in a lot of configurations of these "for fun" bands – and it was enormous fun! It really was. "Ted, Rick and Dave" (also known as "Holding", "Corriere" and "Stafford") was probably my favourite, but who is to say – no, wait, my absolute favourite had to be the "Ted & Dave" configuration, because we could play every kind of music possible, from Elton John to the Beatles to Ted's own original songs and so on – an absolute blast and one of the happiest times of my life. By the way, Rick Corriere was a junior high friend of Ted's and mine, an accomplished drummer, and when we were all about 18, 19, 20 years old, we would stage "progressive rock" style improv sessions in Ted's studio that were just amazing – please see the pureambient audio companion, see the entry for 1977 – for more on this particular prog wannabe band.
One day, in the "Ted and Dave" configuration, Ted and I decided to try and work out a favourite Beatle track of ours, the beautiful, heartbreaking "No Reply". We decided we would record it (we must have been about 16 by now) on Ted's brother's reel-to-reel recorder, which had an amazing ability that was new to me – "multitracking".
So we laid down basic instrumental tracks, Ted on piano, myself playing nylon string classical guitar (my first acoustic guitar purchase – a beautiful little guitar that I still have to this day) and we worked very hard to get it sounding just right. Then – we overdubbed vocals. When I say we…I mean, mostly Ted, I think I do sing on the track (I don't actually know, it hasn't been transferred from analogue yet) but I think he does the majority of the voices – and trying to work out the exact harmonies that the Beatles sang, was difficult, challenging, and exhilarating at the same time – we were so pleased with the result – it really sounded extraordinary to us – I mean, multitrack tape – incredible!. Once this is eventually converted, I will add a link to the "Ted & Dave" version of "No Reply" – for now, I don't have the track available – yet.
I hope one day to go through the reel to reel tapes (which Ted gave to me many years ago, because I wanted to preserve this music) and present this piece – but it is on a long list of analogue-to-digital conversions that need to be done, and I do not have a reel to reel deck set up at the moment. So it's a minor mystery, does it really sound as good as my memory tells me it does? Hopefully, one day, I will find out.
But it was the process that was so fascinating – when you "took apart" any Beatles song, to try and learn the parts – first of all, it always amazed me how quite tricky many Beatles tracks are – not easy to learn, deceptively difficult, and maybe you would know the chord sequence, but for some reason, even though you THINK you are playing the exact, right chord sequence, it never sounds quite as good as the Beatles version!
Next up, was one of the more challenging Beatles tracks for me, this was still early on, I was probably 15 or 16 at this point, back in the famous downstairs bedroom studio once again and not yet such a great lead guitarist that I could easily learn the quite tricky solo in "Ticket To Ride". I remember struggling mightily with it, but luckily, Ted saved the day, he worked out the exact notes, figured out where and when to bend the strings – and eventually, I got it – I was so pleased! I can remember him standing in front of me, almost WILLING me to learn it, telling me when to bend, pointing at the guitar neck to show me what note to play next – my first true decent almost-right lead guitar solo – and, I get to do it twice during the song (or was it three times? – not sure – that's the problem with memory).
Another memory from this time involves a different session at Ted's house, this time, a couple of years later, aged, approximately 17 – and, we'd moved from his large downstairs bedroom studio, into the much larger garage space, probably because Ted was also working in other bands, often with his then brother-in-law, Joe Norwood. One day, Ted and I were trying to learn "While My Guitar Gentle Weeps" and Joe, who was a few years older than we were, and himself, an extremely good lead guitarist (from whom I learned a lot) – stopped by – and then to our amazement, joined in with his guitar, working out the Eric Clapton parts that I was really not-quite-yet-able to emulate – so I happily switched to rhythm guitar, and held down the basis of the song with Ted, provided vocal harmonies, and let Joe wail away a la Clapton.
That was the beauty of being a young musician, with a lot of really quality musician friends, you always ended up playing music, often, with players far better than you (and for me, both Ted and Joe were far beyond my modest abilities – as pianist, and as lead guitarist) – Ted taught me almost everything I know about piano – that I didn't teach myself, and, I learned a lot from watching and listening to Joe play lead guitar, and also, he spent time explaining a lot of things to me, about music, about guitar, and I owe a debt of gratitude – here was this really cool older dude (he was probably like, 19, or 20, maybe 21!) and I was a scruffy 17 year old wannabe lead guitarist – but Joe Norwood very kindly and patiently shared his knowledge and expertise with me – a good friend, and a great blues guitarist, by the way. a video of Joe's music can be found here. Joe also sold me one of my best guitars, my Ibanez destroyer, which I still play to this day.
It was fantastic fun, "While My Guitar Gentle Weeps" is certainly one of George's best-known tracks, and I think, quite a remarkable tune. It's very difficult to play well, the basic riff is one thing, but that bridge "I don't know how, nobody told you…" is so, so hard to sing – George's voice was really at his best in 1968, he was still young enough to hit some really high notes with relative ease, yet by then, he was an experienced enough lead singer to really write and sing some amazing songs – and on the "White Album", George's range of song contributions is absolutely remarkable: "While My Guitar Gentle Weeps", "Piggies", "Long, Long, Long", "Savoy Truffle" – you could not get four more "different" songs – the sadness, longing and truth of "Guitar Gently Weeps", the wonderful harpsichord and political satire of "Piggies" – incredible creativity there, and sense of humour; "Long, Long, Long" one of George's unrecognised masterpieces, a love song of such beauty and intensity (I remember performing "Long, Long, Long" at a wedding reception with my friend, drummer Rick Corriere) that I really feel it's an overlooked masterpiece, and George's ode to Eric Clapton's chocolate addiction, the wonderful, rockin' "Savoy Truffle", with it's almost sleazy horn arrangement and awesome lead guitar work from George – and that sinister vocal "you know that what you eat you are, but what is sweet now, turns so sour…" – brilliant, ominous – George at his cynical best!
Another earlier recording / jam session back in Ted's bedroom studio focussed on the fantastic pop song, "I Should Have Known Better" – with Ted on piano, and myself on guitar and harmonica – and, we shared the vocal duties. I loved playing this tune, it's always been a favourite, and it was easy enough to learn (for a change!) and it was fun trying to play harmonica and guitar at the same time – because I didn't have one of those harmonica holders – I never have had one. But that didn't stop us, we just…did it, somehow. I loved doing harmony vocals to Ted's confident lead vocals, "and I do – hey hey hey – and I do !" – and, I got to play the fab guitar solo, which was fun to learn and even more fun to play.
