Strawberry Fields Forever...

Let It Be Re-Release

A Really Big Shew...

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ splashy introduction to the U.S. on the Ed Sullivan Show! I was about 15 days shy of my 2nd birthday—and more significantly, it was my brother’s first birthday (so happy birthday to him)!

Though I was too young to see or remember their debut (my dad reportedly had a repairman come out quickly to fix our tv so that he and my mom could watch the show), I've nevertheless been a huge fan of anything Beatles my whole life and imprinted on them early. Just a few years after their Sullivan debut, we badgered our parents and received their Capitol Records Early Beatles’ compilation album (as seen in the accompanying photos). Then when I was five, an uncle came home bearing the newly-released Sgt. Pepper album for us—their new look totally puzzled to us. There were other touchstones—hearing Meet the Beatles at a family party; seeing Let It Be in a local store; discovering the Abbey Road album at the apartment of our aunt and her cool groovy roommate; staying up late way past our bedtimes (with our parents' permission) when we discovered a local channel was playing Help!; and going to the first revival moviehouse we ever went to in order to watch a double bill of A Hard Days Night and Help!.

By our teens (which technically was after the band broke up), we had a full collection of Beatles albums. So, yes, the Beatles were a big presence in my childhood and throughout my life.

When I was in college in the ‘80s, the university I attended screened that Sullivan episode of the Beatles’ appearance—I realize now that was in 1984, to mark the 20th anniversary of their appearance! And now here we are marking the 60th.

Quite a few years back, I picked up the DVD pictured in the photo gallery that contained the first four appearances of the Beatles on Sullivan, from 1964-65. (As many know, Davy Jones also performed on the same show the Beatles made their first appearance—the cast of the Broadway musical “Oliver!” performed in that broadcast, with Jones as as the Artful Dodger.)

Update: I rewatched those Sullivan episodes. As I mentioned to my wife, it's amazing what passed for entertainment in those days lol. That said, I recognize that tastes (and humor changes). But I have to say, I found most of the acts unwatchable and couldn't sit through them, even for the nostalgia factor. 

REVIEW: Peter Jackson's Get Back

On top of reading and drawing comics, Monty Python, playing guns and some sports, building models and, of course, watching TV, the Beatles were among my topmost obsessions growing up.

I was born two years to the month before the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964—this appearance  was also my brother’s first birthday. I was crazy about the band at an early age, most likely due to the Beatles tv cartoon series. The first album I ever owned (aside from kiddie records) was "The Early Beatles"—we still own that album, which I’ve posted here in all its taped up glory. I recall seeing and hearing their first true American album, "Meet the Beatles" at the house of a family friend.

At that young age, I was hardly a consumer of pop culture or entertainment news, so it was purely through their album covers that I learned of their transition from the mop tops next door to the voices of the psychedelic and hippie movements to which I was fairly oblivious given my suburban upbringing—after all, I was only 5 years old during the Summer of Love. I recall an uncle who was staying with us coming home one day with the Sgt. Pepper album as a gift—their new look puzzled me; later, I encountered the Abbey Road album and the Beatles in full "hippie" mode at an aunt’s apartment through her roommate; and I have a vivid memory of seeing the "Let It Be" album in a department store we frequented. If memory serves, "The Early Beatles," "Sgt. Pepper" and, later, "Let It Be," were the first Beatles albums I owned (shared with my brother of course) until the Red and Blue compilation albums came along when I was 11. By the time I was in my late teens (but after they already had broken up), we own most of their albums and I later bought replaced them all on CD when they were released. Catching the films A Hard Day's Night and Help! on tv was an obsession and when we first moved to California, my first trip to a revival theater was a double bill of the two films in Monterey. When A Hard Days' Night went through one of its first restorations and released theatrically when it was in college, I sat through two showings of it by myself in a theater in L.A. during the middle of the day.  

In addition, one of my favorite Christmas gifts of all time was receiving the 8-cassette VHS Beatles Anthology documentary series from my brother (later upgraded to DVD), which I’ve seen multiple times.

So I was very excited by the recent Peter Jackson documentary, culled from the nearly 60 hours of footage taken for what was eventually released as the "Let It Be" album, particularly since it offered a completely different narrative of the sessions that over time had been colored in a negative light by the film that was released just months after the Beatles’ breakup. Over time, even the Beatles themselves bought into the narrative that had been created by the film (which has not been available for quite some time).

