Juanjo Diego: The Beatles by other artists

First of all, I must admit that I’m a very fond of The Beatles. I have played and sung their songs since I was a child, even when I didn’t have any English, as the sole sentences I was able to speak were “yesterday” “All you need is love”, “Yellow Submarine” and similar expressions. I don’t know what a rare confluence of time and people happened in that moment, but four young musicians, not specially gifted to play an instrument, changed the evolution of pop music and left us some of the best songs ever written. Actually, I strongly believe that the "Fab Four" are rigthfully into the history of modern music.  

However, in this entry for our blog I don’t want to talk about the Beatles themselves, but the deserved tribute that other artists have dedicated to them, including their best songs in their albums and concerts. The Beatles’ songs have lingered beyond the band, because (incidentally the title of an incredible less known song!) of the unsurpassable quality of their melodies, the beauty of the chord progressions, the lovely and sometimes naive arrangements, and the capacity of being accepted by any kind of listeners, so much so that their music has become the first multigenerational musical deal. To sum up, this is a little entry about Beatles songs covered by others. 

Let’s start! The Beatles’ songs are the most covered of all (led by “Yesterday”, with thousands of new versions) and it is indeed the band with the most “tribute bands” all over the short history of modern music (a tribute band is one that only performs songs by just one famous group, trying to imitate its sound, style, even clothing or movements on stage. Pink Floyd, Genesis, Queen or Aerosmith, among others, have tribute bands you can find frequently on tour):

Needless to say, I prefer the original act, of course. Nevertheless, there are other performers, great well-known artists in many cases, who have sung the Beatles’ songs in their own style, achieving excellent results, and showing that these unforgettable tunes are good by themselves and probably  going to be sung for years. I’ll try to show you here some highly personal recordings which connect the song to each singer’s style, giving them something special and distinctive. Some examples I particularly love (surely you can add more) are: 

1) The Beatles by the queen and the king of soul, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles no less. They are superb because they were singing as they used to do - no attempt to imitate the original at all - but simply to transform the songs into their own. The way they internalize and personalize the lyrics and melodies is incredible and perfectly matches song and singer. In fact, some people prefer these covers to the Beatles’ originals. Listen, enjoy and judge by yourselves. I just think each of them is a different performance but still one incredible song!

 

2) Ray Charles recorded other Beatles songs like Eleanor Rigby or Imagine, always with an accomplished approach. Another great multi-instrumentalist and singer, Stevie Wonder, recorded in his own funky way We can work it out, even changing the internal rhythm and musical accents of the song, in order to make it his own. Listen carefully to the singular chorus rhythm, which is awesome, isn’t it? Years later, he dared to perform it live in front of Sir Paul McCartney. Unbeatable! I can assure you that this blind musician is almost perfect, both as a singer and as a keyboard and harmonica player.

 

3) An American soul singer and a lively Welsh youngster got together to cover Hey Jude in an inviting manner. The "original version" of this cover was recorded only by Tom Jones and succeeded almost immediately. It’s full of energy and brightness and retains the strength of the original, specially the long end. Jones’s ease with any style suits Wilson Pickett’s phrasing perfectly. They are enjoying themselves and proving yet again, like in the other examples, that what is really important is the quality of the composition:

   

 Maybe you prefer Tom Jones’s solo recording (a bit longer) ...

4) I could cite many more examples, but I’ll be content with two more. First, a well-known country singer (also appreciated as an actress, though not by me!). In this case I like the traditional sound of country guitars and voices, with this special percussion, so characteristic of this kind of bluegrass music. I don’t usually enjoy this excessively dyed blonde, but I have to admit that she has many recordings that deserve recognition: Coat of many colors, Trio (with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstandt) etc. as well as at least another two (or “two other”) cover versions that I know: Peace train, originally sung by Cat Stevens, and Stairway to heaven (can you believe it?), by the one-off Led Zeppelin. Anyway, this is Dolly Parton’s rendition of Help:

 