When I look back at this time, from 1971 to perhaps, 1979 – so basically, the 1970s – I was 12 when they started, and 21 when they ended – I am looking back at one of the most creative, fun, exciting times in my life, and during those "difficult teenage years", I was too busy playing guitar, playing piano, singing, and just having a great time playing music, with so many different bands and players – it was an absolutely amazing time to be involved in music. And while the Beatles had broken up at the beginning of the 70s, their music had had such an incredible impact on the world, we were still reeling from the shock of their transformation, from innocent 50's rockers, to 60s pop icons, to the musical revolution that was the "Beatles Studio Years" – beginning with "Rubber Soul" and carrying on through "Revolver", and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and the "White Album" – the sheer musical change that the band underwent was absolutely astonishing, and I think the world was still absorbing this, sort of thinking "what the hell did they DO?" – how did they GET from "I Want To Hold Your Hand" to "Tomorrow Never Knows" in just three years' time??? How could a band of self-taught teddy boy long-haired art-school drop-outs from Liverpool, end up in Abbey Road Studio No. 2 with a 40 piece orchestra, recording the incredibly complex and musically amazing "A Day In The Life"?? How can this have even HAPPENED?
It's almost enough to believe that at some point in 1965, aliens landed, and planted seeds in the Beatles' collective brains, which sent them on the musical journey that they then embarked on. OK, maybe not aliens, but certainly, Bob Dylan, who introduced them to…"tea", had an influence, but it can't just be the "tea" – surely, that music was already somewhere deep inside the Beatles, it just needed the right catalyst to bring it out. In my opinion, one of the biggest and most significant catalysts was none other than the good Sir George Martin – who had the most influence over the Beatles, and encouraged them, even from the earliest days, to try new things. And try them, they did.
So when it came to "Rubber Soul" – they tried new things. Acoustic songs, folk-rock songs, volume-knob lead guitar. But to my mind, the biggest transformation is "Revolver" – from that first count-in preceding George's "Taxman" (which of course, is not from "Taxman", but never mind – it was added in to the front of the song, later on) to the dying notes of "Tomorrow Never Knows" (which, curiously, was last on the album, but recorded first in the album sessions).
I personally think that "Revolver" may be the "best" Beatles album (if such a thing is even possible!!!). It's certainly one of my very, very most favourite records of all time, not just, favourite Beatles record. Favourite records, full stop!
Almost every Beatle album has any number of unusual or interesting musical facts about it, and George's brilliant tirade against the 95% tax imposed on early Beatle earnings, has the curious story as told by one Lindsay Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac, who, upon finally meeting George Harrison after many, many years, the first thing out of Lindsay's mouth was "George, I loved your amazing guitar solo on "Taxman" – it's fantastic!" to which George laconically replied "oh – that was Paul, actually".
And that story, amazing as it is, was heartbreaking even for me, although it made my admiration for Paul McCartney increase, I had, like Lindsay Buckingham, for 20 years or more, had always thought that since it was George's song, and George was the lead guitarist of the Beatles – that George had played the amazing, Indian sounding solo – only to find out years and years later, that it was the very capable McCartney who had actually done so!
But if you step back, and think about Beatle repertoire, and think about the content and song structure of "early" Beatles work, and then, compare and contrast that to some of the startling new kinds of music that began emerging on ""Revolver" in particular – I mean, even Paul's "Eleanor Rigby" was a complete shock, like nothing else the world had ever heard – some say it's a successor to "Yesterday", but in my opinion, while "Yesterday" is a deservedly famous and uncontestably beautiful ballad, with a lovely string arrangement, "Eleanor Rigby", by comparison, is high art – a heart-wrenching story-song, and George Martin's string arrangement here, is absolutely sublime – so incredibly beautiful (which I was absolutely delighted when they included the live take of the strings alone, as recorded in the big room, Abbey Road Number 2 studio, on "The Beatles Anthology" – what a sound!).
So what happened in Paul McCartney's brain, that he would be able to write "Yesterday" one year, and the next, come up with something that is an order of magnitude more intense, more complex, and is certainly more musically amazing: "Eleanor Rigby". It's almost like two different people, as if his brain did a re-boot and said "what if I wrote a song like THIS…" – and the rest is history.
"Revolver" also gives us Paul's astonishingly tender and beautiful "Here, There & Everywhere" – surely one of the best love songs of ALL TIME. A song that John Lennon so liked, that his only comment was, "I wish I'd written it". One of Paul's very best and most beautiful songs, with a vocal that is just heartbreaking (including John's delicate harmonies…"watching her eyes…") and the chord progression – wow – this is not actually that easy to play, either.
And yet – "Eleanor Rigby" and "Here, There & Everywhere", for all their increased sophistication – are not even the "unusual" or "different" or "strange" tracks on "Revolver" – they are the "normal" sounding tracks !!!! The most normal of all the tracks on the record.
Something definitely happened in Paul McCartney's brain, but at the same time, both John and George were experiencing a remarkably similar brain transformation. "She Said, She Said" with it's odd time signatures, and fabulous, distorted guitars, is one of John's best and most amazing tracks, I love the whole sound of it, it just takes me somewhere, immediately – and when I think'I want to hear "Revolver"' it's usually "She Said, She Said" that I am thinking of – but when I get to the album, it's then generally going to be George's songs that I actually start with – "Love You To", "I Want To Tell You" and the redoubtable "Taxman" – three of George's very best Beatles songs, and, that amazing combination of heavy fuzz guitar and Indian instrumentation on "Love You To" just knocks me out – it's an amazing idea – mixing traditional classical Indian instruments with rock music – but it works, and, it works really, really well.
John's brain was maybe the most altered of all, and besides the aforementioned "She Said, She Said", his contributions to "Revolver" are among his very, very best Beatles output: the incredibly beautiful "I'm Only Sleeping" – where George spent ages recording two "reverse guitars" – and that song is responsible for my own obsession with playing reverse guitar (or – "backwards guitar" – which is now available at the touch of an effects pedal) – which, in 1966, could only be achieved by turning the tape over, playing "forwards" while the song played "backwards", then, turning the tape back over (I know this, because that is how I had to record reverse guitars in my own music for many, many years -a great technique!), and HOPING that your resulting melody line "forwards", has resulted in a musically pleasing "backwards" guitar – a very hit or miss proposition; but Harrison painstakingly wove two guitar tracks into one of the most beautiful examples of reverse guitar ever created – and while many have tried, no one has every really quite captured the beauty of reverse guitar in the way that George Harrison did on John's "I'm Only Sleeping" – which is an incredible song in it's own right, the reverse guitars are just the icing on a very, very sweet cake.
