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Grammy Beatles Show

#41
I thought the night was a bit of an on-and-off event, at least for me. M5 did an OK job with "Ticket To Ride." Nothing impressive, just a passing grade.

S. Wonder ruined "We Can Work It Out." Even his intro where he talked about the song and how someday he would add funk. Well, he did, and he royally funked it up. I was bored, and blown away at the standing o. he got for his travesty.

"Yesterday" was both beautiful and respectfully done.

"Revolution" was a joke. They just reinterpreted the song into a compost heap.

"Hey Bulldog" was well done, and the spirit of the song was captured.

Ringo at the end was a bit pitiful, but I was never a fan of his songs, his work, or his mediocre singles.

Paul was OK, and the fact that he has had a career so long is a tribute to his skill, but I just didn't like his song selection, and his pipes are about gone.

The greatest and most influencial band of the 20th century. If not for them, I would be playing trumpet today. Not putting down trumpet, just telling how much they influenced my musical choices.

All-in-all, it was OK to good, but could have been so very much better if the bands looked it as more of an honor to the Beatles instead of a way to grandstand and present their personal spin on the tune, which most of the time was vastly inferior to the original version.
 
#42
I'm always stoked to see my old High School classmate Rusty Anderson playing Guitar with Paul. I'm super happy for him. He was a great player as a teen and seems to have remained humble and really enjoying his role with Paul.
 
#44
When they start doing tributes, it's pretty damned certain that you are irrelevant.

I guess what makes me saddest about all this, is not that I am getting (and feeling) old. It's that I remember when music used to be so much more than it is today. Oh sure, musical wallpaper has always existed (reference the kitchy 60's AM radio "me too" psychedelic drivel). But I remember people who took music seriously, who meant it to say something profound, to convey truth in the way that only great art and genius can.

There seems to be so precious little of that these days. And that makes me sad. Very sad.

Hey tangent, I went to Lowell HS. I remember Rusty being ridiculous at 14. This is the perfect gig for him. He always had a great ear for copping stuff. Paul likes to stay pretty close to the records. Fantastic band.
 
#47
Katy Perry Yesterday? She looked constipated.
Mayer and Urban was so out of context it was awful.
The lip sync goof was funny but sad at the same time.
Nostalgic for me. I had tickets to see the Beatles at Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
Went down couldn't get a place to park. It was so crazy I blew it off.
What a huge mistake.
Paul's band is outstanding. Enjoyable show. Don't think any other band in Rock could have done this. So sad John and George aren't still with us.
 
#48
That Stambaugh did have a very good tone for what they were doing. It was sort of a folksy version of Revolution, but considering I would like Imagine Dragons to drive off a cliff and return to the pretend-rock hell they come from, I was surprised that I didn't hate it.
I actually thought most of the performances were pretty good. It actually put me in a positive mood to see what modern acts could do when given better material. It occurred to me that some of these acts don't suck @$$ talent wise, they are just terrible writers, or have terrible writers force feeding them.
I'm not a Beatles fan per say, but listening to updated arrangements of their music gave me a different appreciation for their writing abilities. In their later material, I heard how they developed from a "guitar band" into something far more orchestral, music that was bigger than the sum of its parts. Of course they have their empty pop songs like everyone else, put to hear the stories behind the songs added a level of depth I didn't get before. I think these two qualities, thinking outside the box musically and writing lyrics from a deep personal place, is what has kept the Beatles viable all these years.
I'm not going to run out and buy their catalog (I don't own a single Beatles recording) but I've moved them off of my 'over rated list.'
 
#50
I did enjoy the show for the most part. I agree with one of the other comments that Paul's voice sounded a little "off" last night - for whatever reason. He has actually sounded pretty good fairly recently though, so maybe he was just a little raspy last night.

Ringo showed a lot of energy doing his stuff. The crowd loved it.

(And Yoko seemed to be really getting into the show - dancing in the aisles, etc. - which surprised me a little..) No problem with that - glad to see it.
 
#51
ggoat!!! said:
Don Was should have LEARNED the bass parts PROPERLY before playing in front of the damn BEATLES...EXACTLY right.
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Apparently he actually went back and got the masters and isolated the bass according to this article.

Link Removed

Not sure it was mention or caught by anyone but in the credits Don is listed as the musical director fo the show.

Another reminder how bass players rule!
 
