This Is Book’s Music

I’m old enough to remember when the first MTV Video Music Awards looked no better than a pricey MTV Basement Tapes. Hell, I’m old enough to remember MTV Basement Tapes. Can I hear it for Liner Notes and IRS’ The Cutting Edge? I received this press release for a dance video being nominated for this year’s VMA’s and it lead me to asking a few questions:

1) Who the hell is Cascada?
2) Why is MTV still doing the VMA’s?

Apparently Cascada came out with an album about a year ago, but while my ears aren’t tuned to the dancefloor, I’ve never heard of her. It is possible that she may be one of hundreds of faceless dance songs that might be on the radio, but I rarely listen to the radio anymore. When I do, I hear the same Train, Creed, Creedence Clearwater Revival and ZZ Top song I heard a few days previous.

The point isn’t about the appeal (or lack of it) of Cascada, more power to her. But I had to do a search and see who else were nominated for an MTV VMA in 2010. Anyone remember when a “Breakthrough Video” meant something? I… don’t know. I’m not taking away the fact that music videos today are at their best today, more than they’ve been in the last ten years. The demise of heavy music video rotation on MTV has made artists and directors more bold and daring, and arguably the videos I’ve posted on this very site in the last year are incredible, moving, and very much breakthrough. How come this wasn’t nominated?:

What’s wrong, it wasn’t Madonna or Lady Gaga?

Or this:

Maybe this:

Oh, how about this:

Or something like this:

I think MTV should stop doing an awards show that has nothing to do with what the network stands for. I’m sure Diddy will show up, no doubt Snooki will be there and maybe a thousand Eminem‘s, but give me a break MTV, you stopped being relevant after the demise of Yo! MTV Raps. You lost the M in your logo but still hold it up with twigs, now you removed the “Music Television” from your logo and yet you go out of your way to tell the world “we care”? What a disgrace to artistry and music in itself. MTV, go home and cook rice. Here’s a video for you. It was relevant then, and despite the new costume it wears almost 30 years later, relevant now.

Scholar Man made this link available in a recent Tweet and I had to pass this along. It comes from today’s Washington Post in an article written by Monica Heese about a new phenomenon… well, a mini-phenomenon that will no doubt move a generation of youth to overdose on this “drug”. But it’s not a drug, but rather sound. Click the video.

The claim is that if you download audio and specific software from i-doser.com, you are able to have “binaural brain doses”. Unfortunately, it’s similar to Kanye West speeding up songs and making it into a brand new production technique. Truth is, speeding up sound to create “chipmunk funk” isn’t a technique, it goes back to the days when everyone had records and we wanted to play it from 33 to 45 or 78. As for this “audio high”, it’s nothing more than creating music in a fashion that sounds like it will take you on a mental trip, but it’s really a mixture of production techniques that have been done since the dawn of stereophonic audio.

Which leads me to this. Does this mean if today’s kids want an old school guy, they will raid thrift stores and find old stereo bongo albums from 1961? Or even better, will they discover the joys of quadraphonic or 5.1 surround sound and have audio orgies? Will people go to The Last Airbender with blindfolds, and just simply trip out on the sound? Think of the possibilities. Maybe this is the hook surround sound fans have been waiting for. Oh, if Frank Zappa lived long enough to see this.

i-dosing. Remember friends, if you don’t want to go overboard with your music, just take half a tab, or in this case, an 8-bit mono MP3 at 96kbps, thank you.

Heard some things on the radio today that irked the crap out of me, and I wanted to share them with you.

1) DJ (wait… on-air announcer) not knowing about the Rolling Stones/Altamont thing

In this case it was a radio phone-in contest, and the lady said “an event happened on this date in 1969 involving the Rolling Stones and a raceway. Name the raceway, and name the act in question.”

This is what happens when your musical database comes from a box in Colorado, and all you do for prep work on your radio show is ready stuff off the wire and/or Perez Hilton.

So someone calls in and goes “Daytona? A lot of accidents happen on Daytona”, and the announcer cuts in and says “Daytona is a raceway, but not the right one, as it is a historic event that involved the Rolling Stones, and we don’t know what the event was, we can’t find it.”

2) A station was playing Grand Funk‘s “I’m Your Captain (Closer To Home)”, and the DJ says “this song is like The Beatles, when they made “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” and “A Day In The Life” into one song, this Grand Funk song consists of two songs as well.

In both instances, the DJ was wrong, and I’m in the car cringing. Reading liner notes late at night will do that too you, but c’mon, I know radio these days is nothing but musical filler so you can pay attention to the 11-minute commercial blocks, but… that’s why most commercial radio sucks.

