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Beatles: Please Stop!

01 Sep 00 - 01:37 PM (#289368)
Subject: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Peter T.

I love the Beatles, grew up on them, have all the records, a book or two. But the Industry is now about to crank up one more piece of Beatleological junk, or rather more than one. A 91$ tribute book (in a silver casing), penned in part by Paul and co (with deep new insights, I am sure), and the republication of "In His Own Write" (the variorum edition, probably), and the Rolling Stone Interview with John (with new unpublished trivia), and Grapefruit by Yoko, and god knows what all. Time to give IT A REST. Great, wonderful, but life goes on. This is truly turning into necrophilia.

yours, Peter T. (Beatlemaniac)


01 Sep 00 - 01:43 PM (#289374)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Steve Latimer

Amen


01 Sep 00 - 01:48 PM (#289379)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: JedMarum

agreed, let it be


01 Sep 00 - 01:50 PM (#289382)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: GUEST,Deborah

You are so right about that Peter.

The worst thing is when bad folksingers put Beatles songs on their albums. They probably do it because there are some sheep who will buy anything connected to the Beatles.

The other day I was listening to WUMB and they played the lamest version of "In My Life" that I've ever heard. I didn't get the name of the singer, but I did manage to hear it was from a record company that sounded like Boring Alice. But this Boring Alice was a guy.

Deborah


01 Sep 00 - 02:22 PM (#289411)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: GUEST,Barry Finn

Heard the saame thing on the same station Deborah, didn't want to get the singer's name. Hey Deborah you must be local if you can pick up WUMB, yes? Barry


01 Sep 00 - 02:29 PM (#289415)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: GUEST,Deborah

Barry, I'm in Watertown. Where are you?

Deborah


01 Sep 00 - 02:38 PM (#289422)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: katlaughing

Well, Deborah, I happen to know a wonderful Mudcatter who did a BEAUTIFUL version of "In My Life" on Borealis records. If you are talking about him, I take offense. Barry, you know who I am talking about don't you?

Peter, I am with you otherwise.


01 Sep 00 - 02:42 PM (#289435)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Jeri

Haha, Barry - ole "Deborah's" talking about Rick Fielding. Someobody's got it bad for him around here! (Troll, troll, troll, look at ME!) Glad he's getting airplay here!

I like some of their songs, some I've just heard too many times. What Peter was talking about was the selling of Holy Relics. I had enough way back when the boxed sets of all the Masters' Great Works were being released.


01 Sep 00 - 02:50 PM (#289437)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: GUEST,Deborah

Kat/Katlaughing,

Why should you take offense because I think a version of a song is lame and you think it's beautiful? Taste in music is very subjective. Barry also heard the song on WUMB and agrees with me. The DJ who played it probably agrees with you.

Deborah


01 Sep 00 - 02:52 PM (#289439)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Jim Dixon

If you don't like it, you don't have to buy it. What is to be gained by disparaging someone else's taste?


01 Sep 00 - 03:31 PM (#289463)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: GUEST,Barry Finn

What I head was a new rising female singer/songwriter/star & I'm not impressed with pop make overs tunred into folk. I love Mary MaCaslin but not her Beatle rendition. Anyway I'm in Derry (southern NH), check out NH mudcat gathering & also check out the singer's session on Wed. eve aat Paddy Burke's, downtown. Deborah, have you been in this area for awhile?
Hi ya Jeri, I haven't heard Rick's doing on this, no matter can't understandstand why someone's go it bad for him, I've been here for quite long time, a good bit longer than Rick & have always found him to be interesting, friendly, polite & yes sometimes even humorous & some lucky day I'd hope to meet up with him & swap some of those fine songs he's lodged in his head. Barry


01 Sep 00 - 03:39 PM (#289469)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Kim C

Yep... sort of.

For someone like me, who was born in 1967 and didn't discover the Beatles until many years after they were no longer the Beatles, some of the reissues and reprints are GREAT because I didn't get to have them the first time around. But it can be cumbersome, and vampirish, so I won't argue that.

This year is the 20th anniversary of John Lennon's death, though, so don't expect the necrophilia to end anytime soon.

I had always been envious of my husband, 12 years older than me, because he had seen the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. Early in the summer, one of the networks did a special on rock music on the Ed Sullivan show - so I finally got to see the Beatles! It was a great thrill for me.