Many people have offered their reactions and commentaries to the film so I won’t go into any further depth in the series, aside from come of my own observations and comments:

• Although they came into the studio at the outset with some songs ready to be completed, it nevertheless still seems kinda nuts that they went into the studio with the goal of writing and completing 10 or so new songs, booking a venue and performing them live in concert in the span of three or so weeks. There was no interest in resting on their laurels and performing any of their “classic” hits from their back catalog. 

• With the hindsight of age, they still looked like kids, being around 26-28 years old during filming! Even producer George Martin looks young, who was in his early 40s at the time (again, showing my age).

• Speaking of kids, it's clear that the amazing process we're witnessing as they (particularly Lennon and McCartney) throw out suggestions to each other in the form of lyrics, chords and music arrangement is the same they've been doing since they were teens—Lennon and McCartney first met when they were respectively 16 and 15 years old, and Harrison was even younger. 

It’s an easy rapport and collaborative process they've developed from more than 10 years of songwriting together, beginning as teens. This rapport also translates into the harmonies and vocals they easily slip into.

• 
  By the same token, for guys just a few years into adulthood and who up to then have only known live as a Beatle, you can understand why they were perhaps ready to move on. You particularly see this when Harrison mentions that he's considering releasing his own album since his usual 1 to 2 song allotment per album (which he seemingly accepts without question) is no longer enough to accommodate the backlog of songs he''s written. 

Along the same lines, you can understand McCartney's desire to front his own band—he seems to know exactly what he wants and, though he appears very conscious of coming off as "bossy" and acting as the "frontman," being in the Beatles requires a level of diplomacy and delicacy to achieve that. (His taking charge was partly out of necessity due to the leadership vacuum created by the death of manager Brian Epstein, which they explicitly acknowledge in the documentary, and Lennon's own disengagement.)

• The Beatles were hilarious—I genuinely howled at some bits. A favorite is the scene where they discuss what charity to donate the proceeds of their concert to—Harrison interjects, "Well they say charity starts at home, why don't we do it at Paul's place?"

• This silliness often extended into their music, such as Lennon and McCartney goofily singing "Two of Us" through clenched teeth. Though they obviously took their songwriting seriously, it's clear that they didn't consider either their songs or those of others as so precious or serious that they couldn't make fun of them. They were known (especially Lennon) for being goofy on stage and you can see them often channeling their inner lounge lizards when performing. (I don't believe it's included in the documentary, but a terrific and hilarious rendition of “Besame Mucho” exists from these sessions.) 

• 
  So it’s a treat to see them spontaneously break out into numbers and covers of their own songs and others as diverse as Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, turn of the century standards, and even the theme song to the film, The Third Man, reflecting a vast song catalog at their fingertips likely dating to their Hamburg days, when they were required to perform up to an incredible EIGHT HOURS or more a day! (When the Beatles returned from Hamburg, fans and rival bands in Liverpool apparently were shocked by how much they had improved as musicians.)

• Original Let It Be director Michael Lindsay-Hogg has caught a lot of grief for coming off a bit intrusive, presumptuous and, yes, annoying. These included some of his ideas for the concert (at an ancient amphitheater in Libya after a long cruise or a children's hospital, but not where kids are like, "dying.") He also had an annoying habit of calling people by their initials (Ringo Starr= "R.S." and constantly smoking a cigar, perhaps trying to channel Orson Welles, who he suspected may be his biological father. That said, the footage that includes him was likely never meant for the final cut, as he just had cameras running full tilt through much of the sessions.

But I give Lindsay-Hogg full credit for the foresight of setting up 10 cameras for the concert, which included five on the rooftop, one on another rooftop across the street, three cameras at  street level, and a hidden camera in Apple’s main lobby to capture all the action and footage he did. And kudos to Jackson for maximizing the use of that footage by the use of split screens so that viewers could see what was happening simultaneously throughout the rooftop concert!

• Finally, watching the police bobbies and people on the street was sometimes like watching Monty Python characters come to life—their portrayals don't seem as much of an exaggeration as I thought! 

Anyway, it's an amazing documentary. Jackson deserves great credit for restoring the footage and putting them together, as does Lindsay-Hogg in recording the historic sessions.