---

Here are the correct answers for both:
1) The Rolling Stones played at Altamont Speedway, which someone did eventually guess. The person who won also knew that someone was killed at the show, but didn’t explain why. When The Rolling Stones played at Altamont, the Hell’s Angels were used as security. This was a bad idea to begin with, but the show went on. As the band were performing, one of the Hell’s Angels stabbed someone close to the stage, and he died. That was captured on film, and was a major part of the Gimme Shelter concert film. When the film gained momentum, one popular statement was that if Woodstock showed what it could be like if everyone was right, Gimme Shelter shows what happens when things go horribly wrong.

2) “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” and “A Day In The Life” were both recorded as separate songs, meant to be listened to as two distinct, individual songs. Perhaps the radio DJ mixed those two songs with “A Day In The Life”, which consists of two distinct songs that were merged together to create one masterpiece.

As for Grand Funk’s “Closer To Home”, it is one song consisting of two distinct movements and was not a song that came from combining two different songs.

Get it right, people.

I have not listened to every single album that has been released this year. There are still albums I have yet to listen to. But this is my current list. I will update this as I see fit, so keep coming back for updates if you feel a need to.

Erykah Badu-New Amerykah Part Two: The Return Of The Ankh (Motown Universal)
Get Rad-I Can Always Live ((Hyperrealist/Gilead Media)
The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble-Miles Away (Stones Throw)
Pablo Menéndez & Mezcla-I’ll See You In Cuba (Zoho)
Serena Maneesh-Abyss In B-Minor (4AD)
Chris Massey’s New Jazz Project-Vibrainium (self-released)
The Roots-How I Got Over (Def Jam)
The Seven Fields Of Aphelion-Periphery (Graveface)
The Souljazz Orchestra-Rising Sun (Strut)
Summer People-Good Problems (Red Leader)
Tobacco-Maniac Meat (Anticon)
Roland P. Young-Istet Serenade (Em)

Go through the albums I’ve reviewed this year and you’ll get a feel for what I liked and didn’t like. There’s a lot more, but we’ll start here.

To my knowledge, this was to be the week country singer Chely Wright was to come out with a brand new album. I don’t know her complete works but I like some of her songs, it was the song and video for “Jezebel” that hooked me. The video featured Wright looking quite sexy, she pulled a few head nod cues from Michael Jackson, and it was the song’s chorus that hooked me, and we all know country music has some of the best choruses around:

Jezebel, save your charms
‘Cause you’ll be back here in my arms
Oh, how quickly you forget
She’s not yours yet
She’s not yours yet
She’s not yours…

I’m driving home this morning, listening to NPR, and the announcer says that a country singer is coming out of the closet. Not being close to country music, I couldn’t figure out who it could be. Then I heard the name. Chely Wright? No. Really?

The story went on to say that not only did she come out with a new album and her lesbian revelation, but she also has an autobiography and a documentary film touching on her career and her having the confidence to finally come out. As I was doing an image search for a photo of Wright, I noticed that her revelation was not an isolated incident, I guess there were clues dropping from her people, a way of putting out the fact that “a country singer is coming out”. No one knew. What was to be the big country music news this week was the release of the new album by Court Yard Hounds, the new group featuring Dixie Chicks‘ sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire. However, country music was and is very conservative, so this is a double blast. A new album by two ladies from a group that publicly bashed a former president for his policies on the Iraq war, and a singer who says she’s gay. I am sure there are country diehards who are saying “I can’t stand country music, it’s too rock’n'roll.” Rock’n'roll is where the hoodlums roam, not that music where singers are drunk, sleeping with other truckers, telling lies, killing criminals, and being rebels. Oh no, that’s not good at all.

Back to Wright. The question remains: is this a huge publicity stunt, or at least a marketing plan? Wright’s publicist replied on NPR that it’s not exactly something spectacular to come out of the closet and celebrate it in country music, because most artists have not. k.d. lang became known for her thrift store outfits and unique way of performing before she reduced the novelty factor and turned herself into a country chanteuse who could easily cater to pop. When she did, she became comfortable in letting people know she too was a lesbian, which may or may not have taken her out of the country spotlight in the U.S. In her native Canada, not a big deal. In the UK, where country is treated with respect as Americana, not a big deal. Soon, country music had to measure up to pop, so here came the Shania Twain‘s of the world, and in time the Carrie Underwood‘s. At the same time, you also have someone like Jennifer Nettles, who can not only sing country but has a voice that is versatile to sing a wide range of genres. She has a strong country following with her group Sugarland, but there are pop and rock fans who are waiting to truly tear it up, I’m sure that is being planned out.

