The Beatles

Off the top of my head, "Marley Purt Drive" off 'Odessa' made me think of "Let it be" with every chance that it predates the Beatles song

I was just doing some googling, and I think it was a Steve Hoffman thread that made a few good points. One thing that makes Jeff Lynne's Beatles cops a little elusive is that, as the person said, he writes melodies like McCartney but *sings* them like Lennon, which provides a bit of cognitive dissonance. Then there's also the almost exclusive focus on the 6 month period of The Beatles' "mature psychedelia," which the thread pegged to between A Day In The Life and I Am The Walrus; that stuff is so dense with ideas it doesn't take much to recall it (sometimes just a Mellotron is enough). Another person kind of sagely suggested, re: Beatles references in ELO, that "there's as many as you want there to be." Someone else noted specific ELO songs that sounded like the Beatles, but pointed to "Telephone Line" as them sounding like the Bee Gees sounding like the Beatles.

Years ago I heard a Steve Earle interview where he was making the distinction between bands that sound like the Beatles (like I guess ELO, or XTC, or Badfinger), and bands that sound *like* the Beatles, like Crowded House. There is very little that Neil Finn does that sounds directly linked to the Beatles, but all the same the influence is unmistakable.

Another Beatles thing that pops up a lot is piano marches. Sometimes that's all it takes to bring the band to mind.

I've never thought of XTC as that much like the Beatles really

I mean I see the influence but Partridge has such a unique approach to melody and songwriting, certainly nothing like Jeff Lynne

plus they have a whole career and aesthetic before they got more psych

Extreme's "More Than Words" captures an early Beatles vibe through, I guess, slightly unexpected chord changes and close harmony singing and maybe something about the melody as well

definitely

I have the perfect answer for this, a mix-tape I made for a friend 20 years ago called, yes, "Beatlesque." I've been searching for the songlist--I used to take copies of such things--but can't locate it. (The friend, meanwhile, barely remembers the tape--thanks!) I did mention it, though, when I wrote about my record collection a few years after making the tape (I'm writing about the Move here):

"Message From the Country" was among the songs I included on "Beatlesque," a mix-tape I once compiled for a teacher (and Beatles lover) who was leaving my school. The idea was pretty self-explanatory, with a fluid enough interpretation of Beatlesque to guide me that, along with obvious things like the Knickerbockers and Big Star and Traffic's "Hole in My Shoe," I had "Take the Skinheads Bowling" and Hüsker Dü's "Books About UFOs"--songs that don't sound like the Beatles at all, but which seem to me to capture something fundamental about what they might have been doing had they existed in a different time and different set of circumstances. "Message From the Country" is more of a straightforward soundalike, although I can't point to any one specific period it aligns itself with--White Album-Beatles would be the closest match, I guess.

I haven't completely given up yet on finding the songlist.

Off the top of my head, "Marley Purt Drive" off 'Odessa' made me think of "Let it be" with every chance that it predates the Beatles song

No, it sounds like "The Weight", which it definitely doesn't predate.

End of it sounds like The Kinks

clemenza, fingers crossed you find that songlist - it sounds great! also enjoyed JiC's summary of the SH thread, all of that clicks with me.

I had "Take the Skinheads Bowling" and Hüsker Dü's "Books About UFOs"--songs that don't sound like the Beatles at all, but which seem to me to capture something fundamental about what they might have been doing had they existed in a different time and different set of circumstances.

Interesting, I appreciate this take! Very "All My Loving" sound/spirit to both.

Googling around, it's kind of wild how many songs people consider "Beatles-esque." Like Big Star is *clearly* very influenced by the Beatles, but I don't think much if anything sounds particularly like the Beatles. Something like "Thank You Friends", maybe? But for example, I think "September Gurls" sounds only loosely like the Beatles to my ears, except for maybe the harmonies? Cheap Trick sort of falls under the same category as Big Star.

Extreme's "More Than Words" captures an early Beatles vibe through, I guess, slightly unexpected chord changes and close harmony singing and maybe something about the melody as well.

Surprisingly otm! Also oddly reminiscent at times (if once again loosely so) of Big Star's "The Ballad of El Goodo," another of the more Beatles-esque Big Star songs.

Man, now I want to listen to Big Star.