Additional Reading:

• Let It Be Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg's Words of Wisdom on His Misunderstood Beatles Documentary
• The Beatles: Get Back (rogerebert.com)

More Capsule Reviews in the Time of Coronavirus (2)

More capsule reviews….

Fab Four: Let It Beard Livestream (onlocationlive.com)
See subsequent review immediately following for an updated review…

The Fab Four is one of several well known Beatles tribute bands. I’ve seen several concerts and performances over the years by these bands. Including the Fab Four, though to be honest, they kind of all have blurred together. In any case, in this time of sheltering at home (and, no doubt, to earn a little bread), the band decided to put on a live performance of the Let It Be album, in honor of the 50th anniversary of its release. At only $10 for a ticket ($50 with an added virtual green room meet and greet afterwards), it certainly was reasonably priced.

In costume, the band played the album, mixed in with a little bit of chatter, taking questions from fans.

The main drawback, unfortunately, was the poor sound quality. While I’m no engineer, it’s clear they had a pretty rudimentary audio set up through the computer—I had envisioned something a little bit more robust through my receiver, but it was barely better than basic computer streamed sound, versus having the equipment and mics plugged straight into the feed.

Ah, well.

Fab Four: All We Need is Love Livestream (Part 1) (onlocationlive.com)
As I was preparing to post this review, the announcement for a second livestream concert by the Fab Four was released. Given my slight disappointment with the first show, I wasn’t sure whether to watch, but the announcement mentioned that they had enhanced the sound tech—so given the low $10 price, I thought it was worth checking it out.

I’m so glad I did—the sound was indeed much better as was the overall production quality, making for a much more engaging and fun show. To watch the concert, I streamed the show on a laptop and plug it into our big screen TV, with the sound coming through the home theater receiver and speakers. So it was definitely a much better live theater experience.

They’ll be performing the second part of the show in a week (June 26) and my wife and I will definitely be there!

Reunited Apart (YouTube)
While stuck at home, actor Josh Gad has remained productive by producing and hosting “reunited apart” remote cast and crew reunions of classic and popular films. To date, he’s done Back to the Future and the Goonies. (What’s remarkable is that many of these projects were released before he was born! No doubt because the projects promote and benefit charities, he’s attracted topnotch talent.

“Reunited Apart Makes a SPLASH” was for the fondly-remembered 1984 romantic comedy Splash. The online reunion attracted the films lead actors, Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, as well as director Ron Howard, producer Brian Glazer, and co-star Eugene Levy — and, for the late John Candy, fellow Canadian Ryan Reynolds. Putting aside the corny, contrived opening set up, the interview/reunion itself turned out to be a fun romp, with Gad asking questions about the cast and crew’s experiences and memories putting together and working on the film.

Nearly as fun was the following episode, “One Zoom to Rule Them All: Reunited Apart/The Lord of the Rings.” While the teaser showed that Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd (the four lead hobbits), along with Orlando Bloom and Ian McKellan, would be on the feed, it was a great surprise to see so many more of the cast show up, including John Rhys Davies, Sean Bean, Mirando Otto, Karl Urban, Sean Bean, Liv Tyler, Andy Serkis, Viggo Mortenson, co-writer Phillipa Boyens, and director/co-writer Peter Jackson! While the get-together somewhat devolved into re-enactments from the film, it was clear the cast have a bond that has lasted all these years (I can’t believe it’s been nearly 20 years now since the first film’s release!)

All fun reminiscences to enjoy while sheltered at home.

Just Mercy
In acknowledgment of the times we live in and the long overdue social changes currently underway in U.S., many streaming services have made available and featured films with social justice themes under the Black Lives Matter banner.

Among those is 2019’s Just Mercy, based on a memoir by the same name by Bryan Stevenson, an attorney who founded and social justice activist, who opened a center in Montgomery, Alabama to provide legal assistance to death row inmates who did not have access to adequate or competent defense counsel, and, worse, were clearly wrongly accused and the victim of racism. It stars Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan. Stevenson went on to found the Equal Justice Initiative based on the

book of the same name, which some of you probably may have seen. The film is based on the memoir of an attorney named Bryan Stevenson, an attorney and social justice activist, who opened a center in Montgomery, Alabama to provide legal assistance to death row inmates who did not have access to adequate or competent defense counsel, and, worse, were clearly wrongly accused and the victim of racism. It stars Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan. Stevenson went on to found the Equal Justice Initiative that has grown and remains very successful and active. It's a very moving film, focusing on one specific egregious case (from the late 1980s/early '90s) of a man named Walter McMillian (Foxx), an inmate on death row who clearly was unjustly railroaded into prison. Stevenson (Jordan) quickly finds holes in the case, and people who are willing to speak up, but must fight a justice system that is clearly stacked against people of color and the poor.