So where does this leave Chely Wright? It can’t be denied that it isn’t a marketing plan, because you don’t come out with a new album, book, and documentary film just like that, especially when you’ve only had one big pop hit. The NPR story suggested that when people heard about her coming out, the common response seemed to be “okay cool, but who is Chely Wright?” Did Wright have to take almost half her life to finally be publically acknowledged outside of the country world? Not only that, but she is marketing herself as someone who is more than country, a singer/songwriter who will play pop, rock, country-rock… she’s not going to just be a country singer anymore. This means she will be able to do songs with everyone from Pink to Christina Aguilera to John Legend and Omarion if she feels like it. When you’re in the public eye, it’s all about marketing, and her outing has arguably become one of the best things for her.

Wright outing herself shouldn’t be a big deal, but when marketing is an issue and everyone wants to believe in the beauty of their favorite country divas, and the fact that the country music community is very conservative, it is. Also add to the fact that she lives in a country, amongst a culture, that still looks down on anything that isn’t an accepted norm. People are bashed, ridiculed, and sometimes killed for being out of one’s comfort zone. In the 1960′s, there was a country singer named Johnny Rebel who released racist 45rpm singles with such songs as “Looking For A Handout” and “”Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)”, which one could find in various southern bars, saloons, taverns, and truck stops. The claim was that they were done as jokes, but regardless of the intent, it’s not funny. If it hasn’t happened already, I’m certain there are country radio stations that have already put together their own Chely Wright songs which touch on her coming out. Perhaps this is why she is promoting herself as a singer/songwriter out of the country genre.

In the end, it’s still about the music, covering the life Wright sees, breathes, and lives. If anything, it is sure to make people buy her albums and see if she had been dropping clues all this time. I remember when Melissa Etheridge came out of the closet, I went “oh, Similar Features? I get it now.” I don’t have a gaydar like some people claim they do, so I honestly never knew about Wright being lesbian, and that’s the point, she felt a need to hide it because country music is (according to her) very homophobic. Now, she feels whole and it will result in some great music. Those who didn’t know of her before will get a chance to discover what she’s about, there are some great heartbreakers such as “Back Of The Bottom Drawer”. Those who embraced her before but will not because of her admittance will miss out on future music.

Music is about complete expression, and Chely Wright has done something that is a very bold move. It shouldn’t be a bold move, because that reads as a “tactic”. Now that she has crossed that personal barrier, may she continue to entertain her fans both old and new.

It is now official: MTV: Music Television is now just MTV, and the “Music Television” tagline has been removed.

Four months ago, I wrote an article on the MTV that once was. It seems foolish to be nostalgic about a cable network, I should have been outside at the park, playing with my best friends. But I love music, and seeing people move to it on a regular basis was a true addiction.

The new logo is cut by 25 percent, so it seems shorter but still retains its bold M and graffiti-influenced “TV”. The network abandoned music years ago, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise, but what may come as a surprise is the fact that the success of Jersey Shore helped make the network realize that they needed a new look.

MTV closely but surely became a lifestyle network, less to do with the music and its creators, and more about what you do if and when the radio is on. Remember the early days of The Real World when some of the people on the show were wanna-be music artists, hoping to catch that big break on a music cable network? No longer. The logo will be utilized with the current breed of MTV “talent”, whether it be Snooki, Dookie, or Fungfunklaputukii. By no longer being “Music Television”, wuill there be a need for the annual MTV Video Music Awards? Most likely that will disappear into the cable sunset.

MTV used to be a beautiful woman, in a metaphorical sense. It then went Hollywood, loved the attention, abandoned its original mission, and made a visit with Dr. 90210. It’s had a new face for years, but it looks like, to quote an album title by original MTV enemy Jello Biafra, a “plastic surgery disaster”. Everyone has the same face, same puckered mouth, same eyes, same everything. The sameness isn’t unique, but someone is making money off of that sameness. The almighty advertising dollar is what changed MTV, nothing else, and their greed turned them into the mess they are now. Let them go, for it knows no longer what it used to be.

Rapper Common once said “I Used To Love H.E.R.” in reference to hip-hop music and the changed it went through. In the song, he said no matter how far hip-hop travels, “she” knows where home is and will always be welcomed back. The same can’t be said for MTV.

The original MTV died a long time ago, but it fortunately motivated many singers, songwriters, artists, filmmakers, photographers, journalists, comedians, and sure even a few fashion designers and choreographers, to create. That you can never take away: inspiration. Inspiration has always been around, but between 1981-1996, it was presented all day and all night, in stereo. It was the nightclub we kids wanted to enter, and it made us look forward to growing up.

Maybe when actor/director Alex Winter created a comedy show for the network called The Idiot Box, when one could watch fictitious battles between a fake Wilson-Philips and the real Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., he had already seen what the network was becoming.

