THE BEATLES!

Post Reply New Topic

I respect what the Boobles are doing. An earlier parody of the Beatles features some members of the British TV comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Their parody band is called The Rutles. There was a faux documentary-style show (mockumentary) that chronicled their alleged career, which paralleled and made fun of every phase of the real Beatles musical career. Some of them at least are actual musicians and they wrote many parody songs of famous Beatles hits. For example, their song corresponding to Help! was called Ouch! Their songs are quite good actually. This group even performed live stage shows. My oldest sister and my brother-in-law are big Rutles fans and saw them perform at least once. I think they like the song Piggy in the Middle.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwoTtCoBX38[/youtube]

There is a real-life connection between the Beatles and the Rutles. George Harrison was involved with the Rutles from the beginning. Ringo liked the happy parts of the movie but didn't like those parts about the later sad times. John loved the film so much he refused to return the copy of the film he was loaned, and warned the makers that Paul might sue them. Paul always said "No comment," but supposedly his wife Linda thought it was funny. This information is from the Wikipedia article about the Rutles.

I am a fan of the Beatles. Ironically, my dad hates them; he thinks that it isn't music if the singer doesn't have a southern accent. I learned to love them from my grandmother, who swooned over Paul McCartney when they first came to the US, and my husband, who worships at the altar of George Harrison for his guitar style as well as his philosophies.
As a musical person, I thought my left handedness would get in the way of my playing music at all, let alone well. Then I saw that Paul McCartney played left handed and let me know that I could restring my guitar and learn to play, since my right hand tends to be more nimble than my left despite nerve damage from a stab wound that leaves tingling and the inability to completely make a fist without pain.

below is a neat story about the origins of the beatles tune "fool on the hill"-

it turns out that the song "fool on the hill" has an "etymology" that is quite complex, but is rooted in a weird paranormal incident when paul was walking his dog [named martha] atop primrose hill overlooking london, and as he watched the sunrise, he noticed martha went missing. paul looked around for her when he encountered a strange man wearing a belted raincoat- the two exchanged pleasantries about the sublime view of the city atop the hill, then paul turned away from the man for an instant, and when he looked back the man was gone, which was strange because the nearest trees were hundreds of feet away and the man could not have run that far that fast. then again, since paul was at that time a heavy user of mind-altering weed, it could just have been that his perceptions were up in smoke.

so that is one part of the fool on the hill, the original impetus for lennon/mccartney to write it down on paper. the other part of the fool has to do with george and his veneration of the maharishi, "head in a cloud, the man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud" [IOW the hindu religion has been referred as being made up "of thousands of gods/voices"]- and when george tried to get paul and john to share his interest, he was met with indifference ["but nobody ever hears him, or the sound he appears to make, and he never seems to notice..."], IOW john and paul weren't listening. so i am gathering that the maharishi was indeed the major part of the subject of "the fool on the hill."

Hello again. I am posting again to this thread to add stuff I learned the past couple years about the Beatles musicianship.

I have more respect for them now as musicians than I did when I last posted to this thread. I thought that they were overrated as musicians and songwriters, but the past couple years I have come to appreciate more how advanced they are musically. I know from learning to play Beatles tunes on guitar that they are not as simple to play as one might think. Also I read a scholarly paper about the chord progressions in many Beatles songs, that they would use substitutions from related keys at certain places that pushed the song's theoretical structure to the edge of almost not being music.

The Beatles may not have consciously done this. I mean they did compose the songs obviously, but I don't think they analyzed the music theory beforehand and said oh I think I'll do a substitution here from a related key. I think it probably just came out that way from their incredible musical talent and all the practice they got getting tight as a band playing those clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg. And of course a song does not have to be complicated musically to sound good. If it sounds good, it's good.

I play their song Help! much better in a more recent (filmed February 2012) video on my YouTube channel than the one I posted earlier in this thread, and I am playing it while riding a bicycle in the newer video! The older video is still on YouTube but is now "unlisted" where if you have a link to it you can still view it, but if you don't have a link already it doesn't show on my public channel.

Here is another recent YouTube video (filmed November 7, 2012), also unlisted for the moment at least, that shows me playing a cover version of Ticket to Ride:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj2pmGxiURk[/youtube]

I hate them. Undeniably the most overrated band ever.