Starting with Foxx and Jordan as the leads, the film features a solid cast, including Brie Larson as the social justice activist who brings Jordan to Alabama to do this important work and Rafe Spall as the District Attorney who fights the mounting evidence every step of the way (Spall has turned up on my radar in a few projects — he also was part of the ensemble in the film, the Big Short — and has done terrific, different work in each role, proving to be a solid character actor.

Just Mercy turned out to be an excellent complement to two other films I’ve seen with similar social justice themes, Selma and Marshall, that I hope to review here soon as well….

Ouch! An appreciation of the Rutles

I am a huge Beatles fan, so the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' explosion on the U.S. scene on February 9, 1964 of course provides an opportune moment to reminisce about the Rutles, the enduring parody/tribute to the original Fab Four. Naturally, the Rutles were billed as the Pre-Fab Four, comprised of members Ron Nasty, Dirk McQuickly, Stig O'Hara, and Barry Wom. (I touched on the Rutles briefly as part of a previous blog appreciation of Monty Python.)

I had the privilege to see the Rutles perform live in concert in 1994, when they appeared at an iconic L.A. club, the Troubador, as part of a city-wide celebration of the 25th anniversary of Monty Python. Actually, it wasn't the full band that performed, but rather Neil Innes, a longtime Python musical collaborator who wrote the brilliant sng parodies and who co-starred in the original mockumentary, All You Need is Cash, playing the John Lennon knock-off of the band, Ron Nasty. At the concert, Innes was backed up by a Beatles tribute band called the Moptops and a small orchestra. Spotted in the audience that night were Ed Begeley, Jr., and Spinal Tap star/band member Harry Shearer. Spinal Tap and its accompanying film, This is Spinal Tap, of course, are obvious direct descendants of the Rutles and All You Need is Cash. It was fun to be surrounded by fellow Rutles fans that night. Innes and the Moptops billed themselves as "Ron Nasty and the New Rutles" and the concert was followed by a straight Beatles set by the Moptops.

Python member Eric Idle created the Rutles (with Innes) as a short film for his U.K. television series, Rutland Weekend Television. Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels saw the short, featured a clip on SNL, then asked Idle to expand it into a comedy mockumentary which was directed by SNL film director Gary Weis. In addition to cameos by SNL regulars like Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi and Bill Murray, Beatles friends like Mick Jagger and Paul Simon also appeared. Former Beatle George Harrison—a fan and friend of Idle and the Pythons—also cameo'd as an interviewer, putting his own blessing on the project.

While response and reviews at the time appeared to have been mixed—most likely because nothing like it had been seen before until This is Spinal Tap a few years later, the film has since gained cult status. What probably has given the project longevity is not the show itself, which was funny because of how much it hewed so closely satirically to real Beatles history, but the music—both melodically and lyrically, the Rutles' songs are nearly as catchy and memorable as the Beatles canon they parody, standing on their own surprisingly well, though of course knowledge of the originals increases the giggle factor. The songs particularly capture the early innocence of Beatlemania as well as the  simplicity of those early songs like "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (parodied with "Hold My Hand") and "She Loves You" ("I Must Be in Love"), as well as their diverse styles, such as Lennon's Lewis Carroll-influenced poetry ("I am the Walrus" becomes "Piggy in the Middle.")

The songs follow the same trajectory of the Beatles' growth as songwriters: from the early period ("I Must be in Love," "Hold My Hand," and "Ouch!)"; to the Sgt. Pepper period ("Cheese and Onions" and "Doubleback Alley"); to Harrison's Indian-influenced songs ("Nevertheless"); and their later years ("Piggy in the Middle" and "Get Up and Go.") If anything, the parodies underscore the brilliance of the originals, demonstrating how quickly a song, particularly its lyrics, can go south in lesser hands.

