Some of you may recall, in 1967, English teacher Chris Ellis taking my copy of the album out to the front of our Fourth Form class, to read aloud the lyrics on the back:
"I used to be mad at my school,
The teachers who taught me weren't cool...'
The teachers who taught me weren't cool...'
Some desultory discussion followed, of the Beatles as lyricists, I suppose.
During the first few months of 2007, Pepper's 13 iconic tracks were remade by contemporary bands, as part of the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the recording of this album.
('What kind of album, boys?'
'An iconic album, sir.')
BBC Radio 2 (or 'Radio Toe' as the BBC announcer keeps calling it; why did the BBC ever allow regional accents on the airwaves?) has made a brilliant documentary about the remake.
This project and the documentary are probably of more interest to musos like me, since the tracks were recorded in the same Abbey Road studio, using the same recording equipment, - the valve-driven mixer, one-inch four-track tape machine, mics., Neumann U 87s, as if you cared, Fairchild limiters, compressors - as the Beatles used, operated by the same two engineers! There is lots of fascinating material about the original sessions: techniques, innovations, and comments on the Beatles' studio discipline - i.e. how to behave if you're a rock Godlet.
This project meant that the 2007 rock stars recreating the Pepper tracks had to play LIVE! This is just not done in today's digital recording studios. Modern pop songs are pieced together like Airfix kits. The executive weaknesses of these artists, as digitally unassisted performers, are glaringly evident. The program is no longer available on line, but bootleg recordings exist. Ask, and it shall be given you.
Some of the re-creations - 'Lovely Rita', 'Getting Better' and 'Fixing a Hole' - are especially good - the artists really got inside those songs. There are video clips as well.
22/1/2009 - beatles lyrics
ReplyDeletePosted by Anonymous
I have a slightly different recollection. It seems as if it were only yestermonth.
The teacher was Miss Dick. (Remember Miss Dick?).
She was droning on about some poet or other when one of the few students still awake suggested that we should consider the lyrics of J&P as a better alternative.
MIss Dick did not falter.
She quoted the mop top ones verbatim, "It's been a hard days night, I've been working like a dog, It's been a hard days night, I should be sleeping like a log."
We collectively agreed that the beatles lyrics were perhaps better sung than read.
But then we were seventeen ish. What did we know?.