Music Notes: The Beatles, Love

November 20th, 2006

The Beatles had already broken up by the time I was born, but much of my formative years was spent listening to the Beatles’ albums; I’d say it was the first band I was really a fan of, and for better or worse, pretty much every band I’ve listened to bears some relationship to the Fab Four. Although, the more I think of it, most musicians have some relationship to The Beatles, even if their music is the antithesis, the concept of fame and what it means to be a rock star will always be influenced by the way the world reacted to four Liverpudlians who just wanted to play music and be taken seriously.

Anyhow, this Tuesday an album called Love is to be released. You can also listen to a streaming version (obviously sans 5.1 surround sound) at The Beatles website. It’s the soundtrack to a Cirque du Solei show that’s currently playing in Las Vegas, which I’m actually going to see this coming friday – I’ll be sure to post some thoughts.

Despite the potential cheese factor, the show has gotten largely positive reviews, as has this upcoming album, which is supposed to be a “mash-up” of sorts using the old Beatles’ songs, overseen by George Martin himself.

I always worry about each new project the Beatles’ music is churned through, however. Even the McCartney-guided Let It Be… Naked (which I was initially excited about) has faded from my mind. I just don’t want to start entering into “George Lucas” territory where there are new special editions of Beatles albums every decade for the rest of my lifetime, long after all of the band members have been put to rest. For after all, following the exhausting Anthologies, what is there left to add to The Beatles story? At what point would John Lennon in particular have put an end to it all? Are they going to clone George?

Anyhow, maybe that’s the real reason for so many people mentioning being moved to tears after listening to Love. Because it tries to capture something that is lost forever.

Here is a blog (Lost Melodies) that has some streams to the “new” tracks.

Please subscribe to the Webomatica RSS Feed!