George Harrison's involvement aside, the Beatles' reactions to the show was reportedly mixed at the time, though John Lennon apparently enjoyed it. While it's probably hard to be the target of parody and satire, it's clear the show was done with a lot of love and respect, poking fun more at the hysteria and hype that surrounded the band rather than the band itself.

BELOW: "Hold My Hand"

And Now for Something Completely Different....

All last week, IFC aired a 6-part documentary on the history of Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Monty Python, Almost the Truth (The Director's Cut)." The group had a profound influence on my own early life and tastes.

I discovered Monty Python at the perfect time: the show first started syndication in the U.S. around 1975, which would have put me just at the start of my teens. I vividly recall being somewhat puzzled by the first episode I saw but intrigued. Fortunately, I stuck with it and slowly began to "get" what they were doing and, of course, quickly became an avid fan.

If I recall correctly, I had only recently discovered the television show when Monty Python and the Holy Grail was released. The movie obviously made me a fan for life—I recall it being one of the first movies I ever saw without my parents and with friends. It also was the first time I recall truly laughing aloud at a movie. (I recall one of my friends accidentally doing a spit take of his soda onto an audience member in the row in front of us during one hilarious sequence—after that, we learned to sip our sodas with our eyes closed.) Being the typical fanboy, I went on to devour whatever I could by the group, including their books and comedy albums, and being excited by their other projects, such as All You Need is Cash (the Beatles' parody Rutles mockumentary by Eric Idle). I even began producing my own homemade brand of Monty Python books for myself and my brother!


As I said, I was certainly the perfect age and demographic for Python—by the time I started college, spontaneously reciting and re-enacting Monty Python lines and skits became a quick way to connect and bond with new friends.

Calling the Pythons the Beatles of comedy has become a bit of a cliche recently, but it's nevertheless an apt and concise description: in the same way the Beatles reinvented and redefined rock 'n roll music and the music industry (even the album concept), the Pythons completely redefined the boundaries of humor, pushing comedy in new directions. And as the Beatles internalized their love of early American rock, the local Liverpool skiffle scene (as well as a bit of the English beer hall tradition), and turned it into something new, Python built on the work of innovative comedy groups like the Goon Show and brought this subversive surreal comedy into the mainstream. (Indeed, many of the Pythons worked concurrently on many of the British shows at the time before coming together to create their own show.) Many comedy shows, and practically every comedy skit show, are clearly Python influenced. It seems fitting that the Beatles were fans of Python (and vice versa) and, as shown in the IFC documentary, that their lives intersected substantially in many ways over the years.

Being familiar with the group, aside from the details there's not much new information in the documentary for me, but in the same way the Beatles Anthology documentary was the band's way of cementing their legacy on their own terms, Almost the Truth serves the same function, while also serving as validation of their importance to fans like myself. I always have been fascinated by the fact that the Pythons were all well educated, primarily coming out of Oxford and Cambridge (which has produced similar formidable respected comedians and actors like Emma Thomson and Hugh Laurie). You can see this reflected in their humor, which is incredibly verbal and littered with literary and historical references that you either get or don't. And though it's always a risk to dissect comedy, I've always enjoyed hearing how the several camps within the group certainly recognized they had their own styles of humor and strengths; but again like the Beatles, the sum of the whole added up to something much more than their individual parts.

Anyway, here's to Python. Watching the documentary and rewatching the shows have reminded me of how exciting it was to discover Python for the first time, and how much a role it played in my life when I was forming my own sense of humor and identity.

Beatles Japanese Style

When my lovely wife and I honeymooned in Tokyo back in 2000, one of our most memorable evenings was spent at a Beatles' cover band club called The Cavern. (Skiing indoors in the middle of July and going to a baseball game were other highlights!) Thinking about it the other day led me to the website for the venue after a quick Google search.

The Cavern is a tiny intimate club that exclusively features Beatles tribute bands doing perfect covers of the Fab Four's catalog. Beatles tribute bands, of course, are a dime a dozen (we've frequently seen the Fab Four and Rain, two of the best known, and I saw Beatlemania in its original Broadway run back in the 1970s). But, of course, watching a Beatles cover band in Tokyo offers its own exotic twist.

The Cavern is located in the Roppongi district of Tokyo and though I'm sure it gets its share of tourists, it's primarily frequented by locals. (On the night we visited, I don't recall seeing any other "gaijin" other than ourselves). It was amazing and quite funny to hear the bands do their intros and "banter" in Japanese, then launch into a phonetic- and note-perfect version of a Beatles song.

