My BEATLES History!
Hi gang!
Today would have been George Harrison's 67th birthday (as a sidenote, my father shared this birthday with the "quiet" Beatle, but he was a year older). In memory of the occasion, I thought I would share some of my Beatles-related videos in this blog, as well as telling all of you a little bit about my history with the band's music.
According to Mark Lewisohn's "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions" book, I was born on the same day the Beatles recorded "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." Now, I know that John Lennon and George Harrison didn't particulary care for this somewhat silly little Paul McCartney number, but I have always loved novelty music, and I always liked this song. And finding out that this song was recorded on my actual birthday only increased my fondness for it. Despite that I had always enjoyed that song in particular, and the Beatles's music which I had heard all my life on the radio, I really wasn't a fan, per se, until I read another book that mentioned the Beatles, albeit not as the prmary focus of that book.
The book was "Big Secrets," written by William Poundstone. This book sought to explore and in many instances expose the secrets and truths behind many tales from urban folklore and other mysteries. The book had a section that dealt with the backmasking on rock and roll records. As a teen-ager, I was fascinated with such stuff, and in truth that fascination continues to this day.
Backmasking, also known as reverse-recording is a recording technique in which audio is recorded backwards, supposedly to place a subliminal message for the listeners. Now, even as the youngster I was, I was savvy enough to realize that any such tomfoolery was done either for fun or to get people to buy an album, or both. I never believed that listening to any messages would cause me to commit atrocities, or worship any demons, or go crazy, or any other such nonsense. But the whole notion that there might be some hidden messages on albums got me very interested in seeking out the albums mentioned in "Big Secrets." In particular, the albums of the Beatles grabbed my attention, as not only were they among the first to have employed such techniques (The song "Rain" for instance, features backwards guitar, but no messages), but there was this whole story built around why the group was placing hidden messages on their records.
According to the story, we were asked to believe that Paul McCartney met an untimely death in 1966, and that his death had been kept from the public. The remaining Beatles, seeking to get the real word out, placed numerous audio and visual clues on their albums and the album cover artwork.
Here is a video that I made in 2003 in which I discussed this myth and the clues attributed to it:
Now, I never for a minute believed that Paul McCartney died in a car crash in his Twenties. But, I just had to hear these so-called clues for myself. I went out and bought "The Magical Mystery" tour first, on cassette tape. I chose that one because it was said to have had a great number of the clues, and the songs I was familiar with at that time from that album were songs I enjoyed. From there, I eventually picked up all the albums (all on cassette tapes) that were said to have clues on them. In the process, I heard many songs that never seemed to receive airplay on the radio stations in my city during that period. Many songs which I found I liked quite a bit more than what the tracks that the radio stations chose to share with us listeners. Soon after this, I just had to get all the Beatles music, whether they were part of this "Paul Is Dead" myth or not. And that is why I credit the rumor/hoax/myth with making The Beatles my favorite band of all-time.
Over the years, I upgraded my cassettes to CD, and I owned every officially released album of their music in CD form, and some not so officially released, too. I have yet to take the plunge and get the recent remastered sets, though. Because I am such a fan, it is one of the few times I would buy a set of music I all ready owned just to hear it in remastered quality, but the price I have to pay is hard to justify for me spending the money at this time.
About two years ago, a good friend of mine scored me a bunch of vinyl records from The Beatles, mostly foreign pressings, which he came across at a local Goodwill store. I relate the story in the following video:
I had all ready owned some of the albums on vinyl before this, but never so many, and in such good shape, and from other countries.
There is talk that film director Robert Zemeckis will be making a computer animated movie remake of "The Yellow Submarine." That is pretty exciting to me, as I thought the computer animated Beatles from the Rock Band game released last year was very cool-looking. In fact, though I don't own the game system required to play that game, and I am not any good at playing such games anyway, I was tempted to grab a copy just to watch the animated video footage should I ultimately buy the game system.
On my public access television program, "The Happy Show!," I will sometimes find a way to slip something Beatles-related into the show. When Ringo Starr made a video telling people to stop sending him fan mail, I affectionately spoofed him in an episode of my show:
The Beatles have been and will continue to be an influence on my show, my artwork, and my music listening. There's just something about that group, their music, their lives, their look and style, and the way they truly revolutionized modern music. Even those that don't enjoy their music cannot seriously deny the huge impact that the Beatles have had and continue to have on our culture.
So that's my Beatles tale! What's your's?
Thanks and Yayy!!!
