The Beatles - Love

[mousepod]

Sorry, I hate to make my return to LoT all loathe-y and all, but seriously, it was a major disappointment.

First off, I'm a major Beatles fan, so when I read the piece about the show and especially the music, I was fascinated and eager to hear what Sir George and his kid came up with.

Actually, let's rewind a little farther back.

The Beatles wrote and performed a dozen great albums and a bunch of singles. During their brief reign, George Martin supervised the recording of many takes of all of their songs and even mixed alternate versions for singles, mono releases or to be forever consigned to the vaults.

Fast forward.

John Lennon is murdered.

Fast forward again - more than a decade later, the vaults are busted open and the three remaining Beatles decide to put together a trio of "Anthology" releases to coincide with a massive ABC-TV bio. They glue some new instruments and vocals on some otherwise fine demos written as solo pieces by their departed member and rather than present alternate takes or mixes, they released glued-together zombie versions of several different takes. [Here's where I get Rumsfeldian in my rhetoric] New version? Sure. Sanctioned by the living Beatles? Absolutely. New Beatles songs? No way. The Beatles benefit with big bucks -- a half million copies of the first Anthology album sold on the first day. The real fans benefit from the byproduct of the now-leaky vaults - lots of good bootlegs with the complete performances and George Martin mixes.

Fast forward again. George Harrison wants to do a Beatles Cirque show. Some ideas are proposed. Then he dies. Two Beatles left decide to go ahead with the idea, and bring in their original genius producer, even though he is now pretty much deaf. He brings in his son to help. On the Cirque side, they develop a mostly acrobatic and gymnastic dance show with a story that tells the history of the Beatles (more on that later, maybe). Then there's this article in Mojo magazine... which loves Love, and I was fascinated and eager to hear what Sir George and his kid came up with...


(part two of this long post after I watch last night's Daily Show...)