That and this
Dec. 20th, 2010 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAn excellent Fringe pimping post, on why one should watch the show.
Lord of the Rings:
The World is Changing, a wonderful vid using all three film versions. Reminds me of when the films started during this time of the year, each was a just before Christmas premiere, and how despite minor nitpicks and some disagreements with the source material I was swept away every time.
Two days ago Paul McCartney did a lunchtime gig to support the 100 Club in Oxford Street which is threatened by closure and, I hear, something of a London musical landmark. The internet being what it is various of of the songs he sang are online already, which is great since the club atmosphere is very different from the big stadium concerts. (Also because while the recent Saturday Night Live thing was funny, he wasn't at his vocal best there; he's definitely in fine form here.) A lot of banter with the audience, and below the cut are choice samples.
The opening number was a Carl Perkins song, Matchbox:
(Less quality recording but a complete version is here.)
Jet. Incidentally the second McCartney song named after a dog.
Blackbird:
The One After 909, aka the one John and he wrote when they were teenagers and resurrected for Let It Be. LOL about the opening.
Drive My Car. I take back what I said about this being a song for young singers!
Band on the Run: did you know that this one has one of the more hilarious entries at wikipedia? " The singer complains about being stuck in one room forever alone, unable to see any nice people, like his mother." Personally I always loved Carlin's description: " Stuck inside these four walls....lord, it's every dead-end room you've ever inhabited, at home, in school, at some crappy job you thought you'd never escape, and just when you least expect it, even at the height of fame. If I ever get out of here.... the guitars turn crunchy, the percussion cracks like a pistol shot as the dead-end becomes fame itself; e.g., straight-up memories of the Beatlemania days, the endless hours of being cooped up in dressing rooms while the world surged madly at their door. Then....that breathttaking symphonic leap up to the central verse and chorus of the song and the point where...The rain exploded with a mighty crash/as we fell into the sun.... and the band is back on the run, soaring above the clouds and far from the grasp of any number of antagonists."
And I love her: Aka "the first ballad I impressed myself with". Spot the Lennon middle eight, if you can. At this point their styles just flowed into each other.
1985: One of the more excentric Wings numbers. I love the piano there.
Eleanor Rigby: you know, I'm always ambivalent about Eleanor Rigby in concert because it's such a studio song, but it really works here. Given the theme of age, the fact his voice isn't that of a young man anymore even adds to the song.
Hey Jude: hear the audience in the tiny club nah-nah-nahing. Arguably the quintessential McCartney song, and definitely the containing the line which you could call his motto: Take a sad song and make it better. I think the magic of Hey Jude is that while it might say different things to different people you always feel personally addressed and uplifted. (No wonder John insisted till his dying day that he might sound "like one of those fans" but the song was subconsciously written for him, damn it.)
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band: Reprise/The End: Obvious medley to cap the gig was obvious, and very effective.
Someone did a best of clip collection of the club gig already:
Lastly, hilarious bonus vid: 1968 newsclip of the Beatles plus significant others at the Yellow Submarine premiere. Swinging London fashion extravaganza on everyone ahoy!
Lord of the Rings:
The World is Changing, a wonderful vid using all three film versions. Reminds me of when the films started during this time of the year, each was a just before Christmas premiere, and how despite minor nitpicks and some disagreements with the source material I was swept away every time.
Two days ago Paul McCartney did a lunchtime gig to support the 100 Club in Oxford Street which is threatened by closure and, I hear, something of a London musical landmark. The internet being what it is various of of the songs he sang are online already, which is great since the club atmosphere is very different from the big stadium concerts. (Also because while the recent Saturday Night Live thing was funny, he wasn't at his vocal best there; he's definitely in fine form here.) A lot of banter with the audience, and below the cut are choice samples.
The opening number was a Carl Perkins song, Matchbox:
(Less quality recording but a complete version is here.)
Jet. Incidentally the second McCartney song named after a dog.
Blackbird:
The One After 909, aka the one John and he wrote when they were teenagers and resurrected for Let It Be. LOL about the opening.