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
we know Major Tom’s a junkie
strung out in heaven’s high
hitting an all-time low
-David Bowie‘s “Ashes To Ashes”

david bowie ashes to ashes
Uploaded by kareem93. – See the latest featured music videos.

(photograph by Andrew McLeod)

When I read this article from the Los Angeles Times, I cringed somewhat. A part of me wants to hold to the goofy “sacred cows” of rock’n'roll, but a part of me is also thinking cool, someone is trying something different from their norm, but I have a few mixed feelings about this.

The article by Shirley Halperin states that as Mary J. Blige was in Los Angeles to record the updated version of “We Are The World” to raise relief funds for Haiti, she was recording music for her forthcoming album. In this case it was a recording session that featured guitarists Steve Vai and Orianthi, drummer Travis Barker, and bassist Randy Jackson, all handled by producer Ron Fair. The song is Led Zeppelin‘s “Stairway To Heaven”.

Pause.

I’m a huge Led Zeppelin fan and I respect the power of that song. I grew up with it, loved it, understand the Wayne’s World joke, and now it’s a classic rock staple, the staple of all staples to where if it’s on the radio, I turn it off. I’ll listen to it every few months, but that’s it. When people talk about Led Zeppelin, it eventually leads to discussion of “Stairway To Heaven”, it is their epic song from one of the biggest selling hard rock albums of all time.

However, as someone who calls herself a longtime rock’n'roll fan, it just seems so cliche to do that song. I can already see it: the hard rock/heavy metal kids will hate it. Some of Mary’s fans will say “oh no, she’s gone off the deep end now”. Blige was criticized years ago for working with Elton John and George Michael, that’s fairly tame compared to what this song will do because there are people who still feel Led Zeppelin are monarchs of hell, with Satan found in their music, artwork, and mysterious demonic symbols on the cover with the band carrying a bundle of sticks. There will no doubt be some minster who will reverse the Blige version and say “now listen, the evil shared by England’s Led Zeppelin has been modernized to talk about gang warfare, crack cocaine, the Talbian, and Lil’ Wayne”. Blige will become the new Satan, and it will be interesting to see what happens.

Personally, it would have been cooler to hear Blige cover something not-so-obvious:

King Crimson‘s “Epitaph”
Whitesnake‘s “Slow And Easy”
Y&T‘s “Eyes Of A Stranger”
Queensryche “I Don’t Believe In Love”
Aerosmith‘s “Nobody’s Fault”
Metallica‘s “The Things That Should Not Be”
Kiss‘ “Do You Love Me”
Black Sabbath‘s “Solitude” or “Children Of The Grave”
Metal Church‘s “Watch The Children Pray”
Mudhoney‘s “This Gift”
Tad‘s “Stumblin’ Man”

Since I’m mentioning Mudhoney and Tad, imagine if you will, a Mary J. Blige cover of Mercyful Fate‘s “Gypsy”:

If “Stairway To Heaven” will turn Blige to Satan for some people, I can’t imagine what would happen if Blige was open enough to cover something sung by the almighty King Diamond.

I don’t know, I would not mind hearing Blige cover more rock and pop, no harm in that. Yet out of all the songs to do, “Stairway To Heaven”? I’m sure some of the people involved are thinking “fuck a sacred cow” but… how about “Thank You”, “The Rain Song”, “That’s The Way”, “In The Light”, or “Since I’ve Been Loving You”? The choice of “Stairway To Heaven” is similar to saying “I love rock, but only what I heard on the radio. What are the big rock hits?”

We’ll have to wait a few more months to see what will happen. If this moves Keri Hilson to cover Black Sabbath‘s “Sign Of The Southern Cross”, I’ll throw up my devil horns. In truth, hard rock and heavy metal has always been a means of debate between those who have seen the music and creators as evil, and fans who know of the music as a means of escape and dealing with the realities of the world. A lot of hard rock and heavy metal have “heavy” subject matter, but we all know countless bands, especially the ugly ones (you know who I’m talking about), have done songs on everything from love, loss, fears, and hopes. Could be a Maxwell or Raphael Saadiq album. Maybe next time, when a soul/R&B vocalist covers a rock song, I hope it’s one that challenges them, the original song, and the fans.

Anyone remember this logo? It seems almost archaic, perhaps obsolete, but this original MTV: Music Television logo, with the yellow, blue, and, red, felt revolutionary. Maybe it was revolutionary, because up until then, music was listened to on records, 8-track tapes, cassettes, or reel-to-reels, at home. Car stereos made it possible to play 8-tracks and cassettes, but they were still heavy and clunky. Everyone looked forward to a band coming into town. You could find a radio anywhere and everywhere, and it was free music. Recording music on a cassette for free, without having to buy it as a store, felt like a risk, even if you knew damn well no one would ever knock on your door and confiscate your tapes.

