Greetings Friends,
It looks like Lennon and McCartney songs continue to dominate! The Minnesota Beatles Project won best Music Compilation Album in Minnesota! Artists can continually re-do the music of the Beatles and still have it be a success. The Beatles songs continue to be done and re-done time and time again, yet they never get old. Their melodies stand the test of time, no doubt about it.
Click Here to read more about it.
Click Here to buy it.
I will say this though. As much as I love the fact that the music of The Beatles is still kickin' ass, not every arrangement is great. The SGT Peppers Medley that was recorded live sounds like a high school pep band. Fool On The Hill was messed with too much.
But....Come Together is groovy! Sexy Sadie is awkardly sexy and cool. The version of Two of Us is wonderful.
So their are some winners and some losers. However, when you take on a huge project like this and you do the music of the most popular band in history, you can't win them all.
Peace and Love,
Daniel Heier
Showing posts with label Paul McCartney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul McCartney. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Ringo Starr's Y Not Album
Greetings Friends,
On January 12th, Ringo Starr released his new record Y Not. Being the monster Ringo fan I am, I had it preordered about 6-7 weeks in advance. I really dig this album, it is the first solo album Ringo fully produced and he co-wrote all of the songs. Two songs of interest are Peace Dream and Walk With You. Why? Sir Paul McCartney is on both tracks! This is probably the closest to a Beatles reunion we will ever get, unless they go on tour!
Over all the album is just feel good Rock N' Roll. Ringo is a huge advocate for Peace and Love, so a lot are about that, plus he reveals some more on his childhood growing up in Liverpool. The album is a very personal album.
Guest Artist also include Joss Stone, Ben Harper, Dave Stewart, and of course Paul McCartney. If you want to some good Rock N' Roll, check out the album!
Here is a little video for you as well!
Oh yeah, he will be playing New York City on his Birthday, July 7th, lets pray for a full out US TOUR!!!!!
Peace and Love,
Daniel Heier
On January 12th, Ringo Starr released his new record Y Not. Being the monster Ringo fan I am, I had it preordered about 6-7 weeks in advance. I really dig this album, it is the first solo album Ringo fully produced and he co-wrote all of the songs. Two songs of interest are Peace Dream and Walk With You. Why? Sir Paul McCartney is on both tracks! This is probably the closest to a Beatles reunion we will ever get, unless they go on tour!
Over all the album is just feel good Rock N' Roll. Ringo is a huge advocate for Peace and Love, so a lot are about that, plus he reveals some more on his childhood growing up in Liverpool. The album is a very personal album.
Guest Artist also include Joss Stone, Ben Harper, Dave Stewart, and of course Paul McCartney. If you want to some good Rock N' Roll, check out the album!
Here is a little video for you as well!
Oh yeah, he will be playing New York City on his Birthday, July 7th, lets pray for a full out US TOUR!!!!!
Peace and Love,
Daniel Heier
Monday, February 2, 2009
The Human Flaw of Greatness
"The flawless creature wouldn't need to make art." This is a direct quote from the book Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. This short, but effective, statement really hit me hard and had me asking, "Why?" After pondering that for an answer I came up with my own little theory on "Why?" flawless creatures wouldn't need to make art.
So I pondered this idea from two perspectives, the listener and the artist. First lets go from the listener standpoint.
When I was back in Sioux Falls, SD over Christmas break to visit family and see some friends, I ended up going to a concert put on by group called, The Sioux Falls All-Stars. It was their first concert and they covered the whole Dark Side of the Moon album by Pink Floyd from top to bottom. A huge undertaking and they did a pretty good job, not great, but pretty good. Besides that, I went with a mentor of mine who is quite a bit older than I, but a huge influence to me and why I am the musician I am today. We sat down, and as we waited for the concer to start, the place became packed. Which I was kind of surprised, but I also expected a full house. With the economy down, and many people losing their jobs, I thought it wasn't going to be sold out, but this is a testament to how huge of an album Dark Side of the Moon is. My mentor made the statement, "The music of Pink Floyd, Beatles, and many more bands is escapism music." I have never thought of music as something used for escapism, but I have listened to music for a chance to escape from the troubles of the world or the flaws of my own self.
Now to fully understand the view of the listener I am now going to explain why people with flaws create great art.
If an artist had a flawless life, why would they need to create art. They are already living in what we may call a perfect life. A state of bliss if you will. Why would an artist need to create something to make their life better, or use their art to escape from their problems? They wouldn't. Well you could say, "There bored." If life is perfect, do you think boredom would be part of a perfect life?
About a month ago, I had a conversation with a friend, who we will call Donnie. Donnie and I were talking about the music off of the album Dark Side of the Moon. Donnie also performed in the production I talked about earlier. Donnie didn't particularly care for the album and didn't think it was a great album at all. I disagreed and said, "It may not be your favorite style of music, but you can't deny that it is a great album. It is one of the best selling albums of all time, and it continues to sell in large numbers." The album is standing the test of time, for now at least. As the conversation continued, Donnie started judging the music because the members of Pink Floyd were high or under the influence of something. I don't know much about the state of mind Pink Floyd was in while they made the music, but Donnie judged the music based off of a human flaw.
Then a week or so later, I spoke with another friend, who we will call Sunny. Sunny made the statement that you can not judge art based off of a human weakness. I loved that statement. Why? Because all of us have flaws, and these flaws can help define us as a person. Personally, I am constantly learning from my flaws and trying to become a better person by getting rid of my flaws, but when one gets under control, another flaw always seems to come up or just comes to greater visability once another flaw is "contained." When a flaw is contained, then you can fully understand it, explain it, and help other people with the same flaw. To a point, I believe this is what artists do.