01 Sep 00 - 03:44 PM (#289474)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: guinnesschik

Jed Marum does a hellacious version of "I've Just Seen A Face," but as for the money-making schemes involving the Beatles, living or deceased, I'm generally apalled. However, Lennon, McCartney, and George Harrison wrote beautiful songs that IMHO can stand as folk songs, as they deal with universal experiences.


01 Sep 00 - 04:12 PM (#289487)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Peter T.

Alison Kraus does a fine version of "I Will".
yours, Peter T.


01 Sep 00 - 06:41 PM (#289565)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: sophocleese

As somebody who has left town to avoid the Elvis Weekend I'm in full agrreement with you Peter. I grew up listening to Sgt Pepper's, the White Album and Revolver. I enjoyed it then and sometimes enjoy it now. I remember how furious I was as a teenager when DJs were comparing The Bay City Rollers with the Beatles. I'm not good at idolatry.


01 Sep 00 - 07:13 PM (#289589)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Peter T.

Beatles trivia: For some reason, the piece from the Ed Sullivan show that gets replayed is not the first time they appeared (you can tell that one because it had cutesy subtitled names under the Fab Four). The set design was different. I don't know what happened to the first show, but you never see it. That was the 73 million audience night (me, too).
yours, Peter T.


01 Sep 00 - 07:43 PM (#289603)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Clinton Hammond2

Only if they take Elvis with them!!!

{~`


01 Sep 00 - 08:40 PM (#289618)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Bernard

The Beatles are already a part of folklore, so it's inevitable that fat cats are going to try to make money out of nostalgia where possible.

Unfortunately there are plenty of people prepared to pay extortionate prices for 'memorabilia' whether real or manufactured; if they did not buy it, the fat cats would stop. Catch 22-ish, I'm afraid!


01 Sep 00 - 09:22 PM (#289648)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Lena

I was born a long time after Beatles and went to know their songs through my mother singing them like lullabies.But I must admit that around five years ago they were pushed back a lot,going on the charts like an existing band.

the most ridicoulous bit was miss Rompiballe Ono,who suddenly came up in Sydney a coulpe of months ago.I was at work at the Opera House when i saw this huge billboards with Yoko Ono on talking about her giving a performance there.I did'n go to assist,I strongly believe in good taste.

I tell you,i'm still wondering what the xxxx she did there.Did she play?!Did she paint?!Did she talk about her and John Lennon?!Did she stand there and smile/!Did she talk about her most prestigious ideas on universe and world health?!How comes so many women got the fame only thanks to who they went in bed with?!

As the Herald put it,"Give her a piece of a chance"....

AAAAAh.


01 Sep 00 - 11:42 PM (#289764)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Rick Fielding

Ah poop, Deborah! It really IS one of my all time favourite songs, even if it ain't folk. I thought the guitar part I worked out was pretty nice and I LOVED what Grit Laskin did on the concertina. (he and I have been playin' that sucker fer years) Guess I shoulda substituted Fiddlin' Arthur Smith's "Florida Blues". Oh well, at least you didn't waste yer money on the album. I'll try harder next time.

Oh ya, Peter. Couldn't agree with you more. Jeezus, Yoko as well?

Rick


02 Sep 00 - 09:13 AM (#289864)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Jeri

Rick, I got the feeling you recorded the song despite it being a Beatles song, not because of it. It seems that recording a Beatles song would be a risk for a folkie. I have a love/hate relationship with that one, and many or their songs. If I'd grown up a generation later, I might not feel that way. For me, the Beatles were inexcapable. I think it's likely that the music is fresh to younger generations - the "everything old is new again" phenomenon. "Tribute" books are still over the top. Next thing you know, you'll be able to buy nose hairs from various Beatles, encased in gold-decorated crystal, and blessed by...well, who could bless Beatles stuff?

Re my previous comment - there seems to be a trend around here that when someone wants a bit of attention, they pick on a known member. Rick was getting it in the "Zit" thread. (Perpetrated by either a handful of anonymous guests, or one guest with multiple personalities talking to itself.) If Deborah's comment was really about overdone/done-in-a-way-she-doesn't-like Beatles songs and not an attempt to shift conversation from the selling of a musical phenomenon to bashing one particular Mudcatter, I apologise. It's weird that Barry heard a female and Deborah heard a male - did they play versions of the song from two different Borealis artists?

