• Listening to a lot of Beatles songs since I joined a Beatles cover band a few weeks ago. This far every song gives me this: "Oh I know that one from memory...Wait, what? That's what they play in the backing track???" Beatles songs aren't as easy as memory tries to make them 8o

  • Listening to a lot of Beatles songs since I joined a Beatles cover band a few weeks ago. This far every song gives me this: "Oh I know that one from memory...Wait, what? That's what they play in the backing track???" Beatles songs aren't as easy as memory tries to make them 8o

    Agree that they can be trickier than one might think. It is one thing to strum one casually hanging out with friends. It is more challenging to try to replicate them in a faithful way.

  • Listening to a lot of Beatles songs since I joined a Beatles cover band a few weeks ago. This far every song gives me this: "Oh I know that one from memory...Wait, what? That's what they play in the backing track???" Beatles songs aren't as easy as memory tries to make them 8o

    Agree that they can be trickier than one might think. It is one thing to strum one casually hanging out with friends. It is more challenging to try to replicate them in a faithful way.

    Plus of course, depending on which phase of their work, some of it wasn't designed to be played live. Once they became studio-bound and started getting more innovative with their sounds and production they made music that was too far ahead of the then-currrent live capabilities. Their layering, bouncing-down, tape-looping etc gave weight, colour, substance to their work that was near impossible to reproduce live. So when we come to play the songs we're so familiar with that are embedded in our minds we're wrong-footed by what's actually going on in those originals!


    Schrottrocker what's in your cover band's setlist currently?

    Abandon all reason

  • The set list is mixed, this far we have been practising mostly later songs though:

    Let it be

    Happiness is a warm gun

    Get back

    Come together

    Oh Darling

    Money (That's what I want)

    I've got a feeling

    Don't let me down

    I want you (She's so heavy)

    Here comes the sun

    While my guitar gently weeps


    I saw the set list includes earlier stuff too, A Hard Day's Night, Norwegian Wood, You've got to hide your love away etc.

  • Cool list. Happiness is a Warm Gun is a good example of a song that can be tricky, because of the time signature changes. Same with Here Comes the Sun.


    Another one I have always found trickier than it seems initially is She Said, She Said. The switch to the bridge section particularly can mess me up.

  • Good stuff there (though I'm not keen on the Harrison ones), agree with Dr. John about Happiness and its metrically labyrinthine structure so yes quite a challenge, vocally too along with Oh Darling so you must have a hell of a singer. In Happiness Lennon goes through virtually his entire range - terrific song.

    Another one I have always found trickier than it seems initially is She Said, She Said. The switch to the bridge section particularly can mess me up.

    Again, that classic thing where Beatles songs turn out to be far more complex than you'd think. They were pretty damn good weren't they? This is a real favourite of mine on an album that's packed with strong songs. Like so many Lennon songs, based on a real incident - Lennon getting angry with Peter Fonda going on about a supposed near-death experience to the extent he had Fonda thrown out. The final track recorded for Revolver, as a trio as McCartney had stormed out following an argument (Harrison's on bass).

    Abandon all reason

  • A twitter exchange this morning has led me into a hunt for female-voiced Beatles covers. I've always loved the Banshees' Dear Prudence but I didn't previously know most of these:


    Fanny (early 70s) doing Hey Bulldog - their obvious enjoyment is so good to see


    Less keen on this, Charlotte Dada version of Don't Let Me Down but it's interesting if rather unvarying.


    I had seen this before, the Carpenters performing Help - I love that they got their trademark "aaaaaaaaaaah" in there


    I was really pleased to find Throwing Muses doing Cry Baby Cry as I love them and love the song but had never heard this. It's ok but I'm still pleased to hear them doing it, shame they didn't incorporate that slightly creepy "Brother can you take me back" segment though.