Even though Lennon dismissed it in the "Playboy Interviews", he was also mostly responsible for one of my very favourite Beatle tracks from "Revolver", "And Your Bird Can Sing", with it's amazing dual lead guitar part that just drives the song so beautifully, when I first heard this song, I could not BELIEVE the guitar parts, and to this day, I still can't quite imagine how they worked this out! The interplay of the twin guitars with the rhythm section is just perfect, and Paul's bass just soars in between the cascading, rising and falling lead guitars – plus, one of the best harmony vocal works on the album, I love the vocals on this song too – they just fly over the top of those guitars, which seem to be playing almost continuously throughout the song – and again, I can't imagine how they worked out the vocal parts – but the end result is astonishing – a great song, often overlooked.
It's no accident that this part of my memories of the early days of learning Beatles songs suddenly has become dominated by a somewhat-useful-but-far-from-complete review of the "Revolver" album, but, it does tie in (believe me, it really does!) because I would cite "Revolver" as the album where it first became utterly impossibly to replicate the songs live – well, some of them could be rendered, maybe, but in the main – they have become so complex as to not be easy to replicate on stage, or, by other musicians either.
So – none of my bands, ever played anything from "Revolver", although I do recall privately playing "Got To Get You Into My Life" with Ted on piano – just for fun. And I spent a lot of time studying the chords to, and learning as best I could, Paul's very lovely "Here, There & Everywhere" – a truly beautiful and remarkable song. I've also played and sang "I'm Only Sleeping" on acoustic guitar, and I learned the main riff of "And Your Bird Can Sing"on a Guitar Craft course (at the 21st anniversary course in Argentina, no less), in the new standard tuning for guitar, no less! That was hugely fun, playing "And Your Bird Can Sing" with other guitarists, "Crafty"-style – remarkable – a totally unique and unforgettable experience.
But most of "Revolver" – especially songs like "Love You To", and "Tomorrow Never Knows" were so advanced, even "She Said, She Said", were so incredibly strange and new, and so musically intriguing – that you can only really listen, you can't really imitate – sure, Paul has now performed some of these songs with his live band, in the 2000s, but, it's not the same, really – and while he has every right to play Beatles material live in the here and now – it's never going to sound like the original sound of "Revolver" – one of the most distinctive sounding Beatles records of all time, and in my mind, the "turning point" from normal rock music, into the exciting and mostly uncharted territories that they experimented with from "Revolver" on out.
It is remarkable then, that at age 13, in 1971, the second band I was ever in, the "Stafford / Monaco band" played one track from the "White Album" and one track from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" – two records made after the turning point, and while our versions are not musically accurate, the fact that we even TRIED these songs is remarkable – we tried! It was down to a shared love of the Beatles, and to be honest, almost every musician I ever worked with in the 70s, loved the music of the Beatles.
Almost every drummer in almost every band, would at some point, sit up a bit straighter on their drum stool, and bash out a version of Ringo's famous drum solo from the end of the "Abbey Road Medley" – every drummer worth his salt had learned that solo, inside out – and it was instantly recognisable – so there was a great love for the Beatles, and for Beatles music, in the musical community that I worked with in the San Diego, California area in the 1970s.
The Beatles were the benchmark to which every other group would be compared, even if that group broke a Beatle record, I don't mean vinyl here, I mean, for example, that a band like Creedence Clearwater Revival might have surpassed Beatles sales figures from the 60s, in the 70s – certainly, bands like Led Zeppelin surpassed a lot of the Beatles' accomplishments, such as "largest audience".
But the interesting thing here is, such news was ALWAYS announced, with a backwards reference to the Beatles, so it would be "In 1973, hard rock band Led Zeppelin sold out a show in Tampa, Florida, with over 56,000 people in the audience – the largest audience at a rock gig since the previous record set by the Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965".
Every new sensation, every new "record" was always compared back to the originals, to the masters, to the boys who did it first – the Fab Four. It always amazed me, for example, Zeppelin were (rightfully) very proud of the fact that they had broken a record set by the Beatles – it was an honour, somehow.
Everything was bigger in the 1970s, in the 60s, large concerts were a thing of the future, and as the infrastructure of rock grew ever-larger in the 1970s, it was unavoidable that most of the then-rather amazing records that the Beatles did set in the 1960s – were easily surpassed by their more sophisticated 1970s successors – like the incredible Led Zeppelin – who for example, did no less than NINE US tours between the years of 1968 and 1971. In the 70s – all records were utterly blown away by the eventual emergence of "stadium rock" – with Led Zeppelin leading the way to ever larger and larger productions.
The Beatles never had that infrastructure, and the technical aspects of their live performances were pretty primitive and often, quite dismal, with underpowered PA systems and insufficient monitors, you can see them in the film of the Shea Stadium concert, struggling to hear themselves sing and play over the screaming. But of course, the screaming was always there, and that did eventually cause the Beatles to lose heart in the idea of live performance – which, while heartbreaking for the legions of fans who never got to see them play live (myself included, sadly) was actually, very, very beneficial – because escaping the terrors of the road, and moving permanently into Abbey Road Studio No. 2, meant that the Beatles could now blossom creatively – and by God, blossom they did. An explosion of growth – demonstrated by the insanely fast musical progress made by the Beatles, across the albums spanning 1966 – 1969, a musical journey of unprecedented scale and scope – leaving one of the most remarkable catalogues of music ever created in it's unstoppable wake.
Note: I have actually seen three of the Beatles live, but, as solo artists; first, George, at the Forum in Los Angeles with the Ravi Shankar Orchestra and Billy Preston in 1974, then, "Wings Over America", Paul, at the San Diego Sports Arena, either in 1976 or 1977, and finally, twice, Ringo's All Stars, sometime in the 1990s, one of them featuring Todd Rundgren.