Finally, the only cover version of a Beatles song that is probably better known than the original: With a little help from my friends, by Joe Cocker. It was first performed in the famous Woodstock festival in 1969 and quickly became #1. From then on, this fantastic artist was forced to sing this song in almost every concert, and even it was the only “original" cover version included in a musical named after The Beatles called Across the Universe. Again, this is a totally different way to sing this song, both rhythmically and stylistically, from The Beatles’. It’s for this reason that I love it:

 

Enough from me for the moment, but if you want more Beatles covers try to search for and listen to these songs: Something, by Tony Bennet, Come Together by Michael Jackson, Ticket to ride by The Carpenters, Can’t buy me love by Ella Fitzgerald, A hard day’s night by Diana Ross and The Supremes, or even Michelle by Will Downing.

The Beatles, one feeling

Elena Herrero says:

Love, love me do 

You know I love you 

I'll always be true 

So please 

Love me do 

Yes, it was 1962 and this is the way a group of four Liverpudlians sounded for the first time in the British radio stations; at that time, they were trying to get into the world of music while people were already starting to think: where the heck did these long-haired boys come from with that sound that had never been listened to before? But what people did not know yet was that those four youngsters were going to change their lives, their state of mind, their way of thinking and dressing, or even the way of combing themselves. After the hardships of the Second World War, The Beatles were going to change everything, to raise a great smile on each face of every inhabitant of the world through their wonderful songs, by penning some excellent lyrics. They were the band who wrote sad love lyrics, like in “For No One”, which doesn't end up sounding completely sappy.

 

I can almost say that they conquered the world without realizing, and the following generations were - and still are - marked by them, since they wrote the new "laws" of music, by revolutionizing it and creating their own style while shaping people’s way of thinking in every corner of our planet. But how? By changing their styles, always experimenting on new things ... other singers and bands went mad whenever The Beatles produced something new. My parents got me into their music, so I daresay that I have loved the famous group since I was three. You may say I´m a dreamer, but I would give anything to travel back in time, just to see and listen to the greatest band live! Songs like Hey Jude, Let It Be, All you need is love or Something mean something very special to me.

I am so pleased to know that this feeling will last a lot longer, I mean, being a fan of the “Fab Four”, transmitting a message of peace and love. All you need is love, this is the best influence they left in our hearts.

No doubt, The Beatles are one of the greatest rock groups in history *; I really believe they are. No music band will manage to reach them … EVER. What they represent only happens once ..., and it already happened.

This is my "Beatles' 50th anniversary" small tribute. I hope you folks enjoy it!

Rosa Cuesta says:

My first memories of The Beatles go back to the late sixties, when I was only a little girl aged five or six. At the time I loved going to the facilities of the telephone company, where some operators sitting in a row answered whoever picked up a phone. I really enjoyed listening to those ladies say “What number, please?” while they played with the telephone wires. At the same time the operators used a radio with The Beatles’ songs and I learned to hum some of them, like “A hard day’s night” or “Yellow submarine”. 

I was fifteen or sixteen when some Beatles’ records were revived. I remember listening to them for most of the day so I became a big enthusiast of the Fab Four. I greatly enjoyed singing the lyrics, even if I did not understand them. I was a teenager, the time of my first love and my romantic feelings arose thanks to their music. My favorite songs were “And I love her”, “Yesterday”,” Michelle” “In my life”…, which, even if you did not understand, made you feel a lot of emotions. 

The Beatles wanted to change the world, firstly by fighting against the conventions of the time, showing a great joie de vivre, and later by declaring themselves against war and for freedom.

Eventually, I lost the habit of listening to their music, but maybe this Beatles’ anniversary and these wonderful memories have made me recover the pleasure of listening to the amazing band again. Not only were The Beatles incredible but also an icon of a generation that wanted to change everything.

Rosa sent this pic: The Beatles in Spain back in '65 ... Ole!