A variety of these bands seem to make the rounds of these clubs, including those who dress the part à la Beatlemania. But on the night we visited it was a fairly straightforward band, though the guest performer who joined the band that night looked exactly like John Lennon from the Let it Be album—except he was Japanese! The band was taking requests (picked up by the hostesses), and our request was "And Your Bird Can Sing," one of my favorite Lennon-McCartney songs.

Our initial plan was to go club-hopping that night, but we were having so much fun, we stayed the whole night!

When Googling the Club, I ran across a blog link that mentioned that there actually are TWO such clubs in Tokyo, within a few hundred feet of each other, though I'm not sure whether that second club, Abbey Road, was there in 2000. Since there were some cool sample photos of Beatles cover bands at the blog link, I've provided a link to that here as well.

Photo credit: The photo above of the Silver Beats is reproduced from Stippy Friends.

Welcome to my life's soundtracks....

Anyone who glances at my musical interests will notice I have pretty broad tastes, ranging from the Beatles, the Rat Pack, jazz, j-pop, '60s lounge, rock, showtunes, and movie soundtracks. I've also got a pretty high tolerance for kitsch—I must admit I sometimes genuinely enjoy it for what it is, not necessarily because "it's so bad it's good." With that in mind, I decided to start mixing things up in this blog by interspersing my commentaries with some fun music clips for your listening enjoyment. Since the Beatles has always been my favorite band of all time (I discovered them when I was about 7 or 8), I thought it appropriate to kick things off with this clip of a Japanese Beatles tribute band. When my wife and I went to Tokyo for our honeymoon back in 2000, one of our most memorable nights was at a small club that specialized in Beatles tribute bands. It was a kick to listen to the bandmembers banter between songs in Japanese (which we don't understand), then launch into a note-and-phonetic-perfect performance of a Beatles song. (The audience was allowed to submit requests, and we requested one of my personal all-time favorite Beatles' songs, "And Your Bird Can Sing.") Anyhoo, without any further ado... "The BeaTrips!" (For the real thing and a bonus video, go to my MySpace page, under musical interests.)

All You Need is Love

As I am a longtime, big Beatles fan, I thought this was worth sharing...

Cirque du Soleil recently opened a new show to good reviews in Las Vegas that features the music of the Beatles. However, rather than simply license the Fab Four's existing catalog, the Beatles gave permission for their long-time producer, Sir George Martin (working in collaboration with his son, Giles) to "re-imagine" and remix the songs to create a special soundtrack for the production.

According to a recent story in the Los Angeles Times, the Beatles agreed to this since the project grew out of the late George Harrison's friendship with one of Cirque du Soleil's artistic directors; Harrison apparently wanted to see it happen as a last collaboration of the group, and the other members and their families wanted to honor Harrison's memory and dying wish. Though some purists were apprehensive about the Beatles' songs being adapted for a Vegas show, according to the Times, even many early critics have been pleasantly surprised and won over.

My brother recently purchased the re-mix and kindly agreed to share this review of the resulting product, the Beatles Love CD:

There are some interesting mixes here as producer (and son) Sir George Martin and Giles sample bits and pieces from the Beatles catalogue (like rap artists) and remix and amalgamate the songs with the chosen tracks for the Cirque du Soleil show.

Some of it is jarring and unexpected but one has to remember that this was background music for a visual show and just listening to it cold seems a little weird. The jarring part is the choice of songs which is interesting in itself because they don't follow the Beatles time-line or album release date periods like their other retrospect albums.

A couple of songs are left intact, some are shortened, and there are some added sound effects. However, it is real subtle to preserve the integrity of the songs. They even sample some of Beatles' conversations from the recording studio. One song is just run backwards: "Sun King" from Abbey Road's Sun King Medley (it's even listed backwards on the track listings as "Gnik Nus." On Hey Jude, during the "na na na na na na" fade-out of the song, the orchestral background part is turned off, and you just hear the naked voices of the Beatles chanting the words.

I thought the best song is the demo, acoustic version of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" that was on the Beatles Anthology 3 CD. However, Martin has added and composed a string quartet score (as he did on "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby") to "Weeps," making it sound like a whole new Beatles' song.