    Abandon all reason

  • The Carpenters also did Ticket To Ride (and Please Mr Postman, buit that of course was also covered by the Beatles). As Ticket To Ride is one of my favourite Beatles songs I have never taken to the Carpenters' version. But Help! was right for her, and how great to see her playing drums in it.

  • In this post about 2023 expectations I said Paul and Ringo would work together on something. See?


    (I also said there that PG might include a Genesis song in his setlist. Well he at least had one planned!)


    We learn that Now & Then will be the last ever Beatles track. So that definitely confirms that Carnival Of Light will never officially see the light of day.


    It's the third song on the Lennon demo Yoko Ono gave Macca to work from. It was originally planned for Anthology 3, to be reworked and released as Free As A Bird and Real Love were, but Harrison didn't like how those songs turned out and declined to have anything to do with N&T. Well he's been put on it anyway! So we assume Olivia and Dhani agreed. So they've gone against his wishes on that, while it's his veto on releasing Carnival that remains in place.


    FeelItComing - expect to see this performed at Macca's show. The final track intended for the 'Three-tles', eventually done by the Two-tles and performed live by the One-tle.


    EDIT: PS - at the time of the Anthology series when Now & Then was being considered, various sources named it as Miss You, or Grow Old With Me. My understanding is that the songs on Lennon's demo tapes at this time were intended to be part of a musical about his Liverpool childhood.

    Abandon all reason

    Edited once, last by Backdrifter ().

  • As Backdrifter said, at first sight they appear to have gone against George’s wishes. I think Paul said at the time that George gave up on it, saying it was like ‘boiling your cabbages twice’, meaning too much like hard work. The suggestion now is that he thought they would never get John’s voice clear enough. If that’s true then it’s possible that, now we can retrieve John’s vocals clearly, he would have been happy to finish it off, if he were still with us. To me it seems like a nice way to finish things off, but I’ll wait until I hear it.

  • Woah. He's going to play it?! Tomorrow night... can't wait.

  • Woah. He's going to play it?! Tomorrow night... can't wait.

    Oh I lost track of when the gigs were. I was stating my own expectation but given it's before the official release then maybe not. Sorry to get you worked up. But hey, maybe he'll do Carnival Of Light!

    Abandon all reason

  • Well FeelItComing did he?!


    Of course he didn't but anyway how was it?

    No he didn't. But it was awesome.


    I had a VIP ticket so I watched the soundcheck. Only McCartney could do Drive My Car, Day Tripper & Mrs Vandebilt at soundcheck and then leave them out of the main show. There were a couple of surrprises, Coming Up and Let 'Em In. It's really moving when he does the virtual duet with John in I've Got A Feeling. Such fun to hear him sing songs sung by the others - even I Wanna Be Your Man, Mr Kite & of course Something on the ukelele. The man is a marvel. 81 and three hours without a break and the band (same lineup as 2017) is hot. And the songs from Band On The Run - how I love them. Apart from the title track we had Jet, Let Me Roll It and Nineteen Hundred & Eighty-Five, not to mention the magnificent Letting Go from Venus & Mars. Don't criticise Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da to me - it rocks live.As for Helter Skelter McCartney invented Heavy Metal & that's the end of it. I could go on. The VIP package even included a really nice fridge magnet, which was a great surprise, as I love the things.

  • A little update on the Beatles cover band I've been with for nearly two years: We had a gig this week, we had a bunch of new songs (for us) in our set list: We finally made it to perform Happiness is a warm gun, also we do Yer Blues (with additional kazoo and piano solo), In My Life (yes, I play that piano solo live, it's tough but manageable), The Long and Winding Road ("naked" version) - and yes of course we had to include Now And Then. I even have the honour to sing it since our lead singer didn't want to. What can I say... People liked it, it is the sensational new Beatles song, etc.etc., but honestly, had it been one of their old ones from the 60s I would have said let's skip that one, there's so many other songs that are better. I like the fact they unearthed that song after so many years but that's as for as it goes, I'm not too fond of that song, really.