MTV felt revolutionary because up until August 1, 1981, the only time you saw music was on something like Dance Fever, Solid Gold, or maybe on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon. In truth, there were many options to watch artists perform live, but it was limited to three networks. Cable TV did exist, but back then Home Box Office seemed like the best thing in the world. A 16-hour cable network that ran movies which you didn’t have to go to the theater to see? Also, if you wanted to experience a movie or concert on TV in stereo, you had to call the cable company to get a converter that would transfer the stereophonic signal from your cable company and it could be broadcast through your parents stereo system. FAR OUT!

Then came 1981.

I was a music fan, and I became a devoted MTV junkie. It was different, it was cool to see all of this cool music (as limited as it may have been). For me, making the jump from AM to FM radio was a thrill, because I could hear music in the same audio quality as a record. Now to have my album cover artwork move around? People of a younger generation will never understand how exciting that was, because it’s a given, especially when music formats are appealing to a niche audience.

Let me get to the point of this. I read on RapReviews.com that MTV will no longer be using the words “Music” or “Television”, and will be changing their logo because they want to continue appealing to a much broader audience. For those of you who may not remember or know, MTV used to indeed mean “Music Television”, a cable network that actually played fourteen videos an hour. I am not joking: 14 videos an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: in stereo. Then they would broadcast concerts, some of which were exclusively shot for and by MTV. They used to run tour dates and news segments that were not done by Kurt Loder. There used to be shows like MTV’s Liner Notes and IRS’ The Cutting Edge. It felt like a college radio station, but you didn’t have to drive in a weird part of town to catch the frequency. MTV existed in the post-disco/post-punk era, although post-punk was new wave and it was all the same anyway. MTV existed in a world where if you were black, your record label just didn’t make music videos. Oh sure, artists like Cameo, Ashford & Simpson, Midnight Star, and Prince were making music videos, a few of which were as basic/cheap looking as their rock counterparts, but MTV had a rockist attitude and remained that way for 18 months. Yet it was still exciting to see artists like Adam & The Ants, Joe Jackson, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, Temple Tudor, and Total Cuelo come on the screen and make music. As a kid, they might have looked freaky, but it meant you could look like however you wanted. Maybe you fell in love with a member of Bananarama.

Anyway, MTV: Music Television became a lifestyle network early on, pushing music-related programming and yet it loved non-music programming. Remote Control, Half Hour Comedy Hour, House Of Style, and The Idiot Box may have been loosely connected with music, but it was the basis for much of what we see on cable and network TV today. MTV between 1986-1990 looked a lot like what Nickelodeon is. Once The Real World aired and became a success, MTV slowly pushed their music programming to the side. As it did this, more non-music programming hit the airwaves, to the point where it did not look or feel like MTV anymore. Even their music countdown shows like Total Request Live felt like trying out samples at a supermarket, but never having a full meal. MTV seemed to get more excited by the personality than the music, and they loved celebrating the celebrity. They could have pushed more music shows, and they did make a number of attempts in the 90′s, but they never seemed to stick. For many, MTV died when the last episode of YO! MTV Raps aired. Even though 120 Minutes and Alternative Nation pushed on for years, that golden era would soon come to an end around the time boy bands were growing in popularity, and MTV finally embraced hip-hop and R&B, two formats they primarily ignored throughout the 80′s.

I remember when people were calling it eMpTyV, or The Dead Kennedys doing songs like “MTV Get Off The Air”. Even Beck, a staple of MTV for years, was smart enough to write and record “MTV Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack”. With that said, I remember wanting to be an MTV VJ so bad. I loved radio, and MTV at the time felt like a few steps higher, because maybe it meant being able to explose my favorite music to an audience of millions, across the country. I wanted to have my own show, I don’t know what it would or could have been, but to be able to call up your favorite artists and say “hey, I’d like for you to come to the studio and perform. Would you?” I wanted to run MTV for a week so it would have the kind of programming I would want, so it would represent me and my interests. MTV ate itself and didn’t mind sipping its own constipation residue, eventhough they might interpret their change and progress as “going where the advertising money shines bright”.

It’s sad, but it would be silly to say that I miss a cable network that was once the source of much great music, incredible program, people who seemed to love music, people who cared about the music and listening experience. They were like the coolest DJ’s on radio, but right in front of your screen. Who wouldn’t want to grow up and want to meet people like them, or to meet them, or to become like them? Maybe as record stores started losing its popularity, and records were less about what sounds good but “how many units can we sell on a quarterly basis?”, MTV started to lose its appeal. As the internet came and brought more music fans from around the world, maybe MTV began to show its grey hair. As fans wanted to get closer to the music, MTV started to move away. It was like a drug, you wanted to get home after school so you could be the first to watch a WORLD PREMIERE VIDEO.