Every year, we would be treated to a new Beatles album (just one now in most years; not two a year as Brian Epstein and the record company had pressed the Beatles to do back in the early 60s) and each year, it would be a totally different musical experience – and if again, you step back and look at it – it's absolutely astonishing; I view it like this:
1965 – "Rubber Soul" – the beginning of "the change", Lennon starts singing and writing in a much more personal way, under the influence of a) Bob Dylan and b) "tea" supplied by Bob Dylan – with songs such as "Nowhere Man", "Girl" and the amazing "In My Life" – a complete and radical re-invention of the man & musician, John Lennon.
1966 – "Revolver" – a radical re-imagining of rock music, including heartbreaking string arrangements, classical Indian instruments integrated with heavy guitar rock, progressive bass playing, and the one-chord / one-note drone / raga style music concrète" sonic experiment, "Tomorrow Never Knows" – which was actually the first piece recorded for the new album – a groundbreaking record in so many ways
1967 – "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" – the world's first concept record, with the famous photo montage on the front cover – and the lyrics on the back (a world "first", there, too!) but to me, it's just a bunch of truly great songs – and some of the best moments are maybe not the most famous, for example, the detuned and distorted lead guitar solo in "Fixing A Hole" is absolutely astonishing in it's complexity and beauty, for a guitarist like myself, it was a revelation – and while after this, everyone began to use detuned guitars – created via a device called "Automatic Double Tracking" or ADT – the birth-device that all flangers and choruses since, have come from – the Beatles were really the first to come up with this kind of radical guitar sound in the studio – absolutely marvellous. George and John begin to experiment with truly distorted and detuned sounds after seeing Jimi Hendrix perform – and you can hear it on tracks such as the reprise version of the title track – the lead guitars are really powerful. And of course, the closing song is the absolutely unbelievably beautiful "A Day In The Life", featuring what is surely one of the most beautiful John Lennon vocals ever recorded – George Martin said about John's dreamlike vocal on the track – something like: "a voice…from the heavens". I agree with Sir George Martin – a truly beautiful song with an incredible Lennon vocal.
[1967 – "Magical Mystery Tour" – OK, this year, they made two records. "Magical Mystery Tour" is highly underappreciated, I absolutely love it – especially the wonderful "Hello Goodbye", the title track, the wonderful only-instrumental "Flying" and even "Your Mother Should Know" – there are no bad songs on this record – much overlooked and underappreciated. But then, "Sgt. Pepper" and then, the "White Album" really stole MMT's thunder – hard to compete against those two behemoths.]
1968 – "The Beatles" (aka The "White Album"). A complete change. Minimalism. Stark white cover. The pageantry and grandeur of "Sgt. Pepper" is wiped away, by 30 darker, more experience-driven songs, a strange batch of songs, no doubt, but with that amazing diversity that you get when you have three strong players and three strong singers and three strong writers in the band – and I shouldn't downplay Ringo – he very much tried to hold his own (imagine, having to complete with the two impossibly powerful songwriting teams, the "Lennon-McCartney" team AND "Harrison" who was practically a team in his own right – that can't have been easy !!!) and this album has two cracking Ringo tracks on it, "Don't Pass Me By", and the really beautiful "Good Night" which is maybe one of his most beautiful vocals – a lovely tune.
[1969 – "Yellow Submarine" – honourable mention. OK, they made two records this year, too.]
1969 – "Abbey Road" – I am intentionally leaving out "Let It Be" because of it's chequered past. I love "Let It Be", but, even though it was recorded before "Abbey Road" – it was then shelved, and eventually emerged in 1970, hanging it's head in shame, but, gloriously re-invented by Lennon and Phil Spector as a grandiose strings and choir kind of record. However, I think that "Abbey Road" is truly the band's swan song and legacy – they went into the studio, stopped arguing (for the most part) and recorded an album of songs "like they used to". The album was a compromise: to please John, side one of the vinyl LP was "songs", to please Paul, side two of the vinyl LP was a suite of "connected" songs, the so-called "Abbey Road Medley" – which is a minor masterpiece in it's own right. The maturity of songwriting on display here is absolutely startling, especially in George (who, at this point, is about to blossom musically with his upcoming triple album "All Things Must Pass" – but that's another story for another blog) who produced not just the awe-inspiring love song "Something", but also, the fantastic, irrepressible "Here Comes The Sun" – featuring the Moog synthesizer, and the most beautiful, sparkling guitars imaginable – a great song, one of George's best, and personally, I probably actually like and respect "Here Comes The Sun" actually more than "Something". (I should give honourable mention for George's guitar solo in "Something", however; it was played live by George during the strings overdub on the song, remarkably – beautifully underpinned by one of the best, most melodic bass guitar parts ever recorded – really incredible work from Sir Paul).
I've played both pieces many times, usually, I play "Something" at the piano, while I would always play "Here Comes The Sun" on guitar – and I love them both – but it's difficult to say which one is "better" – they are both fantastic, and showed the George could actually compose right at, or even better than, the level that John and Paul had been composing at all along. He caught up, and in a way, with those two tracks, even surpassed John and Paul – and certainly, his first solo album, the redoubtable "All Things Must Pass", shows us even more examples of his songcraft, and overshadows all of the debut solo releases by all of the other Beatles – it basically wiped the floor with the other Beatles' post-Beatle output, selling millions – I bought two or three copies over the years in various formats.
Right up to the end, the Beatles kept writing and producing the most amazing catalogue of original music in the world of rock, that the world had ever seen. Songs that became more and more sophisticated, and for musicians such as myself, became more and more difficult to play, or imitate – but it was sure fun to try !