I'm pretty sure I had Cheap Trick's "Downed" on there, a version of the heavier, late-period Beatles...although maybe "Downed" sounds more like "Message from the Country"--it's very circular and very confusing.

Robin Zander's voice is often compared to Lennon's, and Cheap Trick did "Taxman Mr. Thief", which is almost a direct quote!

better song than taxman tbh

I find "September Gurls" more Motown-influenced, oddly -- something about the way the guitars lock together reminds me Marv Taplin or Funk Brothers.

Posted this on Alex Chilton and Big Star threads in 2019, quoting myself on Twitter quoting Chilton:

radio interview on @BigStarBand's Live at Lafayette's Music Room: AC worries that forthcoming #1 Record is too much like Rundgren, reminding me not to overemph Beatles influences; also T.Rex v. favorably mentioned; both covered here, as on several other live recordings Way to sell the album, perverse AC, confiding your misgivings about it on the radio.

Of course the Beatles were so hugely present on the airwaves and in the stores in mid-60s 'til breakup, with what from anyone else would have been flooding the market, so how could some of their approach not leak into his headphones head, as young studio rat was trying to escape his fabricated Box Tops roots, at least via Rundgren---but also, as xgau mused back in the day, reviewing Radio City:
...the only pop coup I hear is a reminder of how spare, skew, and sprung the Beatles '65 were, which is a coup because they weren't. So: Big Star are alternate Beatles, whose Radio City is among Albums That Never Were, in this (?) alternate universe.

There is an AI generated “Beatles” album. It is not good

Tracks 7 & 8 not horrible!

Also on the Alex Chilton thread, clemenza thinks of Rundgren when he hears the 1970 solo sessions, Grisso/McCain is also reminded of Flying Burrito Brothers,, which fits, since Parsons was so into Buck Owens, who frequently in Beatles era seemed to be in creative crosstalk with them, little bit, but persistently.

Well, Parsons was quoted as saying he wanted to go for something between Owens and the Stones, but w Owens you get Beatles, at least to rockhead ears.

Off the top of my head, "Marley Purt Drive" off 'Odessa' made me think of "Let it be" with every chance that it predates the Beatles song

No, it sounds like "The Weight", which it definitely doesn't predate.

― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Sunday, January 31, 2021 3:37 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

It does sound like "The weight", but with the "Let it be" backing rhythm track

here's the xpost post:
Chilton might have been aware of the Nazz at the time of those sessions, which were in 1969 & sorta concurrent to the last Box Tops recordings, both preceding the release of Rundgren's solo stuff.

That Chilton album is quite fascinating w/all the directions the material goes. I can hear strands of CCR, Gram Parsons/Flying Burrito Bros./Byrds, Sir Doug, Flamin' Groovies and more. What a different world it would have been had he been able to get that stuff released at the time. For one thing, Big Star probably wouldn't have happened exactly the way they did, or at all.

― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain)
The name and original conception of the Sir Douglas Quintet came from Huey P. Meux, or at least the way he told it, when he realized how well the nascent SDQ's sound fit w early Beatles, who in part drew from Southwestern US hits.

Wait what 70s solo sessions?

This:

https://img.discogs.com/deBqOWr7CzZQ369m3_OhJ0Pwrh0=/fit-in/500x494/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3798635-1344866733-3107.jpeg.jpg

Actually recorded in 1969 w/Terry Manning for an ultimately nixed solo album.

Cool. Probably on that Big Star thread I also mentioned that John Fry was an early Beatles adapter, having heard the early Vee Jay releases.

https://memphismagazine.com/features/longform/the-golden-age-of-memphis-power-pop/

A more recent song I'd call Beatlesque--although it's not exactly recent anymore, not unless you're my age--would be Tame Impala's "It Is Not Meant to Be," which I hear as a trippy George-type thing on the order of "It's All Too Much" and "Only a Northern Song."

All this talk about "Beatlesque" just made want to post the time New Kids on the Block tried to sound like the Beatles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTo3N73hpPg

That is all.

Something that signals Beatles to me is the descending chromatic bassline ("Dear Prudence," "Lucy in the Sky," "While my guitar..."), which apparently is called lament bass. John also plays it on "Look at Me" from Plastic Ono Band, which could be a White Album castoff.

