The clip below is how The Beatle’s “I am the Walrus,” will be preserved forever, remastered in HD stereo glory.  It’s hard to imagine the scope of the genius behind this song.  Lennon himself said, “Let the fuckers work that one out.”  By putting on fresh ears, and letting the song just hit you in 2011, an experience I am sad John himself never got to try, what comes across is the ultimate post-modern anthem.  It doesn’t sound like it came from 1967, but rather from some timeless place in someones imagination.  The mere fact that “I am the Walrus” did emerge from 1967, is one of the things that gives people like me, who never lived then, the magical impression that 1967 was a year when human creativity knew no limit, and was so powerful that it transcended time.  The song both hurls itself at you while simultaneously digging trenches of mad gorgeous beauty in your brain.  It changes your thinking somehow, giving you an epileptic cinematic insight into a few minutes of a John Lennon LSD trip.  It’s both profound and silly, and its profoundly silly; 2 opposite forces interacting on their own, but also interlocked somehow.  It’s simply a musical masterpiece, and I hope you serviceable villains enjoy it in bright psychedelic HD as much as I have.

As we have been progressing with chronological normality through Pink Floyd’s career during “Pink Floyd Week,” the video clips have matched the time in which the songs were produced.  Now that we have reached the seminal Pink Floyd record, Dark Side of the Moon, an album about madness and time, I figured we’d jump ahead several decades to see the guys rock “Money” at Live 8.  Because of Richard Wright’s death in 2008, this would represent the only full band reunion (sans Syd Barrett) that the world would ever see since Richard Wright left in 1979.  So, this is a rather historic performance, and a surprisingly relevant one given that Live 8 and Occupy Wall Street have similar philosophical roots.  It also goes without saying that the song “Money” is the ultimate ironic anthem on the subject of the crushing evil of greed.  It’s an awesome Roger Waters tune set to his greatest bass line.  I always thought Dark Side of the Moon was a continuation of the sonic ground broken by the Beatles on Abbey Road.  Lyrically and thematically, the two records have nothing in common, but there is such a high level of musical accomplishment and precision on both records.  The gapless linked tracks on Abbey Road were also a huge influence on Dark Side as well.  It actually should come as no surprise that both records share many musical similarities because they were both recorded at Abbey Road Studios with many of the same technicians and engineers that worked with the Beatles.  That’s enough Beatle/Pink Floyd comparisons, as I’ll have a more thorough analysis on the subject tomorrow.  Anyway, enjoy this thrilling rendition of “Money,” and make sure to click the ads on my site so I can put my hands on Google’s stack…Jack.

There is no tonal quality more life affirming, more charging, and more powerful than the one found in John Lennon’s voice during his rendition of the Isley Brothers tune, “Twist and Shout.”  It’s the vocal performance that electrified the ears of the world; a singularity of rock and roll perfection, and simply among the greatest expressions of human joy ever performed.  There are just so many layers to the sound of John’s voice in this take; joy, beauty, pain, dominance, and thunder.  The superlatives I have for this performance are endless, and if this was the only song of the Beatles we ever had, it might have been enough.  Not only does the song present John’s best lead singing ever, it also showcases what the Beatles did best, group singing.  Paul and George’s backing vocals are authoritative and fun, and when all 3 boys come together for the “ahhhhh” bridge, it’s as if the Beatles were trying to crack the Hoover Dam with their exuberant power.  So now you’re asking what voice could possibly top the the greatest group of the recorded sound era?  Well, stay tuned tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion to the definitive list of rock’s greatest vocalists.

Sorry for the disturbing lack of updates, but I was busy packing up my Brooklyn apartment and heading north for Maine.  I’ve got three weeks in beautiful Portland before I head across the world to South Korea and Australia.  I’m happy to be out of the city and hear crickets out my window, as four and a half years in New York really drains the nature out of you.  I couldn’t be more excited for my trip across the Pacific, and I’m reminded of four other guys who had to get away from it all, the fab four.  The rare song you are about to hear was NOT recorded by the Beatles, but rather its a solo John number from 1980 that he made reflecting on the journey he took just 12 years prior.  John was beginning to feel sentimental about his life, emotions reflected strongly in his last record Double Fantasy.  “India, India” didn’t survive the cutting room floor of that record, but luckily it survives the cutting room floor of history.  It’s a pretty psychedelic folk ballad with a wistful haunting melody.  Enjoy.

Help!  John Lennon managed to cram an unusually clear psychological slogan into one of the best pop songs he’d ever write.  It’s hard for most people to just shout out help, especially when they need it.  It really must have been difficult for someone as stubborn, independent, and prideful as John Lennon.  When you have the weight of a global audience of screaming teenagers, and the world’s press crushing you in some surreal never ending circus come to life, it must have been easier for someone like John to beg for help.  What I love about the song is how John can take a propulsive driving rock song and somehow add the element of desperate folk ballad introspection in the verses.  “Now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured, and now I find, I’ve changed my mind, and opened up the doors.”  On the surface, the song works as an ironic satire of John’s life, as the exciting fast driving joyfulness present in the music still conveys the giddy excitement of Beatlemania.  But all you have to do is dig a bit deeper to feel the swirling doubt and disillusionment felt by a guy trying to hold on in a world quickly moving faster than his feet.  HELP!