Over the years, I've played a LOT of Beatles songs, a huge range of them, and learning them, was often quite a bit of work, but once learned, playing them was just sure joy. Just for fun, I've attempted to write down every Beatle song (including both songs that they composed, and, their cover versions of songs that they also performed) that I've ever learned, and / or, performed or recorded – just to see how many I can come up with:
Baby It's You (with the Mike Packard Band – successor to Slipstream – circa 1979)
Twist & Shout (with the Stafford / Monaco Band – circa 1971)
I Should Have Known Better (with the Holding / Stafford Band – circa 1972)
I've Just Seen A Face/Ticket To Ride/Help! Medley (with Slipstream – circa 1978 / 1979)
And I Love Her (with the Stafford / Monaco Band – circa 1971)
No Reply (with the Holding / Stafford Band – circa 1972)
Eight Days A Week (with the Holding / Stafford Band – circa 1972)
Honey Don't (with the Stafford / Monaco Band – circa 1971 – and other bands, too)
I'm Only Sleeping (solo acoustic guitar & vocal – circa 1970s)
Here, There & Everywhere (solo piano & vocal – circa 1970s)
Got To Get You Into My Life (with the Holding / Stafford Band – circa 1972)
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (with the Stafford / Monaco Band – circa 1971)
A Day In The Life (solo piano & vocal – circa 1970s)
Back In The U.S.S.R. (with the Stafford / Monaco Band – circa 1971)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (w/ the Holding / Stafford Band feat. Joe Norwood- guit. – circa 1973)
I'm So Tired (solo piano & vocal – unreleased – 2013 live -in-the-studio piano & vocal demos)
Blackbird (solo acoustic guitar & vocal – circa 1968 – the first"finger-picked" song I ever learned; summer 1968)
Rocky Raccoon (solo acoustic guitar & vocal – circa 1970s)
Julia (acoustic guitar duet & vocal – circa 1972 – the second "finger-picked" song I ever learned, circa 1972 – with Mike Lewis, acoustic guitar and vocal)
Helter Skelter (electric guitar – various times, 1970s – present)
Long, Long, Long (piano & vocal – with Rick Corriere, percussion – circa 1970s)
Cry Baby, Cry (piano & vocal – circa 1970s)
Something (piano & vocal – circa 1970s)
I Want You (She's So Heavy) (electric guitar & vocal – w/ Jim Whittaker, guitar – circa mid 1970s)
Here Comes The Sun (acoustic guitar & vocal – circa 1970s)
You Never Give Me Your Money (piano & vocal – circa 1970s)
Golden Slumbers (piano & vocal – circa 1970s)
Carry That Weight (piano & vocal – circa 1970s)
Two Of Us (acoustic guitar & vocal – circa 1970s)
Let It Be (piano & vocal – circa 1970s)
The Long And Winding Road (piano & vocal – circa 1970s)
So – remarkably, thirty one songs – which surprises me, I would not have thought it would have been as many as that, but it's also NOT surprising, because, the Beatles' catalogue is something that musicians almost always "fall back on" at one time or other in their careers, and if you cover Beatles' songs, you are guaranteed that at least people will know the song, although they may not love your version of it – or, they may – but they are one of the groups most "covered" over time – not to mention, that in a list of the top ten covered songs of all time, the Beatles not only hold the top two spots, but they actually have four tracks out of the ten, plus, John Lennon's "Imagine" makes five – so, either the Beatles or a Beatle own the record for most covered song, for HALF of the top ten – amazing!
Before I continue, I have to say, that even to the present day, there is nothing more satisfying than sitting down at the piano with a Beatles songbook, and having a go at a Beatles song you've never tried – or, for that matter – one you've played a million times. Or – get out your electric guitar, turn up the distortion, and work on your Beatle rock riffs – "Hey Bulldog", "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", "Helter Skelter" and so on. And of course, that makes me realise that there are actually probably quite a few "partial" Beatles songs I know, or just the main riff, and, a few that I have learned and then completely forgotten because I didn't keep up with them (including the amazing "Yer Blues" – with the guitar solos actually learned from tab – brilliant tab! – something I never normally use, tabs, but this one was spot-on – excellent) – but I REALLY wanted to learn that solo. So really, "Yer Blues" makes it 32…but if I start adding in fragments of songs, I will never finish the list – so there it shall sit 🙂
I would say, that growing up, for those nine or ten years from 1971 to 1979, learning, singing, and playing Beatles songs, along with a healthy helping of Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, and so on, was the best musical education I could get – far better than going to music college, instead, just dive in and learn the music that you love. That's what I did – and I am glad of it. Huge chunks of Led Zeppelin I are still in my fingers' memory, and huge chunks of Hendrix music, too – I could play those two bands' music all day long, along with the Beatles But, the Beatles had the most profound impression, because of their incredible melodic values, and the hard-won vocal harmony which really, were what set them apart at first.
So while Cream and Zeppelin and Hendrix really, really rocked, they never quite had the songwriting skill and stamina that Lennon, McCartney, or Harrison did (and that may be why I found myself drawn to progressive rock fairly early on – seeking better songcraft – and often finding it) – although some of the late Cream and later Zeppelin, are pretty musically advanced. But those are the successors, the Beatles, I think, wisely disbanding before the heavy metal bombast of Stadium Rock took over the world – by then, they were gone…
Having the Beatles so central to my education, music or otherwise, was hugely important, and it's also simply given me a world of personal satisfaction and enjoyment, I will never forget the day I finally mastered Paul McCartney's quite difficult "Blackbird", the first guitar piece using fingerpicking that I ever learned, at age 10, no less – it took me a couple of weeks (being taught by a 16 year old girl, who had in turn, been taught the song by somebody else…) but eventually, I "got" it – and that was wonderful, because any time I was out with an acoustic guitar, I could play it – and everyone around me INSTANTLY recognised it, and responded positively – I never got a negative response to playing a Beatles song – ever. People in general, either really like them, OK, maybe some younger people, don't really know their the Beatles were the best band in the world, from 1963 to 1969, unchallenged.
At the same time, during 1969, was that "other" best band in the world that I like so much, King Crimson – whose leader, guitarist Robert Fripp, has described a personal, musical epiphany that he had one night, hearing back to back on the radio first, music by Bela Bartok, and then, the last part of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" – with "A Day In The Life" – and it was the impetus of that, that eventually led him towards the pursuit of the creation of King Crimson – so, unlikely though it seems, one of the heaviest and most complex of all "progressive rock" bands – actually started out by a young guitarist being utterly struck with the incredible piece of music that the Beatles' "A Day In The Life" is.
I can just imagine Fripp, in his car, as the final orchestra part builds and builds, so loud, overwhelming the whole song…and if you think about it, on the first few Crimson albums, of course, the dominant sound (besides Fripp's amazing lead guitar) is the mellotron – which they had two of – and they used it to create Beatle-like string sections in live performance – so again, inspired by "A Day In The Life", young Robert Fripp imagined a band with two mellotrons in it – and then, he built it. Repeatedly.