At one point, I think around the time of The Strokes, The Hives, and various other The bands, I realized how much I relied on the video content and I too started to move away. I found myself renewing my appreciation for music, and perhaps saying that is a bit old school, but I also got all of my music listening habits from observing my parents, and they are now my own. So to finally read about MTV putting a few nails into its own coffin, at least in name, is almost a downer, but not quite. Because you see, music existed before MTV, and it definitely existed before the television was invented. Despite the many trends that have come and gone, and the technology that continues to improve and upgrade itself, there’s still music out there waiting to be explored, and it will continue to be out there to explore with or without a network that used to show music an incredible amount of respect. It’s safe to say that MTV no longer needs the M, and why not be like other networks that have changed their name? MTV: what does it represent? It’s just branding, but the same can be said for what it used to represent. It’s just music, right?

Thank you MTV, for your original mission in your life. Now you look like a culture-less face staring into the void at nothing. To the artists and video directors who once made the network so great: keep on creating. Your contributions will never be forgotten.

Unless you haven’t had a television on for the last month, then you should know that next week will be a huge day for Beatles fans. September 9, 2009, a/k/a 9/9/09, b/k/a “the sacred day of the 9″, is the day that the long awaited Beatles remasters will be released on CD, as individual stereo discs, all of the stereo discs in one box, and a monaural box set for the audio junkies. What’s also coming out is The Beatles: Rock Band video game, where you are able to play along with The Beatles in animated form, with optional guitar, bass, and drum set to play along with. Deep Beatles fans also know that the video game contains digital multi-tracks of the various songs used in the game, which will make it possible to hear isolated bass, guitar, drums, and vocal tracks depending on how they were designed for the game. The CD’s have been put on the floor in some record stores in the U.S., while there were reports that a few of them have been sold at Wal-Mart’s before release day. Some people are also reporting that at a few Wal-Mart’s, some cashier’s will say that the title cannot be purchased until September 9th, but not all of them. In other words, the CD’s hit streets before the release date, so it shouldn’t come to anyone’s surprise that the remasters (and the video game) are now available online if you know where to look.

The question remains: what’s next for The Beatles in terms of releases? Critics had predicted long ago that people would lose interest in the compact disc by 2009, and as fans move over to the MP3 for convenience over quality, it seems there’s a bit of merit to what those critics were saying. If you are to look at what’s being released and reissued, 2009 has shown a mad rush to get out as much music as possible, almost as if record labels are trying to give one last hurrah to their catalogs before it gets purchased by Verizon or Google. To a casual fan, it probably seems like EMI is doing all it can to milk the Beatles teet until it truly dries up. Before the CD, EMI in the UK and Capitol in the U.S. compiled Beatles music in countless ways to sell it to the market, making it possible to hear the same songs again in a new package. The 1987 CD pressings pretty much made compilations like Love Songs, Rarities, and Reel Music pointless, and when thousands of Beatles fans were not satisfied with some of the mistakes found on those 1987 CD’s, they pushed for justice. Over the years, EMI would release their BBC recordings and also come up with the three-part Anthology, something that fans felt was a relief over the same ol’, but it also showed how much of an influence bootleggers had on what appeared on the comp.

Nonetheless, a casual fan will see the hairy Beatles on the front cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and go “again?” I’ve heard some of the stereo remasters, I’ll have a formal review later on, but I’ll briefly say that soundwise, The Beatles have not sounded any better. Mindblowing. However, what does the future have in store for Beatles fans? As with anything related to the group and their music, no one knows and no one is saying.

In terms of music, there has never been an official release of their Christmas album.

The album was made by Apple Records in 1970 exclusively for fan club members, who would receive a flexi-disc or cardboard record during the holiday season between 1963-1969. These records had not been heard by most fans until the Christmas album was counterfeited. In the digital era, the Christmas album has been packaged countless times, including outtakes from the recording sessions. The album is no longer a secret, as many radio stations around the world will play them alongside regular Christmas fare during the holiday season, but still no legitimate release. Considering how widely available the album is online, perhaps EMI/Apple feel no need to release it but I’m sure someone is saying “when the time is right”. Well, best to do it now so that Paul and Ringo will be able to talk about it for inclusion within liner notes.

