Talk Back! 
Most Read stories this week
Most Emailed stories this week
"Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?" - "When I'm 64," The Beatles
"It sounds to me like 'What's going to happen when we're 64? Are you still going to buy our (expletive)?' It's a humorous treatment of what happens when a rock and roller gets old." - Frank Zappa, 1967
It's 40 years since The Beatles sang "When I'm 64," a year since Paul McCartney (the song's composer) turned 64 and 11 years since the group released any new material.
But music hipsters are talking about The Beatles and their artistic universe now, and the discussion will grow louder into the summer.
The biggest news concerns that 40-plus-year-old music recorded by the original quartet. Rumors that The Beatles' catalog will soon be available for digital download are growing louder. (Of course, those rumors have been around for six months, popping up first in Fortune magazine in November.)
The Beatles are one of the last holdouts from the digital download revolution. (Other acts still unavailable for legitimate online purchase include Led Zeppelin, Radiohead and Garth Brooks.) Don't be surprised to see a Beatles signature model iPod, not unlike the U2 model that came out a couple of years ago.
But if Internet rumors are to be believed, the group will be dipping into more than the pockets of those who buy digital music online. The group's original albums will reportedly be remastered and reissued, 20 years after they first appeared on compact disc, timed to the digital availability. That way, baby boomers who aren't interested in this newfangled computer stuff will buy the discs. Again.
But the news about The Beatles isn't exclusively with what they recorded 40 years ago. Three current releases provide an interesting look at Beatlework past, present and (kind of) future - pieces by The Smithereens, Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney.
The Smithereens' newest release is "Meet The Smithereens." It's not a tribute to The Beatles, it's a slavish re-creation. The New Jersey band (probably best-known for the late-1980s hits "A Girl Like You" and "Only a Memory") is not new to The Beatles' bandwagon. Its guitar-based sound and harmonies always leaned toward The Beatles' edgier side, and Beatles song "One After 909" was a longtime staple in The Smithereens' live set.
But "Meet The Smithereens" works so hard at mimicking The Beatles, one wonders why they shouldn't just play that landmark 1964 original album, which included "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There." It's impressive that they can accomplish this without embarrassing themselves, but who is this album for, apart from The Smithereens' immediate family members?
Paul McCartney, who co-wrote most of The Beatles' hits with the late John Lennon, is leading this current charge into the online revolution. (Or as the Idolator music blog put it in their headline: "Paul McCartney now caught up to the year 2000.") His new album, "Memory Almost Full" - due for a June 5 release - will be distributed by Starbucks' new Hear Music label and will be the first Beatle-related work available for digital purchase.
(Here's a fun fact from online encyclopedia Wikipedia, so take it for what it's worth: "Memory Almost Full is an anagram of 'for my soulmate LLM' (the initials of Linda Louise McCartney)." That's particularly interesting, given McCartney's soap-opera-ish divorce from Heather Mills, whom he married four years after the 1998 death of his first wife, Linda.)
McCartney's effort is fully competent. Similar to much of his recent work - say, the last 10 years of studio releases - he's pulled together three or four great songs and some other good ones. He's done that again.
My picks for the great ones here are "Dance Tonight" and the almost-New Wavish "That Was Me" and "Nod Your Head." But the rest are fine, if unremarkable.
(Somewhere along the line, your humble columnist got the reputation as someone who mocked McCartney at every opportunity. To the contrary. His last five studio albums have made my year-end top 20 lists, and three of those made the top 10. There's nothing wrong, however, with expecting excellence from someone you know is capable of delivering it.)
But again, what is the intended audience for "Memory Almost Full"? McCartney's market share has been dwindling over the years. (An unfortunate occurrence, in my view - people have missed some really good music.) It seems that much of the music-consuming populace is more interested in paying $250 a ticket to hear McCartney retread his past than plop down $15 to listen to his present. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But if Starbucks is paying any attention at all, their marketers can probably predict to within 10,000 units how many copies of "Memory Almost Full" will be sold. And that number isn't going to be in "High School Musical" territory.
Or maybe Starbuck's thinks it can make a subliminal difference. The coffee chain reportedly plans to play McCartney's new album on a nonstop loop in all its stores. Which is probably preferable to "High School Musical," for the Starbuck's crowd anyway.
Which brings us to Yoko Ono, the despised widow of McCartney's first songwriting partner, Lennon. A recording artist in her own right (she did experimental albums and live performances with Lennon even when The Beatles were still a unit), she and Lennon recorded companion albums in the early 1970s and also released material together on albums.
Whether because of her reputation as the "dragon lady" who broke up The Beatles or because listeners found her singing style grating or because some of her work was pretentious or just plain bad, Ono has long been a scapegoat, sometimes it seems for her very existence.
Surprisingly, she's continued to roll with life's punches, and the latest roll is in her new album, "Yes I'm A Witch." (The 74-year-old makes a nice acknowledgment of her critics with the title.) Originally billed as a tribute album, it's far more than that.
Ono selected the artists involved (including Cat Power, Peachs, Flaming Lips and Polyphonic Spree) and allowed them access to the original tracks. Some artists take Ono's original vocal tracks and build new songs. Others take the music and twist it around.
Ultimately, it's an album that fits well into the 2007 marketplace and soundscape.
What are the odds that Yoko Ono would be the most artistically relevant Beatles-related performer of the year?
Tim Cain can be reached at timcain@herald-review.com or 421-6908.
Previous Page 
Subscribe 
Email Alerts 
Print this story 
Email this story
del.icio.us
digg
newsvine
facebook
Search By Issue 