#52
Jah Wobble Fan said:
If you thought this show great, or even remotely worthy of the Beatles, you are advised to save your pity for yourself.
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If it's good enough for Paul, Ringo and the attending Lennons, it's good enough for me. Far be it for me to judge what is 'worthy' of the Beatles. The show was about joy. Nothing more, nothing less. When Ringo did 'Yellow Submarine', it took me back to when I first heard the song - my dad played it for me, and I have fond memories of singing it together with him. He gave me a copy of Sgt Peppers on vinyl - I was hooked! :)
 
#53
I'm a big Joe Walsh fan back to Measles days

He played the professional on 'Something in the way she moves' playing the expected parts. I though he and Clark jr tore it up on 'While my guitar gently weeps' for me that was the emotional peak of the evening with some genuine feeling/playing going on.
I couldn't watch some other parts at all

Walsh still has it with sobriety squared -- a monster player and national treasure

I checked out the other all star version
Prince, I don't know, he's just in another universe these last 10 years. He makes it look way too easy
 
#54
SturmUndDrang said:
It did sound good. I wouldn't want to hold my breath for a set of SGD pups though.
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DanGouge said:
LOL I saw that too! I guess that will ensure it's one-of-a-kind... :ninja:
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Well at least two of a kind. My Stambaugh hollowbody is very similar, down to the SGD ND3 pickups.

j3_zps62172c6d.jpg


Hopefully Best Bass Gear will right the ship for SGD. Terrible business practices but definitely great pickups.

I enjoyed the show but then I had pretty low expectations going in. Some stuff worked and some didn't but all in all it wasn't a horrible presentation, at least IMO.

I did think Katy Perry was surprisingly good.
 
#55
I enjoyed it. The vibe I wanted - and got - was a celebration of the original event. This was not intended to be a musically-perfect recitation of the catalog. The performances given were much appreciated by me for that celebratory reason.

It can be debated how much the Beatles just happened to be at the right spot in history, or how much that spot in history was actually caused by them. My life probably changed in several ways after seeing those original Ed Sullivan shows back in the day and then living through the seven-year aftermath of those shows. And once I heard - and then learned - the bass line to Nowhere Man, my musical path was certainly redirected.

Even though I enjoyed the entire show, I couldn't help having some "yeah buts" about some of the individual performances. I enjoyed Annie Lennox's the least, but still appreciated the fact that she was helping to celebrate this important anniversary.

But where was Shatner? :hiding:
 
#56
peledog said:
If it's good enough for Paul, Ringo and the attending Lennons, it's good enough for me. Far be it for me to judge what is 'worthy' of the Beatles. The show was about joy. Nothing more, nothing less. When Ringo did 'Yellow Submarine', it took me back to when I first heard the song - my dad played it for me, and I have fond memories of singing it together with him. He gave me a copy of Sgt Peppers on vinyl - I was hooked! :)
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This program had me longing for jejune 1970's specials like RINGO and JAMES PAUL McCARTNEY. Hell, even THE RUTLES, a satire, was closer to the vibe of the band.
This just had that showbiz smell of death. Grammy-stink, perhaps?

But hey, to each his own. And at least we can agree on the awesomeness of the Fab Four.
 
#58
Jah Wobble Fan said:
If you thought this show great, or even remotely worthy of the Beatles, you are advised to save your pity for yourself.
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C'mon, Jah, take it easy. Some people are just coming from a place of positive thought. Peace and love, peace and love, brother. Some people just don't dedicate a lot of time to hating music when there are so many other bad things in the world. I mean, it's alright to be dismissive if you're a Berklee freshman, but it gets a bit tired as life goes on.
 
#59
Mudcat35 said:
I've had a couple of people pop up on my Facebook feed saying they can't stand the Beatles, and the show is garbage. To those people I say: Just stop. You're embarrassing yourselves.

Seriously, though - I get what people are saying about the renditions. Are they faithful to the originals. Mostly no, but what's interesting is that compositions are able to transcend genres and stand up when presented in different ways.
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This pretty much summarizes my take of the show. You can't go back to how it was, so you just pause to take note of history and then move it forward to today as art always moves inexorably forward.

Like many I went in with low expectations but was very pleasantly surprised at the level of talent brought to the presentation and the interpretations of the music made by many them. The original music did stand up and the show did not turn into one of those PBS rock and roll geezer shows designed to extract money from reminiscing old folks.
 

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