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The Beatles - 21 Songs For 7 Reasons
To continue from the last post - humanists will still want to save the world with “All You Need Is Love,” “Let It Be,” and “The Word,” optimists will be optimistic with “Good Day Sunshine,” “It’s Getting Better,” and “Here Comes The Sun,” lovers of love songs will sing “If I Fell,” “And I Love Her,” and “I Will,” community activists will be inspired by “With A Little Help From My Friends,” “We Can Work it Out,” and “All Together Now,” weddings will still feature “Something,” “In My Life,” and “When I’m Sixty-Four,” divorcees will be haunted by “Carry That Weight,” I’m A Loser,” and “Hello Goodbye,” and critics will still argue over the meanings of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “I Am The Walrus.”
The Beatles - 18 songs for 6 reasons
The Beatles would always take the adventurous and risky path by throwing away the proven recipe for business success and doing something which ARTISTICALLY pleased them. Against all odds and “common” sense, they would succeed and then lead society and other musicians down a new road.
The Beatles - It Was 50 Years Ago Today
The Beatles convincingly fused widely disparate influences throughout their seven-year recording career as they assimilated U.S. rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, country, Motown, R & B, soul, Tin Pan Alley, Afro-Cuban, bossanova, classical, and Indian music influences. They also steadfastly avoided following any fads or attempting to be “cool” or something which they were not. Each of their albums was a significant musical event complete with the seemingly incongruous achievements of important artistic innovations and great popular appeal.
My Take on The 2014 Grammys Show
I'm a Grammys member & am supposed to be thrilled & engaged. The opening is perfectly predictable like every Grammy show. But for once I don't think we'll get an EDUCATIONAL lecture about the evils of downloading & that downloaders, Pandora and the ANTICHRIST herself aka GOOGLE who have stopped the performance & creation of music. I wish the teleprompter readers the very best of luck tonight. And I am pro-my clients, friends and the old people (Beatles rhythm section guys and any other 60+ ancient folk). Time for Twitter where there is peace.
Christmas Music - Dave Brubeck, John Lennon, Cuba LA, The Monkees, Donny Hathaway & more
Here are twelve (12) of my favorite Christmas recordings, from Band Aid to Poncho Sanchez. (My list ends with the letter, "S?!?" No Tchaikovsky and nut cracking? And none of the letters post-S. That means no Van Halen, Vivaldi, Webern, Xenakis, Neil Young, Frank Zappa or Jan Dismas Zelenka.)As with most music, what attracts me to many of the recordings below is creative, surprising and atypical uses of chords, melody, rhythm, tone color, lyrics and/or structure. And in the case of Bob Dylan's "It Must Be Santa" recording and video, great humor.
The Beatles, Red Sox, Cardinals, Boston, St. Louis & Arizona
I was asked to write a piece about The Beatles for a national publication about 12 years ago. As part of the deal, I was going to be paid a few hundred dollars and forced to give up my copyright in what I had written. I thought that giving up my copyright - the right to use my own words - for such a small sum was foolish. So, I declined their offer and kept the article.Every few years, or even every year, there are great reasons to have Beatles' anniversaries. The "it was twenty years ago today" line can keep getting larger. Eventually it will be a triple digit event - I expect people in 2092 will celebrate, "It was 125 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play."
Buddy Holly stutters. John Lennon stutters. Are their stutters copyrightable expression?
Is a stutter unmusical? Could something as unmusical as a stutter be subject to copyright protection? If a stutter is sung, is it more likely to be musical? If a stutter is musical, is it more likely copyrightable? Could "stutter" be simply a stutter, or a well-crafted, complex vocal articulation that is musical, difficult to reproduce and original expression that is subject to copyright protection?
Yesterday, Another Day, John Lennon Fires & Ends The War on Paul
Unlike Paul McCartney in Too Many People, John Lennon in How Do You Sleep? is blunt and direct with no room left for subtlety or interpretation. John brings on the blunt immediately beginning with the word, "so," as if the conversation had been ongoing - John had been in the room already letting Paul have the benefit of his wisdom.So, Sgt. Pepper took you by surpriseYou better see right through that mother's eyesThose freaks was right when they said you was dead
Piece of cake, copulating beetles & Paul McCartney attacks John Lennon
McCartney, perhaps in a brief effort to ameliorate some of the pain he may have caused Lennon (the guy who was lucky to have been a Beatle), might be assigning blame for the legal and financial problems that the Beatles experienced near the end of their time as Beatles (the death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein and the hazards of new management, the establishment and serious problems of future Beatles' management, the dissolution of the Beatles, etc.) to business managers and lawyers "breaching practices."