Great stuff, girls! I cannot think of a better way to kind of say goodbye to summer on our blog. Now, I'd just like to add one more thing, a 15-minute excerpt (subtitled in Spanish) of a fantastic DVD collection which I recommend if you're a lifelong Beatlemaniac, called "The Beatles Anthology". This is part 1, how it all began 50 years ago. You know, to me it's just "moving" to listen to their voices (those lovely mild Scouse accents!) reminiscing the early years, especially when you realise that John and George are not around any longer ...

Deep Purple's Made in Japan: 40 years on

Almost 40 years ago, in December 1971, American rock guitarist Frank Zappa was in the middle of playing with his backing band, The Mothers of Invention, a gig at the Casino in the Swiss city of Montreux. That infamous night, “some stupid with a flare gun, burned the place to the ground” … well, I think some of you may have heard the story before!

To my mind, one of the all-time classic live hard rock recordings. That’s the simplest, perfect way I can think of to describe one of my cult hard rock albums ever, Deep Purple’s legendary “Made in Japan”. And the reason why I’m writing these lines on the blog is that today DP’s fans across the world, including myself of course, commemorate its 40th anniversary.

The classic album cover

The oddity of Made in Japan is that the album wasn’t even supposed to happen.  Let me explain: legend has it that Deep Purple had released a fantastic, commercially successful album, Machine Head, a few months earlier, in March 1972 to be precise, and the promotional tour for the record had brought the English rock band to Japan. The Japanese branch of their music label in those days, Warner Brothers, had been urging Deep Purple to come up with a solid live album, but apparently this did not interest the band much. As the unbearable pressure increased, they eventually decided, yet quiet hurriedly - and unwillingly - it seems, to mix some tracks from the material they had recorded live during their sold-out Japanese gigs in Osaka and Tokyo on three consecutive dates, 15, 16 & 17 August 1972. So, in December that year, the band - at long last, thank God! – agreed to release Made in Japan, yet only in the namesake country initially. DP made a demand to own all the album’s master tapes to ensure that it would not be released anywhere else but in the land of the rising sun. 

Luckily enough, the album became a huge success in Japan overnight, so Warner Bros approached the band in an attempt to get their permission to sell the album worldwide.  This probably would have never happened had it not been for the insistence of the band’s keyboard player, Jon Lord, who loved what he heard on the record. Incidentally, Jon died barely a month ago, so he’ll be sorely missed in this celebration, being one of the founding members of the band.

Anyway, as DP decided to finally release the album, there was a small drawback.  They had another record ready for the market, titled “Who Do You Think We Are”, so Warner Bros quickly released it in February and Made in Japan in April. 

As some of you might know, Made in Japan features the classic Deep Purple (famously known as “Mark II”) line-up: along with the afore-mentioned Jon Lord, the rest of the band then consisted of guitar wizard Ritchie Blackmore, the amazing Ian Gillian on vocals, super-fast drummer Ian Paice and, last but not least, the dark but always efficient Roger Glover on bass.

Deep Purple's classic line-up. Left to right: Lord, Blackmore, Glover, Gillan & Paice.

It contains, arguably, some of the best music the band ever did: instantly recognisable rock classics such as ”Smoke on the Water,” ” Lazy,” ” Space Truckin’,” ” Highway Star” etc. are all found in this legendary album.

Needless to say I’ve got many of DP’s records, including of course Made In Japan (in fact on cassette, vinyl and CD!) and have been lucky enough to see the band live, actually twice here in Salamanca, the second alongside my son, who is now a keen guitarist himself and a diehard fan of the band too. And though sadly Ritchie Blackmore, one of my guitar heroes, wasn’t in the line-up, I absolutely loved those gigs. Both occasions were pretty special to me since I was brought up on rock music, and no doubt Made in Japan will always find a fond place in my heart.

Unfortunately, Made in Japan was never videotaped – such was the lack of interest by the band in what they were about to produce, unaware of the piece of music history they were actually playing – so I’ve only been able to find some alternative clips which are closely reminiscent of what they performed during those glorious Japanese gigs.

Though surely not as famous as "Smoke on the Water" or "Highway Star", the raw, emotional intensity of "Child in Time and the rhythm-and bluesy feel of Lazy have always made them two of my fave tracks. Besides, these two YouTube videos feature the songs live and were recorded in Denmark, if I'm not wrong, during their Machine Head Tour, roughly at about the same time as Made In Japan.