Another side of The Beatles recordings that have been praised by fans are the acetates, where only a small handful were made for each member of the group, perhaps producer Sir George Martin, and close associates. Acetates, known to some as dub plates, were made when a song was recorded in the studio and one of The Beatles wanted to take the recording home for review. A rough mix of a song, the audio equivalent of a “rough sketch”, would be made into a one-off record and given to the intended person. What is of interest is the fact that most of these rough mixes were never released in this form, as they are unpolished and not produced, you’re hearing these songs in the most primitive form without the additions of strings, percussion, vocals, or other elements that may have been added during post-production. These acetates can go for $200+ when put on the market, which is a rare occasion. Existing acetates have also been bootlegged over the years, compiled into CD compilations so fans can hear songs develop from one take to the other. A very small handful are sourced from existing tapes, which would prove to be of value. A lot of times, the rough mix of a song was solely documented for an acetate, it was not saved on tape so the only way that mix can be heard in that fashion is by doing a vinyl transfer from the records.

Over the years, fans and Beatles scholars have claimed that there isn’t much left in the tape vaults to dig up, that everything that needs to be heard has been released. As time goes on, there seems to be stories of newly discovered tapes, adding to the already valuable cliche of recordings. Another option would be to create alternate mixes of the songs directly from the multi-tracks, similar to what they did with the Yellow Submarine soundtrack. Or a series of isolated tracks from the multi-tracks where Beatles fans can hear just the drums, or just the bass, or maybe the string section? By doing that, it would lead to an endless amount of remixes, mash-ups and variations, which essentially opens the music of The Beatles to anyone and everyone, which arguably would diminish the value of the catalog. Almost 50 years after Decca Records rejected The Beatles, their power has yet to fade, but that’s now. There will come a time when the glory of The Beatles will be nothing more than a 20th century memory, and maybe a conspiracy theory will surface, claiming that The Beatles never existed, that the songs that have moved generations to listen to music differently, look at the world with broader strokes, and perhaps pick up an instrument or sing for the first time, were put together by session musicians from Los Angeles while waiting for Frank Sinatra to come in. Yet with all of the books, videos, and of course the music that exists, it’s all there.

If anything, it will become one of the greatest phenomenons of the 20th century, how four goofy kids from Liverpool were able to inspire with something as simple as music. Even when there’s nothing left, people will continue to ask for more. Since there is more left, give the fans what they want.

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Here are some other resources you can take a look at for more information on some of the topics discussed in this article:

BeatleSource.com, featuring descriptions and photos of the many Beatles acetates that have surfaced over the years, along with promos, photos, and much more.

Beatle.net by Bruce Spizer, an author, fan, and collector of The Beatles whose many books on the band are criticially acclaimed and are considered essential by other fans and collectors around the world.

Recording The Beatles by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehey, by far best and most in-depth book on The Beatles recorded legacy ever made, period.

Rare Beatles, a look at some of the more collectible Beatles albums, from records to ticket stubs and more.

Beatles Worldwide, a 2-part book showing the many variations of Beatles records around the world.

Doug Sulpy, one of the premiere Beatles collectors and scholars, founder of the 910 Beatles fanzine and author of a number of Beatles-related books

I’ve been a Washington State resident for almost 25 years, which may shock a lot of you considering how much aloha I still have for Hawai’i. That’s eternal. However, the Pacific Northwest is very much home too, and I’ve yet to explore it in full.

When I moved to the Northwest at the age of 13, I already had a thirst for knowledge and information. Music was a top priority so I seeked what I could find and I found The Rocket, a now-defunct paper that I would eventually write for in the early 1990′s. In terms of news, I would eventually discover both of the Seattle dailies, the Post-Intelligencer and the The Seattle Times. For whatever reason, I preferred the news stories at the PI. When I had bigger goals of moving to Seattle or at least going to school to become a recording engineer, I had hoped to become a staff writer there since it would not only have been possible to share my talent with them, but more importantly to become a part of a team that seemed to love writing as well.

Unfortunately I have never been a Seattle resident, but always consider it a home away from home because it’s a big city (which I miss, as a resident of a small town), and you can go to any type of concert at any time of the evening. There was a time I could go to the U-District and visit every record store, and I did, from Tower to Cellophone Square to Second Time Around, those visits were for years mandatory stops.

Did I read the PI religiously, no, but when I did pick up the paper that was a part of the habit. When you want news, you “pick up the paper” and maybe in a few years that term will be outdated. My ritual for years has always been to pick up the Wednesday and Friday papers, as the Wednesday paper usually has some good recipes. Hell, a man can’t live by soup alone, so why not look and see what could be cool to make and good to eat? Friday is always for the What’s Happening section, not only to see concerts I’d like to go to but can’t because I’m too broke, but to read the articles and reviews on CD’s, movies, and books, not only from visitors but the Seattle community as well. When those sections were read, I would then look through the rest of the paper.