-- Matt
Today would have been George Harrison's 67th birthday (as a sidenote, my father shared this birthday with the "quiet" Beatle, but he was a year older). In memory of the occasion, I thought I would share some of my Beatles-related videos in this blog, as well as telling all of you a little bit about my history with the band's music.
According to Mark Lewisohn's "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions" book, I was born on the same day the Beatles recorded "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." Now, I know that John Lennon and George Harrison didn't particulary care for this somewhat silly little Paul McCartney number, but I have always loved novelty music, and I always liked this song. And finding out that this song was recorded on my actual birthday only increased my fondness for it. Despite that I had always enjoyed that song in particular, and the Beatles's music which I had heard all my life on the radio, I really wasn't a fan, per se, until I read another book that mentioned the Beatles, albeit not as the prmary focus of that book.
The book was "Big Secrets," written by William Poundstone. This book sought to explore and in many instances expose the secrets and truths behind many tales from urban folklore and other mysteries. The book had a section that dealt with the backmasking on rock and roll records. As a teen-ager, I was fascinated with such stuff, and in truth that fascination continues to this day.
Backmasking, also known as reverse-recording is a recording technique in which audio is recorded backwards, supposedly to place a subliminal message for the listeners. Now, even as the youngster I was, I was savvy enough to realize that any such tomfoolery was done either for fun or to get people to buy an album, or both. I never believed that listening to any messages would cause me to commit atrocities, or worship any demons, or go crazy, or any other such nonsense. But the whole notion that there might be some hidden messages on albums got me very interested in seeking out the albums mentioned in "Big Secrets." In particular, the albums of the Beatles grabbed my attention, as not only were they among the first to have employed such techniques (The song "Rain" for instance, features backwards guitar, but no messages), but there was this whole story built around why the group was placing hidden messages on their records.
According to the story, we were asked to believe that Paul McCartney met an untimely death in 1966, and that his death had been kept from the public. The remaining Beatles, seeking to get the real word out, placed numerous audio and visual clues on their albums and the album cover artwork.
Here is a video that I made in 2003 in which I discussed this myth and the clues attributed to it:
Now, I never for a minute believed that Paul McCartney died in a car crash in his Twenties. But, I just had to hear these so-called clues for myself. I went out and bought "The Magical Mystery" tour first, on cassette tape. I chose that one because it was said to have had a great number of the clues, and the songs I was familiar with at that time from that album were songs I enjoyed. From there, I eventually picked up all the albums (all on cassette tapes) that were said to have clues on them. In the process, I heard many songs that never seemed to receive airplay on the radio stations in my city during that period. Many songs which I found I liked quite a bit more than what the tracks that the radio stations chose to share with us listeners. Soon after this, I just had to get all the Beatles music, whether they were part of this "Paul Is Dead" myth or not. And that is why I credit the rumor/hoax/myth with making The Beatles my favorite band of all-time.
Over the years, I upgraded my cassettes to CD, and I owned every officially released album of their music in CD form, and some not so officially released, too. I have yet to take the plunge and get the recent remastered sets, though. Because I am such a fan, it is one of the few times I would buy a set of music I all ready owned just to hear it in remastered quality, but the price I have to pay is hard to justify for me spending the money at this time.
About two years ago, a good friend of mine scored me a bunch of vinyl records from The Beatles, mostly foreign pressings, which he came across at a local Goodwill store. I relate the story in the following video:
I had all ready owned some of the albums on vinyl before this, but never so many, and in such good shape, and from other countries.
There is talk that film director Robert Zemeckis will be making a computer animated movie remake of "The Yellow Submarine." That is pretty exciting to me, as I thought the computer animated Beatles from the Rock Band game released last year was very cool-looking. In fact, though I don't own the game system required to play that game, and I am not any good at playing such games anyway, I was tempted to grab a copy just to watch the animated video footage should I ultimately buy the game system.
On my public access television program, "The Happy Show!," I will sometimes find a way to slip something Beatles-related into the show. When Ringo Starr made a video telling people to stop sending him fan mail, I affectionately spoofed him in an episode of my show:
The Beatles have been and will continue to be an influence on my show, my artwork, and my music listening. There's just something about that group, their music, their lives, their look and style, and the way they truly revolutionized modern music. Even those that don't enjoy their music cannot seriously deny the huge impact that the Beatles have had and continue to have on our culture.
So that's my Beatles tale! What's your's?
Thanks and Yayy!!!
-- Matt
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