Big Butter & Egg Man, Banana in Your Fruit Basket, Grinding Mill and other carnal songs
"I want a butter and egg man. Won't some great big butter and egg man want me?"Why does this woman sing so emphatically about wanting a man who possesses BIG BUTTER and EGGS? Is she headed down a dangerous dairy path? With all that is known in 2013 about a diet high in cholesterol, this song might already be maiming young minds but could the butter and eggs be representative of something more than food? Is this a tongue-in-cheek metaphor?
Best Chord Ever - Part 1 - The Beatles "All I've Got To Do"
Listen to the first sounds, i.e., the first chord, in this Beatles song:Beatles - All I've Got To DoThe chord has no business being here. Or in any pop song. Could this chord be heard in jazz? I don't think Ornette Coleman would use this chord. I don't think Thelonious Monk would have either. Cecil Taylor? Maybe Cecil Taylor would use it. Early Weather Report? Yes, maybe. I could imagine this chord/hear this chord in "Vertical Invader" from side 2, song 1 of Weather Report's second album, I Sing The Body Electric. The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Eminem and Kanye - nope, they wouldn't use it. The Beatles used it. Once and only once. The chord is used only at the opening. Never again in any Beatles song. Not in outtakes, bootlegs. Nowhere.
Uncopyrightable introductions - Part 2, William Shatner obliquely, Martha Stewart to me
I should add that I feel that Sandals.com consciously, carefully and deliberately copied the intro to Beatles' Getting Better. Sandals.com did not accidentally derive this introduction, or independently create their introduction. Some composer labored over this...I am trying to establish that one can copy INTENTIONALLY without infringing copyright. Sandals.com copied The Beatles and it was not copyright infringement. I think a statement like "one can copy INTENTIONALLY without infringing copyright" could be controversial.
I've Had The Time Of My Life & Do I Owe It All To Sandals.com Ripping Off The Beatles?
Q U E S T I O N SDoes Sandals sound like The Beatles?Does Sandals rip off The Beatles?Does Sandals infringe The Beatles?Does Sandals sound too much like The Beatles?Is the Sandals/Beatles issue a copyright problem?Is the Sandals/Beatles issue a right of publicity problem?Is the Sandals/Beatles issue an unfair competition problem?...
Talk Amongst Yourselves, Turn Me On, Beatles One Louder, the Buttocks Bowl
How can you get one's attention? Play a Beatles recording. Play something loud and very noticeable. Maybe the intro to a Beatles song. If one wants to hear a loud, striking, very original opening of a Beatles song, one that will really hit the ear, there is one song that WILL not do it. It would be the WORST BEATLES SONG, worst only in terms of making a listener notice. What is the Beatles song LEAST likely to get one's attention?
Unfair Competition, Election Night 2012, Swimming at 57 F / 41 F
An example of unfair competition would occur if an unknown musician, or any non-Beatle, released an album of 13 supposedly original songs, whose titles, in order, were:“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”“With A Little Help From My Friends”“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”“Getting Better”“Fixing A Hole”“She’s Leaving Home”“Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite”“Within You Without You”“When I’m Sixty-Four”“Lovely Rita”“Good Morning Good Morning”“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”“A Day In The Life”
Angie Aparo v. Five For Fighting (Part 3 of 3)
PART 3 of 3We left off in this cliffhanger with the promise of an ending in this highly abbreviated fictionalized account of what could have been a copyright infringement action brought by Angie Aparo and affiliated parties against Five For Fighting and affiliated parties.Plaintiff: What country song features 1-2-3-5?Defendant: “Tomorrow Never Comes” by Ernest Tubb does. Conway Twitty’s “I’m Not Through Loving You Yet” also features 1-2-3-5.Plaintiff: What rock song features 1-2-3-5?Defendant: “I’ll Follow The Sun” by The Beatles.” The Beatles‘ “You Won’t See Me” also features 1-2-3-5