It's amazing the number and diversity of musicians either directly or indirectly inspired by the Beatles, some of them wearing their inspirations out on their sleeve, others, are more hidden or difficult to discern – but they are still there. So, you get a band like Oasis, who unashamedly try to sound like a modern day Beatles (and mostly fail at it, in my opinion) although I quite like a lot of their songs anyway, on over to a band like Klaatu, who people thought might BE the Beatles, secretly reformed and making records under a mysterious new name in the 70s. As it turns out, Klaatu are just some guys from Canada, who made Beatlesque music (I really enjoy Klaatu, especially their first three albums).
There are so many others who obviously admire the Beatles, from Todd Rundgren, his first band The Nazz, and the latter-day versions of Todd Rundgren's Utopia, to any number of other latter-day Beatles soundalikes – the Raspberries in the early 1970s, Badfinger – an Apple band, discovered by the Beatles, and far too many others to even mention. Perhaps I will attempt a "list of bands that sound suspiciously like the Beatles" – but I am not quite sure I can do such a thing. I will have a "think" about that…meanwhile, back to the subject of cover versions…
Here are the Beatle tracks and their positions in the list of "most covered songs of all time" – of course, these lists change all the time, and it was very difficult to find a list that seemed properly representative – this list, from 2008, contained no less than 5 Beatle-related tracks as "most covered":
1) Eleanor Rigby ***
2) Yesterday
4) And I Love Her
6) Imagine (John Lennon)
8) Blackbird
Apparently, for a long, long time, "Eleanor Rigby" was second to "Yesterday", it was only in recent years when it knocked "Yesterday" out of the top spot.
I was surprised to NOT find George Harrison's "Something" in these lists, I had thought it was one of the highest covered songs of all time – but I might be remembering that old Frank Sinatra joke, where he introduced "Something" as the finest song ever written by Lennon-McCartney – in all seriousness, he actually did not seem to know or realise that it was written by George Harrison. That's a famous story there!
***However…the Wiki contains some conflicting information here, because it also states, on the page for the song "Something", that the song has more than 150 cover versions, which means it's the second most-covered song after "Yesterday". So somebody needs to do some counting, and really find out a) what the top ten most covered songs of all time REALLY are, by all artists, and b) what the top ten most covered Beatles songs are – what song is REALLY, currently in the top spot – make up your minds !! 🙂
For those who might be interested, there is a very interesting page here on Wikipedia, that lists many of the most significant cover versions of Beatles songs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cover_versions_of_the_Beatles_songs
When I say significant, that refers to all of the real musicians in the list, it does not, however, actually refer to the included "group" called "Alvin and the Chipmunks" who did a whole album of Beatles covers in 1964, so they have twelve entries in the chart ! I am sure that's a really, really good album (if you are a fan of sped-up vocals, that is). But – it's an interesting list, Chipmunks aside…and it includes some of my very favourite cover versions of Beatles tracks: containing everything from:
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass to 10cc to Bela Fleck & The Flecktones to Adrian Belew to David Bowie to The Carpenters to Johnny Cash to Cheap Trick to Bryan Ferry to Neil & Liam Finn to Peter Gabriel to Jimi Hendrix to Allan Holdsworth to Eddie Izzard to Tom Jones to King Crimson to Sean Lennon to Marillion to Pat Metheny to Keith Moon to Nazz to Harry Nilsson to Oasis to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers to Phish to Radiohead to Red Hot Chili Peppers to The Residents to Todd Rundgren to The Sandpipers to Santana to Peter Sellers to The Shadows to Sandie Shaw to Frank Sinatra to Elliott Smith to The Smithereens to Soundgarden to Stereophonics to The Supremes to James Taylor to Teenage Fanclub to They Might Be Giants to Richard Thompson to Transatlantic to Travis to Ike & Tina Turner to Utopia to U2 to the late, great Sarah Vaughan to The Ventures to Rick Wakeman to Paul Weller to Jack White to Roy Wood to XTC to The Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Yellow Magic Orchestra to Yes to Neil Young to Dweezil Zappa to Frank Zappa and I told you it was a great list – this is just a tiny portion of artists represented on the entire list.
A truly interesting resource for an incredibly diverse set of Beatles covers – and the diversity of artists who have covered the Beatles is immense, yet, they all share the same love we feel for the band – a love for Beatles music, reflected in the fact that they took the time to learn, perform, or record a Beatles track or tracks. Shared love = love of the Beatles' music = All You Need Is Love – that's an equation that I can understand and believe in – and I do.
"Love, love, love – love, love, love
There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung…"
– from "All You Need Is Love" – June 1, 1967
see you next time ~~~~~
"whisper words of wisdom…"
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the beatles – in the beginning
I have been remiss. While I have written at length about so many great bands and artists, and – OK, I have mentioned the Beatles at times, but what an omission – this band dominated my musical world for six years, from the age of 9 through 15, for me, there was only one band, and that was John, Paul, George and Ringo – my beloved Beatles.
So when I had an unusual request arrive in my email inbox the other day: a nice lady in Las Vegas, asking me if I would be interested in writing in my blog, about the Beatles – well, how could I refuse? In fact, it struck me, why on EARTH have I not dedicated a single blog to the four lads from Liverpool who started it all for me?…(and, for so many others, too!).
Oh my God, I thought, I can't believe that I've done a hundred plus blogs in just over a year's time, and I've never dedicated one to the Fab Four!!!
That is a grievous error on my part, and this kind soul who asked me so innocently if I would write about my favourite group of all time – she will eventually end up with more words than she ever, ever dreamed of. Just – give me a few years, and I will make this up to you all – and, I will add to her ever-growing collection of Beatle memories (what a job – I'd love to collect Beatle memories as part of my "day job"!).
Strangely, though – Las Vegas has been on my mind of late: because one of my strongest wishes in terms of my ongoing relationship with the Beatles, is to visit Las Vegas for the sole purpose of attending the Cirque du Soleil's remarkable Beatles "LOVE" production. I really, really want to see and hear this musical and visual spectacle (and I absolutely love the innovative "Love" CD that George and Giles Martin worked so incredibly hard on) – it's a great album, it just is – an uncanny juxtaposition of some of the best songs ever recorded by anyone -the music of the Beatles, totally reinvented for the purpose of supporting the Beatles "LOVE" production.