Drive My Car. I take back what I said about this being a song for young singers!
Band on the Run: did you know that this one has one of the more hilarious entries at wikipedia? " The singer complains about being stuck in one room forever alone, unable to see any nice people, like his mother." Personally I always loved Carlin's description: " Stuck inside these four walls....lord, it's every dead-end room you've ever inhabited, at home, in school, at some crappy job you thought you'd never escape, and just when you least expect it, even at the height of fame. If I ever get out of here.... the guitars turn crunchy, the percussion cracks like a pistol shot as the dead-end becomes fame itself; e.g., straight-up memories of the Beatlemania days, the endless hours of being cooped up in dressing rooms while the world surged madly at their door. Then....that breathttaking symphonic leap up to the central verse and chorus of the song and the point where...The rain exploded with a mighty crash/as we fell into the sun.... and the band is back on the run, soaring above the clouds and far from the grasp of any number of antagonists."
And I love her: Aka "the first ballad I impressed myself with". Spot the Lennon middle eight, if you can. At this point their styles just flowed into each other.
1985: One of the more excentric Wings numbers. I love the piano there.
Eleanor Rigby: you know, I'm always ambivalent about Eleanor Rigby in concert because it's such a studio song, but it really works here. Given the theme of age, the fact his voice isn't that of a young man anymore even adds to the song.
Hey Jude: hear the audience in the tiny club nah-nah-nahing. Arguably the quintessential McCartney song, and definitely the containing the line which you could call his motto: Take a sad song and make it better. I think the magic of Hey Jude is that while it might say different things to different people you always feel personally addressed and uplifted. (No wonder John insisted till his dying day that he might sound "like one of those fans" but the song was subconsciously written for him, damn it.)
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band: Reprise/The End: Obvious medley to cap the gig was obvious, and very effective.
Someone did a best of clip collection of the club gig already:
Lastly, hilarious bonus vid: 1968 newsclip of the Beatles plus significant others at the Yellow Submarine premiere. Swinging London fashion extravaganza on everyone ahoy!
no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 07:35 pm (UTC)Wow.
Um, wow. I could watch these all day. Who needs food?
no subject
Date: 2010-12-21 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 11:06 pm (UTC)Oh, and watching the clips, the end of "The End" always gets me; I think I read somewhere that John thought that was the best couplet that Paul ever wrote.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-21 06:53 am (UTC)I love what Ray Connolly said in the 30 years anniversary article I linked as an antidote to the Christgau obituary - that they completed each other perfectly, neither was as consistently good as a solo artist and they both knew it. Plus, you know, I really don't think there is such a thing as a "best Beatle" (obviously "favourite" is an individual choice and something different) - they each brought something quintessential to the band, Ringo and George as well as John and Paul. (John at his bitchiest said that he and Paul were the Beatles and the magic would have happened with any other two, but a) I think the rest of the time he knew this wasn't true, and b) note that even in said mode, he wasn't under the delusion he could have pulled off the Beatles on his own. Honestly, I don't think he'd ever gotten out of Liverpool, or gone beyond amateur status in his guitar playing. Given that he was also kicked out of both his school and the art college, an early unemployed drunken death in some fight is more than likely. Conversely, Paul while having the drive probably would never found the courage to dedicate himself full time to being a musician, given he had a far better relationship with his father and was emotionally invested in fulfilling parental expectations as a teenager, so he probably would have ended up as a teacher or something like that, which is what their mutual friend Ivan Vaughn did who introduced them. They really needed each other.)
"The End": yes, he said that in one of his last interviews. The last part of the Abbey Road medley, from "Golden Slumbers" onwards, kills me every time because it's simultanously such raw grief and elegy, with that note of grace in the end.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-21 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-21 02:11 pm (UTC)Re: best Beatle: I'm irresistably reminded of one of my favourite sketches:
ETA: forgot you can't post vids in comments on Dreamwidth. Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQr8WzY5zUk
no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 08:57 pm (UTC)