Today I picked up my copies of the last print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, because as of today, the PI are no longer a “newspaper” but are choosing to have an online presence and nothing but. Call it economics, call it the threat of the net, call it a downfall, call it “too many outlets” but rather than make an attempt to save the paper and/or downscale, they have sacrified the heart of what the paper was all about. Great writers, great stories and interviews, and it was always done with quality. When there was opinions about politics, they smacked and smacked hard and a lot of times the public would want to smack back. I remember when a Walgreen’s was going to open in a neighborhood, and residents protested because the lights from the store were too bright and had requested for them to dim it, it might have seemed petty at first but it was about the community standing up to a corporation and saying no, we live here, respect us as well. Perhaps that can also be said about the community of writers that were at the PI.

With the demise of the paper, the PI had announced cutting their staff significantly, I believe one report said that their staff of 150 would be cut to 20, and they will now hire people who will be looking for quality stories on other websites and blogs. Now, this can look good for those in the blogosphere and if this is to become the trend across the country and the world, then bloggers will have to step up and take their love of writing seriously, and in turn will be given the same credentials as a respected journalist.

There was also the complaint that with one newspaper in town, how will that change the dynamic of reporting? One could always rely on the PI to report on an angle that the Times didn’t touch, and the Times could easily do the same, so what now? If anything, there’s always the underground/alternative/indie press, and perhaps they will take a small bit of the spotlight that the PI has left behind. Not everyone is going to read something that’s not mainstream, but it will give them a slightly louder voice than before. People know about The Stranger and The Seattle Weekly, and now there will be a bit more exploring, and both of them already have website with extensive stories and articles to choose from.

Fortunately, many of the writers at the PI will be moving on to new things, and many (including myself) will follow. But are there benefits to the demise of an incredible newspaper? Yes. For one, it means one less paper source, reducing what goes into the trash. Seattle is a city that looks forward to becoming more green and healthy as their Portland brethren, and this is a start. For two, we all know how tech-savvy Seattle has been for the last 25 years. When I moved here I knew what Nintendo was but it wasn’t NINTENDO just yet. Starbucks meant nothing to me, and what the hell was a Microsoft? I was still enjoying my Commodore VIC 20, which had a maximum memory of 5 K. Seattle was not the core of anything, I remember driving into Seattle from Eastern Washington on a day that had rain, hail, and sunshine. Seattle was a sleepy town where you could be in downtown at 3pm, yell, and still hear yourself. It was laid back, and you could probably eat some fish & chips without bumping into anyone. I remember when downtown had department stores that are no longer there, book stores that have moved, things look much more upscale now but back in the mid-1980′s it was very humble. But Seattle has progressed big time, and perhaps moving to an all-online route will make the Seattle PI look at how to keep the brand they’ve made while strengtening the power of online news. Many of us already get our news online immediately, so it will be an interesting transition for them.

I grew up with the traditional newspaper, and when I’m done, my stack of papers go into the recycle bin. That has become my information ritual, but the internet has taken that over because you can get everything now and before anyone else. The internet has hurt newspapers significantly, and the PI knows this, this is why there’s no newspaper. The hope is that by going online, they’ll find a way to make it through and make money with online ads. That’s there the money’s at, and in order to be a business you go where the money goes. I will be visiting Seattle PI even more, and if you’ve been a frequent visitor you know that there has been a tranisition for years, but now they don’t have to rely on going to print. I wish them success. I will now have to get to know the Seattle Times a bit more, both in print and online.

In the last Seattle PI newspaper, it was said that the reason people created newspapers was because it was the cheapest way to find accumulated news. A one year subscription to the PI in the late 1800′s was $4. The newspaper was about being economically feasible to offer something the public wanted and demanded. The public now wants, demands, and expects news on a regular basis, and they can now get it for free from not just one or two local sources, but from millions of sources around the world. You can access it at home, on your iPhone, at work, in your car, at a public library. So news will always remain news, but can it be reported and written properly. Someone said the demise of the PI will lead to “journalism without journalists”, which suggests that if people rely on websites and blogs, who is going to weed out quality reporting from selfish gloating? For now, we have the Seattle Times, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, and The Seattle Courant, and people have put faith in the reporters they read on a regular basis. It’s about time people do that again and start looking for quality instead of quantity. Maybe people are so used to the barrage of information that everyone expects another website to be a filter for them. Then again, it’s time to fully embrace the information age we’re now in because if newspapers are going to become a thing of the past, let’s hope that news outlets of today and tomorrow will retain the same dedication that their forefathers once had.