This also provided us with the first alternative remixes of Beatles tracks from an official Beatles source (most fans were delighted, some cried "blasphemy" – but I am firmly in the former category) – I approve of the alternative approach of these remixes, Giles Martin especially worked very hard to create something really unique and wonderful from there tracks; so, in 2006 – George and Giles Martin gave the world 80 minutes of new Beatle music – which is simply brilliant.
If you watch the 2008 DVD documentary video about the making of "LOVE"; it looks like it's going to be an amazing live performance (and we already KNOW the music is good…) – so, hopefully, one day, we'll travel to Las Vegas and check it out.
But already – I digress. Back to the business at hand, by all means! 🙂
Consider this then, to be the beginning of a series of articles about the Beatles, as a group, and possibly, also as solo artists, although that's another story – however, I do reserve the right to write at length about my favourite Beatle, George Harrison, at great length; out of sequence; at any time in his life – because George was the quintessential Beatle to me – he had it all, that wry humour, a winning smile, advanced prowess with the lead guitar, the most beautiful slide guitar sound of all time – truly amazing slide guitar sound and technique – George was just an all-around cool guy…may he rest in peace.
However, George will be the subject of a future series of Beatle-related posts, this time, however, I am writing about the Beatles as a group – and I intend to begin at the beginning, and just see where we travel to. or, possibly, as George said: "arrive without travelling…". Sigh. Note – I only just realised, from reading the wiki entry for the song, that the bansuri (Indian classical flute) player on "The Inner Light", is none other than the remarkable Hariprasad Chaurasia, one of my favourite Indian musicians – a brilliant player – imagine that, I had no idea!
But now it's time, finally, to talk about the Beatles . And when it comes to the Beatles , well…
It all begins with memories.
One of my earliest memories of all, is a memory of standing in the front yard of my house on Mineral Drive, in San Carlos, a suburb of San Diego, California, in about 1965 or 1966, as a young child, and hearing "Nowhere Man" playing on a transistor radio, and feeling utterly transfixed and transported – frozen in time, almost mesmerised, while this heavenly music played, sounding literally like musical magic… (which, in my opinion – it simply is).
the memory is kind of…mixed up in my mind, I mainly remember the incredible sound of the vocal harmonies (although at 7 or 8 years old, I had no concept that that sound was "vocal harmony" – that knowledge came much later) – but, that sound is mixed up with bright, bright sunshine, on a late afternoon, with late afternoon shadows behind me from the house, but bright, bright sunshine in my eyes – standing there, looking out at the street – and just listening to "Nowhere Man" by the Beatles. What a beautiful, mournful, wistful, heartbreakingly beautiful sound.
To this day, "Nowhere Man" gives me shivers – without fail, when they hit the chorus the first time…it's the sound of heartbreak, the sound of sympathy, the sound of empathy, the sound of joy at hitting a perfect harmony…a song so complex, so far ahead of it's time – what a beauty – and I think this song encapsulates the beauty of the song-writing and singing of John Lennon in particular, who just excels on this tune – until that amazing dual lead solo comes along, that is, when the good George joins in with John to absolutely steal the show with their amazing, concise, super bright guitar solo or I should say, duet – ending with that magical-sounding harmonic – a great piece of guitar playing from both players, if you ask me.
Of course, at that age, I already knew who the Beatles were, I had been aware of them probably since I was about 5, but it wasn't until a couple years later, when I recognised "Nowhere Man" for what it was, a beautiful, yearning, shiver-inducing slice of perfect pop music.
like so many kids did in the States, I watched the Beatles cartoon as a young boy, and I saw the Beatles themselves on our tiny black and white television, although I was just a little too young to see the live performances on the Ed Sullivan Show (actually, I probably did see it, as I imagine that my parents watched it); they did watch the Ed Sullivan Show show regularly at least in it's later years, not sure about in 1963 – but I would have only been five at the time (1963), and I have few memories from before kindergarten (i.e. about age 5).
the Beatles performed live on the Ed Sullivan Show for the final time on august 14, 1965, but, for a few years following that, they would regularly send Sullivan other video artefacts, like the much, much more sophisticated colour videos that the Beatles shot and sent to the show (since they could not possibly schedule live performances at the time, their schedule was absolutely insane – so they sent their data instead!).
I remember in particular, the video of "Rain" (which was shown along with three other later tracks, "Paperback Writer", "Penny Lane", and "Strawberry Fields Forever") – [apologies for any annoying ADVERTS at the beginning of any or all of the preceding video links] – and specifically, with regards to "Rain", I can recall being absolutely gob-smacked by the increased complexity of that song, Lennon's beautiful, dreamy vocal – and George looked so, so cool with his Gibson SG, too. And why were they all wearing sunglasses, I wondered?
It was years later that I found out the answer to that one: "tea". They had been…having "tea". Lots and lots of "tea". 🙂
When I was about 8 or 9 (so, 1966 / 1967), my parents started allowing me to buy long playing vinyl albums for the first time. I may have had some 7 inch singles of a more juvenile nature, but my first actual LPs were Beatles albums – starting, strangely, with, "The Beatles Second Album" and then, "Meet The Beatles", followed by "Beatles 65" and later on, the truly awesome "Yesterday And Today"
– of course, being an American, and living in the U.S. at the time, meant that I had the doubtful "joy" of owning the somewhat inferior US pressings, courtesy of Capitol Records, USA – fewer songs, and incorrect running orders, changes to the original albums not sanctioned by the Beatles at all. these four Capitol albums were, for a number of years, the only albums I had – and I really didn't ever have the money to buy them all until I was an adult – so sadly, I never owned "Rubber Soul" or "Revolver" on vinyl (perhaps my two favourite mid-period records!) but eventually did on CD, (nor did I ever own most of the other early to mid period albums – "Please Please Me", "With The Beatles", "A Hard Day's Night", "Beatles For Sale", "Help", and many others – on vinyl) – I think "Sgt. Pepper" and then the "White Album" were some of the first "later" Beatles albums that I finally acquired, and eventually, as part of the remastered box sets that finally "set the record straight" for beatles recordings, with the beautiful stereo and mono box sets – finally, I had the bulk of the Beatles output.
I have just now, during the research for this blog, supplemented that CD catalogue by ordering both the "US Albums" box set, as well as the two-double-CD remastered "Live At The BBC" discs – can't wait for those to arrive – Vol. 2 is all previously unreleased material, so more LIVE Beatles on the radio is a good, good thing…more "new" Beatles music – especially excited about hearing the "new" music from Vol. 2.