They say elephants never forget, and they also say fuck Yoko Ono.  When John Lennon played Madison Square Garden Live in 1972, he played an afternoon show and an evening show.  “Elephant’s Memory,” the backup band for John, claimed that the evening show was far superior, but upon releasing this concert  in 1986, long after John’s death, Yoko decided to use the inferior afternoon show  as the basis for the album and the concert video.  Why?  Nobody knows what Yoko is thinking.  She probably thinks that her performances in the afternoon show were better than her performances in the evening show, which is insane, because nobody could possibly care.  The tapes and video of the evening show are locked away forever, or maybe even destroyed, and we might never get to see them thanks to the brilliant Yoko.  Yoko did the same thing for the Mind Games video where she took a raw 19 hours of footage, shot by college kids who followed John Lennon around for a day, and condensed it to a precious 4 minutes!  In that 19 hours you can supposedly see John Lennon making an appearance at Radio City Music Hall, where the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band On The Road” was playing.  He apparently got a 20 minute standing ovation that he described as one of the greatest moments of his life, and proceeded to sit down on organ and play with the house band.  Why this footage is not released is beyond me.  I actually rather wish I knew it never existed, then to think Yoko’s got it hidden away somewhere for no one to see.  Blah, that’s the end of my rant.  Enjoy John’s performance of “Come Together,” a song originally written as a way to get people to vote LSD guru Timothy Leary as governor of California.  It’s a little historical tidbit that’s a perfect segue for me to champion my status as finalist in the CBS Best Local NYC Blogger award one last time!  Tomorrow is the last day of voting, and you can STILL vote for me, even if you’ve already voted!  Once a day counts, so click that link and put me over the top! 

To paraphrase George Harrison, “the “you” in the song, is God.”  Gaining this insight gives the song even more creepy mysticism.  “Long, Long, Long,” from the “White Album,” is officially one of my favorite Beatles songs.  Like many people growing up with the Beatles, I wasn’t a fan of the song until I got much older.  When I was a little kid, it was too quiet (probably the quietest Beatles song in the catalog) and too boring for me to really feel.  As I grew older,  I realized it was a master class of songwriting and personal expression, and it began to affect me greatly.  It’s simply a fantastic gorgeous ode to love and God, expressed in the most ambiguous way imaginable.  I also love the little high pitched organ part, which reminds me of an ice queen ballerina dancing alone in the snow.  What’s that mysterious rattle at the end of the song you ask?  It’s a bottle of wine vibrating to the frequency of a peculiar Hammond organ note being played by Paul McCartney.  Pretty cool no?  You know what else is cool, you only have 4 more days to vote me as CBS’s Best Local NYC Blogger, by clicking here!

I wrote this song last fall, recorded it in the winter, started the music video in the spring, and put it away till..well…today.  The reason it’s the 7th part is because it took 7 mixes for me to get it just right.  Musically, this song was inspired by John Lennon’s “Julia,” and George Harrison’s “Not Guilty.”  I was going to call it, “The Road to Mandalay,” but I realized that British pop star Robbie Williams already had a song by that name, and the appeal of such a title went out the window.  The guitar picking was done on my ’75 Yamaha acoustic, and the guitar solo was played on my Epiphone Casino.  I really wish I could have made a beautiful live version video of the song, but I don’t have the money to arrange for it to be done perfectly. What you get instead is a charming little exercise in the wonder that is Microsoft Paint.  I gave up making the video many months ago because creating all the titles for the lyrics was so tedious that I lost interest until today, when I realized that I’m now unemployed, and it would have been a shame to not get it done when I had the chance.  I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any questions don’t be afraid to ask.  Oh, and of course, please vote me as NYC’s best local blogger in the CBS contest where I am a finalist.  Thanks.

On January 14th, 1969, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr were sitting around Twickenham Studios.  George Harrison had temporarily quit the band, so John was on piano, Paul was on electric guitar, and Ringo was behind the drums.  John led the shortened group through a new improvised jam he had been fooling around with called “Watching Rainbows.”  The song would never see the light of day as a Beatle tune or as a John solo song, but did find its way on Beatles bootlegs by 1978.  I think its a shame that John never finished it, because it has a real seductive folk rock hook, and a beautiful lyric.  Perhaps they junked it because they didn’t feel like working on stuff that they created when George was absent, or perhaps they just forgot about it.  Either way, the version I have below has all the lyrics, including the studio banter, giving you the full picture of what was going on that day during one of the lesser known unreleased Beatle song sessions.  I personally love it, and have played it seven times in a row.  Oh, and don’t forget to keep voting for me everyday as CBS’s best local NYC blogger, just click these words, thanks!

Paul McCartney fans, do I have a present for you.  Did you know that Paul’s real first name was James?  Did you know that Paul did a music special for ABC and the BBC in 1973 called “James Paul McCartney?”  Did you know the critics hated it?  Did you know critics are mostly idiots?  Well, now that you know, it is my absolute pleasure to introduce this 7 part Paul McCartney extravaganza.  What’s extra special about this post, is that this TV special WAS NEVER released on VHS or DVD, so this is the only place you’re gonna find it for now.  You get Paul and his newly formed group Wings, featuring wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine, performing some solo Paul songs, some Beatles songs, and some Wings songs, all with aplomb.  It’s basically a glorified series of music videos stitched together that you’ll find heard to turn off.  My only problem with the videos are Paul’s unfortunate mullet, his worst hair style ever.  Oh well, it shouldn’t stop you for enjoying the music, and it shouldn’t stop you for voting me in as CBS’s Best Local NYC blogger, which you can do by clicking here!  Paul McCartney told me to tell everyone everyday, so if you gotta problem with voting for me, take it up with the old knight himself.  Cheers!