After reading a piece on Dangerous Minds the other day where they posted the various individual tracks of “Helter Skelter” (thanks to Lady E for pointing that out), I was inspired to create my own mix in GarageBand. I’m reasonably pleased with the results; it ended up sounding very 90s somehow, with touches of early Nirvana grind, Pixies loud/quiet/loud dynamics, and Sonic Youth dissonance. See what you think:
Oh, I almost forgot: Play it loud.
P.S.: It was only after posting this that I found out today is the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, and now I feel a little guilty for putting so much focus on a Paul song. Although you can hear John playing very raw and aggressive bass on “Helter Skelter” – which is, let’s be honest, Paul writing in a consciously Lennonesque vein. I can just picture him stamping his little feet and wailing, “I can rock out too, y’know, it’s not joost John who can do that.”
P.P.S.: Then he probably would have said something about the fridge-a-dilly.
P.P.P.S: For some thoughts about the Lennon shooting, read here.
Dig!!
OK, lots to say. Once again you are marginalizing Paul which is bullshit. As much as I love John, it was Paul who was the driving force of the band and it’s most important and most talented member.
I heard that HS was a reaction to the Who. Paul felt like the Beatles could rock harder and indeed they did. HS is the heaviest song of all time. Paul, can and did, rock as hard as John, Oh Darlin also comes to mind.
Lastly on Yoko, did you see the PBS thingy about John last week? I only saw some of it, but when they broke up and he was in LA he was getting hammered every night and would end up screaming her name over and over in drunken anguish. He was an emotional infant and he needed a baby sitter. She did a good job of that and kept him alive until asswipe killed him.
All good points. I’m often tempted to rag on Paul, despite publicly promising that I would not:
http://thephilter.com/2007/06/pipes-of-peace/
Paul was certainly the hardest-working and most musically gifted Beatle; but still I would argue that without John pulling them out toward the darker margins, they would have been just a great pop band and not a cultural phenomenon.
And I can’t agree that “Paul, can and did, rock as hard as John”; he did occasionally get loud, but it was not his forte. He was/is primarily a melody guy, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think many of my favorite Beatles songs are experimental John songs to which Paul added strong melodic underpinnings, especially with his bass playing, which is undeniably genius.
And as for Yoko, well…John clearly wanted a mommy and that’s what he got. Without her he might have gone totally catatonic, or he might have created epic works of tortured genius…we’ll never know.
Fingers must be stocky and firm in the process we humans call life. Mercury will dash accross the sun at the expected time of the end of time in 2012. You must verify that scene and exploit the findings.
Poe’s comment is either one of those random computer-generated word riffs, or the Word from God. In either case it begs explication!
I’m pretty sure it’s the former, but I’m damned if I can explicate it. Perhaps you’d like to take a shot?