September 9, 2009

Abbey Roadkill


I don't believe in Beatles
- John Lennon

Oooooohhhhhh it's Beatles day! Big Fucking Deal. Let's all suck at the teat of The Lord God Of Merchandising and queue up for remastered (for the hundredth time) Beatles albums (and then downsample em to 128 and play on our Ipods) and our Beatles video game.
Hey junior, buy yerself a real guitar instead of following some virtual relics on a blinking light plastic piece of crap.

And that commercial making the rounds for the game with the images of the deceased (but still raking in money for the estates) John and George make me want to puke.





Toonage:

John L - God (unreleased demo)
George H - Art Of Dying (unreleased demo)
Detention - Dead Rock N Rollers
The Damned - Help (original single)

5 comments:

Denier said...

I'm not one of those Beatles bashers, but this merchandising is obscene. Who would buy the mono recordings when they already have the stereo versions, for instance. Fools, that's who...

I never understood that Guitar Hero lameness either. Can't you just play air guitar without the fucking technology like we've been doing for decades? The mass consuming brand-conscious Sheeple in this country disgust me. Fahrenheit 451 could not have been more on target.

Jacob Justice said...

Oh come on...all these people crying about commercialism are being silly. This is the first time in more than 20 YEARS the UK versions of the Beatles LPs have been released, and it's actally pretty necessary because the '87 releases sound quite bad by today's standards. If you don't want to buy them, fine, but there's no need for all this negativity.

The fact that people still pay attention to The Beatles can mostly be attributed to the appeal of their music. In some ways, they are less bastardized and commericialized than other bands if for no other reason than people treat their music with such reverence.

A better example of commericialism at work in modern music is Michael Jackson. They turned performances at his FUNERAL into a live album you can buy on itunes, and released some new album of Jackson 5 remixes literally days after his death. They're also making a movie and re-releasing his book. Whereas Jackson's recent upsurge in popularity has more to do with style over substance (I'm going to forget the last 20 years of everyone treating him like an outcast to hop on the bandwagon and be a fan again now that he is dead), the latest surge of Beatlemania reflects substance over style. People aren't buying remastered Beatles CDs because they are brand-conscious, or want to be cool (the cool kids listen to rap), but rather because it's GOOD MUSIC that has only been available in inferior quality for decades. I repeat, people are buying the CDs because it is GOOD MUSIC and THEY LIKE IT. For kids raised in the era of illegal downloading this may be the first time they even purchase the albums in their entirety.

And yes, the Rock Band game is silly, but again not something worth getting worked up over. At worst it's probably a bit commercial and gaudy, but at best the kids playing it will have a new found appreciation of the Beatles and of the complexity of playing music in general. Maybe they'll make their parents go out and get them real guitars so they can play the real thing.

Anyway, I doubt Lennon and Harrison would be appalled like some people claim. Like Paul and Ringo, they'd probably just be tickled that decades after they've broken up people still care enough about them to listen to their music so fervently. It's a testament to the band's influence.

Nazz Nomad said...

Jake- well put.
thanks for stopping by. and come again!

Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

I have a few Beatles records. Boring! I listen to my Monkees records more often. Neil Diamond wrote better songs than the Beatles did; and Neil is much sexier too. Too much of today's pop rock sounds too much like those Beatle fuckers. Been that way for years. It's like that old Cash Pussies song - 99.5 % is shit - and that's the way we like it.

Anonymous said...

Of course its a piece of gross cynical marketing and SHAME on them, but some FACTS

The people who will buy the mono will do so because thats the way the were recorded and more imortantl mixed, scant attention was paid to the mono mixes with that dreadfull left to right panning. This is also the FITS time ( not countless) that their catalogue has been re-master, unlike the stones who have a re-mastering job every time the sell their catalogue.
This is the first time you can hear their albums in MONO up to The White album. The white album was the only album that had equel priority to the stereo and mon mixing, the subsequent akbums were od course stereo only releases.

so who would buy the stereo versions I ask and why ?

Thats why this cynical and shameless marketing will work, that and they have done a brilliant job.