Look at the music of John Lennon. Lennon is a guy who didn't treat his first wife that well. Through life he realized the flaws of how he treated his wife. He then became a huge advocate of peace through his music, especially during the time of Vietnam war. I would hypothesize, he had to realize his flaws of his own life, once he realized his own flaws, he was able to bring peace into his life. Then he took it a step farther and was able to basically preach peace to the world through his art. I would say people are still using Lennon's music to try and spread the message of Peace throughout the world.
The point is, artists can make great art through their own flaws or perhaps even through the flaws of something else, like an organization or something. The listener can also partake in an artists work because they may share the same flaws. Art is the listeners and artists way of escaping their flaws, a chance to experience life as if it didn't have flaws, but this is only possible through their own flaws.
Maybe the Dark Side of the Moon concert I saw would have been even better if every musician would have at least respected the music because of the musicians flaws, or pre-conceived flaws, rather than dis-respecting the music because of their flaws. Beethoven and Mozart made some awesome music, one begins to wonder how big flaws they had in their life. We could all probably sit here and list a ton of our favorite musicians/artists and realize they all have flaws by simply analyzing their art for a bit.
WOW... eight full paragraphs off of this one statement "A flawless creature wouldn't need to make art."
also... Dig this...
McCartney did a tribute to Lennon, and he talks about the power of Lennon's Song "Give Peace A Chance."
So I pondered this idea from two perspectives, the listener and the artist. First lets go from the listener standpoint.
When I was back in Sioux Falls, SD over Christmas break to visit family and see some friends, I ended up going to a concert put on by group called, The Sioux Falls All-Stars. It was their first concert and they covered the whole Dark Side of the Moon album by Pink Floyd from top to bottom. A huge undertaking and they did a pretty good job, not great, but pretty good. Besides that, I went with a mentor of mine who is quite a bit older than I, but a huge influence to me and why I am the musician I am today. We sat down, and as we waited for the concer to start, the place became packed. Which I was kind of surprised, but I also expected a full house. With the economy down, and many people losing their jobs, I thought it wasn't going to be sold out, but this is a testament to how huge of an album Dark Side of the Moon is. My mentor made the statement, "The music of Pink Floyd, Beatles, and many more bands is escapism music." I have never thought of music as something used for escapism, but I have listened to music for a chance to escape from the troubles of the world or the flaws of my own self.
Now to fully understand the view of the listener I am now going to explain why people with flaws create great art.
If an artist had a flawless life, why would they need to create art. They are already living in what we may call a perfect life. A state of bliss if you will. Why would an artist need to create something to make their life better, or use their art to escape from their problems? They wouldn't. Well you could say, "There bored." If life is perfect, do you think boredom would be part of a perfect life?
About a month ago, I had a conversation with a friend, who we will call Donnie. Donnie and I were talking about the music off of the album Dark Side of the Moon. Donnie also performed in the production I talked about earlier. Donnie didn't particularly care for the album and didn't think it was a great album at all. I disagreed and said, "It may not be your favorite style of music, but you can't deny that it is a great album. It is one of the best selling albums of all time, and it continues to sell in large numbers." The album is standing the test of time, for now at least. As the conversation continued, Donnie started judging the music because the members of Pink Floyd were high or under the influence of something. I don't know much about the state of mind Pink Floyd was in while they made the music, but Donnie judged the music based off of a human flaw.
Then a week or so later, I spoke with another friend, who we will call Sunny. Sunny made the statement that you can not judge art based off of a human weakness. I loved that statement. Why? Because all of us have flaws, and these flaws can help define us as a person. Personally, I am constantly learning from my flaws and trying to become a better person by getting rid of my flaws, but when one gets under control, another flaw always seems to come up or just comes to greater visability once another flaw is "contained." When a flaw is contained, then you can fully understand it, explain it, and help other people with the same flaw. To a point, I believe this is what artists do.
Look at the music of John Lennon. Lennon is a guy who didn't treat his first wife that well. Through life he realized the flaws of how he treated his wife. He then became a huge advocate of peace through his music, especially during the time of Vietnam war. I would hypothesize, he had to realize his flaws of his own life, once he realized his own flaws, he was able to bring peace into his life. Then he took it a step farther and was able to basically preach peace to the world through his art. I would say people are still using Lennon's music to try and spread the message of Peace throughout the world.
The point is, artists can make great art through their own flaws or perhaps even through the flaws of something else, like an organization or something. The listener can also partake in an artists work because they may share the same flaws. Art is the listeners and artists way of escaping their flaws, a chance to experience life as if it didn't have flaws, but this is only possible through their own flaws.
Maybe the Dark Side of the Moon concert I saw would have been even better if every musician would have at least respected the music because of the musicians flaws, or pre-conceived flaws, rather than dis-respecting the music because of their flaws. Beethoven and Mozart made some awesome music, one begins to wonder how big flaws they had in their life. We could all probably sit here and list a ton of our favorite musicians/artists and realize they all have flaws by simply analyzing their art for a bit.
WOW... eight full paragraphs off of this one statement "A flawless creature wouldn't need to make art."
also... Dig this...
McCartney did a tribute to Lennon, and he talks about the power of Lennon's Song "Give Peace A Chance."
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