Beatles And Stupidity

This morning, I got to see a really good Beatles cover band play at B. B. King's, Strawberry Fields, while eating a rather poor buffet breakfast. While I wasn't a fan of the cheesy wigs or lame intro, the band was pretty good. I think they might have been contractually obligated to mention the venue by name half a dozen times.

The rest of today, however, sucked. EDIT: Big misunderstanding, it didn't suck at all, it was wonderful.

A Walrus In Chicago

I love how Robert Lamm shouts "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together" in the middle of South California Purples. Everybody loves The Beatles.

Goo goo g'joob!

Plans For The Day

As soon as I get cleaned up, I'm off to Strawberry Fields. I'll give Tom a call and we can hang out. Then off to watch music DVDs with James and James. Apparently, there is a 360 Photo Group in NYC. Had I had more notice, I would have went to the meet this morning, but it was sort of early and I just found out about it yesterday.

Tomorrow I need to work on some school stuff and work on the stuff I promised I'd help my dad with.

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

A warm gun for shooting some people.

Jack Brass Band Rocks (Did I Hear A Beatle?)

I was listening to Jack Brass Band's Happy Hour album for the first time in a while (since it was never ripped for some reason and I just ripped it today) when I noticed part way through the third track, Smoke That Fire, the Beatles! They wove in Carry That Weight into it really nicely. (There's more information on Carry That Weight available.) And now re-reading the album information on CD Baby, it notes that The Chicken is a James Brown song. Which is awesome because I love James Brown but never knew that song was his. It gets better yet, they end Friends & Strangers with a few rounds of the chorus of Hey Jude instrumentally. The different brass voices work really well.

Oh, and CD Baby is good people, go buy some albums.

(Since I normally keep my music collection sorted by artist, right after Jack Brass Band is James Brown. Though I'm sure I'll find some other artist eventually to fit in the middle.)

John Lennon

Thank you.

25% Of The Beatles

Christina is amazng, she got us tickets to go see Paul McCartney play! Woo!

We went on Friday night to Madison Square Garden right after I got out of work. It was really good stuff. He played 80% Beatles songs, which is what people were really there to see. Christina was even so amazing as to get me seats in the center, instead of closer, but off to the side. It was a most excellent concert. His No More Landmines shirt was awesome. I was really surpised given his age that he could hit all of those high notes required for the four part hormonies. I wish there were live brass and string sections there, but I understand the chances of that ever happening again are slim to none. Overall, a really awesome concert.

Beatles And Bach

Paul McCartney stopped between songs every now and then and talked for a bit. Sadly, people in the audience thought that the talking wasn't warranted so they shouted at him their personal requests. To those people I say: shut the fuck up and let the man talk. Once of the things he talked about was that while he was at parties and was much younger he used to play around with a few bars that he thought sounded neat. He played the bars once and said that it turns out there is a lot more to that song, it's by a guy named Bach and it's really reather difficult. He then da-da'ed a bit and laughed. He said he liked it so much, he wrote a song around the few bars, Bluebird. Just goes to show that creative works aren't created in a vacuum.

Rocket Scientists And British Rock

Another one of Paul McCartney's stories was about NASA's return to flight and how on return, the crew was holding out for clear weather to land. Supplies were low and morale lower still, but on the day when the weather was clear to return, ground controll woke the astronauts up with Good Day Sunshine. The other time I remember NASA playing British rock was when Columbia burnt up. They played The Rolling Stones' Wild Horses, as did several radio stations.

Rush At Jones Beach

Last night, Jimmy and I went to see Rush play at Jones Beach's amphitheater. It rained very lightly for about an hour, so the weather wasn't too bad at all. Though tickets were sold out within days of going on sale, I estimate there were 100 empty seats in the venue of 15,200. I guess some did not want to take a chance on the weather.

Anyhow, highlights of the show include:

• Covering The Who's The Seeker
• Sneaking in a few bars of The Beatles' Day Tripper
• And an encore of:
  • Summer Time Blues
  • Crossroads
  • Limelight

I think Jimmy enjoyed it, I know he isn't much of a Rush fan, however, he said he has a renewed respect for them. We grabbed dinner afterwards and called it a night. Good thing I have today off from work. Now to keep an eye out for this show online.

I think one of the things I realized while watching was how much I like bands where the bassist is the frontman. KISS reminds me of this as well. Something about the way the harmonies are formed when the bassist has more of a presence.