It’s very Julia-esque, innit?

Another act that does a pretty good job sounding Beatles-esque is Elvis Costello. Songs like "And In Every Home" (of course), and the later Macca co-writes, but also stuff like "This is Hell" from Brutal Youth.

From the Dylan Center - John, Paul and George's 1969 X-Mas cards to Dylan (and an '80s one from George)

I kind of turned my back on Beatles fandom and left it to everyone else in the world, but Sean Lennon's cover on FB for Paul McCartney's birthday really got to me.

A few years ago, Sean was doing some kind of virtual chat with Paul, and IIRC a lot of it focused on personal questions that only Paul could answer. For example, he wanted to know what his paternal grandmother was like, because he had absolutely no idea.

Chris Charlesworth just posted this anecdote about the McCartneys. Nothing big or earthshaking, but it's charming just to see Paul and Linda McCartney trying to raise their kid right and also be good parents despite their enormous celebrity status. It's also highly commendable because it doesn't always work out - I knew almost nothing of Tom Hanks's family life until this past year, and it's pretty sad how things have played out for one of his kids despite his efforts at trying to do the same.

Been making my way through this, which was just posted yesterday:

https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-150-all-you-need-is-love-by-the-beatles/

Every episode of the series has been brilliant, and this one -- at nearly 4 hours -- is no exception. Among (many) other things, it provides the definitive account of the "bigger than Jesus" uproar in the US. The standard narrative -- "they were misquoted in some teen magazine" -- is patently false.

Oh, that guy's Monkees book is very good, so that sounds intriguing.

His podcast is fairly mindblowing. Rarely does he focus solely on the song in question, and sometimes the song isn't taken up until near the end of an episode. There's also many unexpected, but necessary and welcome, detours: the one on "Eight Miles High" started out talking mostly about Dexter Gordon, and part of the "Love Is Strange" episode dealt with Iannis Xenakis.

It's a really great podcast

Among (many) other things, it provides the definitive account of the "bigger than Jesus" uproar in the US. The standard narrative -- "they were misquoted in some teen magazine" -- is patently false.

Haven't ever heard anything about a teen magazine before. The standard narrative is that the quote came from this John interview with Maureen Cleave for the Evening Standard.

If Andrew Hickey has a new twist on this that would be a real scoop. I do enjoy his podcast, but I started from the beginning and diligently try to follow the whole thing episode by episode. Up to about episode 30, which is a long way off getting to Beatles and stuff.

I've never heard that standard narrative before either!

The Lennon interview didn’t ruffle any feathers in the UK, nor in the US when it was published by (among others) the Detroit Free Press and Newsweek (Hickey mistakenly refers to “Detroit Magazine,” but posted a correction on his site). The standard narrative is from — among other sources — the Beatles Anthology series. Brian Epstein is seen at a press conference saying Lennon was quoted, in Datebook magazine, “entirely out of context.” (Prior to that, The Compleat Beatles said he was “misquoted by an American teen magazine.”)

Except, Datebook published the Cleave interview in full, and in fact the magazine tried to piss off southern racists with a McCartney quote, but the bigots instead latched onto Lennon.

god dammit why did i read the transcript of that podcast about spade cooley, i should know better than to do that sort of thing

Are they teasing new music?

https://t.co/WD7FPPbm1P pic.twitter.com/xEXToI76E2

— The Beatles (@thebeatles) October 25, 2023

I assume it will be a reunion with AI Lennon and Harrison contributing

it's surely the red & blue album reissues which are coming with a new track, the lennon demo they worked on a bit during the anthology sessions but the quality of it was too bad for them to be happy with at the time. mccartney recently used stem-extracting tools to extract the vocals from the demo and finish it off or something like that.

I wonder if they've been tempted to go back in and pull out more of Lennon's vocal in Free As A Bird and remix it, they didn't have much of any tech to do such a thing at the time.

They did remix it for the video disc of 1+ so I can see them doing it again.

I assume it will be a reunion with AI Lennon and Harrison contributing

I read this several times, and was like — "Who the f is 'Al Lennon'??"

(this may only work if your font displays a capital "I" as a thin line)

feels weird to add myself to the fan email list for the literal beatles but hey

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