I've heard "I've Just Seen a Face" in more than one session, and can recall a bluegrass version. I've also heard "Norwegian Wood," "Rocky Raccoon," "Yesterday"...


02 Sep 00 - 10:55 AM (#289894)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: GUEST,Deborah

I'm sorry for offending anyone with my comments about the version of "In My Life" that I heard on WUMB.

To Rick Fielding: I didn't catch your name when they played the song on WUMB. I've been lurking at Mudcat for 2 weeks and know your name from these threads. I never made the connection. If I had, I would never have chosen those comments for my first contribution to Mudcat. I found your web site and see that you are playing in Worcester on December 3. I will try and come and see you perform there.

Deborah


02 Sep 00 - 11:03 AM (#289901)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Groucho Marxist (inactive)

I loved Odetta's version of "Strawberry Fields Forever."

Speaking of "In My Life," Judy Collins has a beautiful version. And Emmylou Harris does an equally beautiful version of "Here, There and Everywhere."

I also like Mary McCaslin's versions of "Help" and "Blackbird."

Groucho


02 Sep 00 - 11:19 AM (#289911)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Jeri

Deborah, welcome to Mudcat. I apparently was being paranoid and dreaming up motives, and I'm sorry. Why don't you come to Barry's party in Nov? See this thread. I'm really not a nutbar in person - I just sometimes play one on the internet. (Well, I probably AM a nutbar, but I behave myself!)


02 Sep 00 - 12:33 PM (#289933)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: katlaughing

Me, too, Jeri, I had seen that thread and figure it was all one assault on Rick. Sorry Deborah and thanks for coming back in here to explain; that took courage and it is appreciated.

Welcome to the Mudcat. I hope you do get to meet some Mudcatters in person, it is a very special experience.

All the best,

kat


02 Sep 00 - 03:17 PM (#289980)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Willie-O

I shouldn't, but I find this coincidence of identities pretty funny, especially "Boring Alice Records"...Deborah if you thought Rick's "In My Life" was lame, just be grateful his better-known lookalike Evil Twin Separated At Birth hasn't massacred it as he did some other Lennon-McCartney tunes. Have a look at Fieldings website and you'll see who I mean... the onetime skipper of the USS Enterprise).

I wonder, what's riskier, folksingers doing pop or pop singers doing folk? I submit it's the latter, cause millions of people will hear it and be convinced that, you know, say, Matty Groves is a Phil Collins song...

Willie-O


02 Sep 00 - 07:15 PM (#290071)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Callie

There will always be bad versions of great songs. And what is folk anyway? I can't think of any reason for labels like "that song's not folk, and therefore unworthy".

Lena: did you see Yoko's exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW? It was fantastic.


02 Sep 00 - 08:40 PM (#290109)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: GUEST,Barry Finn

Hi Deborah, do come, I can speak for Jeri's upstanding character, in inner city terms she's a stand up person (that's very good). I don't know what recording artist did the version I heard on WUMB or who's she's signed with, didn't really care then & still don't, I didn't care that much for the fab four after St Pepper either & still even less now. That's all personnal taste though. I do hear a good bit of folkies doing new renditions of some other oldies (pre Beatles if you will), & I've never heard less soul & more sugar from most of them. On the brighter side thank God there aren't more like me around you'd all get fed on a steady diet of trad until it all sounded the same & I do realize I'm like but I'm not implying that any has to have my tastes anymore more than I should have someone elses. Enough of my trad trash. Barry


02 Sep 00 - 09:15 PM (#290121)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Lonesome EJ

I hope Rick finds Deborah's original post half as funny as I did. Hell,Rick,I reckon you just can't please all the people all the time! As for me,that is one of my favorite cuts on the album.

To me the Beatles were an almost perfect example of a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. With the exceptions of the first post-Beatle releases by Lennon,McCartney and Harrison (when they were still more-or-less competing) the catalogue of solo material is forgettable. The recent Pre-Fab Four stuff even more so.BUT...

I'd jump at the chance to see the remaining three LIVE in a heartbeat! How bout you?


02 Sep 00 - 09:18 PM (#290123)
Subject: RE: Beatles: Please Stop!
From: Mbo

Most definately! Even better if Jeff Lynne rounded them out for 4!