Regarding Capitol's uh, "adjustments" to the Beatles catalogue without their consent, I remember reading the John Lennon interviews from Playboy in book form, wherein he was aghast at being handed the U.S. albums to discuss by the interviewed, and explaining to him how very hard they (the Beatles and George Martin) worked on presentation, running orders, and so on – only to have Capitol America just ignore it all, and release inferior, shorter "versions" of Beatles albums – to make MORE money – fewer tracks, more records sold for fans to get all the tracks – simple arithmetic, probably made them millions – Capitol I mean, not so much the Beatles.
It wasn't until the Beatles full catalogue were first released on CD, that I finally became truly familiar with the real Beatles catalogue, which took some real getting used to since I was so, so accustomed to "The Capitol Albums". However, now, even though I do own Vol. I of "The Capitol Albums" mainly for sentimental reasons, I vastly and totally prefer the British releases – with the correct running orders, and songs all intact – plus the singles – which in the US, were sometimes added to albums, too, I believe – rather than mirroring the British releases. I can recall, too, that the VERY first compact disc I ever bought, ever, was "White Album" – bought from the Price Club for $20.00 – what a way to start your CD collection! For me, it was almost like hearing the album for the first time, the lead guitars on "Good Morning, Good Morning" practically LEAP out of the speakers, while George Martin's impeccably-arranged horn section on George Harrison's "Savoy Truffle" came through the mix with a hitherto unheard brightness and clarity – sounding fantastic!
I am well aware I've not really spoken much about the band's individual talents, from the rock-solid drum beats invented by Ringo Starr, to the absolutely remarkably talented Paul McCartney, possibly the best melodic bass player of all time, and an absolute innovator on the bass guitar (not to mention, what a voice!!!) – so many "firsts" for Paul, the high register passages, the strange note at the end of "And Your Bird Can Sing", the "sticking" or repeated bass line in the outro of "taxman" – Paul is simply an amazing and extremely innovative bassist – and when you matched him up with the rock steady, unflappable Starr – you had the best rhythm section in rock music – with two genius guitarist, songwriter, singers on the front line with them. what an amazing group – literally the first, and the best, at just about everything.
Of course, we now have the much more recent (2009) "Stereo" and "Mono" ultimate remasters box sets, which truly are incredible – and I am so, so glad that they did not mess with the catalogue in terms of the albums themselves, and the two aforementioned box sets really get it right when it comes to preserving the legacy of the Beatles amazing catalogue of music – and, bonus of all bonuses – in stereo and in MONO, too – and I personally especially love the "Mono" box set, even though it's not for everyone – I've never owned the mono mixes; I'd heard a few of them, most of them came as a surprise to me – some amazing variations from the much more familiar "Stereo" versions. But – as I am want to do when I get excited about the music of the Beatles – I digress.
The next phase of my earliest Beatle memories come from an unlikely time and place: Uganda, East Africa, where between 1967 and 1971, I lived with my parents and my two brothers– my parents were both teachers, and my father had won a place on a US Aid sponsored opportunity to move your family to Africa for two years to teach (in a program called "TEEA" – Teacher Education In East Africa) – basically, teaching teachers how to teach – which was then extended to four years.
My schooling during those years was a bit erratic, but my next early Beatle memory is of me, having no way to copy the lyrics from the AMAZING poster included in the Beatles most ambitious album to date, the "White Album" – I was boarding in Kampala, at Makerere University, with an American family (so I could attend school), and they had the album – which I played all the time – but my specific memory is of writing out, by hand, ALL of the lyrics, of all of the songs, onto yellow foolscap paper – because I WANTED THOSE LYRICS !!! I believe that somewhere in a box of keepsakes, I may still have those handwritten yellow sheets from 1968!
At age 10, I was not really aware of copiers, and in Kampala, Uganda, in 1968, they would not have been commonplace – so the only way I could "take a copy" of those lyrics, was to write them out longhand – which used up an enormous amount of paper, and my right had ached horribly from the effort – but I was determined, and after a couple of days, I had them all – and since it was a long time before I actually owned a copy of the "White Album" – I would often read those mysterious words from my yellow lined paper, hearing those beautifully picked electric guitars in my head, even after we returned to California from Uganda:
"She's not a girl, who misses much…."
Next time: we will discuss the joys and frustrations of trying to learn, and perform, and occasionally record, the music of the Beatles – beginning with the very first proper band I was in – just about every band I was in from that time forward, played at least one Beatles song – at least, up until I got into Guitar Craft, Looper's Delight and looping – but that was my strange career choice, to become an ambient looping guitarist; the time I am talking about, I am still at the tender age of 13, so with only a couple of years of self-taught guitar (and I later found, I had not done a particularly good job of teaching myself!) experience, I was finding that it was quite difficult to learn, remember, and play even the simpler Beatles songs – and it was during this time that my admiration for the skill of George Harrison in particular changed from admiration, to admiration and immense respect – that tricky little, bendy lead solo in between the verses of "Ticket To Ride" was at the time, one of the most difficult riffs I ever had to learn.
With just a couple of years of playing chords, I was not yet a lead guitarist, but learning that incredibly difficult riff, and then, learning more and more Beatles songs, also truly helped my own playing – when you imitate the best, you can't help but sound good sometimes 🙂
So until then, I will leave you with that shiver-inducing refrain, the one I heard that day back in the mid-60s, that probably changed the course of my life for ever – because I seriously doubt, that I would EVER have become a musician, if it weren't for the inspiration that the Beatles, as a group and as individual musicians, too, provided to me, all the time, through their amazing music:
"nowhere man – please listen
you don't know – what you're missing
nowhere man – the world is at your command…"
3 Comments Posted in artists, Beatles, guitar, historical, listening, mixing, music, musicians, pop, pureambient, rock, stereo Tagged "energy bow guitar", "george harrison", "john lennon", "looping", "robert fripp", "the beatles", beatlemania, beatles, Beatles Remasters, Beatles Remasters Mono Box, Beatles Remasters Stereo Box, california, capitol records, cirque du soleil, east africa, George Martin, kampala, las vegas, liverpool, london, looper's delight, magical mystery tour, mono, mono box, paul mccartney, remasters, revolver, ringo starr, rubber soul, san carlos (san diego), san diego, sgt. pepper, sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band, stereo, stereo box, the white album, uganda, uk