We’ve shared a whole bunch of Beatles related infographics and flow charts in the past, but I think this one, by far, is my favorite.
Eight years of Beatles history. No details required. The hair says it all.
(via.)
Tag Archive for 'Paul McCartney'
Good evening, SuperForest!
A few months ago, I posted the simple, yet oh-so-beautiful “Hey Jude Flowchart” here on SuperForest. The idea of visually representing something so well known in such a clever manner pleased my inner geek immensely, which is why my head spun when I found that graphic designer Michael Deal took this concept and intensified it with his brand new project, “Charting the Beatles”.
The website is still in the works, but his sample work is absolutely amazing. Here are a couple tasty bits.
Half of me wonders if anybody would actually need this information, but then the other half stops me and says “It’s the Beatles! Of course you need it! You need more, you need more!”
You can find “more” of Michael Deal’s work on his website, he’s a cat that’s definitely worth checking out. And if you are interested in contributing to the “Charting the Beatles” project, you can click here.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day,
C
This past December I watched the Beatles Anthology with my Dad. Featuring heavily in one of the first discs is the importance of a film called “The Girl Can’t Help It.” Specifically, both Lennon and McCartney cite it as being really inspiring to them.
So I put it on my netflix queue and forgot about it. This week it arrived and I watched it, and it blew my mind.
Blew my mind in the best way ever!
Watching the Girl Can’t Help It was like hearing Os Mutantes for the first time, or eating your first oreo. You know perfection when you find it.
“The Girl Can’t Help It is a 1956 comedy/musical film, starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, and Edmond O’Brien…
The movie was originally intended as a Hollywood screen-vehicle for the American sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, with the subplot being a satire of teenagers and their rock ‘n’ roll music. The unintended result is the “most potent” celebration of rock music ever captured on film.”
If you’ve never seen it, some kind soul has uploaded the whole thing to youtube.
Here’s part one:
Seeing it this low res doesn’t do the film justice at all. It’s totally worth owning, and I say that about very few things.
So, “Girl Can’t Help It” comes out in ’56 in the US, then makes it across the pond to England the following year, where it runs smack into a fledgling Rock & Roller named John Winston Lennon.
Imagine a 17 year old John Lennon sitting in the darkness of a Liverpudlian cinema, and watching Eddie Cochran perform “20 Flight Rock.” It’s been said that seeing his heroes live and in color onscreen was what gave John the confidence to truly dedicate himself to rock and roll.
Here’s the Eddie Cochran performance. A true classic…
It was “20 Flight Rock”, (specifically Eddie Cochran’s version) that a fifteen year old James Paul McCartney performed as an audition to gain entry into the Quarrymen, Lennon’s first band.
Here’s Sir Paul telling the story and playing the song:
The Girl Can’t Help It’s entry into British consciousness is responsible for as many new bands being formed as the Ramones UK tour 20 years later, which inspired the creation of such bands as the Clash, the Sex Pistols, the Damned, Generation X, and Siouxsie Sioux.
Seems hordes of young Brits saw GCHI and ran home to start skiffle and rock bands, forming the base for the British Invasion which began seven years later.
The Girl Can’t Help It is one of those intense cultural touchstones like Singin’ in the Rain, where its influence is too massive to quantify. Seeing it, you recognize so many bits of visual shorthand and imagery from the music video world. With scorching performances by Fats Domino, Gene Vincent and His Bluecaps, Little Richard (who sings the title track,) Abbey Lincoln, and many others GCHI could really make a case for being the first Rock & Roll Concert film.
And the entire film is shot in the most ridiculously creamy color! The director Frank Tashlin had worked previously as an animator, so GCHI has an amazing cartoon-like quality to it. Who Framed Roger Rabbit owes a huge nod to this film.
Plus it’s got Jayne Mansfield in it!
Isn’t it amazing to see how inspiration flows around, sloshing all over the place?
Check this film out, it will make you happy and drop some science into your headpiece.
We could all use more science in our headpieces.
Love!
-Jackson
Thought you’d heard every Beatles song?
So did we.
From the “Get Back” sessions, which became “Let it Be”
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
Thanks to youtuber racheengel.
I can’t say why, but these two tracks sum up perfectly how I’m feeling right now.
Hopeful and bouncy, that’s me right now.
Both of these tracks are from Let It Be (Naked), which is so beyond excellent. If one has the means, I highly recommend getting it on vinyl.
May all the gods bless this wonderful land of ours and all it’s incredible inhabitants.
Love!
-Jackson
Say you’ve heard this! It’s so very good. Another good one to get jammed into the gray matter before the weekend.
Copyright – 1971 EMI Records Ltd.“Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” is a song by Paul and Linda McCartney on the album Ram. It hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in September 1971. The song is probably the most ambitious and experimental track on Ram, and is less a song and more a collection of melodic fragments pieced together, in a similar way to the song-cycle on the second half of The Beatles’ Abbey Road.
The melody and lyrics are upbeat and nonsensical (Albert was an uncle of McCartney’s, while Admiral “Bull” Halsey was a World War II figure). The sophisticated arrangement, production, sound effects, and vocal treatments strongly recall The Beatles during their psychedelic phase.”
P.S. the songs works best when listened to really LOUD. Really, really loud. Tremendously loud.
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