Boy, do I love Ian Gillan's manly voice - and those high-pitched screams pierce my heart, ha ha!

And scream Mr Gillan does too in his powerful rendition of "Child in Time". I know that many people are usually put off by the often scruffy aesthetics and pounding sound of hard rock bands, but this is , still today, heavenly music to my ears, sheer energy. 

You know folks, I'll turn 50 soon so these fond memories of my long-gone teenage years really feel so nice!

LONG LIVE DEEP PURPLE AND MADE IN JAPAN!!

David Bowie turns 65 today

Nearly 50 years after he started his career, an aura of mystery still hovers around the man who, as the title of one of his songs reads, sold the world: David Bowie. A true musical chameleon, who's adapted all these years to fashion and trends by continuously reinventing himself, Bowie is undoubtedly one of rock's most enduring icons. There are so many legends attached to his sexual life (Is he bisexual? Was he really found in bed with Mick Jagger?), his enigmatic left eye (apparently he had an accident in his youth during a fight over a girl with his best friend), his self-destructive addiction to cocaine, and, above all, his complete immersion within the characters he created for his music (most famously Ziggy Stardust)

Today he turns 65, and his public persona is still as appealing as ever. I mean, to me he’s got such a mesmerizing personality when I hear him talk. He oozes charisma and with the years he’s become so classy, so incredibly elegant, in every sense of the word. The first stuff by the “White Duke” I recall listening to, as a teenager back in the late seventies, is Space Oddity, which still today remains one of my favourite Bowie songs. 

One of the things that immediately attracted me of Oddity, being a secondary school student at the time who would devour lots of music in English, was that I could understand pretty much of the lyrics. I loved the story, poor astronaut Major Tom finally lost in space. It seems Bowie found the inspiration after watching Kubrick’s famous sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey (it all sounds like a play on words, thought the song’s title is never mentioned in the lyrics). This is the original 1969 video:

If you are familiar with the song, I’m sure you think it sounds rather different from the usual version, which I embed here with its lyrics:

I was never really fond of the aesthetics of glam rock and David Bowie epitomized the looks of a glamorous rock star. When I saw him in the guise of the extremely extravagant, androgynous Ziggy Stardust (his alter ego and stage persona for both the namesake album and concert movie) I thought he was a freak, yuk! But I loved his elaborate music, if not the whole album, some of the songs, especially Starman and Suffragette City, as well as, of course, the one that gives the album its title. And he looked to me a pretty remarkable vocalist, a modern crooner, so to speak, endowed with a classy voice.

Now that I think of it, I don’t have any CDs or vinyl albums by David Bowie, except for a couple of Greatest Hits. I admit I sort of like the singles better than his complete records. I can instantly remember dozens of fantastic songs which I’ve heard so many times: Aladdin Sane, Jean Genie, Heroes, Ashes to Ashes, Loving the Alien, Rebel Rebel, Young American, Life on Mars, … the list would be too long. 

But if there is one that I really enjoy listening to that is Changes, suitably a word that summarizes David Bowie's whole career. This is again a clip of the song with the lyrics so that you can sing along. I love the way the great Rick Wakeman (who soon after became Yes keyboardist) plays the piano. As a curiosity, David does the saxo parts himself, which is hardly surprising since he had received lessons as a young kid.

Well, I don't want to extend this entry much further, even if some of you might like Bowie a lot (Marisol?) But I cannot help embedding a couple of TV interviews, with a 30-year gap between them, to show Bowie’s transformation as a person / artist:

From a shy glam rock star in the making ... 

... to a confident, happily married, successful music legend with an illustrious career behind (he’s sold an estimated 150 million records, no less!)

Let me just end up saying that, oddly enough, another music genius was born on the same day, mind you, 46 years later: David … Antigüedad, yes, my own son (ha ha, isn’t it coincidence!).

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY the pair of you!